THE WEST SHORE.
341
short range and is powerless. It is only when it bursts
ami spreads devastation among the bespattered artillery
men that it becomes at all effective. Such is the weapon
this scandal shoot employs in its defence. It was not a
brilliant intellectual flight when it sought to link arms
with other weekly papers and say, "Lot us resent it, we
have been attacked," for the respectable press of the city
promptly and unanimously .repudiated the ignoble fel
lowship. This matter hns Income one of tho moral issues of the
day. The leading journals of this region have taken
hold of it in earnest, and it will not lie allowed to drop
until a law is upon our statute lxxks suppressing such
criminal publications, and a public sentiment created
which shall demand its rigid enforcement. Our ex
changes teem with vigorous editorials on the subject,
showing a determination to purge the press of such un
worthy and degrading members. Says the Omjimhn:
"Au editor who offers his newspaper as a spittoon for
every scandal-monger to expectorate his private and
public hates into, may be congratulated upon his success
in getting it filled, if it is his ambition to be offensivo,
but he should not be permitted to think that decent
pooole look upon his management as enterprise." The
Sunday Welcome gives the following succinct statement
of the position of the press on this subject: "The next
Oregou Legislature will be forced by the combined
pressure of self-respecting newspapers and public opin
iou to do something toward checking the unlicensed
indecency of a certain class of literature that is spreud
broadcast over our State. Defenders of 'smut' who
point at clean papers that print criminal news, and
imagine no law can be framed to sufficiently distinguish
the bad from the good, should bear in mind that the
movers in this matter of purifying our literature have no
idea of accomplishing any other end than the suppression
of papers that make a specialty of vice and vulgarity."
It is unnecessary to multiply these quotations. They
are but samples of the unauimously expressed opinion of
the representative journals of the Northwest; yet we
will odd just one more. In closing a long editorial the
Boise SluteaiMin, the leading paper of Idaho, says: "They
thrive, too, at the expense of able, worthy, dignified
periodicals, and are responsible for much vice and conse
quent misery. It is self-evident that, for the general
well-being of society and the highest beneficent attain
ments of legitimate journalism, all such flashy, fcc.imlid
ous publications ought to be suppressed by law."
It is difficult, if not impossible, for the human mind
to conceive the actual existence of virtues itself doe not
xwsoss, or to ascribe to others loftier motives than those
by which itself 'in actuated, This is the reason why
honorable men are invariably misjudged by the vile and
despicable; why the bribe-giver and corruptioiiist sneer
iugly asserts that every man has his price. The man
agers of the scaudol sheet have boostiugly asserted that
they have money and "influence" enough to effectually
smother all attempts nt legislation upon this subject
What a bum lusull to the hottest, iubjiil and purity
of the men who have boon selected to compose our next
Legislature! What n mistake to thus attempt to measure
by their vile standard some of the most intelligent and
worthy men the Slate of Oregon contains! It cannot
but be resented. Wo have every confidence that when
those chosou representatives of the jsmple, with many of
whom we have a personal acquaintance, and for whose
in nd character we have the highest esteem, assemble nt
Salem, and this matter is clearly laid Wforo them, they
will vole for the protection of our children and tho pre
servation of our homes with a feeling no intense and a
voice so unanimous that the publishers of such crime,
breeding sheets will then realize, if they do not now, that
they will not longer be permitted to outrage decency and
insult virtue with impunity.
SOMETHING FOR NOTHING.
Thkhk is no business which does so much to promote
trade and advance tho material interests of the section in
which it is located as the newspaper, and yet there is
nothing which certain business men consider ho cheap
and such a subject for imjxmitiou. It is the province
and 'conscientious aim of a paper to give all news which
falls within its legitimate sphere; to chronicle all local
events and treat nil local interests and industries as fully
and frequently as is demanded by the public. It must
look at everything from the standpoint of its general
interest , Whatever is proper news, whatever is of inter
est generally to its readers or necessary for their infor
mation, it is its duty to publish in its columns. There
are mauy men who, having something in which they nro
Hrsoually interest id - generally in n financial sense --are
offended if they are not grantl an editorial mention or
free local notice, irresHctive of its interest to the readers
of the piqMT. They desire to secure an advertisement
for nothing, on the plea that it is "news," and consider
publishers niggardly and unenterprising for refusing to
gratify their longing to obtain something for nothing.
The advertising columns of every jmir are opeu at a
reasonable rate to every advertisement which is proper
to apMar in a paer of general circulation ; and, we are
sorry to say, muny are osn to advertisement which van
hardly lx considered proxr, those which no welf-rmqtect-ing
journal should ever publish. When an advertiser is
assigned all the space he pays for in those columns the
publisher's obligation to him is fully discharged, and yet
he often demands that the business or industry iu which
he is engaged In) made tho subject of local or editorial
o immeiit. The publisher has tho right, and must 1st
Kriiiittd, to decide for himself what class of news his
readers require, and he has good reasons fur feeling ex
cessively annoyed when such unreasonable requests are
made. Long exsrieiice has proven that tho liU-ral and
legitimate advertiser seldom trespasses Uxu his good
nature in this reMt. That Is left for tho man who
wants to get a puff for nothing, and whoso name rarely
appears in tho regular advertising columns. It is tho
man who wauU something for nothing who is tho severest
critic of tho newspaper.