The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1875-12-07
Our Edi,orial convention.

Our Editorial Convention.
An E iitorial Convention was hell. in
our .sanctum last week, 1t consisted o.
oursrlf as President. onr. Regular Bore
and a couple Of daz n exchanges a.
members. We give brief synopsis OF
the proceedings.
After the usual pfeliminsries ifdi been
Satisfactorily disposed of, the first speak
Il. said 2 's''''
An exciting political campaign sal:
ways followed BY epidemic .laziness
among country editors. They clip para :
qrsphs from city papers, lead them. and
palm them of on their unsophisticated
readers as their own brain.work In
looking, through dozen sp.pers 4 fnd
that three-fourths OF What purports to
be editorial is written with the scissors
In some instances their readers may be
the gamers by this petty fraud, hut there
are editors doing it who ought to he
ashamed Of such indolent amt sloyenly
practices. -
The Regular Bore heartily coincidcd
with this view, and said that be had read
the same paragraph as editorial in six
weeklies after reading it in the daily
/ from which it was stolen. SO
Speaker No 2 said that in about -four
out Of five papers the editors did not al
ways say what they believed. Theif.fule
Of action seemed to he to write what
they would like to have others believe,
while they would feel insulted if charged
with being fools enough to. credit n,
themselves. 'sd
Regular Bore remarked that q paper
run on this system was not believed even
when its editor was sincere a.
{ Speaker No. observed that. there
were editors TOO Conscientious 10 have q
whopping falsehood appear as editeriA.
bu. who would eagerly clip and copy ons
from another paper. always giving credit
and often calling editorial. notice, tesits ,
Regular Bore said that there we're ed
|itors who manufactured and Published
just such falsehoods for the gratifcation
Of seeing their articles copied :
Speaker No. had noticed that cQun
Try papers were shy Of copying from
each other. II one OF them said a good
thing it was overlooked until some city
paper had picked it up, after which i
would speedily 60 the rounds. The,
wholly failed to appreciate it until Il had
ss the bankers say, 50 city endorser.'
No. 5, who was evidently tyro, want
ed to know why it was that editors woult
write OF each other things they nouls
not be guilty Of saying to each other :
He also desired to know II there va
any rsle of etiquette by virtue OF whicl
| man would be considered gentleman
while writing that for which be would b.
denounced as blackguard for saying.
Both questions ruled out OF order.
No. 6 vas disguised with the numhe
Of papers which peddled second han
opinions. Each one Of this class had
big daily as q leader, and never kne'
what its views were on any suHscssunti
the hig daily had been consulted.
No. had been looking little, afte
the thick-,nd-,hin party papers 4thes
which could never discover q bad ma
or bad measure in their owa partyssp
recognize good man or "a good meas
ure in the other. He fousa that thes
iliwere usually mere party paupers and live
on what was dolell out to them -fof ser,
ling as lackevs to party hacks. -
Regular Bore who had been silent Il
i'some time offered the following: i*
i Rssolosd, That with "a liNfe NOR
manly independence, little .m,re- enc
I.gy,: and a little more consideration e
each other, the country. papers voul