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knowledge of an actual panic confined to a few financiers and "captains of industry." They knew the situation and profited by it, while many of you foolishly believed the papers you read, invested here, bought there, and when the banks closed down and issued scrip you were caught—and the other side sat back and laughed at the way their newspapers trapped you.
At any rate, when the panic came on the Chicago newspapers one day carried what purported to be an extract from that week's report of the R. G. Dun Mercantile Agency. Regarding three industries it said that—
The furniture factories of Michigan were loaded with orders. The steel mills of Pennsylvania were running overtime. There was a call for more laborers on the docks at New Orleans.
Two days later I got the actual Dun report. Regarding these three items it said that—
There was a dearth of orders in the Michigan furniture factories. The steel mills of Pennsylvania were running short time. The New Orleans docks were crowded with idle men.
I was managing editor of a Chicago newspaper at the time. I sent two reporters to the office of the local manager of the R. G. Dun Mercantile Agency. They laid the two reports before him.
"Did you know this?" they asked.
"No," he replied.
"Is the newspaper report true?"
"No. It's a lie."
"What do you intend doing about it?" they asked.
"Nothing," answered the agency manager. "We don't care how much the newspapers lie about us, so long as they all tell the same lie."
And then he gave his reason. He said:
"See here, young men. Our service costs several hundred dollars a year. If the merchant could get an accurate commercial report from the columns of a two-cent newspaper, he wouldn't pay our price for the service, would he?"
That was clear, and of course the reporters answered no.
