In Bunyan's Pigrim's Progress you may recall the description of the Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but do
wnward, with the muckrake in his hand, who was offered a celestial crown
for his muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor
In Pilgrim's Progress the Man with the Muck-rake is set forth as the example of him whose vision is forced on camal instead of on spiritual things. Yet he also typifies the man who in this life consistently refuses
to see aught that is lofty, and foves his eyes with solerin intentness only on that which is vile and debasing Now, it is very necessary that we should not finch from seeing what is vile and debasing. There is
filth on the floor and it must be scraped up with the muckrake, and there are times and places where this service is the most needed of all the services that can be performed But the man who never does
anything else who never thinks or speaks or writes, save of his feats with the muck-rake, speedily becomes, not a help to society, not an incitement to good, but one of the most potent forces for evil
There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man
whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business or in social life I had as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or
newspaper, with merciless seventy makes such attack provided always that he in his tum remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful. To assail the great and admitted evils of our
political and industrial life with such crude and sweeping generalizations as to include decent men in the general condemnation means the searing of the public conscience. There results a general attitude
either of cynical belief in and indifference to public corruption or else of a distrustiul inability to discriminate between the good and the bad Either attitude is fraught with untold damage to the country as a
whole. The fool who has not sense to discriminate between what is good and what is bed is well-nigh as dangerous as the man who does discriminate and yet chooses the bad. There is nothing more
distressing to every good patriot to every good American, than the hard, scofing spirit which treats the allegation of dishonesty in a public man as a cause for laughter. Such laughter is worse than the
cracking of thoms under a pot, for it denotes not merely the vacant mind, but the heart in which high emotions have been choked before they could grow to fruition
In this speech Roosevelt states. "There is nothing more distressing to every good patriot, to every good American than the hard, scoffing spint which treats the allegation of dishonesty in a public man as a
cause for laughter" What else could Roosevelt say to strengthen his position?
False accusations of bad character could lead to war.
Journalists have a responsibility to protect the government
Poor journalism results in public disinterest
The attempt to make money from attacks on character is immoral
