A DARING DEED

In view of the evident tendency of New York newspapers to merge with one another, it is somewhat surprising to learn that a new afternoon journal is about to be established. Mr. Frederick W. Enright, of the Boston "Telegram" and the Lynn "Telegram-News", who is contemplating what will be known as the "New York Examiner", seems to be an enthusiast for whom the experience of others holds no chills.

To say that Mr. Enright is at least courageous is putting the case mildly. When the annals of New York journalism have been filled in late years with accounts of publishers who have found it more expedient to unite than to remain apart, he is a brave man who would risk one more such enterprise. In the years between 1840 and 1870, when Bennett, Dana, Greeley, and Raymond loomed large in the public eye, there were places and needs for a multiplicity of newspapers. The world, figuratively speaking was much larger from the point of view of communication, and the profession was still so young that methods and means were not yet hardened to a universal mould. One paper could scoop another by stealing its railway engine and the Herald could startle the journalistic circle from top to bottom by publishing an interview with John Brown as he lay wounded in the jail at Barper's Ferry.

At present, however, the march of progress has increased in speed to such an extent, and operating costs have risen so high, that the resources which were formerly sufficient for two newspapers are now barely enough for one. And with this change in material affairs has gone an alteration of character, which makes the daily journal less opinionated and biassed, and more impersonally informative. The editor has become more an executive, and less a "Keeper of the Soul of America".

However, this pessimistic outlook need not necessarily prove to be prophetic as regards Mr. Enright. If he can give the burghers of New York something exceptionally fine in the way of accurate news gathering or clear sighted, unprejudiced editorial writing, his enterprise may prove to be the exceptional success.