The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-18
FOUNDER OF
NEW YORK sun.
Assistant Secretary of War During Closing Years
of the Great Struggle to Put Down the Re-
beIEion-RemarkabIe in His PERSON.
ality and His Power
Newspaper Man.

I Of which nobody knows very much
save those who have a right to. Who
ever owns the paper, there isn't any
| question that Mr.. Dana controlled it,
and has for many years, without ques-
ton of his authority. 1t was he who
bolted Cleveland in 1884 and came out
| in that absurd campaign for Ben But
| Ter.
And this he did against the advice
| and desire of his associates, who fore
saw the disaster that followed. Up to
this time the Sun had field of its own,
| all to itself. It was the only 2-cent
morning paper in New York and used
| to lay great stress in it's ADVERTISE
ments on it's circulation Of "a million a
| week" There was no other such circu-
lation in America then. The Sun was
! then a four-page paper daily, and a
| perfect model of compactness and typo
| graphical beauty-if you had eyes to
read solid agate.
THE BOLT TO BUTLER
Happened opportunely for the World,
and when the campaign was over, the
| World was found to have helped itself
| to a good share CT that million a
| week" Especially in the South, where
the name of Butler was poison, the
Dana paper lost all its grip. Four
years later it had by no means gained
what it had lost in "a, whereas the
World had kept booming on. Yet the
| Sun continued to pound Cleveland,
| though it was fight purely personal to
| Mr.. Dana. and Waged once more
against the will of his partners, who
! shared in the losses but not in the
| fun. The defeat. of Cleveland softened
the effect of this bolt, but in 1892, by
| which time the paper had broken out
Of its four-page limit and like its
| ncighbors was printing the once de-
spised blanket Sheets" Mr.. Dana was
ready once more to club Cleveland and
Indirectly to throw his supposedly
Democratic paper into the Republican
column.
nothing but the Importantly of Paul
Dana and Mr.. Laffan, telegraphed from
| Chicago just after the nomination, kept
| the editor from renewing the assault
on Grover. AS 1t was, you will re-
member, he set up the cry Of "No force
bill, no negro dimination,' and then,
after the election, with characteristic
naivete, claimed the credit for Demo-
cratic success.
1t is an open secret in Park Row that
the Sun has made no great fortune
since ten years ago it borrowed $4,000
| for new machinery on that mortgage
| the World made so much of. Amos
| lOlu lIlS III w loi d
few years back Che owns few shares
in the paper he used to serve as man
! aging editor cOmpoSitOr. Washington
| correspondent, etc, etc) that he hadn't
seen a penny of dividends since the
| Butler bolt. Still Mr. Dana and few
others about the establishment showed
| no evidence of poverty. This is eX-
! planned by the Geputed) fact that the
two Danas, Laffan and Thomas Hitch
cock, had a majority of the shares
and voted themselves salaries large
enough to eat up most of the earnings.
The elder Dana is said to have drawn
$50, 900 a year, his son $4,000 a year,
| Mr.. Laffan $25000, and Mr. Hitchcock
| 900. This accounts for good deal
more than the morning Sun is said to
| have earned for some years, but the
! evening paper had more than made
good the deficit.
DANA'S ERROR.
| l have seen men try to compute what
Mr. Dana's pet animosities have cost
| The Sun in the way of circulation
which means income. They have been
numerous, these little weaknesses of a
big man. The way he hunted Gen.
Grant into the hearafter be-
yond the grave ought to be
| ago everybody knew the reason
for this hatred-it was something
about an appointment that Dana want
| ed and thought he had earned by his
service in war. He had never consid-
cred those services fully requited by
! the government. l know a man who
says he has seen a letter from Dana
| to Andy Johnson fatty begging to
| be appointed collector of the port of
! New York. He was not appointed and
he didn't get what he wanted of John
sons successor. Then he began to call
| himself Democrat, though he never
supported Democratic candidate eX-
| cept Tilden All the rest he helped to
slaughter, and he was the more effec-
| tive by reason Of his Democratic mask.
In later years Larry Godkin, of the
| New York Evening Post and Grover
| Cleveland have divided the honor of
being the best hated Of Mr.. Dana's enc
mics. DR.. Parkhurst and the Spring
field Republican got their share of the
drubbing. too, but Cleveland and Cod
kin, Dana seemed really to hate with a
deep and personal hatred. He consis-
tently hated all reform movements, and
| all forms of Mugwumpery, and seemed
to respect open and candid devotion
to spoils. Tammany was his Ideal for
many year, but he dropped it like a
hot potato in the autumn of '96, when
| the silver question came to the front,
and instead Of building monuments to
| Croker and Sheehan, The Sun has been
|
| days as public nalefactors.
If the editor Of The Sun had never
done anything else he would be remem-
bered forever as the king and master
of the art Of calling names. That art
may almost be said to have been in
vented by him. Prentice and McCul-
legh were each in the way, past mast
ers of this sort Of work. but really their
efforts seem tame and Intellectual com.
pared with Dana's They were -vield-
ers of the blu6lseon and meat axe.
Dana could use these weapons, too, but
he also knew the rapier and stilletto
and could smile and smile in the face
Of victim whose life blood ne was
draining with relentless hand He had
another gift also in its perfection-rid-
icule. By a single sentence he could
set all the world laughing at an oppon-
ent, and thereby hurt that unfortunate
where thousand blows could not have
| been felt
For example, when he fixed upon
| Cleveland the epithet of the stuffed
prophet" he punctured the covering of
that statesman where all else had fail