The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-03-20

TO divide what shall 60 to the public and what to
the waste basket. Ii is a trial Of judgment TO
cay what should properly 60 into the columns Of
a paper and what should not. No conscientious
man-no man that has any honor or humanity
about him-but shrinks from the danger of doirg
injustice and wrong to a single fellow-being, no
matter how humble be may be. But when a
wrong is believed to be done by men who by
their position are before the public eye, then the
newspaper is expected to speak out, and to speak
the truth, however unpleasant it may be and
whoever may call it in question. Bot will this
invariably be done-is It generally done?
After all that may be said in flowing style and
weIl-rounded periods about patriotism, indie
pendence, a determination to write down abuses
and TO work reforms, it comes to this, that no
sane man will undertake to start a newspaper
without first asking himself the question-wil il
pay? The publication OF a newspaper is the
farthest thing in the world removed from senti-
ment-it is q pure business transaction, and must
be carried on as such if it is TO succeed. When
it is evident that by boldly speaking an unpleasant
truth and Persistently maintaining it, a newspaper
will be ruined or its interests seriously damaged,
the result will be in most cases that the unpleas-
ant truth will not be spoken, or at all events not
promptly or plainly. The newspaper that is
always hurting out the convictions Of its editor,
formed perhaps without due and thoughtful con-
sideration, is not, in the nature of things, likely
to prove a success. But as in other trades, so an
editor must please his customers, if he expects to
succeed in business. While be may in his own
mind consider that what he is advocating is i'm
practicable or even saIlacious, yet he must study
and ascertain the political bent of those likely to
be his customers, find out and advocate whatever
they will be interested in, or which in their view
pertains to their good government, their CONNER
cial and agricultural progress, and their social
happiness.
And thus it will appear that it is not so much
newspapers which direct public opinion as that
public opinion controls and directs the tone of the
newspapers. While it is true that the press can
and does help immensely in improving the tone
and morals of public opinion, yet it is also true
that the press and the people act and react upon
each other. 1t will be remembered, in support
of this view, that the leading newspapers of the
world have at various times changed their policy
and modified their tone not a little. At the
outset of all great movements for reform, these
newspapers have followed in the wake of public
opinion, and then, taking the lead, they have
guided and controlled it, checking injurious en-
thusiasm on the one hand and arousing from
apathy and Indifference on the other. The mission of
the press has been, by the wide spread of intelli-
gence to ~enlighten the people, so that now, a
venal or corruptly conducted newspaper cannot
long exist in an enlightened community. And
this is one of the healthy signs of the age in
which we live.