Part 12 (1/2)

VI

A newspaper, like a woman, must not only be honest, butexpressions or behavior--though never so innocent--tending in the one and in the other to lower reputation and discredit character During my career I have proceeded under a confident belief in this principle of newspaper ethics and an unfailing recognition of its rity in newspaper ement comes disinterestedness in the public service, and next after disinterestedness co, in dealing with affairs and its readers

Froood day, I have known no other life and had no other aim Those were indeed parlous times It was an era of transition Upon the field of battle, after four years of deadly but unequal combat, the North had vanquished the South

The victor stood like a giant, with blood aflaain to strike The victim lay prostrate Save self-respect andits memories to its bosom the South sank helpless an influence of the great Lincoln withdrawn, proceeded to decide its fate To this ghastly end had come slavery and secession, and all the pomp, pride and circumstance of the Confederacy To this bitter end had come the soldiershi+p of Lee and Jackson and Johnston and the le Constitutional barrier that had stood between the people of the stricken section and political extinction was about to be removed by the exit of Andrew Johnson from the White House In his place a man of blood and iron--for such was the estimate at that time placed upon Grant--had been elected President The Republicans in Congress, checked for a tith to have entire sway under Thaddeus Stevens Reconstruction was to be thorough and merciless To meet these conditions was the first requirement of the Courier-Journal, a newspaper conducted by outlawed rebels and published on the sectional border line

The task was not an easy one

There is never a cause so weak that it does not stir into ill-tiine it strong There is never a cause so just but that the malevolent and the mercenary will seek to trade upon it The South was helpless; the one thing needful was to get it on its feet, and though the bravest and the wisest saw this plainly enough there came to the front--particularly in Kentucky--a small but noisy body of politicians who had only worked themselves into a state of hen it was too late, and ith ression, insisted that ”the states lately in rebellion” still had rights, which they were able to maintain and which the North could be forced to respect

I was of a different opinion It seeht exist the South was at the mercy of the North; that the radical party led by Stevens and Wade dominated the North and could dictate its own terms; and that the shortest way round lay in that course which was best calculated to disarent appeal to the business interests and conservative elements of Northern society, supported by a domestic policy of justice alike to whites and blacks

Though the institution of African slavery was gone the negro continued the subject of savage contention I urged that he be taken out of the arena of agitation, and al and civil rights The lately ratified Constitutional Amendments, I contended, were the real Treaty of Peace between the North and South

The recognition of these Aood faith by the white people of the South was indispensable to that perfect peace which was desired by the best people of both sections The political emancipation of the blacks was essential to the moral emancipation of the whites With the disappearance of the negro question as cause of agitation, I argued, radicalism of the intense, proscriptive sort would die out; the liberty-loving, patriotic people of the North would assert the removed, the restoration of Constitutional Govern a matter of momentous concern to the body of the people both North and South

Such a policy of conciliation suited the Southern extremists as little as it suited the Northern extremists It took from the politicians their best card South no less than North, ”the bloody shi+rt” was trumps It could always be played It was easy to play it and it never failed to catch the unthinking and to arouse the excitable What cared the perennial candidate so he got votes enough? What cared the professional agitator so his appeals to passion brought him his audience?

It is a fact that until Lay on Sue calculated to placate the North, and between Lamar and Grady there was an interval of fifteen years There was not a De those evil days the Courier-Journal stood alone, having no party or organized following At length it was joined on the Northern side by Greeley Then Schurz raised his reat liberal moven and its tragic finale; and then there set in what, for a season, seee

But the cause of Constitutional Governan to appear in unexpected quarters New men spoke up, North and South In spite of the Republican landslide of 1872, in 1874 the Democrats swept the Eress by an overwhel majority In the Senate they had a respectable minority, with Thurman and Bayard to lead it In the House Randall and Kerr and cox, Lamar, Beck and Knott were about to be reenforced by Hill and Tucker and Mills and Gibson The logic of events was at length subduing the rodomontade of soap-box oratory

Empty rant was to yield to reason For all its n had shortened the distance across the bloody chase--The Adventures in Politics and Society--A Real Heroine

I

It would not be the writer of this narrative if he did not interject certain opinions of his ohich parties and politicians, even his newspaper colleagues, have been wont to regard as peculiar By common repute he has been an all-round old-line De national questions of the last fifty years--the Negro question, the Greenback question and the Free Silver question--he has challenged and antagonized the general direction of that party He takes some pride to himself that in each instance the result vindicated alike his forecast and his insubordination

To one itnessed the break-up of the Whig party in 1853 and of the Deht in which parties find theestive The feeling is at once to laugh and to whistle Too much ”fuss and feathers” in Winfield Scott did the business for the Whigs Too hes perhaps cooked the goose of the Republicans Too s went into Know-Nothingiso into Prohibition and paternalisned to East and West

For the ti of a funk It is the nature of parties thus situate to fancy that there is no hereafter, riding in their dire confusion headlong for a fall Little other than the labels being left, nobody can tell ill happen to either

Progressivism seems the cant of the indifferent Accentuated by the indecisive vote in the elections and heralded by an aer than he writes the United States, and is accused of aspiring to world leadershi+p, democracy unterrified and undefiled--the democracy of Jefferson, Jackson and Tilden ancient history--has become a back number Yet our officials still swear to a Constitution We have not elihts are not wholly dead

The fight between capital and labor is on No one can predict where it will end Shall it prove another irrepressible conflict? Are its issues irreconcilable? Must the alternative of the future lie between Socialisress! Shall there be no stability in either actualities or principles? And--and--what about the Bolsheviki?