Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-07-10
Progress of Journalism.

The following is an extract from the
valedictory address delivered before the
Michigan Press Association by Presi-
dent John N. Ingersoll, of theSiiayas-
see american, at the annual meeting
held at Detroit June IS, 1873:
In my library are volumes of the
old National L'atelligencer, on which I
worked a 1ourneyman printer. and in
which L find, six days after the election
OF 1886, the first hint that Mr.. Van
Buren, had probably been chosen to the
Presidency /; and the latest news from
Europe is announced by packet onlv
sixteen days from Liverpool. But now
drought the energy of the representatives
OF the press and the agency of the mag
netlc telegraph, the choice of President
is read in the papers on the day after the
election, and the eager comments of the
London press. Just forty years ago I
was an apprentice in an office adjoining
the New York Journal of Commerce.
then the leading commercial newspaper
IN that city. Two men did the press
work of the entire edition on a common
hand-press, with an old-fashioned buck-
skin roller. To-day, all through New
York Printing House Square and its
vicinity, the pedestrian hears the under
ground jar and roar of mighty steam
presses, each of which costs $50. 600.
and contains IA, $50 distinct pieces. in
ooIts, screws, nuts, pulleys, springs.
pms, Keys and rollers, with over 30, 900
yards OF tape and blankets whole
press weighing Al, 514 pounds, and print
ing 24,OOO Impressions hourly. Be
sides the old journal of Commerce..
there were in New York, up to 1890,
other old-fashioned "blanket-sheet
newspapers, with which the reader
seasoned his morning coffee or favored
his evening cup of tea At this time.
the penny papers began to take the
place OF the so-called respectable six
pennies. The competition was short
and decisive-and the lively, crisp
penny-sheet became the paper of the
period though, truth to say, the Jour-
nal Of Commerce still exists and lives
Gas is truly said) "becase the older men
died out of it. F" In those days newspa-
pers were lugubriously solemn, with
no hlppant wings to disturb the prosy
flow of journalistic inanity." There was
no telegraph prior to 1S43, no ocean
steamships till a period still later, and
no associated press organization to SIM
pity the process of obtaining news.
But, for moment, let us go back half |
century further-and fifty years is but |
brief period-for still greater con-
trast. | hold in my hand a copy of
: 1he Country Journal and the Pouqh- |
Eeepsie AdUertiser," of Augusta 2, 1788. |
The printers whose modest skill put to-
gether these pages have long slept in
their graves, but the story which their
hand1work preserved will live on, to the |
immortal glory of those who espoused
through its columns the principles that
secured the birth of a republic. Our
chief interest, however, is found in the
contrast which this paper presents to
the journalism of to-day, and herein fur
nlshlng the most comprehensive illus
tratlon OF the progress of the interven-
ing years. Looking at this time-stained
paper, and then upon the great journals
that now daily feed the popular mind
with everything worthy of notice from
the TOUR quarters of the globe, it is
difficult to feel that the journalism of
to-day has not reached the limit of its
possibilities in all that pertains to the
perfection of the art, the development
of mind, and the dissemination of in
diligence. 1t may be an open question
whether the improvements of the present
lay preceded the public mind, or
whether the popular wants demanded
.he improvements certain it is, as
Victor Hugo quantity remarks, Z" the
hameter of the press is the diameter of
The press is force, be-
,ause it is intelligence. 1t is the living
clarion, and loudly announcest he adj.
7ent of justice. Holding no account of
hight, except to salute the dawn, it be-
zones daY and warns the 1s-orld J,