Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-23


rates established and some plan adhered to
which will put the business on a footing that
Will do justice to the earnest men who now give
so much and get so little who make great men
out of small politicians and are snarled at If
they ask a recognition which they have earned
over and over again. Every other business is
capable of receiving the benefits of organiza-
ton. Farmers and fruft-growers, wine-makers
and merchants, skilled and unskiiled labor, all
feel the benefits of compact and association.
The country press stands alone, outside of all
the modern processes for the protection of its
interests the shelter of its prices and the hold
ing of its benefits to proper relation with the
volume of its business. We hope that the mat
ter will not be forgotten, but the value of
guild viii be proved, and one of the main
agencies of intelligence will bring prudence to
the rescue of its fortunes.
This really covers the subject but still
it may be added that the fact that with
out organization the country press has no
franchise, is the groundwork upon which
the scheming proceeds that keeps the
country newspaper forever in the tolls of
the average advertising agent, and the
slave of communities that do not reward
the laborers who serve them. If, there
fore, organization can be secured that will
prevent the possibility of one paper
being used to cut another's throat, not
only the interior press but the interior
communities will be benefited. 1t is to
the interest of the towns and cities of the
interior to be represented by strong, ener-
getic, clean, self-respecting newspapers,
since by their press the communities of
men are very much judged About the
worst thing that can happen to town is
to be the almoner of charity to weak,
threadbare, indecisive, fearful and tremu-
lous newspaper. We believe that the re-
cent convention formulated the plan
which, with amending that may be nee
essary, will be accepted by the country
press when submitted to it by the COM
mission appointed to prepare all the de-
tails, and set the wheels of the new ma
chinery in motion. Once accepted, the
success of the scheme will simply depend
upon the good faith, manly instincts and
courage of those who sign the compact.
Adhered to for single year, there never
will be any departure from it, since it pro-
ceeds upon the theory that those whose
interests are mutual, should stand together
in commanding the enjoyment of nat
ural right and refusing to deny it to each
other. The result will be, in the press,
a tone of independence, a freedom of
spirit and crispness, vigor, brightness,
force and influence among men, that the
country paper has not now, and never will
have, so long as it labors at cross purposes
with itself. The benefits of this new Or
ganization will be reaped, we repeat more
by the people of the country than by the
press owners, and this fact is one of the
most potent in moving US to sympathize
with the new efort-for generally a busi-
ness class that permits its own guns to be
turned upon itself without even a protest,
is not entitled to much sympathy.
SENSATIONAL journalism has developed
anew its infamy. Two reporters for
Chicago paper, that of course justified and
stimulated them to the act, saturated cotton
cloth with blood and placed it in the cot
tage where DR.. Cronin was murdered.
This led the officials off upon false scent,
and some months of time and energy have
thus been expended in wrong direction,
while the real criminals have improved
the opportunity to cover their own tracks
and possibly make good their escape. The
chemical test Of the blood now proves that
it is not human, but was taken from a pig.
The result is, that to save the prosecution
from total defeat, the reporters have come
forward and confessed the trick they per-
petrated to give their paper the first
news" Of sensation" in The Cronin
mystery. The two rascals ought to be Sc
verely punished. In misleading the Off
GERS they really became purticeps cr-iminis,
and ought to be prosecuted as accomplices
after the fact. Suppose that their scurvy
deceit In the interests of the meanest of
ambitions, newspaper "scooping," had mil
ltated against an innocent defendant, and
had secured his conviction, and that death
had interviewed and removed the witnesses to
the deceit, a blameless life, or two or three,
would have been sacrificed to satisfy the
craving of vicious journalism for sensation.
We agree with the Alta California in its
views on the subject, when it says of the
reporters: "Their act was as distinctly in
obstruction of justice and in aid of the
murderers as if it had been concerted be-
tween them and the slayerS. It belongs TO
that class of newspaper enterprise which is
an ofense and a menace to society"