The Portland daily press., 1869-08-05


these the newspaper and periodical press can
|loGk with pride, and IN the language Of the
Beautiful inscriptions beneath the dome Of St.
Paul, to its architect and bnilder, exelana,
Isl naonufnsntum reQuiris, circunaspice" If
you seek monument, behold it here.
To you, brethren of the editorial fraternity
In view of the power welded blythe journals |
entrusted to your charge and the grand oppor-
tunity for influence thus conferred upon you,
no inquiry can have greater practical signifi-
canoe than how the press shall be conducted
TO make the. most of this opportunity and
achieve the highest and truest success.
/. The weakest and at the same time the
strongest point in every newspaper establish
ment is its financial management. More news
papers fall from weakness, and more achieve
success from strength in this direction than
from all other causes. Indeed it is impossible
that any journal can be permanently success
full and influential unless established and con-
Quoted on those business principles which are,
| In many essential respects, peculiar to news
paper enterprises. Ordinarily, in most kinds
of business, fields already occupied may be
rapidly developed and enlarged by new COM
ers to the benefit Of both old and new-the lat
ter overtaking the former at a single stride.
Healthy, permanent newspapers, however, do
not spring up in day, nor in year. not in
| their full strength in decade. They must
have their origin in real legitimate, perma-
nent and growing unoccupied want of a de-
veloping community. Established in q limit
| ed field already occupied, or in any field to
supply an unreal or transient demand, and es-
| pecially for any other object than to defend
| lofty principles previously undefended, they
must surely fail and bring humiliation and
| loss upon all concerned. The capital of every
| prosperous newspaper establishment is but
| partially represented in its materials, its ma
chinery, its subscription books and its stock in
| trade. Behind all these there is that still more
| valuable and essential capital made up of that
| intangible but not the less real value known
| as good villa capital which is indispensa-
a. IsaktA
of money can supply, for it comes only from
small beginnings on correct principles. followed
| by years of patient, persistent and wel-direct-
| ed effort Ignorance or forgetfulness of the
| important part which this slow growing good
will' plays in journalism has caused innumer-
able failures in new enterprises, and involved
i unexpected losses.
Look over the whole field of journalism and
| rarely ever win there be found a successful
newspaper which has not had its years Of small
beginnings, its slow growth under the most
| prudent management, and its final success
long after hope deferred had made the heart
sick. The law Of nature, which decrees that
everything valuable shall come from slow and
gradual growth, holds true in the field Of jour
nalism, where forced, hot-house growths, en-
| terprises relying upon lavish expenditures to
push them ahead OF establishments that have
had healthy growth almost always fail. In
this rapid age the tendency, even with expert
enced journalists, is to impatience at that slow
progress which is legitimate, and to tempta
ton at times to reach at one stride the eleya-
ton occupied by some more favored cotempo-
airy, with the certainty not only that the point
will not be reached, but also that some of the
vantage ground previously occupied will be
lost Yet, in defiance of these essential fnan-
cal foundation stones in newspaper manage
ment, we continue to see new enterprises in
augurated and old ones stimulated by hot
house expedients, with the captivating aban-
don of the girl who, when warned by her
mother from personal experience to beware Of
the folly Of an early marriage artfnlly re-
Piled that she wanted to see the folly of it. too.
| Nothing is hazarded in the assertion that in
proportion to the capital, labor and talent en-
ployed-especially setting aside few metro
| politan presses-no business yields SO small
| profits as journalism. No other business makes
SO constant and so exhausting draft on the
| vital energies, as most OF you who are at once
| business manager, foreman, managing editor
and reporter in your establishments can testi-
f.; and / am sure that depleted pockets would
bear witness to the small returns Of the craft,
| notwithstanding the closet industry and the
most persistent application of that maxim of
| Frankln-so peculiarly important in nsjourna1-
| ism-to take care OF the pennies and the dol
lars will take care of themselves ,, In view of
the exhortation to patiently wait for success
yeq are ready to initiate the boy who, having
heard that crow would live q hundred years,
and having bought one of the birds to test the
truth of the statement, shook his head iii dis
appointment declaring that it is a long time to
L
the vicious system Of giving credits on news
| paper subscriptions is swampingi provincial
journalism, and rapidly eating out of house
and home, all newspaper publishers who ara
not setting their faces against the most ex-
hausting financial policy which it could be
possible for the press to liHaugrate. With
united action on the part of the publishers Of
this State even, the press could remove from
itself an oppressive incubus, and at an early
day place the craft in immensely more pros
| porous circumstances. at3 .fI1s. s4 7ifs.s,
H. In the editorial management of the press
it is difficult to lay down well defined rules,
for, in the harness. the experience, sgeod judg-
ment and above all newspaper stactn OF the
managing editor must be in constant requisi-
ton. While this is indeed profession requir-
ing for the highest srlocess as careful and thor
| ough preparation and as great talent as any
other yet behind and above these is another
essential which have denominated newspa-
per tact in view of which it may be said az
truly of the true editor as ofthe poet, that he
is born, not made. 1t is this peculiar stact"
which takes in at glance the essential points
in hundreds of exchanges, separates in a mo-
ment the wheat from the chaff, discriminat-
ingly seizes upon contributions from all parts
of the world, shows Its wisdom more in what it
rejects than IN what it appropriates, and gives
every comment or leader. that shape and shad-
ing which will make it most acceptable to the
reader and most Influential in It's mission
An inopportune or accidental turn of a para
; lQC0Q-
siderate; but could they sitin the sanctum ed
ltorlal OF a daily newspaper and observe the
multfarious clippings, condensations reports
communlcations-many of them requiring ed
torlal comments on the spur of the moment-
and the constant succession of occurrences
Healing for immediate notice, the wonder
would be not-that so many, but that sofew in
correct statements and ill-tined remarks creep
into the press, and the observer would perhaps
for the first time comprehend the fact that cd
ltorial writings is the least important work of
| the editor, aud that, after all, his highest sue
cess lies more in what he keeps out than what
he puts into his columns. s.,s5 o.,4 stfs
There are, however, certain maxims in edi-
torial management which have 50 much prac-
tical value that they cannot be lost sight of.
The first Is the maxim that news is the life,
and soul of the newspaper, attributed to, and
so successfully applied BY James Gordon Ben
nett OF the New York Herald. To reporter
who applied to him for instructions he said.
first, give the Herald news; second give the
Herald nescs; ard lastly give the Herald NEWS
would not by any means counsel an imita-
tion OF the alleged Herald plan of fabricating
false news where no genuine is to be had for
that would be too close animitation of. the du-
bious advice of the Quaker who epjoined his
son as he left the paIernal mansion to 20 forth
into the world, to get money-honesfy il pos
lsible-but get money But so far as legiti-
mate and appropriate news can be had fairly
and honestly let me say TO my brethren of the
press, get news, and especially get all the
news ofthe immediate field which YOU are ex-
Ipecting to occupy. Although in some cases it
may seem trivial, yet rest assured that some
one will read it with interest and will thereby
add his mite to that 'sgood wll,,' of which 1
have spoken as the strength of the press. The
desire to tellor to hear some new thing which
Paul attributes to the Athenians in his SER
mon on Mars Hill is national trait of Amer
leans, and rightly used most beneficent in its
| influence. Opinions in this country are at
the present day shaped more by facts than by
theories, more by actual experiences than by
assertions or even arguments. The newspa-
| per press of the country, from the very nature
i of its mission, enjoys almost the supreme con-
troll of the dissemin alton of news, and thereby
wields an influence which cannot be oyeresti-.
mated. To be sure it is said that facts, as well
as figures, tell only one story; but that de-
4 pendsi siupon whether or not they are always
j marshaled alike. The art of Tnarshalino facts
| is in no,degree inferior to that of marshaling
arguments; and the advocate of even a good
cause who does not make the most of his daily
| intelligence, will lose ground.
The impatience, activity and restlessness
which characterize the Yankee have made an
other maxim essential to successful Journalism
IA maxim which Thurlow Weed, who first
taught its power in the columns of the Albany
journal, epitomized in his instructions to an
Assistant-to boil down, boil doaon, BOIL DOWN
Weed carried this rule of condensation to such
an extent as to make it point never to print
leader over two sticks-full in lenSth; and GER
tainly no journalist in America In his palmy
days exerted SO wide an influence 61While yet
. boy l had this peculiarity eff the average
American SO indellibly impressed upon my
mind by shrewd Yankee, still'in business in
q neighboring county, when he once said that
ne couldn't wait to read the long stories, but