New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-03-28
Cheap and Dear JOurnaIs-Americnn and
British.

The advocates of repeal of the British
Taxes on knowledge, and especially on
Newspapers, held a numerously attended
meeting at St. Martins Hall, London, on
the 5th inst Prof Hewitt Key presided,
while among those in attendance were
Messrs. Richard Golden, Miner Gibson
and Feargus O'Connor, Members of Parlia-
ment. Among the speakers were Messrs.
Golden, f. Nicoll, G. II. Lewes, Miner
Gibson, and several others, while letters of
sympathy from Joseph Hume, Mr.. Ewart
and .Scholefeld were read. Mr.. Golden,
in the course of his speech, used the follow
ing illustration
Nov here is a newspaper, holding up large
and closely printed sheet) and we ought to be
obliged to the American gentleman who brought
it here-here is paper, | say, which only cost
one penny EDgsh-two cents American cur
rencyl in New York. Hear, hear The paper
is The Netc- York Tribune. Hear, hearl Why
cannot we in London, with two and a'half millions
of customers at our door, print and publish pa
per as cheap as they can in New-York3 Hear,
hear)"
The Times, evidently nettled by the
comparison here suggested, and palpably
conscious that its towering ascendancy
among British Dailies is maintained--or at
least favored-by the heavy tax to which
journals are subjected in England-though
it family processes desire to see the Stamp
and Advertisement Taxes abolished-thus
Responsible Mr.. Cobden's remarks:
"Then, of oouse, comes the neverfsiling COM
parison with the American newspapers Ihere
are ten daily papers in New York. says one
speaker, some of them penny piece; one
halfpenny, and the best, we believe, nor so much
as twopence. There is penny paper, says Mr..
Golden, which sells so, 900 copies day. But on
one poins be is silent. He says, indeed, Your
reporting talent and general literary ability is to
be had at as cheap rate here as in America
but be forbears to say that the American daily pa
pers are equal 10 the London daily papers. We
leave to others the delicate comparison Of polti
eel opinions or literary style; it is not our place
to make the comparison, and we observe that MIR.
Golden is equally content to let it alone We
will cOnfine ourselves to more tangible grounds
to mere matters of business. No American paper
-bafpenpy, penny, or twopenny, weekly or daily
--pretends TO give a fair and accurate report OF
the proceedings in Congress, or Of any meeting
whatever, any where, on any subject, in the UniOn.
All speeches are reported in BRIEF and what is
far worse, with strong party bias while reports
of meetings are universally "splced" with slang
for the usement of the reader and with an utter
disregard of candor and veracity. We say it ad-
visedly that the scrupulous fidelity, which is al
most a religion with the whole class of British
porters, is unknown in America. II man wants
his speech to be given to the world we will not
say fully and accurately, but free from the gross
est perversions and embellishments, he sends it
ho1a 20 frfa IlT uuha
as a separate article. Even in the best journals
of the Union, the debates in Congress are givenin
a sketchy, not TO say slovenly, manner. AS for
the original articles, political or literary, we
repeat, we leave them alone; bot We should like
to see Mr.. Golden get up and point out single
American paper which satisfies him in its mode Of
treating political, commercial, or social questions.
Such journals may be amusing and gossiping they
may be instructive to some extent. they may be
very useful, but they do not pretend to the same
faithful and historical character as the daily jour
nails of this metropolis There really is no CON-
parison between them"
Now it is true that the New FORK
journals do not report the debates in Con-
gress at Washington .-225 miles away
go fully and compile ely as few London
journals do those in the British Parliament,
within a stones throw of their doors. One
plain reason for this IS the absence of
popular demand for Gny such elaboration.
If the public taste called for twenty col
umn's of yesterdays talk in Congress, to
be served up with breakfast on the tables
Of this metropolis, the demand would be
supplied, even thoug "a new lines of tele-
graph had to be constructed on purpose.
But the great mass of our reading public
are men of business, who desire to know
the substance of what transpires in Con-
gress without wading through bushels of
chaf in search of the grains of wheat.
They lack leisure for any such pursuit, and
the journals naturally conform to the wants
of their readers. Not one in ten of the
readers of The Tribune, or any other New
York Daily, would read rerbdtim reports
of the discussions in Congress if they had
them. Even the Washington journals,
which do give such reports, have to be
handsomely paid therefor ont of the Treas
uIy, and they intimate that even then the
job is losing one. The American takes
his paper with bis breakfast, and can rarely
afford more than an hour to both. In this
hour, he must run over the General News,
Domestic and Foreign, the Markets, Stocks,
Shipping News, Editorials, &c. and be can
not or at least will not give all the time to
the words spoken in Congress. What is