The morning call., 1891-06-10
HUNTTNGTON on ORGANS.

Mr.. c. ?. Huntington has taken the
trouble to deny the statement that he is Col
onel C,ckrilFs financial hacker in the CONT
uent newspaper. He adds by way of ex-
PLANTATION that his advances o money to the
late Mr.. DorsheimeT, then editor and propri-
etor Of the Star, the predecessor Of the Con-
tnent, were loans to a friend and not sub
sides to a newspaper. Mr.. Huntington is
becoming wise in his day and generation
He probably realizes that the control of a
newspaper by a corporation having deal
ings with the public and interests which are
liable to be antag0nistic TO those of the pub
lie cannot assist the corporation, but may
be a source of injury. The utterance of a
subsidized paper which is understood to be
an organ of particular interest does not
carry much weight with it.
The organ business was a feature of early
American journalism. Ambitious politi-
clans and aspiring syndieates thought it nee
essary to have an organ. Numbers of news
papers which had no reasonable excuse for
existence were supported by donations and
subsidies from individuals who fancied that
the outlay would be repaid by help derived
from the papers. Aud, in effect, the organs
d do battle for their hackers They often
did battle in season and out of season with
such p9Tsistency that the people who sup
ported them lived IN a chronic state Of war
1are. The effect Of their pugnacty was TO
provoke attack, just as the man who walks
down the street spelling for fight gener-
ally gets one at last. Newspapers which
were disposed to be neutral were goaded into
assaults upon the owners of the organs be-
cause they were known to be selfish.
Thus it came about that people who sup
ported organs found themselves engaged in
far more controversies than they courted,
and though when the organ was ably con-
duct"d they often got the best of their
fights, they could not help realizing that
they would have been better off still if they
had had no fight at all.
a man who owns OF controls a news
paper is held by the public to be responsible
for its utterances. He may derive some
benefit from the praise it bestows on him,
though this is largely discounted by readers.
But when 1t plumbers or tells untruths or
expounds false doctrine ne is charged with
the fault and there is no discount on the
charge.
If sir. Huntington had done what the
papers accused him of doing, and agreed to
back Colonel COckrill in his newspaper
venture, the new paper would, after a time,
have been pOwerless to assist him, but he
the Southern Pacific Company, the Pacific
Mail Company and the other companies
with which he is affiliated would have been
held responsible by the public for Colonel
CockrlPs acts. Enemies whom the Colonel
made in the conduct of the newspaper
would have wanted to strike back, not at
the man who held the pen, but at him who
furnished the money to keep the paper
going. Mr.. Huntington would have been
supplying funds to keep himself in hot
water.
Aspirants for Office and corporations
seeking business have no use for news
papers except to report facts There is but
one way in which they can secure the sup
port of the only papers whose support il
worth having, and that is by SO conducting
themselves and their business as to CON-
mand public approval. Newspaper SANDER
of man who is trying to do right and is
dealing squarely with the public glaDces off
and rather helps than it hurts its object.
And newspaper eulogy Of one who is soul
less and who is blind to every interest ex-
cept his own can neither save him from
public dislike nor rescue his apologists
from contempt, which is the guerdon of the
sycophant.