Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/309

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

ta to help build



railroads, practically gave away the larger part of that Terri- tory. When the edition of The Times reached Washington, it created almost as much of a stir as the edition which startled New York by the exposure of the Tweed Ring. The House promptly ordered an investigation, and on February 19 its com- mittee reported that the charges of corruption as published in The Times had been proved and recommended that four mem- bers of the House be promptly expelled. This exposure was one of the most distinct services for the public good performed by the press so far in the history of American journalism.

RAYMOND VS. GREELEY

Like Greeley, Raymond was vitally interested in politics. Unlike Greeley, Raymond conceived the idea that the first busi- ness of a newspaper was to publish the news rather than to print the political views of its editor. In politics Raymond was the more successful as he held several offices under the Whigs. In a certain sense he was the Father of the Republican Party: at any rate, it was he who announced its birth in an address "To the People of the United States," delivered before the Republican Convention at Pittsburgh, February 22, 1856. The Times, how- ever, reached its greatest influence under his editorship when he retired from politics and devoted all his energy to the newspaper which he had founded. Then it widened its influence through a larger circulation, while its stock rose in value from one thousand dollars to eleven thousand dollars a share, until an offer of one million dollars for the paper was refused by its owners. Unfor- tunately, Raymond could not make a decision "never again to be a politician" until a short time before his death. Greeley thought himself and was greater than The Tribune. Ray- mond thought The Times was greater than himself greater than all the men then associated with him on the paper: he was the first great editor to place his newspaper before himself.

TELEGRAPH OF MORSE

The man who brought about the greatest transformation in American journalism, not only in this period, but even in any other before or after, was not a practical newspaper man, but,