We agreed that the way to
approach Pittsburg was to consider what had happened there, not
as a sporadic outburst, but as an economic symptom. Whom could we
get that was far enough from the controversies involved to treat
the subject objectively and with a big perspective? Brand
Whitlock. The Mayor of Toledo knows more about cities and their
governments, and the evils that arise within them, than any other
man, and he can write--with knowledge, with sympathy, with
clarity. Also he knew Pittsburg. So we telegraphed to find if he
was free to write an article, and, when he replied in the
affirmative, the following letter was sent him:
April 1, 1910. DEAR MR. WHITLOCK:
The article we want is on Pittsburg. It is neither our purpose
nor our desire merely to "muckrake" Pittsburg or any other city.
The eruption there is typical of similar conditions in other
great civic centers throughout the country, and it seems to us it
might be made the text of a diagnosis of the whole municipal
problem in America.
Here are a few thoughts that occur to me which might be
represented:
We have come to realize that the real trouble in our country is
Privilege.
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