The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1886-10-30
EDITORIAL HONESTY.

EDITORIAL HONESTY.
The FREE TRADER has lived from party
pap. has been the leech of the party and
the candidates have been bled from Dan TO
Beersheba, from soda to hock.-Plunlbs
Ottd1a Organ.
The colonel has warm place for the
country newspapers. fellow In
Ottawa owning bushel or two of type re-
Ceived the other the other day magnifi-
cent steam press as reminder of the COL
onel's affection. A similar press arrived
here [Streator the other day. They come
high, but the colonel needs them in his
business, and must have them. All these
papers are printing the colonel's suppos'.
tious speeches. He has four papers in full
blast now-three dailies and one weekly
II the proprietor of fifty pounds Of type
and hand press desires to make stake.
all he has to do is to load up his outfit In
a carpet sack and come down into this dis
trict, set up shop In q fence corner, and
notify the colonel of his preseAce.-CM.
cage Times, October 23d.
This latter excerpt explains, from a
purely disinterested and outside stand.
point, the open secret of the independent
press" of this district.
Newspapers are supposed TO be expo
nents of public pinion,-demOcratic pa
pers of democratic thought and purposes !;
republican papers of republican thought
and purposes No honest man can take ex-
ceptions to the purposes of such papers If
honestly and fairly expressed.
The Independent press is In this country
almost misnomer. Practically It does
not exist. When the title is assumed II is
assumed as cloak for money making pur-
poses-to make the paper pay. Either the
editor or owner Is coward, and afraid to
express his honest views because he fears
1t would effect his business; or land We
point to the English independent" press
Of this county he systematically sells his
opinions of money. AS Judge David Davis
once put it-"My experience with indepen-
dent papers convinces me that they are in
dependent simply to secure the highest
bid"
In town like Ottawa, where the busi-
ness of publishing newspapers is one of
sharpest competition. where the profits of
honest work are small, and whsre only the
most minute guarding of details can earn
profit, the temptation to sell is very great,
1T means money in the purse.
Now the FREE TRADER does not pretend
to be ultra virtuous or a scorner of the
filthy lucre.' But this 1t can say:
That it defies Mr.. Rose or Mr. Ralph
Plumb or any living man to produce man
who can say on his oath or his honor as
man that the FREE TRADER, or any of Its
editors, did at any time during the past
As years on any occasion or under any cir
cumstances, ask, beseech or demand money,
patronage or other reward for the support
of this paper in political contest.
This no doubt, il fact unique to Mr..
Kendig, Mr.. Rose, Mr. lie Roy Mr.. Plumb
et al. Men of that stamp cannot conceive
how man publishing a newspaper can
have opinions and express them or work
for principle without hope of reward and
often to his pecuniary detriment. Princi-
pie is factor that has neither place nor
part in the life they are living. Their only
rule of life as expressed in the campaigns
of the past three years is get place and get
money, And in this struggle the question
of morals has no place.
1t Is no longer secret thai Col. Plumb
paid (and heavily for what influence the
Journal eSerts in his behalf, just as he
bought the editorial columns of two other
dailies and a weekly in this district, for his
own uses and purposes. 1t is further fact
that Mr.. Rose himself threatened Circuit
Clerk Taylor and prominent democratic
lawyer of this city, who, he expected,
would be candidate this fall, with his op-
position to them unless they gave him print
Ing to do, which he did not get, by the way
and every man who knows ought of the
printing business nowadays knows that by
legitimate and honest newspaper work the |
Journal has not earned profit to pay for
the machinery II now claims to own unen !
numbered. Where did they get the money
The Times explanation is the only only one
that can he given-Col. Plumb gave 1t TO
them, and Mr.. Roses behavior in the court |
house since he came here shows he is not
above that sort of argument" And Col. |
Plumb's warmest friends will not deny that
he has paid these newspapers to work UP
sentiment for him.
Whist sort OF morals ID this, ls il better |
than sneak tbieverys Newspapers are sup.
posed TO voice public opinion. Readers eI- |