Letters From Michigan: Number XI

In no country in the world is the circu lation of newspapers so general as in th( United States, and in no country are the) so cheap. The average price of oui ;jgeeldy newspapers, with the posta ge ad ded, is about three dollars - a sum less perhaps, than the average expense of eacli family for tobáceo. This places the newspaper within the reach of all. Another circumstance that tends to their tuultiplication, is the small amount of capital required for esiablishing the business. - Quite a number of the estabhshments from which papers are weekly issued in Michigan, can be purchased from two to four hundred dollars each. On some of them the whole labor Í9 perforraed by one man and a boy. Henee any journeyman, with the proceeds of one or two year's wages, can set up business for himself, and ap pear before the public in the triple capacity of publisher, editor, and proprietor. In Michigan there is no deficiency in the number of newspapers. There are abous 23 Democratie, 7 Whig, 1 Liberty party, 1 Agricultural, 1 Baptist, 1 Universalist. All these papers live from three sources - from their pay on subscriptions, from job-work, and from advertising. - The official patronage of the government. derived from State and local officers, is bestowed exclusivelyon the papers which advocate the politics of the dominant party. This, in the aggregate, amounts to a large sum. Henee the number of Democratie papers in the State is three times that of the Whigs, the former party having been in power since 1835, excepting '. two years. Had the Whigs been in er three fourths of the time, the ] tion of party papers would doubtless have been reversed. The amount of reading matter in most of these papers is far less than that i ded by the papers of the larger cities for , . the same price. The circulation of these papers has been constantly encouraged j by the county papers of both nani- .These will find, in the end, that they have pursued a suicidal course. Ma.ny subscribers to a local paper, which furnishes them weekly vvith eight or ten columns of reading matter, will scarcely be induced to continue their subscription, when íhey can obtain New York and Philadelphia papers,with six or eight times os much reading for a less price. The business of manufacturing newspapers, like that of other articles, brings a profit in proportion to th amount of business donO. The larger the circulation, the less is the cost of each paper. Henee the more enterprising of the city publishersare reducingthe price of their papers almost to cost, in order to secure n immense circulation. In this way the N. Y. Tribune has obfained a large foothold in this State, as well as elsevvhere. The N. Y. Evangelist now circulates some 1200 in the State, having purchased the subscription list of the Michigan Observer. These foreign papers not only contain more reading, but they are edited with more care, labor and ability. The profits of those establishments pay one or more writers handsome salaries for editorial services the whole of the time. How diTerent is the case in Michigan! Ourtlnrty-five papers of course must have thirty-fivo Editors: but not more than two tb ree, i f any, derive their entire subsistence from editorial salarios. Proba bly one half these papers are edited by ! journeymen printers, who are also com: positors, pressmen and publishers, in addition to all the íainily cares which devolve on poor men. The intellectual productions of men in these circumstances will rarely compete in amount or qual ity with those of persons who devote their whole time to literary composition. - These typographical editors usually fill half their reading columns with a story from some popular magazine, and for the remainder, some items of news from city papers, and indite a. few brief acticles concern ing local matters, Legislativo or Congressional doings, or the next President, and send their paper forth to the world. The other class ofEditors is composed of lawyers, ministère, or the professional men who derive a small amount from their literary con tribu tions, the balance of their incorne arising from their professional pursuits. The compensation for literary labor being so small, it is not wonderful that men of the first class of intellect are unwilling to devote themselves to it. The most tal ented lawyers, ministers, physicians and merchants amongusseldom become" permanent writers for the press, because the tion realized, both necuniary and i ry, issomuch below that of their I ivc avocation.s. ,i would not, however, undervalue thé amount of good accomplished by these papers, on account of the unfavorable circumstances under which they are pubh'shed. I maintain that any newspaper is better tuin none. The most inferior paper in this State contains each week at least two columns of valuable Irullis of some kind - historical, biographical, moral, political - I care little what tliey are. so that they tend to raise man higher as an intellectual being. Two columns a week amounts to more than a hundred columns a year - enough to make a good sized volume. In ten years, this would amount to 1,040 columns, or about a dozen volumes of the history of the world during that period. Of two families, each comprising a large number of children, let one take this paper - the poorest paper in the State - and the other be cut oíf from all aecess to newspapers, W'hen the children of the two families become men and women, a surprising diüerence will be found in their knowledge and capacity, intlieir fitness to discharge their duties as rational and intelligent beings. One family will be devoid of all general information,"and quite ignorant of what is passing in all the world, save in their own littleschool district, town orcountyj while the other will hav:e a correct view of every important event in the world's history during the ten years.I put the same estímate on religious papers. Whatever be theirdenominationa] tenets,each is to be valued according te the amounl oftruth it iromulgales. I know that bigots of all kinds are of a different opinión. They contend most earnestly and sometimes furiously, about some theorétical point íhat separates from the neighboring sect. as the most important of any in the world, not remembering the immensely greater importance of those many and undisputed truths upon which they all agree. It may be said that newspapers, both religious and political, contain many important errors as well as truths. They contain false views ofthings - foolish and vulgar stories - and wrong principies of moral action. This also istrue. Truth and error, like the noxious weeds and valuable grain, are found growing in the same soil. Shallwe therefore refuse to cultívate the grain lest the weeds should grow also? The same cultivation that improves the one, gives growth and luxuriance to the other. In intellectual as well as physical progress, a líabilify to go astray is inseparable from any prqgression at all; and the only certain methöd of never losing our wayr is never to travel. Shall we therefore sit down in ignorance, because, inattempting to acquire knowledge, we may be deceived by error? It is far better that the mind be excited to intellectual effort, although attended with a Iiability to imjortant errors, thaithat it should forever remain inactive and stupid.