Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-28

foremost citizen, 1t is no reply to him,
therefore, to say that Harvard men have /
been hanged, and that some of them have
been the disgrace of their families and of
society. That is mere recrimination, and
in that there is no strength. The true re-
ply to Professor Eliot is this, that in a fit
of indigestion probably he lost sight OF
the great truth that no work of such mag
nitude as that of journalism and the issu-
ance of daily newspaper is to be judged |
by its defects in a single department.
If we quote from another eminent man
and brilliant scholar, Emilio CASTELAR,,
who has more of worldly wisdom than has |
Professor Eliot with all his profundity, |
and who is esteemed one of the best OBJ
servers in all the world, we shall call the
attention of the distinguished bilious doc
tor of laws to these truths, so eloquently
uttered by the famous Spanish scholar.
Referring to the honors that the Chinese,
"who have lived in perpetual infancy"
shower upon their priests and historians,
CASTELAR, says:
I think that modern peoples ought in a SINH
lar manner to honor their journalists. For
these exceptional witnesses know what rays OF
| light cross each other on our horizon: these
public judges prescribe rules which form the
! judgment Of the human conscience upon all ac
lions. The passion of parties is of small i'm
portance; without it perhaps we should not be
able to comprehend this prodigious work,
which, like all human works, necessltates the
steam of great passi, to set it in motion. The
| studied silence upon some subjects matters lit
tie nor the partiality shown on others nor the
injustice, even to ialsehood, SO often manifested;
| for from this battle of spiritual forces results
the total life, as from the shadows we perceive
| the harmony OF a picture. 1t would be better If
\ we had not these evils, so we should be happier
! if we had not either physical intiruities or
moral mistortures, but it is as difficult to rec
tify society as nature, and its laws are as COM
plieated as the mechanical laws of the universe,
and at times as fatal And it is fatality of the
social organism that progress encounters Obsta-
| cles in the great efforts designed to advance
| it; the past with its errors, rises against
| all kinds of advancement and makes the Tut
most efforts to destroy it. But from the cloudy
and intricate world OF falsehood arises lumln-
Gus ether, which forms the world of truth.
| However, if all the different institutions OF
which people are so proud were one day called
| 70 Judgment aud if each OF them showed both
| the good and the evil they have DONE perhaps
not one of them could retire from the trial as
| pure as the press, and none would more justly
merit blessing from humanity.
So true is it that there are here and
there in the vast multitude related to the
press, men whose habits of life honor
neither it nor society that no newspaper
man undertakes for moment to deny it.
The esprit du corps in journalism demands
no concealment of that fact, and calls for
no mere complimentary eulogiums upon
the workers of the press to cloak the truth.
But as all other institutions of mans
creation are marred by his errors of heart
and head, are specked by his weaknesses
and Swallowed by the vices of his passions,
so, too, does the press partake Of some
humiliation because of humanity's weak
ness. But if standing at the critical dis
lance of impartial justice we view the
whole work of the reporters for the press,
then we must conclude with CASTELAR, that
these minor ills are Insignificant, and that
the men of the press can come to judg
ment with as fair records of the accom-
plishments of their agency OF progress as
any other class With him we can say;
Laborers of the press, modest and obscure
writers You have never been able to measure
| the great importance OF your occupation, be-
cause You live in the midst of it, and consider
| it almost as portion OF your being. But, alas
without you the most illustrious perFonages
would be lest the most glorious works would
| be as bells sounding in space. You bear to
each individual the sorrows of all others; you
bring to the afflicted the hores of all humanity.
| Your pens are like the electric wires, which
unite the most distant regions of our planet.
Your ideas resemble the atoms of sir in which
| our souls Iespire; they are the moral stmos-
phere of the globe. 1t is necessary to weigh
| well all the gravity of such ministry in order
| 10 exercise il with becoming grandeur and dig
| nifty. 1t is one of the most sublime works of
which the human heart is capable.
So far as the judgment OF Professor Eliot
goes upon the character of the average re-
porter, it is evident that he is ill-advised.
The truth is, and this all the world except
Professor Eliot knows, this class of work
engages some of the best working human
forces. There is no class of men upon
whom devolves such weighty obligations,
such grave responsibilities. Their Office
is one calling for the best there is in man,
and for work that is second to no other
upon the press. The reporters are the
outer guards, the pickets of the line, the
chosen skirmishers thrown into direct and
advance contact with the world, the pic
neers of each days life of the newspaper;
the forerunners of that wonderful vehicle
upon which the history of every days hour
| =, bo-,,o ;n4o al q -aoorIa al apnoIs of +;r,o
They are the men of whom is demanded
more of sympathy, humanity, charity and
pure justice, than any others upon the
daily newspaper. Often misudged by an
unthinking world, except within the lines
of their calling, they receive little credit
and ask for none for their constant mer-
cies and their everyday charities to weak
humanity. Measured by the hard rule
that makes them historians, they are silent
in the face of misconception concerning
their motives, and the apparent GOODNESS of
the judicial attitude they are called upon to
constantly assume. The world knows
them by what they write; it knows little
of the countless columns that are in mercy
and human pity buried in their hearts.
| Whatever Professor Eliot may think OF the
office of the reporter, judged by those who
have dishonored it, it will remain one of
high trust and honor. Abused it may be
and disgraced, and its members humili-
ated often by the corruption and excuses
of some, but it has suffered as has pulpit,
bar and faculty from like causes, and it yet
remains that the Office of the reporter is
that of gentleman, and is one not be-
meath the calling of any other worker who
tolls for his wage.
/ SOCIAL AND PERSONAL