The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-08-30
Newspapers and the Temperance
Work,

Chicago, and is the organ of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union, recently con-
tanned the following paragraph:
Three years and half ago when the publication
OF the signal was begun,our exchanges were as bar
rem Oh temperance matter, as innocent OF all ahu-
zion TO temperance, 1t is possible to imagine.
Weary work was editorial clipping then, like hunt
Ing for needle in haymow. Weary it is now,
some tines, but for entirely different reason
What the French call the embarrassment of rich
es" l. upon and the difficulty is to choose out of
the multiplicity the very best'
The Union Sisnal must have had pecu-
liar list of exchanges when it began its
work No doubt there has been an increase
OF interes. in, and attention to, the temper
ance cause in the newspaper press, especial
ly the press of the Western States, within a
few years past, but everybody at the East
who has been familiar with newspapers
knows that for many years they have given
much space to the discussion of the subject.
Here in Maine the press has never been bar
rem of matter on this subject since Neal Dow
devised his prohibtory law. For years it
was one of the issues in every political cam-
to promote temperance, whether by legal
restriction of rum-seling or by what used to
be called "moral suasion," has received
fair share of attention, quite as much as it
is entitled TO in considerati III of its
importance and relation to the other news
of the world. In Massachusetts the subject
has been under discussion for twenty years.
No news on the subject has failed to be
chronicled, and every phase of the argument
has been considered in editorial discussion.
However it may have been in the West,
here in the East attention ives paid by the
newspapers to the temperance agitation long
ago, aud has been continued all the time.
There are several other topics which are of
later discovery and more sudden growth as
material for the daily press; for example
campmeelings. and the regular church sell
vices on Sunday.
Ii the Union Signal means only that it
finds in the papers nowadays more which
is quotable by an gan of the temperance
movement, perhaps that is true. The West
ern papers, formerly paid little attention to
temperance because little was doing there in
that cause, aud no great demand existed
either for news or argument In this re-
spect there has been a decided change.
Probably if there should be another woman's
crusade, like that which fourished some
time ago, the organs of such method of
advancing temperance would fluid little fav-
orable comment in the daily press, because
editors as class are not likely TO encourage
such proceedings. They would, however,
give, as they gave before. all the news of
what the crusading women were doing quite
as fully as the public demand would war;
rant.
Daily newspapers are not published prim-
arily as the means of propagating philan-
thro2ies, but as business enterprises. Peo-
pie want to know what is going on in the
world. TIE newspaper undertakes tc inform
them and expects to make the business of
supplying information profitable. The edi-
tor of each paper must judge for himself
what news he will give and how he will
give it. If there are sufficient number of
people who want to know more ABOUT the
temperance work, or foreign missions, or
some sect of Christians, or natural science,
spslsii sia..E .aas- s gEic<pEe or fashions. or
devoted to politics and the general Interests
of society, somebody will be found to at
tempt to supply their special wants and of
ten papers are started and sustained by
those interested in the advancement of par
ticular causes, purely as matter of duty and
charity. Any person or organization that
can afford the luxury is at liberty to print
newspaper to forward his own views; but
journals that must pay their own expenses
have to be edited with regard to the tastes
and prejudices of their constituencies, and
the organs of particular philanthropies, like
the Union Signal, should recognize that a
journal may be friend and ally of good
causes without filling its columns with sta
tistics and lectures for which most of its
readers do not care. ANY good newspaper
is glad to print any news in which it's read
ers will be interested If it has space and
means 10 do it, and it will be found that
news concerning the temperance work is as
gladly printed as any.