As his associates had predicted, a storm gathered and burst in fury about
the _News-Record_. It was denounced by "leading citizens," including
many of the clergy. Its "esteemed" contemporaries published and endorsed
and amplified the abuse. And its circulation went up at the rate of five
thousand a day.
When the storm was at its height, when the whole town seemed to be agreeing
with the angry reformers but was quietly laughing at their folly and
hypocrisy, Howard threw his bomb. On a Saturday morning he gave half of his
first page with big but severely impartial headlines to an analysis of the
members of the vice committee--a broadside of facts often hinted but never
before verified and published. First came those who owned property and
sub-let it for vicious purposes, the property and purpose specified in
detail; then those who were directors in corporations which had got corrupt
privileges from the local boss, the privileges being carefully specified,
and also the amounts of which they had robbed the city. Last came those who
were directors in corporations which had bought from the State-boss
injustices and licenses to rob, the specifications given in damning detail.
His leading editorial was entitled "Why We Don't Have Decent Government.
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