American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1851-1863, 1863-05-08


high pre..orr.r.a.rer a5 ha difficulty
ofpra.lu1g t.na'm..t ns price, a.s.
Waat remedy there fer 'hl- state off
tttogs2 We but two either aa e8or
nous increase 70 the price Of subscription.
or a suspension Of he press With paper At
City cents per pound q weekly sheet cannot
be issued for less than five dollars This
calculation excludes any profit To pre-
serve the profits Of ordinary times the price
would be at least seven dollars. The dailies
at that rate mist 90 to fifteen dollars. To
pay, outside of the large cities, a daily must
90 to twenty dollars.
There are certain class Of readers who
will take a paper at any price. But these
would take papers which were published
nearest the sources of news. They would
not take country papers at all, at the prices.
We can suggest one measure which might
afford relief The Government we under
stand has large quantities Of cotton on hand,
which was bought at comparatively small
price If the paper mills could buy this
cotton from the government at q price to
cover all expenses and pay small advance,
they could afford paper at present rates aud
thus save the press.
But this plan we know would be objected
to on the ground of afFording Government
aid to special private enterprises, principle
which has been repudated in our politics
for years, at least in theory.
This failing, we see nothing before US but
the suspension of a large majority Of the
papers Of the Confederacy.
The next question is, can free Govern
ment be sustained without newspapers p
Can this revolution be successfully carried
through term Of years of horrors, pillage
and suffering without the warning and en-
couraging voice Of the press? We think a
numerous press, and free one, are synony-
nous terms. Let the journals Of a country
bereduced to q very few in number and by
a necessity Of human nature they will be-
come merely the advocates Of all measures
Of the rulers Of the land. They can, and
will, demand place and emolument, or both
as the price of their services, and they will
obtain their demands so long as they keep
their conyenant with power.
The press is not merely private enter
prise it has become at this age of the world
part Of every Government.
Men at this day are not content with the
bare declaration of principles, shortly and
CURLY, expressed by the proclamations Of
their rulers They have been accustomed
to the analysis of every principle and every
measure at the hands of the press and like
jurors, their duty is to sift, to weigh, to rec
oncie and to reject the argument and APP
ply their conclusions to the facts of their
condition
The press is to the administration of the
affairs of State, what the lawyers are to the
administration of justice Take either class
away, and government becomes a blind ODE
dience, and justice an uncertain arbiter,
We say to the people that with the fall
of the press they lose their best friend, and
the ablcst champion Of popular rights and
rational liberty. But we see, in the present
state of things no hope that the press can be
sustained. We are not speaking specially
of the concerns of this Office. This paper is
probably established as firmly as the major
ity of papers in the country, and in ordinary
times its prospects would be fatterng.-
But unless we are mistaken in our calcula-
ton8, the press of the State and of the Con-
federacy is standing certainly upon very
narrow base.