- Frank McCracken is placed in the managing editor's seat by the owner of "The Daily Call.'' His promotion makes it possible for him to marry Margaret, daughter of the Hon. Hiram Johnson, reform candidate for mayor. Frank and Margaret call upon Johnson at his campaign headquarters, where Frank tells him of his promotion and asks Margaret's hand in marriage. Edward Cranston, private secretary to Johnson, secretly in love with Margaret, overhears Johnson's hearty consent and vows to break off the match. He rifles Johnson's safe and unearths evidence proving Johnson's connection with street paving graft of twenty years before. He then goes to the office of "The Daily Call," and surreptitiously places the papers upon Frank McCracken's desk. The young managing editor reads the incriminating evidence and is filled with consternation. Loyalty to his newspaper commands him to publish the story, which, upon the eve of the election, will mean the blasting of Johnson's political career and the ruination of his good name. He hastens to Johnson and asks him either to verify or deny the authenticity of the data, but Johnson will do neither and bids him choose between his duty to his newspaper and his duty to the father of his intended wife. Margaret, entering and believing her father to be innocent, orders Frank to leave her presence, as she places loyalty to her father before devotion to her lover. Cranston in the meantime has suffered the pangs of remorse, and going to Margaret, confesses his share in the matter and tells her he was actuated in so doing through his love for her and his jealousy towards Frank McCracken. She is filled with loathing at his treachery to her father and orders him from the house. Going to Frank, in the composing room of the "Call," she finds him and a "make-up" man, bending over the paged story, which is about to be stereotyped. She makes a final appeal to him to suppress the story, but he is compelled to refuse her request. The page is locked and the foreman raises the form to carry it away. Margaret, in desperation, seizes a mallet lying on the stone and shatters the type in the locked form. It is press time; the story is "killed," her father's name has been saved. At this moment a message is brought to Frank which advises him that the opposing candidate to Johnson has withdrawn because of graft charges and that in consequence Johnson is assured of election. Margaret has not only saved her father's reputation, but has been the means of his political triumph. Frank, realizing that he has individually done all in his power for his paper's interests, turns to Margaret, shows her the message and congratulates her upon the success of her coup. She, instantly forgiving him for what he attempted to do, extends her arms to him and the harmony between them is fully restored.—Moving Picture World synopsis
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