The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-05-18

has not exerted it's influence for the
 upbuildfng of its community and the
 State. As 1t has been with the news
 papers of this State. so It has beea
 with the newspapers of the whole
 country. They have not actually con-
 structed railroads and canals. or devel- oped water powers and built cotton mills, or planted cotton and tobacco, or raised horses and cattle, or financed government loans. or established banks. but they have punctured many
 a political balloon and promoted many
 worthy industrial enterprise, and
 saved too-conhdins people from
 many a shoal of financial sharks. NO newspaper is infallible. however self -centored the man charged with it's management All newspapers make mistakes. mistakes of Judgment, mis- takes of policy, mistakes of temper.
 mistakes as to the wisdom and good faith of others: but in the main che newspaper that Is published in an in- teliirent community and for an intel ligent people, and that was not estab- lished tc advance the fortunes of some unworthy aspirant for high official place or to promote the success of some schems that could not hope for the pub lie favor on its merits. Is entitled to
 respectful consideration and reasonable 1t Is not expected that a newspaper should please all the people all the time. Men differ in their views on al- most every question that is presented to the human mind. We may not be able to agree as to how this. that or the other question should be settled. but we can all agree and ought to agree that the public welfare should be held superior to the pride of private judg- ment and that the best citizen. whether he be lawyer. merchant. newspaper man, farmer or physician, is the man who contributes most according to his ability to the welfare of his neighbors and the glory of his State.
 Exposures of the Liars.
 More than 200 years ago Richard
 Pierce established a newspaper in Bos- ton, under the top-heavy title of Pub lie Occurrences Both Foreign and De- nestle Tn his salutatory he declares that there were many false rumors constant ly circulated in the town of Boston
 which did 1t great deal of harm, and he asked his readers to send him the names of people who started these sto- ries so that hs might print them. Brief Iy as we are told by Charles Fl. Taylor of The Boston Globe. The purpose to, publish list of the liars in the town,
 but no sooner had the authorities read
 the announcement of his intentions
 
 paper What an opportunity there would be for a man with sufficient nerve and capital to print newspaper of this
 kind in almost every one of the com |munfties represented by the distinguish ed journalists present on this occasion, newspaper with the sole object of ad- vertisins the prevaricators among them. who continually engage in the business Of misrepresenting the com munity in which they live and upon which they feed. The suggestion Is ob- vious and pertinent that the press not only owes much to the public. but that the public in It's turn owes equally as much to the press.
 "'They who read said Captain F. W. Dawson. one of the most distinguished journalists of the South, in discussing this question n1any years ago. can no more evade their obligation than they who write and print can escape theirs. It Is to the interest of the reading pub lic to encourage men of character and
 standing, of brain and culture. to re-
 main among them as journalists--to encourage them by recognizing the mo-
 bility and value of their work. Jour-
 nalism ranks high as profession be-
 cause it's capacity is great for good or
 evil It breaches to more souls than
 the church does; it pleads more cases
 than the bar do; 1t destroys or confirms
 more diseases than medicine knows of.
 - sThere should then be in the
 dealings of the two powers. the press
 and the public, no sense of favor on either side, and entire absence of any feeling of pecuniary obligations. Fa-
 nniliarly speaking, the purchaser of newspaper no more conferssa favor on the publisher of that paper than he
 who buys a piece of longcloth confers
 favor on the merchant who sells it. unless he knows the article is not worth
 the money, In which ease he has only himself to blame; or unless he was de- ceived as to its value. in which case he certainly will not buy a similar article at that place again. It is a business transaction. A newspaper is sold at so much a copy. and It Is advertised at fixed price. They who buy get full value for their money-so the seller thinks. If the buyers do not think so they need not buy. Let this once be understood and the public will no more expect valuable favors from the news- papers because they are old subscrlb- CTS, regular advertisers, and the like. than the purchaser of a barrel of flour expects the seller to throw in q demi- john of molasses as a mark of his ap- preciation of the honor done him in buying a good article at a fair market price. This may seem a very independ- ent way of conducting newspaper. It
 
 that I know of can newspapers and their readers be made to occupy their proper relation to each other. Tn dealing with the press the public shoud judge as they would be judged and do as they would be done by; they should recognize the many hard ships and few rewards of the journal ists life. They should require only that the journalist be faithful to the best that he knows, and knowing that hands in what is at last their battle | and must be their gain or loss. l
 Independence I'm Journalism.
 What is required in the press Is hon. l esty, the keystone of the arch. resposi- | Absolute freedom from other ties and | journalism. No man can serve two | politician of whatever party and at tho | the larger and better and wider sense | be judged, a newspaper seldom rising | higher or falling lower than the level | of its constituency. In the first place | Its mission Is something higher and | better than being the mere channel for the dissemination of general in- telligence,' as it is called. If 1t would | lead its public into the right way. its course must be at bottom dictated | by an honest and fearless exercise of | thu faouIfv of r1ear ind Ou1anf b,,ffrase