Gilpin observer., 1900-08-02
THE MODERN NEWSPAPER.
Address Delivered by President Barton O. AyIes-
worth Before fhe Colorado Editorial
Association at Ouray,

cess as the other.
So if l We're the proprietor of pa
per l would examine my brain cells
and learn from which pile of dirt
had been made and thus choose my
side. Or, if had q little of both piles
in me, as sometimes happens, l would
count heads in my community and
make my paper of the same dirt that
the majority We're made of. The man
who is neither radical nor conserva-
tive usually follows this course. Then,
| would stand to the defense of that
party, its leaders and its declarations
to my fullest limit. l would if it We're
in my power, destroy the force of the
opposition by logic and ridicule, never
by indecency or falsehood. A liar and
cad are monstroSities, and lying and
vulgarity are barbed boomerangs.
| Be something in the newspaper
world. You had better start party Of
your own, and send all the others to
the devil than to be n namby- -pamby
soft-head in your great profession. =
You have heard that the partisan
cannot tell the whole truth. Perhaps,
but after all it is the extreme state
ment that must test, not only your
faith in the party, but the party itself.
We are taught and moved by eXagger-
| alton.
1t is the law of government that out
of the fierce and sometimes bitter dis
cussion of public questions comes the
middle course along which the nation
may safely go. Just now expansion
and trusts have an extreme opposite
statement, but the result will be that
the nation will expand according to
the constitution and take its place
among the worlds powers. 1t will
neither stay supinely cribbed between
its great seas, on the one hand, nor
will it become colonial on the other
| Trusts will neither become the domi-
nant power they threaten to be, nor
will wholesome combination of wealth
be crushed. AS between the extreme
positions on finance. bimetallism will
ultimately win on such II ratio as the
wisest statesmen and the markets, un-
handicapped. will direct.
But in the meantime the radical and
the conservative must fight it out.
| Don't for one instant, however doubt
the nations perpetuity or its continued
| prosperity. As long as Il majority of II
nation casts n conscious vote, no mat
| ter If it be u divided vote, the flag will
not trail. The future of America is as
certain as that of the race, and the race
| is Iateu 10 grow.
But even Il partisan press can de-
mand of its leaders the highest quail
tiles. Indeed. so potent has it become
in this regard that no party dares to
nominate n man of questionable char.
acter. This campaign presents two
candidates of totally different types po-
litically. but they have been born of
| the same mother so far as their ihteg-
rty and inside life are concerned
Another feature of the partisan press
idea opens the way for my second
point-the newspaper and the counting
room. .e
| We are still young nation bent on
getting rich. | grant you we give
money too great purchasing power,
hut il could not be otherwise with
things as they are. Like nation, like
citizen. | have my suspicion of n man
who says he does not care for money,
that it is the source of all our ills. |
want to shove my purse-slender as it
.s-further down in my hip pocket.
You see / am not afraid to tell you
where | keep it.
An independent newspaper is like an
independent preacher with no organ
lied congregation behind him. He may
have large audiences. but. like Myron
Reed of great memory, he will often
go hungry. Without II party constit-
uency n paper is often driven to ques-
tionable advertising for support. That
is far more damnable to the public
morals than any counting room scandal
| have ever known. More evils grow
out of suggestive art and loathsomc
advertisements than out of the occa-
Sional credit to ''soap" to be found in
1 m lnIunrs of
But both the "soap" accounts and the
vile advertisements may he avoided
and yet the paper make money. Good
advertising Is willing to pay well for
n reliable agent.
This leads me to the subdivision OF
the counting room question, namely,
the publication of sensational news for
the sake of circulation.
Two motives make II easy TO make n
paper sensational. First, the Increased
circulation and consequent increase
In the amount of advertising and
higher rates. The second Is that every
great party sheet bends every energy
TO get and keep II large circulation in
readiness for the too frequently recur-
ring campaigns. They must reach the
people and n large number of them.
They must also have made the people
eager readers of that sheet In order to
control their votes. A newspaper Is for
all sorts and conditions of men.
But believe the press should be
given n large liberty to reveal and de
nouncc crime where the criminal has
such relation to the world ms will help
him to work still greater harm II not
hung up in the public prints. Many II
lawyer has told me that the average
xsipIuinr nf luw - far moro afraid pf
the newspapers than OF the police court
The efforts In II city like Denver To
bribc newspapers into silence would
make big but sadly realistic volume.
Certain kinds of people are afraid OF
yo,,-kecp them so.
II Is true the people want the news,