Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1869-10-01
INDEPENDENCE IOWA FRIDAY OCTOBER l. 1869

cy Of new lands, in the revelation Of new
arts, in the establishment cf new scientific
laws. and in that steadily increasing recog-
milton of Mans inherent right to think, aud
write, and act for himself, acknowledging
natural allegiance to no kingly, princely,
| or lcrdly class, either in church or state,
but responsibility only to that Sovereign who
"who holds the worlds in the hollow Of His
| hand 1t is not yet two hundred years
since the only known means for rapid land
| transportation and locomolion Was on the
| backs of horses and camels. In England
the usual charge Tor freight was thirty cents
ton per mile. Toward the close Of the
seventeenth century there were established
what were termed flying coaches, which
could move at the miraculous rate of fifty
miles a day and the risk OF this speed WAS
SO great as to cause many PERSONS to de.
clare it was tempting of Providence to go
| in them 1t is not yet two hundred years
| since Bruno was burned at the stake in
Rome for publishing work declaring that
| the earth was a globe, revolving around the
sun, and that every star in the heavens was
sun, having opaque planets revolving
around It. When Calico announced that
be had with the telescope discovered the
four satellites of Jupiter, the philosophers OF
the day declared that since the pretended
satellites we're invisible TO the naked eye,
they must be useless, aud being useless
could not exist, and the 1nqusition pcrse-
cuted the discoverer unto death. 1t is not
yet two hundred years since a law was ell
acted by the Scotch Parliament providing
that whoever preached or WAS heard in any
assemblagc OF disseniers should be punish
ed with death and the contiscation of his
goods. II would not be quite fir to claim
for the Press the sole credit OF the reform
of all the giant abuses, of which those
enumerated are q class but it would be
just to say that without its aid the reform
could not have been effected. While the
Egyptian nation OF seven millions Of peo-
pie we're shut into the valley of the Nile,
with no means of communicating with each
other save through the modes established
BY their kings and priests, and vigorously
excluded from European contact, they We're
governed by dynasties Of kings succeeding
each other without interruption for thirty
four centuries. The Great Wall of China
shut in nearly four hundred millions of hu-
man beings--one-tnird Of the whole human
race-and has thus guaranteed national-
ty Of uninterrupted despotism and pagan
ism for thousands of years. 1t is the Mis-
sion of the Press to penetrate the Nile
Valleys, aud to overleap and batter down
the Chinese Walls of human society, so
that all possible evil among all peoples, of
all tongues, on the face of the globe, may
lie expurgated and all possible good dis
scminated.
The power of the Press has been bull,
up mainly through its cheapness. Nearly
hundred years ago an enterprising En-
glish publisher conceived and put into exc
cution the plan for publishing extensive
books, in numbers of few sheets each,
thus placing il the hands of the poor and
middle classes. works which none but the
nobility and the clergy had before been
able to command. Monthly magazines.
weekly and at last daily newspapers were
only another form of this accessibility of
printed matter, the price of each copy OF
these issues decreasing in proportion 10 the
rapidi.y with which the editions were in
crer sing, until, in this country, there is
now scarcely q family that need be without
this means Of indulgence. So wonderful
has been the growth of the Daily Press,
that II is estimated that there is in Ger
many. France, England and America, an
amount of substantial reading matter issu-
ed daily, equal to the entire amount OF
Grccian and Roman literature Eow in ex-
istencc.
journalism has been more successful in
the United States than in any other coun-
try. because here it has been free. a few
davs ago an article appeared in n Russian
paper containing something offensive TO
somebody. when the editor, the publisher,
and the boy who carried round the papers,
were prosecuted criminallv. The editor.
benign nobleman, escaped with a small
fine. The publisher, belonging to y lower
class, was heavily mulcted. But the poo-
carrier boy. being TIE son Of a former self,
was most numerically cndeeled. Here.
no Imperial edct. no State Censor can aI-
flight the soul OF the most timid occupant
Of tie tripod, ard he can hurl his thunder
b It's at whomsoerer ard whatsoever he
will. always keeDing in view the salutary
provisions Of the law Of libel, and observ-
ing a decent respect for the opinions OF
mankind.
1t may seem vainglorious in Us, my edi-
torial brethren, to magnify the importance
Of journalism, yet to me its history is one
of the marvels of the times. Remember
that unlike the profession Of Theology, or
Medicine. or Law, it has no Code or Ele
mentary Principles running back through
the centuries to the days Of Hesiod, or IEs
cuapius, or Justinian. There IS no uni
yerslty, nor college, nor academy. nor
school Of any sort. in Europe or Americn,
where there is even Department assigned
for the education of pupils in the science
or profession of Journalism, 1t squeStiCn'
able whether even shorthand reporting
which is in some sort lateral branch Of
the professionals taught in many of the
institutions OF learning. Newspaper Edit
ing as distinct calling was not known in
England until abou, 1852. nor in France
until about the same time, nor in America
until l770. The profession has no regular
origin, but like Topsy, Just growed."
Here and there lawyer, or doctor, or
a preacher, unsuited to, or disgustel with
his own order. grad ually driited into the
editorial occupation, and they and few
practical printers aud publishers who had
the temerity to try their hands at this kind
of literature, were the founders of Journal
isiic Science. As it is law Of Phioso-
ply that there can be no motion without
the wasting away Of substance, the qles-
ton is inevitable whence come editorial
recruits? As in the beginning. stragglers
from Law, physic, and Divinity, wander to-
ward it and are absorbed into ii, but the
great mass of Editors, Of Weekly and
Daily Journals, are men who have passed
through all grades Of tho work of the
Printing Art, commencing with the rank Of
roler-boy in the press room, or of proof
boy in the composition room. The eduea-
ton Of this portion Of the profession is
necessarily imperfect. Ordinarily without
the advantages of early education, compell.
ed to execute their allotted portion Of me
chanical labor by day, and to pick up by
piece meal, unsys,ema,ically. unsa,isfncto-
rily, laboriously, what preparatory knowl.
edge they acquire, their advent into the
world O. letters is like that Of literary
toundngs, rather thnn AS kindly nurured
intellectual children. The mass of them
make up in quick, practical knowledge in
keen observation, and succinetness of STYLE
acquired at the printers case, for much
they would other Use need from lack Of
elementary and systematic culture. Benja-
min Franklin. Isaiah Thomas, Joserh Gales,
William l.. Stone, Isaac Hill, William
| loyl Garrison ThurloW Weed md Horace