The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-02-10


The state of positive immortality which
exists in public affairs in the United States
is as dangerous as it is painful. The apathy
of the people thereat is an alarming
symptom, and the press, which should DO tne
public sentinel seems asleep or debauched
Our present object is to call emphatcaliy on
the journals of all parties to cast aside all
small and binding issues, and take their
proper stand in reviving lasting and iervent
spirit of patriotic watchfulness throughout the
land. Time after time the intelligence has burst
upon the public that enormous and glazing
frauds had been perpetrated. A temporary
ebullition of hot indignation, with much noise
and bluster has followed, subsiding rapidly
into a low-toned grumble and then suddenly
into silence. cit will blow over" say the
criminals, cheercd into confidence by
past experience; and the event justifes
them. The sirocco lasts only for
day. and thief falsifer and corruptionist
come from their caves ON the morrow to
fan themselves approvingly in the zephyrs
Of forgetfulness. But the cause of public
morality receives each time o deadly blow,
and people do not see it because the injury is
internal The politicians and their allies in
the partisan press, outside of the criminals,
are the only ones who derive any profit from
the villany. They make the most of the
situation for themselves or their party. All that
can condemn their political foes is set forth
all that would implicate their party friends is
suppressed base selfshness that stops
short of no unclean device to gain partisan
ends is the handspring of their action. The
spirit of comprehensive honesty and fearless
impartiality is not merely absent from them,
but in their audacity of successful trickery it
is made byword and reproach The
word independence, which should be
badge Of honor, is to their corrupt
understandings the choicest label to fix on
those they would scof at This system of
dishonest party journalism has grown with
wonderful strength since the war of the rebel
lion. Frauds on the people always existed to
some extent, the slipshod apologists will say.
It may be admitted that all governments have
been more or less the sustenance Of corrup-
tionists. In former times this dishonesty was
jealousy screened from the public gaze Its
growth was slow and the cycle of corruption
was limited one. At times it broke forth,
and the people saw it, frequently without the
power to arrest it, until the State was involved
in the certain ruin which follows on such rot
tenness at the core. We had better,
however, keep our eyes fixed on tho
evils that assail our institutions, because
crime cannot long be hidden now; its exist
ence can be instantly communicated to the
people, and they always have in their hands
the power to reform abuses and to punish
those guilty of perpetrating them. In America
to-day fraud and corruption are of rapid
growth They are shameless and auda-
cious because Of the impunity which
attends their commission The oppor-
tunity for plumber that grew out
of the war generated much of this,
and, in making the way of the defrauder rosy
with success, reacted nationally in dulling the
sensitiveness of the public conscience. This
opportunity also made the press, to very
large extent the slave of the plunderers,
sharer in their spols, reckless partisan in pro-
viding fresh means of plumber and defender
of their worst actions when word of
reproach was breathed upon their guilt
The proud place of public mentor and faith
full friend to the people was bartered for that
Of Eycophant and panderer to successful fraud,
and, like wreckers on rock bound coasts, this
degraded press has since lured unsuspecting
honesty to destruction by the exhibition of
false lights 1t is saddening indictment,
but it is true. 70. - - -''''':ssss
/ The spectacle which this degradation of the
press presents has many points calling for
deploring comment Not the least is that dis
graceful and petty warfare in which all the
small spite and pin-pointed malice of narrow
minds are poured forth in personal warfare.
It's language is that of graduate of the slums
of London. 1t is the unhappy offspring of
subsidized press. The battle between
rival parties, turned from the honorable
walk Of polemics, centres itself in hand-to-
hand conflicts between small politicians and
opposition editors. Mud and pitch would seem
to be the only weapons of offence, defensive
weapons being entirely discarded. To answer
An opponent with reason is unheard of in this
war. Unless the politician or the partisan
editor has verbal filth to throw back he has to
subside. The man sought to be blackened
descends to the gutter, that his opponent also
may be smirched. Thus it is that the par
tisan sheets are covered with pitiful squabbles
and personal broils about which the public
cares nothing This mutual abuse is notori-
ously the resource Of the worst characters in a
community, and he who calls chief first be-
lieves be has won moral victory. It has
one object, however, which the public cannot
miss--namely, TO remove attention from the
real and deep evils, of which these miserable
eruptions are merely the unsightly excres-
cences Several times have we called on