The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-07-11
NEW NoRk Cry, june Is, 1s


James Parton has done some big and
many good things, but never a bigger or
better one, than when he wrote and pub
lished his article 90 FalsehOod in the Daily
Press" in the July number Of HdrPers
Magazine. he says
By the chances of business the most ignorant
person may come TO own newspaper, or one
may fall by inheritance to the most inconipe-
tent individual. A lucky operator has taken
a newspaper, Or part Of one, for gambling
debt
What pity names had not been quoted
since the papers referred to are 80 well
known to be the one distinguished by its
high sense of morality and honor, and the
other by its magnificent enterprise. We
quote further
A corrupt ring might acquire in q newspaper
q sllencing interest, and a moneyed dunder-
head has occasionally bought one outright as
an investment. John Taylor, the witty author
Of Monsieur Tonson," one Of the best
known humorous poems in the language, who
was editor for some years Of the Morning.
Post, of London, had an ignorant savage for
proprietor "Among other complaints" Mr..
Taylor, records III his Memoirs, " he told me
that the paper was wholly confined to politics,
and had none of those little dRtiiOtes which
had before diverted the readers" 1t has
lately been disclosed that the owner of another
London paper, the MorRsng ChroaicLe, "Bsdsie
an arrangement with the government Of Louis
Napoleon to become the strenuous and daily
supporter Of the imperial regime, the French
government agreeing to give in return " con
81. n.
lines, in addition to large sums Of money. So
saws Mr. James Grant, to whom this high
Observation-Disclosures offered the editOrshlp
| wonder how the proprietor announced the
new line of politics to his corps of writers.
Not, we may presume, with the off-hand
candor which sometimes marks similar events
| in free and easy America. Boys, said the
proprietor Of a newspaper in Western New
| York TO his corps, he presented a stranger
to them" boys, this il Mr. Smith from
Smithton, who has come down here to write
up the new railroad. Whatever he writes,
PRINT Just as he writes it, but not word on
other the side. And they Ol'eyed. Every mail
brought remOnstrances against the scheme,
all of which went into the basket unread
The convict Tweed was well aware of this
new fact In newspapers, the supremacy of the
counting room, though the poor man could
not know that newspapers unduly controlled
by the counting-room are pOwerless over
public opinion. The number Of newspapers
upon the pay roll Of the ring was eighty nine,
Of which twenty seven 50 depended upon this
plumber for subsistence that when the ring
was broken they gasped and died LIN those
halcyon days Of roguery people used to glance
in their morning paper over mayors mes
sage Of six or eight columns, innOcently sup
posing it part OF the news Of the day. while
hook Keepers were at the same moment charg
ing it to the city As an advertisement at 8
dollar line Petty evening papers received
thousand dollars q month ; and after the
newspapers had been bought and silenced al
this rate for five years, and the ring had nc
longer the control Of the treasury, the unset
tied claims Of the various counting room
amounted to more than two millions Of dol
lars The writers for the press got little o
this They were put off with a ridiculous
gratuity OF tive hundred dollars a year, voted
by the aldermen to the reporters who omit
ted twice a week to tell the public what tn,
aldermen had done.
There never was period during the thirt,
years reign Of thieves in the city Of New
York when the press could not have brought
them TO naught, if its counting rooms hae
been dIsinterested or its editors In command
You, my dear ADVOCATE, most happily
so far removed from this Sodom Of a me
tropolis, cannot as wildly appreciate as W
can the truth of the foregoing. Up to las
April, we, who believe with you that W
should have a money of the people, undis
turbed by the hysterical influences q
foreign nations, could find some news 0
what our friends were doing south and ives
from the Janus faced Herald, which ha.
regularly, one side devoted TO US. and tn
other to our antagonists, but on the pre-
sident's unconditional surrender to tn
bullionists, that little resource was denies
us, and Incredible as 1t may appear, We, q
this city, who have no utilization at tn
south and west for news, are in as entir
ignorance of the sentiments Of our distan
friends or of what they are doing, as DR.
Livingston would be, if now living in tn
wilds of Africa.
The instruction in favor Of Mr.. Smith
Of SmIthtown, has here been given in favO
Of Mr. Bull, Of Bullionville, in return "a
(as in the chronicle quoted by Mr.. Parton
u concession.
Can any one doubt that if Tweed, wit
the plumber Of city only could 80 contrc
the press, Gin the interest of the countin
rooms, that our oligarchics, with the ma
tioDal revenues openly and by La,os subsid
lied i'll their favor, could and would muzzl
the press and the nation
They could and did almost do it whe
our chief executive was with the people
Now that he has abandoned his trust, an
leagued with the nations enemies, thu
throwing the whole weight Of Government
patronage against us, in addition to tn
power Of those ola archs more than I'M
perially endowed with the peoples money
We should not be surprised that the pres
is so largely against us, as that 80 man
remain true to their trusts.
But this is too warm work with the ther
mometer at 100, let ms reduce our pulsa
tons and temperature by an audible smil
at my closing quotation from Mr.. Parton
There Ge minds. too, which seem loosel
constructed. and have little III tultIve sense q
probability. The latest historian Of the Eng
llsh press for example, garulous James Grant
who edited, as he tells us, the Morning ChroH
io'e of London for twenty years upon salar
of thousand guineas, possesses mind U
this description. In his chapter upon tn
American press he pauses TO explain the mar
velous growth Of Chicago, which he attnb
utes to the easy divorce laws Of Illinois
Persons he says, whether men or wOmel
intending to get nd ogtheir wives or husband
flock to it from all parts Of the United States
This accounts at once for the increase Of pop
ulation and the great numbe: Of newspaper
published for almost every husband an'
wife in Chicago takes in every paper publish
ed in the town, lest the husband should un
known to her have made the declaration nee
essary to get rid of her, or she secretly hav'
given it to get rid of her husband"
| KNICKKRBoCKER.