Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1868-07-10
'um 6E J.Eis.nO.vT .vEIS'NSs.iPERS.

| AT the annual meeung OF the Vermont
Editors' and Publishers Association, held
at Newport, June 18th, Hon. E. p. Walton
of Montpelier made speech, from which
we exirnct the following remarks of gener-
nj interest to our readers:
MIR. wALToN's SPEECH.
think can recollect tho nowspapora
and the propriotors and editors of news
papers in Vermont rs far back ms 1920. I
should then be eight years Of age only :;
hut | recolect very well when my father
first took me into the Office and put COM
posing stick into my hands, that I was
Obliged TO get into chair in order to reach
the case ! was thus brought directly into
a position whoro I could see all the news
papers Of the State, and think | can give
you The names of all the different publish
ers Of papers at that time. There were,
then, liut nine or or ten papers-all week.
ly-lorated in the following towns, viz: in
Benntigton, by Anthony Haswell, an on
ergell Gan. He started the Rutland Her
81 -s.l$14EAfI.aspaal.'nRh him the orig
inat5f q the tw5 political papers that arc
now published in that place. At Rutland,
Mr.. William Fay; at Middlebury, Samuel
Swift, now living; at Burlington, L. e. f..
Miles; at st. Albans, Wyman Spooner,
whose son is now, or was short time since
Lieutenant Governor Of one of our west
ern states; at Montpelier, my father,
There had been two other papers there pre-
viously, and previous to my recollection) ;
at Danville, Ebenezer Eaton man of
more brain and force than he ever receiv-
ed credit for, n man who would, if placed
in position to call forth his powers, have
made his mark in the world, brother of
Gen. William Eaton of Massachusetts, at
Windsor, Alden Spooner, and Simeon Ide
at Woodstock, David Watson, making
nine weekly newspapers. mention this
to show the progress ofthe newspaper bust
ness within my own recollection. In 1920,
and six dailies. In 1920 there was, posi-
bly,, a paper in the State which had reached
the dignity of royal sheet, but some were
mediums. certainly recollect the brass
head of the old Watchman, a paper of four
medium pages.
There was then no daily paper in the
State. There are now six dailies, equal to
thirty-six weeklies; all told, sixty-one
newspapers in the State, which average
much more than double the size of papers
in 1890 The average amount of matter
published weekly in each paper is double
now what il was in 1920, thus multiplying
the power of the press sixteen times.
| WI fatv
taken in the State of Vermont published
outside of the State. A Boston paper was
hardly known until Thos. Green Fessen-
den went there and started the New Eng
land Farmer.
l Iapprehend that if we could get at the
exact statistics now the newspapers pub
lished out of the State and read in it, we
should find that we have so educated the
people TO become reading people, thai
they take moro newspapers published ou
of the State than they do of those publish.
ed within the State. If so, we have in.
creased the power of the press since 1s2C
thirty - times. Truly the profession o
,edittx- and publisher has been a dignifet
one, an important, useful, honorable ant
effective one, and to that is greatly due tho
high character of our people.
There are some other remarkable charac
teristics connected with the early history
of our craft in Nermont,-in the carly his
tory of the newspapers of the State The
business of printer, publisher, editor ant
bookseller was combined in every one o
these papers printed in 1870. What wa.
the result? Each man being his own pub
Usher, printer and bookseller, the demand
upon him to attend to the mere details o
his business was such that the editorial de
partment was last considered and last at
tended to of all. Get if you can, files o
old papers, and 1 venture to say you will
not ind, once year, unless it be on somC
special occasion of great excitement, wha
is called "leader," such as you now fine
in almost every weekly paper in Vernon
every week, and in the dailies almost ev
cry day. The result was not, however
that the newspaper did not have power
ful influence upon the people and the poll
ties Of the State, flr party spirit ran higl
previous to 1910, perhaps never higher
than during the Adams and Jefferson cam
paign; but the men who stirred up thu
popular mind were not so much the edit
ors of the newspapers, as the public men,
the greatest men of our State of both par
ties. They were contributors to the pa
pers. If there was anything to be writer
of peculiar importance, they were the mel
to write 1t. can remember as contribu
tors to the Watchman such men as vii
| i,l
Bailey, Nicholas Baylies, Samuel Prentiss
Elijah Paine and Thomas Reed. Whereas
if you go into other parts of the State, yol
will find as contributors such men as vii
liam c. Bradley, Chief Justice Tyler, Gov
ernor Williams, Norman Williams, Nol
man Williams, Jr., and men Of that chai
acter,-the strongest men, the ablest writ
ers and the ablest lawyers in the State
Yourarely find such men in these day
contributing to our newspapers, unless
bot apologize or solicit public favor. TIL
influence of the press in that day, unde
the control and with the aid and assistanC
of such men as l have mentioned, wa
quite as great as now.
Another remarkable difl'erence-as TO til
| literature Ol tnc uhy. lou VIII iafeiy IN
in one of these old papers story with
formal plot, such MS we think we must pul
lish now at least once week. Essays, a
ter the British model some narrative
stirring event amongst the Indiansi terri
bic catastrophe; wonderful discovery
The poetry was pretty much all of SEN
mental kind, rarely reaching the poet
standard of newspaper poetry now. As
news, thirty days or perhaps forty day
from New Orleans to New York or Bo'
tony three days from Boston to Montpelie
five or six days from New York to Mon
pelicri The newspaper had to bo made
often from such papers as the Hartioi
Courant and Worcester Spy, and consiste
, of extracts taken from the foreign papers
England and France. Every little ovei
! was given in detail. We now would col
[ dense in n half dozen paragraphs all I'll
news they would give us in weeks issu
There has been great advance in tn