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Show ONE OF GOD'S NOTICES. Not long" since a great steamer was plunging thiough the Atlantic when a man who was watching watch-ing a receiving apparatus suddenly began to write and a little later passed up to the commander of the ship a message of greeting from another great ship of the line, which message gave also the latitude lati-tude and longitude of the sister ship, showing that the two vessels were many miles apart. It had found its way through the trackless air, above the trackless deep and, voiceless itself, it had brought a voice from afar, a voice of friendly greeting, which for the moment at least took away the loneliness lone-liness of great ocean and made those who heard the message read feel that they were no longer alone. Science had unlocked another mysterious door and though it was but a little ajar the glimpse of the splendor within were almost overpowering in their magnificence. The triumph of mind over matter, the new evidence evi-dence of man's dominion over not only the earth but the viewless elements, were awe-inspiring. This is the age of gold. Men everywhere are struggling for it, longing for it, and as one great combine of wealth after another is being formed, there is a wide-spread apprehension that the masses of mankind are slowly sinking into that most degrading of all servitude the slavery of the dependent poor to the arrogant rich. This has gone on until all classes and nearly all occupations occupa-tions are more or less affected by it. One of the most all-embracing monopolies in our country is that of the Associated Press. Think of it, one individual sits in his Chicago office and dictates what of the news of the day shall be flashed east and west, north and south by the genie which along the infinite wires, supply to the newspapers their news. That one man dictates dic-tates what the wires shall carry, what the linotypes lino-types shall set to words, what the perfecting presses shall fling off for the millions of the land to read. Necessarily that man is not infallible. First of all the monopoly he serves is not a charitable institution. in-stitution. The manager knows that the expectation expecta-tion of the owners is that the wires will be worked to pay a generous interest on their real cost and working expense and on eight times their cost of wateied capital. This fact alone is sufPcient to make the manager lean, unconsciously, perhaps, to the commercial demands of the country. B Again, he may be an extreme partisan and it re-B re-B quires a most strong mind to judge fairly between B the parties in the making up of news. Again, the B provincialism of the East has its effect upon him, B a dog show in New York city is more to him than B the dedication of a great temple of learning in B San Francisco. B The news has its effect in forming and directing B public opinion. This is not all. Only a limited B number of franchises are given to publish the B news, and this enables one brutalized man or com-B com-B pany to purchase all there are in a State and B through his or its newspapers to give to readeis B what he or it pleases to supply, and the people are B helpless under the vulgar control. Through this B the biased news sent out from headquarters can B be manipulated until what is Anally supplied to the B people is vicious beyond description. B We said that to thoughtful people that message B sent from one ship to another ship miles and miles B away, sent and delivered in its purity, seemed like B a notice that God was watching and so swifty as B needed was extending His knowledge to mankind. B Why? Imagine that science a little more per-B per-B fected, what will prevent any one from calling from, B the air and receiving an answer. What will be-B be-B come of the Associated Press monopoly then? How B then can a rich clown, or ambitious ignoramus B dictate to that divine invention, the perfecting B Press, that it shall feed to the people? There will B then be no more manufacturing of reputations B tluough the telegraph, no more perverting public B opinion in the interest of unscrupulous men. H God js watching, and if men will only keep their hearts honest and brains alert, keep them in proper prop-er condition to receive the messages, the messages will come, for there was a purpose to make the world better, to bind up the wounded hearts of the poor and rebuild to real liberty a throne, when this Republic was born, and the purpose will be carried out if the American people are great enough to do their duty. |