The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-01-09
VOLUME VIII.---NO. 81.
The Cause of Newspaper Failures.


In his recent excellent address before the
Press Association of Tennessee, Gen. Ira P.
Jones, Of the Nashville Union and American,
gave the following truthful account Of newspa-
per mortality:
We do too much work without compensa-
tion. We pay too much money without any
return whatever. We establish an eleemosyna-
ry institution at our own expense. We keep
charity school on our own hook. We conduct
business as if we owe everything to the public,
and the public are not indebted to us far
thing. We are preyed upon by the sharpers
and the innocents alike. We advertise gratu-
itously every week, when we should have the
money for it. The general public are entirely
Ignorant probably we ourselves are not fully
aware, of the extent to which newspapers are
burdened by this insdious drain upon their re-
sources. It insinuates itself in every conceiv-
able form. 1t does it through reporters,
agents, correspondents, editors, business mana
gers and proprietors, and generally, too, with
as much disadvantage to the public as to the
press. There is not business, from the dis
penser of ginger cakes and cider to the largest
manufactory, which will not advertise with
you gratis which will, if you listen to it, en-
deavor to convince you that it is your duty to
the public to do So There is not an aspirant
for public station-and when [ contemplate
the number of these, I experience an over
whelming sense of commingled amazement and
disgust-from constable to the Senate of the
Union, who does not conscientiously believe it
to be the imperative duty of the press-dailly
and weekly-to speak, with pen of telescope
power, of his microscopic deservings. Even
that army of strollers, which infest the coun-
try and the people, as a sort of visitation OF
providence for our iniquities, from the street.
corner seller of prize candy or magic oil, to the
operatic empressario, will expect you to write
an indefinite number of editorials on three
square advertisement, inserted for five days,
changable daily, without charge! We are re-
quired to write up, urge up, and put through
every enterprise, great or small, that seems to
have possible connection with the public.
But we never hear of share of stock, or of q
dividend. The Church, the State, commerce,
industry, art invention and humbug alike seem
to regard the press as their servators, and to be
run and sustained for their advantage.
There is line of demarkation in all these
things between public demand, public utility,
newspaper duty and individual gain. That
line should be Defined and held, as it in reali-
ty is, the Dead Line. Not letter, nor space,
nor figure, not comma, nor period, moth
ing of all the innumerable particles that enter
into the form and structure of daily or
weekly newspaper, is there that its picking up
and putting down does not cost cash money.
Not revolution of the press, not square
inch of paper that does not cost something in
cash. This should be understood by the pub
lic If it is not, its correlative should be prac-
ticed by the press. do not mean that the
press should abandon its position of being the
foremost charitable institution in the world
1t should hold to that, for its munifcent liber-
ality, after purging itself of nine-tenths of the
daily swindles practiced upon it, will exceed
that of any other business.
To get rid of this stupendous fraud of gratu-
itous advertising, this cancer canker-call it
anything, provided you select an epithet that
will characterize it strongly enough can
prescribe no other rule than this: Put volun-
tarly and without charge any and everything
into your paper which you deem advantageous
to it in being beneficial to the public. All else
exclude, being of advantage to those who wish
to make money upon your capital and enter
prise. Hold your own space at its value. Fix
your rates at fair price for your circulation,
and adhere to them. Fair dealing will accom-
plish more than foul, at all times and every
where For be it known that the American
press is not vampire, to be constantly sucking
the life-blood of the people. 1t has vastly
higher mission-but it should also be known
that it will not longer be made the victim of
the thousands of vampires that come daily to
counters, in every conceivable garb, to have its
life blood incontinently sucked away.