Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-01-25
JOURNALlSTS0N DECK.
THEIR REMARKABLE PROMINENCE
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WASHINGTON. Jan. eS.--A son,ewhst
remarkable dinner party assembled at
Chamberiin's last Saturday night Four
or Ave prominent officers Of the govern.
ment. formerly connected in an editorial
capacity with The Chicago Inter Ocean,
gate . dinner 10 . former managing
editor Of that paper, Senator Pierce, Of
North Dakota This pretty little dinner
caltsd to mind the prominent part which
newspaper men are now playing In pub.
lie, Affairs, Il seems to me chat wher.
ever one turns in this capita. city no
comes upon newspaper men who are
welding gteat influence in politics and
othet. fields OF human activity, over and
above the influence which they natural.
ly exert as writers and editors. do not
- yet hope that the editors will be able
to take the place Of the lawyers as the
principal components of the ranks Of
statesmen. J..-I4l-n ,i4.1ta..s4
Probably the lawyers win always lead
In this respect, as 1t is right and proper
they should. A somewhat careful study
Of both senate and house lfas convinced
me that the best preliminary training for
national legislator is that acquired in
law office. in court, and in necessary IA
miliarity with the laws and parliament
ary usages. The training Of the law Is
not Indispensable to success, but It is
much in ones favor. Two of the most
successful men Of their times in the house
of representatives, James @. Blaine and
Saniue1 j. Randall, had not this advan-
tage. Neither ever studied law. One Of
the most eloquent, witty and useful
Qpmb6rs Of the house during the last
quarter Of century, the late s. s. Cox,
was not lawyer. There are many other
exceptions TO the rule, but the rule never
theless remains that nearly all Of the
leaders on both sides of the house and in
the senate have had legal training and
experience.
But in purely executive offices this
rule does not hold good. Here the edi-
torial training is fully as good as that Of
the iiaw Some of the most successful
executive officers of the present govern
ment are journalists, and the same thing
has been true of past administrations.
! wish here to pause momentarily to de-
fend the use Of the word journalist. 1t
Is q good, wholesome word, of well de-
fined, precise meaning, perfect pedigree,
convenient application. It may as ap-
propriately apply to the reporter as to
the editor, to the desk man as to the
special correspondent. A newspaper is
q journal of the times, and all of us who
help make journals are journalists. tits
the common fad among press workers to
say:."I am not a journalist, I am a
newspaper man." But protest against
that. The counselor does not call him.
self "lawyer man." and only in de-
rision is the physician termed "medi.
cine man." No such cant is INDUCED in
by the educator, the architect, the min
lister, the civil engineer. Why, then,
the awI.ward,s sSpetfuous "newspapef
man. as substitute for journalist?
Daniel Manning did not object to be-
ing called journalist, and he was more
thai thatl lHeswas a great politician, a
Warwick, a party statesman. He made
Grover Cleveland presidentof the United
States and derived creditably inlhis' cabi-
net. Charles A. Dana was and is a
journalist, and he was cabinet officer.
Daniel Lamont was journalist, and he
helped make Grover Cleveland, both be.
fore and after the election of that gentle
man to the presidency. Another jour-
nalist, and good one, now occupies the
delicate and responsible position of pri-
vate secretary to president whom he
helped to make. John G. New, proprie-
tor of The indianapolis Journal, and tho
present consul general to London, had
strong hand in the nomination and cleo
ton of Harrison; but there was no more
vital, well balanced, effective force in
that effort than that exerted .by Elijah
Halford as editor of the principal paper
&tiiShB tine most enecuive workers III
the various Worlds fair interests which
have been SO ably and numerously repre-.
sented here of late, | saw members of
the editorial fraternity calamity con-
spicuous. Col. Elliott Shepard was the
handsomest and most polished of the
New York workers, while the round and
good humored James w. Scott, of Chi
cago, and the gayly bewhiskered. keen
eyed Col. Jones, Of st. Louis, were as
marked for their energy and Judgment
as for their personal attractions. These
latter two are the men who by sheer
force of newspaper genius have within
a few years built up about the finest
printing properties in their respective
cities.
When we miDgle with the bright and
the big men of our times, journalists, or
those who were once journalists, are at
our elbows. Census Commissioners Por-
ter was maker of newspapers. Capt.
Meredith, who manages that great work
shop, the bureau of engraving and print
ing, has from boyhood had two hands
stained with honest printers ink. Sec
retary Blaine and Chief Justice Fuller
started out in life as reporters in the same
town. Occasional visitors to Washing
ton, and men who while here are sought
out by the most powerful cabinet minis
ters and senators, are Editors Medill and
Nixon, of Chicago; Watterson, of Louis
vile; Halsted, of Cincinnati; Charles
Emory Smith, of Philadelphia; Agnus,
of Baltimore; Rublee, of Milwaukee,;
Rosewater, of Omaha. Mclean, of The
Enquirer, lives in royal style here, con-
suited and courted by men Of both par
ties. .-...r.-#
There are many journalists and print
ers in congress. Some are one, some the
other, and not few both together, for
there is and probably always will be a
strong link between the trade and the
profession. Senator Hawley, of Connec-