New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-12-26
4 IESSON,

Some time before the assembling of Con-
gress a person who professed to know the
whole history of the disappearance of 1.-THE
Hot Springs Amendment offered to put
The TRIBUNE in possession of the facts, and
supply it with the proofs necessary to sub
stantate them. 1t was represented that
scandal of enormous proportions was sure to
be created by the disclosures, involving the
Clerk of the House of Representatives, "A Sen
ator, and u number of other prominent per-
sons in Washington, and that the newspaper
which first published the story would profit
largely by the sensation. The matter was
looked into enough To satisfy us that the pro-
posals were submitted to us in good faith, by
one who probably had ample facilities for max
ing the discoveries which he claimed, and that
his budget OF scandal could he obtained
at triling expense in money. Without under
taking, however, to slit the evidence or to
decide whether there was probable cause for
believing that the persons said to be impli-
Gated in the supposed fraud were guilty, THE
TkIBUSR decided that the case was not one
in which there was any need for the press to
meddle. Ii had been referred TO an investi-
eating committee of Congress, which must
soon take it up, and there was no reason for
doubling that the committee would deal with
it fairly and ably. This paper is not
scandal-monger, and has no ambition to he
first IN the market with stories of crime aud
disgrace, even when they damage its political
opponents.
We could not foTesee that the charges OF
| fraud would break down as soon as they were
tested. and that the VIII lie tale of fraud would
resolve itself into the dream of q few cred
| uous and over-zealOus detectives. II some
other Journals were mSled into accepting in
furious rumOrs for truth, and spreading sus-
picions which they must now admit to be un-
| founded their primary error was in under
| taking a sort of cret-service work which
is outside the province of the newspaper. 1t
is not the duty of the journalist to play the
amateur policeman and public prosecutor to-
gether, and to race for the privilege of an
ticipating the regular authorities IN the dis
cOyery of peculatiens and indecencies. The
editor who respects his calling has no desire
to ill his paper with records of rascality and
human weakness. There is dirt enough,
heaven knows, in the ordinary chronicles of
the day, and we shall not rake the cutters in
the hope of finding more.
Sometimes 1t becomes tho right and the
duty of the newspaper to disclose secrets
which public justice would never have dis
covered secrets which other agencies have
tried in vain to unravel, or which the author
tiles have never suspected, or which a great
political party has an interest in keeping
close. The translation of the cipher dispatches
was an example of the kind of detective work
which newspaper may usefully attempt.
These documents concealed matters of grave
concern to every citizen, and the future
of political parties in the United States might
possibly depend upon the knowledge Of what
was IN them. When they fell into the pos
session of newspaper, the Interpretation
which had bafllnd a committee of Congress
was undertaken with an industry that never
rested until, after long labor, the secret was
discovered and given to the public which had
a right to 1t. But it is not to be imagined
that because we have thus laid bare plot
for buying the Presidency of the United
States and cheating a majority of the voters
OUT of their rights, we are TO he always
hcnceforth on the watch for regulations to
DESTROY.