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9TH EDITION

A Survey of

Mathematics
with Applications

ALLEN R. ANGEL
Monroe Community College

CHRISTINE D. ABBOTT
Monroe Community College

DENNIS C. RUNDE
State College of Florida

Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River
Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto
Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo
Editor in Chief: Anne Kelly
Acquisitions Editor: Marnie Greenhut
Senior Content Editor: Chere Bemelmans
Assistant Editor: Elle Driska
Associate Managing Editor: Tamela Ambush
Senior Production Project Manager: Peggy McMahon
Associate Director of Design, USHE North and West: Andrea Nix
Art Director, Cover and Interior: Beth Paquin
Cover Designer: Rokusek Design
Image Manager: Rachel Youdelman
Photo Research: PreMedia Global USA, Inc.
Media Producer: Tracy Menoza
Software Development: Bob Carroll and Mary Durnwald
Executive Marketing Manager: Roxanne McCarley
Marketing Assistant: Caitlin Crain
Senior Author Support/Technology Specialist: Joe Vetere
Permissions Project Supervisor: Michael Joyce
Procurement Manager: Evelyn Beaton
Procurement Specialist: Debbie Rossi
Text Design, Production Coordination, Illustrations, and Composition: Cenveo Publisher Services/
Nesbitt Graphics, Inc.

For permission to use copyrighted material, grateful acknowledgment has been made to the copy-
right holders on page C-1 in the back of the book, which is hereby made part of this copyright page.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are
claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Pearson was aware of a
trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data


Angel, Allen R., 1942–
A survey of mathematics with applications / Allen R. Angel, Christine
D. Abbott, Dennis C. Runde.--9th ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-321-75966-4
1. Mathematics--Textbooks. I. Abbott, Christine D. II. Runde, Dennis
C. III. Title.
QA39.3.A54 2012
510--dc23
2011042964

Copyright © 2013, 2009, 2005, 2001. Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Manufactured
in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should
be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system,
or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
likewise. To obtain permission(s) to use material from this work, please submit a written request to
Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River,
New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to 201-236-3290.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10—RRD—15 14 13 12 11

ISBN-10: 0-321-75966-4
www.pearsonhighered.com ISBN-13: 978-0-321-75966-5
To my wife, Kathy Angel (photo on page 56)
A. R. A.

To the memory of my parents, Ed and June Dunn


C. D. A.

To my parents, Bud and Tina Runde


D. C. R.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
1 Critical Thinking Skills 1

1.1 Inductive Reasoning 2

1.2 Estimation 9

1.3 Problem Solving 20

2 Sets 42

2.1 Set Concepts 43

2.2 Subsets 51

2.3 Venn Diagrams and Set Operations 57


2.4 Venn Diagrams with Three Sets and Verification
of Equality of Sets 68
2.5 Applications of Sets 76

2.6 Infinite Sets 83

3 Logic 93

3.1 Statements and Logical Connectives 94

3.2 Truth Tables for Negation, Conjunction, and Disjunction 105

3.3 Truth Tables for the Conditional and Biconditional 118

3.4 Equivalent Statements 127

3.5 Symbolic Arguments 140

3.6 Euler Diagrams and Syllogistic Arguments 150

3.7 Switching Circuits 156

4 Systems of Numeration 169

4.1 Additive, Multiplicative, and Ciphered Systems of Numeration 170

4.2 Place-Value or Positional-Value Numeration Systems 178

4.3 Other Bases 185

4.4 Computation in Other Bases 192

4.5 Early Computational Methods 200

5 Number Theory and the Real Number System 209

5.1 Number Theory 210

5.2 The Integers 221

5.3 The Rational Numbers 229


5.4 The Irrational Numbers and the Real Number System 243

v
vi CONTENTS

5.5 Real Numbers and Their Properties 252

5.6 Rules of Exponents and Scientific Notation 259

5.7 Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences 270

5.8 Fibonacci Sequence 278

6 Algebra, Graphs, and Functions 291

6.1 Order of Operations 292

6.2 Linear Equations in One Variable 297

6.3 Formulas 308

6.4 Applications of Linear Equations in One Variable 314

6.5 Variation 320

6.6 Linear Inequalities 329

6.7 Graphing Linear Equations 336

6.8 Linear Inequalities in Two Variables 349

6.9 Solving Quadratic Equations by Using Factoring and by Using


the Quadratic Formula 352
6.10 Functions and Their Graphs 362

7 Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities 385

7.1 Systems of Linear Equations 386

7.2 Solving Systems of Linear Equations by the Substitution


and Addition Methods 394
7.3 Matrices 404

7.4 Solving Systems of Linear Equations by Using Matrices 415

7.5 Systems of Linear Inequalities 420

7.6 Linear Programming 424

8 The Metric System 434

8.1 Basic Terms and Conversions Within the Metric System 435

8.2 Length, Area, and Volume 443

8.3 Mass and Temperature 454

8.4 Dimensional Analysis and Conversions to and from


the Metric System 462

9 Geometry 478

9.1 Points, Lines, Planes, and Angles 479


9.2 Polygons 490
CONTENTS vii

9.3 Perimeter and Area 500

9.4 Volume and Surface Area 512

9.5 Transformational Geometry, Symmetry, and Tessellations 525

9.6 Topology 543

9.7 Non-Euclidean Geometry and Fractal Geometry 550

10 Mathematical Systems 566

10.1 Groups 567

10.2 Finite Mathematical Systems 574

10.3 Modular Arithmetic 585

11 Consumer Mathematics 599

11.1 Percent 600

11.2 Personal Loans and Simple Interest 611

11.3 Compound Interest 621

11.4 Installment Buying 630

11.5 Buying a House with a Mortgage 646

11.6 Ordinary Annuities, Sinking Funds, and Retirement Investments 658

12 Probability 674

12.1 The Nature of Probability 675

12.2 Theoretical Probability 683

12.3 Odds 691

12.4 Expected Value (Expectation) 698


12.5 Tree Diagrams 708

12.6 OR and AND Problems 717

12.7 Conditional Probability 728

12.8 The Counting Principle and Permutations 735

12.9 Combinations 746

12.10 Solving Probability Problems by Using Combinations 752

12.11 Binomial Probability Formula 758

13 Statistics 773

13.1 Sampling Techniques 774

13.2 The Misuses of Statistics 779

13.3 Frequency Distributions and Statistical Graphs 783


viii CONTENTS

13.4 Measures of Central Tendency 796

13.5 Measures of Dispersion 807

13.6 The Normal Curve 816

13.7 Linear Correlation and Regression 833

14 Graph Theory 853

14.1 Graphs, Paths, and Circuits 854

14.2 Euler Paths and Euler Circuits 864

14.3 Hamilton Paths and Hamilton Circuits 876

14.4 Trees 888

15 Voting and Apportionment 907

15.1 Voting Methods 908

15.2 Flaws of Voting 925

15.3 Apportionment Methods 939

15.4 Flaws of the Apportionment Methods 955

ANSWERS A-1

CREDITS C-1

INDEX OF APPLICATIONS I-1

INDEX I-9
To the Student

M athematics is an exciting, living study. Its applications shape the world around
you and influence your everyday life. We hope that as you read this book you
will realize just how important mathematics is and gain an appreciation of both its
usefulness and its beauty. We also hope to teach you some practical mathematics that
you can use every day and that will prepare you for further mathematics courses.
The primary purpose of this text is to provide material that you can read,
understand, and enjoy. To this end, we have used straightforward language and tried
to relate the mathematical concepts to everyday experiences. We have also provided
many detailed examples for you to follow.
The concepts, definitions, and formulas that deserve special attention are in boxes
or are set in boldface, italics, or color type. In the exercise sets, within each category,
the exercises are graded, with more difficult problems appearing at the end. At the
end of most exercise sets are Challenge Problems/Group Activities Exercises that
contain challenging or exploratory exercises. At the end of each chapter are Group
Projects that reinforce the material learned or provide related material.
Be sure to read the chapter summary, work the review exercises, and take the
chapter test at the end of each chapter. The answers to the odd-numbered exercises,
all review exercises, and all chapter test exercises appear in the answer section in
the back of the text. You should, however, use the answers only to check your work.
The answers to all Recreational Mathematics exercises are provided in either the
Recreational Mathematics boxes themselves, or in the back of the book.
It is difficult to learn mathematics without becoming involved. To be successful,
we suggest that you read the text carefully and work each exercise in each assignment
in detail. Check with your instructor to determine which supplements are available
for your use.
We welcome your suggestions and your comments. You may contact us at the
following address:
Allen Angel
c/o Marketing
Mathematics and Statistics
Pearson
75 Arlington St., Suite 300
Boston, MA 02116
or by email at:
[email protected]
Subject: for Allen Angel
Good luck with your adventure in mathematics!
Allen R. Angel
Christine D. Abbott
Dennis C. Runde

ix
Math We Use It Every Day!

W e present A Survey of Mathematics with Applications, Ninth Edition, with the


vision in mind that we use mathematics every day. In this edition, we stress
how mathematics is used in our daily lives and why it is important. Our primary goal
is to give students a text they can read, understand, and enjoy while learning how
mathematics affects the world around them. Numerous real-life applications are used
to motivate topics. A variety of interesting and useful exercises demonstrate the real-
life nature of mathematics and its importance in students’ lives.
The text is intended for students who require a broad-based general overview of
mathematics, especially those majoring in the liberal arts, elementary education, the
social sciences, business, nursing, and allied health fields. It is particularly suitable
for those courses that satisfy the minimum competency requirement in mathematics
for graduation or transfer.

New to This Edition


● Why This Is Important is a new concept woven throughout the book to help stu-
dents make the connection between their lives and the mathematics they’re learn-
ing. Why This Is Important notes can be found in all chapter and section openers
as well as the Mathematics Today features.
● Many chapter and section openers contain new, interesting, and motivational in-
formation and applications to introduce the section and illustrate the real-world
nature of the material in that section. For example, Section 2.3 introduces Venn
diagrams and set operations with the experience of purchasing a laptop computer.
The Chapter 3 opener indicates how logic has become important in electronic
devices such as cell phones and digital cameras.
● Recreational Mathematics boxes added throughout the book show various ways
that math can be fun!
● Approximately 40% of the examples and exercises in the book are changed. We
updated many examples and exercises to reflect current data and topics of inter-
est to students.
● Exercise sets now begin with fill-in-the-blank Warm Up Exercises.
● We revised and greatly expanded the chapter summaries into a chart format for
easier studying.
● All chapter tests have been reorganized to include exactly 20 questions for con-
sistency in length while thoroughly covering the content presented in the
chapter.

Content Revision
In this edition, we have revised and expanded certain topics to introduce new material
and to increase understanding.

Chapter 1 “Critical Thinking Skills,” includes exciting and current examples and
exercises.

Chapter 2 “Sets,” includes many new applications of sets pertaining to a greater


variety of topics, such as the sales of iPods and other electronic devices.

Chapter 3 “Logic,” contains new exercises, as well as a greater variety of exer-


cises. We include several puzzles, sudoku and kakuro, as Recreational Mathematics
exercises. Also, we now show an alternative method to work truth tables.

x
MATH We Use It Every Day! xi

Chapter 4 “Systems of Numeration,” contains information on the bases 2, 8, and


16, which have many applications in modern devices such as smart phones, cameras,
and high-definition televisions.

Chapter 5 “Number Theory and the Real Number System,” has updated informa-
tion regarding the largest prime number found and the most calculated digits of pi.
We updated exercise sets to reflect current economic numbers involving the national
debt, the gross domestic product, population growth and so on.

Chapter 6 “Algebra, Graphs, and Functions,” has updated examples and exercises
dealing with real-life situations. We moved material on exponential equations from
Section 6.3 to Section 6.10 and updated it to include examples and exercises on popu-
lation growth.

Chapter 7 “Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities,” contains many updated


examples and exercises.

Chapter 8 “The Metric System,” has many new up-to-date examples, exercises,
and photographs of real-life metric use throughout the world.

Chapter 9 “Geometry,” includes many updated examples and exercises, and we


rewrote several topics for greater clarity.

Chapter 10 “Mathematical Systems,” has many new examples, exercises, and


real-life applications to modern technology.

Chapter 11 “Consumer Mathematics,” contains updated interest rates involving a


variety of loans and investments. We rewrote much of the material clearly and con-
cisely. We now calculate monthly payments on installment loans and principal and
interest for a mortgage payment, using a formula in addition to a table.

Chapter 12 “Probability,” has updated examples and exercises that deal with real-
life applications, including video games, smart phones, and Facebook.

Chapter 13 In “Statistics,” the authors combined Sections 13.3 and 13.4 to empha-
size the relationship between frequency distributions and statistical graphs. We re-
wrote material in Section 13.7, The Normal Curve, for greater clarity, and we updated
many examples and exercises with real-life applications.

Chapter 14 “Graph Theory,” involves many new applications of graphs to a vari-


ety of topics, including maps, social networks (such as Facebook), and other real-
world applications.

Chapter 15 “Voting and Apportionment,” includes many updated examples and


exercises about voting and apportionment. We rewrote some of this material for
greater clarity.

Continuing and Revised Features


● Chapter Openers Interesting and motivational applications introduce each
chapter, which includes the Why This Is Important section, and illustrate the real-
world nature of the chapter topics.
xii MATH We Use It Every Day!

● Problem Solving Beginning in Chapter 1, students are introduced to problem


solving and critical thinking. We continue the theme of problem solving
throughout the text and present special problem-solving exercises in the exer-
cise sets.
● Critical Thinking Skills In addition to a focus on problem solving, this book also
features sections on inductive and deductive reasoning, estimation, and dimen-
sional analysis.
● Profiles in Mathematics Brief historical sketches and vignettes present stories
of people who have advanced the discipline of mathematics.
● Did You Know? The colorful, engaging, and lively Did You Know? boxes high-
light the connections of mathematics to history, the arts and sciences, technology,
and a broad variety of disciplines.
● Mathematics Today These boxes discuss current real-life uses of the mathemat-
ical concepts in the chapter. Each box ends with Why This Is Important.
● Technology Tips The material in these boxes explains how students can use
calculators, Excel, or other technologies to work certain types of application
problems.
● Timely Tips These easy-to-identify boxes offer helpful information to make the
material under discussion more understandable.
● Boxed Material Important definitions, formulas, and procedures are boxed,
making key information easy to identify for students.
● Group Projects At the end of each chapter are suggested group projects that
instructors can use to encourage students to work together. Instructors can also
assign these projects to individual students.
● Chapter Summaries, Review Exercises, and Chapter Tests The end-of-chapter
Summaries, now in chart format, provide an easier study experience by directing
students to the location in the text where specific concepts are discussed. Review
Exercises and Chapter Tests also help students review material and prepare for
exams.

Online Homework Systems


Online Course (access code required)
MyMathLab delivers proven results in helping individual students succeed. It pro-
vides engaging experiences that personalize, stimulate, and measure learning for each
student. And it comes from a trusted partner with educational expertise and an eye
on the future.
To learn more about how MyMathLab combines proven learning applications
with powerful assessment, visit www.mymathlab.com or contact your Pearson
representative.

Ready to Go Course (access code required)


These new Ready to Go courses provide students with all the same great MyMathLab
features that you’re used to, but make it easier for instructors to get started. Each
course includes pre-assigned homeworks and quizzes to make creating your course
even simpler. Ask your Pearson representative about the details for this particular
course or to see a copy of this course.
MATH We Use It Every Day! xiii

Online Course (access code required)


®
Math XL is the homework and assessment engine that runs MyMathLab.
(MyMathLab is MathXL plus a learning management system.) With MathXL, in-
structors can:
● Create, edit, and assign online homework and tests using algorithmically gener-

ated exercises correlated at the objective level to the textbook.


● Create and assign their own online exercises and import TestGen tests for added

flexibility.
● Maintain records of all student work tracked in MathXL’s online gradebook.

With MathXL, students can:


● Take chapter tests in MathXL and receive personalized study plans and/or per-

sonalized homework assignments based on their test results.


● Use the study plan and/or the homework to link directly to tutorial exercises for

the objectives they need to study.


● Access supplemental animations and video clips directly from selected
exercises.
MathXL is available to qualified adopters. For more information, visit our website at
www.mathxl.com, or contact your Pearson representative.
Supplements for Students
Student’s Solutions Manual
ISBN 13: 978-0-321-63931-8; ISBN 10: 0-321-63931-6
by Tamsen Herrick of Butte College
This for-sale manual contains solutions to all odd-numbered exercises and to all
Review and Chapter Test exercises.

Video Resources
These digitized videos review chapter content for student use at home or on the go.
They are ideal for distance learning and supplemental instruction.

xiv
Supplements for Instructors
Annotated Instructor’s Edition
ISBN 13: 978-0-321-63928-8; ISBN 10: 0-321-63928-6
This special edition of the text includes answers next to the exercises, for quick refer-
ence. Answers that do not fit next to the exercise are placed in a separate section in
the back of the book. Answers to all text exercises are included.

Online Supplements
Online supplements are available for download only at www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.

Instructor’s Solutions Manual


by Tamsen Herrick of Butte College
This manual contains solutions to all exercises in the text and answers to Group
Projects.

Instructor’s Testing Manual


This manual includes three alternate tests per chapter.

Insider’s Guide
This manual includes resources and helpful section-specific teaching tips designed to
assist both new and adjunct faculty with course preparation.

PowerPoint Lecture Presentation


These fully editable lecture slides include definitions, key concepts, and examples for
use in a lecture setting and are available for each section of the text.

TestGen®
TestGen enables instructors to build, edit, print, and administer tests using a comput-
erized bank of questions developed to cover all the objectives of the text. TestGen is
algorithmically based, allowing instructors to create multiple but equivalent versions
of the same question or test with the click of a button. Instructors can also modify test
bank questions or add new questions. Tests can be printed or administered online. The
software and testbank are available for download from Pearson Education’s online
catalog.

xv
Acknowledgments

W e thank our spouses, Kathy Angel, Jason Abbott, and Kris Runde, for their sup-
port and encouragement throughout the project. They helped us in a great many
ways, including proofreading, typing, and offering valuable suggestions. We are
grateful for their wonderful support and understanding while we worked on the book.
We also thank our children: Robert and Steven Angel; Matthew and Jake Abbott;
and Alex, Nick, and Max Runde. They also gave us support and encouragement and
were very understanding when we could not spend as much time with them as we
wished because of book deadlines. Without the support and understanding of our
families, this book would not be a reality.
We thank Patricia Nelson of the University of Wisconsin–LaCrosse and James Lapp
for their conscientious job of checking the text and answers for accuracy. We also
thank Sherry Tornwall of the University of Florida for continually making valu-
able suggestions for improving the book. And thanks to Becky Troutman for pre-
paring the Index of Applications.
Many people at Pearson deserve thanks, including all those listed on the copy-
right page. In particular, we thank Anne Kelly, Editor in Chief; Marnie Greenhut,
Acquisitions Editor; Chere Bemelmans, Senior Content Editor; Elle Driska, Assistant
Editor; Peggy McMahon, Senior Production Project Manager; Roxanne McCarley,
Executive Marketing Manager; Caitlin Crain, Marketing Assistant; Tracy Menoza,
Media Producer; and Beth Paquin, Senior Designer. We also thank Judith Bucci of
Nesbitt Graphics, Inc., for her assistance as Project Manager for this edition.
Tamsen Herrick of Butte College also deserves our thanks for the excellent work
she did on the Student’s and Instructor’s Solutions Manuals.
Finally, we thank the reviewers from all editions of the book and all the students
who have offered suggestions for improving it. A list of reviewers for all editions of
this book follows. Thanks to you all for helping make A Survey of Mathematics with
Applications the most successful liberal arts mathematics textbook in the country.
Allen R. Angel
Christine D. Abbott
Dennis C. Runde

Reviewers for This and Previous Editions


*Marilyn Ahrens, Missouri Valley College
*David Allen, Iona College
Mary Anne Anthony-Smith, Santa Ana College
Frank Asta, College of DuPage
Robin L. Ayers, Western Kentucky University
Hughette Bach, California State University–Sacramento
Madeline Bates, Bronx Community College
Rebecca Baum, Lincoln Land Community College
Vivian Baxter, Fort Hays State University
Una Bray, Skidmore College
David H. Buckley, Polk State College
Robert C. Bueker, Western Kentucky University
Carl Carlson, Moorhead State University
Kent Carlson, St. Cloud State University

xvi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvii

Donald Catheart, Salisbury State College


Yungchen Cheng, Southwest Missouri State University
Joseph Cleary, Massasoit Community College
Donald Cohen, SUNY College of Agriculture & Technology at Cobleskill
David Dean, Santa Fe College
*John Diamantopoulos, Northeastern State University
*Greg Dietrich, Florida State College at Jacksonville
Charles Downey, University of Nebraska
*Jeffrey Downs, Western Nevada College
Annie Droullard, Polk State College
Ruth Ediden, Morgan State University
Lee Erker, Tri-County Community College
*Nancy Eschen, Florida State College at Jacksonville
Karen Estes, St. Petersburg College
Teklay Fessanaye, Santa Fe College
Kurtis Fink, Northwest Missouri State University
Raymond Flagg, McPherson College
Penelope Fowler, Tennessee Wesleyan College
Gilberto Garza, El Paso Community College
Judith L. Gersting, Indiana University–Purdue University at Indianapolis
*Patricia Granfield, George Mason University
Lucille Groenke, Mesa Community College
*Kaylinda Holton, Tallahassee Community College
John Hornsby, University of New Orleans
*Judith Ink, Regent University
Nancy Johnson, Broward College
*Phyllis H. Jore, Valencia College
*Heidi Kiley, Suffolk County Community College
Daniel Kimborowicz, Massasoit Community College
Mary Lois King, Tallahassee Community College
*Harriet H. Kiser, Georgia Highlands College
*Julia Ledet, Louisiana State University
David Lehmann, Southwest Missouri State University
Peter Lindstrom, North Lake College
James Magliano, Union College
Yash Manchanda, East Los Angeles College & Fullerton College
*Richard Marchand, Slippery Rock University
Don Marsian, Hillsborough Community College
Marilyn Mays, North Lake College
*Susan McCourt, Bristol Community College
Robert McGuigan, Westfield State College
Wallace H. Memmer, Brookdale Community College
Maurice Monahan, South Dakota State University
Julie Monte, Daytona State College
Karen Mosely, Alabama Southern Community College
xviii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

*Kathleen Offenholley, Brookdale Community College


Edwin Owens, Pennsylvania College of Technology
Wing Park, College of Lake County
Bettye Parnham, Daytona State College
Joanne Peeples, El Paso Community College
*Traci M. Reed, St. John’s River Community College
Nelson Rich, Nazareth College
Kenneth Ross, University of Oregon
Ronald Ruemmler, Middlesex County College
Rosa Rusinek, Queensborough Community College
Len Ruth, Sinclair Community College
John Samoylo, Delaware County Community College
Sandra Savage, Orange Coast College
Gerald Schultz, Southern Connecticut State University
Richard Schwartz, College of Staten Island
Kara Shavo, Mercer County Community College
Minnie Shuler, Chipola College
Paula R. Stickles, University of Southern Indiana
Kristin Stoley, Blinn College–Bryan
Steve Sworder, Saddleback College
Shirley Thompson, Moorhead College
Alvin D. Tinsley, Central Missouri State University
*Sherry Tornwall, University of Florida
William Trotter, University of South Carolina
Zia Uddin, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
*Michael Vislocky, University of Cincinnati
Sandra Welch, Stephen F. Austin State University
Joyce Wellington, Southeastern Community College
Sue Welsch, Sierra Nevada College
Robert F. Wheeler, Northern Illinois University
Susan Wirth, Indian River State College
James Wooland, Florida State University
*Judith B. Wood, Central Florida Community College
Jean Woody, Tulsa Community College
Michael A. Zwick, Monroe Community College
*Denotes reviewers for ninth edition.
1
What You Will Learn
■ Inductive and deductive
reasoning processes
■ Estimation
■ Problem-solving techniques

Critical
Why This is Important
Life constantly presents new

Thinking Skills
problems. The more
sophisticated our society
becomes, the more complex the
problems. We as individuals are
constantly solving problems. For
example, when we consider ways
to reduce our expenses or when
we plan a trip, we make problem-
solving decisions. We also
have to make problem-solving
decisions when we figure out
how to divide our time between
studying, friends, family, work,
and recreational activities.
Additionally, businesses are
constantly trying to solve
problems that involve making
a profit for the company and
keeping customers satisfied.
The goal of this chapter is
to help you master the skills
of reasoning, estimating, and
problem solving. These skills
will aid you in solving problems
in the remainder of this book
as well as those you will encoun-
ter in everyday life.

◀ Planning a trip uses critical thinking skills to


stay within a budget while visiting exciting
new places.

1
2 CHAPTER 1 Critical Thinking Skills

SECTION 1.1 Inductive Reasoning


Thus far, no two people have been found to have the same fingerprints or DNA. So
fingerprints and DNA have become forms of identification. As technology improves,
so do identification techniques. Computerized fingerprint scanners are now showing
up in police stations, in high-tech security buildings, and with personal computers.
You can purchase a personal USB fingerprint scanner that requires your distinctive
fingerprint to gain access to your computer. The belief that no two people have the
same finger size, shape, and density is based on a type of reasoning we will discuss
▲ A device like this can be used to gain
access to your computer. in this section.

Why This is Important As you will see in this section, we use a type of reasoning,
called inductive reasoning, every day when we make decisions based on past
experiences.

Inductive Reasoning
Before looking at some examples of inductive reasoning and problem solving, let us
first review a few facts about certain numbers. The natural numbers or counting
numbers are the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, . p The three dots, called an ellipsis,
mean that 8 is not the last number but that the numbers continue in the same manner.
A word that we sometimes use when discussing the counting numbers is “divisible.”
If a , b has a remainder of zero, then a is divisible by b. The counting numbers that
are divisible by 2 are 2, 4, 6, 8,. c These numbers are called the even counting
numbers. The counting numbers that are not divisible by 2 are 1, 3, 5, 7, 9,. c These
numbers are the odd counting numbers. When we refer to odd numbers or even num-
bers, we mean odd or even counting numbers.
Recognizing patterns is sometimes helpful in solving problems, as Examples 1
and 2 illustrate.

Example 1 The Product of Two Even Numbers


If two even numbers are multiplied together, will the product always be an even
number?
Solution To answer this question, we will examine the products of several pairs of
even numbers to see if there is a pattern.
2 * 2 = 4 4 * 6 = 24 6 * 8 = 48
2 * 4 = 8 4 * 8 = 32 6 * 10 = 60
2 * 6 = 12 4 * 10 = 40 6 * 12 = 72
2 * 8 = 16 4 * 12 = 48 6 * 14 = 84
All the products are even numbers. Thus, we might predict from these examples that
the product of any two even numbers is an even number. ■

Example 2 The Sum of an Odd Number and an Even Number


If an odd number and an even number are added, will the sum be an odd number or
an even number?
Solution Let’s look at a few examples in which one number is odd and the other
number is even.
1.1 Inductive Reasoning 3

3 + 4 = 7 9 + 6 = 15 23 + 18 = 41
MATHEMATICS TODAY 5 + 12 = 17 5 + 14 = 19 81 + 32 = 113
All these sums are odd numbers. Therefore, we might predict that the sum of an
The Eyes Tell It All odd number and an even number is an odd number. ■

In Examples 1 and 2, we cannot conclude that the results are true for all counting
numbers. From the patterns developed, however, we can make predictions. This type
of reasoning process, arriving at a general conclusion from specific observations or
examples, is called inductive reasoning, or induction.

Definition: Inductive Reasoning


Inductive reasoning is the process of reasoning to a general conclusion through
observations of specific cases.

Induction often involves observing a pattern and from that pattern predicting a
conclusion. Imagine an endless row of dominoes. You knock down the first, which
knocks down the second, which knocks down the third, and so on. Assuming the pat-
A utomated teller machines
(ATMs) are now experiment-
ing with determining identity by
tern will continue uninterrupted, you conclude that any one domino that you select in
the row will eventually fall, even though you may not witness the event.
scanning the iris of a person’s eye. Inductive reasoning is often used by mathematicians and scientists to predict an-
When you open a bank account, swers to complicated problems. For this reason, inductive reasoning is part of the
your iris is scanned and the im- scientific method. When a scientist or mathematician makes a prediction based on
age is entered into a computer. specific observations, it is called a hypothesis or conjecture. After looking at the
When you use an ATM, a power-
products in Example 1, we might conjecture that the product of two even numbers
ful camera automatically checks
the veins in your iris against the
will be an even number. After looking at the sums in Example 2, we might conjecture
computer’s files. Iris scanning is that the sum of an odd number and an even number is an odd number.
also used now by law enforcement Examples 3 and 4 illustrate how we arrive at a conclusion using inductive reasoning.
to locate missing children. In the
future, iris scanning may also be
used to track down Alzheimer’s Example 3 Fingerprints and DNA
and mentally disabled patients. Iris
What reasoning process has led to the conclusion that no two people have the same
scanning can be done in a matter
of seconds, so it can be a much
fingerprints or DNA? This conclusion has resulted in the use of fingerprints and
quicker procedure than fingerprint- DNA in courts of law as evidence to convict persons of crimes.
ing and is just as accurate. Because
Solution In millions of tests, no two people have been found to have the same
the iris-scanning method of iden-
tification relies on the observation
fingerprints or DNA. By induction, then, we believe that fingerprints and DNA
of specific cases to form a general provide a unique identification and can therefore be used in a court of law as
conclusion, it is based on inductive evidence. Is it possible that sometime in the future two people will be found who
reasoning. do have exactly the same fingerprints or DNA? ■

Why This is Important All of


our identification procedures—finger- Example 4 Divisibility by 3
prints, DNA, iris scanning, etc.—
Consider the following conjecture: “If the sum of the digits of a number is divisible
are based on inductive reasoning.
by 3, then the number itself is divisible by 3.” We will test several numbers to see if
the conjecture appears to be true or false.
Solution Let’s look at some numbers whose sum of the digits is divisible by 3.

Is the Sum of the Is the Number


Number Sum of the Digits Digits Divisible by 3? Divisible by 3?
243 2 + 4 + 3 = 9 Yes; 9 , 3 = 3 Yes; 243 , 3 = 81

2088 2 + 0 + 8 + 8 = 18 Yes; 18 , 3 = 6 Yes; 2088 , 3 = 696


6783 6 + 7 + 8 + 3 = 24 Yes; 24 , 3 = 8 Yes; 6783 , 3 = 2261

49,116 4 + 9 + 1 + 1 + 6 = 21 Yes; 21 , 3 = 7 Yes; 49,116 , 3 = 16,372


4 CHAPTER 1 Critical Thinking Skills

In each case, we find that if the sum of the digits of a number is divisible by 3, then
Did You Know?
the number itself is divisible by 3. From these examples, we might be tempted to
An Experiment Revisited generalize that the conjecture “If the sum of the digits of a number is divisible by 3,
then the number itself is divisible by 3”* is true. ■

Example 5 Pick a Number, Any Number


Pick any number, multiply the number by 4, add 2 to the product, divide the sum by
2, and subtract 1 from the quotient. Repeat this procedure for several different num-
bers and then make a conjecture about the relationship between the original number
and the final number.
Solution Let’s go through this one together.

Pick a number: say, 5


Multiply the number by 4: 4 * 5 = 20
Add 2 to the product: 20 + 2 = 22
Divide the sum by 2: 22 , 2 = 11
Subtract 1 from the quotient: 11 - 1 = 10
David Scott on the moon. Note that we started with the number 5 and finished with the number 10. If you
start with the number 2, you will end with the number 4. Starting with 3 would re-
A pollo 15 astronaut David Scott
used the moon as his laboratory
to show that a heavy object (a ham-
sult in a final number of 6, 4 would result in 8, and so on. On the basis of these few
examples, we may conjecture that when you follow the given procedure, the num-
mer) does indeed fall at the same rate ber you end with will always be twice the original number. ■
as a light object (a feather). Had Gali-
leo dropped a hammer and feather The result reached by inductive reasoning is often correct for the specific cases
from the Tower of Pisa, the hammer
studied but not correct for all cases. History has shown that not all conclusions arrived
would have fallen more quickly to
the ground and he still would have at by inductive reasoning are correct. For example, Aristotle (384–322 b.c.) reasoned
concluded that a heavy object falls inductively that heavy objects fall at a faster rate than light objects. About 2000 years
faster than a lighter one. If it is not later, Galileo (1564–1642) dropped two pieces of metal—one 10 times heavier than
the object’s mass that is affecting the the other—from the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. He found that both hit the ground
outcome, then what is it? The answer at exactly the same moment, so they must have traveled at the same rate.
is air resistance or friction: Earth has When forming a general conclusion using inductive reasoning, you should test it
an atmosphere that creates friction
with several special cases to see whether the conclusion appears correct. If a special
on falling objects. The moon does
not have an atmosphere; therefore, case is found that satisfies the conditions of the conjecture but produces a different
no friction is created. result, such a case is called a counterexample. A counterexample proves that the con-
jecture is false because only one exception is needed to show that a conjecture is not
valid. Galileo’s counterexample disproved Aristotle’s conjecture. If a counterexample
cannot be found, the conjecture is neither proven nor disproven.

Deductive Reasoning
A second type of reasoning process is called deductive reasoning, or deduction.
Mathematicians use deductive reasoning to prove conjectures true or false.

Definition: Deductive Reasoning


Deductive reasoning is the process of reasoning to a specific conclusion from a
general statement.

Example 6 Pick a Number, n


Prove, using deductive reasoning, that the procedure in Example 5 will always
result in twice the original number selected.

*This statement is in fact true, as is discussed in Section 5.1.


1.1 Inductive Reasoning 5

Solution To use deductive reasoning, we begin with the general case rather than
specific examples. In Example 5, specific cases were used. Let’s select the letter n
to represent any number.
Pick any number: n
Multiply the number by 4: 4n 4n means 4 times n
Add 2 to the product: 4n + 2
2 1
4n + 2 4n 2
Divide the sum by 2: = + = 2n + 1
2 2 2
1 1

Subtract 1 from the quotient: 2n + 1 - 1 = 2n


Note that for any number n selected, the result is 2n, or twice the original number
selected. ■

In Example 5, you may have conjectured, using specific examples and inductive
reasoning, that the result would be twice the original number selected. In Example 6,
we proved, using deductive reasoning, that the result will always be twice the original
number selected.

SECTION 1.1
Exercises
Warm Up Exercises 10. You have purchased one lottery ticket each week for many
months and have not won more than $5.00. You decide,
In Exercises 1–8, fill in the blank with an appropriate
based on your past experience, that you are not going to win
word, phrase, or symbol(s). the grand prize and so you stop playing the lottery. What
1. Another name for the natural numbers is the type of reasoning did you use? Explain.
numbers.
2. If a , b has a remainder of 0, then a is by b. Practice the Skills
In Exercises 11–14, use inductive reasoning to predict the
3. A belief based on specific observations that has not been
proven or disproven is called a conjecture or . next line in the pattern.

4. A specific case that satisfies the conditions of a conjecture 11. 1 * 5 = 5


but shows the conjecture is false is called a . 2 * 5 = 10
3 * 5 = 15
5. The process of reasoning to a general conclusion through 4 * 5 = 20
observation of specific cases is called reason-
ing. 12. 12 * 10 = 120
12 * 11 = 132
6. The process of reasoning to a specific conclusion from a 12 * 12 = 144
general statement is called reasoning. 12 * 13 = 156
7. The type of reasoning used to prove a conjecture is called
13. 1
reasoning.
1 1
8. The type of reasoning generally used to arrive at a
conjecture is called reasoning. 1 2 1
1 3 3 1
9. While logging on to your computer, you type in your user- q q q
q q q
name followed by what you believe is your password. The 1 4 6 4 1
computer indicates that a mistake has been made and asks
you to try again. You retype your username and the same 14. 10 = 101
password. Again, the computer indicates a mistake has 100 = 102
been made. You decide not to try again, reasoning you will 1000 = 103
get the same error message from the computer. What type 10,000 = 104
of reasoning did you use? Explain.
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health seemed permanently undermined; I did not think I was going
to live, and I did not very much care. But I established my residence
in Holland and obtained my divorce, quietly, and without scandal. I
wish to pay tribute to the kindest and most friendly people I have
ever met—the Dutch. When I came to them, sick with grief, they did
not probe into my shame; they invited me to their drawing-rooms for
discussions of literature and art, and with tact and sweetness they let
me warm my shivering heart at their firesides. Their newspapers
treated me as a man of letters—an entirely new experience to me.
They sent men of culture and understanding to ask my opinions, and
they published these opinions correctly and with dignity. When I
filed my divorce-suit they published nothing. When the decree was
granted, they published three or four lines about it in the columns
given to court proceedings, a bare statement of the names and dates,
as required by law. And even when I proposed to rid my home of
fleas by means of cyanogen gas, they did not spread the fact on the
front pages of their newspapers, making it a “comic relief” story for
the vacuous-minded crowd.
There were many men in Holland, as in England and Germany
and Italy and France, who hated and feared my Socialist ideas. I
made no secret of my ideas; I spoke on public platforms abroad, as I
had spoken at home. When reporters for the great Tory newspapers
of England came to interview me, I told them of the war that was
coming with Germany, and how bitterly England would repent her
lack of education and modern efficiency, and her failure to feed and
house her workers as human beings. These opinions were hateful to
the British Tories, and they attacked me; but they did not attack the
author of the opinions, by making him into a public scarecrow and
publishing scandals about his private life. This, as my Dutch chemist
would have said, is “a characteristically American procedure”!
CHAPTER XX
THE STORY OF A LYNCHING

The first American I visited in Europe was George D. Herron,


then living in Florence, the home of his favorite poet, Dante. Dante
had been exiled from Florence by the oligarchy which ruled that city,
and in exactly the same way Herron had been exiled from America by
America’s oligarchy, the capitalist press. I had known him for ten
years, and had witnessed his martyrdom at first hand. The story is
told in full in some pages of “Love’s Pilgrimage,” but I must sketch it
here, where I am dealing with the subject of marriage and divorce,
and the attitude of our Journalism thereto. As it happens, the story is
timely, for Herron has again been brought into the public eye, and
the capitalist press has dragged out the old skeleton and rattled its
dry bones before the world.
George D. Herron had been a clergyman, a professor of
Christian morals in a Middle Western college. He had been married
as a boy and was wretchedly unhappy. I am not free to discuss that
early marriage; suffice it to say that when he told me the story, the
tears came into his eyes. He had become a Socialist, and had set out
to preach the cause of the poor and oppressed from one end of
America to the other. Among his converts was an elderly rich
woman, Mrs. Rand, whose fortune came from railroad and lumber
interests in the Middle West. And now Herron came to love the
daughter of Mrs. Rand. Being a clergyman, he had no idea of
divorcing his wife, and the discovery that he loved another woman
only added to his misery. His health gave way under the strain, but
he held out—until finally his wife brought suit for divorce, alleging
desertion.
Herron had founded a Christian Socialist organization, and was
one of the most popular radical orators in the country. He was a
dangerous man to the “interests,” and here was the chance to destroy
him. A perfect storm of obloquy and abuse overwhelmed him. He
was a “free lover,” they declared, a proof of the claim that all
Socialists believed and practised “free love.” The Rev. Newell Dwight
Hillis refused to shake hands with him, turning his back upon him on
a public platform: Newell Dwight Hillis, whose greed for money led
him into a series of disgusting scandals, and forced him finally to
bow his head with shame and confess his financial sins before his
congregation! The Rev. Thomas Dixon wrote a novel, “The One
Woman,” in which he portrayed Herron as a sort of human gorilla:
Dixon, dealer in pulpit-slang, who has since turned to the movies as
a means of glorifying race-hatred and militarism, and pouring out his
venom upon all that is humane and generous in life.
I have many friends who were present at the marriage of George
D. Herron and Carrie Rand. They were married by a Congregational
clergyman, William Thurston Brown, and I have seen the marriage
certificate. Yet all over this country, and in fact all over the world, the
newspapers portrayed the ceremony as a “free love wedding,” no real
marriage, but just a say-so to be terminated at pleasure. The most
horrible tales were told, the most horrible pictures were published—
of Herron, and of his first wife, and of his “soul mate” and his “soul
mate’s” mother.
I saw that the strain of the thing was killing Herron, and
persuaded him to go abroad to live and do his writing. Three or four
years later old Mrs. Rand died, leaving a part of her money to found
the Rand School; Herron and his wife came home to bury her, and
again the storm broke out. He had purchased a farm at Metuchen,
New Jersey, intending to live there; a reporter came, representing
that the “Cosmopolitan Magazine” wished to publish a series of
articles about the wives of distinguished American writers. On this
pretext the reporter obtained a photograph of a painting which
Herron had had made of his wife and baby, and a week later there
appeared in the magazine section of the “New York Sunday
American” a horrible scare story about the “free love colony” which
Herron was founding in the midst of an exclusive residential suburb
of New Jersey. There was a picture of the free love wife and the free
love baby, and of Herron standing upon a ladder, tacking upon a wall
his repudiation of the institution of marriage. The headlines ran:
ELEVEN MILLION DOLLARS TO PROMOTE THIS DOCTRINE
How the Vast Fortune of the Late Mrs. Rand, Who Gave Prof. Herron’s
Deserted Wife $60,000 to Divorce Him, is Being Used in an Amazing Warfare on
Marriage and Religion Under the Leadership of Herron and Mrs. Rand’s Daughter.
This story went all over the country, and recently when Herron
was named by President Wilson as one of the delegates to confer
with the Russian Soviets, the story was rehashed in our newspapers,
and made the subject of indignant protest by religious bodies.
Having visited this Metuchen home and seen the whole story in the
making, I am in a position to state that the Metuchen “free love
colony” was entirely a product of the obscene minds of the editors of
the “Sunday Yellows.” What is the moral character of these “yellow”
editors you may judge from the fact that, soon after this, one of the
editors of the “Sunday World” was arrested by Anthony Comstock
and sent to jail for a year or two, for having in his possession several
thousand obscene photographs which he used in the corrupting of
boys. In such minds the Metuchen story was born; and seventeen
years later its foul carcass is exhumed by the “Churchman,” organ of
“the Church of Good Society” in New York, and made the basis of a
vicious sneer at President Wilson. I quote:
In dealing with Russian liberals, it may be necessary to select as mediators
men who share their political ideas. It is not necessary to choose men who share
their moral practices. We read that the Presbyterian Union of Newark has adopted
resolutions protesting against the appointment of George D. Herron as a
representative of the United States to confer with the Bolsheviks. The resolution
condemns Herron as a man who has flagrantly violated the laws of God and man,
and they call upon President Wilson to revoke his appointment. They go into past
history and assert that Mr. Herron endeavored at one time to establish a free love
colony at Metuchen, New Jersey.
Time wasted! We warn the Newark protestants. Mr. Herron’s appointment
will not be revoked. What is the marriage vow among the makers of millenniums?
And lest you think this is merely odium theologicum, I give an
example of the comment of the laity, from “Harvey’s Weekly”:
Why not make Herron the Turkish Mandatory? Herron’s matrimonial views
are broad and comprehensive. His poultry-yard standard of morals might possibly
be a little looser than the Turkish, but he would doubtless conform himself in
theory and practice to the narrower Turkish matrimonial prejudices.
I wonder which is the more disagreeable phenomenon, sexual
license or venal hypocrisy. It is a question I face when I read
denunciations of the morals of radicals in capitalist newspapers. I
have known men and women in a score of different worlds; I have
talked with them and compared their sexual ethics, and I know that
the newspaper people cannot afford to throw stones at the rest.
There are causes for this, of course. Their work is irregular and
exhausting; they squeeze out the juices from their nerve-centers,
they work under high pressure, in furious competition. Such men are
apt to make immoderate use of tobacco and alcohol, and to take their
pleasure where they find it. But this applies only to the rank and file
in the newspaper world, to reporters and penny-a-liners; it does not
apply to the big men at the top. These men have ease and security,
and surely we might expect them to conform to the moral laws which
they lay down for the rest of mankind!
I have in mind a certain editor. In this book where I am sparing
no one, I should perhaps give his name; but I yield to human
weakness, having been a guest at his home. Suffice it to say that this
editor is one of America’s very greatest, one to whom the masses of
Americans look every day for enlightenment. This man wrote and
published a most atrocious editorial concerning Herron’s sexual
morals. And what was his own sexual life at the time?
When the “Jungle” was published, this editor wrote to me that
he had a friend who wished very much to meet me. I accepted, and
went to dinner in a beautiful apartment in New York, luxuriously
furnished, where I met a charming and cultured lady whom I will call
Mrs. Smith. There were two lovely children, and there was Mr.
Smith, a quiet, rather insignificant gentleman. I spent an enjoyable
evening, and went away with no suspicion of anything unusual in the
Smith family. But afterwards, when I mentioned the matter to others
who knew this editor, I learned that the editor was the father of the
children, and that Mr. Smith was maintained in luxury as a blind to
cover the situation. I could hardly believe my ears; but I found that
everybody who knew this editor intimately knew all about it, and that
the editor made no secret of it among his friends. Later on, I came to
know a certain brilliant and beautiful young suffrage leader, since
deceased, who told me how she had exercised the privilege of the
modern emancipated young woman, and had asked this editor to
marry her. His answer was that he was very sorry, but he was not
free, Mrs. Smith having given him to understand that if ever he left
her, she would kill herself.
Here again we face the New York State law, forced upon the
public by the Roman Catholic Church, making the grounds of divorce
infidelity plus a scandal. Driven by the terror of scandal, men have
been led by thousands and tens of thousands to make arrangements
such as I have here described. Believing as I do that this divorce-law
is an abomination, a product of vicious priest-craft, I hesitate before
I blame these men; but no one need hesitate to blame them when,
knowing what the law is, and what they themselves have been driven
to, they publicly spit upon and trample the face of a modern prophet
like George D. Herron.
And lest you think this case exceptional, I will give you another.
There is a newspaper in New York, a pillar of capitalist respectability,
the very corner-stone of the temple of bourgeois authority. This
paper, of course, denounced Herron in unmeasured terms; recently
it took up the attack again, in its solemn and ponderous manner
rebuking the President for his lack of understanding of the moral
sentiments of the American people. This great newspaper is owned
and published by a Hebrew gentleman, intimately connected with
the great financial interests of New York. He is one of the most
respectable Hebrew gentlemen imaginable. And what are his sexual
habits?
I know a lady, one of America’s popular novelists. She is a
charming lady, but without a trace of that appearance and manner
which in the world is called “fast”; on the contrary, she is one of the
women you know to be straightforward and self-respecting, the kind
you would choose for your sister. She came to New York, young and
inexperienced, desirous of earning a living. Naturally, she thought
first of this great publisher, whom she had known socially in her
home city. She went to him and told him that she had made
something of a success at writing, and she wanted to write for the
great metropolitan paper. He answered that he would be delighted,
and arrangements were made. They were alone in the office, and she
stood by his desk to shake hands with him in parting, and he pulled
her over and took her on his knee; whereupon she boxed his ears and
walked out of the office, and never did any writing for the great
metropolitan paper.
The above anecdote is, of course, hearsay so far as I am
concerned. I was not in the publisher’s office, and I did not see him
take the lady-novelist on his knee; but my wife and I knew this lady-
novelist well, and she had no possible motive for telling us a
falsehood. The story came up casually in the course of conversation,
and was told spontaneously, and with humor; for the lady takes life
cheerfully, and had got over being angry with the publisher—
satisfied, I suppose, with having boxed his ears so thoroughly. I
wrote to her, to make sure I had got matters straight, and in reply
she asked me not to use the story, even without her name. I quote:
You know, of course, that I should be glad to do, at once and freely, anything I
could to be helpful in your affairs. I have thought it over and it stands about like
this in my mind. I am living a life that has its own aims—a thing apart from public
attack and defense. If I had determined to make public—after all these years—any
offense —— was guilty of toward me, my own feeling is clear that I should do it
myself, openly and for reasons that seemed to me compelling.... So leave me out of
this matter, my dear Upton.
And so I confront a problem of conscience, or at any rate of
etiquette. Have I the right to tell this story, even without giving
names? I owe a certain loyalty to this friend; but then, I think of the
great publisher, and the manifold falsehoods I have known him to
feed to the public. I think of the prestige of such men, their solemn
hypocrisy, their ponderous respectability. After weighing the matter,
I am risking a friendship and telling the story. I hope that in the
course of time the lady will realize my point of view, and forgive me.
A different kind of problem confronts me with another story,
which I heard three or four years ago, just after it happened. I had
this book in mind at the time, and I said to myself: “I’ll name that
man, and take the consequences.” But meantime, alas, the man has
died; and now I ask myself: “Can I tell this story about a dead man, a
man who cannot face me and compel me to take the consequences?”
I think of the man’s life-long prostitution of truth, his infinite
betrayal of the public interest, and I harden my heart, and write the
story, naming him. But then I weaken, and ask advice. I ask women,
and they say: “Name him!” I ask men, and they say: “You cannot tell
such a story about a dead man!” Which is right?
Everything that the profit-system could do for one of its darlings
had been done for this man. Millions of books, millions of
magazinelets went out bearing his name; wealth, power, prominence,
applause—all these things he had; his life was one long triumph—and
one long treason to public welfare. And what was the man’s private
life? What use did he make of his fame, and more especially of his
wealth?
The story was told to me by a woman-writer—not the one I have
just referred to, but as different from her as one woman can be from
another: a vivid and dashing creature, especially constructed both in
body and mind for the confounding of the male. This lady was
standing on a corner of Fifth Avenue, waiting for the stage, when a
man stepped up beside her, and said out of the corner of his mouth,
“I’ll give you five dollars if you come with me.” The lady made no
response, and again the voice said, “I’ll give you ten dollars if you
come with me.” Again there was no response, and the voice said, “I’ll
give you twenty-five dollars if you come with me.” The stage arrived,
and the auction was interrupted. But it happened that evening that
the lady was invited to a dinner-party, to meet a great literary
celebrity, a darling of the profit-system—and behold, it was the man
who had bid for her on the street! “Mr. —— and I have met before,”
said the lady, icily; and, as she writes me, “this paralyzed him.”
I ask this lady if I may tell the story. She answers: “Go the limit!”
So here, at least, my conscience is at ease!
CHAPTER XXI
JOURNALISM AND BURGLARY

I was obliged to return to America to give testimony concerning


an automobile accident of which I had been a witness. I had been
sitting in the rear seat of a friend’s car, which was proceeding at a
very moderate rate of speed along a down-town street, when a fruit-
peddler leaped out from behind an ice-wagon. He had a bunch of
bananas in his hand and was looking up toward a woman in a
window; he was not two feet ahead of the car when he sprang in front
of it, and was struck before those in the car could move a finger. The
account in the news column of the “New York Times” made clear that
I had been merely a passenger, in another man’s car, yet the “Times”
found space on its editorial page for a letter from some
correspondent, sneering at me as a Socialist who rode down poor
men in automobiles!
During my return to America I remarried. The ceremony took
place in Virginia, at the home of relatives of my wife’s family, and I
was interested to observe that the “Times,” which had pursued me so
continually, printed a perfectly respectful account of the wedding,
with no editorial sneers. I was not puzzled by this, for I observed that
the “Times” had taken the trouble to telegraph to Mississippi, to
make inquiries concerning the lady I was marrying, and the report
from their correspondent stated that the bride’s father was “one of
the wealthiest men in this section, and controls large banking
interests.” How many, many times I have observed the great organ of
American plutocracy thus awed into decency by wealth! When Frank
Walsh, as chairman of the United States Commission on Industrial
Relations, made a radical speech in New York, the “Times”
telegraphed to Kansas City and learned that Walsh was a lawyer
earning an income of fifty thousand dollars a year. It was comical to
observe the struggle between its desire to lambast a man who had
made a radical speech, and its cringing before a man who was
earning fifty thousand dollars a year!
In the same way, I have observed the attitude of the New York
newspapers toward my friend, J. G. Phelps Stokes, a Socialist who is
reputed to be a millionaire, and who belongs to one of the oldest
families in New York “society.” So it makes no difference what he
says or does, you never see a disrespectful word about him in a New
York newspaper. On one occasion, I remember, he and his wife made
Socialist speeches from a fire-escape in the tenement-district of New
York—and even that was treated respectfully! Upton Sinclair, who is
not reputed to be a millionaire, gave a perfectly decorous lecture on
Socialism, at the request of his fellow passengers on an ocean-liner—
and when he landed in New York he read in the “Evening World”
that he had delivered a “tirade.” I might add that the above remarks
are not to be taken as in any manner derogatory to Stokes, who is in
no possible way to blame for the fact that the newspapers spare him
the treatment they give to other American Socialists, including Mrs.
Stokes.
At this time ten or twenty thousand silk-workers in Paterson,
New Jersey, went on strike, affording the usual spectacle—a horde of
ill-paid, half-starved wage slaves being bludgeoned into submission
by policemen’s clubs, backed by propaganda of lying newspapers.
The silk-mill owners of Paterson of course owned the city
government, and were using the police-force to prevent meetings of
the strikers; but it happened that the nearby village of Haledon had a
Socialist mayor, and there was no way to keep the strikers from
walking there for open air mass-meetings. There was clamor for the
State troops to prevent such gatherings, and the newspapers were
called on to make them into near-riots. My wife and I would go out to
the place and attend a perfectly orderly gathering, addressed by such
men as Ernest Poole and Hutchins Hapgood, and then we would
come back to New York and buy a copy of the “Evening Telegram”
and read all across the front page scare-headlines about riots,
dynamite and assassination. I have before me a clipping from the
“New York World,” of Monday, May 19, 1913. “Paterson’s Fiercest
Fight Feared Today,” runs the headline.
On this same date my old friend the “New York Times” achieved
a little masterpiece of subtle knavery. I quote:
UPTON SINCLAIR IS HEARD
After Mohl came another newcomer so far as Paterson is concerned—Upton
Sinclair.
“I just simply could not stand it any longer,” said Sinclair, “and I let my books
go and came here to congratulate you. Yours is the finest exhibition of solidarity
ever seen in the Eastern States.”
Sinclair stated that the strikers had the police at their mercy, but added that
perhaps they did not realize it.
This, please understand, was part of a campaign to make the
general public regard the Paterson silk-workers as anarchists and
desperadoes. “The strikers have the police at their mercy,” says
Sinclair; and what conclusion does the reader draw from these
words? Obviously, Sinclair is advising the strikers to grab up clubs
and brick-bats and overwhelm the police. You would have drawn that
conclusion, would you not? Perhaps maybe you are one of the
readers of the “Times,” and did draw that conclusion! As it happens,
when I read that item, I took the trouble to jot down what I actually
did say, and to preserve the record along with the clipping. I quote:
You fellows go out on the picket-line and the police fall upon you with clubs,
they ride you down with their horses, they raid your offices, and suppress your
papers and throw your leaders into jail, and you think you are helpless. You don’t
realize that you have the police at your mercy. All those policemen are appointed
by the city government; they get their orders from the city government and every
year or two you go to the ballot-box and say whether you like what they have been
doing. In other words, you vote for Republican or Democratic politicians, instead
of electing Socialists to office, and having a city government that will give you your
lawful rights.
To get the full significance of the above, you must realize that
this was an I. W. W. strike; I went out to a meeting conducted by Bill
Haywood and Carlo Tresca and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and was
permitted to preach a doctrine of political action which these leaders
despised. I, who have all my life urged upon the workers of America
the futility of the strike alone, and the necessity of political action,
went out and said my say in the midst of a campaign of “direct
action”; and see how much understanding I got from the great
metropolitan newspapers for my defense of political methods! One
year later, after the Colorado coal-strike, the little urchins in the
village of Croton-on-Hudson where I lived used to follow me on the
street and shout: “I won’t work!” I used to reflect that our great
organs of publicity, the “New York Times” and “World” and “Herald”
and “Tribune” and “Sun,” stood upon precisely the same level of
intelligence as these little village urchins.
At this time the newspapers were trying to obtain from me a
photograph of the lady who went with me to strike-meetings, in spite
of the fact that her father was “one of the wealthiest men in this
section, and controls large banking interests.” They didn’t get the
photograph, so they were in desperate straits. A reporter for a
Philadelphia newspaper—I have the clipping, but unfortunately not
the name of the paper—went to Arden to look me up, and was told by
my friend Donald Stephens that I was not there. The homes in Arden
are scattered about through the woods, and life is informal; I had
locked the doors of my house, but the windows were not fastened. I
am not in a position to prove that the reporter for a Philadelphia
newspaper burglarized my house and stole a picture of my wife. I
cannot state positively that a course in house-breaking is a part of the
training of newspaper reporters in the City of Brotherly Love. All I
can state is the following set of facts:
1. In my desk in the house there lay a kodak-picture of my wife
and myself and my wife’s younger sister.
2. This copy was the only one in existence, having been taken by
my sister-in-law in an out-of-the-way place, and developed by a
photographer who knew nothing about us.
3. Upon my return to Arden, this picture was discovered to be
missing from my desk.
4. This missing picture was published in a Philadelphia
newspaper.
CHAPTER XXII
A MILLIONAIRE AND AN AUTHOR

The thesis of this book is that our newspapers do not represent


public interests, but private interests; they do not represent
humanity, but property; they value a man, not because he is great, or
good, or wise, or useful, but because he is wealthy, or of service to
vested wealth. And suppose that you wished to make a test of this
thesis, a test of the most rigid scientific character—what would you
do? You would put up two men, one representing property, the other
representing humanity. You would endeavor rigidly to exclude all
other factors; you would find one man who represented property to
the exclusion of humanity, and you would find another man who
represented humanity to the exclusion of property. You would put
these two men before the public, having them do the same thing, so
far as humanly possible, and then you would keep a record of the
newspaper results. These results would give you mathematically, in
column-inches, the relative importance to each newspaper of the
man of property and the man of humanity. Such an exact, scientific
test I have now to record.
I introduce the two persons. First, the man of humanity: At the
time the test was made, in December, 1913, he was thirty-five years
of age; he was known everywhere throughout the United States, and
was, with the possible exception of Jack London, the most widely
known of living American writers throughout the world. At the time
of the test he did not own more than a couple of hundred dollars.
Second, the man of property. He was at this time twenty-two
years of age, and had done four things which had been widely
heralded: First, he was born. Second, he decided to conduct some
experiments in farming. Third, he decided to marry a young lady of
his acquaintance. Fourth, he inherited sixty-five million dollars.
Three of these things are not at all unusual; many a farmer’s boy has
done them, and has not had the distinction of seeing the newspapers
devote columns of space to them. But the other thing is quite unique;
since the beginning of American history, no other person has ever
inherited sixty-five million dollars. So it may be asserted beyond
dispute that this young man’s reputation depended upon property,
and nothing but property; he was the perfect specimen which the
sociological scientist would require for his test—the man of property
pur sang.
And now for the action of the two men. It appears that the “New
York Times,” a great organ of world-capitalism, in its efforts to
camouflage its true functions, had resorted to the ancient device of
charity, used by the Christian Church ever since it sold out to the
Emperor Constantine. Early in December of each year the “Times”
publishes a list which it calls “One Hundred Neediest Cases,” and
collects money for these hundred families in distress. The “Times”
never goes into the question of the social system which produces
these harrowing cases, nor does it allow anyone else to go into this
question; what it does is to present the hundred victims of the system
with enough money to preserve them until the following December,
so that they may again enter into competition for mention in the list,
and have their miseries exploited by the “Times.”
In addition to this, the “Times” publishes every Sunday an
illustrated supplement of pictures to entertain its variety of readers;
and it happened that on the Sunday when it published the “Hundred
Neediest Cases” it published also a photograph of a “recreation
building” which young Mr. Vincent Astor was erecting on his country
estate at a cost of one million dollars. This building was for the use of
Astor and his friends; it had no place for the public. It was devoted to
tennis and swimming and gymnastics; it had no place for literature,
music, art, science, or religion—it was a typical product of the private
property régime. So the man who represented humanity sat himself
down and wrote a “Christmas letter” to the millionaire, in substance
asking him how he could enjoy his Christmas, how he could be
content to play in a million-dollar “recreation building,” when he had
before him such positive evidence that millions of his fellow-beings
were starving. This letter was picturesque, interesting and well-
written; as news it was in every way “live.”
So came the first test. This “Christmas letter” to Vincent Astor
was offered to every newspaper in New York City on the same date,
addressed “City Editor,” special delivery. It was sent to both morning
and afternoon papers. And how many published it? Just one—the
New York “Call”—the Socialist paper. No other paper in New York,
morning or afternoon, printed a line of it, or referred to it in any way.
It was offered to every big news agency in the country. And how
many handled it? Not one. Outside of New York it was published in
the “Appeal to Reason,” and in one Chicago paper which happened to
be edited by a personal friend of the author’s. So here you have the
first verdict of the capitalist journalism of New York City; a letter
written by a man of humanity represents a total news-value of
precisely 0.
There the matter might have rested, the test might never have
been completed, but for the fact that the millionaire disagreed with
the judgment of his newspaper editors; he thought the letter of the
author was important, and he answered it.
How this came to happen I have no idea. Maybe the millionaire’s
conscience was touched; maybe he had ambition to be something
else than a man of property pur sang. Maybe he himself wrote the
answer; maybe some shrewd family lawyer wrote it; maybe his
secretary or some other employe wrote it—all I know is that two or
three weeks later the millionaire wrote to the author, and at the same
time gave his letter to the newspapers.
The author’s letter had been, of course, an attack upon
capitalism. The millionaire’s was a defense of it. And so came the
second test. Every New York newspaper was offered an opportunity
to publish the millionaire’s letter to the author. And how many
availed themselves of the opportunity? Every one, absolutely every
one! Every one published the letter, and published it entire! Most of
them put it on the front page, with the millionaire’s picture; some of
them added columns of interviews about it, and editorials discussing
it. The New York newspapers’ idea of the news-value of a man of
property was precisely one hundred per cent!
The above would have been sufficient for any sociological
scientist; but, as it happened, the test was carried one stage farther
yet. The author was not entirely overwhelmed by the evidence of his
unimportance as compared with a millionaire; he was a Socialist, and
Socialists are notoriously hard to squelch. He wrote a second letter to
the millionaire, answering the millionaire’s arguments; and again he
offered it to every paper and to every news agency in New York—the
same ones that had spread out the millionaire’s arguments in full.
And how many printed it? How many printed the whole of it? Just
one—the “Call,” the Socialist paper. How many printed parts of it?
And how large were these parts? Let us see.
The author’s first letter measured in newspaper columns sixty-
three inches; the millionaire’s reply measured nineteen, and the
author’s reply to that measured sixty-one. If it be objected that the
author was claiming more than his fair share, it should be pointed
out that the author was attacking an established institution,
something one cannot do in a few sentences. On the other hand, the
most foolish person can reply, “I don’t agree with you”—and claim
the virtue of brevity. Also, be it noted that the question here is not
what the author claimed, but what he got. Here is a table showing
what he got, in column inches, from the leading morning papers of
New York:

Author Millionaire Author

Times 0 19 0
Herald 0 19 0
Press 0 19 0
Tribune 0 19 0
American 0 19 2
World 0 19 2¼
Sun 0 19 4½
Call 63 19 61

Let it be noted that the above takes no account of headlines,


which were all big for the millionaire and small for the author; it
does not include editorials, interviews and photographs, nor does it
reckon the advantage of first-page position.
In order to make the significance of the figures quite clear, let
them be reduced to percentages. Each paper had 124 author-inches
offered to it, and 19 millionaire-inches. To begin with the “Times”:
this paper printed all the millionaire inches—also a few extra which it
hunted up for itself; it printed none at all of the author-inches. Hence
we see that, to put it mathematically, the “Times” considers an
author absolutely nothing in comparison with a millionaire. Exactly
the same is true of the “Herald,” the “Press,” and the “Tribune.” The
“World” printed 100 per cent of possible millionaire-inches and less
than 2 per cent of possible author-inches, thus giving the millionaire
more than fifty times the advantage. Similarly, the “American”
favored him sixty to one. The “Call” placed the two on a par—that is
to say, the “Call” printed the news.
I conclude the account of this little episode by quoting a passage
from the published “Memoirs” of a wise old Chinese gentleman, Li-
Hung-Chang, who happened to be a man of humanity as well as of
property:
A poor man is ever at a disadvantage in matters of public concern. When he
rises to speak, or writes a letter to his superiors, they ask: “Who is this fellow that
offers advice?” And when it is known that he is without coin they spit their hands
at him, and use his letters in the cooks’ fires. But if it be a man of wealth who
would speak, or write, or denounce, even though he have the brain of a yearling
dromedary, or a spine as crooked and unseemly, the whole city listens to his words
and declares them wise.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE “HEART WIFE”

The next story has to do with the phenomenon known as


“Hearst Journalism.” It is a most extraordinary story; in its
sensational elements it discounts the most lurid detective yarn, it
discounts anything which is published in the Hearst newspapers
themselves. At first the reader may find it beyond belief; if so, let him
bear in mind that the story was published in full in the “New York
Call” for August 9, 1914, and that no one of the parties named
brought a libel suit, nor made so much as a peep concerning the
charges. I may fairly assert that this story of “Hearst Journalism” is
one which Mr. Hearst and his editors themselves admit to be true.
William Randolph Hearst has been at various times a candidate
for high office in America, and has been able to exert much influence
on the course of the Democratic party—in New York, in Illinois, and
even throughout the nation. What are the Hearst newspapers? How
are they made? And what is the character of the men who make
them? These questions seem to me of sufficient importance to be
worth answering in detail.
In order to make matters clear from the outset, let me point out
to the reader that, for once, I am not dealing with a grievance of my
own. Throughout this whole affair my purpose was to get some
money from a Hearst newspaper, but I was not trying to get this
money for myself; I was trying to get it for a destitute and distracted
woman. All parties concerned knew that and knew it beyond dispute.
The wrong was done, not to me, but to a destitute and distracted
woman, and so I can present to the reader a case in which he can not
possibly attribute an ulterior motive to me.
The story began at Christmas, 1913. In the New York papers
there appeared one day an account of the death of a lawyer named
Couch, in the little town of Monticello, N. Y. This man was nearly 60
years old, a cripple and eccentric, who lived most of the time in his
little office in the village, going once a week to the home upon the hill
where lived his wife and family. The news of his death in the middle
of the night was brought to a physician by a strange, terrified woman,
who was afterwards missing, but next day was discovered by Mr.
Couch’s widow and daughter, cowering in an inner portion of his
office, which had been partitioned off to make a separate room.
Investigation was made, and an extraordinary set of
circumstances disclosed. The man and woman had been lovers for
fifteen years, and for the last three years the woman had spent her
entire time in this walled-off room, never going outside, never even
daring to go near the window in the day-time. This sacrifice she had
made for the sake of the old man, because she had been necessary to
his life, and there was no other way of keeping secret a situation
which would have ruined him.
The story seemed to make a deep impression upon the public, at
least if one could judge from the newspapers. There were long
accounts from Monticello day by day. The woman was described as
grief-stricken, terrified by her sudden confrontation with the world.
She was taken to the county jail and kept there until after the dead
man’s funeral. No charges were brought against her, but she
remained in jail because she had nowhere else to go, and because her
condition was so pitiful that the authorities delayed to turn her out.
She was helpless, friendless, with but one idea, a longing for death.
She was besieged by newspaper reporters, vaudeville impresarios
and moving picture makers, to all of whom she denied herself,
refusing to make capital of her grief. She was described as a person of
refinement and education, and everything she said bore out this view
of her character. She was, apparently, a woman of mature mind, who
had deliberately sacrificed everything else in life in order to care for
an unhappy old man whom she loved, and whom she could not
marry because of the rigid New York divorce law.
One morning the papers stated that the relatives of this “hidden
woman” refused to offer a home to her. My wife wrote to her,
offering to help her, provided this could be done without any
publicity; but time passed without a reply. My wife was only three or
four weeks out of the hospital after an operation for an injury to the
spine. We had made plans to spend the winter in Bermuda, to give
her an opportunity to recuperate, and our steamer was to sail at
midnight on Monday. On Sunday morning, while I was away from
home, my wife was called on the phone by Miss Branch, who
announced that she had left the Sullivan County jail, and was at the
ferry in New York, with no idea what to do—except to leap off into
the river. My wife told her to take a cab and come to our home, and
sent word to me what she had done.
Not to drag out the story too much, I will say briefly that Miss
Branch proved to be a woman of refinement, and also of remarkable
mind. She has read widely and thought for herself, and I have in my
possession a number of her earlier manuscripts which show, not
merely that she can write, but that she has worked out for herself a
point of view and an attitude to life. She was one of the most pitiful
and tragic figures it has ever been our fate to encounter, and the
twenty-four hours which we spent in trying to give her comfort and
the strength to face life again will not soon be forgotten by either of
us.
We interested some friends, Dr. and Mrs. James P. Warbasse, in
the case, and they very generously offered to place Miss Branch in a
sanitarium. Before she left she implored me to make a correction of
certain misstatements about her which had appeared in the papers.
She was deeply grieved because of the shame she had brought upon
her brother and his family, and she thought their sufferings might be
partly relieved if they and others read the truth about her character
and motives.
At this time, it should be understood, Miss Branch was the
newspaper mystery of the hour. She had vanished from Monticello,
and on Monday morning the newspapers had nothing on the case but
their own inventions. I sought the advice of a friend, J. O’Hara
Cosgrave, a well known editor, who suggested that the story ought to
be worth money. “As you say that Miss Branch is penniless, why not
let one of the papers buy it and pay the money to her? The ‘Evening
Journal’ has been playing the story up on the front page every day.
Sell it to them.”
I said, “You can’t sell a newspaper a tip without first telling them
what the story is—and can you trust them?”
He answered, “I personally know Van Hamm, managing editor
of the ‘Evening Journal,’ and if you will make it a personal matter
with him, you can trust him.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” he replied.
I talked the matter over with my wife, who was much opposed to
the suggestion, refusing to believe that any Hearst man could be
trusted. They would betray me, and use my name, and we should be
in for disagreeable publicity. Moreover, Miss Branch would never get
the money, unless I got a contract in writing. I answered that there
was no time to get it in writing. It was then about one o’clock in the
afternoon, and the matter would have to be arranged over the phone
at once, if it were to be of any use to an evening paper. So finally my
wife consented to the attempt being made, upon the definite
understanding that she was to stand beside me at the telephone and
hear what I said, and that I was to repeat every word the party at the
other end of the wire said, in such a way that both he and she would
hear the repetition. In this way she would be a witness to the
conversation.
And now, as everything depends upon the question of what was
said, let me state in advance that this conversation was written down
from the memory of both of us a few hours afterward, and that we
are prepared, if necessary, to make affidavit that every word of it was
spoken, not once, but several times; that the various points covered
in it were repeated so frequently and explicitly that the party at the
other end of the wire once or twice showed himself annoyed at the
delays. The conversation was as follows:
“Is this Mr. Van Hamm, managing editor of the ‘Evening
Journal’? Mr. Van Hamm, I have called you up because Jack
Cosgrave has told me that you are a man who can be trusted. I wish
to ask you if you will give me your word of honor to deal fairly with
me in a certain matter. I have some information to offer you which
will make a big story. I am offering to sell it for a price, and I wish it
to be distinctly understood, in advance, beyond any possible
question, that you may have this story if you are willing to pay the
price. If you don’t want to pay the price, I have your word of honor
that you will not in any manner whatever use any syllable of what I
tell you.”
This was repeated and agreed to, and then I told him what I had.
“I am not at liberty to tell you where Miss Branch is at present,” I
said. “I am offering you a story, and a statement which she desires
me to give out for her. The price for it is three hundred dollars for
Miss Branch. I don’t want the money myself—I won’t even handle it.
Is the price agreeable to you?”
The answer was, “Yes, I will send a man up at once.”
I said, “It is distinctly understood that you are to publish
nothing whatever about this matter unless the sum of three hundred
dollars is paid to Miss Branch?”
“Yes. Where is she, so that I can pay the money to her?”
“I will give you the name of a man who knows where she is. This
man will take the money and will bring you her receipt. I wish to give
you the name of this man in confidence, for he does not wish his
name brought into the case in any way.”
The answer was: “Put the name of the man in a sealed envelope
and give it to the reporter, who will give it to me. I will personally see
that the money is sent to him, and then will forget his name.”
“Very well,” I replied, and added, “I have written a thousand-
word article discussing the case. I will give you this article along with
the rest of the information. But you must not print either this article
or a single word about this matter unless you pay three hundred
dollars to Miss Branch. You understand that distinctly?”
He replied, “I understand. A man will be up to see you in half an
hour.”
Fifteen minutes after the conversation there came a telephone-
call; a voice, sharp and determined, at the other end of the wire, “Is
Miss Branch there?” My wife was answering the phone and she
beckoned to me. We stared at each other, uncertain what to answer
or what to think.
“Miss Branch?” said my wife. “No! Certainly Miss Branch is not
here.”
“Then where is she?” came the next question, imperative and
urgent.
“I do not know,” said my wife. “Who are you?”
“I have been sent by Sheriff Kinnie, of Sullivan County Jail, who
has an important message to be delivered to Miss Branch at once.”
Said I (taking the phone): “Have you credentials from Sheriff
Kinnie?”
“No,” was the reply, “I have not.”
“Then,” I said, “you cannot see Miss Branch.”
“But,” said the voice, “I must see her at once. It is really very
important.”
“Come here and see me,” I said.
“No,” was the answer, “I cannot. Please tell me where Miss
Branch is. It is a matter of the utmost urgency to Miss Branch
herself.”
This went on for several minutes, and, finally, having made sure
he could get nothing further, the man at the other end of the wire
made an appointment to see me at 5:30 P. M.
As soon as I hung up the receiver my wife said: “That is a
newspaper reporter. Some other paper knows about her.”
But how could this be? Miss Branch had assured us that she had
not mentioned our names to any one, nor shown the letter we had
written to her; that no one in Monticello had the remotest idea where
she was going, not even the kind sheriff; that no one had boarded the
train at her station. She had been most careful, because my wife in
her letter had laid such stress upon her distaste for publicity.
Of course, if other papers had the story of her having come to us,
then Miss Branch would not get the money from Mr. Van Hamm. I
had sold an exclusive story, and it would be said that I had not
delivered the goods. I at once telephoned to Mr. Van Hamm to tell
him of this incident, but I was told that he was out, and I left word
for him to call me up the minute he returned.
His reporter arrived, Mr. Thorpe by name. I will say for Mr.
Thorpe that I think he tried to be decent all through this ugly matter.
I detected in him before it was over the manner of a man who has
been sent to do a job he does not like. I explained to him that I had
just had a call from a man I suspected to be a reporter, and therefore
I would not give him the story until I had had another talk with Mr.
Van Hamm and explained the circumstances to him. So Mr. Thorpe
sat for awhile in conversation with me. My wife came out and talked
to him—much to my surprise, for she has a dread of reporters. Soon,
however, I discovered that it was my wife who was doing the
interviewing. She called me out of the room and said: “That
telephone call was from the ‘Journal’ office.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“From everything this young man says, and from his manner.
I’ve tried to make him answer me, whether Mr. Van Hamm could
have been responsible for that telephone call, and he evaded the
question.”
“But,” I said, “what object could they have?”
“They may have been trying to probe you. They have believed
that Miss Branch is still with us. This man is trying to find out right
now, for he cranes his neck and peers every time I open a door.”
I did not think this could be, but I was more than ever
determined to have another talk with Mr. Van Hamm. However, this
gentleman continued to be mysteriously absent. I will sum up this
aspect of the matter by saying that he continued to be “expected
every few minutes” at his office and at his home until 12 o’clock that
night. I made not less than twenty efforts to get him, but he would
not even let me hear his voice.
As I still refused to give up my story, Mr. Thorpe was suddenly
seized with a desire for cigarettes, and went out to purchase some. I
am not in a position to say that he called up the office, and turned in
what information he had been able to get in the course of our
conversation. I will only say that such information appeared an hour
or two later in the columns of the “Evening Journal.”
Mr. Thorpe returned, and still Mr. Van Hamm was mysteriously
missing. At last I got tired of waiting, and I gave Mr. Thorpe the
interview and the article, and also a letter addressed to Mr. Van
Hamm, in which I explicitly repeated the specifications of my
telephone conversation with him. I read it to Mr. Thorpe and my
wife.
It was then time for the mysterious stranger to appear, but
needless to say, he did not keep his appointment. I will conclude this
aspect of the story by quoting the following letter from Sheriff Frank
Kinnie, of Sullivan County, N. Y.
Your favor relative to Miss Branch received this morning and wish to state that
the statement is a falsehood absolutely, as I had no idea whatever as to Miss
Branch’s whereabouts, and if you meet Miss Branch she will tell you that no one
here in her confidence knew where she was going. I trust a kind Providence will
protect and care for her.
To continue: I had that evening to attend a reception given to
the delegates of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, at the home of a
friend of mine who conducts a boarding school for young ladies.
Little dreaming what an avalanche I was to bring down upon the
head of this unfortunate friend, I left word at the office that Mr. Van
Hamm was to call me at this school at 8 o’clock that evening.
My wife and I then proceeded to pack our belongings for the
steamer—the first opportunity we had had in all this excitement. The
superintendent of the apartment-house came to us to ask if we could
leave an hour earlier than we had intended, as there were two
gentlemen who had rented it and wanted to move in immediately.
My wife said: “Surely no one can move into an apartment in the state
of disorder in which we are leaving this!”
“It seems strange,” was the reply, “but that is what they want to
do. They do not want to wait to have it put in order. They are waiting,
and they want to come in the minute you leave.”
If I had been dealing with Hearst newspapers for a sufficiently
long time, I would have understood in advance the significance of
this phenomenon. As it was, I simply pitied the two unfortunate
young men, who would have to spend the night in the midst of the
chaotic mass of torn manuscripts and scraps of letters and envelopes
which littered the floor. Later on I was glad that I had married a
lawyer’s daughter—when my wife informed me she had gone over
this trash and burned every scrap of paper relating to Miss Branch
and her affairs!
I went to the reception, and at about 8 o’clock in the evening the
“Journal” called me up—“Mr. Williams” on the wire—to say that Mr.
Van Hamm had considered my article and regretted to say that he
could not use it. The information that I had offered him was not
considered worth the sum of three hundred dollars. I asked what it
was worth, and was told twenty-five dollars. I said, “That won’t do. I
will offer it somewhere else.” I demanded the right to speak to Mr.
Van Hamm himself on the subject, but was told that he was “out.” I
was obliged to content myself with impressing upon “Mr. Williams”
the fact that not a syllable that I had confided to Mr. Van Hamm was
to be used by the “Journal.” “Mr. Williams” solemnly assured me
that my demand would be complied with—and this in face of the fact
that the last edition of the “Evening Journal,” containing the whole
story, was then in the “Journal” wagons, being distributed over the
city! I called up a friend of mine on the “World” to offer him the
story, and the reader will need a vivid imagination to get an idea of
my emotions when this friend exclaimed, “Why, that story has
already been used by the ‘Journal’!”
“That is impossible!” I exclaimed.
He answered, “I have a copy of it upon my desk.”
It was not until I was going on board the steamer that I got a
copy of the “final extra” of the “New York Evening Journal,” the issue
of Monday, December 29, 1913. At the top of the front page, in red
letters more than one-half inch high, appeared the caption:
“JOURNAL FINDS MISS BRANCH HERE”
with two index hands to point out this wonderful news to the reader.
A good portion of the remainder of the front page was occupied by an
article with these headings:
HEART-WIFE IS IN NEW YORK

Found Here by Journal.

Miss Branch Traced to Well-Known Writer’s Home After Secret Flight.


Adelaide M. Branch, for three years the heart-wife of Melvin H. Couch, former
District Attorney of Sullivan County, is today in New York City. She is secluded at
the home of a well-known sociologist and writer who has interested himself in her
case and has offered her a home, at least until she can make definite plans for the
future.
Miss Branch was traced to her hiding place in this city by the “Evening
Journal.” The former “love slave” of Couch told the sociologist that she wished to
be absolutely quiet and undisturbed. So for the present it is not possible to give her
address.
And so continued a long article, which contained practically
everything of what I gave to Mr. Thorpe, sometimes even using the
very phrases which I had used in the presence of my wife.
I will not trouble the reader with a description of the state of
mind we were in when our steamer set out for Bermuda. I will simply
give a brief summary of what else occurred in this incredible affair:
First, someone got, or pretended to get, from the hall-boy at the
apartment where I had been staying, an elaborate and entirely
fictitious account of how Miss Branch had arrived, and how she had
swooned and my wife had caught her in her arms, and how some
other people had come and carried her away in an automobile. This
account was published in full.
Then the records of my telephone-calls were consulted, and
every person whom I had called up in my last two days in the
apartment was hounded. My poor mother was driven nearly to
desperation. In our telephone-call list was found the name of Dr.
Warbasse, who had taken Miss Branch away, and Dr. Warbasse later
received a wireless message from Bermuda, as follows:
“Give Branch story to papers.”
Shortly afterward the doctor was called up by the “Evening
Journal,” and was told that the “Journal” had received a wireless
message from me, instructing them to call on him for information
concerning Miss Branch. I quote from Dr. Warbasse’s letter to me:
I believed the only way they could have learned of my connection with the case
was from you, and accordingly gave them a short statement of the facts, but
withheld the location of Miss Branch. They published very distorted versions of
what little I gave them. They were particularly solicitous for her whereabouts. A
few days later I had another wireless from you, asking me to send you Branch’s
address. By this time I had grown suspicious, and sent you my address instead. I
am now wondering whether the wireless messages were from you or were
newspaper fakery. If the latter is the case, it was well done, believe me, and does
great credit to the unscrupulousness of the press.
Needless to say, I had sent no such message. What is more
significant, I did not receive the message which Dr. Warbasse sent to
me, giving me his address! Is the “Evening Journal” able to intercept
cablegrams? I don’t know; but soon after my arrival in Bermuda I
received a letter from my friend who conducts the school for young
ladies, scolding me for the terrible trouble into which I had got her.
The “Journal,” she said, had become convinced that Miss Branch was
hidden in the school, and it was only by desperate efforts that she
had kept this highly sensational rumor from going out to the world. I
thought, of course, that I was to blame for my thoughtlessness in
having given her telephone number to the “Evening Journal” on the
eve of my departure from New York, and I wrote abjectly apologizing
for this. What was my consternation to receive a letter assuring me
that this was not what had angered her, but the fact that I had been
so foolish as to send her a wireless message, instructing her to give
the story of Miss Branch to the paper, and had wired the “Journal” to
call upon her for the information!
Mr. Arthur Brisbane is the man whom I had always understood
to be the editor in charge of the “Evening Journal.” I wrote him
asking him to investigate this affair; and I sent a registered copy of
the letter to Mr. Hearst, who, I assumed, would be jealous for the
journalistic honor of his papers. I pointed out the fact that on the
Monday afternoon in question every newspaper in New York had had
the story that Miss Branch was going West to see a brother of hers.
In all editions of the “Evening Journal,” except the final edition, the
following statement had appeared:
Heart-wife flees to asylum. Miss Branch is in hiding in a sanitarium within ten
miles of Monticello. As soon as she recovers her strength she will probably join her
brother.
I said that I wished to know what Mr. Van Hamm had to say, as
to how the “Journal” had got the information it published in its final
edition. If it was an independent tip, who gave that tip? And if the
telephone-call alleged to be from the Sheriff had come from any
other paper than the “Journal,” why had not that paper used the
story?
Mr. Brisbane replied that he was now in Chicago, and had no
longer anything to do with the “New York Evening Journal,” but that
the matter would undoubtedly be investigated by Mr. Hearst.
A friend of mine, an old newspaper man, wrote me à propos of
this: “Don’t imagine for one minute that anything will be done about
it; don’t imagine but that Van Hamm is Hearst. Hearst knows exactly
what Van Hamm does, and if Van Hamm failed to do it, he would
lose his job.” This sounded somewhat cynical, but it seemed to be
borne out by Mr. Hearst’s course. He chose to veil himself in
Olympian silence. I wrote him a second courteous letter, to the effect
that unless I heard from him and received some explanation, I would
be compelled to assume that he intended to make the actions of his
subordinates his own. He has not replied to that letter, so I presume
that I am justified in the assumption. And this man wishes to be
United States Senator from New York!
Several years ago he desired to be Governor, and there resulted
such a tempest of public wrath, such a chorus of exposure and
denunciation, that he was overwhelmed; if he had not had a very
tough skin he would have fled from political life forever.
Unquestionably a deal of this denunciation came from vested
interests which he had frightened by his radicalism; but, on the other
hand, it betrayed a note of personal loathing that was unmistakable.
I marvelled at it at the time; but now I think I understand it.
The story of Miss Branch is forgotten, but other stories are filling
the Hearst papers day by day. Are they all got with the same
disregard for every consideration of decency, for all the rules which
control the dealings of civilized men with one another? Get clear the
meaning of this story of mine—the reason for all this lying, sneaking,
forging of cablegrams, bribing of hall-boys, violation of honor and
good faith. Was it to get a story? No—the “Journal” had the story
offered to it on a silver tray! The reason for all the knavery was to
avoid the payment of three hundred dollars to a destitute and
distracted woman—that, and that alone! And if such be Hearst’s
attitude to his pocket-book, if such be the methods of his newspaper-
machine where his pocket-book is concerned, there must be
thousands and tens of thousands of people in New York—politicians,
journalists, authors, business-men—who have run into that machine
as I did, and been knocked bruised and bloody into the ditch. When
Mr. Hearst runs for office, all these men jump into the arena and get
their revenge!

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