Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-04-06
9GgliafellaneonS,
NEWSPAPER IMPROVEMENTS.

There is nothing in private business, which
more concerns the public good than the con-
duct and management Of our public press.
Newspapers have long ceased to be mere
vehicles for the dissemination of news.
They are now required to be instructors of
the public as well as entertainers Of leasure
hours, and everything which concerns the
public interest is expected to be discussed
intelligently in their columns. A vast I'M
provement has been made within the last
quarter of a century in these publications.
Formerly they were only the organs ofcliques
| or parties established topromote the interest
ofindlyiduals or party leaders. Then they
were violent, vituperative, infiammatory,
untruthful, and being without the elements
Of popular support, were dependent and
| obsequious. A new class of papers, the
independent Press, having sprung up,
newspapers very materially began to change
their characters for the better. The pro-
prietors of them were men ofcapital or of
credit, and could therefore oWp their columns
and control the conduct of their journals
/ They established them soundly on business
| principles, and being self dependent could
afford to be thoroughly Independent in the
management OF their papers. The power OF
| the mere party organ De~an at once to decline
and party politics ceased to absorb the whole
of public attention and discussion. Men of
education and intellectual resources became
connected with the independent press, and
| the whole field of politics, American and
European, was not too extensive for their
research, science, philosophy, morals, ethical
critism, all the great interests OF mankind
affords themes for the consideration and in
| struction of readers Of public journals
| TO
wards perfect daily literature, which should
benefit the reader and advance the interests
of mankind But as these popular publica-
/ tions grew more general in their use, they
| became liable to an evil which malred half
| the good they were capable of imparting,
though it contributed largely to defray the
heavy pecuniary expenses which attended
the publication of journal of large circula-
ton. Persons who could not directly, with
out offending against the laws, publish ad-
vertisements of a Vicious character found the
advertising columns Of the popular press the
very best vehicle for bringing the victims OF
vice and their prolessed benefactors into in
innate relations. Hence the columns Of the
most respectable and respected Of the inde-
pendent press exhibited these disgusting in
famies by the side of an original essay distin-
guished for learning, ability, morality, and
a high sense of social propriety This lux-
Imposition was disgusting, and now an effort
is being made in England and in this coun-
try to separate things so incongruOus. The
subject is being fairly discussed, and it only
needs ventilation for correct decision to be
speedily reached. Thatit should be preach
ed in England is not surprising. There the
press is In the hands of capital able to MAIN
tain it in any rule they may think the public
interest requires But in this country,
where the capital in newspapers is not so
large, it tells well for those who have the
press in charge, that they are likely to be the
| first to establish as a rule-that nothing
offensive to decency should be published in a
journal which enters into all classes Of society
and whose aim should be to strengthen and
imrroYe the moral tone of the public,
Making merchandise of the great vices OF
society must cease before long to be the prac.
tice Of any journal having decent respect
for itself, or desirous Of that Of its readers
! -Ecclaaage