Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-04-21
The Editorial &" We."

tive and curious. especially about mat
tiers which do not concern them in the
least. For example, hele is a corre-
spondent who makes the startling rev.
elation that he is a constant reader of
our valuable and influential paper,"i
and would like to be informed why it Isl
an editor or newspaper writer, when
speaking of himself in his writings. in.
variably uses the plural pronoun I'VE"
instead of the singular 81"
There are several reasons. Sell
preservation is the first law OF human
nature. 1t begins at home. like old
Mother Charity. There is some human
nature about an editor. public opinion
to the contrary notwithstanding. An
editor thinks too much of his 'I's' to
wear them in mourning, and therefore
when speaking of some slab sided, six
footer as miserable, red nosed, pusil-
luminous. wife beating snoozer, he con-
siders it the better part of valor to drop
in an occasional "we." This creates
in the mind of the six footer the i'm
preston that the editorial force con-
sists of a standing army. armed with
deadly ''we"-apons.
Furthermore, in cases where tho VIC
tim comes around to the Office to kill
the writer of any particular item, it is
so pleasant to have the guilty mans
identity buried in the obscurity of the
plural .'we." Tho editor n-chief, the
commercial editor, the city editor the
local editor. the reporters, the book
keepers, compositors, bookbinders, job
bers, pressmen. devil and all the deliv-
cry boys are thus placed on a common
footing by the little pronoun ''we,"
and when the enraged person looks
about him and finds how many homes
he would make desolate, how many
wives he would make widows and how
MANY children orphans, by killing off all
included in the 1--WE" at one fell swoop,
he sickens Of the sanguinary undertak
ing, turns sadly away, goes to some
barrOom, takes drink, condemns the
paper, prophesies that it is being run
into the ground, and declares that he
will henceforth exert his political influ-
ence to squelch the sheet.
And again, having tackled this SUBJ
ject. we feel called upon to correct an
erroneous impression, which has gone
forth through the Vaccinations and
manipulatiOns of the machine. A few
years ago the fiends of the opposition,
for whom we have but feelings of con-
tempt and loathing, and for whom we
can find in our book of synonyms no
sufficiently opprobrious or condemna-
tory title, caused to ha published in cer-
tain sheets which W. will not mention,
a story to tho effect that the use of the
pronoun "wc" by the newspaper orig
mated in this wise: In England the
King, Lords and Commons constituted
the three estates of the realm. The King
spoke of bimselt as "we," the Lords Of
themselves as "we." and the Commons
in the same manner. The scurrilous ar
ticle referred to above endeavored to
convey the impression that the editors
tried to ape the customs of the King
and the Lords, and, by considering the
newspapers the fourth estate, they &C.
quired the habit of using the pronoun
eve" This is a most ridiculous as
sumption. as the intelligent readers of
the Derrick will see at a glance, and the
story was gotten up merely to detract
something from the popularity of the
newspapers. The facts in the case are
these: The editors commenced using
the word "we" long before the Kings
and Lords ever thought of such thing;
but after awhile the Kings. Lords ct al,
adopted the style under the impression
they could deadhead their way into
some of the female minstrel shows.
But it didn't work, and, after being
kicked out few times, they tried to
make folks believe the use of the plural
pronoun originated with them.
There are other reasons. When no
ticing a marriage or birth "we" i'm
plies that at least box of cigars will
be required to go around.
An editor says "we" when advising
the President how to conduct his Adj
ministration, because the President
might not act on his suggestion if it was
written plain IL"
When telling minister how to preach
the editor uses eve" to induce the be-
lief that he has just held conference
with all the eX-ministers about the es-
tablishment.
The editor who tells the teacher how
to teach says "we," because he has
consulted with his wife about the mat
ter. and she having been teacher a
few years before. of course knows all
about it.
1--WE" is sometimes used because of
the writer's modesty. Most writers are
troubled in this respect.
In short, we use eve" because no
one man could survive the trials, tribu-
lations and tally found about o print
shop. city Derrick.