The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-09-15
THE PRESS.

ISASSutlNC pdtiOidSC, tic SlllilllIdtlOlI u
the negro and vicious voter, and the re
turn of the choice of officials to the de
Termination of the intelligent citizen
lhas wrought for the press of Louisiana ;
new era and new purpose
/ And this fact has come upon the pres
$50 slowly, but so surely, that as yet few
lrecognze or act upon the radically
lchanged conditions.
! We believe it to be a fact, beyond sue
cessful dispute that for some years past
at least, the power and influence o
Louisiana newspapers as whole haC
preached zero.
! Nay, instead Of being force, intel
lectual or otherwise, the public contempt
for the views and opinions of most pa
pers was expressed in no uncertain
terms
, At all times newspapers are divided
INTO three important classes: Those
which are brave and pure enough to lead
public opinion, and direct public action
for the public good: those which timdly
follow where an unrestrained but honest
lntentioned public blunder along: and
those pusillanlmous, depraved journals
tic harlOtS, whose columns are for sale
to any bidder the highest and for any
cause no matter how dangerous TO the
public veal
How many Of the last named class
to Judge. but there has been a subserv-
lent and trucking number whose occu-
patton. along with the occupation and
the price of the subsidized. is gone. and
gone because public attention can not be
attracted to any cause or to any person
they may serve.
Observe how true this is of the pend
ing campaign. and the relation thereto
OF the press. At the beginning one can
didate at least burst out with line of
papers from the Gull TO the Arkansas
line. 1t was. to his mind and to the
papers he had employed, one Of the same
old political campaigns of the past.
which were merely preludes to packed
conventions which named pre-Ordained
candidates for office
Mr. Sanders and his roaring newspa-
pers found out before the greenness of
the campaign had any appearance OF
n hat f. VIII he
and they expected. There was no pop
ular response to a noisy press, to baked
meats or to fervid oratory full of
aropes about babbling brooks. blue skies
and eternal hills. Red hot editorials had
no readers. grOanlng tables of barbecued
beef had no guests. and J. VS. eloquence
fell upon space-mostly
The "whoop EN- up campaign has
died abornlng,'' and there is a change
all along the line.
The press Of the subservient, truck
ling or purclaseable quality have found
out, or it is beginning to dawn upon
most of them, that the new order OF
things political has relegated them, so
far as influence or the respect of decent |
public opinion is concerned, to the scrap
heap
All this is for the public good. In
times past, when printing contracts and
pap could not influence the editorial |
opinions of the Louisiana press, it was
and was as it should be a
power for good and terror for evil.
From the dawn of the new era when
he public resumed charge of public af-
fairs there began an evolution of a new
,ress, patterned after that of old. In
,ur State you begin to find the news
PAPER which is not the organ; the news
,aper which is fearless. speaks the truth
nd let consequences follow as they
nay These are growing in numbers,
nd their Importance is being felt.
True, there are yet some, and perhaps
90 many, of the subservient sort, but
hey have become harmless because their ,
enality is matter of public notoriety, ,
ut the forceful and clean newspaper has
ONE to aid in the moral and political
acifcation of the State, and it has come 6
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