The Portland daily press., 1873-04-01

tiers than the officer who can suppress a riot
or subdue mob. The consequence CT this
state OF things is, that the Police department
of New York is a mere political machine, a
very powerful one at that, for 1000 men dis
tributed all over the city, and invested with
power which makes them objects of awe to
the common mass are capable of welding an
enormous influence.
And this is one of the reasons why the
adontion of new charter has been hindered
and NAV be prevented. Strange as it may seem,
this man Smith, with all his offences against
morals, his tergiversations in politics, his gen.
eral bad character, which nobody is so rash
as to defend or excuse, retains influet ce
enough, though the prestige and patronage
of his position to dictate terms to the Legisla-
ture, and possibly to keep the place, his in
cumbency of which is an insuperable barrier
to any genuine reform in that arm of the mu-
nicipal service which most of all needs COM
plete and searching renovation. There is no
denying that facts like these are extremely
disheartening to the quiet, disinterested peo-
pie who have no personal ends to gain, but
who are striving honestly and assiduously to
make the city purer and better than it has
been for half century.
In the palmy days of the New York Trib-
une, before Horace Greeley became in ,culated
with the madness for Office, which so sadly
changed the current of his life, the paper was
supposed to be fair chronicle Of current
events, and it gained liberal circulation
throughout the Eastern States, on the pre-
sumption that it was reliable Journal At
tie: Mr.. Greeley began to sink the editor in
the politician, rapid Generalization in the
tone of his paper became perceptble to the
home readers. Vindictive attacks upon pri-
vate as well as public citizens, as baseless as
they were unprovoked repeatedly disfgured its
columns. Since it has fallen into the hands
of its present conductors, it has continued to
degenerate, until its statements have ceased
to be in the smallest degreee reliable. The
influence of newspaper is not easily destroy
ed and people at distance probably accept
the lucubrations of the Tribune as facts,
when they are often the mere coinage of the
brain of lis editor, who recklessly prostitutes
its columns to the qualification Of his purpos
es of personal revenge. Those things
are SO well understood in this Vi
cinity that no intelligent person believes
anything that appears in the Tribune unless
it is corroborated by other evidence. The
reckless mendacity with which it pursues
every one against whom its editor holds a
grudge has made the ,aper utterly disreputa-
BILE. The affectatiOn of virtue and honesty
which permeates its libellous diatribes only
serves to intensity their atrocity. In fact the
journal founded by Horace Greeley is fast
attaining an unenviable notoriety as
slaughter house of character, and would more
fifty illuminate its indecent personalities under
the title OF the sNew York Stabber." There
are worthy and able writers on the Tribune
staff, and its literary matter is of high order,
but the malignant spirit which directs the
whole form Is discernable in the too frequent
paragraphs wherein insinuations and inuen-
does against gentlemen Of unbemshed repu-
tltion are infused with malicious inge-
nuity.
The shameful way in which the Tribune
has been wont to traduce upright Senators
who supported the administration is
fresh in the recollection of every reader. Ga
one occasion one of the most distinguished
members of that branch of Congress called the
attention of a colleague (himself an editor) to
a dispatch in the Tribune in which the Sena-
tor bad been represented as doing a certain
thing which he had not done. The state
ment was a pure invention without the small
est shred OF foundation in fact. The Sena-
tors colleague, not having at that time parted
with his faith in the fairness of the Tribune,
insisted that the amende would be made
when the error was pointed ont. The Sen.
ator himself thought he knew better, but by
way of experiment, wrote out on the spot a
brief, courteous and explicit contradiction, re-
marking as he did so: II will say precisely
these words in my seat this morning and you
will see that when they are printed in the
Tribune as a part of the proceedings of the
Senate, its editor will reterate the original
falsehoOd more extensively than beforer' His
colleague insisted that he was predjudiced,
and expressed entire confidence in the result.
The contradiction was accordingly made, its
correctness virtually affirmed by the whole
Senate, it found its way into the columns of
the Tribune and sure enough, formed thetext
of an editorial in which the editor said If that
aoas all the defence the Senator could make, he
Uoutd hare done better to keep silent" After
that there was one man added to the number
OF those who knew by actual experiment that
in dealing with public man against whom it
had spite The N. Y. Tribune had 10 respect
for truth or even for appearance S.
YARMOUTH.