Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-12-10
THE SPHERE OF A NEWSPAPER.

III the follow1nR paragraph, taken from
the Anderson Daily Mail, may be taken
as an index to the future editorial policy
of that paper, "we submit that it should
not be slow about changing it's editorial
steering apparatus:
"We submit that Pho Keowee Courier
should not have published that wierd
story about snakes being found in cab
bage heads. Cabbage is one of the
staple crops of Oconee, especially on the
upper side of the county, and The
Courier should not do anything to injure
home industry. But maybe the editor
of The Courier does not like cabbages,
or else they do not agree with him."
What Is the sphere of newspapers
To enumerate the many useful things to
be done by paper purporting to be a
newspaper in the true sense of the word
would consume much moro time and
space than it is necessary for us to use
in reviewing what The Daily Mail "sub-
mits" for our enlightmept Certainly
we have never found the suppression of
fact to be among the duties of news
paper-and especially in such case as
referred to in the above clipping.
In this instance gentleman who
raises cabbage discovered in his crop
what he believed to be the cabbage
snake" with which North Carolina cab.
bage growers have been contending for
several years, and which, in three cases,
to our personal knowledge, has been the
direct cause of death. This gentleman
and bear in mind too, that he is a grower
of cabbage-desired to know if the
thread-like reptiles found in his crop are
Of the poisonous type found in sections
of North Carolina. Why? Did he want
to market his crop and unload it on the
unsuspecting public without giving
notice that there was possibility of it's
containing poisonous little reptiles, hard
to detect because of their being small
and of the identical color of tho cabbage? ?
Not at all. He desired an expert exami-
nation of the supposed cabbage snake in
order that, if found to be poisonous, and
therefore dangerous, he might destroy
his entire crop, thus avoiding the posi-
bility of carrying the means of fatal
poisoning into the homes of his custom
ers. Therefore, eve submit that we
should have done just what wesdid do
give notice to the public that there is a
possible, and very probable, danger lurk-
ing in the cabbage, and warn them, as a
part of wisdom, "to examine carefully all
cabbage for the table or avoid it's use for
a while"-that is, until the report of the
expert is received; and then, if it is
found that the "snakes" are harmless, il
will be time enough to relax this vigi.
lance.
We would not at any time make an
unfoun ded statement that could 'injure
homo industry" nor would VIC, on
the other hand, suppress fact, the
publication of which it is reasonable to
suppose, might be the means of making
people careful, thus avoiding the posi-,
bility of their falling victims Of hidden
poison and horrible death.
The clipping from The Daily Mail con,
veys the idea that placed under circum,
stances similar to ours, that paper would
have suppressed the fact in order to
avoid the possibility of injuring home
industry. We prefer to believe, how
ever, that the paragraph was written
without thought as to the insignificant
value of few thousand cabbage heads
as compared to the life of even one
human being. We would be grieved in.
deed to think of the editor of The Daily
Mail as being among the penny-grabbers
who would jeopardize human life rather
than risk the possible loss of a few