The morning journal-courier., 1908-09-12
A STATES GOOD NAME.

The newspapers of the country, which reach the people of the country, are talking unhandsomely of the his- toric little state of Connecticut They are indulglng in what one If our es- teemed contemporaries calls "a stream of detractlon," because, in the face of protests which should have been list ened to, the republican state machine forced the nomination of the not un- known Mir. Lilley for governor. All this obviously involves the good name of the state and cannot from any point of view be regarded as desirable thing
 The Waterbury American refers to this newspaper notoriety as "a deplor- able matter and in that conclusion we concur. We cannot agree, how ever, with the reasoning with which our contemporary follows It's conclus- ion. It says There are two or three newspapers outside of the state, which pay constant attention to the affairs of Connecticut as 1t Is entirely proper that they should do. But these attentions are almost always of crit ical and almost never of friendly. character. They call attention to our errors, our weaknesses, our mistakes, but almost never to our virtues, or our worthy accomplishments There has been dribbled through the col- umns of the Springfield Republican. for example. for many years a steady stream of detraction, which by reason of the papers wide circulation and great. influence, has done much 10 spread through the country a poor opinion of the state. The motive may be worthy. but the effect is to spread abroad a belief that the citizenship of 1OUllcCllCul IS SOlulus WllllOul spirit and tamely submissive to the domination of a political machine or railroad corporation
 Our contemporary then goes on to say that there are a few Connecticut newspapers, which obviously includes this newspaper which "are so poor minded as to indulge in the nest foul ing habit of copying these dIsparaging their own people, if they happen to serve temporarily their selfshness and spite" In other words the American would protect the good name of Con- necticut by suppressng criticisms of our conduct by newspapers enjoying, necessarily on account of their intelll- gence and fairness a wide circulation and great influence" This is novel view to take of the best way of invit- ing commendation of our virtues and worthy accomplishments. We could not be criticised for a moment by nt -rapers of standing if our virtues were constantly on parade and our faults under control. Their criticisms would be absurd It is because, from the point of view of these critical newspapers, we have exposed on faults and our weaknesses notably within recent years, that they have found an audience which assents.
 Nothing in many years has donf more to give substance and point tC these charges of political submissive ness than the nomination of MT Lille, for governor, and the impression mad' will be still further emphasized if tht voters at the polls ratify that machine dictation A good name for stat, can no more be created in the manner suggested by our contemporary thai n reputation for integrity can be ma 1 by declaring that certain man ha not robbed his employers till. Mega tive virtues never did anybody an. substantial good. Positive virtues pos sess the power to disarm criticism ant silence the tongue of malice It ma, be further remarked that this criti cism of which our neighbor complain is contemporaneou with the evolution of unmatched machine power whic has not only shown no disposition { curb and regulate corporation conduc but which has with deliberation re pudated governor who stood read to pass out "the square deal' to a concerned. There is no theory upo which outside newspapers can be es pected to speak cheerfully of us Whe we at home acquiesce in such discred table conduct, Instead of nakin faces at these unprejudiced critics C