National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-02-23

may be seen laboring men and servants
subsisting Themselves and families upon
wages of $e to % per week. while mo
chanics obtain from s1s to $50, And their
families will average in number five per-
sons. 1t can scarcely be denied that the
present volume of currency is quite sum
Gent for the good of the laborer. -
MR.. GARFIELD ON JOURNALISM
Mr.. Garfield, who is one Of the ablest,
most thoughtful and studious men in the
House, undertook. few days ago, to give
some of his ideas on journalism, from
which, as journalists, we beg leave to dis
sent That we may not do him any In
justice, we shall quote his exact words /:
"The five thousand weekly newspapers of
the United States are, in my Judgment, our
most authentic opponents Of public opinion.
Compare, for example, the metropolitan
journal with the country paper in the rela-
ton to the public mind: In one case the
editor is the head Of great business estab-
lishment, which he manages in the interest
Of its owners. The telegraph brings him
in communication with central points Of .
vast area Of country; but those points are
mainly cities and villages. His staff are all
brilliant thinkers and accomplished vriters
but they have little contact with the people
themselves. By midnight the metropolitan
journalist has received at his Office the
brief reportof the most striking events of
the day from other cities and centres, and
iro sauSs.~---nr ana - -l:sa-iAl NJ ;cb he
sends out . thousand miles in all directions,
and this is called the sentiment of the
American people. Compare this with the
less brilliant work of the country editor.
In the course of the week he sees and con-
verses with men from every township of
his county, and his mind thus becomes
filled with the prevailing thoughts and
sentiments around him. If he is sensible
and observing man, the weeks intercourse
with his fellow citizens will make his paper
better exponent of the sentiment of his
county than all the distant metropolitan
journals of the United States put together.
I do not say this to disparagc these journals.
They have value peculiarly their own.
But the five thousand weekly newspapers
ofthe country are far more truly the photo
graphs Of the public mind than the great
daily journals are"
MIR. Garfcld's estimate of modern jour
nalism is low one-an estimate which
every editor of a country weekly newspa-
per, who has the least appreciation of his
position, its duties and its influence, as well
as every editor of q city journal, will unhes-
itatingly condemn. The modern journalist
who has the least pride in his profession,
who aspires to make '.the fourth estate Of
the monarchy the first estate of the repub-
liz" aims not SO much to trim his sails to
every fleeing breath of public opinion"
as to mold and direct it, He is, as he should
be, teacher, and not q mere parrot, sitting
the wheat from the chaff in the country
store discussions and the debating societies,
and, with his presses and type, sending it
out to the world as the sentiment of his
The false journalist may do this
and receive the commentator of men like
Mr.. Garfield; but the true one has higher
IDEAS Of his calling and of the responsible
ties that devolve upon him. The history of
the foundation Of the Republican party
furnishes an illustration of what we mean.
When William Lloyd Garrison founded |
weekly paper, the Li6erator, to do battle |
against slavery, he did not attempt to reflect
he public opinion of the day. Public opin- |
on was all against him; the number of those
who believed in what he wrote could almost |
De counted upon tho fingers. But he had q |
purpose, conviction, an idea, and he
treated or help to create public opinion |
which became in q very few years the |
sentiment" Of the whole American people,
And so Of Mr.. Greeley in the Tribune, be-
ore Mr.. Greeley threw away his own
almost imperial position to become a mere |
politician and the leader of politicians. I'll
he had aimed at rejecting the opinion of
New York city upon the question of pro- |
lection to American industry, he would not
have made the gallant battle that he did |
make for years against the heresies of free
trade. He did not 60 to Mr.. Stewart and
The importing merchants for their opinions,
to ask them what he should or should not |
write, but he wrote what was in him, and
said what he was certainly sent to say. Mr..
Garfield seems to have no conception of
this, the higher aspect of journalism, which
surprises us, and will pain his many
friends in the profession. When he made
he speech from which we have quoted, he
'eems to have had in his mind that passage
n Parton's jackson, where We are told
Lackson's faithful editor, Mr.. Blair, wrote
Irticles for the country press here in WASH
ngton, copied them in the Globe when they
anne back, and called it the "Voice of the
Country"
The sentiments expressed by Mr. Gar
ield are entertained, for the most part, by
lis class. He only follows in the footsteps OF
of able men in Congress before him
n believing that the newspaper press was
made for them, to register their commands,
o defend them right or wrong, and sustain
hem through thick and thin The news
,aper of even twenty years ago was, to q
,reat extent, the mere handmade of the
politicians. They owned it and edited it.
t had no opinions which were not their
'pinions 1t did what they decreed. But
great change has taken place even within
he last decade. The late war-the desire
o hear intelligence from the front-made to
very man, woman and child who could read
md understand the daily paper necessity
instead of luxury, and shrewd business.
men awaited themselves of the enormous cir
,ulation thus attained to tell what they had
o sell and what they wished to buy. News
,apers have become. in q certain sense,
speculations, with hundreds of
thousands of dollars invested in them, en-
,loying hundreds of men, owning hand
'ome buildings, and returning princely in
ZONES to the corporations, and in some
,ases to single proprietor. Iastead of the
narrow field in which It formerly worked, it
operates upon broad and magnificent scale,
has constituency of its own, whom it aims
o represent, and who look 10 it for repre-
enfafion aa much as the men WIN alecfpd