The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-05-17
EDITORIAL PERSONALITY.
1t is No Longer the Dominant Fac
tor in journalism.
Correspondence Of the Press.l

Correspondence OF the PreSS.J
NEW YORK, May 16.-What has become
of the great editor? I am moved to lay
this question before the profession be-
cause of the emotion ] feel after review
ing some old files of prominent papers
and contrasting the wonderful person
ality in their editorials with ths lack of
it in most journals now. Have univer-
sal education, the growth of population
and increase of fairly good writers re-
duced the great one to the ranks or rem
dered him obsolete?
When began to read the newspapers
no one asked: What does the New York
Tribune say? They asked: What does
Greeley say? Similarly they asked: What
view does Prentice take of it? These two
dominated the thought of the Wabash
valley in those days, aided or thwarted,
of course, to some extent by John d.
Defrees and the editors at Cincinnati,
Toledo and st. Louis. The smallest item
in the Louisville Journal was potent with
the personality of George D. Prentice. 1t
was popularity taken for granted that
Horace Greeley wrote every important
editorial in The New York Tribune. And
when Toledo, Washington, Cincinnati or
other city papers were quoted, the first
question asked was as to the name of the
editor. He was responsible to a degree
unthought of now; the great mass of
readers accepted or rejected statement
ON his authority alone.
At a somewhat later date every city
had its recognized editorial authority,
whose utterances in his particular field
carried tremendous weight. A hundred
thousand voters accepted the opinions of
deacon" Bross as second only to the
gospel. From ocean to ocean Samuel
Bowles had personal following that no
man now has. Whitelaw Reid as "Agate"
gained personal strength in the west
which is not even now exhausted. The
signature 'E. D. M" in The Cincinnati
Gazette would cause 100000 old sub
scribers to read the dryest article. Hal
stead, Medill, Watterson, Cowles, Dana,
Wash. Mclean, Richard Smith and
many more had each his personal fol-
lowing, and in different line SO had
Storey, of Chicago, and the De Youngs,
of San Francisco.
In like manner the journals of many
smaller cities acquired a prominent per-
sonality. 1t was not The Dayton Journal
but Major Bickham who was quoted;
not The Omaha Herald, but DR.. Miller;
not The Denver News, but Byers, and SO
on all over the country. Major Bickham
had literally created newspaper power
at center where there was apparently
overwhelming competition from three
sides; and when Omaha had, perhaps, a
population of ten thousand DIR. Miller
made The Herald sound Us if it were the
exponent of an interoceanic and trans
continental metropolis. 1t is pleasant to
note that both these gentlemen are still
vigorous and their personality still shines
through the editorial Accommodations of
recent years.
yEl.~.- tl>is .lits.s.s.l- personality had
declined and almost ceased in the east it
seemed for time to increase in the far
west, and many a small town would
have been totally unknown save for the
editor If any one had cared to inquire,
The Kansas Gazetteer would have told
him that White Cloud was village in
Doniphan county; but "Sol Miller's
White Cloud Chief was known and
quoted far and wide. 1t had personal
ity which completely overshadowed that
of the town.
The same was measurably true of The
Parsons Kan Sun, The Salt Lake Re
porter, The Territorial Enterprise (of
Nevada), The Burlington Hawkeye, Pho
neer Index, La Crosse Democrat, and
many other journals in the new states
and territories. When Helena, Mont,
was so far in the wilderness that one
armed himself for an Indian fight to
reach it, it had one of the spiciest papers
in the United States, and more than one
village station ON the Pacific railway
boosted of ga paper you could swear by"
as the citizens put it. Where are all the
young men who made their youth and
humor, their strong hope and budding
talents manifest in these papers? Alb
sorbed by the great city dailies-those
who are still at the desk-their person
atty is lost, but the great daily pays
bHcll DtllSi OlIdl bilo pCloOlidi OIStl ulO.
The panic of 1878 and the following
"hard times" were contemporary with
tremendous change in journalism. The
great newspaper corporation has taken
its pick of the local geuiuses, and in its
many departments they are, so to speak,
swallowed up; they write, perhaps, bet
ter than ever, but the reader no longer
feels that he is in close touch with the
one he knew so well.
Of the editors in the greatest cities
great, mean, in their relation to their
sections) can just now recall but three
whose personality is greater than that of
their papers, and in many respects
greater than that of the city in which
each is located, viz: Charles A. Dana,
Murat Halstead and Henry Watterson.
Henry w. Grady was fourth, but his
place is not filed and it is very doubt
full if it will be. The day of separate in
dividual enterprises is past; the day Of
great aggregations, alike of talent and
capital, has come. The personal domi-
nation of one writer 10 o,,lx "a ba 1oo1yad