The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-08

paper, that he had real conception
Of the newspaper and Its possibilities
and his own opportunities. His two
years In Europe were a second educa-
ton; revelation to him Of the i'm
possibility Of putting the visionary
talk Of Brook Farm into practice.
Contact with the realities Of Germany
and France In the late 40s destroyed
whatever illusions he had about ideal
socialism, although 1t did not weaken
his ideals. Tho years Immediately
afterward, when GREELEY leaned upon
the young man who was stronger than
himself, trained DANA rs an execu-
tive. His service with GRANT, his
familiar relations with LINCOLN and
STANTON, his work for the President
as the eyes Of the Government at the
front. all added to his ability, expert
enco. judgment and confidence.
The men who made successes Of
New York newspapers before DANA
became the editor and general man.
ager Of THE SUN had each some par
ticular road to victory. DAY per-
sisted with novelty, the penny pa
per. BENNETT introduced. in a gen.
eral way, the modern style Of report
Ing news. GREELEY, largely through
the growth Of the Weekly Tribune,
became a national political power by
virtue OF his honest II not always
perfectly directed sense Of political
Righteousness. HENRY j. RAYMOND
made the Times thrive through a de-
votion to politics which permeated not
alone the paper but the editors own
life and ambitions. Each In his sep
arate field, these men had shown a
way; and there were other editors,
less known to fame, who played their
several parts in the game Of Journal
istic progress which never ceased af-
ter DAT signed the death warrant OF
the sixpenny to respectables.
To knowledge of all that had been
accomplished in thirty-five years of
popular newspapers DANA was able
70 add new ingredient: his own be-
lief that the public appetite for daily
reading was now ready for something
more than politics, finance and crime /;
that 1t craved the intellectual pabulum
supplied only--and sometimes fatty
by the periodicals; that 1t would en-
joy a discourse upon the architecture
Of the tombs Of the Pharaohs as much
as 1t liked a description Of the In
habitants of the Tombs of Centre
street; In short, that the public liked
everything that was clean, lively and
interesting. With this belief went his
conviction that 1t was not necessary
that the style Of the American news
paper should adhere either to the
stilted phrase Of the British journals
or to the stereotyped methods Of news
reporting which had grown up beside
Mr.. BENEFITS method Of getting all
the news and presenting 1t with small
regard for elegance. Such was DArA's
Sohtiiputioh W JouA haihohi, uhu We
doubt whether there has been finer
gift. 1t was not only the cause Of his
own personal success but 1t changed
the whole current of the profession,
for in raising the standards Of the
product DANA lifted also the standard
Of the men who produced. As the
Int MAYO w. HAzELrINE wrote Of
him, He honored his fellow crafts
men of the pen, and he compelled the
world to honor them"
1t was one of the marvels of fifty
years ago that DANA had been able,
at the age of AZ, to take over a news
paper that had been read almost ex-
cluslvely by the Democratic mechanics
and tradesmen of New York and to
change overnight Its entire character,
intellectual and political, without los
ing it's readers, but, In fact. adding
greatly to their numbers. But 1t wac
greater accomplishment to have
changed for the better, in his thirty
years of editorship, the entire color
of American journalism; and that,
beyond question. is what DANA did.
There is not first class newspaper
in the land but shows in its style, its
treatment of the news, its ethical at
titude toward the public and Its own
profession the impress which DANA
made If any doubts that DANA
set the standard which still endures,
unaltered IL not unalterable, let him
remember the new or yellow Journal
ism which raised Its own standard, as
brazen as AzAzEL's, some thirty-odd
years ago. 1t is gone where the wood
bine twineth, or further, and the news
papers which tried 1t on, IL they out
lived the fever, have returned to the
sanity from which DANA never once
deviated.
In the years that have passed since
Mr.. DANA laid down HIS pen we have
seen improvement In journalism, but
It has been largely on the physical
side. Each day brings new means by
which the reader is kept in closer
touch with the world. But when that
reader finds his newspaper trying tc
present Its daily photograph Of the
whole worlds doings in the most lumi.
nous and lively manner"-as DANA
4 4.