The Hotel Fire That Nearly Stayed Out of the Paper

The report of what might have been a highly destructive fire at the Olympia Hotel, attended perhaps with loss of life, which appeared in last night’s Tribune is substantiated in this morning’s paper by Lessees A. D. Whitney & Son, but they find fault with the large black headlines, “Saved from Flames,” and commend the ability of the Tribune to “make a mountain out of a mole hill.” A reporter of the Tribune was on the ground and saw the fire; the lessees, who were in bed, knew nothing of it until daylight yesterday morning. There was nothing sensational in our article. It gave the cold, or rather warm, facts of the case. The Tribune is here to publish news, not suppress it, and has no feeling in the matter. It distinctly stated that fact to Mr. A. D. Whitney when he asked for the suppression of the publication of the news yesterday afternoon. The Tribune also knows how to head up an article according to its value as news. By the way, there is a law, if we mistake not, requiring the erection of fire escapes on tall buildings in this state. That law should be enforced. In the absence of law, it would be a wise precaution for owners of tall buildings to take. The safety of human life is of more importance than a few dollars. Let us have fire escapes and more care relative to the storage of hot ashes.