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Show Lying and Concealing the Truth THE Hampton-Columbian magazine asks editorially edi-torially the question: "Does it pay to He?" Not having the honor of that editor's acquaintance, we do not know through what means he has thus far made his successes in life, but we notice on the cover of the magazine under the heading, "Important News," that the consolidation of the two magazines has enabled tho publishers to produce "the largest and best magazine in the world," Further, that it "has a circulation of 550,000 and over .5,000,000 readers." This is signed by the President Presi-dent and Manager of the company, and the immediate im-mediate inference is that if that is the exact truth, then the magazine has no occasion for lying. But glancing again at the editorial, we find that while many journals have been assuring the public that the country is wonderfully prosperous, prosper-ous, the railroads, the leading systems have decided de-cided to discharge great numbers of their employes, em-ployes, and give as a reason that for months business busi-ness has been so bad as to compel retrenchment and strict economy. On this showing, the editor asks if newspapers are justified in giving out false impressions of the real state of facts. The answer to that is very simple. Every newspaper is bound to make as good a showing of the business in the community which supports it, as it honestly can. And all their showings are by comparison. If, for Instance, Chicago has a better business outlook than St. Louis or Cincinnati, or Louisville, or Milwaukee, it is right for a Chicago paper to state that fact. It is right for a newspaper to bcom its own location so far as the facts justify, because such publications have a tendency io draw to that community more people and business and a generally hopeful press is a great factor in making the people hopeful, which is always something to be sought for. At the same time there are some things which the great leading newspapers of this country papers that are supposed to be run on high lines and conducted by eminent thinkers fail shamefully shame-fully in now-a-days, not by lying, but by failing to tell the truth. For example, the ports of the world, behind which half the people of the earth are struggling for a living, are practically closed againBt exports from the "United States. And not ono of the great eastern newspapers dares tell the people that fact. At the same time, because of H our own legislation, tho people of those countries can send us their products and sell them at a 60 H per cent, discount below what they charged H twenty years ago, and make the same profit that they then did. And those products include the H very articles which our skilled laborers, in greal H part, find employment in producing. For instance, H Chinese steel rail makers can mine the coal and make coke, mine the iron ore and convert it into H steel and roll the steel into rails; ship them H from 600 miles inland to the seashore and then across the sea, and sell them in San Francisco H or Seattle at prices which defy competition in this country; and still not one of our leading M eastern newspapers dares to state those facts. H But every few days, we notice in one or another M of those newspapers an article upbraiding our JM own merchants &nd manufacturers for not trying M harder to build up a trade in the Orient. M This could be much elaborated upon, and M hence the question in the magazine should be M changed, and should read: "Does it pay to con- M ceal from the country vital facts?" M |