Post by dex on Jan 3, 2020 9:55:15 GMT -5
You are a filthy radically biased liberal rag these days except for the Sports Dept. You forgot your roots, namely; The Business Of America is Business
Jan. 3 marks the 200th anniversary of our twice-weekly predecessor, the Manufacturers & Farmers Journal, and Providence and Pawtucket Advertiser.
PROVIDENCE — They started making their plans in the fall of 1819, a scant 30 years after the dawn of the American Industrial Revolution.
Samuel Slater, whose pirated mill plans from Belper, England, touched off that revolution, was among the plotters gathered on Oct. 26, 1819.
Leaders of the fledgling manufacturing sector of the young nation’s economy, they had their sights set on something revolutionary in its own way: the establishment of a newspaper that would support the manufacturing community.
In early 19th century America, newspapers were unabashedly biased, supporting a particular group or philosophy or political party. Those involved in commerce had their own papers in Providence, and the factory owners wanted one, too.
They put their financial backing behind a 30-year-old printer from Northampton, Massachusetts, who had lived in Providence for 15 years. He was known locally as Honest John Miller — which makes one wonder what people thought of some other John Miller of the time.
READ: Mystery: Does Providence Journal have ties to 1700s, Ben Franklin?
“He does not make any pretensions to the rank of writer,” Sylvester S. Southworth, editor of the Literary Subaltern, a competing weekly newspaper, wrote of Miller a decade later. “His knowledge of newspaper affairs is very extensive and his publication, by dint of his own industry and close attention, is rendered one of the most valuable publications in New England.... Few men who are engaged in the newspaper business are more universally admired and respected.”
The company chose as its editor William E. Richmond and selected a rather ungainly name — though one comprehensive in its description, and complete with a period at the end: “Manufacturers’ & Farmers’ Journal, Providence and Pawtucket Advertiser.”
The Journal, as it would become mercifully shortened in later decades, debuted 200 years ago, on Monday, Jan. 3, 1820, and would appear twice a week, every Monday and Thursday, for the next 87 years, alongside sister publications The Providence Daily Journal, starting in 1829; The Evening Bulletin, starting in 1863; and the Providence Sunday Journal, starting in 1885.
“The publication of a New Journal for the towns of Providence and Pawtucket, having been found expedient and necessary to the support of the very important Manufacturing Interests of those towns and of our country at large; it has become the duty of the publishers to apprize the community,” the paper explained in a front-page notice that filled more than a column.
Besides noting that Providence and nearby villages deserved a paper every day except Sunday — it already had them every day but Monday and Thursday — the notice recited several reasons for starting the paper, including the amount of money invested in factories and the number of people employed by them, as well as the need to reduce the trade deficit with foreign countries.
“These reflections have induced us to adopt, as a main object of our Journal, the support of the manufacturing interests of the country, so far as they may comport with her general interests,” the notice further explained. “Our Journal will be devoted to the support of the Manufacturing and American Policy. It will be a medium of Scientifick, Manufacturing and Mercantile Information; and a faithful Reporter of the PASSING NEWS.”
READ: Alan Rosenberg: 200 years later, we’re still a ‘faithful reporter of the passing news’
Inasmuch as the paper could influence the manufacturing economy of Rhode Island, it seems to have enjoyed a century of success, as factories sprouted across the state, luring immigrants and natives in droves, boosting Rhode Island’s population to levels so high that the state briefly held three seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, where they are doled out in proportion to population.
But since the Great Depression, the fortunes of manufacturing employment have been on a slow, but fairly steady decline, as that foreign competition that Slater and Miller warned of created an erosion of jobs, only to be accelerated by advances in technology replacing workers with machines.
Much the same fortune has faced the newspaper, which faces challenges from online commerce and news sources.
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But Honest John Miller’s creation has long outlived its founder.
On Tuesday, Feb. 23, 1836, George W. Jackson ran a terse announcement at the top of the editorial column saying that he would now publish the daily, semi-weekly and weekly Journals.
“The principles which these papers have hitherto supported, will be maintained in the future,” Jackson wrote.
Nothing more was heard from Miller in The Journal’s pages.
The Literary American, a New York newspaper, ran a one-line obituary in its Oct. 28, 1848, issue noting that John Miller, founder of The Providence Journal, had died in New York on Oct. 15 at age 57.
— pparker@providencejournal.com
(401) 277-7360
On Twitter: @projopaul
Jan. 3 marks the 200th anniversary of our twice-weekly predecessor, the Manufacturers & Farmers Journal, and Providence and Pawtucket Advertiser.
PROVIDENCE — They started making their plans in the fall of 1819, a scant 30 years after the dawn of the American Industrial Revolution.
Samuel Slater, whose pirated mill plans from Belper, England, touched off that revolution, was among the plotters gathered on Oct. 26, 1819.
Leaders of the fledgling manufacturing sector of the young nation’s economy, they had their sights set on something revolutionary in its own way: the establishment of a newspaper that would support the manufacturing community.
In early 19th century America, newspapers were unabashedly biased, supporting a particular group or philosophy or political party. Those involved in commerce had their own papers in Providence, and the factory owners wanted one, too.
They put their financial backing behind a 30-year-old printer from Northampton, Massachusetts, who had lived in Providence for 15 years. He was known locally as Honest John Miller — which makes one wonder what people thought of some other John Miller of the time.
READ: Mystery: Does Providence Journal have ties to 1700s, Ben Franklin?
“He does not make any pretensions to the rank of writer,” Sylvester S. Southworth, editor of the Literary Subaltern, a competing weekly newspaper, wrote of Miller a decade later. “His knowledge of newspaper affairs is very extensive and his publication, by dint of his own industry and close attention, is rendered one of the most valuable publications in New England.... Few men who are engaged in the newspaper business are more universally admired and respected.”
The company chose as its editor William E. Richmond and selected a rather ungainly name — though one comprehensive in its description, and complete with a period at the end: “Manufacturers’ & Farmers’ Journal, Providence and Pawtucket Advertiser.”
The Journal, as it would become mercifully shortened in later decades, debuted 200 years ago, on Monday, Jan. 3, 1820, and would appear twice a week, every Monday and Thursday, for the next 87 years, alongside sister publications The Providence Daily Journal, starting in 1829; The Evening Bulletin, starting in 1863; and the Providence Sunday Journal, starting in 1885.
“The publication of a New Journal for the towns of Providence and Pawtucket, having been found expedient and necessary to the support of the very important Manufacturing Interests of those towns and of our country at large; it has become the duty of the publishers to apprize the community,” the paper explained in a front-page notice that filled more than a column.
Besides noting that Providence and nearby villages deserved a paper every day except Sunday — it already had them every day but Monday and Thursday — the notice recited several reasons for starting the paper, including the amount of money invested in factories and the number of people employed by them, as well as the need to reduce the trade deficit with foreign countries.
“These reflections have induced us to adopt, as a main object of our Journal, the support of the manufacturing interests of the country, so far as they may comport with her general interests,” the notice further explained. “Our Journal will be devoted to the support of the Manufacturing and American Policy. It will be a medium of Scientifick, Manufacturing and Mercantile Information; and a faithful Reporter of the PASSING NEWS.”
READ: Alan Rosenberg: 200 years later, we’re still a ‘faithful reporter of the passing news’
Inasmuch as the paper could influence the manufacturing economy of Rhode Island, it seems to have enjoyed a century of success, as factories sprouted across the state, luring immigrants and natives in droves, boosting Rhode Island’s population to levels so high that the state briefly held three seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, where they are doled out in proportion to population.
But since the Great Depression, the fortunes of manufacturing employment have been on a slow, but fairly steady decline, as that foreign competition that Slater and Miller warned of created an erosion of jobs, only to be accelerated by advances in technology replacing workers with machines.
Much the same fortune has faced the newspaper, which faces challenges from online commerce and news sources.
Your next great destination
Ad by Cleveland
See More
But Honest John Miller’s creation has long outlived its founder.
On Tuesday, Feb. 23, 1836, George W. Jackson ran a terse announcement at the top of the editorial column saying that he would now publish the daily, semi-weekly and weekly Journals.
“The principles which these papers have hitherto supported, will be maintained in the future,” Jackson wrote.
Nothing more was heard from Miller in The Journal’s pages.
The Literary American, a New York newspaper, ran a one-line obituary in its Oct. 28, 1848, issue noting that John Miller, founder of The Providence Journal, had died in New York on Oct. 15 at age 57.
— pparker@providencejournal.com
(401) 277-7360
On Twitter: @projopaul