The morning call., 1891-05-28
THE ALTA NEWSPAPER.

THE CALL has TefTained from comment
ing on the stories which have been current
for some days with regard to the impend-
ing changes in the AltG newspaper. but
now that that sheet admits that certain
changes are in process" and emphasizes
the admission by reducing its size one
half, some reference to the subject ap-
pears TO be necessary as part Of the news Of
the day.
Whether the paper is to pass out of eX-
istence, or is TO undergo a transmigrati0n Of
soul and body and reappear under new
ownership and with a new policy, nothing
but time can reveal Newspapers which
have history. ana have houriShed for forty
odd years, rarely give up the ghost. When
they cease TO be self-suPporting, they
drag along a sort Of dormant existence and
are forgotten for awhile; but before they
actually perish, some sanguine person
usually takes hold of them IN the idea that
he can succeed where stress failed, and pro-
tracts the agony. Still there are examples,
we have seen more than one Of them in this
city, of the absolute death and burial Of
journals which in their day were prosper
ous. 1t may be that this destiny is re-
served for the Aita.
The demise-actual or conStructiYe-0f
the oldest daily paper in the city is the
more singular as the AttG was in many re-
sDects a meritoriOus sheet. Its staff en-
braced men OF experience and writers of
ability. 1t gave the news generally with
intelligent comment thereon. 1t occupied a
field which was particularly its own. 1t ap-
pealed to a class which, if not numerous, is
we'll supplied with means. 1t purported to
express the opinions of merchants, persons
whose voice is heard at the Chamber OF
Commerce, and similar resorts. This class
controls sufficient advertising patronage to
support a daily paper, but it seems it
would not do so.
The first mistake of the alta was that it
did not publish current news People take
newspapers because they want to read the
news Of the day, with explanatory COM
ment; they advertise because they want to
reach those who consume the wares they
have for sale. The 4 Ito did not supply the
news of the day as fully as its rivals; nor
were its comments thereon Invariably judi
cious and sound. Hence the class in whose
behalf it was published transferred their
patronage, mostly to sheets which had no
particular claim upon them, but which more
nearly approached their idea of what a
newspaper should be.
1t signed its own death-warrant when
stress of circumstances compelled it to ac-
| cept loans-which were in fact gifts-fTOm
unpopular corporations. The public. with
swift celebrity, obtained knowledge of the
| transactions, and not unreasonably set the
! paper down as the subsidized organ of CON-
| panies whose interests were constantly an
+o +f,af Wit n 4 or
! confidence and support from a sheet which
could not be impartial in controversies in
which they were on one side and aggrega-
tons of capital on the other. From the hour
when il became identified with them its
! usefulness as an organ expired. There was
no reason Why they should spend dollar
! to keep alive a sheet which rather hurt than
| helped them. Independent support is the
| only support that is worth having.
The later career of the Altd has been a
! striking illustration of the i'm posSibility OF
carrying on a newspaper with divided au-
/ thority. 1t was run By a combination.
! There were half a dozen gentlemen who
! possessed a veto on lis Utterances; nearly
as many who claimed the right of using its
/ columns to say their say. The result wa
| anarchy and helpessDess. The elimination
from public life of one Of the ablest men Of
the day was mainly caused by the support
he received from the Alta; he might have
| been a living force to-day if his fayorit,
| sheet had let him alone. But it is in
! grained in the mind OF the American peopl,
| that public newspaper should be really a!
well as nomnaIly a spokesman for the pub
lie; when they are convinced that it has ab
dicated that position TO become the spOkes-
man CT clique or an individual they vii
have none either of it or the clique or indi
/ Vldual il champions.