The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-07-02
nae Paw of NeNspaner Zen.

The suppression of half our daily
papers would greatly advance the art of
journalism in the United States. Five,
six, seven daily papers In a city of less
than a hundred thousand inhabitants
Some of these have a corps 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-thirds of all the working jour
naiists 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 daily
miracle of calumnious inanity. False
hood and folly in daily papers are, I re-
peat not so much an eviderce of de-
pravity as of poverty. Intelligence and
character are costly frivolity and reck-
Iessness 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; it can not enliven by
wit and good humor nothing remains
to IL but to assail character. And even
where the decorums of the press are
strictly observed, we find in the col
unnns of newspapers which are strug
Cling for life amazing exhibitions of
helpless Ignorance. The nauseasing
trail of fifteen dollars week is seen all
over them, q sign of that agonizing con-
test for existence which goes on wher-
ever ten are trying to subsist upon
means insufficient for five. And really,
when I look down the long payroll OF 8
complete newspaper establishment,
am inclined 20 wonder that such large
selves creditablY without being able to
afford one-ouarter of the expenditure
which excellence costs. In New York,
where alone in the United States news
psper Offices exist in which poOr-devil-
ism has been extirpated, the editorial
force of q daily paper, fully equipped,
consists of about fifty individuals, Of
whom at least twelve receive cOmpens =
ton which approaches that Of the lower
GRADES of the other liberal professions.
The press has advanced 50 far in this
one city of the western continent that a
compefent and Weli-trained iOuTna ist
receives as large q compensation as a
LAWYER, doctor, or clergyman Of the
fourth rank, and nearly enough 70 pay
the rent of q small house in 8 second
rate neighbOrhoOd. This consldera-
BILE advance from the time when Horace
1 Greeley let ny GsA FA-AeHA AG@-Np NAp
Tribune rather than add i've dollars to
his weekly stipend Of twenty. The
editor-in-chief of New York daily pa
per of the first rank receives from four
/ to eight thousand dollars a year, with
the assistance OF q shorthand reporter,
/ and the use of q cab His leading as
sistants receive about half Is much In
London. as Mr.. James Grant informs
us. the established salary Of the edlteE
/ Of 8 morning paper-alBays exceptine
/ the princsly Times-is . thousand
guiReas s year. There Is not likely C
be for some time to come more than ons
I ewspaper in any country that can SAFE
lv 20 much beyond this scale OF com.
! Densation. And, indeed, Il is almost
/ hich enough to admit Of the gradual
! formation Of q corps eepilbie OF hold
inc its own against the dense swarm o.
lies always struggling or sssieming tol
/ admitfance into the press In ever
service under the sun the rank and dIs
must of necessity work hard for hstl.
pay. II is only Necessary p hsve q fes
great prizes 70 stimulate the En2i'