The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-06-10

| 1t is pleasant thing for paper which is
doing honest work in the public interest to
be so fairly and generously sustained as the
Sentinel has been by the state press in re-
gard to the investigation of the Deaf and
Dumb Institution. Their support more
than counterbalances the mean and malig-
nant animosity of rival papers in the CAPT.
tai, for the opposition of the Journal and the
News is something which the Sentinel
now calculates upon when undertaking any
reform. OF course a conscientious journal
like a conscientious man-can go forward
in the performance of its work against every
sort of influence. 1t will neither be bullied,
eoaxed nor bribed into the neglect of its
duty. But the temptation to leave guilt
unassailed is very powerful, and often
newspapers aware of evils in public or
private that should be redressed, shrink back
from the work of reform, discouraged by
the amount of opposition which they know
they are to encounter if they undertake the
task; and they are not to be severely
blamed, when, after two or three bitter con-
tests, they adopt the policy of a judicious
tolerance of the evils that exist in the COM
munity. They are not so easily forgiven,
however, when they undertake to thwart
others who are less studious of ease and self
interest and enter upon good fight, and the
Sentinel, finding that, in accordance with
the cut-throat system practised by the pa
pers of this city, every movement which it
makes is sure to be traversed by the Journal
and the News, is more ready to appreciate
the good opinion of the other papers of the
state. 1t is willing to stand alone in good
cause, but it would much rather have a
goodly array OF comrades on either
hand. Perhaps no better illustrations
could be given of the difficulties which an
honest newspaper has to encounter, and the
trlumphs which reward its perseverance,
than those drawn from the experience
of the Sentinel during the past year. If any
thing in the conduct of journals friends
require criticism, what an amount of cour-
age il required to take up the duty
of censor! The clsmor of trea-
son and desertion is instantly raised,
and the luckless critic while attacked
by bis usual party opponents in front is as
sailed by those who ought to be his allies in
the rear. Such one Is for the time being
completely girdled with foes, and it is not to |
be wondered at that so few papers possess |
the independence necessary for assuming
such stand. The Sentinel looks |
back with something akin to sense
OF the ludicrous at the tempest through |
which it passed last summer for an
account of its Reputation of certain por-
tons of the democratic platform, and yet |
most of those who assailed its opinions then |
would probably be willing to accept them |
now, with the exception of extreme infia- |
tionists, even the Journal, which was once the |
fiercest advocate of controlling the finances |
of the country by government authority, has |
now settled down to more sensible views. |
But II the task of criticising friends |
is dangerous, the work of criticising oppon- |
ents is disagreeableI The best intentions |
are misrepresented as partisan malignity, |
and the opposition press rushes forward to |
the defense of the greatest of scoundrels as a
mere matter of party discipline. Reform in
such case becomes mere political issue,
and one side gets little credit for the good it
undertakes, and the other acquires no
bad repute from the evil which it
defends. Among the contests OF the past
year in which the Sentinel has been engaged
for the public good and had to overcome
this purely partisan resistance, the Southern