The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-06-23
Criticisms Of Public Men,

VI
From the baltimore Gazette.
An article on libel and newspapers,
written by Mr.. David Dudley Field, is
printed Mr.. Field, as might be expect
ed, takes strong ground in favor of addi-
tional legislation for the protection of
private character against newspaper at
tscks. The article has a judicial calm,
except that now and then it is plain that
the author has himself WINGED under the
lash of the press.
Mr.. Field has certainly felt some Of
the keenness of newspaper criticism. He
has been counsel tor the notorious rings
and bosses that have plundered New
York, and has pushed his defense of them
SO far as almost to identify himself with
the knaveries he defended.
This has brought upon him the censure
and scathing reproaches of the press, and
he therefore writes with feeling about as.
saults on private character
But although it may be true that
newspapers often do wrong In their
violent personal attacks, yet upon the
VIII lie they do immense good. If they
sla nder or caluminate q man they soon
ind it out and abandon it and the object
of the attack is never hurt by it. 1t does
not pay 10 abuse pure men; there must
be basis of fact. ISLANDERS soon die: bit
truths stick, We cannot recall single
case in which an honest man has
been wroDged and injured perma-
nently by slanderous newspaper attacks.
For example, MIR. Kerr, was few days
ago, the object of envenomed ISLANDERS
Mr.. Bristow, Mr.. Conkling, and others
have all felt temporary Inconvenience;
but all of these soon died. Newspapers
have an instinct which guides them.
Their judgment is sometimes misled for
while, but they soon find out when
they are wrong, and they know when
they are right. They soon know when
they get hold of a rascal;
and when they keep on at him
they never 60 wrong. 1t was the
newspapers that tore away the wells from
the hypocritical christian statesmen"
who were swindling the country so long;
and the country owes to the press an i'm
mense debt of gratitude Tor this. 1t was
the independent press that brought to
light the crooked whisky frauds, the
Freedmen's Savings Bank frauds, the
Department of Justice frauds, the District
ring frauds, the post leadership sales,
the soldiers tombstone swindles, the
Orvill Grant contracts, the real estate
pool, the safe burglary, the Emma Mine
swlndle, the customhouse robberles, the
postoffice straw bids, the Credit Moblller,
the Pacific Railroad bond gifts and sub
sidies-and all the rest of the countless
villsinies that have nestled in the White
House, in the department, and bureaus,
in the Senate and the House of Repre-.
sentatives of this great and glorious ma
ton in this our Centennial year. 1t was
the neYspapcrs that exposed Schenck,
BabcocE, Mckee, Macdonald, Joyce
Boss Shepherd. Pendleton, Orvill
Grant, Boss Tweed, Belknap, Tom
Murphy, Delano, Harrington, Williams,
Colfax, Blaine, Oakes Ames, and dozen
others. They accomplished all this by
the very sort of free and outspoken COM
! ment that Mr.. Field complains of. They
could not have accomplished it in any
other way They call things by their
true names. When there is something
wrong" Job, or contract or subsidy on
foot, the papers have II keen scent; and
| the yearning for bottom facts becomes
overpowering. The papers in respond
ing TO this are the organ
of public sentiment. A dozen
papers at different points seek by separ-
ate paths to get into the heart OF the
mystery. Everybody that knows any
thing about 1t is interviewed" Thou
sands of excited minds dwell on the
minutest particulars Evidence pours in
from hundreds OF sources. The parties
accused feel constrained to rise and ex-
plain. Any flaw or deception is caught
up aud exposed. The "dcienSes' and
"vindications" open up new lines of In
vestiga,ion. Papers in Boston, New York,
Indianapolis, Little Rock and Cincinnati
contribute new facts and new evidence,
until the spark of suspicion is kindled
into the blaze of discovery.
This is the service which is rendered
to the country by the licentious press.
1t is service of immense and over
shadowing Importance. 1t is therefore
good that public men should be exposed
to this scrutiny. Those who have dark
ways alone are afraid of it. Such men
as Kerr, Conkling and Bristow have
nothing to fear. Attacks upon them
soon die, 1t is the Pendletons, Schencks.
Blaines and Logsns and the Fields that
shudder ut "the Iiceutious press