Page:Herr Glessner Creel - Tricks of the Press (1911).djvu/19

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15

the neck; this says the bullet entered the temple! Your best information is that Mayor Gaynor's secretary caught him as he fell and that his wife had to be telephoned to rush to St. Mary's hospital to see him: this says he toppled over into his wife's arms.

Who's being flim-flammed? You or the New Yorkers?You don't know. Who got the truth about the shooting? You or the people of the East? You don't know. What accounts seem to be most likely? You—don't know. What capitalist newspaper can you believe? Where can truth in a paper published for profit? You don't know.

And yet for years you've been reading some capitalist newspaper, swallowing everything it told you for gospel truth.

Several months ago I was in Washington, D. C. While there I called at the White House. President Taft received me in the Blue Room. He consented to pose with me for a picture, I offering him a copy of "Appeal to Reason" and he with his hand extended accepting the paper.

Now, every one of you know that's a blamed lie. And yet I ask you to see the evidence of the camera (page 15). Just pass these pictures around, please. There's the scene exactly as I described it. Remember that the camera does not lie. It reproduces only what was directly in front of the lens at the moment the shutter was released. There's no mistaking the figures. The famous Taft smile is playing all over the features of the President. I look rater scared. but who wouldn't be under the circumstances? The picture is true to life. You workingmen who voted for Taft and have since been invited to visit him at the White House will recognize the Blue Room, too. You can't deny that photograph. You've got to believe it. And yet you know the scene did not occur. You positively know that Taft would not pose in the White House for a picture with a Socialist, extend his hand for a copy of the Little Old "Appeal"