The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-05-25

", not with dosmatism and temper, will
involve no newspaper III lasting loss.
This requires nerve, and financial
strength to stand the temporary loss that
will surely come. So too there is need of
adroit management. To make a blow
effective We must be able to tell when the
iron is hot. And persuasion oftentimes
succeeds where dictation only excites
opposition: In the old fable of the man
and the cloak, the mild RAYS Of the sun
were more potent than the clustering
winds. The lesson is wholesome one.
Nevertheless, stern, sharp truths, cutting
like sword, crushing like hammer, are
frequently requisite. When a member
of the body polite is corrupt to the bone,
it is idle to talk of salve or potion-the
time for saw and knife has come.
To tell the truth one must know 1t.
How shall the journalist know the
truth? There cannot be two opposing
and equally truthful views of the same
subject. AS to one thing, there is only
one right and one wrong. Yet journal
lists stand on different lines and with per-
feet sincerity advocate diametrically diff
ferent views of the same question. This
must be so. Time corrects the evil.
What is wholly true will live, and the
newspaper that breaches and practices it
will live likewise. The pretended truth
will die. Shall the newspaper that ex-
pounded it, and taught as true that which
IS shown to be false, likewise die the
death? Not unless it holds fast to the
untruth, when its falsity shall be made
manifest. Few newspapers do this; their
commercial instincts forbid it. Obstinate
perseverance in the practice of what has
been proved to be untrue is left to knayes
and fools. Their journals diej or die for
them, in changing hands and manage
ment.
To the sense of responsibility and the
fearlessness of which I have spoken, the
journalist should add independence-not
independence of the profession of journal
ism, but independence in the sense that
he shall have no calling or tie that can,
under any circumstances, place his per.
sonal interest in opposition to those of
his public. Where newspapers are poor
in purse, because newspaper readers are
few, only Newspaper here and there can
afford to engage the entire services of an
editor fully qualified for the high duties
of his. place. The custom is to hire or
beg the spare moments, or leisure hours,
of some gentleman of ability; some fluent
writer, who has opinions and likes to Cir
culate them. In my judgment, and
speaking for the South Carolina of to-
day, it is wiser to hire the whole time
and thought and work of far inferior
person. The latter can be Independent,
and, except in rare instances, the former
cannot. Suppose, for sake Of argument,
that the Judge of this Circuit is tyranni-
cal, incapable, or corrupt, and the news
papers in the Circuit are edited by law
yers who are dependent on their practice
at the bar. Dare those lawyerjournal-
lists expose the faults of that Judge, and
condemn them as the public veal requires
that they be condemned? To denounce
the Judge is to be out of favor with him.
To praise him, as Judges go, is to stand
we'll with him. Lawyers known to be
disliked by Judge are Stunned by liti-
gants. What these want is to gain their
causes; and they naturally incline to-
wards the lawyer who is supposed to
have the ear of the Judge, and is familiar
with the court house back-stairs. The
lawyer-journalist, in the case I have sup.
posed, is forced to choose between bold
speech for the sake of the newspaper
which amuses him, and silence for the
sake of himself and his family. Is it to
be expected that Under such circum-
stances the lawyer shall think always of
his duty to the abstract public, and never
of his obligations to himself?
Like cases, in which absolute freedom
from other ties and interests is essential
to independence in journalism will readi-
ly suggest themselves to you. will
mention only one of them. So long as a
journalist is in the active pursuit of his
profession, he should not consent to be a
candidate for any public Office. I do not
so exalt the profession of journalism as
to think that the editor of a newspaper is
more than Governor, Senator, or Presi-
dent. Nor is it meant that, because an
editor is candidate for public Office, he,
will necessarily be unfaithful in journal
ism, or sleep on his post. The objection
is fundamental. Unless the public have
implicit faith in the unsel6shness of a,
press, that press is shorn of its power
and the public will not believe in the un-
selfshness of journalist who is the
champion of party which is to give him,
if the party prevail, some office of honor
and profit. Though he be pure as an,
angel, he shall not escape And, in truth,
he must be more than a man to do his
whole duty, bravely and vigorously,
when, upon making friends here and
avoiding making enemies there, shall de-
pend his nomination and election. No
act in the busy life of Horace Greeley
became him more than his prompt with
drawal from the newspaper he had foun-
ded, as soon as he was nominated for
President. 1t had been better for him il,
true to the mission of Journalism, he had
neither coveted nor obtained the fatal
prize.
Still another quality is demanded of
the journalist; something more than re-
sponsibility, fearlessness, and indepen.:
dence. 1t is Honesty, the Keystone of
the arch. The Press is no Pope. 1t
makes no serious claim to infallibility.
What it must claim, what the public re-
quire of it, is honesty of purpose. This
is the paramount need of the journalist.
Without it, Responsibility and Fearless
ness and Independence count for little.
Remember, that insincerity in journalism
is more injurious than in private life, be.
cause the printed and published equivo-
cation or deceit goes forth to thousands
who see it and are affected byit. When,
then, Journalist publishes what he does
not believe, or defends what in his heart
he condemns, or cringes to prejudice for
his own or his party's good, he is as
many times a falsi6er and deceiver as
there are sheets on which his words are
printed. A journalist, of course, should
he 1oyal tn the political party with which