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Day Books of various dates. I bought
them. But Saturday's issue was not
among them. Finally, a newsboy at
the LaSalle Hotel corner produced
the issue I wanted from his inside
pocket. He seemed loath to part with
it at that.
Since then I "usually buy two Day
Books, one for myself and one to
send or give away.
But, Mr. Cochran, you made a big
mistake in challenging the heads of
the Chicago newspaper trust to a de
bate on the question as to which is
the world's greatest newspaper. Be
cause The Chicago Tribune, in claim
' ing and copyrighting the name of The
World's Greatest Newspaper, made a
false claim. It can't stand up and de
fend that title. Its claim is only good
in a world of counterfeit people, who
think counterfeit thoughts and do
counterfeit, deeds. The real people,
who think real thoughts, do not sub
scribe to the Tribune's sub-title,
though they may be subscribers to
the Tribune.
And, believe me, The Tribune and
Hearst (you see, I bunch them to
gether) , The Tribune and Hearst are
losing their power; false power, I
should have said. For example:
They can't stampede this country
into war with Mexico. Poor Joseph
Medill Patterson. I read that scream
ing farce of a story of his the other
day his first from "the front." I'm
sorry for him. He does want to die
for his country so badly and he wants
to die typewriting from an automo
bile or an airship. ,
Joe hit the nail on the head just the
same in his story, when he asked the
question of the young second lieu
tenant, "What do you think about the
Mexicans?" and the young second
lieutenant made answer, "I don't
think." That's a very good sample,
Mr. Patterson. Very, very few army
officers think. If'they did think, they
would not be army officers.
Now, I have two brothers. One is
a major in the British army. He has
seen considerable fighting, but I am
: noticing to' acause, him of being a
thinker. He would not want me to do
that. The other brother volunteered
during the Boer war and was in the
thick of it with General French, one
of the few British generals who
"made good" at that time. This ,
brother refused a commission in the
British army. He came back home
disgusted with militarism. He hap
pens to be a thinker.
Now, the reason Hearst, the Trib
une, et al. can't stampede this coun
try into war is not simply because
we happen to have a president of the
United States who is a thinker. It is
because of the great and growing
army of thinkers who ere behind our
president. Common, thinking people.
Thinking, common people. I don't
blame the Tribune. Of course, it
should know better. But it deesn't
And so it sends its secretary, the sec
retary of the Tribune Company, to
the front to report the mix-up. And,
at home, the war fans rally around
the Tribune, and Berty Taylor, the
paid humorist of the line-o-type or
two column, continues to grind out
"his," consisting at present largely of
insults to the president of the United
States, insults for which he would be
put in jail if the real thinking people
had their way of it. The mockery of
it: In one column The Tribune prints
an editorial on Patriotism to the Flag,
and, five columns td the east, allows
Bert Leston Taylor to try to insult
United States citizenship by his at
tempts to belittle the fork of Mr.
Wilson.
But I haven't lost hope. This is a
splendid world our world, I mean.
Yous and mine, Mr. Cochran. And we
will convert the Tribune sooner or
later, and it will come to realize that
it is living in a false, counterfeit
world. It will grow and grow and
grow into the real world, the world
of real thinkers, who know that the
"greatest among you" is "the serv
ant of all."
Yours most cordially,
Wilmette, 111. Alfred Gordon.
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