Los Angeles Times Maligns Lumbermen But Fails to Publish Facts Presented

By Jack Dionne

'We are not over-proud of rnodern journalism as Portrayed by The Los Angeles Times in reference to two recent editorials.

In a letter written by the Publisher of The California Lumber Merchant to the signed editor of a recent bitter anti-Redwood editorial in the Times, we gave a lot of plain and simple-and we believe incontrovertible facts in the cise, and we suggested that while the modern editor is not infallibly wise, or exceeding practical, he DOES aspire to be fair and just, and we asked for Justice.

We regret to say that so far as The Los Angeles Times is concerned, and based on the evidence in this case in point, we must withdraw the intended compliment. If they have any intention or desire to be either fair or just, there is no evidence to indicate that fact.

To begin with, the Times published an editorial under the signature of Mr. Harry Carr, in which the men who manufacture Redwood trees into practical things for the usri of mankind, were bitterly, immoderately, vulgarly attacked.

Because we did not believe that Mr. Carr really meant what he said, and because we KNEW that Mr. Carr did not know the facts in the case, and because we believed that Mr. Carr would be fair and just if the facts WERE presented to him, we did not reprint the malignant editorial in these columns. Instead, we wrote a letter to Mr. Carr, couched in such terms that Mr. Carr referred to it as "a courteous and interesting letter," and stated clearly and plainly the facts concerning the cutting of Redwood. They are facts that we believe are unanswerable.

'We were serious in believing that Mr. Carr would at the very least reprint the facts and say a decent word for the lumbermen he had slandered, and a word of apology for discussing something he knew less than nothing about. When we received his acknowledgement we were convinced that justice would be done.

It is with sadness and regret that we admit that we gave Mr. Carr and The Los Angeles Times entirely too much credit. His long delayed editorial acknowledgement of the facts presented to him, arrived through the columns of The Times on October 2nd. They are as disappointing as the first editorial was repulsive. Not a word of the thoughts we presented. Not a suggestion of reprinting thesc facts so that the public may judge for itself the right and wrong of the matter. Just a discourtous and complete elimination of the lumbermen's side, with no intimation of fair play, no suggestion that the Golden Rule has any part in the editorial policies of The Los Angeles Times, and no suspicion of a square deal for an injured party, even after the facts are known to be in his favor.

So we have decided to reprint verbatim the remarks of Mr. Carr, the first one appearing in the columns of The

Los Angeles Times on September 5th, and the second on October 2nd.

The letter of the Publisher of The California Lumber Merchant to Mr. Carr, giving him the facts in the case, was reprinted in the October lst issue of The Merchant and, with these two editorials, completes the files on the case so far. Let every lumberman read the two editorials' read our letter of protest and information, and see for himself to what depths has daily journalism fallen in the City of Los Angeles, and in the free state of California.

Editorial By Harry Carr, In Los Angeles Times, September ltln, 1927.

Save The Redwood

As to the gallant attempt to save the redwood trees of California-

Generally speaking, it is soft flattery to call a man a murderer who would cut down one of these old giants. Any man who could persuade himself to sink an ax into one of those glorious old trees has the tender instincts of a Gila monster and the brain of one of the lower forms of shellfish.

The Sacrifice f am sure just what such a family looks like. The father has a red nose and belches after dinner; the mother is a fat woman who tells long-winded stories about nothing; the children have adenoids.

For a thousand-perhaps 5000r-years these trees have looked down with pity upon a struggling world.

Now to be assassinated to put money into the pockets of some uninteresting, stupid family of human beings-en-, tirely unnecessary to the world.

Editorial By Harry Carr, In Los Angeles Times, October Znd, 1927.

Low sobbing noises from the general direction of the murdered redwood trees. The lumbermen, it seems, were not pleased at the assertion of the Lancer that anybody who would cut down one of these old giants has the heart of a crocodile and the brains of one of the lower forms of shellfish.

Butcher'Em

fn a letter'written to me it is made plain that these magnificent old trees which were old when Christ walked the waters of the Sea of Galilee have to be butchered because the lumberjacks and their families must live.

It's All Right

One thing in this letter makes me feel all right again; and completely reconciled to the massacre of the great trees. '

The lumbermen write that every time they cut down one of these giants they plant some more redwood trees.

So you see, it's quite all right. All we have to do is to wait 5000 years and we will have some giant redwoods for others to slaughter.