The age-herald., 1902-02-05
Washington Day by Day


 country! They are the only sources of public information and are the chief pro- motors of honest government and sup porters of human liberty. Without them there would have been no order Of mans rights to succeed medievalism; no world conquerlng propaganda of religion, mor- ality, or that rule of the people through which God rules the nations.
 The newspapers of today teach in es- sence the doctrine of divinity in human government as has been taught by Roman Catholicism-the most conservative of all the abiding forces of civilzation-for two thousand years. and that is, that all rulership comes of the Almighty work ing through the peoples unto the rulers of the peoples.
 Give any man who is morally and intel lectually strong the control of the re- spectable newspapers of the coutry and he will name President, Governors, Judges and all servants of this people; and free and honest press in other lands arrayed against the throne would cause it to fall as house of cards
 One strong and resolute editor drove Tweedism from power and re-created New York; a united press there has but recently performed the miracle or the moral regeneration of the first municipal ity of the world. The editor of any rep utable newspaper may in his own com munity right any wrong that expresses his people.
 The honest newspaper workers Of thls country constitute the army that day by day battles forlthe religion, the moral ity, the rights and the good government of the people, and any community which does not sustain it's reputable newspapers digs effectually the slimy ditch into which itself must fall. The newspaper-worKers toll for the people through the long hours of the day while the people labor TOT their bread and through the silent nght while the people sleep.
 Taken as a whole, there Is no force In the world so powerful for good as the newsnapers: taken as a class, there IS none in the world more self-denying' more faithful in good work, or less sell seeking than the newspaper-workers.
 This much is in substance but repeti- tion of what saintly men and women' ana good men and women who are not saint ly, In every enlightened community are thinking and saying every day, and while it will not entirely please newspaper folk' for the reason that it may look like the bIowing of their own horn by one of their own-a thing they are ever averse to-lt serves its perfectly proper purpose or prefacing a further reference.to the great work of the present government or the country in seeking to protect newspa- pers from extraneous and spurious pnoh- 1 cations claiming newspaper privileges Tn | the mails; and it's excuse, if excuse were needed, is that every man and woman and child in the Republic are personally and directly interested
 In advance of the publication or the | full report of the late Postmaster Gen eral Smith the government has sent to | members of Congress a part of the re- port in pamphlet form and entitled me Abuses In Second-class Mail Matter which is clearly meant to be an answer I to the pleas of the nations publishers I lobby and other agents of publications
 
 paper rates of postage, and publications that are spurious and fraudulent. "Cheap paper and cheap postage, | forcefully declares Postmaster General Smith, .'have wrought incalculable good 1 in opening the avenues to cheap popular literature, but, as often happens in the | progress of the world, the vast good is not unmixed with harm. They have also generated a pestilent brood of trashy and noisome publications. Many of the books 1 in question are of the dime-novel order l and are malodorous blood-and-thunder stories They portray and glorify crime and outlawry. They inf1ame and debase the youthful mind. Their whole influence | is pernicious, and tends to develop and promote tue mental and moral disease | upon which anarchy feeds and social dis orders thrives. Our government does not and can not establish a censorship; 1t rightly leaves the protection of society to | the wholesome educational influences which 1t properly encourages. But 1t is monstrous that, through the perversion of q fair and well-meant law, the govern ment should be made the leading partner ] and the chief cash contributor, as it has been. in the manufacture of morally 1 tainted literature, and it is a gratifying l circumstance that the plain duty of en- forcing the law will have the added merit 1 of relieving the government in large de- gree of this lamentable complicity."
 That powerful declaration might be kept | standing at the head of every honest l editorial page in America!
 Referring to the purely private enter | prises." the publications of which are I not by law or in morals entitled to news paper rat es-"of the vast mass of second- class matter it is estimated that one | half does not come within the meaning and intent of the law as 70 Ibund rates l for newspapers Postmaster General l informs us that in "the case of hundreds l of such publications, wherever the pub fisher spends $10OO in his venture the gov ernment spends not less than 5000 in car rying on that publishers business, and wherever he puts in $l000O0 into it's run ming expenses the government puts in not less than $2OO,0OO.'
 l In the case of one periodical, the name of which is not given, it Is stated that