The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1874-06-27
The Pay of NeM.naner Men.

The suppression of half our daily
papers would greatly advance the art of
journalism in the United States. Fivf,
siE, seven daily papers in city of less
than a hundred thousand inhabitants
Some of these have acorps consisting
of one individual and where there are
three persons employed, the paper feels
itself entitled to some rank in the world
of journalism. One consequence IS
that two-thlfds of all the working jour
nalists in the country receive less than
the wages of good mechanics and an
other consequence is that the daily
press, published in the midst of an in
telligent people, is sometimes a daily
miracle of calumnious inanity. False
hood and folly in daily papers are, re-
peat not so much an eviderce of de-
pravity as Of poverty. Intelligence and
character are costly frivolity and reck-
lessness are cheap. The incessant abuse
of individuals is one of the few re-
sources of an empty mind. It can not
discuss principles it can not communi-
cate knowledge; usean not enliyen by
wit and good htinnor nothing remains
to it but to assail character. And even
where the decorums of the press are
strictly observed, we find in the col
unns of newspapers which are strug
Cling for life amazing exhibitions of
helpless Ignorance. The nauseating
trail of fifteen dollars a week is seen all
over them, sign of that agonizing con-
- existence which goes on wher-
80! llieiens len 81 fsvS. = And lf.ds Feafly, M
when look down the long payroll of a
complete newspaper establishment, /
am inclined to wonder that such large
number of daily papers acduit them
selves creditably without being able to
afford one-uuarter of the expenditure
which excellence costs. In New York,
where alone in the United States news.
naner offices exist in which poor devil !.
Ism has been extirpated, the editorial
force of a daily paper, fully equipped,
consists of about fifty individuals, of
whom pit least twelve receive compens /
tion which approaches that of the lower
GRADES of the other liberal professions.
THE press has advanced 50 far in this
ono citv of the western continent that a
competent and well-trained journa ist
recaives as large compensation as a
1awvor doctor. or clergyman of the
fonTtb rank. and nearly enough to nav
the rent of a small house in a second
rate neiehborhood. This a considera.
HE advance from the time when Horace
Greeley let Mr.. Raymond leave the
Tribune rather than add five dollars to
his weekly stipend OF twenty. The
editor.in-chief ii OF a New York daily pa
| ner Of the first rank receives from four
to eight thousand dollars year, with
tbe resistance of a shorthand reporter,
and and the nse of a cab. His leading as,
sistants receive about half as much. In
london london as Mr.. James Grant informs
ns the established salary of the editor
of a morning paper-always excepting
tbe princely Times-is thousand
gnipeas orn wear. There is not likely to
be for some time to come more than one
: De ewspaper y in any country that can safe
" 90 much beyond this scale of com
nenHsation. And, indeed, it is almost
bieb enough to admit of the gradual
fogmatiR of a corps capable Of hol9.
ing m II its D h against the dense swarm 4
lies al xkys struggling or scheming 70!
admitfance into the press. In every
service seri under the sun the rank and filt
m must of necessity work hard for little
nav. 1t is only necessary to have few
great ore prizes to stimulate the whole