New-York tribune., 1875-03-01
NEWSPAPERS or THE NEXT AGE.

NEWSP4PERS or THE NEXT AGE.
1t is peculiarity of reformers with large
bees in their bonnets, that they always enter
tain an almost irrepressible lOathing for news
papers. The many reasons for this are to be
sought in the waste-basket, to which thousands
of communications are annually consigned.
man has a scheme for the regeneration OF the
world. He sends it to a daily journal. tie
expects to see it the very next morning IN
type OF large proportions; and ne does not
see it in type of any size, either the next
morning, or the morning after, or upon any
subsequent morning. He calls to reclaim his
Ms. With the difficulty attending capital
surgical operation, he Is at last made to un-
derstand that his much valued scrip has gone
to the receptacle of things lost on
earth. He is at once hurt, wrOth, ag-
grieved, and indignant. He goes away
and writes pamphlet to prove that the news
paper is " the beast with seven heads and ten
"horns, with mouth speaking biasphemies,
"and making war with the saints, and deceiy-
cling them that dwell on the face of the
earth" A sage in London has published
pamphlet now before us called: Commence
"ment of the Second Christian Epoch; Price,
prophet that the world in the next generation
will be regenerated; that everything now
aslew will be made straight that the rents
"of houses will be greatly reduced" danger
!. ous financial errors avoided" and "nO cor
"poratiOn be permitted to pay dividend of
cover ten per cent? Various other good
things of the millennial sort will be introduced;
of course the lion will no longer be fond OF
young mutton; the nude in art is to be pro-
hbited by law, and gambling made punish
cable with stripes" But the reform in which
we naturally take a personal interest will be
that of newspapers.
We can hardly imagine this Age of Gold
without our own sheet; and yet we grieve to
say that our prophet suggests TRIBUNE and
all other newspapers. so hampered and har-
assed, so hindered and censured, so restrained
and supervised, that our successors, SO stu
ated, will wish that they had been our pre-
decessOrs, or had never occupied any relation
to us whatever. AT present the Prophet re-
CARDS the newspaper press simply as million
"tongued, lying and mischievous," "as neutral
"izng largely the benefits of printing" and
"as one of the great evils of modern times"
Now it isn't comfortable it isn't reassuring,
it is MT productive of self-cOmplacency to be
called Great Evil. There was man in
Philadelphia, who is dead now, who charged
newspapers, in his last will and testament, with
Disjonted Thinking. But he was mild as
milk in comparison with this British Prophet
1t is dreadful to be thus suddenly told what
newspapers do. They spread false news.
They "harass, advise, bully those in author
city, cowing them so that they are de-
"pressed, irritated and rendered unfit for gov
"ernance." Poor fellows! Is it this which is
tho matter with them in Washington But
this isn't all Newspapers "wax arrogant ~
they become "bitter and irritating;" they
"incite nations to war;" they "cause fever
"ishness among the people, they "dissemi-
mate horrible, scandalous, and sensational
statements" and, finally, to put it astrOnomi-
cally, sclr-interest is their pole-star!' In
the good time coming matters will be better
managed. The Government will take the
newspapers in hand. Master printers and
publishers and fOremen and typesetters and
pressmen and devils of the offices will be
licensed and supervised by the officers of the
law. This beats Polands Panacea all to
pieces! But there is more to come. For
some mysterious reason no single edition of a
newspaper is to exceed 10000 copies. except
that of illustrated newspapers, which must MT
exceed 100000 copies Whatever the Govern
ment wishes to be published must be pub
lished gratis. Whatever the Government
does MT wish to be published isn't to be pub
lished at all. Every newspaper deemed detri-
mental to the welfare of the nation is to be
knocked in the head while foreign journals
containing anything dispeasing to the Govern
ment are to be cOnfiscated; &C., &C., &c.
1t is astonishing that any man with sense
enough TO know hawk from hernshaw, or
to discriminate between to-day and next
week, should proclaim these suggestions as
novelties. They are as Old as the art of
printing. They have been tried over and
over again. These rules are in full force
even now in France, in Russia, and in Aus
tria; and if there were any virtue in them,
the inhabitants of those lands ought to be
enjoying a good time already come. This
amiable writer is undoubtedly out of what
little head nature may have given him but
indisputably sane men have held tho