"Contemptible Lie"

For most editors, the pathetic picture from Martins Ferry, Ohio was surefire human interest. It showed eleven-year-old Roger McConnaughey holding his dead dog Rusty, just run over by an automobile. But Hearst's Chicago Herald-American, ever mindful of their chief's campaign against vivisection, put the picture on Page One for a different reason. It duly noted the facts about Roger and Rusty, continued: "Roger's sorrow parallels that felt by a child whose pet has been stolen and carved up for vivisection. Bill pending in the Illinois legislature would foster such base thefts and multiply the grief of boys like Roger."

This was too much for the youngest of the Herold-American's competitors. Editorialized Marshall Field's Sun-Times: 'This is a barefaced, contemptible lie. The editors of the Herald-American ought to be ashamed of such irresponsible journalism ... It is an attempt to deceive children . . . None of these things are true and the editors of the Herald-American know they aren't true. They are slavishly following a whim of their big boss . . ."

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