Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1868-06-12
WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE. .

1t Is generally conceded that the press of
to-day wields a moulding influence on pub
lie opinion unequalIed by any other instru-
mentality whatever The lawyer, the au-
thor, the teacher, each exercises a certain
influence in moulding public sentiment on
moral, social, or political questions, in his
sphere. But the all pervading, everywhere
penetrating, and continually operating
power of the day is the newspaper press.
On the editors of these papers and their
moral integrity and political honesty de-
pends, more than on any other class of men
whatever. the political social and moral
condition of our country. This we believe
every intelligent, thinking and observing
man viii unhesitatingly coucede. How
great then the responsibility resting upon
those in whose hands Is placed this great
power for good or evil. Yet how little do
the people, who buy and read and place in
the hands of their children the newspapers
of the day, regard iha character either of
the papers themselves or the men who con-
troll them, Men are careful as to whom
they select as the teachers of their children
In schools, extremely particular about their
ministers, yet have no regard at all for the
character Of their family newspaper the
most powerful fundamentally in moulding
and fixing the habits, character, and morals
oFtheir children. When we take up the
newspapers Of the day we shudder to
think how little this important matter is
considered either by publisher or pa
tron. The newspapers that may be
read through in the family circle, without
bringing the blush to the cheek of all who
are not devoid Of common modesty.
may be numbered on one 5 fingers. The
great mass Of daily, semi-weekly and week
ly papers large and small alike TEEN with
unseemly and obscene advertisements, ex-
tended and disgusting police reports, mi
mute accounts Of crimes Of every character,
and everything calculated to pollute the
mind, harden the conscience, and corrupt
the morals Of the reader, and faniliar.ze
hlm, whether young or old, with crime of
every grade and character. Such are the
messengers that, under pretence of giving
US the news Of the day, daily find their way
to our hresides and scatter broadcast over
the whole land an insinuatinq. silent,
pestilential influence, that, slowly perhaps
but surely, produces an appalling har-
vest OF vice, immortality and crime. It
requires no great degree of intelligence
70 trace large portion of the crimes that
no" hil our prisons with criminals to this
most fruitful source. We unhesitatingly
declare, and that without fear of success
tul contradiction, that no more fruitful
source Of general corruption exists in the
land than the vast mass Of newspapers of
every kind controlled and edited by cor
rupt men whose only aim is TO make
money out of their publications, without
regard to the influence the exert upon
the community And further we declare
that the fearful responsibility rests not
alone upon the publishers Of these Vi
clous sheets, but also, and equally, upon
the thoughtless or Indifferent who nat.
Tonize and sustain them. Reader, are you
Aneug the guilty? Examine your weekly
anu your daily papers and if you find any
oHo u them falling in the class above re-
.''''u TO- Onhesitatingly cut it of, permit
~ ny longer to come within your door or
Dc read in your family. If you do re-
member that you are contributing your
pVi'iOn toward swelling the tide of wick
en-. en''SS 'nat already foods eur whole land,
ahlng our prisons with criminals and our
1il.is, houses with paupers, and laying upon
us al TAX more burtaensome than an
the tax laws that were ever s,,....,