Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-12-01

| newspapers, as SOLpaESu Will Otutf SUteI-s
prises. Having 10 patent on this answer,
l charge nothing for it, and contribute it as
| web for the souls. CT the dead as for an ad.
mention TO the living newspapers. We do
| too much work without compensation. We
pay too much money without any return
whatever. We establish a eleemosynary
institution at oar own expense. We keep
a charity school on our own hook. We
conduct business ss if we owe everything
to the public, and the public are not indebt-
ed to US a farthing. We are preyed Upon
by the sharpers and The innocents alike. We
aduertise grataitously every week, wheil We
should have the money for it. The general
public ere entirely ignorant-probablF we
ourselves are not fully aware of the extent
TO which newspapers are burdened by this
insidious drain upon their resources. Il
insinuates Itself in every conceivable form.
1t does it through reporters, through
agents, through correspondents, through
editors, through business managers, through
proprietors and generally too with as
much disadvantage to the public as
to tie Press. There is not bust
LESS, from the dispenser of ginger
cakes aud cider TO the largest mandatory,
which will not advertise with you gratis
| which will, if you listen to it, endeaVor to
convince You that il is your duty to the
public to do SO. There is not an aspirant
! for public staiioa-and when contemplate
Ii numbers ofthese, 1 experience an over
Ube, ang sens Of comminsl d amazement
aud dis ust-fr1m Constable TO the Senate
OF the Union, " no does not conscienuousiy
believe it 10 bs ia impressive duty of the
press, daily and weekly, to speak, with
pen of telescope p over, OF bis microscopic
deseryings. Eves s.h2t army OF strollers,
which infest tbs country and people as Z
sort of visitation If Pr evidences for our ini-
opit;es from The stfest corner seller of
p. iz9 candy or m agic oil he operate en-
pressario, will expect you TO write an iuoeh-
nj number OF editorials on three square
advertisement, inserted for five days, Grange
able daily, without charge! We are rt-
quirad to write up, urge up,aud put iArolgh |
every enterprise, great or small, that seems
10 have a possible connection with the
pubic But we never hear of share OF
stock, or Of a dividend. The Cbur b, the |
Safe, Commerce, Industry, Art, Invention |
and Humbug alike seem TO regard the press |
as their serviJors, aud to be run and Gus
tanned for their advantage,
there is line Of demlrkatlon in all |
these things between public demand, public |
utility, newspaper duty and individual |
gain. That line should be defined, and
held, as it in reality is, the Dead Line
Not letter nor space nor a figure, not
comma nor period, nothing of all the in
Vulnerable particles that enter into the form
and structure Of daily or weekly news
paper, is there that its picking up and put
ting down does not cost cash money. Not
a revolution CT the press, not 3 square inch
of paper that does not cost something in
cash. This should l.e understood By the
public. If it is not, its correlstive should be
pracdced by the press. / do not mean that
the press should abandon its position of be-
ing the foremost char table institution in
the world. /; should hold to that, for its
munidoan. n5sr4lity, af rplrgjag Itself Of
nile-senths Of the daily swindIs5 prac.iced
u1on it, vii! exceed that of any other bus
ines.l.
To get rid of this stuf endous fraud Of
gratuitouS advertising, Til cancer, cauker
call it anything, provided you select an
epitheB that viii charaot erie it strongly
enough-I can prescribe M other .uie than
this: Put voluntarily and without charge
auy and everything into youC paper which
Won deem advantageous to it in being ben
efciai TO the public. Al else exclude, be-
ing Of advantage 10 those who wish to make |
money upon your capital anil enterprise. |
Hold your space at its value. Fix your
rates at a fair price for your circnation,sud |
adhere TO them. Fair dealing will accom-
pish more than foul, at all times and eve |
rywheTe. For be It known that the Amer |
icau press is not yamEy (, 10 be constant |
ly sucking the life blood Of the people. II |
has q Vastly higher mission-bu5 it should |
also be known that it viii rot lon-er be
made the victim Of the thousands of vam- |
pvres that come daily to the counters, il |
every conc sivabie girb, TO have It's life blood |
inconlnantly sucked away.
Take a skeleton illustration: A gentle
man with small capital starts out to es
tablish a newspaper business; it may be a
large capital, for that matter, it is his III.
vestment, much Or little. He bays crreE's
biz house-he buys his types, presse.', lnE,
paper, ia short his entire outfit. II may tie
considered trf4 singular, but, l belis We,
universally true, that no mouider Of type :,
No maker Of presses, 10 manufac uIer On
pap-r or iub, up hint that e is about
to start bis eI.eJpise, steps forward and
prss1n.s HIN with these essentials to his
business. lie pays full cash value for all
his material. He pass also full, or more
than average ren's for his tenemeuts, or
the st maTkst value in csse of purchase
II he iusures, his risks are cl1ssed as extra
hazardous, ana he is clryei from double
20 treble the rates imposed upon Els neigh
bor5-in ny exp -rience third more than
a Jug stoTo in the same premises, with
oils and other ilf lmmable articles Ia font
Of me and a5Jye me, and packages valued
a. from ten cents to fifty dollars, not oae
of which, in case o. fire aud 10 50, would be
worth as muca IS q nonplreil comma in
the same case 10 3 printing Office. At this
rate Of expense he gets ready for business
Perhaps more proper expression would
be that alter spending this amount Of money,
be has only begun his expenditures. For,
from the day ha commences, his troubles be-
gin, He fods NJ printers who will set his
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