There is no such thing as an independent press in America. I am paid for
keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Any of you
who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the
street looking for another job....We are the tools and vassals of the rich
men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks; they pull the strings and
we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property
of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.
- John Swinton (1830-1901) to a journalists' gathering NYC, 12 April 1893
We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid
of each other. Our age yields no great and perfect persons. We want men
and women who shall renovate life and our social state but we see that
most natures are insolvent, cannot satisfy their own wants, have an
ambition out of all proportion to their practical force, and so do lean
and beg day and night continually....