Year: 1874

He pIcsS eVcIJ WHeIc, Hnu voAy


naturally, resents recent law which


it believed to menace it's freedom.


This is instructive; for the hand of


arbitrary power is first laid upon the


press, which is the public tongue.


Its freedom is tile palladium of every


truly free government, and its utmost


abuse is not an evil as great as the
.constraint Of it's liberty. Bnt while


we shall all probably agree upon this,


and while the chief advocates of the


law in question deny that they cherish


any hostility to the press, nothing is


more notorious than the discomfort Of


many public men with the incessant


vituperation and,nisrepresentation to


which they are subjected in the news


papers. The point is we'll worth con-


sidering whether the press, which in


it's comments constantly presents so
lofty an IDEAL Of public life, does all


it can to make that.ideal practicable.


Indeed, the impartial reader-name-


~, the intelligent aud discriminating


person who is now perusing these


liDes-must often ask himself, rs he


fises from his daily feast of the news
papers, whether it does not seem that
the great journal is quite as much in
tent upon maintaining the consistency
OF its own expressed opinions upon
public men and measures as upon Sc
curing that lofty conduct with it SO
strenuously commends.


This course, indeed, bs natural
ePough, because if its judgment be
discredited it's influence is imperiled;
and as the press constantly expresses
the most positive opinions upon the
most inadequate or even inaccurate
information. an apparent consistency
often requires it to persevere in con-
scious error. A journal often wishes,
undoubtedly, that it had not taken
the position which it has taken, but
which, having taken, it must main
tain. | ala very SORRY" said an
editor, in effect, "to have called Mr..
Smith liaT, a forger, and thief
very sorry indeed but, having done
30, of course must stand to it." He
had q theory not only that Journal
should seem to be infallible, but that
no could persuade it's readers that it
wss so. But in tho very instance of
which he spoke every body knew that
he was wrong, for the disproving facts
had been published, and his refusal to
acknowledge the truth, by showing a
wast of manly caDdor, harmed his
Journal very much more than his per
sistence in slauder helped its repu-
tation Of ofinfnllibility.


The simple truth is that if an editor
l4skA Judgment, he can not help
showing 1t and nothing is palmer
Or more ludicrous proof Of it than the
effort to establish infallibility or to
maintain consistency. Yet it is this
personal and petty feeling which Grip
pies the press in the work of eleyatiug
the tone of public life. EACH journal
has two or three favorites, whose
according to it's report, never
open but pearls and diamands drop
profusely out. They are the greatest
Df statesmen and most incorruptible of
men, while the rest are wretched
and pettifoggers, imposing
themselves gpon a good-Datured
community az great men. Party Or
yans, Of course, grind the party tune
but we speak of the press which,
whatever party it favors, means to
show by the method and tone Of its
advocacy that it does not serve the
party, but the country by the party.
The object Of such press certainly
,honld be to cooperate with all good
endcavor, and as powerful means to
; loftier and purer politics, to make
public ife an attractive career for the
best men. At the best it has thorns
and repulsions enough. But does the
press try to remove them 7-Harper's