The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-01-16
The Journal, It's Owner, and the
Governorship.

Now as we have said before. from a
business point OF view it is nobody 5
business who owns The Montpelier
Journal But under certain conditions
it is very important matter who owns
it to the point of controlling its ed-
torial utterances. and who does so, when
it is done. These certain conditions now
exist Here are few facts to consider.
We will not deal in parallels, but will
try to speak plainly.
A leading, able and estimable citizen
of Montpelier is a candidate for the gov
ernorship. He is supported by substan-
TALLY every Republican in that city.
There is but one Republican newspaper
published in Montpelier. That newspa-
per opposes him. OF itself this would
be unusual, since courtesy and loyalty
alike demand that journal should
stand by its home candidate, unless there
is strong ground for objection TO him
But more. The regular editor of The
Journal, engaged and acting in that ca
pacity, and who, it is well known, fayors
the Montpelier candidate, is elbowed out
apparently an untried, hand prepares at
intervals editorials quite at variance
with the views of the regular editor, as
well as with local sentiment, that re-
ceives them, emanating from such
source, with keen resentment.
These hostile editorials are clipped and
copied into other newspapers and reach
voters in remote parts of the state, who
are not informed of the unusual circum-
stances, and who, noting that they come
from a Montpelier newspaper that would
be expected to be friendly to a home
candidate, are influenced unduly and. we
hold. unfairly. Under such conditions
as these, it is somebody's, everybody's,
business who owns The Journal.
The history of the Montpelier Journal
in recent years is tolerably well known.
Since its establishment as a daily news.
paper, at least. il has never been a pay
ing proposition On the death of Arthur
Ropes, former proprietor, and in the
course of the settlement of his estate,
the ownership Of the property passed by
purchase to parties whose consuming de-
sire seemed to be to hide their identity
They-though "he" would perhaps be
sufIicient--dd business through an
agent, living remote from Montpelier
and whose closest connection with it was
TO foot the recurring deficit or provide
funds for improved equipment. It was
that the money came from the
mysterious parties higher up; also
that it came hard and slowly. The Jour
nal ownership has been an expensive in
vestment up to now, it is clear.
Besides the pecuniary returns, there
can be but one natural motive in own
ing newspaper and that is to control
its editorial opinions in order to influ
ence public sentiment. A surmise that
this might have been a leading consid
Grafton on the part of those who took
The Journal when there was little else to
be sought for, was a perfectly defensible
one. and is vet the most natural one in
sight But here again appearances were
battling In all these years down to a
few weeks ago, it has been impossible
to discover in the editorial utteranees or |
positions of The Journal anything forced !
or inconsistent with the course that a |
newspaper so situated, however owned
or managed, would be likely to pursue.