Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-03-01
THE PRESS.

Were we required to define the du-
ties of the Press, we would say its
first duty is to study the character of
the, people, to understand their insti-
tutions and find out their wants,
whether they be moral or intellectual,
SOCIAL, political, or material then go to
work to discover and suggest the prop
err remedies for the correction of the
evils discovered. To give weight to
its opinions, it must maintain due
regard for its own dignity by fair
and courteous dealing with the opin-
ions Of others in order that its corps
may be brought, by affinity, into close
cooperation for the advancement of
the general welfare. Differences of
opinion are likely to arise out of all
questions of real Importance, but those
differences should not impair unity of
purpose or action, nor should they be
made the pretext for that guerrilla
warfare and sharp practice which liesin
ambush, eternally on the look out. for
an opportunity to win popular favor
by shrewd peryersion of language or
of motive, Such course is not only
out of alinement with duty, but i'm
pairs, in public estimation, the dignity
and utility oftbe Press. Personalities,
however amusing to such as enjoy
chicken fights and similar belligerent
demonstrations, disgust the practical
and refined and impair that social har-
mony which it is the duty of the press
to foster as an important element in
progressive reform. Discord, by means
ofits harsh vibrations, is felt far beyond
its source, and as evil passions are as
communicative as measles, each editor
should restrain his own that he may
be guitless of spreading the infection
amongst the occupants of the tripod,
as we'll as among those who read his
paper.
Whilst it is perfectly legitimate to
expose malfeasance in Office and to re-
buke political corruption, it is not
necessary, nor is it wise to attempt
the incubation of sound morality by
making public the vices and crimes of
individuals in remote localities
Such pandering to an inordinate pas
sion of startling accounts of the most
horrid crimes, is one cause of the fear
full Generalization that threatens the
ruin of government and people. To
familiarize the popular mind and
heart, with every species of vice and
crime, is to beget an indifference to
their commission which, in turn, has
the effect of implied sanction under
which criminals escape punishment,
crime is multiplied and public virtue
becomes an old fogy superstition un-
worthy of an age of progress. To
make paper sensational, as a police
record, is considered the master
stroke of newspaper policy, whilst the
dissemination of useful knowledge,
the cultivation of pure literary taste
and the propagation of sound morality,
is fast becoming an obsolete idea, at
war with popular tastes and repress-
i've Of. the genius and enterprise Of the
master-spirits of the press.
Whilst the conductors of public
journals ahus ignore the grave respon-
sibilities they have assumed, is it any
wonder that their readers laugh at the
pure and useful as stale and unprofit-
able. and crave the blood and thunder
accounts of the worst specimens of
human depravity? The press has
aided in thus perverting their tastes
if not their very natures-and to main
tain its popularity, must not diverge
from the line of its vicious precedents.
What are the contents of the leading
Journals of the day? Investigations
of official corruption, swindling and
embezzlement, robbery and rape, muir
der and divorce, adultery and elope-
ments, and every other character of
vice and crime, and these to the ex
clusion of matter bearing upon the
material, social, political and moral
wcll-being of the whole country.