New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-07-18
REELECTED COMMnNLCArIONS

The newspaper press OF England, after some
days of painful suspense, draws long breath
of relief. A London solicitor brought an ac-
ton against The Echo to recover damages for
the destruction Of letter on Legal RefOrma-
tiOnr which he had sent to that journal, but
which the editor did not accept. The Court
held that an author had right to demand
the return of his rejected MSS. if they were
in existence when he applied for them; but
an editor was under no obligation to preserve
rejected communications and if he destroyed
them as soon as they were read he could not
be held liable for their value. This Is COM
mon sense. The examination of volunteered
manuscripts is one of the severest duties of an
editors existence. If to this were added the
duty Of keeping such manuscripts till called
for every great newspaper would be obliged
at once to enlarge its premises and increase
its force. A great majority of all people who
know how to read and wrte-bcSides many
who certainly do not know how to write-are
possessed at some period of their lives with n
morbid Impulse to contribute to the newspa-
pers. They are persuaded that any man can
write leader if he chooses, and that the faculty
of saving what the people want to hear in style
suited both to the subject and the audience
comes by nature TO all graduates of district
school. 1t is an amiable hallucination which
repeated failures and rebufs arc rarely able
to dispel. We remember the case of an anOny-
nous correspondent who must have sent us
in the course of two years at least fifty
articles, intended for the editorial page. and
on occasions of public excitement used some
times to send two in a single day. Not line
of his copy ever got into print but he per-
severed and no doubt he is Fostering some
newspaper now. The young persons who be-
lieve they have mission to write verses, the
women who want to support themselves by
selling "compositiOnsn to the newspapers, and
the scores of people with bees in their bon
nets who visit editors Offices with pOnderOus
essays on incOmprehensble subjects, are still
more serious Affections than the mere ANA
teur pubicists. Now, more than ninety per
cent of the articles offered for acceptance at
a newspaper office come from these different
classes of people. They write for their own
benefit not for the editors. Their cOntribu-
tons are not wanted; on the contrary, they
are a great nuisance. We cannot SEQ upon
what ground an editor is expected to expcnd
time and trouble taking care of rubbish that
is left on his premises against his wishes.
Of course there are sensible and valuable
correspondence and it is for the sake of the
ten wise men that journalists are content to
bear with the ninety fools, and to be at the
pains sometimes of saving and restoring a
great deal of manuscript which, on one ac-
count or another, they do not care TO use.
But it is well TO have it understood that this
is done as matter of courtesy and not as a
duty, and that in the great majority of cases
it cannot be done at all. This will perhaps
seem hard to writers who have high opinion
of the Importance of their productions; but
their remedy is very simple; let them buy a
cOpying-press.