Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-05-17
Strange Talk From, Wall Street.

HSFdASe 1alA from wall Sire ct.
Z A Pittsburg newspapers named
Money" and devoted 70 the gold
standard, and the trusts, has recently
been carrying on an interesting discus
sion with the Wall Street Journal.
The questionat issue is whether the
newspaper owned, controlled and in.
spired by large trust is not more
likely to be good newspaper than one
owned and controlled by nan whose
only business is to run his newspaper
and make it {. success.
Money takes the position that the
Staudard Oil company, for instance,
can not be prosperous unless the whole
country is prosperous, and therefore q
newspaper owned and inspired by the
Standard Oil company, will, of neees-
sity, seek its own property by adyocat-
ing those measures that tend toward
the general prosperity. 1t also takes
the position that the head of the great
trusts and combines are wise men, "
and better qualified, intellectually, to
Judge what is conducive to general
prosperity than the average editor or
journalist. These are the points which
Money endeavors to support by its
argument. The argument is interest
ing, but it is too lengthy for reproduc-
ton in this article, and it is not our
purpose here to enter into the merits of
the discussion, but simply to bring be-
fore our readers the reply of the Wall
Street Journal, or so much of it as will
show the spirit in which that reply is
made. This is interesting, as it dis
closes breadth of view, not to be ex-
pecte6 from that quarter.
The Wall Street Journal among other
things, says as follows, in reply to
Money:
'There breathes the true spirit of the
court circular For the whole theory
of the court circular is that what
people call the big men know what is
good for the public better than the pub
Tic knows it itself, and, therefore, are
competent to rule the public. The or
ganization of high finance is quite SINH
lar to that existing in the feudal days,
when there were a number of powerful
mobiles, each with his own little court
q nd ROT fSllnxunpc nd oil
united, from time to time, against a
common enemy. If there bad been
printing and newspapers in those days,
doubtless each baron would have had
his newspaper. The idea that the Stand
ard Oil company is best qualified to con-
troll newspapers because its prosperity
depends upon general prosperity, con-
tains the assumption that material pros
perity is the end and object of good
journalism as well as of good govern
ment. Is there no such thing as liberty?
Are there no such things as rights? Or
is everything to be measured by the
contents of the dinner pail Is the
truth necessarily the product of a full
stomach?
Bryan spoke the truth the other day
when he said the purpose of government
was not the protection of material pros
perity, but was the protection of the in
dividual in the exercise of his natural
rights. The law of the newspaper is not
summed up in full stomach or full
dinner pail, but in the words. the truth
in its proper use. Every newspaper
must be controlled doubtless by some
body but the best newspapers will
be controlled always in trust for their
readers in the pursuit and presentation
of truth
"Utterances such as those we have
quoted from Pittsburg financial paper
are depressing because they show how
greatly mems minds have been warped
by commerciahsm