JOURNALISM IS THE UNITED STATES.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1527, 27 March 1885, Page 2

JOURNALISM IS THE UNITED STATES.

I am pleased to notice t*ie immce • and excellence of N*w Zealand n>-<i» papers, daily, and monthly. Your magazines and illustrated journals al»» show signs of appreciation and liberal patronage. Rightly or not, a newspaper is taken everywhere, and properly so, as the representative of the people among whom it iseirenlated. Depend on it that a goodf paper— one that strikes attention and commands *a> hearing wherever it is picked »p— never goes ont of an unenterprising, pokey, or crazy community. In the United States journalism is still rather a new and chaotic power. It is not yet adjusted to its distinctW* place in the social or politic*! *trnetnre. In tmth, no one knows what it i» worth — of bow much account it is. It is both over and under-ated. If a nan hay« no brains, he is no wiser by tbe ase of »we * for " I." If a nan b*ve not the quality to be a social sad political force within himself, he will not, and he ought not to expect to exert such a force successfully Merely because he edits a newspaper. The best property in erery country is tfe* estaMished newspaper. ( , TV b** properties iv New York City am its established daily and weekly, newspapers. The b'»*sVprop»-rty * n *'"** c 't T of Chicago is the ' Tribune* and Tiroes' : the l>est property in the State of lowa U the • Register '; tl-e I K?st property ia Philadelphia is its 'L't^fi' ; tlie best in K«v Orleaiis v its ' Tiin«s.' Railways

and newspipers are the two best a»iT 'tn:Mt potential poperties in A n -nci, Airairliiiif to tli9ir respective capitals. There are no maie satisfactory fortunes in America than those yielded by newspapers. It would seam as tl n ,if'i j Mirnalists, *i th khe lawyers, aho'ifd lw personal factors in the Govern nent ; l«ut as it U here, the JTvn-ilisrt, are a hindering conditi>i br w'lich the evolution of ionrnalis n into full efli iency and influence is nrevented. This is an office-filling, offi c asking and office-holdiig country M-n of tin* b-st minds are not going imn jvimalwn unless it opens to thfl'n freely a*H fully an avenue to any aiH cv«i # y public place, as the law or any other vocation does. Mr Horce Oreelv. who founded the New York • Trih'tie,' Wis only once a candidate for niiblic offi •<», and, failing to get it, b oke his heart and died in despair, A very large nntn^er of our prominent men in the Government began public life in connection with some news. pan«r or other. At present our American journalists »"" creating the •enfiment that their peculiar function is no* to ib»-ain nffi"° nr nffi"'*! distinction for themselves, but to help riome oCher i3 o 'i f'O'n othflr vo<saf,ion<r to «ft it. And just so long as tha> santime-tt: nr«vuls. m** of b^t brain power will k»*eD <vit of journalism, and therefor* the profession in doomed to mediocrity.