Creel vs. Lippmann -- Street Dog vs. House Cat: Searching the Origins of American Public Diplomacy

From a letter to The New Republic from George Creel addressed to its editors (by whom Creel meant Walter Lippmann), March 27, 1915, pp. 209-210, in which Creel complains about NR's negative comments regarding his claim that a Mr. Paul Kellogg, editor of Survey, has been corrupted by big money in this editor's coverage of Colorado miners' strike:

For fifteen years I have devoted myself to a task of agitation in politics and industry, trying always to stay close to what may be termed the "under dog."

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During this time I have seen oppression, exploitation, corruption, treachery and betrayal in all their forms, and it may well be that these experiences have made me less than judicial, overquick to suspect and denounce.

You, on the other hand, are academic products who have to be commentators by virtue of self-election, based upon self-evaluation, aided, I believe, by an endowment fund (1) that spares you the fear of existence.

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The antagonism between us, therefore, is as instinctive and inevitable as that of the house cat for the street dog.

(1) JB note: "The New Republic was founded by Herbert Croly, Walter Lippmann, and Walter Weyl through the financial backing of heiress Dorothy Payne Whitney and her husband, Willard Straight, who maintained majority ownership" (Wikipedia).