The evening times., 1898-08-18
Certain NcNyspaper Ethics.


The acting editor of the Evening
| Star, who. in the absence of his
| estimable father. is allowed to
make use of the editorial I'VE.
feeling agsrieved at some cur
sorry remarks of The Times, falls
straightway into abuse We fear it
! will be necessary to treat this young
man seriously and expose some Of his
( shortcomings.
| Perhaps it will be as well to open the
| discussion by remarking that ii is MT
a crime to own "a trolley line" WI at
! it is to be the henchman" of one, as
/ The Times is declared to be, We do not
know-but TO own one is permitted by
law. Not owning one. but attempt ng
| to destroy the value of one by a series
| of attacks based on allegations. many
| of which are false. is crime-and
| could be punished as such if the aS
gr:eved parties cared to take the mat
ter TO the courts. That is what the
| Star has done frequently during the
absence of its real editor, and while
| the exceedingly opinionated young man
| now under review had charge of its
| columns He may never alta n to the
dignity, the indescribable sat sfaction,
! of owning a real railroad. but that Woe
full lack will not justify him in envy
ing or traducing those who do.
In a former article we alluded to the
Stars constant attacks upon the Eek
ington trolley line, by which, and
through the lack of courage of one of
the Commissioners. who happensd d to
be one of its owners. the entirely unob-
jectionable overhead wires On New
York Avenue were ordered down
and horse traction substituted there
for.
After stating the fact we ask ID what
good had resulted from it, upon which
the young man of the Star bursts into
paean of exultation because, as he
says. The Times has not been abe to
show that the Star has derived a
penny's benefit from the change. The
fact is The Times has not made such
an admission, and it doesn't make it
now. Whether the Star has made any
certain street railroad lines, on the
gas company. on telephone companies
or on the Pennsylvania Railroad. we are
not prepared to say. We should not
be at all surprised to learn that it had.
In the matter of the telephone contro-
versy it is stated that persons connect
ed intimately with the Star had an op-
ton on a rival company, and the in
centive of great gain from the Grip
pling or destruction of the other. We
do not keep the Stars books or its
conscience. Its owners are well-to-do
men, and may have plantations in
Hawaii, or sugar fields in Cuba. They
may be bears or bulls in the local mar
ket, and able to profitably employ the
columns of their journal in influencing
the value of a stock. We have never
cared to discover whether the charge
was true or not. The whole coterie
have a perfect right to sell lexington
stock short and then, by attacking the
road in its only vulnerable point, tum-
BILE the price down; but to do this and
then swell with rapture over their
faithfulness as ''public-spirited advo-
Gates" of the public's interests is hy-
pocrisy and meanness of depth we
do not care to put a name to.
The Star cannot point to one single
public benefit it has established during
the nearly fifty years of its existence.
That it has smashed some things we
are prepared to believe. and that there
are those connected with it who have
profited by the smashing we should not
care to question; but if it will show
lay it before a much larger number OF
readers than will see it in its own
columns.
The trouble with the acting editor of
the Star is that he is an ass. He Is
really of the opinion that by his long
winded editorial efforts he makes or
modifies public opinion, and this is
why, aiming at brevity. we character
ize him mildly as an ass. There may
be a few old ladies who read the edi-
torial columns of the Star and accept
them as gospel, but credulity of that
order does not extend beyond the su-
perannuated. The assumption that the
Star is perfectly honest in its attitude
on all public local questions exoites
derision simply. and justifies us in ap-
plying the appellation-which We do |
not need to repeat
We come now by easy gradations to
the declaration of the Star that it
would not consider itself newspaper |
if it lacked the Associated Press facili- |
ties. This argument is worthy of Dog