Litchfield enquirer., 1873-02-27

paPoES never Puy. EVen feugIOuS papers ind it necessary to nirgle much of secu- lar interest with their special matter, and the broader their field, as MT. Henry 0. 6owen has admirably demonstrated, the greater their success. -.r. -..... .....
 The primary mission of the newspaper, we hold to be the collection of facts, not of opinions. The primary duty of the local paper is to furnish the news of its locality of the great city daily, to tell its readers what goes on in this and other nations. The first qualification of the fable editor," as Carlyle sneeringly terms aim, should be enterprise, the gathering of all the facts that will and ought to in- terest his readers. And here we must make just allowance for the great difficult ty, sometimes impossibility, of arriving at these facts. All we can justly require is that our newspaper should tell us what seems to have happened in Washington, New York, London, Madrid, and at other important places, within day or two of its publication. It cannot be expected to furnish history. It can at best give its readers such approximations to fact as intelligent correspondents can arrive at Day by day former misstatements are cor rected, new light breaks in, and in the end the reader of the true newspaper gets much the same knowledge of events in those far distant, important centres, that is open to intelligent residents of those places. The mass of news thus collected by our journals is, indeed, vast heap of mixed chaff and grain, not easily sifted, but inestimable, nevertheless, to a coun- try that is trying to govern itself and needs the best information accessible in order to do so intelligently.
 Secondarily comes the editors duty of commenting on the facts he furnishes. In order to do this satisfactorily he needs, not the thorough knowledge of the speci- alist in few branches, but that general and necessarily superficial acquaintance with the whole field of knowledge which will enable him to appreciate the importance of facts developed each day in regard to art, science, history, politics, literature, religion, or any other subject on which his opinions are required. There are none so united such task as the men of one idea. Facts are of import ance to such only as they throw light on their specialities. Men go in crowds to hear an eloquent "agitator" talk hefesy. Yet that agitator would bore the same au- diences to death, were he to send his views by mail in fifty-two weekly install ments. Only the most fervid interest in the subject will induce a few of the multitude who believe in Temperance to take and read Temperance paper. How long could such paper live on the subscrip- tiOns of opponents 1?
 In spite of the gross partisanship of much of the political and religious press, we are for from believing. that indepen- dence in newspaper IS unpopular. The true grievance of the Tribune subscriber, last year, was not that his paper expressed independent political views, but that the journal to which he had subscribed as the "organ" of his own party had become the organ of the other party. If the Tribune can ever become really independent of both parties, and can criticise both parties frankly, freely, and fairly, it will become the most popular political paper in the country.
 An editor whose independence and originality is confined to single subject, no matter how great one, will under ord nary circumstances achieve popularity only with a small class inter. ested in his speciality. The typical editor (next to him who collects the most news) is the one who most abounds in sound independent, original views on all ques tions. The partisan editor is, indeed, cut of by the terms of his employment from any such high position as regards the pc culiar political views he champions. Still ar it seems to us, what the average editor lacks. is not the independence requisite for saying what he really thinks so mucl as the wide scope of intelligence that cal . alone render such independence valuable } No one enters any profession but iourna : lism without previous training, more O
 less thorough. Formerly the editor grey
 out of the steady, bright, journeymal
 printer. Now be ia oitener the briefes
 barrister or the parishless parson. In n,
 case is he prepared by that preliminar, training of which no profession has nor
 need. On Wednesday of last week, the Democ \ racy held their State convention, at Hart
 ford. The following ticket was nominated For Governor, Charles R. Ingersoll, o a New Haven Lieut.. Governor, Geo. c Sill, of Hartford Secretary of State
 Marion n. Sanger, of Canterbury; Treas l urer, Wm. E. Raymond, of New Canaan e Comptroller, Alfred R. Goodrich, of Vel -1,