ABSTRACT
Collier’s was, like S. S. McClure , one of the stable forces in muckraking journalism and, as a weekly, was more effective in influencing events than in analyzing them. “The Town Topics suit,” wrote his colleague Sullivan “did for Collier’s what Collier most desire and needed. As Mark Sullivan indicated, it was the quality of public attention Collier’s precipitated that made the difference, rather than mere numbers. The implication that fraud had somehow been committed was part of the Thomas W. Lawson campaign that King detailed, naming a variety of well-known Bostonians. He further detailed his public answers and charged that his offices had been invaded, lists stolen, and his customers sent false information. Lawson does appear to have solicited information respecting Franklin J. Moses’s suicide, and King may have persuaded the Post Office of the legitimacy of his dealings.
