Connecticut western news., 1881-10-05
THE NEWSPAPER.

The paper read at the late meeting of the Social Science Association, by Charles Dudley Warner, has attracted much general attention. This is due not only to the fact of MT. Warmers distinction as 8 literary man, but to his long experience as successful editor. He is at the head of one of the chief daily journals in New England, and his words are those of practical knowled ge. MT. Warner puts more clearly than it has ever been put before point which IS of vital importance in considering the question of newspapers. It is that newspaper is wholly private enter prise for the pecuniary advantage of the proprietor. The relation of the public to the proprietor is precisely that of the buyer to any other mer- chant. He pays certain sum for 8 certain commodity. But he has no more right to undertake to manage the proprietor's business for him than to manage that of any other merchant. To ask newspaper for an advertise- ment or for notice of a private interest is as impertinent as to ask the grocer to give his sugar and butter instead of selling them, to ask the baker to give his bread, or to ask the lawyer to plead a cause for nothing. The baker, the grocer, and the lawyer make their iv- ing by selling their wares, not by giving them away, and the newspaper is not a public charity, of which the benefits may be enjoyed without price, but it is a private business, carried on for profit, not for pleasure. Those who think that the publicity which it offers to an ad- vertiser is not sufficient return for the cost of advertising will go elsewhere. But if they are satisfied to advertise, it is because they think the return is an equivalent. They pay for that, and they receive it. But they have no further claim. They have no more right to demand Ca notice" because they advertise, than to demand of their natter pair of gloves because they have bought hat that suits them.
 The newspaper, indeed, from it's na- ture, necessarily establishes moral and intellectual relation with it's buyer which the grocer and the baker do not. It maintains opinions it argues and ap- peals; it advocates or opposes public policies and measures and as its buy CTS are naturally those who agree with it, the laws of trade make it seek to agree with them. Thus the newspaper is very much what its pubic wishes it to be. If the opinions of the paper are such as to repel advertisers and buyers, the opinions will be suppressed, because the proprietor will hardly care to pub- fish his opinions at 8 great and con- stant loss. This seems, indeed, to i'm ply that public opinion guides the press, rather than the press public opinion. But the truth is that the influence is re- ciprocal. In every great community the general tendencies of political opin- ion, for instance, are already deter mined, and the newspaper which reflects any one of them ably and truly acquires by means of publicity and reiteration, added to ability, natural leadership. This leadership it can exercise to the best results within certain limits. Thus, if the journal be Republican or Demo cratic, it can educate and advance opin- ions which it approves, so long as it is done without fatally alternating Republi- can or Democratic sympathy. But ii the Republican journal should suddenly declare Democratic views, or vice verso, it's prosperity would be instantly checked. No editor in the country ever had greater influence than MT. Gree. ley, but it is understood that his change in 1872 from 8 Republican advocate to a Democratic candidate was 8 very seri- ous blow to the welfare of the 1Ts6une.
 Editorial ability, professionally viewed, is the faculty and tact which, in the first place, discerns what is really news, and condenses and presents il accurately and entertainingly. Obvi
 ously what is news in one place, and under certain circumstances, may not be news in another. What is desirable in weekly paper may be out of place in daily paper. The faculty of dis
 tinguishing in such cases, and of adap
 tiveness to the situation, is test O. editorial ability. In the second place that ability is shown in the skill witl which the circulation of the paper Ii maintained and increased without com promise in the expression of editoria conviction. It is, of course, essentia to the weight and influence of such ex pressions that they be known to be per fectly honest. There is no leadershi in echoes and limitations. When, there fore, the opinions of great and pros , porous paper ar steadily maintained, , is 8 just inference that they are widel shared. Papers that wobble " infalli
 bly, betray either want of ability to dis f cern opinion, or want of skill to main , tain their own view. This is the reaso l that clever journals value consistency s a highly that rather than appear to be in F consistent they are sometimes willing 3 be unjust. t.-Har.per's Weekly.
 r A Bone Story.