The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-06-22
ETHICS.

: For some reason which it might be difficult
satisfactorily to explain. the rules of moral
obligation which obtain in other walks of life
are not held to apply to the publisher of a
newspaper. Perhaps it is because the new
paper men, considering themselves the mold
ers, or even the manufacturers of public
opinion, believe they should by right form an
exception to the.rules observed by less favored
mortals; or perhaps the difference noted took
its rise in the first place in a vicious habit to
which custom has rendered us so habituated
that we do not even recognize its objectiona-
BILE characteristics. But be it as it may, Ger
tain it is that the publisher very often occu-
pies between the subscriber and the swindler
the position of quasi confederate of the lat
ter, and this far more openly than would for
a moment be tolerated IN any other business
whatever.
Before referring particularly to the method
and magnitude of his transgression let us
glance at the other aspects of every day life
and see how rigidly is each one there called to
a strict accountability tor the part he may
take, be that part ever so small, in promoting
any unlawful enterprise in furthering any
undertaking whose ends and objects are OBJ
jectionable. First, take the extreme case, the
commission of crime. How unmistaKable is
the arraienment before the bar of public
opinion OF him who is known to have pos
sessed, previous to the preparation of the act
knowledge of the criminals intention to com |
nit a crime. The person possessing the in
formation may have done nothing whatever
towards aiding in the contamination of the |
act. His skirts may be entirely clear of
every shade OF suspicion of direct personal
completely in the deed, but so long as he
knew in advance that it was to be committed. |
and neither divulged the knowledge nor did
anything to prevent the contemplated wrong
doing, he stands, if not guilty before the law,
at least fatally tainted with suspicion in the
opinion OF his fellow mtn. And he is not
long in discovering that such is the case.
Men meet him with averted eyes, instead OF
the cordial greeting of former days. Where
his society was sought then it Is stunned
now, and in a thousand ways it is made ap-
parent that the world to him has under
gone that great, sad change which the man
who slips from a higher to a lower grade of
never, never fails to observe. He
is under a ban. The credit marks are on
the wrong side of his department record in
the school of life, and when he takes in hand
the ungrateful task Of repairing an injured
he finds it an infinitely harder job
han he had found it to establish a good name
IN the first place, when, >~arriving among
the future lay before HIM a blank
sheet upon which to write his record as he
would.
This is an extreme case, but if instead of
ali infraction of the rules of right living pre-
'crlbed by the law, we consider a breach Of
he unwritten social code we find that COM
here is also attended by its share of
responsibility. When a stranger claims our
on the strength of a letter Of {
from a friend possessing our J
confidence, that letter is considered a valid I
Endorsement of character, and he is welcomed
o a place at the Preside. He is not taken on
rial, on trust. In place of this, a definite t
tatus in our esteem is at once awarded him, a
or the sake OF the absent friend who has G
one his security. Ii now, the stranger thus I
ecepted at par proves unworthy of this valu- c
ton; If instead of possessing those mental e
nd moral attributes which are held to consti- q
ute an admirable character, he is found to be
,oFally SCARED aud MANNED oy vice and
be moral defects which render their pos
assor Infamous in the estimation of all right v
linking people, upon whom rests our dis. "
leasnre when we make the discovery ? Upon a
ne stranger whom we have found to be less "
than We had supposed? No, rather p