HOSTLER HEARST.

NZ Truth, Issue 116, 7 September 1907, Page 8

HOSTLER HEARST.

JEWEL OF A JOURNALIST.

To be President of the United States, Predicts "Jungle"Author Upton Sinclair.

Another American Revolution also Predicted — The Establishment of the Industrial Republic.

Among the men who aspire to become President of the United States is William Randolph Hearst, one of the most energetic and clever of the public men of that country. Hearst recently failed m his attempt to become Governor of New York, but went so near success, m spite of the interference of the President, that he astonished his political apponents. He is . the owner of a chain of newspapers stretching right across the United States, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and some of his pressmen are paid the salaries of Cabinet Ministers. He has been the subject of the most malignant personal attacks, has been accused of offences contrary to the order of Nature, and has -been represented as one who, with his sensational newspapers was debauching the public mind of America ; yet there is reason to believe that his chances of securing, the Democratic nomination m the next contest for the Presidency are decidedly good, and if he succeeds m getting this, his chance of ■getting to the White House should be equally good- Upton Sinclair, who, with his "Jungle." has won international celebrity,- believes that the TRIUMPH OF HEARST is certain, and 'he even predicts when it will take place- This he does m a book recently published, entitled, "The Industrial Republic," which is thus reviewed m a recent issue of "Reynolds's Newspaper'- :— Mr Upton Sinclair gave us proof m "The Jungle" of the acute in-, terest which, he feels m sociological and industrial problems so far as they affect tho vital interests of America. But "The Jungle" was fiction), and fiction is not the best vehicle for promu/lgiating ideas, because, if the writer is dklatic you ara sure to find him prosy ; if he is sensational, you are equally sure to discount his facts. Hence we think that Mr Sinclair has done the cause to which he is devoted greater service by the publication of "THE INDUSTRIAL REPUBLIC" (Heinemann, 65.) ; for here, instead of "setting the puppets dallying," he speaks with his own voice through the medium of a plain prose treatise.-

It is, m all truth, a lurid, repellant picture of modern American social and industrial conditions which he presents us. "We are show.n Capital clamoring for its dividends ; opulent Pecksniffs declaring that God, m His infinite wisdom, has entrusted to them the property interests of the country ; colossal Trusts preying on production, and regarding tho producers as of less account than the machinery which they manipulate ; millions of wage-slaves grimly enduring their laborious lot, but every now and then inquiring why such things should be ; young children working m the mines and factories ; girls so shamefully sweated that they are DRIVEN TO PROSTITUTION ; . and Municipal and political corruption everywhere. And this is the America towards which English Radicals were wont to turn admiring eyes as though they saw there the dreamed-of Democra/tic paradise ;. the New World Which, m the eloqiuent words of Bishop Berkeley, was called m to redress 'the balance of the Old!; Our own social and industrial system gives us little cause for boasting, .'but is is undeniably superior to that which the Western Republic has evolved. The inequalities of wealth are nob so glaring ; there is still a trace of humanity left m many of our employers ; and our political life is generally admitted to be free from the worst taint of all. Moreover, while commercial greed is rampant enough m England the nation is not Wholly given over to it, and we mis# hero that NOTE OF STONY CALLOUSNESS which is the dominant characteristic of American industrialism. Mr Sinclair explains the contrast with some ability, and -gives the gist of a talk that he had with' Mr H. G-. Wells, who, when he visited the country, was struck l>y the appalling corruption prevalent among a people who did not seem to be either degraded or brutal :— "I said that m England the economic process had been modified by the existence of an hereditary aristocracy, holding -over from old times, and having llrigh traditions of public service. By nature this aristocracy sympathised with capital, and, to a certain extent, fraternised with it ; but it would not abdicate to

man of .threat ability and natural refinement. Though he spent most of his years m the woods and kept himself engaged m hunting and trappin"-, he was a man of true culture, with a neculiar fascination of speech and manner. He was an earnest reader, and. his humble income went largeW for the best books m French and Entrlish. David was evor proud of his lineage, but did not feel above the many poorer families of French blood who were settled all about ! him. „ „ „ Some weeks before Balmat's death a "Herald" correspondent made a trip to Little Falls, the Post Office nearest Bonaparte Lake, and talked with the aged woodsman. In suite of his eighty-seven' , years,-, Mr Balmat was lively and ailable'.. though he had already sent for .Father Turgeon m view of what Balmat termed "the coming of the end." "I am old now, and I want to fix matters up while I am able " he said. It required but little urging to start Mr Balmat on tho road of interesting reminiscence, and he went, on to relate many of the stories of his father concerning the Bonapartes. But the diary ? ... "Ah. that is a closed book, so to speak." said the distinguished old forester, "for my father told me to guard it well and when I had finished with it to send it, to France. •This I am about to do."

it, and, occasionally, to preserve its own power, it made concessions to the public, and so served as a check uposi the forcer of commercialism. On the other hand, the American people had only themselves to rely upon, and until they had been goaded into revolt there was no limit whatever to Itho power of greed." "REVOLT!" In that word you get the key, of Mr Sinclair's message.; In his .view America is at the parting of the ways. Its eyes are dazzled by two ideals— one, that of Imperial expansion, the other that of an industrial Repu__ic. He is sanguine that the nation will eho o se the latter route, as the only means of escape from its hideous internal evils.. He argues that industrial competition, as am evolutionary, force, has done its work ; and he pictures m language which, although eloquent, is always well under control, how the American people, at last realising, how it has been exploited for the benefit of the predatory few, will establish a new social and industrial fabric resting on the twin foundations of justice and brotherhood.

As to the Trusts, it is refreshing to find that Mr Sinclair does not lose, his head when writing of them.. He preceives that they were 'AN INEVITABLE PRODUCT of the rough and tum : hle of unregulated commercial strife.. : And they have done the State some service, having disciplined the laborers, tauight the leaders foresight, enterprise, and administrative capacity,, and — what is more important still — concentrated the means of production m such a way as to make their transference to federal ownership all the easier. The Trusts are coming to an end of their usefulness ; they are dying of inanition.-. They will be) eventually killed by tha revolt of an awakened nation. Nor, m Mr Sinclair's views, will that revolution long be delayed.- He estimates that it will be accomplished within one year after the Presidential election m 1912. . The President under whose governance these mighty changes will occur will win a place (beside Washington and Lincoln on the ROLL OF THE IMMORTALS ! and Mr Sinclair predicts that the honor will fall to William Randolph Hearst, who, 'despite his "yellow" journals, is "to-day as sincere a man as we have m political life." Mr Sinclair writes with such convincing sincerity and admirable logic, that we almost see the "Industrial Republic reviving the lost ideals of the early Americans, and proudly rising en the ruins of a discredited! system of greed and monopoly.