Oil! by Upton Sinclair

The little bunch of "reds" from the university had attended this Seager meeting, and next day were all a-thrill with it. Most of Bunny's fraternity brothers had refused to go; and now they proceeded to criticize an argument they had not heard! Bunny's feelings boiled over as he listened to them. All this rubbish about nationalization of women, these faked figures concerning millions of victims of Bolshevism! It was a disgrace to a university that such stuff should pass for knowledge, and no effort made to contradict it. Bunny voiced this idea to Peter Nagle, and Peter went home and talked to his father about it, and came back announcing that he was willing to serve as editor for a student paper to present the truth.

There was another meeting of the conspirators, and thirty dollars was quickly subscribed, and it was voted to publish a four-page weekly sheet of all kinds of truth-telling, to bear the name of The Investigator. It was agreed that the best approach to the Russian problem was Harry Seager, because he had been a "Y" worker in good standing; therefore Rachel Menzies was requested to write a two thousand word interview with Mr. Seager. Another young rebel was to collect facts and rumors concerning secret payments made out of an alumni fund to bring promising athletes to Southern Pacific. Bunny, as social light of the crowd, was assigned the theme of college snobbery, apropos of the fact that a Hindu student with high scholarship records had been blackballed for the "Lit."