The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-02-19

political study, organization and ac-
tivity. By 1864 1 had become familiar
with open air campaign speaking. My
leisure time 1 employed in the study
of general history, American history
and economics, with a continuation or
activity in writing. which resulted in
1866, when 1 was %, in my becoming
editor of the Albany Express in which
I soon acquired an interest. The Trans
cript, on which l had begun my jour-
nalistic career, had been purchased by
the owners of and merged into the Ex-
press.
Public Men Cannot Be Convivial.
The years Immediately following the
conclusion of the war between the
States were now developing those in
teresting changes in American public
and public men which have become
fairly characteristic, it seems to me. or
the last half of our century. The Amer
lean statesman is no longer senti-
mentalist. Economic questions have
gradually become the most important.
With the decline of sentiment in states
manship, sentimental oratory has also
become largely a thing of the past. our
national life has become serious and
practical. Great problems of organ1za-
ton have gradually occupied the fore
most minds. Economic questions nat
urally do not need to be exploited Dy
the flights of oratory. While the power
to make an effective speech still re-
| there are occasions and topics that can
| in no other way be so impressed on an
| audience as by eloquence, SpeechInaK-
! ing has become a minor part OF the
| equipment of successful pubic man.
| The interests after which the average
| Representative in Congress now has to
! look have become so diverse, so compli-
| Gated so important that he has all ne
can do to attend to them. The demands
on his time are so great that he finds
| Gov. INV nf
| if convivial life which in ante-bellum
| days was so characteristic of public
men in Washington. Conviviality and
a high order of public usefulness are no
| longer compatible.
! Concentration and Constancy."
| Whatever success 1 have met with is
due primarily to concentration and con-
| Stancy. l felt that / could not afford
| to give up journalism for officeholding,
| so 1 declined in Albany to take the
nomination for Congress, or for any Of
| flee. While continuing my newspaper
work. l endeavored each year to make
! a substantial addition to my equipment.
American biography 1 found stimulat-
| ing as we'll as instructive. In fiction,
I'Vanity Fair" David Copperfield''
and the Three Musketeers'' delighted
me. / have always been fond of the
theater, but 1 found little time to go.
| Fortunately, 1 have found my chief
pleasure in my work.
Greeley, Raymond and the elder Ben
nett were the powerful personalities in
| American Journalism when was grow
ing up. People read Greeley's newspa-
| per, for example, to find out,what Gree
| ley thought. But one interesting devel-
opment of our time has been the prac-
teal humiliation of this personal ele-
nent in journalism. There is no one
newspaper that so far excels the others
| as to overshadoW their influence in
| their own fields. Journalism is so much
broader and more -exacting that it re-
quires many personalities instead of
one to produce and maintain the news
paper. AT the same time the contribu-
| tons of journalism to craftsmanship in
| the United States have notably in
creased in the generation past. Law
| remains, of course the school of pub
| lie men. Yet in no other country save
! France have so many public men left
| the editorial sanctum for the halls
| of legislation Representative Nelson
| Dingley, whose recent death was a loss
to his party and his country, never
| abandoned entirely. I believe his life
work on the Lewiston Journal, which
| began in 1856. Mr.. Blaine, the greatest
| of Americas editorial statesmen, was
! identified with the Kennebec Journal
| Senator Anthony with the Providence
Journal. Hon. Whitelaw Reid and Hon.
| John Hay with the New York Tribune
! and so on.
Journalism and Public Life.
In England Junius and later John
Wilkes demonstrated the force Of jour-
nalism in public life. Delane held no Of
fee, but preferred to be the power be-
hind the placeholder. William Henry
Smith, the head Of the great News COM
pany, was for years the leader of the
House of Commons. Labouchere is g.
conspicuous example of the journalist
statesman of to-day. In France the
NJ mos of fIan0hQff0 Theirs and C9Uail-
lac naturally suggest themselves.
While editing the Albany Express
was introduced to Horace Greeley. 1t
was soon after he had gone on Jefferson
Davis bail bond and had provoked
from over the country fire of criti-
cism which had drawn out his charac-
terization Of country editors as those
Insignificant fellows that God in his in
scrutable wisdom permits to edit the
country papers"
A Greeley Anecdote.
Mr.. Greeley came to Albany and Gov
ernor Fenton presented me to him, at q
reception in the executive mansion, as
the editor Of the Express. Yes, Mr..
Greeley" said, as grasped his hand,
"I am one Of those insignificant fell
lows that God In his inscrutable wis
dom permits to edit the country news
papers" He laughed heartily and we
became good friends. Not long after
Dental mission from Governor Fenton,
and saw Mr.. Greeley at that historic
desk Of his in the Tribune office, writing
away with his hand up under his chin
as he followed his pen with his eyes.
AS to the turning point in my career?
I was taking a grave risk when, in 1880,
I translated myself from New York
State to Pennsylvania. In 1870 I had
become joint and in 1877 sole editor Of
the Albany Evening Journal. I was at
home In New York public life, and had
been asked In State conventions time
after time to frame the resolutions en-
bodying the platform of the party. 1
had been secretary of the platform
committee of the national Republican
convention Of 1876 and had come to an
ticipate only one possible removal from
Albany. that to New York. When ac-
cepted the editorship Of the Philadel-
phia Press, the leading Republican
Journal Of a famous old Republican
commonwealth, I found myself face to