The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1878-03-29
from our regular correspondent
WASHINGTON LRTTRR.
WAsHlNaroN, d. G..

WASHINGTON, ID. u, ---
E.iitor Deraocrat
The means, manner, and methods of
collecting news in Washington are vile,
vicious and various. The most success
full reporter is the most successful spy.
The newspaper man that can garble
in gossip till he gets the grain of truth,
and then outrun gossip to the wires, is
more valuable to his paper than the
builder of sentences weighty with
thought and resplendent with wit The
average reporter is a young man of vast
and varied misinformation and large
mental requirements, but he knows
the ropes" and has the cunning 10 hold
his tongue. This last accomplishment
endears him to Cabinet officers, Sena-
tors, and heads of committees,-th
original sources of intelligence on sub
jeets purely political An executive
session in the Senate is held with closed
doors, and every precaution is taken to
prevent the publicity of its proceedings,
but the Argus of the press is there in
spirit, if not in corpore, and more than
one grave Senator is noting the words,
actions-nay, the very looks-of his
peers, in order that he may pander to
what Bismarck has called the lust for
journalistic sensation. It is the same
way with the closed doors of Congress
sional committees and Cabinet councils.
Be they ever so hermetrically sealed,
their detailed proceedings viii be known
and discussed by the farmer, the me-
chanic, the tradesman, and their wives,
in the four quarters Of the Union on
the following morning The ubiquitous
reporter has shelved the mysteries and
mystifcations of diplomacy among the
curious but not venerable historical
relics, belonging to an era of govern
ment for the good of the governors, and
to an era of censorship of the press.
True, the press is not now without cen
sorship, but it is as broad as its circu-
lating area, while the mass meeting and
the polls have lifted diplomacy above
the intrigues of a few privileged or ac-
credited individuals, and ihfusu It into
politics
These somewhat trits reflections has E
been suggested by the spectacle Of re-
porter is accused of such pr7ae-
tices as crawling under bel tthis was
before he had grown 50 fi,t) to overl,ear
the secrets of statesmen walk arIn-in-
arm the length of Pennsylvania Avenue
with the most popular candidate for the
Presidency at the late Cincinnati Con
vention Not that it is intimalel either
party was disgraced by the association
nor is it designed to point the text that
a man is known by the company ht
keeps, (Only half truth, by-the-way
and one that would condemn Jesus
Christ) nor yet to point to the intimacy
of newspaper men and politicians al
a sign of social degeneracy for, in thi'
last case, it might be difficult to tell il
behalf of which guild to protest. Til,
kings and courtiers of past times fur
nish wide margin for example. Tn,
demigods of history and their families
if we only knew it, were more offensive
10 high heaven How would they hav,
appeared under the calcium light crit
cism of 5000 newspapersl
The reporter is a phenomenon worthy
of study. He calls Aimself-and i
pleased when he is so called-a journal
ist But what he writes is not litera
ture. The moment he attempts to ge
beyond narrative and vulgar facts, b
founders in vile and vapid expression
of human want of understanding
What he writes will not live, at leas
: not in the form he leaves it. To-day
appears in the ostentatien of headlines
. tomorrow it is waste paper; but, mean
) while, it has passed through the refner
of the editorial room and become par
| of the chronicle and philosophy of tn
time G. A. s.