Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-26


A few weeks ago the proprietors Of sane
Of the principal newspapers Of Kentuciky,
Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana met in
the city of Memphis, and formed the South
western Press Association" A call is now
issued for meeting of the Southern Press
Association at Montgomery, Ala, on We'd
nesday, February 18th prox. This latter
Association was formed during the war, and
embraces the remaining Southern States not
mentioned above.
The prime object Of these Associations is
to obtain and distribute by telegraph the
earliest important information to the news
papers composing them. They are essential
to the interests of the press and people Of
the Southern State The Geographic news
system of the South at this time is the
most formidable enemy of our politi-
cal prosperity. In the Northern States
there are two associations, the Eastern and
Western. The Southern Press has hitherto
been unable to arrange for the reception and
publication of the dispatches of The latter,
and have been, and still are, dependent upon
the former, which has its headquarters at
New York. All regular Geographic matter
has to be filtered through that channel, en-
bodying news from the South as well as
from the North, before it is presented to the
country. Our Southern newspapers and
readers have often been shocked and grieved
by the malicious falsehoods thus propagated
and circulated through their own columns,
Thus have Southern newspaper and readers
been forced to pay for, publish and read the
most fagitious ISLANDERS upon themselves.
From day to day the hired agents Of the
Eastern Association, strangers In the South
and in many instances too plainly inimical
to the Southern people, by inattention or by
design, pick up or manufacture so-called
Southern news, send it to their employers at
New York, Boston and else where, and in due
time it returns to us in its foul garb of un-
truth as the special to the Tribune, tile
Herald, ct cetera, or as the regular spawn of
the Associated Press 1t is time these in
sulting outrages were checked. II is time
that Southern newspapers should take the
matter in their own hands and present the
truth to their readers and to the world
through their telegraphic columns-to the
exclusion of the diurnal batch of slanders
and nonsense now inflicted upon them as
telegraphic news. ilsI.
AS matter of business we have no sort
of objection to the enterprise Of Northern
newspaper publishers They may have their
agents at every voting precinct of the South,
and of such character as they may select !;
but we dc object that the Southern press
shall stand by supinely and make no effort
for their own protection and the protection
of the people who are dependent upon them
for news and defence. If they will employ
active, intelligent and honest news gather
ers of their own, who will tell the truth
carefully siftcd of error, they will only dis
charge their duty to themselves and their
people, and as long as they neglect il they
are derelict, and merit the rebuke of the
people. iaa
Let them go to work in earnest at Mont
gomery and put the enterprise through. 1t
is not merely matter of business, but in
wolves the honor and good name of people
who have been shamefully maligned and
outraged. -,; ..a