The record-union., 1894-02-08
AN ASSAULT UPON SAN FRAN
CISCO NEWSPAPER MEN.

Some interior journalists having OBJ
jected, with some show of Indignation,
against what they conceive to be ''tag-
ging'' and "collaring" by the photo
management, the San Francisco Chronicle
of yesterday arose to explain that "the
rule was not adopted to meet the case OF
the interior editor at all. The photo
graphic pass was specially designed for
city newspaper men, whose pEoclivities
are well understood by the head of the
Bureau of Publication and Promotion"
That this expression is deliberate and
official admits of no doubt whatever.
since 1t is given emphasis by repetition in
these words of our San Francisco CO.
temporary, following upon the heels of
the charge that San Francisco newspaper
men are disreputable and unworthy to be
trusted: "When the subject of compli
mentary admissions was first under con-
sideration it was proposed to admit all
editors to pass the gates freely upon their
simple declaration that they were jour-
nalists and without the use of any card Of
however, that the unreliable character of
the city newspaper men made such a
course impracticable, and much to the
regret of the bureau it was compelled to
adopt rule which was successfully car
ried out at the great Sanitary Commission
Fair in Philadelphia in the early sixties,
at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, at
the great Paris Exposition and at the Co.
lumbian Worlds Fair"
The precedents cited by the Chronicle
ought to have been sufficient for its pur-
pose. It was not necessary, with such
examples as it cites to fortify the photo
graphic pass policy, to deliberately be-
little and smirch the entire profession of
journalism by drawing such a sharp and
asserted contrast between interior and
metropolitan newspaper men, to the dis
credit Of the latter.
AS in all professions and callings there
are some in that of journalism who do
not honor it. 1t is probably true-it
would be strange if it were not-that
among the multitude of space, cheap,
temporary and impecunious item writers
that swarm in great cities, there are some
who are not above low designs and un-
gentlemanly conduct. and others whose
sensibilities have been blunted by the
contacts to which they have been sub
jected-sensationalism journalism would
have failed of its Office if it had not
turned out such products.
But the Chronicles charge is a sweep
ing one and undeserved. Gentlemen of the
interior engaged in journalism who de-
serve and have the respect of decent men,
and who once labored in eike harness in
San Francisco. are not better now than
when they were members of the profess
sion in that city. Nearly every man hold
ing trustworthy reportorial or editorial
IoldtlOu W nSn5pdRS4S Al jail AohOASSO3
has at some time been country news
paper man, editor or reporter. Two
thirds of the proprietors OF newspapers
in the country graduate from San Fran
cisco newspaper offices.
The simple truth is that the law appli-
cable to all other professions and callings
applies to ours-namely, responsibility in
journalism is not localized, and place
never makes the man who deserves the
name of gentleman. The journalists OF
San Francisco are competent to defend
themselves, but honest pride in an hon.
orable profession, one that takes harder
knocks than any other, that is more
harshly and uujustly criticised than any
other, that calls for more versatile ability,
patience, hard work and unpleasant duty
than any other, impels US TO resent the
charge of the Chronicle, which. over the
shoulders of the Bureau of Publicity and
Promotion, SO indiscriminately classifes
the newspaper men of the metropolis as
disreputable lot.
The leading and pioneer journalists OF
San Francisco had their beginnings in
the interior: their earliest journalistic ed