The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-01-17
FRANKLTN's
BIRTHDAY BRINGS ATTACKS
OF NIUCKRAKERs

Printers and. newspapermen in a
number of American cities will cele-
brate the 2o7the anniversary of the
birth of Benjamin Franklin today.
Great as he was as inventor, states
man, ambassador. author, savant and
scientist, Frank1in's claim to immor-
tally rests more on his achievem ents
as printer and editor. In the latter
capacity he gave voice to a principle
that should be emblazoned in every
editorial sanctum. AS a young man
he founded the Pennsylvania. Gazette,
and soon made it a power in Phi1adeI-
phia journalism. He was approached
by one of the t'maIefactors of great
wealth" of his day, and urged to
adopt a certain editorial policy that
would benefit the gentleman of means.
In his reply to this proposition, Frank
lin wrote that he had considered the
project after making meal of a. pen
ny loaf of bread and spending the
night on the floor In his great coat
He added:
From this regimen feel no incon-
venience whatever. Finding can
determination never to prostitute my
press to corruption and abuse of this
kind for the sake of gaining a mere
comfortable subsistence
While this policy resulted in tenn
porary hardships, it paid in the end,
and at forty-two Franklin was able to
retire from business with a fortune of
$4,000, and an assured income from
his publishing business of $1,000 a
year, and to devote the remainder of
his long life to science, literature, and
the service of his country.
Great as he was, Franklin has not
escaped the attention of the muck
rakers, who have pointed out that he
was a -freethinker in religion, and have
a of hi e 1r,v-Ir
was obscene and ndecent-which was,
indeed, a prevalent vice among the
m en- of letters of Frank1in's time. If
Franklin wrote things that would now
be considered naughty he was but
following the example of Voltaire and
a thousand lesser lights of eighteenth
century letters.
In a recent book, the Rev. DR.. Rob
ert w. Mclaughlin, of Brooklyn, de-
clares that many of Franklin's works
could not be published nowadays, ex-
cept in an expurgated form. Mayor
Gaynor, of New York, worlds cham
pion letter writer. took exception to
this statement, and wrote the author
to tell him so. DR.. Mclaughlin re-
piled:
''You say, 4 do not understand this
I do not see in them a single thing to
expurgate.'~ Neither do ], for the sim
pie reason that the offensive language
is not permitted in the standard edi-
lions. The editions that are publish
ed to-day are those of Jared Sparks,
published in 1912; John Bigelow's,
published in 1887, and A H. Smyth's,
published in 1907. Smyth's edition
in ten volumes is the latest and most
complete, containing 1856 letters and
forty articles not previously printed.
Yet Smyth says, Vol. I, page III; I'm
fortunately, it is impossible without
offence to quote many of his briefer
paragraphs. His salt Imagination
delights in greasy jests and tales of
bawdry. Among the manuscripts in
the Library of Congress and in the
columns of his newspaper and the in
PRODUCTIONS by Poor Richard" are
productions of his pen the printing of
which would not be tolerated by the
public sentiment of the present age .
The Balkan war conference in Lon
don recalls that to-day is the forty