Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-04-27

work will be more interesting to some Wis
itors
SUPPORT OF THE COUNTRY NEWS
PAPER.
The duty of the citizen of every town
| and county in the State is to be parti-
| san in support of his local newspaper.
| That it may not accord with his political
views is matter of secondary Importance.
| That the paper may not be conducted in
| all respects as he would have it, should
not cause him to withdraw or refuse his
| support. There are duties we owe to each
| other that are not to be lightly shaken off
or with nonchalance neglected, and one of
| these is the maintenance of local press.
No matter how plentifully metropolitan
journals may be served in community,
they cannot take the place of the home
paper. The RECORD UNION realizes that
it may be crossing its own interests at
| right angles, since it circulates so largely
| and widely in the towns and counties of
the State, when it advises business men
and citizens generally to accord first sup
port to the newspaper published in the
town or county where they resides and do
| business.
The reasons for such advice are many
and obvious. The country newspaper is
an absolute essential to the metropolitan
journal. The latter gauges its estimate of
the drift and strength of public opinion
very largely by its reflection through the
country press. The country editors field
| is much circumscribed, it is true, but it is
| also true that he gets nearer to the people.
He is in the personal atmosphere of the
citizenship of his county, and the trend of
| its thought must be and is indicated in his
columns. The country press, therefore, is
to the metropolitan journalist very gen.
| orally reliable indicator of the condition
of the public mind. As he gathers,
masses, compares and analyses these re-
Elections, he is enabled to very accurately
ascertain the thought of the people upon
ali leading topics, outside, perhaps, of the
realm of party politics.
But the higher value of the rural press
is to its own community, first as a means
Of interchange of thought between the
citizens of county or town, and second as
a means of making the section known
| abroad, and hence Of bringing it into
communion with the activities of business
and social life exterior to local bounds. A
town or county without at least weekly
local newspaper is literally removed afar
from the thought and activity of the
rest of the State. 1t is, in fact, by its iso-
lation. made stranger in the house of its
| friends. As means of calling the atten-
| ton of the community to its own needs;
as a vehicle for conveying to the people of
| the locality the knowledge of the local
business claims and capacities; as an
| agency for unifying local thought upon
local concerns, and as an educator upon
local resources and capabilities there is
nothing that can be substituted for the
local press. 1t may be very poor affair,
it may be lacking in energy, push, dash.
precision and powers of observation but
even the poorest is better than none, as it
constitutes some sort of bond of COM
munication and therefore of unity be-
tween the people, even when at its
worst. If it is, however, enervate in
capable and nerveless, the blameworthi-
ness attaches to the community.
1t is very miserable town, indeed, that
attains thousand souls in population and
does not maintain fairly spirited local
newspaper. In larger communities, if the
paper is intellectually starved, and of low
news pulse and vigor, the cause is very
likely to be found in the meager support
afforded it, and the grinding and mistaken
economy that forces the journal down to
starvation rates and starvation product.
In this matter of newspaper production
in the country, it is as with all else-com-
munities will reap as they SOW and receive
as they deserve. If the town or county
wants a vigorous and wideawake press, it
can and will have it. Newspaper markets
respond, as do all others, to the demand
As matter of economy, country COM
munities should support their local press
liberally-indeed, keep them up to the
high-water mark of prosperity-for the
very excellent reason that the community
is pretty sure to be judged abroad by its
press. We think it was Horace Greeley
who said that he could read the social
business and moral condition of COM
munity very accurately by perusal of its
press. and it is an expression that is preg-
nant with truth. But it is economic to
support the local press well, because its
appearance, the very method by which it
is is issued, even its topographic face, but
above all its clean, vigorous tone, intelli-
gence, spirit and fairness react upon the
community that demands these qualities,
and there is thus resulting benefit that
would be quite impossible except through
the agency of the exponent of public opin-
ion.
Every considerable community should
have village or town library and pub
lie reading-room. There is no town so
poor that it cannot in this day and age Of
good cheap books erect this, barrier to vice
and idleness, and set up this fount of never
ending blessings. But if by any possibility
there is community that feels itself una