The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-08-14

The theory or Mr.. George nopeieS'
formerly director of the mint, that III
the man who conducts a newspaper
has the true spirit of his profession
the money making feature will be
subordinate and incidental his heart
will be in the concerns to which ne
deyotes his pen," is principle that all
newspaper men worth the name are
ambitious to realize. Hearing Mr.. Rob-
erts talk so airily about it, the until
ated might think it the easiest, as well
as the most holy, task III the world.
Experience, however, proves that 1t is
beset with some difficulties. For even
money-making, base as money making
is. is necessary. also in this lofty call
ing.
The newspaper must catch the spirit
and reflect the spirit of the time, or II
will not earn money enough to enable
it to live; and to publish compre
hensive newspaper takes a great deal
of money Again, the spirit OF the
time. unfortunately, and often, is
crooked, perverse, awry, causing I'M
mense loss, or total destruction, to
the newspaper that tries TO combat IT.
Many a newspaper has found it neces-
sary to conform in order to live
sacrificing ideals, for the time, to the
necessities of existence. 1t will be
said, of course, that this is cowardly;
hot no
have also sense and judgment, will
not try to carry an impregnable posi-
ton by direct assault. He will wait on
events and bide his time.
newspaper may ignore or combat
petty interests; it may stand I'M
shaken, amid the ordinary or common
fluctuations of opinion, contending for
what it holds to be right. But in the
come when it must yield something
Or even yield all, or suffer immense
loss. even to the jeopardy of its own
existence Many newspapers have
taken such risks, and persisted. Others
have managed to ride out the storm
though broken and shattered-the
work of a lifetime lost, and power of
recuperation lost with it,
The Oregonian never greatly GEN.
sured newspapers that yielded to the
silver craze in communities where that
craze was uncomfortable, for they had
to do it, or die. 1t was a craze that
shook some of the most powerful news
papers of the country, causing them
immense loss. The Louisville Courier
Journal defied the folly and combatted
it, lost a large proportion of it's BUSH
ness during several years, and inn
mense sums of money. Similar was the
fight for the gold standard reduced its
circulation one half. and it's advertising
business greatly, till the popular fury
excited by the silver fallacy ex
hausted itself. The Oregonian's fight
for the gold standard cost it hot less
than two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars and only the defeat of Bryan
and recovery of public sanity saved
the paper from ruin.
The theOrist. who sees Journalism
only through his imagination, doubt
less thinks these things easy trifes-
because 'the money-making feature"
is. or should be, subordinate and Incl
denial Yet some attention must be
paid to money by the newspaper whose
cash outlay for publication runs stead
lily into enormous and ever-increasing
sums.
No newspaper can be Independent of
tie thought and purpose of the COM
nCnity in which it is published. In
older communities, where there are few
fluctuations of opinion, where expert
ence has settled the main lines of ac-
| ton, there is less difficulty: but in
new communities, where opinions and
policies are still unsettled; where NOR
ais and morality even. in a thousand
things pertaining to life and action.