Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1905-04-21
A DANGEROUS TENDENCY.


II Is admitted that II IL the chief
function Of the newspaper of today To
give The news, The great majority OF
newspapers make every effort 10 iurn-
ish news fully and uncolorcd, In fact
the news columns of the average pa.
per are more apt 10 be free from pas
sion and prejudice bias than are the
editorial columns.
Nearly all the newspapers, great and
small, still maintain their editorial
f, department, II doesn't mean as much
as It did In those days when the av'
eragc reader was unschooled and uh'
| practised In the great art OF thinking
for himself,
In these days. perhaps II man In
ten actually does some Independent
thinking. The majority OF others
have learned TO absorb and furnish
J their minds with those ideas which
others have thought out and placed
In books, They have learned to dis.
tinguish, weigh. compare, reject and
prefer. The editorial columns OF the
newspapers are only n limited
means OF impressing the mind of the
secondhand thinker.
Still the editorial utterances OF
newspapers are Of vast importance.
because they are so widely read. Once
secure a universal newspaper discus
sion of a subject and out of the maze
Of opinions and sentiments there is
apt to come a very clear illumination
Any problem that Is discussed long
! enough and fully enough Is pretty Ger
tain 10 be aided to a correct solu-
tion.
In view OF the important place that
the editorial views of newspapers still
have in this country. the tendency 10
editorial frenzy. observable so promi.
nently Of late, Is to be d%eplored. II
springs from popular f%renzy-the
: chaff which necessarily accompanies
and encloses the good grain. II may
be regretted that the newspaper car
not reach higher. broader ground In
the region of calm and dispassionate
!, acknowledgements from the popular
= ~exaggeration and misconception and
frenzy, which accompany any great
! movement for reform A perusal OF
| The editorial columns OF any twenty OF
hundred papers of the United States
!, taken at random, win convince think
! Ing men that the people and the news
/. paper occupy the same plane. II
J pope's philosophy was true. II Is bet
/ ter SO
Since the world began, every greaI
. reform movement. and for that matter
! every small one. has been accompan
led by general misconception and mar
! Row prejudice. In hewing at thf
J roots Of u recognized evil. lhe founda
I tlon of Bhe good that Is ever so un
! acgoUG ably beund up With the bad
$ h'vae bccn sappod and both have come
mmhline down, II the sum Of IN,
G evil was greater than the sum of tht
good, as was u~spally the case. iht
!, people were the gamers. This has beer
+ the reform history of the work. Ones
: in 4 while some thinker with clearer
!, vision has been able 10 disassociat,
/, The good from the bad. but II HI
i breaches the truth 10 the people. hi
q was usually locked up or martyred
Only the fuller light of later ages wa'
able 20 do him justice.
The people of this country toda,
o are impressed with the feeling tina
o they are being grivousIy wronked b!
1 trusts and corporations. by the com
G bination of capital into organizations
: SO powerful as to be monopolistic
This sentiment Is founded upon fact
/, There IAN he no doubt but when
r combination of capital is able I,
create a monopoly. II is opposed Y
the spirit of American institution
$ and Is an injustice and menace TO tn
American people.
G But with the war on that crying evi
II comes also a war against much tina
n Is useful and often essential 10 III
G development of this country. TIL
l. clamor against monopoly becomes
ciamor against all corporation:
c agalnts ali combinations of capita