The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1884-05-31
DoNALDsONvILLE LOUISIANA, SATURDAY, MAY 81 1884

mote and guard thep public veal. Indeed the
editorial chairs of Aanerica have already
supplied efficient officers for some of the
most honored seats ct trust. The two
houses of Congress and the presidential
cabinet have been Invaded by them; the
presidential chair VET nains to be taken.
An army of such man distributed over
the Union at the great social and CONNER
cial centres is the natien's greatest SAFE
guard. Awake, sthey are, to every
movement portending either good or evil,
capable of interpreting every symptom
of danger, condemnisg, approving and
suggesting, what combinations among the
agents of destruction, What an amount of
intellect must be concentrated in order
that the people may DO the innocent VIC
Tins of fraud! The newspaper Of to-day
in this way becomes the great conservator
of governmental purity, and so in part of
the moral purity of Individual life.
This aggregate Of intallect, representing,
as we have seen, much of the nations best,
operates in still other directions. Its force
is felt in the cause Of education, and it is
perhaps the principal means by which our
complex economical relations are SO easily
and rapidly readjusted when disturbed. A
mathematical demonstration of its value
| In these respects is not to be expected, but
it is likely that the tenth census, if made to
yield all its facts bearing on these points,
would support some interesting conclu-
sions. We have observed slightly varying
inverse ratio III differ6nt States between
the number of newspapers and periodicals
circulated and the percentage of paupers.
and the same is true in regard to
illiteracy. While such.yariations establish
only very strong probability that they
are to be ascribed to the influence of peri
odical writing alone, we may accept them
as proof that such writing forms at least
an important factor among the several
which may make up the real cause. Great
Importance is attached to the effects of the
newspaper on pauperism, because its exis-
tance indicates thepresence of various evils:
or corrupt moral sentiment.
1t has been pointed out already how the
newspaper may improve the moral status
OF the masses and how it may have an infiu-
ence III preventing the prevalence of disease
will appear not more plainly in its hints
on health than in its bold suggestions to
the municipal boards of health, together
with other bodies of that kind, and its
caustic criticisms on their negligence or
misconduct.
We may we'll deem it matter of wonder
that this all seeing censor has not done
more IN this line. Information continually
poured into the minds of those who feel the
symptoms of increasing disease will not al
ways fall void. The snost wayward will
heed danger, when they come into its
shadow and see the phantoms of death. The
physical frame is the basis of all things
human. Then let us preserve it.
But the newspaper in no one direction aids
social operation more than in regulating
the relations between supply and demand.
The farmer who has never been hundred
miles from home in all his life may learn
from his weekly what price will be paid for
his produce In the great markets of the
world, while it is yet in his hands, and by
his weekly he may be advised whether or
not it were better to sell it Immediately,
hold it for some future demand, or convert
it into some other form, as corn into
pork, before he should put it to sale. By
the newspaper the inland trader is made
aware that he may gain by holding his pre-
sent stock at higher prices, or save by SELL
ing quickly at reduced rates. The open
eyes, the penetrating intellect of the news
paper men are commonly the first to dis
cover whether or not America may prepare
to meet unusual demands on her industries
from Europe, and whether or not Europe
may safely look to America to have those
demands met. When by temporary causes
there are sudden rises in prices, the same
monitors are ready with arguments adjusted
to the humblest understanding to advise
the sanguine, vainly hopeful masses not
to forsake their present callngs in order to
produce something which shall not, by the
time it is Produced, be worth its cost. If,
by the introduction of some new industrial
force, achange is effected in the economical
relations of the business order of society, as
by the invention of the cotton gin, the news
paper men are the first to see the dangers
to be avoided and the good that may result.
By their hands the chambers of learning
are ransacked, the opinions of thinkers
versed in the sciences concerned are evoked,
discussed and spread abroad. By the as
sistance of the worlds ablest men, the pop
ular mind is thus fortified against error in
adapting itself to the changes made; the
struggling thousands who bear the burden
of social existence are thus saved from the
penalty Of misconduct.
The great value of such work to the in
dustrial world ought to be the more appre-
ciated, when the disastrous consequences of
variations in prices are called to mind.
The newspaper cannot obviate, it merely
mitigates these evils. But great as they
are, they are not to be compared with what
they would be if the readjustment of those
forces which determine the balance between
supply and demand were not thus assisted;
and as these forces become more and
numerous and their relations more and
more complicated, the less can that assis-
tance be dispensed with.
The faithful editor is, therefore. above ell
other men, the friend of the people, though
it may be there is no plain truth of wf.ic:,
the people are more ignorant. But how-
ever slow they may be to honor those who
nave been long treated with cautemnt l,x