The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-09-01
Are We Going to the Bad2

The address which Deacon Richard
Smith, of the Cincinnati Gazette, deliv-
cred before the Indiana editors, deals
mainly with those questions that relate
to the influence of the press and the
functions it performs in getting and dis
seminating the news of the day. Mr..
Smith sets in its right light the fol-
lowing paragraph
Sometimes it would seem that pub
lie life is more corrupt than formerly.
This is a mistake. think the stream
grows purer as we advance The mis-
take grows out of the fact that, owing to
the vigilance of the press and its unspar-
ing treatment of abuse we see more of
public life and more OF its worst side
than formerly. Corruptionists cannot
cover their tracks as they formerly did,
nor is any Office SO high as to be pro-
lection against public scrutiny and ul-
innate exposure, and exposure in these
days is ruin. Nor is there money enough
to cover up misdeeds. The press sees
with too many eyes and speaks with too
many tongues to permit the mantle OF
secrecy to be thrown over the shoulders
of any corruptionist, either in public or
private life. Newspaper Row is terror
to evil-doers in Washington. They hate
it, and they fear it, and they lie about 1t,
but it Is terror all the same. Now and
then there are unfaithful members of the
profession who are silenced, but there
are SO many who cannot be bought that
its aggregate power exercises continu-
ing influence for good The motives may
not always be above the thirst for news,
but at any rate the suppression of lnfor-
nation is practically impossible. This
was not the case when the press OF the
country was in its infancy, and when all
the news or nearly all the news from
Washington was obtained through two
newspapers, managed by men who, If
dropped down into the newspaper field
to-day, would feel lost. All this. while
it adds to the dircomforts of public and
private life, tends to purify public and
private life, and it has unquestionably
elevated the public service and society
also. There was far more dishonesty In
official life and corruption in society,
relatively, forty years ago than there Is
now The reason for a different impress
sion is that we see more of what hap
pens than we did forty or thirty or twenty
years ago."
The orator might have called the at
tention of his auditors to the fact that
there are now about $4,000, 900 people
in the United States, whereas wheE
Washington assumed the duties Of the
| Presidential office there were only 8
little over 100000 of inhabitants,
and if those "good old days" seemed
pure and decent compared with the
present, there is good reason for it. But
neither the common people nor the poll
ticians were any better or higher-toneo
one hundred years ago than they are
to-day. Nor was there any less partisan
bitterness and hate among different par.
ties, or different factions of the same
party-even the second term of George
Washington was opposed with as much
bitterness as General Grants seconG
term was, and the Father of his Country
was denounced as the enemy of his race
john Adams was SO angry because JET
ferson was elected President that h'
would not attend the inauguration, an(
Jefferson was denounced all over New
England as an infdel in religion and
Red Republican of the Robespierre typ'
of politics, whose election would Ger
tainly provoke the vengeance of Al
mighty God. Such bitter political ar
ticles as can be found in the files O
those old newspapers of those time
would make the hair of the student Q
political history stand on end.