The Portland daily press., 1875-02-09
TERMS $500 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE.

any doubts on that point there are abundant
facts to remove them. Everything that was
sent over the wires under this head during.th
recent events in New Orleans was garnished
with covert censure of Gen. Sheridan. The
officers of the Western Union Telegraph Com
pany would not countenance any such partial
ity as is complained of, but they are not near
enough to the scene of action to prevent it,
Their customers, with a single exception are
more than satisfied, and that is their warrant
for letting things be as they are.
These cooked-up advices are distributed at
second hand to the provincial papers west and
east and it is easy tol!see what a powerful
agency the Associated Press is likely to be-
come in peryerting public opinion, at q mo-
ment when the country is anticipating the
throes of Presidential struggle. So absolute
has the monopoly become, that it is virtually
impossible to start a new paper in New York.
The privilege of getting the news through this
channel is valued at from one to two hundred
thousand dollars. The people are interested in
breaking up such system of excluslveness.
but the most largely circulated metropolitan
papers have decided pecuniary interest in
sustainingit. An effortis in progress to build mp
and extend the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph
Co., so that it may serve as rival to the West
ern Union. But that requires so much time as
well as capital that it can hardly become avail
able for the exigencies of the campaign Of 1876.
Meantime every political item which is waited
along the wires to the Associated Press ought
to be weighed. measured and sifted with as
much discriminating care as er paTte statements
ever receive.
As mere question of business, not less than
on the principles of abstract justice, all the
newspapers of the country, except the favored
seven to whom the telegraph has become val
liable perquiste, should unite in demanding a
relaxation of the rules which place them un-
der such vAssalage This practically exclusive
possession of sources of information or mis-
Observation-Disclosures may best serve the
purpose-is form of sentralizaton fraught
with infinitely greater danger to the common
welfare, than the temporary control of the gov
ernment by any political party threatens.
There is no need of worrying ourselves about
imaginary perls when there are real ones to
avert. Half a dozen newspapers in New York
by means of this powerful electioneering ma
chinery can do more mischief every twenty
four hours than the trbunes Of the people can
counteract in as many weeks.
1t is high time that the gravity of the sub
ject should arouse popular discussion. The
evil has just begun. There will be an increas-
ing tendency to color telegraphic dispatches
to suit partisan purposes, as the period grows
nearer, when the Presidential issue is TO be de-
termined. Misstatemsnts artfully disguised in
apparently candid phraseology will by and by
be scattered broadcast over the land. Tho pre-
tence of fairness will be kept up to make the
deception more successful. The Washington
dispatches of several of our opposition prints
already TEEN with outrageous fslsehoods, many
of them so gross that no intelligent person
ought to be deluded by them. Nevertheless.
they do exert a balefal Influence upon many
readers. Now when you come to extend this
style of literature all over the country, and
disseminate it under the guise of neutrality,
the injury it will do cannot be exaggerated. of
all the reformatons which can possibly be
projected, net one is so urgently called for. SO
indispensable to the promotion of the cause Of
popular rights as the extirpation of every ves-
| tige of monopoly from our telegraphic system.
YARMOUTH.