The first thing I did on Sunday morning was to pick
up the “Western City Times,” to see what
it had done to Carpenter. I found that he had
achieved the front page, triple column, with streamer
head all the way across the page:
PROPHET IN TOWN, HEALS SICK, RAVES AT RICH AMERICA
IS MOBLAND, ALLEGED IN RED RIOT OF TALK
There followed a half page story about Carpenter’s
strenuous day in Western City, beginning with a “Bolshevik
stump speech” to a mob of striking tailors.
It appears that the prophet had gone to the Hebrew
quarter of the city, and finding a woman railing at
a butcher because of “alleged extortion,”
had begun a speech, inciting a mob, so that the police
reserves had to be called out, and a riot was narrowly
averted. From there the prophet had gone to the
Labor Temple, announcing himself to the reporters
as “fresh from God,” with a message to
“Mobland,” his name for what he prophesied
America would be under his rule. He had then
healed a sick boy, the performance being carefully
staged in front of moving picture cameras. The
account of the “Times” did not directly
charge that the performance was a “movie stunt,”
but it described it in a mocking way which made it
obviously that. The paper mentioned T-S in such
a way as to indicate him as the originator of the
scheme, and it had fun with Mary Magna, pawning her
paste jewels. It published the flash-light picture,
and also a picture of Carpenter walking down the street,
trailed by his mob.
In another column was the climax, the “red riot
of talk” at Grant Hall. James, the striking
carpenter, had indulged in virulent and semi-insane
abuse of the rich; after which the new prophet had
stirred the mob to worse frenzies. The “Times”
quoted sample sentences, such as: “Do not
think that I am come to bring you ease and comfort;
I am come to bring strife and disorder to this world.”
I turned to the editorial page, and there was a double-column
leader, made extra impressive by leads. “AN
INFAMOUS BLASPHEMY,” was the heading. Perhaps
you have a “Times” in your own city; if
so, you will no doubt recognize the standard style:
“For many years this newspaper has been pointing
out to the people of Western City the accumulating
evidence that the men who manipulate the forces of
organized labor are Anarchists at heart, plotting
to let loose the torch of red revolution over this
fair land. We have clearly showed their nefarious
purpose to overthrow the Statue of Liberty and set
up in its place the Dictatorship of the Walking Delegate.
But, evil as we thought them, we were naive enough
to give them credit for an elemental sense of decency.
Even though they had no respect for the works of man,
we thought at least they would spare the works of
God, the most sacred symbols of divine revelation
to suffering humanity. But yesterday there occurred
in this city a performance which for shameless insolence
and blasphemous perversion exceeds anything but the
wildest flight of a devil’s imagination, and
reveals the bosses of the Labor Trust as wanton defilers
of everything that decent people hold precious and
holy.
