Part 50 (2/2)
”Do you want me to quit?”
”No; I don't. I believe you're an efficient man, if you can adjust yourself to new conditions. Do you think you can?”
”Well, I ain't much on the high-brow stuff, Mr. Surtaine, but I can take orders, I guess. I'm used to the old 'Clarion,' and I kinda like you, even if we don't agree. Maybe this virtuous jag'll get us some business for what it loses us. But, say, Mr. Surtaine, you ain't going to get virtuous in your advertising columns, too, are you?”
”I hadn't considered it,” said Hal. ”One of these days I'll look into it.”
”For G.o.d's sake, don't!” pleaded Shearson, with such a shaken flabbiness of vehemence that both Hal and Ellis laughed, though the former felt an uneasy puzzlement.
The article and editorial on the Pierce accident had appeared in a Thursday's ”Clarion.” In their issues of the following day, the other morning papers dealt with the subject most delicately. The ”Banner”
published, without obvious occasion, a long and rather fulsome editorial on E.M. Pierce as a model of high-minded commercial emprise and an exemplar for youth: also, on the same page in its ”Pointed Paragraphs,”
the following, with a point quite too palpably aimed:--
”It is said, on plausible if not direct authority, that one of our morning contemporaries will appropriately alter its motto to read, 'With Malice toward All: with Charity for None.'”
But it remained for that evening's ”Telegram” to bring up the heavy guns. From its first edition these headlines stood out, black and bold:--
E.M. PIERCE DEFENDS DAUGHTER
MAGNATE INCENSED AT UNJUST ATTACKS WILL PUSH CASE AGAINST HER TRADUCERS TO A FINISH
There followed an interview in which the great man announced his intention of bringing both civil and criminal action for libel against the ”Clarion.” McGuire Ellis frowned savagely at the sheet.
”Dirty skunk!” he growled.
”Meaning our friend Pierce?” queried Hal.
”No. Meaning Parker, and the whole 'Telegram' outfit.”
”Why?”
”Because they printed that interview.”
”What's wrong with it? It's news.”
”Don't be positively infantile, Boss. Newspapers don't print libel actions brought against other newspapers. It's unprofessional. It's unethical. It isn't straight.”
”No: I don't see that at all,” decided Hal, after some consideration.
”That amounts simply to this, that the newspapers are in a combination to discourage libel actions, by suppressing all mention of them.”
”Certainly. Why not? Libel suits are generally holdups.”
”I think the 'Telegram' is right. Whatever Pierce says is news, and interesting news.”
”You bet Parker would never have carried that if his holding corporation wasn't a heavy borrower in the Pierce banks.”
”Maybe not. But I think we'll carry it.”
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