Los Angeles herald., 1906-02-23
OWENS RIVER HOLDS
FORTH PROMISE OF A
WONDROUS PROGRESS
FED BY SHOWS, IT RIVALS NIAGARA
Industries Mainly Dependent on the Generation
of Power, Now Made Feasible, Open Up
Unlimited Possibilities for Future
of Busy City of Angels

can do to the entire satisfaction Of
anyone else; make love, poke the FIRE
and run a newspaper. 1t takes all
kinds of people to make world and
naturally some of them don't know
much. But no matter how little man
knows, no matter If he has as little
moral sense as a scorpion and no more
general intelligence than an abalone,
no matter If man does not know
how many toes he has without stopping
to count them, he always knows
enough to run a newspaper better than
the men who are doing it,
Whats more, he isn't ashamed to
tell everyone on the street car all
about II. But someway he never tells
the editor, and newspapers keep right
on blundering. losing subscribers and
making money without the valuable
advice that Is wasted on the crowd in
the street cars.
'One of the few compensations that
editors have for their lives of hard
ship is to witness the spectacle OF tine
rashly importunate citizen without edi-
torial experience trying to straddle the
editorial buzz-saw and ride it to suc-
cess.
"Often a man loses fortune he has
otherwise accumulated in merchandise
ing, in speculation, in gambling, in
mining or in fast horses. Sometimes
a man separates himself from his bank
account chasing the social butterfly;
J but the favorite parting of the ways
of the fool and his money is in the
newspaper office.
Ceiling Spots Explained
1.-The editorial rooms of many offices
| in this country are adorned with two
! little black dots above the chandelier.
| These are the marks made by the
back suspender buttons Of gentlemen
who have hit the ceiling trying to
run newspapers better than the men
| who owned the paper when they
bought it.
And the place wherS these new edi-
tors have stumbled has been in politics.
Just as soon as an editor gets notion
that he is in politics, he begins to go
out of business. For the first and
only business of a newspaper is to
print the news.
A Kansas Story IN
eff an editor prints the news-all Of
it and prints it without fear and with
out favor-the people don't care what
he advocates ON his editorial page.
| They may hate him for his editorials,
but they will patronize his paper for
| the news.
'"The old-fashoned editor who used
! to dodge and trim, and wiggle and
squirm to please the people. is fading
away like stars in the morning. He is
like the old-fashioned politician whose
| boast was his smoothness.
EARLY Kansas will remember the in
augural address of the first reform
mayor of Dodge City, who assembled
! all the gamblers and dance-hall girls,
and cow-punchers, and cutthroats and
addressed them as ladies and gentle
| men'-a remark which was greeted by
loud cheering Then he said:
" "A man elected TO the reSponsihle
position of mayor of this queen city
| of the prairies has a great problem
! before him. He must not forget the
| husky boys and girls who have made
! this the greatest COW town on earth,
| and on the other hand he must not ta.
more the stream of conservative eastern
capital that is pouring in to make
| Dodge City the greatest city of the
plains. In fact, | may say that the
| mayor of Dodge City today should be
| like Caesars wife All things to all
| men,
1.-The time has come not only in the
newspaper business but in every craft
| and profession, when a man may be his
| own master. For thousands upon thou
| sands OF years our race has fought for
| it's freedom, and today in this country.
| a man who deliberately adorns hint
| self with the shackleS of any creed,
any party any leader, or any system
| which he thinks is wrong, or who sells
| his freedom to live his life freely and
| candidly for the price of an Office or
| for business. is worse than the ancient
slave who was born to his bondage.
Slavery Doesn't Pay
what is more important, slavery
doesn't pay today.
THE people are becoming indepen-
| dent and wise. They no longer look
| to newspapers for their opinions, any
more than they look to political parties
| for guidance. Time was when the party
organization and the party organ ran
! this country. Eut now the newspapers
! furnish the facts, the party organiza-
tions furnish the tickets and the people
act upon their own Judgments.
Thirty years ago Uncle Chester
Thomas. a local boss in Topeka, came
lashing his horse to headquarters one
election day. stumbled out of his buggy
! and gasped to the party workers:
| 'Boys boys, for heaven sake send
/ someone down TO the fourth ward
| quick. Them idiots down there are
! just voting as they dam please
THE recent elections in this country
indicate that the trouble has spread
from the fourth ward of Topeka pret-
ty well over the whole country.
Party an Adjunct
More and more the people of Ameri-
ca are coming TO regard the political
party as mere adjuncr TO free govern
ment and less and less are the people
regarding the free government as a
mere adjunct to some political party.
when the party eXalts the govern
ment people follow it; but when party
leaders try to use the government and
its offices as mere hereditary appur-
tenance Of political party the people
leave It.
"And similarly when an editor uses
his paper merely to promote his party
and distorts the news for his party's
Interests. when he omits news for his
party. or tries in any way to deceive
the people for his party. the people
desert that editor and his paper.
Newspapers have educated the peo-
pie to be honest, and the honest people
now demand honest newspapers. IL a
party is wroLg the people know it, if
a leader is crooked the people know 1t
and when newspaper tries to twist
its news or to befuddle the people. 1t
fools no one bat itself.