The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1890-07-11
American Journal .sm.

confess that do not entertain that
firm and complete attachment to the
liberty of the press which is won't TO be
excited BY things that are supremely
good in their very nature. Iapprove Of
It more from a consideration Of the evils
it prevents than of the advantages it in
sures. In America, as in France, the
press constitutes a singular power so
strangely composed Of mingled good and
evil, that liberty could not live without
it, and public order can hardly be main
tanned against it.
Its power is certainly much greater
in France than in the United States (;
and this small influence of American
journals is attributable to several reas-
ons. amongst which are the following
The liberty Of writing. like all liberty,
is most formidable when it is a novelty;
but the Anglo-Americans have enjoyed
this liberty ever since the foundation of
the colonies. Moreover, the press can
not create human passions, however skill
fully it may kindle them when they ex-
ist. In France the space allotted to al
vcrtisements is very limited, and the
news-intelligence is not considerable /;
but the essential part of the journal is
the discussion of politics. In America,
three quarters of the enormous sheet
are filed with advertisements, and the
remainder is occupied by political intel
ligence or trivial anecdotes: only from
time to time is a corner devoted to pas
sionate discussions, like those which
the journalists of France every day give
to their readers.
1t has been demonstrated BY Observa-
ton that the influence of a power is in
creased in proportion as its direction is
centralized. In France the press is re-
markably centralized; almost all It's
power is combined in the same hands,
so to speak, for its organs are far from
numerous. The influence of q public
press thus constituted, upon a skeptical
nation, must be almost unbounded.
On the other hand, the number Of pc
riodicals in the United States is incred-
IDLY large. Enlightened Americans at
tribute the small influence Of their press
TO this excessive dissemination Of its
power; and it is an axiom Of political
science in that country, that the only
way to neutralize the effect Of public
journals is to multiply their number.
/ can not see how truth which is so
self-evident should not already have
been more generally admitted in Eu-
rope.
In America there is scarcely ham,
let which has not its newspaper As
unity of action can not be established
among so many combatants, each one
fights under his own standard The po-
litical journals of the United States are
arrayed on the side of the administra-
ton or against it; but they attack and
defend it in thousand different ways.
and can not form those great currents Of
opinion which sweep away thestrongest
dykes.
The facility with which newspapers
can be established produces a multitude
of them but as the competition pre-
vents any considerable profit, persons of
much capacity are rarely led to engage
in these undertakings. The journalists
OF the United States are generally in a
very humble position, beingmen ofscan-
ty education and a vulgar turn of mind.
The personal opinions Of the editors
have no weight in the eyes of the pub
lie: what is sought in newspaper is a
knowledge Of facts, and it is only by
distorting those facts that a journalist
can contribute to the support ofhis own
views. French journalists cultivate a
violent, but frequently an eloquent and
lofty manner of discussing great ques-
tions: whereas the characteristics of
the American journalist consist in an
open and coarse appeal TO the passions
OF his readers. He abandons principles
to assail the characters Of individuals,
to track them into private life and to
disclose all their weaknesses and vices.
Adopted from lie Tocqueciiie.