National Affairs: Vanderlip's Folly?

"Gossip is mere tittle-tattle, does not spread very much. Rumor I regard as something that grows, that spreads, that comes so it is repeated not by idle tittle-tales, but by responsible people who may not know—and in this case no one professed to know what the facts were, but the rumor passed on. It was a substantial rumor." Thus did Frank A. Vanderlip, retired banker, describe rumor before the Senate Committee on Public Lands.

The incident which provoked the description was a matter of no great political...

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