The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1866-06-13
McGREG0R, IOWA, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1866

cloister, in the study-room of chancello,
or in the presence of that '.midnight lamp
whose oil has crispcd the brains of s
many into knots of fogy impractibilities
but among all the professions which tn
sins Of our Palestine parents have mad
it necessary to practice, the Editoria
is one compelling the greatest Action
However the balance of mankind ma,
dozc, the "WE'S' of the world must NOV
forward. The paper is due at such al
hour and the great jury of readers de
mands its delivery. 1t is expected to b.
filled with interesting matter, and it's con
ductor must improve his time in gathering
rapidly and condensedly, all the news h,
can beg, buy or invent, to keep up hi
reputation as the Know-All of the neigh
borhoOd. Egotistic as it may seem il
you to accept this title, it is fact that the
world is SO unkindly complimentary as tc
credit you, as class, with sort of ON
niscience. If you fail to advise you,
readers OF all the happenings, foreign and
domestic, local and personal, moral anC
political, you arc spoken of as being vastl,
too dull to be seated on that modcrl
throne of Jove, the Tripod. That editors
know onythiny may be debateablc qucs-
tion among Ourselves-We often find our
DEFICIENCIES painfully annoying, and the
misfortune with us is that our work is
submitted, daily and weekly, to the most
discriminating as well as to the least capa-
bic of judges; but, if the world insists
that we sought to know it ALL" let us
scissor some of the super-abundant con-
celt that lies scattered among our human
exchanges and endeavor, by its appropria-
ton, to convince exacting outsiders that
we really are the repositories of all that is
worth knowing.
was saying that you, gentlemen, cam
not waste time with prosy invcsti cations
and hence omit allusion to the history Of
the Art. You know all about it know
very little about it, and / have a horror of
statistics where their possession does not
enable me to make better use of the pres
ent hour. The Press of to-day, in it's in
tluence, its usefulness, its indispensability,
has as little to do with the invention of a
Faust or Guttenburg as the spinning
wheels of our grandmothers have with the
Looms of Lowell. Then, but little was
exacted from the press aside from the pub
lication Of ofmusty books, that were, with
one Holy exception, calculated to cover the
world with larger and darker pail of Su-
perstition. The nonsense of the middle
ages and the schemes of warrior-priests
and ambitious kings were more generally
diftused, and those who controlled the
mystic types in their early infancy did so
to secure the personal advancement of the
already rich and tyrannic, and the univer-
sal abasement of the already humbled and
degraded. The Press, with all it's boasted
glories has been, and yet is the most po-
tent engine and ally Of Power that human
ingenuity has discovered. Its excellencies,
like the tabled tongue-rcpast of Esop, are
in exact ratio to its capabilities for evil
the best dinner the philosophic slave could
lind in market was tonyue-''Eloquence,
Truth, Song and Love were its express
sions'-the rorst dinner was also tongue,
because Malice, Hatred and slander trav-
elcd upon it." Of itself the Press is moth
ing; but when put in motion it makes or
mars all the interests of Society. How
important it is then to individuals and
that those who guide it should
feel the weight of duty devolvins upon
them. 1t is the glory of America that the
press here is FREE, while throughout con-
tinental Europe, with very rare exceptions,
it is subservient to the ruling authority
While we boast it's Freedom, we should so
conduct it that it may be Just. Let its
language be addressed to the better princi
Piles of the heart. Let it not alone reflect.
but elevate and instruct public opinion
as is the admission, the press
is generally far below its duty in the STAN
lard of debate. Vituperative language
stains its columns, and in the estimation of
community it becomes the mere pander to
The animosities of its editor or those who
employ him. have no compliments for
professional brothers who sell their pens
md types to party or to social wransles.-
Johnson for selling liquor, remarked,
you know | must live,'-the reply of the
,oush old bear of Literature was, Il do not
see the necessity p So with the editorial
l see no necessity for his exis-
ence, and the sooner he is starved out the
'etter for the locality he infests.
An editor should be Independent. but
lot arbitrary; faithful to the principles he
,yows and in no manner subscryient. lie
must be industrious, for thousands are in
luenced by his opinions prepared with
Intelligent IDEAS on all questions in the
icld Of discussion, awake to the interests
If his locality, courteous to cotemroraries
md gentlemanly to all. The Press is the
lttcrer OF Public Thought, and when the
ips OF the bed and the piaten are opened
he issue should be such as will make men
,etter and advance Humanity on the road
o Perfection. A newspaper office, or |
,rcss, is a machine, bearing as much re-
emblance to threshing machine as any
hing else now occurring to me. One |
hreshes grain from the straw and chaff of |
he natural field while the other threshcs
Il evolves ideas from the fog and mist of
he mental world. In comparing the val
e of grain with ideas you get at the rela-
i've merits OF the two pieces of machinery.
t might be here remarked that the pro-
uctions of this idca-makins instrument
o not always bring grain or its equivalent
0 the owner ON the contrary he often
eceives 'more curses than coppers.' l |
dmit the parallel to be lame in this par
icular.
So long as mind is regarded superior to
natter so long will he who moulds
'HOUGHT be honorcd above the man who
loulds brick or milk-pan; the COM
limentary discrimination fayorins the
isciples of Faust and of Franklin, will al
rays be observed. 1t is right. The in
srests of society to-day, from its Identified
on with the highest civil policy to the
obstruction of the simplest piece of mech
nism, arc as much dependent on the
cwspaper as the eolors Of Earth's floral
are upon sunlight. Strike from
ne world Of associated humanity the
'urnals that daily and weekly condemn
r approve the propositions that grow out
the conflict of opinion and but a brief
me would pass before man would recedc
, pristine barbaric ignorance and scnsu-
lity. Social order would become licen-
GUS chaos Governments would become
n amalgam of anarchy and blood. Attri-
utions of semi omnipotence are often APP
lied to the clerical force which happily 4
n our country is combating moral evil, =
N tho Inns IS ,,oor faorf.,l ,,,o.x.l:4,, -. |