Year: 1878

- There is no denying that, as q rule, the
oieditor is expected to do more for nothing
to give more for the money, to expect
Wless thanks, or even acknowledgment for
,favors done, than the lawyer, doctor
Clergyman, merchant, mechanic, and far
Timer This does not hold good, as is gen


orally supposed, of the country press


alone, but also of the journalists of the


cities, great and small. Most of the sub


scribers to newspapers, be it daily or
a weekly, though they get their full
moneys worth and something more, are
fully impressed with the idea that they


have an inalienable right to dictate the
course of the paper that "they take. -
These people would never dream of


threatening to withdraw their patronage
from grocer because, on public or relig-
ious affairs, he entertained or expressed
opinions at variance with their own.
They would never think of asking their
tailors to throw in a vest because they
paid for coat; they would laugh at the
idea of advising lawyer how to conduct
q case; yet they think it the most rea-
sonable and natural thing in the world
to tell the editor that they will stop his
paper if he continues to oppose resump-
ton or imitation, refuses to find fault with
the national administration, or abstains
from praising it, as the case may be-
When they find it their interests to adj
yertise, they deem themselves badly used
if the editor does not promptly and
smilingly comply with the request for a
local or editorial notice, highly favorable,
of course.


Nor is the great American public alto
gether to blame for expecting so much
more of editors than of any other calling
lIatS
that newspapers are in a certain degree
common property-noti in so many words,
is it true but in an unVarying readiness
to espouse any public interest, to defend
the weak against the strong, the poor
against the rich, the right against the
| wrong. In this constant battling for the
masses, the editors do not speak Of them
selves as citizens; they must live by their
journals as other members Of the COM
munity do by their respective callings
This homely fact is seldom obtruded upon
their readers, and the latter are not to be
too haishly criticized if they do not think
of it. On the other hand, too, the edi-
tors services are in many instances ap-
preciated by his election to offices ofpub
lie honor and trust. A journalist is
always formidable candidate for an
elective office, because the people who
claim his services, and deem themselves
privileged to sit in judgment on his
views and opinions, also deem him pecu-
liarly fitted to conduct public affairs. In
the latter estimate they are right. Edi-
tors abound in the halls of legislation
State and national. They have done so
for years, and have proved themselves
the right men in the right places. A
large number of them have achieved ma
tional regulations. Inappointive offices,
the journalists have, as rule, acquitted
themselves with integrity and ability. In
most of our communities, too, the editor
is man to be looked up to, and be proud
of, as we'll as to be dictated to, and re-
garded as the member of the community
whose main duty consists in carrying out
the wishes of every body, and giving
something for nothing