Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-09-30
THEIDEAL NEWSPAPER.

In letter to The Louisville Courier
Journal from Lausanne Henry Watterson
writes:
Yet, after all, has not literature, and
particularly fictitious literature, under its
old forms, very nearly run its course? Is
there anything In books which the news
paper, adequately rendered, can no better
produce and supply, except the records of
times when there were no newspapers,
admitting that works of the imagination
/ have exhausted their possibilities and
spent their force? Mind you no man
thinks less of the current newspaper than
do. 1t is a vast power misdirected, and
l was almost going to say wasted But l
IN my fancy see newspaper not so misdi-
rected of wasted, conducted under the
largest sense of public and personal re-
sponsibility, edited with tact ability and
care, intelligently and clearly, and, where
the occasion requires, brilliantly written,
and yet furnished with all the resources
of modern enterprise and organization.
No newspaper answering this descrip-
tlon now exists in the world, and perhaps
none is likely to exist for long time to
come. But one will exist as soon as the
experiment is tried by a man equal to the
task and master of the situation immedi-
ately at hand. Then the public, seeing
what newspaper really can be, will not
| hesitate to make its choice; and after
that 1t will pay no man of
! brains and ambition to fish mud out of
! the sewers.
But, 1t may be asked, what ought a
newspaper to be, and what can it be? 1t
should, to begin with, be history, and a
complete history, of yesterday, neatly
and justly told. 1t should, to end with,
be chronicle of the life and thought, and
as far as may be, reflection of the tenn
per and tone of the people, done with alb
solute fidelity. The newspapers which
first achieves these purposes will be the
| greatest of practical successes, Just as
those newspapers which have approached
them nearest have been the greatest prac-
teal successes.
At the bottom of this scheme lie three
cardinal principles. They are
Disinterestedness.
Cleanliness.
Capacity.
The ideal editor need not be-nay he
must not be-a neutral, or ''free-Iance."
| Often the worst kinds of servility and
corruption are found masquerading und-
er the pretense, and sometimes the &C.
tual belief, of independence" No man
can amount to much in this world who
does not believe in something, who has
not some believing, and to say of a man
that he is either a skamp or a skeptic.
The ideal editor may be as partisan as he
| pleases. But he must be disinterested;
that is to say, he must be what he claims
to be, and must seek to represent truth,
as he sees it, for truths sake, and not for
the sake of an Office or job. He must
| n ri md fran IL l. h. IL
Even the professed advocates of special
interests Dy doing so have gained great
credit, how much more credit is to be
gained and merited by one who dedi-
Gates himself wholly to the general inter
est? Too honest to be bought and too
| brave to be bullied, such an one needs
only capacity to mpass every end pos
sible to the reason of his being. He will
establish between his readers and him
self a perfect understanding as is estab-
lished between the upright banker and |
his depositers or the honest LAWYER and
his clients.
journalism, if journalists would only
see it, is quite as exact science as law
and banking, and to it the same general
principles should be applied as are ap-
piled to other professions which depend
upon the faith and credit of the many,
and which look for their rewards to the
service they render the public. The
banker who neglects his bank, the law
yer who quits his office to seek other
kinds of profit, or fancied profit, poll
tical or otherwise, than belong to his
legitimate business loses-no matter
what he may gain by his venture-pro-
fessiOnal character and custom So will,
and so does the journalist. Journalism
is no less a jealous mistress than law,
and will reluctantly divide her favors
with another. Indeed in public life the
best, and all, that any man can have is a
constituency; and this, once acquired, |
may not be trifed with. He who is true
to it will stand, as he who is not will fall,
and the rule works precisely the same in
the press as in politics.
There have been. of course, some jOurn-
alists who have shone in official life, but
not many, because the conditions that
! make a man brilliant in journalism are
! the reverse of those which make him bril-
liant in office. The business of the jour
alist is to arrest the attention of the pub
lie from day to day, and this puts a strain
upon the inventive faculties and the nerv-
Gus energy which are at war with the
steady and sturdy cOmposure ind1spen-
sable to successful administration.
In his public intercourse the journalist
Is a debater, not an administrator. He
must be ready on the instant for all COM
ers is allowed no time to reflect or pre-
pare, and has to speak to every disjointed
thought, giving each its proportion. An
event, an idea, no bigger than the first ray
of the morning sun, appears above the sur
face of affairs; he can not wait for this
to disclose itself, but must deal with it at
once; it shows its face a little more, and
he must mark the change and deal with
that; and finally by the time it has reach
ed its complete development and is ready
for statesmen to take hold of it, the jour
nalist has put it before his readers in
many ways, according as if it may have
altered its aspects in the process of ris-
ing above the horizon and ascending to
its zenith.
He who is unwilling to submit himself
to the limitations which such work as this
imposes had best leave journalism severe |
ly alone; but to those who realize it and
| accept it there are lively times and plenty
of usefulness ahead, for few pursuits in