Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1883 — COLLEGE BRED JOURNALIST [ARTICLE]

COLLEGE BRED JOURNALIST

The Boston Globe si s down on the ambitious j• u & man who spirit :o b<- j a jouinalisi ad at once, with a ponderousness indicative of a disposition, in which gentleness forms no considerable elemen it n ieed. it appears at all Tn e young man writes to the Globe as foL lows: 1 think what your paper requires to meet the popular demand for information is an exhau the discussion of the lanfl question. I have made this sub ject a special study and am thoroughly posted on ttie tariff, free trade and protection, etc., and would be willing,to give my whole time and attention to writing e .Horiais on such ma tern. I have had some jouroahstio exi>erierce as occas onal mi turner correspondent for the Smith ville i»e« kly Welkin. Am witling to accept a small Salary at first. Te egripb me w hen to come. As a matter of course the Globe is no t fiattertd by such an appl cation from the ambitious young journalist just fromCoi. lege, and replies in style which Mr. Henry Bergh wouid not hesitate to pro. nounce cru- liy to anima's. The Globe l as an awfully poor opinion of College—bred journalists, and saya:

The young man who has been educated in a University is apt to start out with the notion ihal a (. ollege course of suidy comprises the sum total of all useful knowledge, and t al familiarity with ue.id language is sufficient equipment tor a man iu a world full of live facts, and it is only his readiness to psreeive and discard t> e error that constitutes his capacity for becoming u.-etul. A ('ollege education does.no harm to a man whose brain is naturally roomy enough to hold s- meibiug «lse, and woo has sense enough *o put h>s Latin aud Greek away in a c iner, ami the h alhen gods oa a shelf devoted to ip ell< ctual brioabrac, while be goes about picking up knowledge M the things and is>ple that he musi come in contact wiin every day. buc.ii a you'm man may earn a salary on a ucw.-paper, if er ue has learned the business of re*3< i >ii<g and acquired the knack ot writing up a runaway without alluding t<> Pega.us or Bucephalus, auu of leaving Nero ami ms 4iduie out ot a description of a tenement house fire. Bui the College graduate who has crammed his head lull of Greek routs and faces the bustling world with a calm convic m u that Le km-ws it all, and everything outside a University corn |e is y -nt ity, misfit as well have a skillfull ot cobwebs. The boy who left scuool after learning the three K's and b. gan his journal siic traiuiug by sweeping out the ..tike and going alter che mail, will make a betie r newspaper mau than he and know twice as much worth knowing wlien fie |s twenty'oqe. The eg-oitlce buy ipay n<4 know t|ie difiereupe between a Sanskrit poem and a solar parallax, but neither will he care a diclion. He’ll know wua, CQagress is doing and whether ifie news tugt comes over ihe winssnouid go into the morning paper or ihe waste basket. The Globe builds its opposition to the College manufactured journalists mainly upon the whims o. Horace Greeley, “whose pet aversion was,” says the Globe, “the college graduate, and he usually flew into a piofane passion whenever one of th*- tribe aoplicd to him lor work on his paper. He thought the dev. ii was of more use than a college graduate in a newspaper office.’’ Having fully explained ihe reasen why to its readers, the Globe giyes to the pqblic the fq|l tex t of its reply to the young iqan who thought he could greatly aid the editor in elucidating theiqaplex problems which the tariff is forever fqrcing upon the attention of stamsmeu, editors, political economis's aud monopolists. Its reply is as follows:

Dear ; ir—rne great mistake of your life w*> not geitmg elected to congress or securing an app dntinent on the tariff commission. This country is just howling for gpmefoody jvffo (tuows all about tree tra Je nroieetfqh pet., to show up ■ ndstia >h • n thin.a out. Congress, you see, don’t now anything much scarcely at nil and you- ought to be there to lead our contused staie-tnen through the maz es of political economy and the tangle ol <-omm-rcial and labor interests Your nnxissty should not prevent you trom rivng tbe louutry the benefit of your pheno iienai lute ltd, and we don’t think it wuqid. It wptflu pot be (ajr to {he other papers lor us to secure a monopoly of your information, and perhaps you had better try and get up a combination with the rest. Some oi our contemporaries need just such an infant phenom emm as y<>u the worst kind. They are worse off than Congress on this tariff business, Besides we don’t want to know pyery tbjug in the world. gfferjsh § pertain aihoqut of igporaqae, »qd popld pot be inuucetl to payt with it for any» thing. We have men Who underata id something about tree trade and protec lion and manage to grind out editorials once in a while that have an appearance of plausibility and contain a few everyday iacis, bdi they don’t know anything about the “etc ” phas ot the tariff ques tiofi. It is the ignorance ot the staff I p qeeruipg ‘‘etc” tffat gives variety l|qd I gprjgh'pi'ness to the qapq:, aqff yarrety is qur strbugholi. We would nqt sacrifice , the sprigbih misinformation of tfle staff (Hi the subject Of “etc.,” even for your vast fund of kuow)eage on the tariff question. You might get a job as private tutor to Benaior Dawes. He don’t know anything about the tariff. He thinks il tbe American workingman did not have to fay twice as much for his clothing tea. sugar, etc. as they are worffj he would be “knocked out” by the pauper labor qi kqrope. You make a good thing by going ip Washington rnd coaching some of those feffows who ar-- talking nonsense. Or perhaps you perhaps you oetrer put ail you know in a book, if (here is e«ough paper left in the world after the publication of what you don’t know. Adam (Smith, Buckle, Mill, Spencf-r, Ruskin, Harry George, Daniel Pratt, and lots of otter lellows haye tried to write about politic..} economy, hut the whole ot 'hern put together never &new as much as yoq do aboqt f<ee trade, pr- tecnon, eic. They never wanted to wrhequr editorals either. We wouldn’t lei’m if they did. What you want is to go to Congress, go to writing books, go to lectpiipg, go to blades or something. Havi g stuck as m au V thorns in the crown ot your conceit as the pressure ot other pleasures will permit us to weave in, we have the happiness to wish you an everlasting good-by. The Enrrou. It col ege-made journalists are at such tremendous discount in Boston, wh*t must be tbe|j? market value elsewhere?

■/ For the first time in the memory of the nicest inhabitant navigation on Lake M cMgan is completely closed. In many p aces the lake is covered with ice several feH thick as f#r as twenty five miles from the shore, 'Hje perils of winter navigation have never been so great as during the present seisin, and many thrilling experiences have occurred. Messrs. Bedford & Warner have an ex'ensive stock of Groceries, Hardware, Tinware, Woodenware, Brick, Tile, etc., etc , on hand, to which they invite the attention of the public.