Arizona republican., 1910-05-23
After Twenty Years.

Our readers may have noticed i,
 the date line of the front page. tha
 yesterday The Republican entere,
 upon its twenty first year. With tn,
 issue of Saturday the paper completed
 twenty years of continuous publica.
 ton.
 These two decades have covered 2
 notable period in the history of Phoe-
 nix, and during the last quarter of
 the twenty years the city and the
 suburban towns, together with the
 Salt River valley as q whole have
 made an amazing growth. With this
 growth The Republican has kept full
 step, if not in advance.
 Time brings changes in all lines of business, and the newspaper business is undergoing steady evolution. The daily paper is becoming more and more a household necessity. With a great and constantly increasing circu- lation, has come to the owners and managers of standard newspapers a greatly increased responsibility. Never before was there such neces- sity for care and conscience in the conducting of newspapers. for the newspaper has become veritable fourth estate"-indeed. the statemen. is constantly heard that ours is "a government by newspapers" Thus the newspaper manager has taken on a great moral responsibility. To print the news and print it truthfully; to comment on the news in a spirit of fairness; to wield great power with justice. and to see that the citizen always largely helpless against unfair attack--is protected in his privacy and in his honest pursuits; to act as the foremost guardian of the com munity's welfare and at times to forego temporary popularity in order to speak the truth courageously- these have become elementary news paper duties.
 That these duties are not always discharged Is as true as human frailty. But it would be difficult to find in any business a more strict adherence to a standard of upright ness and honesty than is found in the offices of newspapers. And it is trite fact that no citizen does so much practical work for the common good ag do the editor and publisher. However, there are cOmpensations in newspaper management that no other business affords. There is d world of satisfaction in the thought that one is an important factor for good and for progress and for higher civili- zation on the wide stage of a great newspaper circulation. There is also fine satisfaction in publishing q newspaper for intelligent people! such as the thousands of people who daily read The Republican.
 To be sure, there is another class of people, to which some papers cater, and it is true that some news paper managers deliberately choose the unintelligent class for a clientele. Thus there are two schools" of journalism The late Charles A. Dana the greatest editor this country has known. a few years ago address, ed the graduation class of a univer sity, and in that address he aptly said, in substance: Some of you will doubtless take up the profession of journalism You must make up your mind at the outset which you will do-edit your paper for intelli- gent people. or for fools. If you edit for fools you can doubtless make money. for there are always people | lacking in sense who will take your | paper and believe what you tell them: | but you won't get any lasting satis- | faction out of the job
 The Republican is published for the intelligent people of Arizona. And as the paper now has a greater circu- Iation at home and in the territory | than ever before. and as it's business is greater by large per cent than in any previous year. it is ,ur guess. as it always has been, that the intelligent people of Arlzona are in a great majority.