The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-07-18
THE NEWSPAPER.

- Z0FH - 81 - - 49,
THE NEWSPAPER.
MIR. Beecher ON its Power and Progress.
It is customary to, speak of journal
ism in vague and general terms, and IN
terms, I think, somewhat extravagant.
Thus hear people say that the time IS
soon coming when editing viii be
much more useful occupation than
preaching, and that the newspaper Is
going to supercede the pulpit: Will
the press, then, ever take the place OF
books or materially diminish them ?%sl
think the press will be to books what
the ocean is to ships; it Will bear them
up it will give them a medium and an
opportunity that they never have had,
but it viii never supplant them. Aliu-
sions has been ftly made here to the
propriety of introducing newspapers IN
to our schools. There should not be
the slightest objection to that, but you
never will take school-books out OF the
way. If you do anything you Will do
this. You will have more and better
school-books than you have now, and
newspapers to boot but you are never
going to have such fiat school-books as
newspapers are. Our boys and girls
will read more, and gather up scraps
| and fragments of information from
newspapers, but the books will after all
be the staple of instruction until such
time as the living book is the only
teacher, and that time should not be
! far distant, for that is the right teaching.
If YOU turn from schoOl-books to sc1en-
tiic works, although much may be
| done by the newspapers IN the dlrec-
ton of science, they will never take the
place of scientific treaties. 1t has been
found by publishers that 1t is protlta-
BILE to run novel first through lead
ing paper, and that it sells afterward all
the more for its first having been IN the
papers. It is in the same manner true
of scientific works. Let them be DIS
tributed in the newspapers, and the de-
mand will be equal or greater for them
in the books.
Take classical and general literature.
There no newspaper will ever take the
nlace of these. The library has moth
ing to fear. The book publisher has
nothing to fear. The newspaper is to
be the right hand power to promote a
wider book literature in this land, and
when every single county paper has ey-
erv principal family among Its sub
scribers books will follow newspapers,
and books will never supercede them,
nor will newspapers supercede books.
And this is as it ought to be; for the
newspaper is to be a new force not su-
perceding any old one. Will the news
naper ever be substitute for the pull
pit? The pulpit will change, 1t has
changed. It is changing, but 1t IS not
losing it's root; it is not losing It's trult;
There was time, and this is true OF all
institutions of civilization IN the earlier
periods of every community, when the
functions were performed by fewer
organizations. Once the pulpit was
the home of learning; the law
yer, the doctor, the schoolmaster,
and the minister throughout the towns
had all the culture, but to-day they dt
not bv any means have it all their owl
way, and little by little the magazine
teaches sometimes just as well as tht
pulpit, sometimes even better, ane
even the newspapers are coming. VI
with matter and thought. The sclen
,, tific books are coming up, and sc1entlh'
knowledge is no longer distilled iron
the pulpit. The pulpit is being shut
: not out, but it is no longer its function
to distribute throughout the communlt.
= all or most the knowledge they possess
: The church is more and more smut u
{ to spiritual matters. Not that 1t ha
not the liberty when it pleases to max
the applications of spiritual truth t.
: human life, but there are other organ
L cations and institutions to do thes
I, things, and less and less does 1t deVolV
g upon the minister of the gospel. Al
S the professions then, instead OF beln
n in anv sense weakened or suppressed b
The progress of journalism, are to b
/ rather strengthened, helped, not hlr
; dered. It would be well for those tha
have an over-sanguine conception OF IN
l. mower of journalism to consider that
l. derives its power from the commumt
, itself. and that the community is
70 greater power than any institution IN
" ever can be. We are apt to think
is society rather as an aggregation OF md
l. viduais. We scarely think OF 1t as 1t Ii
a vital organic whole, and we seldol
D think how much it is true that ever
le institution and every organization
l. society is itself subject to the create
.e power of the whole. The wlll-poWer
at the mass, the thought-power OF IL
a. mass, the energy of enthusiasm TN
is belongs to the mass, and more than
match for anything in the shape OF
p organ, in the shape of book or pape
i 7 don't believe, in the first place, tn
i'd there is ever to be such an enormo1
le concentration of circulation as maj
peeple think. I have heard sangu11
cd publishers say that there have be'
er 400, 600 papers published weekly
D. this. that, or the other magazine WI
e. not 1000, 900? Why is it not possln
ad for some great capitalized concern
6, print a paper in such manner that
r. NAV have 1900, 900 subscribers? WI
z king on his throne would feel ike !
IN editor then? Now it sounds well. L
to gineers used to think that they cou
increase the speed of railway trains
,er even 100 miles an hour; but the res
- tar1ce is in an inverse ratio to the
an crease, and engineers have found bL
there is practical limit OF speed.
nd don't believe that there will ever col
a time when journal will exist WI
he 500 900 regular subscribers year
Ike year-bona fide subscribers L mes
tie There are natural limits to competltlt
ii, The channels of community are SO
IS, vided up that do not believe there v
it? ever be such large circulation, but
or is certainly in the power OF every 10
els nal In the country 10 IoaOn 0h0 Wa.
1 man. Journals that suit the bassl
er, man will be largely confined to the b
ur- silar part of the people in the eommu
err ty. The speaker insisted that nothl
M should go into the journal that. is
fit to be read by every member OF
e." family to which it found access. No
We, spectacle paper had the right to pat
wo matter that addressed itself to the
ers ulties that lay below the ears. 1t is
,od interest of journalism that these thu
DOR be either shut up to the few or absolr
, ly destroyed out of journalism.
"p California possesses two wond
en- full gold mines, the Felcher and
he Crown Point, which in the last Ell
H0 teen months have paid their stockhold
,ff- the goodly sum of $1l ,OOO, 600.
as as June dividend of Grown Point was
zee recently, and amounted to 500,
Ieos Iees Since January last this mine and
ats ats Belcher mine have paid five mont
he He dividends, the totals of the for
ont I amounting to 50, 432, coo, and those
Ser H%' the latter to So, 100000. Belcher