Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1871-06-23

have been fighting against darkness,
at rest, has sent out its fearless videttes
miles to the front, and oftentimes single
handed, sometimes in squadrons massed,
has cleared the rougher way, found ev-
cry foe and fought them in detail This
is precisely what is expected of the press
Ito know every fact and faithfully re-
port it, and when we have done this, and
not till then, have we any right to ex-
press our bias or expect it to be influen-
tial, Here, then, arises our first duty,
and that is
FIDELITY TO TRUTH AND PRINCIPLE.
Higher and more potent than all 9th
er obligations of the journalist is that to
keep his paper pure, In the wide do
main of news there are numerous details
which have a demoralizing tendency. 1t
is not to the credit of human nature that
this kind of reading is relished and
sought after, and it is to the positive dis
credit of the press that it is ever given.
1t is not necessary to omit the news-on-
ly let it be detailed in such manner as
shall do no harm If the editor will
think of this rather than the sale Of his
papers, ne will do the world a greater
service than by any amount of enterprise.
There is nothing else in the profession SO
much to be abhorred as the thin disguise
of condemnation under which some pa
pers give all the shameful particulars Of
certain classes of news. They thereby
only fatten the satan they affect to abhor,
and excite in others the baseness they
condemn in one.
SENSATION NEWSPAPERS.
The two greatest dangers that journal
lists have to encounter are that Of be-
coming too pharisaically respectable, and
therefore dull, and that of becoming too
sensaGonaliy devilish, and therefore un-
safe. By the former extreme they loose
that which they most would gain, for hu-
man nature is so peryerse that men will
not respect them enough to take their
paper; and by the latter they forfeit that
which to every man should be so dear,
the approving judgment of enlightened
conscience, and therefore go to the bad
themselves more rapidly and more surely
than they send others for what shall it
profit a man if he gain the whole world
and loose his own soul ?" Fdciljs descen-
stts auerni-"it it is easy to descend into
hell says the old maxim, and if any
one is anxious to take the ride, he will
find the press, once turned in that direc-
ton, q vehicle Of unsurpassed velocity.
Every sensational item that is perpetrat-
ed at the expense of truth or OK princi-
pie is lard for the ways and hammer for
the stays, and all the brief renown and
all the tainted gold which tempt the
journey, float only as a mockery when
the victim finds himself abandoned by
the moral judgment of mankind, in the
realm where "the worm dieth not" Oh
scene prints, which are barred by the
statute, are no worse in their effect than
some of the almost daily utterances of s
certain infamous paper whose motto is to
be "anything but dull" and the occa-
sional sickly and sickening attempts OF
few weeklings in the country to bolster
up tottering existence by appealing to
the tastes of the slums, by tanning men s
passions and making food Of mems pref
udices, are all of an order which dis
grace journalism and deserve the repre-
hension of mankind.
RIGHTS OF THE MINORITY.
But while, if mans heart be not i'm.
pure, 1T is easy to avoid all this and at the
same time maintain the raciest style and
the most unlimited research, it is not SC
easy to be faithful to truth and principle
in matters involving no alternative Of
morality and turpitude, but where the
opinions OF men are divided and their
political and religious prejudices have
strong sway. In such cases the country
journalist is too apt to forget that he is a
reporter as well as an editor, aud that re-
gardless of his own convictions and those
which he believes are entertained by
nine-tenths Of his readers, it is his duty
nevertheless, to honestly report what he
chooses to oppose. Without this, how
can those who depend upon his paper for
intelligence form any well grounded
opinions? If he persists in showing
them only that side of the shield upon
which they have looked for years and in
making only ridicule of the other, how
can he hope that they will honor his
fidelity. or respect his opinions if by-and-
by they chance to discover by other
means that they have been both blinded
and deceived? The journalist should
have his opinions, but they thould never
exclude from his paper all facts. Better
thousand times, the facts without the
opinions than the opinions without the
facts but we may have both, and the
t.