INFLUENCE OF CIVIC SOCIETIES
That the period was one devoted to social readjustment may be seen by the attention which civic leagues paid to local newspapers. From these leagues came a constant demand for improvement in the advertising and news columns. In Denver, for example, was organized the Citizens' Protective League with purposes thus outlined by one of the Colorado papers published outside that city:—
One hundred leading citizens of Denver have organized the Citizens' Protective League, which has for its only purpose the squelching of the knocking and blackmailing newspaper. The most remarkable feature of this action is the length of time it required to awaken Denver's substantial citizenry to a realization that the newspaper condition was the heaviest millstone that beautiful but benighted city has been carrying for a dozen years.
It is common knowledge that certain newspapers there have had the business men of Denver—and there is no more abject coward on earth than the average business man—at their mercy through fear of attack, and even blackmail. This situation is incomprehensible when one stops to think that a combined stand against any newspaper by its patrons could put it out of business in six months.
Citizens of Denver, you have it in your power to make good Indians of the Denver newspapers, and if it is necessary to adopt the measures used to make good Indians of the aborigines, you are justified in the light of past experience. There is no newspaper published in Denver that is so absolutely necessary to your existence that you must stand for everything. And an occasional penance is not enough. Make them behave, as decent citizens are expected to do, all the time.
The press and the people of the interior are with you.
The official platform of the Citizens' Protective League was thus stated in advertisements published in Denver newspapers:—
- That no news story, editorial, or advertisement be published which is unfit for a fifteen-year-old boy or girl to read.
- That fake stories, misrepresentations, and exaggerations of all kinds be eliminated.
- That stories of divorce, murder, suicide, and other forms of crime and immorality be kept in the background.
- That the petty quarrels and constant warfare between the newspapers be permanently discontinued.
