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Show son made a painstaking investigation of numerous cass and gave the facts in detail, none showing any evidence of a miracle. While the hysteria was still at its height, he wrote. The papers go on reporting cures, giving photographs. I've seen some of these photographs taken pitifully crippled children being urged to stand without braces before the camera men. I saw - one boy collapse twice before he could get up strength to stand before the camera with the braces in his hand. The Boston newspapers, news-papers, selling like hot cakes, are trading on the sicere faith of hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of their readers. It is shameless commercial journalism. jour-nalism. Thank heaven, the country press of America, whatever its other short comings may be, has never been guilty guil-ty of such cynical exploitation of ignorance ig-norance for selfish ends. SHAMEFUL JOURNALISiYC Now that the hysteria has died down, all but the most superstitious must realize the foolishness of the recent craze at Maiden, Mass., where the grave of an obscure priest, dead 60 years, was said to have worked miraculous cures. Of course, there were no miracles, and no real cures. To an honest newspaper man, the outstanding fact about the whole pitiful pit-iful business was the disgraceful part played by certain metropolitan daily newspapers and tabloids. These journals, jour-nals, in their insatiable hunger for the sensational, reported every wild and preposterous tale, printed fake photographs and in every possible manner exploited the credulity of the ignorant for the sake of selling: extra papers. No attempt was maide to get at the truth of tb.e situation, or to explain ex-plain the circumstances which surrounded sur-rounded the alleged miracles. To have done so woud have spoiled the golden harvest the first day. Een when report jed cures were denied hy relatives of." persons concerned, the newspapers, refused to print the denials. One recent reporter, Gardner Jack-' |