The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-07-16
TWO CLASSES OF HARD WORKERS
Would it be just for the Farmers to Have
Governmental Aid and Leave the
Newspaper Men to Hustle
Alone?
TGreenville News.


The newspaper men Of this country
as class work very hard for their liv-
ings and get mighty poor livings at that.
They can and dc complain with justice
that they are oppressed by advertising
agents, neglected by people who owe
them, pursued by people they owe aud
constantly defrauded and wronged. A
few of them are prosperous. Many Of
them fail and lose their time, labor and
money after straining every nerve. The
great mass of them barely manage to
make ends meet, and come out at the
end of each years hard work as poor as
they began.
A few years ago they could sell their
weekly papers at from 81 to So year
and their dailies at from SIS to $40. Now
81 weeklies and S6 dailies are the rule
and they have to supply bigger and
better papers to do business.
We can claim that we are oppressed,
robbed and poor; that paper trusts and
twine trusts afflict US; that when we
borrow money We have to pay interest
on it; that many Of our presses and
plants mortgaged that Jay Gould
and the Associated Press eXtort their
cash evry week; that our hard-earned
and painfully gathered ducats flow in
unceasing streams into the Golfers Of
lnonopolists; that the printers and press
men demand their wages every Satur-
Gay and the cash to crafty them has
often to be hustled for.
All these complaints are like those
the farmers make and equally we'll
founded.
Now suppose the newspaper men OF
the country should unite in demand for
relief. Suppose they should proclaim
their hardships and misfortunes and
the fact that they are as arule good and
useful citizens, that the great mass OF
the people depend on them for informa-
ton and intellectual food. Suppose
that in consideration of all these things
they should demand flexible currency
suited to their needs, abundant in sum-
mer when collections are scrarce, con-
tracted in winter when cash in abund-
ant. Suppose they should demand that
the government should lend money at
, per cent, to two-thirds the value OF
their plants, or accept their subscription
lists or account books-based on the
faith and credit of the people-or guam
titles of completed job work, as securi-
ty. They might even go further and
run off few millions of paper curren-
cy on their job presses and put that up
as collateral.
Would anybody think or claim that
these things and demands were just or
worthy of consideration? Or can any
body contend that the government in
granting them would be using any Of
it's proper functions? Or can anybody
show how newspaper men would be
helped b. mortgaging their years busi-
ness and collections, taking the chances
of loss or gain and borrowing money
they would have to pay back.
The illustration seems absurd, but we
ask serious consideration for it and
defy anybody to point out the essential
difference in the case that could be
made by the newspaper men and that
made by the farmers.
Like the farmers, we work and SOW
all the year trusting to harvest at crop
gathering time. Like them we are de-
pendent on the weatherand the seasons
for abundance or scarsity. Like them
we have to meet sharp competition, %
reduce prices according to demand, to
pay the prices demanded of us for tele-
graph tolls, paper, ink, type setting,
presses and rents.