But, further,
and worse, a short-sighted instinct of self-preservation has led
other papers to follow somewhat at a distance in this demoralizing
race. None of them has gone to such lengths, but the tendency to
literary, mental and moral dissipation induced by a hitherto unknown
form of competition has swerved and largely recast the methods of
every New York daily save only the _Tribune_, _Times_, _Commercial
Advertiser_, and _Evening Post,_ while the converse side of securing
business clientage is illustrated in a way that would be amusing if it
were not pathetic, by that abnormal and fantastic cross between news
and pietetics which mails and expresses itself to the truly good.
These are forms of competition which the business end of legitimately
conducted newspapers is compelled to meet. In a certain way these
methods do succeed, but how, and how long and how much shall they
succeed except by unsettling the mental and moral poise of the people,
and by setting a new and false pace for publishers everywhere whose
thoughts take less account of means than of ends? Which shall we hold
in higher esteem and in our business patronage--Manton Marble and
Hurlbut, gentlemen, scholarly, wise leaders, conscientious teachers,
with barely living financial income; or their successors, parvenus,
superficial, meretricious, false guides, time-serving leaders, a
thousand dollars a day of clear profit, housed in the tower of Babel?
Considered in the large, the circulation side of the American
newspaper has many indefensible aspects.
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