The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-04-01
Three SCORE YEARS Old
Changes Called to Mind of o Newspa-
per's Anniversary.
EARLY nISTOR or THE LEDGER
How II First Startled Its Contemporaries
BY Radical Methods and Then Made
Name for Console ntiOus and
painstakinS Conservatism.


BY Radical Methods and Then Made
. Name for conscientious and
Psinstakin: Conservatism.
Penn" in Philadelphia Bulletin.
The Public Ledger's sixtieth birth
day this morning calls up the fact that
1t was the first of the chief dailies of the
country to establish success on q penny
basis-probably the first outside of New
York. where the Sun had been en-
barked a year or two before OH the
same plan. For upwards of twenty
seven years 1t was the great example
of penny journalism in Philadelphia.
and it Is well known that William Nj.
Swain. who had run up the circula-
ton to fully 10000 before George w.
Childs came upon the scene, lost $780,
900 in resisting the onslaught of the
war prices. In its very early days the
experiment of penny paper was SO
popular that II had, according to the
late Joseph Sailer a circulation of Ia
600, which, 1t may hardly be doubted,
was the highest in the country at that
time excepting only the New York Her.
aid. The elder Bennett was then very
proud OF circulation of about $4,000
or $4,000 in career only Il year longer
than that of the Ledger, and it is not
venturing too much to say that sixty
years ago all the other papers of all
kinds in Philadelphia, daily and week
~, did not print over $4,000 copies.
In that period and. indeed. long af
terwards. the Ledger was good deal
of "sensationaw paper. 1t had the
same kind of journalistic temper as the
New York World has had in recent
years. 1t delighted in the function of
stirring up the animals" Its reputa-
tion was largely made through the
vigor of its editorial page, as well as
through its cleverness in getting news.
1t had libel suits on it's hands: 1t de-
nounced Judges. juries and counsel for
miscarriages OF justice: 1t harried the
cabinet-makers who abused their ap-
prentices; it denounced the native
Americans without mercy; 1t displayed
magnificent courage in holding up the
ruftians who burned PENNSYLVANIA hall
to spite the abolitionists and lashed the
rioters Of 1914 who terrorized the Irish
and Catholics; its office was more than
once sacked hy mobs. and it opened the
war which finally ended the orgies and
intimidations of the medical college stu
dents who were in the habit of roaming
nocturnally the streets like the sons of
Belial flown with wine. Then 1t had
part in many superb news triumphs,
such as the famous Pony Expresse g
which met the English steamers at
Halifax and thundered down from
Nova Scotia to Philadelphia and Balti-
more. nearly u thousand miles, In fifty
hours; the great beat" of announcing
first here the death of the elder Har-
rison in the White House; its Mexican
N,1 xl,a 1,s< lSD
prompt use which Swain made of the
magnetic telegraph after Morse had
shown its news value at the Clay and
the Polk conventions in 1914. 1t even
"spiced up" it's police reports to tickle
the fancies of the crowd.
IT'S FIRST EDITOR.
The editor of the Ledger In those
days was Il New Yorker named Rus
sell Jarvis. with a belligerent pen and
with a faculty of turning out 'copy"
by the yard at short notice, and also.
seemingly with the other faculty, rare
in such fecundity, of concise state
ment and lucid judgments of men and
things. Much of his work was done
in New York: he frequently alternated
between the two cities on the Camden
and Amboy railroad-a round-trip then
being u matter of nine or ten hours
and his own personality seems rarely
to have been Obstrued on the public
notice. and generally sunk in SWANS.
The Ledger. as 1t has been known in
the larger part of it's past thirty years.
was the creation of George W. Chlds
aId William V. Mckean; of the latter,
indeed, at least quite as much as of the
former. In proprietOrshiD and in edit
Orship each represented phases Of jour-
nalism which have seen their day. Mr..
Mexican. who Is still living at the age
of seventyiive. probably understood
Philadelphia-its temper and its tenn
permanent. it's pride and its prejudices.
and it's institutions and it's tradi-
tiOns and its weaknesses and its con-
ceits-better than any other writer for
the press. and eventually came himself
to be part and parcel of them all. In
his work there was conscience and COM
mon sense and clean hands. He illus
trated the best spirit of what may be
called the editorial publicist-busying
himself with not alone the task of OBJ
servation but of participation as well.
and regarding himself in time as
special guardian of town affairs. and as
a trustee for the Ledger's constituency
In the tens of thousands Of households
which it entered with something Of the
respect for an oracle.
RESPECT FOR TRUTH.
Mr.. Mckean's sense of accuracy to a
misstatement among the Ledgers staff
was like that of Theodore Thomas's to
false note in his orchestra He abom-
mated the arts OF the fakir; he had
scrupulOus regard for facts, an intol-
erance of carelessness or conjectures
or assumptions, and he edited the Led
ger with as much precision and care
as IL he had historical work or an en-
cyclopedia on his hands. and with an
apparent regard for the day when some
one might want to go to the shelves
of the Historical society or the Phila-
delphia library, and hunt up a file of
the paper for reference. His favorite
maXims were: 1T is bad to be late;
but worse to be wrong" ard "Have a
sure voucher for every statement, es-
pecially for censure." He used to inn
press on every man under him that
there is a wide difference between ac-
cusation and guilt. and the best thing
he ever said of his calling and it's re-
sponsibilitieS was something pretty
nearly this: Before making up judg-
ment, take care to understand both
sides, always remembering that there
are at least two sides, and that il you
attempt to decide. you are bound to
know both" 1t was the rigid practice
of the exactitude which came from
such professional ethics that made the
Ledger for score Of years absolutely
unique IN daily journalism. and gave it
surplus of $350,0OO to s450,000 every
year.
Eighteen years ago, in profit, circula-
tion and power, it was the equal of all
it's morning contemporaries combined,
but from about that time on it gradual
ly and, indeed, almost unconsciously
began to lose this position relatively.
if not actually, in the new rivalries and
expansions of the time. Mr.. Childs was
apparently the last man in the local
press to see what was going on around