Page:Pacific Monthly volumes 9 and 10.djvu/352

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THE PACIFIC MONTHLY

the circulation of modern papers of prominence, was small. The Sun is a good paper yet, but it is not in the lead of its contemporaries as it was during the height of the elder Dana's career. Horace Greeley, great as was his ability as an editorial writer, drank the dregs of bitter disappointment in


HENRY L. PITTOCK, MANAGER, THE OREGONIAN

his later days, and the paper that under his guidance held a place of national importance, today attains to no prominence whatever. Henry Watterson, the most versatile, perhaps, of all the great editorial writers of the day, presides over the destinies of a paper that is not even metropolitan in its pretenses. The Springfield Republican and Baltimore Sun, relics of the old regime of well edited papers, may be said to occupy niches in the museum of journalistic antiquities. The New York Evening Post, another strong paper of the past, is not today even without standing; it is still a paper of recognized merit in the New York field. Its influence is wholly local, however, and its management does not claim a circulation exceeding 25,000 or 26,000 copies a day. Most papers that twenty years ago were recognized for the force of their editorial utterances are today back numbers. The Oregonian enjoys the distinction of being not only a paper of great editorial strength, but a complete newspaper of recognized merit. It has been the attempt of the Oregonian's management to keep the news features of the Oregonian in advance even of the strength of its editorial utterances, that has made the paper as great as it is today.

It was the elder Bennett who decided to make the New York Herald first of all a newspaper. The weakness of this policy is that the management of a paper which ignores the force of editorial appeal to its readers must rely to some extent on the sensational in his attempt to force his paper before the public's attention. The Herald was never as "yellow" as are some of the discreditable Eastern papers of largest circulation. It holds today the best clientele of New York readers of any rival metropolitan paper, in recognition of its complete news service alone.

In its field, the Oregonian has done as much as the Herald ever did in the efforts of its management to perfect what has developed into its matchless news service of today. Beyond this the Oregonian enjoys some national prom-