GETNYC.com - History of the New York Times, 1851-1921

History of the New York Times
1851-1921

By Elmer Davis

Originally published 1921

The Times in Transition, 1884-1896

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and in such a hotly contested election, was a really remarkable feat of news-gathering.

President Cleveland turned out even better than The Times had hoped. He fought persistently, and in great measure successfully, for the causes in which the paper was most deeply interested - reform of the tariff and the civil service, and maintenance of sound ideas of public finance. With him, indeed, a new era began; the war was over, and the folly of partisan divisions based on memories of the war was becoming more apparent. The old names, the old forms, survived; but there were new issues and new ideas, and for the next decade The Times had an important part in forming the public opinion of the new day. In 1888 The Times, still an independent paper, gave Cleveland its support for reelection without any hesitation; he had earned it. But David B. Hill, the Democratic candidate for governor, had not earned, in The Times's opinion, the support of the paper. Accordingly the paper's influence in the state campaign was thrown to the support of the gubernatorial candidacy of Warner Miller. It was The Times's luck to back the loser in each case; Cleveland was beaten, and Miller went down in history as "the intrepid leader who fell outside the breastworks." The Republican party was coming back hungry after a long fast, and outside the breastworks was a poor place to fall. Nothing occurred in Benjamin Harrison's administration to change The Times's opinion that Grover Cleveland was the most competent and trustworthy man in American public life, and in 1892 it supported his