In nearly a fortnight, a year will have passed since the first issue of Dziennik Chicagoski appeared. In due time we will publish for our readers and the public [at large], even if the latter does not belong among the readers of Dziennik Chicagoski,--an account of our activities during the past year. In this account we will confess our sins--and who is free from them? We will point out how we have tried to fulfill the duty placed upon a journal of this kind, and the public shall judge us.

Today, before we present such an account of our conscience, and before we explain how we intend to improve our journal and adapt it to the needs of our readers, we are once more obliged to defend ourselves, for Dziennik Chicagoski did not escape [the] vicious attacks and jealous taunts to which every publisher and 2editor is exposed. There are newspapers whose sole object is to look continually for the heel of Achilles and the faults of other newspapers, in order to have a pretext for unhealthy controversy or for personal attacks against publishers and editors. There are mean people who cannot bear [the] prosperity of others even if they have plenty themselves. There are conceited and jealous people who like to criticize everything but cannot accomplish anything themselves. There are really wicked people who impute to others tendencies, aims, or intentions of which no one has dreamed. They cannot see a beam in their own eye but are horrified by a mote hidden in their neighbor's eye. Therefore, the newspapers are full of articles and anonymous letters unworthy of a decent man, or secret intrigues, and finally they resort to common, harmful gossiping.

Quite often we meet with an accusation which really does not come from ill will but rather from lack of understanding or a wrong point of view, [accusations] which--strange enough--many newspapers or rather editors, through lack of consideration, approve in their articles instead of condemning them.

3

These accusations imply that the publishers and the staff of the newspaper are not working people, that they live off the people, sitting idly and living on the latter's hard-earned money. We have mentioned this before. Is it logical? If we ask one who reasons this way whether a newspaper is necessary, he will say yes. If we ask him if such newspaper can be established by itself, or if it will grow like an apple, he will say no. He will admit that someone must work around this newspaper. He will also admit that journalism is an occupation which requires suitable training and education. He will also admit that he, like any other person, had to learn his trade before he could earn his living. And the editor also had to learn something before he could edit a newspaper, and such learning is hard and very tedious. Yet such person will finally return to his argument that such worker is not a worker at all; that he does not do anything but loaf around, living off other people's hard-earned money.

But it is very comical when the editor of one newspaper makes such imputation against another. This happened to us not long ago when one of the editors 4(undoubtedly without blushing) accused publicly the editor of Dziennik Chicagoski, [saying] that the latter does not work but does this and that. It never occurred to him that to do this and that steadily every day means more than writing a quarrelsome article once or twice a week.

Polish journalism in America finds itself in more difficult circumstances than Polish journalism in Europe or English and German journalism in America. Over there the moral and material support is different. The circumstance that a newspaper here must be very cheap implies that it covers only the necessary expenses and cannot equip a plant with modern machinery or engage a large staff of paid correspondents. It is a lot of work for one editor, and only the one who tried it knows anything about it. We state this not only in our name but in the name of all editors, correcting thereby the opinion of the majority of the people.

Dailies and weeklies should be judged by a different standard. There is also a great difference between and old, well-established newspaper and a new one 5which is struggling for its existence: The longer a newspaper exists, the more means it acquires for development and improvement. If such a journal fails, then it is its own fault.

Our Dziennik Chicagoski is gaining friends every day despite different attacks. It was prophesied that it could not exist any longer than two or three weeks, but after a year of existence it promises its readers that next year it will be able to make many improvements, eliminate many defects, and give better satisfaction.

At the end of the year we may tell our friends (not in the name of the editorial staff, because the staff may change any time, but in the name of the publishers, which is now assured) that Dziennik Chicagoski will not depend on their flattering judgment but will try, if possible, to foresee their wishes. We wish that the slanderers should come to their senses. To the editors who accuse us of idleness we say that they are digging holes under themselves. We forgive intrigants seventy-seven times, and to the authors of anonymous letters we will say 6that they have no honor if they cannot come with charges openly, that they have no principles if they use such weapon, and that they are social outcasts. Those who think that we do not work are invited to come to taste the "sweet bread" and do a better job. We never claimed that we are perfect or that we are masters or artists, but we do claim that we are industrious, that we earn our bread honestly, and that we are trying to bring moral and material benefit to the public. This we do claim and will take it up later.