The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-02-20
LESSONS OF GREELEY's LIFE.
DR.. EATON TALKS OF THE TRIBUNE'S
FOUNDER.
The Responsibilities of the Press as
Viewed By the Pastor of the
Church of the Divine
Paternity.

Horace Greeley and the Responsible
the Rev. DIR. Charles III. Eaton's ser.
mon a recent Sunday evening at the
Church of the Divine Paternity, New
York. In series of sermons. based
upon the lives of men in this country,
who, upon their own endeavors and per-
sistence, have risen from modest begin
nings to high places. DR.. Eaton is each
Sunday night pointing out course of
object lessons to the young men of his
church. This particular sermon was the
third of the series, and in the course of
his references to the founder of the New
York Tribune, DIR. Eaton took advantage
OF the opportunity to widen the scope of
of his subject sufficiently to comment
upon the shortcomings of certain Sec
ton of the New York press. and to sug
gest improvements in various directions
by which the standard of the average
modern newspaper might be raised.
In outlining the early life of Horace
Greeley DR.. Eaton instanced his love Of
literature and his pronounced leanings
to journalism. Coming at length to Mr..
Greeleys advent in New York, DR.. Eaton
remarked:
On August Is, 1881. on Friday morn
| ing at sunrise, he arrived in New York
City, his entire capital being $40. bun
| die and his trade. Having secured a
poor lodging at $3.50 week, he began
what seemed a hopeless search for work.
! In the first Office in which he was en-
ployed as typesetter he received Sc a
week. At length, in January, 1888. he
started and issued the first number of a
cheap New York daily, called 1.-THE Morn
ing Post" This lasted but two weeks,
and nine months later "The Sun" was
started on similar plan. On March
%, 1884. Greeley and Storey issued the
first number of 1.-THE Weekly New York
err" This began with twelve subscrib-
ers, but in year the circulation became
$500, and later reached 5000. The ven-
| ture, which was discontinued in 1915,
| however, left Mr.. Greeley in debt. At
no time in his career did Mr.. Greeley ex-
hibit financial ability, and success did
not crown his efforts until ne wisely as
ISOLATED himself with a good business
manager.
During the period of which we speak.
| Mr.. Greeley edited certain political
sheets. one. The Jeffersonian." pub
iished at Albany, and "The Log Cabin"
which was issued during the Harrison
campaign. In one of the last numbers
of The Log Cabin" on April 10. 1845,
he announced his intention of founding
1.-THE New York Tribune" The first
number of that great paper was pub
lished on the very day of the funeral
solemnities with which New York hon.
ored President Harrison. Mr.. Greeley
began with 600 subscribers, the first
issue consisting of 5000 copies. At the
end of the first week the receipts am
ounted to S92 and the expenditures to
| 81 ,00O A new era in the life of Greeley
began with the appointment as his bust
ness partner of Thomas McElrath, and
l may add that much of the remarkable
success of "The New York Tribune" has
been due to the business sagacitY of this
man and his long line of worthy sue.
cessors in the business control OF the
paper. When "rhe Tribune" was start
ed The Sun" attempted to bride and
to bully the newsmen.and then to fog the
newsboys. in it's efforts to prevent them
from selling the Newspaper. Mr. Greeley
tells this story frequently in the early
issues of THE Tribune" But according
to the we'll known principle that rapid
growth depends upon hot persecution,
so, THE Tribune" from this time made
rapid advance. There were no political.
social or moral questions arising which
The Tribune" did not discuss, always
mi III III
not always with intellectual restraint.
At some length DIR. Eaton then des.
cribed the attitude taken by Horace
Greeley upon many important political
issues of the time, and pictured the
great influence which Lincoln was
obliged to withstand as the results of
the peace policy urged by Greeley and
Raymond. Proceeding to speak upon
the second part of his discourse, that of
the power aud responsibilities Of tho
prese, DIR. Eaton referred at the outset
to the phenomenal growth of the news
paper in recent years, and then con.
tinued:
The newspaper is the oaly reading
matter of the large classes of the com
munity. The school addresses itself to
one period of mans life. The pulpit
speaks to a limited congregation, mostly
on Sunday, but the newspaper infu.
ences every stage of a mans life. 1t
has become, therefore, among the peo-
pie. the Magma Charta OF their liberty,
and the Bible of their religion. AS per-
haps more than any other agency il is
assisting in the creation of a universal
brotherhood. Great as its power has
been in the past it is destined to still
greater influence. But it is a universal
law that power brings responsibility.
We have a right to ask Of the press as
OF every other great institution of civil.
cation that il realize its great obligation
and seek to fulfill it. | am not one OF
those who demand either OF the pulpit,
platform. or press that it reach the ideal
at a bound. II the pulpit criticises the