Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-11-14
PARTIES AND NEWSPAPERS.

T. PARTIES AND Newspapers. -
In assuming the editorial management
of the Chicago Tribune, and restoring it
to its position as 4 republican paper, Mr..
Medil expresses some ideas which COM
mend themselves for their excellent good
sense 1t will be recollected that Mr..
Medill was the editor of the Tribune while
it steadily supported the republican party
and won and held place in the first rank
of political journalism. When he lett 1t
the paper l..psed into liberal republlcanism,
and though it had able writers it lost the
confidence of its readers. In his opening
editorial Mr.. Medill says:
| The Tribune hereafter will be, as it formerly
was, when under my direction. an independ-
emf republican journal. Ii will be the organ
| of no man. however high; no clique or ring,
however influential or faction, however IA
natical or demonstrative. While giving to
the repu biican party and princiI les hearty
and generous support, it will criticise the &C
lions and records Of republican leaders as
freely and fearlessly as in days of yore. But
il seemed to me unwise for great represen.
|
some alleged abuses of administration, to de
sert its party organization and turn its guns
on its old friends, or help into power and
place the leaders of the organization whose
political records and whose official conduct
show that they are insincere in their profess
ions of desire for administrative publication
As general rule, man can exercise more
influence for good among his friends by re-
manning en- rapport with than by assailing and
traducing them. The same rule holds true in
regard to newspapers. The government OF
the nation must be conducted through the In
strumentalty of parties. l know of no other
agency which has succeeded in free countries,
The party in the majority must assume the
esponsibiity of governing. A party is sim
ply a voluntary organization Of citizens united
to carry into effect certain principles and pur-
poses 1t must employ and intrust individuals
| to collect and dsburse taxes, to perform ex
ccu,ive and police ldulies for protection and
security of persons and property; men must
be engaged to construct public works, carry
the mails, administer justice, and make and
execute laws, and do thousand other things
which the public well being requires; and
these individuals will often prove careless,
inefficient, or corrupt. But party whose
aims and purposes are good and patriotic, and
whose record is grand and glorious, should
on account of the defective work or mscon-
duet of a few of its employees, in order to
make place for an antagonistic organization
whose record cannot be defended, but is re.
garded with sorrow and shame by its best
members, and whose conduct when in power
never fails to show that its retormatory pro-
LESSONS when out of power are a delusion
and snare.
Such being the case 10 regard to the neces.
sity and machinery Of parties in free cOun-
tries, the press, to be useful, cannot avoid be-
ing partisan in greater o. less degree. IT an
editor undertakes the role of supporting both
sides, his position is equivalent to double
affirmative, which amounts to negative. Ii
he habitually censures and condemns both,
he is soon regarded as a common scold and a
nuisance. To be entirely bipartisan leaves
him in the condition of cipher; and when a
newspaper undertakes to be wholly 'inde
pendent" of its party and yet discusses poll
tics, it is on the high road to the camp of its
, political opponents, whether its conductor SO
intended at the outset or not,-unless, in
deed, he takes refuge in the towards harbor
of neutrality, and abdicates his duties alto
gether, which is most contemplate and
despicable position. But it is not essential
to the prosperity or influence of a party pa
: per, that it should wilfuliy misrepresent its
: opponents, and behold nothing but evil and
depravi,y in all their actions, or discover
only reasonable designs in all they propose
3 to do. Candor and fairness in the treatment
of political opponents will detract nothing
from the influence of paper, nor will 1t in
jure the prospects Of its own party.
Such in brief are the views have long
entertained of parties. and the relations which
the press should bear toward them. A poliii
cal newspaper, to be of service to the public