Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-08-12
rNIE EDIfOR's COKsCiESCKl
Responsibility OF Men who Cone
troll the Modern Press.
aeorre william Curtis.

ear. He is believed to say what vast
numbers believe. He can pursue an
opponent with unsparing calumny. He
can cover him with ridicHle every
morning. BE can ssum public vir.
tue and invoke public indignation
upon his victims head. At the threat
OF legal proceedings for libel he can
raise successfully the cry that the lib
erty of the press is endangered. How.
ever venal and contemplate he may
be, he holds in his hand the fuse Of q
torpedo, the match that can spring q
magazine.
Moreover, a newspaper is generally
simply a business enterprise. If it is
undertaken by an individual, it is for
the purpose OF making money like any
other business. Ifit is established by
a political party or religious sect or a
moral reform, it is intended to be an
organ OF the purpose that POUNDS it.
In neither case is its primary object
that of finding the truth or of tellingit.
1t is subject, also, to the conditions of
trade. 1t is an Improbable specula
ton if it does not circulate widely.
Its circulation, therefore-that is to
say, its sale-is vital to its prosperity /;
and, like all other traders, the propyie
tor must offer such wares as the buy
ers desire, and must provide constant
attraction for his customers, who are
of two classes, those who buy the pa
per and those who advertise in it.
But generally the profits proceed from
the advertisements, and they depend
upon the circulation. The editor,
therefore, who controls the paper,
must please the largest number of
buyers possible.
Now, the traditional motto Of trade
is "Caveat emptor." Let the buyer
beware. 1t mean that the buyer
must take care Of himself and not
complain if he is cheated. 1t means
that Mercury, the god of sWindlers, is
the genius OF trade. 1t means that
AL is fair In love and at The custom
house" The newspaper proprietor or
editor is a merchant. Is he morally
bound to be more conscientious than
other merchants? Is it worse for him
to be dishonest than it is for other
traders2 For himself personally, no
No man Individually can be more than
honest, or less than dishonest. The
c~riminality OF the murder committed
by Eugene Aram and of the Turkish
massacre at Scio was essentially the
same. The murder of one man or a
community is but murder. Yet the
consequences are very different. 1t
is the nature of the editors
business which makes the con-
science in him indispensable, which is
of less consequence in the individual
trader. The tailor who imposes upon
his customer shoddy for b~roadcloth.
or the shoemaker who sells pasteboard
soles for leather, or the grocer who
gives short weight and chicory for
coffee, is a petty knave, and his mis-
chief is a petty mischief. But the
editor who, to sell his papers, uses the
enormous power that he controls to
hold his advertisers, to pauder to dan
gerous prejudice, to aatter the passions
Of the mob, to distort the news, to
defend dishonest public officers, or
who accepts brides of any kind,
whether of advertisers or Of public
place, for silence, prevarieation or
falsehood, is not a grocer sanding the
poor mans sugar, he is a public crimi
nal poisoning the city reservoirs.
He is not selling rotten cloth, he is
corrupting the principles of the PEG
pie and running the commonwealth.
More than 3,250,0O0 newspapers are
issued every day in this country.
Upon their honesty and ability de-
ponds not only the welfare of 50,0OO,-
900 of people, but the interest of
progressive popular liberty. The
editor controls this vast power, which
is felt in svery hamlet and home from
Katabdin to eahta Barbara. His
conscience determines whether it
shall be turned to a noble or an igno-
bic result, to human happiness or
suffering. A constituencies farmer,
Gy merchant, or teacher, or manufac-
turer, OF trader Of any kind is a local
nuisance and shame, but a csnseience
less editor is a public calamity.
The editor is a trader, but only in
the same way that every man is a
trader gho exchanges his labor for his
means Of living. TIE moral law which
binds every rational being binds the
editor, and his r~ecreancy, IS we have
seen. may be often very much more
disastrous tbap tho recrealcy of 9th.
ers. The sophistry that would pgrsuade
him to sell his pen to say What he does
not believe would make him a mere
bravado who sells his dagger, or a
soldier of fortune, like sforga, whose
country was that which paid him most
and who know no cause but his purse
The position Of an editor who says be
does not think, because he is paid for
It, ie pot that Of an honorable advo
cate, who oaly tskes care that justice
shall be legally done, but Of Ga: IN.
principled oharlatan who strains every
nerve to secure the release Of a man
whom he knows 10 be the worst OF
crimihSlR. A mar can no more right
fully sell bis pea 10 say what he does
not think than his tongue to tell a lie.
But, fortunately, If a paper is a
business enterprise, and an editor, in
q seSteip sense, a trader. it is no less
true in his busiuess than in any other
business that honesty Is the best pol.
icy. He is tried by no sorer tempta
tion than other men, and he has no
more reuse than others for not resist.
ing temptation. The editors con.
science, like that OF every human
worker who is brought into active
contact with many men and various
affairs, assures him, as the old sailor
said, that God has somehow so fixed
the world that 2 man can afford to dc
about right.