New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-01-23
TIE PRESS AND POLITICS.

An enthusiastic admirer of THR TRIBUNE
sends us a good natured but earnest complaint
that it devOtes too much space to politics.,
which he "hates and despiscs." He goes on
to say:
don't want YOU to write paper for me, but know
Of scores of friends all readers TIE TRIBUNE not one
politician, and all feel as do-that politics Is TAKING
I'D too much of loved TRIBUNE columns. Hit must
go n stick inside ont OF sight, in small type d'e us
those industrial articles tell us about the iron snip
building on the Delaware the Pacific Mail boats; give
us those choice Boston letters that Hayden Expedition
of to-day is admirable; your book reviews and theaui
cal and musical criticisms are fine. Give Us oil these;
but please don't say anything about politics until next
election. l vote the straight Republican ticket nut
read THE TRIBUNE These are my views; out no as
you've a mind to. am not going back on my TRIBUNE
as a newspaper. Long may 1t thrive as an able Amer-
can paper that 1t ia.
Our correspondent is one OF large class OF
TRIBUNE readers who we are well aware hate
politics and politicians. and take no interest
in general political subjects. That they nave
reasonable cause for disgust no one VIII deny
who knows anything of the character ana
standing of the men who compose our leglsia-
tive bodies and make our laws, or who has
any acquaintance with the methods ana inc
managers of the caucus, which is the fountain
of all our politics. And yet we think Single
moments reflection will satisfy these gentie-
men that their criticism is not just nor thelr
objection well taken. For they certainly 90
not mean to leave politics, which Is properly
defined as the science of government to the
control and direction of the bunglerS and
knaves whose offensive prominence and ag-
pressiye ofiiciousness have disgusted and re-
peled better men from taking any active part
in political affairs. There is no nobler or
more dignifed pursuit than the science of
government, no human concern OF higher I'M
pOrtance or wOrther the attention AMI study
of the intelligent and thoughtful, nor is there
any department of human knowledge that 80
loudly calls for investigators. students, ana
practical workers. The acquisition OF learn
ing, the storing up of useful information upon
the subjects which TIE TRIBUNE has treated
rs spccialies, the intellectual delights afforded
to refined tastes by its literary cxcellcnces,
the social progress and material development,
and the advance in knowledge and culture
to which III its various departments 1t con-
tributes, are only parts, and not by any means
the whole of its mission and Its work as the
great American newspaper. GOOD ana wise
government is after all of the highest i'm
portance and must crown all, or material de-
yelopment and social progress will stop, cor
rect taste culture, refinement, scholarship,
scientific attainments, and all the rest will
come to naught.
TO secure this we have to pay the price,
and the price is just the sacrifice that is
required of men of brains and intelligence to
descend, if it be a descent, INTO what the
fastidious call "the dirty pool of politics."
If it subjects the disintereSted citizen to the
suspicion of having selfish ends to crafty,
that is one of the misconstructions and unjust
judgments he must submit to cheerfully in
the discharge of duty, and bide his time to
demonstrate by unselishness while he does
his work. In government like ours no
citizen may lay off his responsibility; least OF
all may they who are most disposed to and
who by the very aversion they feel for such
duties are best fitted to perform them. If
politics and politicians are corrupt and
bad, so much the more need for sincere
and honest gentlemen to take an
interest in public affairs and help
deliver the country. And so much the
more need, too, that the press of the country
portray the situation faithfully, and awaken
public reprODatlOn IOr Dau auInlnlstratOn
corrupt parties, and dishonest rulers. The
press may not always be discreet in its utter
| ances or judicial in its tone, but that it ac
complishes results, and in the main good re-
suits, by political discussion, will hardly be
denied by any intelligent reader who, how
ever he may have been annoyed by the per-
sistency with which political scandals have
| been followed up during the past year, has
observed the effect upon public sentiment and
| its reflex influence upon the politicians. If we
| as people are coming out into clearer and
! sweeter period as We hope and verify believe,
| it will be because the press has given so much
space to the discussiOn--crude and prOhtess as
some of it has been-of the distasteful sub
ject of politics. There are very few intelli-
| gent men now in the Administration party who
| will not confess that the safety of our insti-
buttons and the perpetuity of free government
depend upon precisely such conversion.
| THE TRIBUNE aims at the publication Of pol
| itics.
|
Lord Derby in distributing the prizes to the stu
dents of Liverpool College, made an observation
sensible that 1t deserves to be here repeated. 1t