Litchfield enquirer., 1875-04-15
The Tribune,

i The Tribune.
 The New York Tribune celebrates it's thirty-fourth anniversary by moving into it's splendid new building. Mir. Greeley started that paper in 1S41 on one thousand borrowed dollars. In these days half a million would be a small capital for the beginning of such an enterprise. Henry J. Raymond. afterwards the founder of the Times, helped the new paper through out its early trials. In six weeks its circu- lation had reached to il .OO0 copies and it was success. It was then an insignif- cant sheet in size but full of the life and pluck which characterized Horace Greeley and all his doings from first to last.
 Yet the Tribune was not popular pa- per, nor its founder popular man, in the common deception of that term. Horace Greeley was emphatically partizan who had established himself in the stronghold of the enemy. He was Radical in as, intensely Conservative city. He worship ed ideas while all around him were wor- shipping the Almighty Dollar. Hence, through all its early career, till quite late ly indeed, the Tribune was country rather than a city paper. The men who sub scribed for it year after year, who learned to believe in it. and who were taught by it, were the farmers of the country round about the metropolis. New York itself never believed in the prophet who eaer- cised such an influence throughout New England and the Middle States. The de- voices of the Dollar remained pro-slavery to the last; while the Tribune, in the course of ten or fifteen years, turned thou sands on thousands of the lukewarm Wings of the country into fiery Freesoil- CTS.
 As puryeyor of mere news, Greeley's Tribune was in those days inferior to Bennett's Herald. It was as the purveyor of news plus ideas that the Tribune achieved success. The farmer who took New York weekly cared comparatively little whether his news came day or two late, SO that it was fairly reliable. A sensational journal full of doubtful ru- mors and contradictory editorials was an abominatlon to him. Hence the Weekly Herald is curiosity one sees twice in a lifetime, while the Weekly Tribune has been the King of the Weeklies through out the entire period of intense political settlements that commenced with the struggle for Freesoil and closed with Re construction.
 Yet Horace Greeley was never consider ed a''safe"man. People who like to have their thinking done for them and hate to be troubled with doubts about their social, political or religious creeds. never liked the Tribune. Indeed, it has always been a most confusing mixture of old Whig conservatism and old Abolition radical ism. Yet it was honest; it was earnest, it stimulated thought even fit stimulated opposition. Whatever radicalism or con- servatism there was in the man Greeley came out honestly in his paper He dab bled in reforms and was accused of being a Fourierite. He was the fiercest champion of Protection, but no one doubted his sin cerity, except those who have no faith in the sincerity of anyone.
 The Tribune began life and achieved success as a personal paper. With it's inn personality, its character has greatly changed. It is much better newspaper than Horace Greeley made it. In the va riety, fuIlness and reliability of it's ,antelli- gence it is all we could wish. Butwith the intense personality of Horace Greeley it has lost one of the most valuable of its old characteristics. It still retains the brusque Radical manners but it has utterly lost the Radical heart of its founder. Indeed Horace Greeley himself became an extinct volcano years before he ran for the Pres idency as Conservative. His old anti slavery fervor burnt bright long after all other reforming heat had cooled within him. Conservatism and the Almighty Dollar have nothing to fear from the pres. ent Tribune. Radicalism.. and impersonal journalism are perhaps incompatible in the nature of things. Mir. Greeley acknowl. edges in his autobiography that the mate rial interests of the Tribune suffered great ly at times from his frank ntterance oi radical ideas. Had he been the imperson- al editor of Q journal owned by joint stock company, or by some enterp.ising publisher, he would have been discharged before he had conducted their paper . year. .es,..s. .e.. z:.-.ss.... =. It must, however, be admitted that it is as much as the Tribune can be fairly ex- pected to do fof several years to establish it's independece of party control Since 1872 it has been practically q Democraic journal of cratic tendencies; sometimes