The record-union., 1891-02-28
NEWSPAPER HONESTY.


The bill making it misdemeanor to
misrepresent the circulation of news
paper is to be commended and should be-
come a law.
No one will contend that by legisla-
ton man can be made honest, but he
can be made to fear, and can be punished
for dishonesty. Newspaper publishers
by the very nature of their business call
for certain public trust to be reposed in
them. They secure private and official
patronage upon the basis of their client
age of readers. When, therefore, they
secure support for their journal by false
representations, they obtain money by
fraud, and ought to be held accountable
before the law for the cheat.
1t is not the purpose of the proposed
law to compel any publisher to disclose
his private business; but it is the thought
of the bill that if he makes disclosure he
shall do so in accordance with truth. 1t
is said that the measure is in the interest
of great, and opposed to the interest of
the papers of small circulation. But that
is gross error-the bill is in the interest of
the public, which is always superior in
its rights to the individual.
The journal of large or small circula-
ton has no right beyond the truth con-
corning that circulation. When paper
opposes truth-telling it confesses that it is
not above lying. In the matter of the
publication of official advertisements,
where the object is to secure wide circula-
ton of the matter published, it is Of vital
Importance that there shall be no deceit
concerning circulation.
The mere matter of newspaper rivalry
and jealousy in no wise concerns the
public. But it is concerned in knowing
that the avenue it chooses for its an
nouneements is precisely what is claimed
for it. If it is represented that it is a
broad and long highway, cutting through
great number of sections and travelled
by multitude, and it turns out that it is
only a by-path, short, tortuous and little
used, the public is cheated, and the cheat
The advertising public is entitled to pro-
lection, the newspaper man can protect
himself He certainly has no right to
ask the law by quiesence to aid him in
defrauding the public.
If a business man advertises in a news
paper upon the representation that it has
some thousands of subscribers or regular
recipients, and in fact it has but few
hundred, he is grossly imposed upon,
and the fact that the imposter owns types
and presses i'll no wise mitigates the
offense.
If the dealer in wood assures the buyer
that the measure of a purchase is full
cord, and it happens that it is short in
any appreciable degree, the wood dealer
by selling to that buyer on the represen-
tation made, robs the latter to Just the
extent of the shortage and he cannot
plead the rule of caueat enaptor. 1t does
not change the character of the imposi-
ton one whit that the seller traffics in
newspapers and not in wood
But the bill referred to should be
strengthened by amendment, or supple
mented by an enactment providing that
if newspaper is printed wholly within
its county, it shall have preference OF
public business as against any paper
printed in part anywhere else.
The truth is that the paper printed only
in part at home is not home paper. 1t
may be doubted if it is legally paper
that can be officially recognized, even as
the law stands, since all laws requiring
official publication uniformly declare
that it shall be made in newspapers pub
ished in the county or district-not hall
printed and published in the county, but
wholly, is clearly the intent and the rea-
son of the law
The patent outside or inside ought to
be made ineligible to receive public bus
iness, if there is a paper in the county or
city printed wholly at home. The latter
is honest publication, the former does
not differ greatly from circular, and is
not, in reason, such newspaper as the
law contemplates should be employed by
officials as mediums through which to
give notice.
All publishers know that not infre-
quently newspaper is gotten up for the
express purpose of receiving giver
amount from the local public treasury