The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-09-13
About a Catholic Daily.

guage. Inasmuch as the appeal is 6
long one, too long for temperance ii
this paper, we hope the good Ohio
priest will be satisfied if we present its
principal suggestions and arguments.
To begin, Father Arnold is a mar
full of faith, of that kind of optimism
which places money second in the con
sideration of a plan which he believes
would have the blessing of God at the
start He says:
But 1 am afraid that when 1 speak
Of publishing Catholic dailies in Amer
lea the first thought of many of us will
be: Where will we get the money re-
quired for so gigantic an enterprise
But should not our first question rather
| be: Will Almighty God bless an under
| taking of this kind? And our answer
| to this must be that we have every rea-
son to believe and to hope that the good
! God who blessed in the past so many q
noble, though difficult enterprise, will
not refuse his all-powerful blessing to
that which is properly undertaken for
| his own honor and glory, for the well
! fare of his holy church, for the benefit
! of public morality and the salvation of
many immortal souls"
Father Arnold hits the nail on the
head when he anticipates that first
thought" of Catholics: Where will we
get the money required for so gigantic
an enterprise?." That thought of the
| layman does not vanish with the
priests pious belief and explanation OF
| the means to overcome it. In this cold
calculating world we find more bank
ers than philanthropists; more people
with means who hang on TO their
money than such as let go of it-curi-
ously enough the first mentioned justi-
! flying themselves through the virtue of
prudence and the other through the
virtues of faith and charity. With
| Father Arnold, however, we believe
! God will assuredly bless everything
| that has for its aim the salvation of
many immortal souls" but are we GER
tain that daily paper is necessary for
the salvation of souls? The Ohio priest
is satisfied in his own mind that it is
necessary, and being necessary he gets
down to business. He says again:
ITO those, however, who are in
clined to worry about the necessary
funds / will say: Gentlemen, please
| elect a responsible treasurer who will
give good and ample security, and l
will before long place in his hands suf-
ficient means to establish at least one,
| if not two, respectable Catholic dailies
I somewhere east of the Mississippi
river. If you please elect three men
to cooperate, and I guarantee the pub
LEGATION of a Catholic daily worthy of
the name. Perhaps few of you know
that much preparatory work for a
Catholic daily has been done. l had
| experienced and successful newspaper
men figure on the amount of money
required for respectable daily. Their
figures are not discouragirg in the
least. l also have found responsible
and reliable men who declared their
willingness to publish a Catholic daily
and to do so satisfactorily"
That sounds cheerful enough. If the
priest has money sufficient to start a
daily paper and his heart and soul are
wrapped UP in this project, then by all
means let him begin. But now comes
the rub-has he means sufficient to pay
the expense of conducting a daily pa
per after it has been started? That is
the chief financial problem connected
with the newspaper business, not the
mere purchase price of the plant. 1t
should be borne in mind that the news
paper business is different from all
others. 1t is unlike that which derives
an immediate profit from the sale of
its product, like a brewery, for exam
pie. 1t must wait, and wait and wait
before the income meets the outlay,
sometimes for years. Many daily pa
pers would have fallen to pieces long
ago were they not upheld by million
aires or men of large capital who
squander money to crafty ambition or
get even with rival.
But perhaps Father Arnold realizes
the magnitude of his proposed under
taking, for he uses the word "gigan-
tic' in connection with the enterprise.
The cost of it is not discouraging, he
claims, for he has figured that out with
the aid of experienced newspaper men.
These may or may not be persons an
ticipating jobs on the proposed daily,
so we advise Father Arnold to spend
some time in further inquiry and per-
sonal observation of newspaper plants
at Cincinnati, near his own town and
parish. Ascertain the expense of con-
Quoting a paper like the Enquirer and
compare it with the figures required to
publish respectable" Catholic daily.
In the priests sense, we presume he
uses the word respectable to compre-
bend a newspaper worth the money
paid for subscriptions newspaper
containing local and general news of
However, if the Catholic daily is not
the equal in all respects to the En-
quirer as a newspaper, neither it's
Catholic tone nor literary merit are
strong enough factors to pull it through
financially. Catholics, like others, look
first for the local news in daily paper,
and next to local news, the general
news of the world. If these features
are not supplied to their satisfaction,
they will lose interest in the Catholic
daily, which the literary tone of the
editorial page is unable to overcome
Therefore we repeat, if Catholic daily
does not turn out to be the equal in
enterprise and audacity to the best of
the secular dailies, far better it never
had existed.
All this is said, not to discourage
Father Arnold. but to place such
proposal as his in its practical business
light, SO as to command the support of
conservative stockholders. We shall
gladly welcome Catholic daily, al
though much of it's news be stale by
the time it reaches the mountains. I'm