Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-28
DUTY OF THE STATE
In the Settlement of Strikes, as Con-
strued by a Shrewd and
Able Chicago Jurist
LOGICAL AND STRONG ARGUMENTS
On the Eight-Hour Movement, the Rights
of Workingmen and Other Live
Questions of the Day.
LOGICAL AND STRONG ARGUMENTS
REPUTATION IN NEWSPAPER WORK
A Policy Of The Pittsburg Dispatch That is Worthy
of General Imitation.
,ooRREsroNpEScE OF THE DISPATCH.


CHICAGO, July 96.-Of the score of
Judges who preside over the higher courts
of Chicago one of the most practical, hard
headed and business like is John P. Alt
geld. The lawyer who tries his case before
him has to keep down to business. The
man who tries to kill time in his court finds
himself prodded with very sharp goad-
With almost a contempt for technicalities
and subtle refnements he goes quickly to
the merits of a dispute and settles it
promptly, leaving the disappointed litigant
TO appeal if be wants to.
Judge Altgeld is emphatically a self
made man. Starting in a new country
without dollar he has build up handsome
fortune by shrewd and successful instru-
ments He became a lawyer and failed,
tried again and succeeded, and now, while
yet young man, he is regarded as one of
the ablest, and certainly is one of the most
useful men on the bench. In politics he is
a Democrat and is credited with socislistic
tendencies, but he has no scruples against
buying acre tracts and subdividing them or
against building great warehouses and
drawing substantial rents from them. He
has always been regarded as
A FRIEND OF THE woRKINGMAN.
He has the leanings!and sympathies one
might expect to find in a sensible, we'll
in formed workman turned into Judge, and
perhaps for that reason, is not regarded with
very great partiality by attorneys who rep
resent the interests of monopolistic corpora
tions. He has Just published a volume of
essays entitled "Live Questions, in which
number OF important topics are treated in
very able and interesting way, and with
the evident intention of doing the very ut
most one man can to right some OF the
wrongs and correct some of the abuses which
he has observed.
In running over an essay on ANONYMOUS
Journalism" one would almost imagine
that the author half regretted that ne had
not made reputation as newspaper man
like the late Henry W. Grady or Henry
Watterson-insteao of as judge Hewould
have the writer of every article in a daily
paper attach his name to it, and he believes
that, if that policy were adopted and steadily
pursued, it would work a revolution in the
newspaper and the newspaper men of to-day.
1t would put stronger and abler men in
charge of the great papers, would make
them more accurate, more able, more fair,
more Just, and most of all would give the
journalist of to-day q reputation and a
standing in the community of which he is
deprived by the present policy of anony-
nous writing.
BRAINY NEWSPAPER WORKERS.
''The newspaper men of to-day" he SAYS,
''have as much natural ability, as high
aspirations, as much common honesty and
as strong an inclination to do right as had
those of three-quarters of a century ago. |
In fact, it must be said of the rank and file |
OF newspaper men that it is doubtful |
whether any other calling contains SO large |
q percentage of young men who possess, in |
the highest degree, the attributes necessary
to achieve success ana eminence in the |
world. As rule they are intelligent, in
dustrious, and, in moral character, will
compare favorably with the devotees of any
other profession; and, If the conditions of
newspaper work were the same now as they
we're earlier in the century, the newspaper
fraternity would develop more great men
and furnish more great public characters
than are furnished by any other class.
"But the blight, the weakening influence
of anonymous writing, settles upon all es-
pecially those connected with the large city
papers; and, as a rule, they move along
unknown, and die unhonored
by the public, never establishing a reputa-
tion commensurate with their ability or
with the great amount of work they do-an
amount OF work which, under more favor
able conditions, would win them immor-
tality."
THE PITTsBURG DISPATCH POLICY.
Evidently the author is in full sympathy
with the generous policy pursued by The
PITTSBURG DISPATCH in encouraging all
the leading members of its staff to sign their |
names to their more important articles and
to their reports of important news events |
such as the recent Harrisburg and Scranton
and the mine horror at Dunbar, |
but he would carry the idea further and |
make every expression of editorial opinion, |
and every paragraph, which touched the |
character of the private citizen. bear the |
name of its author, so that a brilliant man |
on the editorial staff would receive due |
credit for his brains and so that it would be |
i'm possible for a malicious editor or reporter
to "sandbag" victim from under cover
The Chicago Judge is right. A lawyer
who does a brilliant thing, either in win
ming cases in court or in conducting the
affairs of great corporations, gets credit for
Il. He has produced certain results in the
lace of very great difficulties. He has
shown that by reason of his brains or his in
iustry he is capable of exerting certain in
1uence and the public and gives him credit
or it, and he is nerved to surpass himself at
he next opportunity.
AN EDITORS IDENTITY.
An editor skillful in the use of his pen,
nay exert q very much greater influence.
With paragraph he may turn the success
# political party into failure. By time
Y word he may avert an impending public
disaster. By arousing the moral sentiment
# a community, he may, and frequently
loes, put an end to schemes that would
otherwise cause infinite harm. Yet he re-
mains SO absolutely unknown in the COM
nunity over which he exerts so great an in
luence, that scarcely half a hundred people
Know him outside O. the circle of his daily
associates.
A Chicago man picked up THE PITTS
BURG DISPATCH the other day, and, glanc-
ng over an editorial, remarked that it was
exceptionally able, and showed a fine ap-
lreclatlon of the subject of which it treated.
3erhaps 600 people in Pittsburg thought
he same thing as they glanced over it the
lay before, yet not 90 of them had the re-
hottest idea of the personality of the man
rho wrote 1t. Only a few of the active
workers. for Pittsburg newspapers could
ven make surmise as to the name of its
Triter.
WRITERS REPUTATION.
A lawyer or physician doing similar
FORK In his line becomes known at once and
rims money and patronage and reputation.
lie viii not allow his future achievements
0 fall below that standard ii he can bsIn II
Sut no such reward comes to the anonvmous
ditor. He draws the same salary as before
nd remains unknown, and finally. after
aany years of great usefulness. drons Of
and unsung" ~