New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-04-10
PRICE THREE CENTS.
FIFTY YEARS OLD TO-DAY
THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF ITS HISroKn
AND WORK.
HOW HORACE GREELEY AND THE TRIBUNE
MADE EACH OTHER FAMoUs-ITs RE-
ORGANIZATION IN 1s72-Irs
PLACE TO-DAY.

PLACE TO-DAY.
Fifty years ago this morning Horace Greeley ~
sued the first number of The New-York Tribune.
At that time the City Of New-York contained less
than 81 3 900 inhabitants The State contained
less than 100000, and the total population Of
the Union numbered but 100000. The Ma
tional domain still in large measure unattaneds
and west of the Mississippi but three State Gov
ernments were organized. Texas was struggling
feebly to loosen the bonds of Mexican enthralL
ment, and the States and Territories now known as
California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. together
with portions of Wyoming, Colorado and New
Mexico, were Mexican soil. The Oregon Of that
day was disputed region, including British
Columbia and the present States Of Washington,
Oregon and Idaho. Iowa was the name OF vass
country stretching northward from Missouri along
the Missouri River to the Canadian border. The
greater part of the present States Of Kansas, Ne
braska and Colorado were called the Indian Ter
ritory Florida was still administered by a Fed
eral officer, and the outposts of civilization In
the West still hugged the Mississippi. Twenty
six States comprised the Federal Union
To-day there are forty-four The population
of the Union has reached the grand total Of
63,000,000. New-Yorz City, which then opened
into green fields above Fourteenth-st, now
stretches into Westchester, and provides homes
for 100000 people. In the approaching State
election fully that many voters will participate,
telling of population in the State Of over 6O0O,-
600. The country which has come under the
operation of self-admnistered law since the first
Tribune appeared is twice as great in area as tho
country then organized. The National revenues
have grown from $4,000, 900 a year to $780,
100000 Since that interesting date slavery has
been abolished the National banking system e.
tablished, the telegraph invented Five lines Of
railroad, have surmounted the Rocky Mountains.
and the travel of six months has been put into
six days. Steam has conquered the ocean, as
well as the mountain heights, and one actually
hold conversation far across the Continent as
civilization then extended. What an amazing
reminscence is The Tribuncs
1t may fairly be said that to these magnificent
accomplishments The Tribune has furnished
large contribution. The organization of society Ia
so infinitely complex that single influences are
difficult to perceive, much more to measure, and
yet it is possible to say that The Tribune's part
in making the history Of its country has not been
email or valueless. Horace Greeley was Of all
men the most unnssuming, and yet eagerly, hero
icaly self-conident. He esta blshed The Tribune
in quicksand of debt and under conditions that
made his enterprise audacious, but his faith in
himself, his supreme conviction that the purposes
| he treasured and the sentiments he felt wero
| purposes and sentiments that needed only ade-
quate expression and resolute advocacy TO win
| the applause of the people, and that he had the
power to state and so to plead for them enabled
him to look with composure upon long series
of embarrassing balance-sheets At the end Of
the first week of publication only S92 had been
taken in and S525 had been expended. More than
| half of the cash capital upon which the paper
had been started was gone But to man
1 alax,,S <l,a
! far from discouraging. The number of people
who were reading The Tribune had grown with
| each issue, and in constantly increasing pro-
portion. This, and not the cash deficit, was what
his mind dwelt upon.
| Mr.. Greeley was thirty years old and already
distinguished. His life had been indescribably
hard. His father, though debtor,
utterly poor, and as boy he had been compelled
to work far more assduously than his strength
warranted In his mother, woman Of much
intelligence and force he had sympathetic friend
and the intense longing for books which he de-
veloped almost before his childhood days were
gone she encouraged, and at much sacrifice graft
fed. The gentleness and simplicity which so
! charmed his countrymen in later life were his
chief characteristics as boy, and with them
were united that mental decision, that tenacious
purpose. that splendid moral courage which
glowed so brightly through The Tribune during tho
dark days of the War, inspiring the Nation so
strongly and holding it so steadfastly to tho
causes he championed Indeed, among all the
! great men that have been produced from among
| the American people it may be doubted IL there
| Is one who bore at his death strong like
ness to the child from which he grew did
Horace Greeley. OF deceit, of policy, of malice,
of the moral weaknesses and vices that strife
so generally develops, he knew as little when
he went into his grave as when he was born.
He had had good deal of newspaper expert
ence before he founded The Tribune. For fifteen
years he had been working among types and
| presses. He had learned the printers trade In
Vermont, and had worked at it in several country
towns in New-York and Pennsylvania, and al-
ways in connection with local newspaper. For
ten years he had lived in New-YorlS City, always
occupied at his trade, and generally in directing
the fortunes of q popular publication of sons
kind In 1884 he started The ew-Yorker," q
literary weekly, and. undoubtedly, had it pos
sessed a business management OF any real ca
pacty it would have become profitable finan.
cialy as it was excellent editorialy. Mr.. Greeley
did some of the finest work OF his life in Tho
| New-Yorker" II obtained circulation of TO-.
| 900 copies. and earned for its proprietor q great
reputation throughout the country, but he was no
| ADLER then than afterward to defend himself
against people who made debt virtue and when
he stopped its publication, just after The Tribune
was issued, he had nothing to show for all his
labors but choice array Of delinquent sub.
scribers These, of course, he forgave. During
all these years Mr.. Greeley was becoming moro
and more controversialist. He supplied lead.
inc articles to The whg," and edited political
weekly called "The Jeiiersonian." These labors
had won so wide reputation for him as polit-
| icai writer that when the leading Wings of New.
York looked around them for some strong hand
10 conduct campaign daily during the Pres-
DENTAL contest of 1910 Mr.. Greeley found his OPP
nortunity He started the famous Log Cabin"
the most effective campaign paper that has ever
been created. Its popular success was amazing!
Its issues ran up from 5000 to $4,000 copies.
It is good reading. even now. No keener satire.
no finer invective was ever employed in political
discussion than Mr.. Greeley launched at Martin