Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-05-17
ADDRESS OF THOS. B. KIRBY PRES.
IDENT OF THE TENNESSEE
PRESS ASSOCIATION.

PRESS ASSOCIATION.
| We give below the address of Thos
B. Kirby, of the Chattanooga Times
delivered before the Press Associa.
ton, at Lebanon, on the 9Th inst:
| The elements of success in publish.
ing a newspaper are few and
simple, and yet not many men
have ever comprehended them, while
of these still smaller number have
been able to keep them constantly in
mind.
The first and most important ele-
ment is news. The daily morning pa
per should be complete photograph
of yesterday. The weekly paper
should be photograph of the week,
showing each event in its proper per-
spective and relations to others. The
successful metropolitan papers, the
London Times, New York Herald,
Cincinnati Commercial, and others,
whose names readily suggest them
selves, are daily photographs of the
world. Successful papers In smaller
cities and country towns are success
ful only In SO far as they photograph
the daily and weekly events of their
immediate locality.
And by this 1 mean not only that
they faithfully record actual occur
rences, but that they represent thetone
of public sentiment. In the effort to
grasp this element of fsuccess, however,
turks the greatest danger of failure.
Popular sentiment is not always right,
and when community RECEIVERS from
temporary delusion it is apt to in
! fiict a vicarious punishment upon a
newspaper which follows it in the
wrong, instead of judiciously striving
to set it right. Only experience can
teach how to avoid such error, and
that experience is costly.
To the successful we must have an
absorbing love for our work, and de-
yotion to our profession. Law is not
halfso jealous mistress as journal
ism, and those of us who have given
hostages to fortune can testify how
hard it is to reconcile our chosen
work with our domestic duties.
Nor have we the stimulus of person
al fame which inspires the successful
advocate with such fervor. In jour
nallsm most truly the individual
withers, but the world is more and
more" Outside the ranks of the pro-
fesslon who knows, or even cares to
know, the name of the unknown man.
ager of the New York Herald or the
London Times. The paper is all
in all. The individual is nothing,
Horace Greeley is dead, but the Tri-
bane is no less a power in the land
Bennett is dead, but the Herald is still
the greatest newspaper of the world.
Generations of Walters have lived
and died, but the London Times is
still the thunderer, and its unknown
editor yet'wields power before which
dynasties tremble
When we seek personal fame we de
stroy In our journals their power for
good. When we are felt to represent
the people, we can create or mould
public sentiment for the public well |
fare. When the pesonality of the ed
itor is obtruded. the paper utters only |
the sentiment of an individual, and not !
the voice of the people.
Like the coral insects, we work deep |
below the surface, building up the /
foundations for glorious structures in
the future. Like them, we and our
works perish if drawn from our
chosen obscurity and exposed to the
BRIGHT sunlight of ruhl;citv
We have but one permitted pleas
sense of power-and yet the
moment that We boast of this power,
it vanishes, because it is not ours, but
is of the people whom we serve.
There are other essentials of sue
cess. So long as sordid type-founders
and paper makers and hungry print
ers persist in demanding filthy lucre
for their wares and services, and until
We ourselves can solve the problem of
living without eating, and society shall
dispense with the necessity for cloth
ng, no newspaper, however ably edit
ID, can succeed until its receipts shall
equal and exceed its outlay.
Indeed, | fear that too much elo-
Iuence has been devoted to magnify
ng the sentimental aspect of our pro-
ession, and too little work has been
lone in protecting our business inter- !
,sts. Iti less important to glorify to
)fhce of the press as great moral en-
zine than to vindicate it's honor as
egitimate business pursuit For much
# the popular miseonception on this
,oint we are ourselves responsible.
We did well at our last meeting to
Ibolish the excursion system The
,reatest drawback to our business sue
ess is the popular belief fostered by
hese excursions that an editor is a :
lind of pauper. dependent upon the
harities of the community, who ex- :
'ects to be dead-headedo every
There. We can never occupy our {
roper position until we pay for what /
re get and compel those whom we .
ene6t to pay for our services. I
Our editorial utterances should be \
npurchaseable. They should repre-
ent the noblest sentiments of free u
eople jealous of their liberties.
Every time that an editor publishes n
n item" about the poverty of print b
RS, the delinquency of subscribers e
r appeals to the public for support in b
ny manner other than would be con- p
dered legitimate in one of his mer- d
antile advertisers, he degrades the
rofession and contributes to his own
1t is certainly time that the Press, of s
Il professions, stopped pleading the s.
aby act. If man cannot conquer s.
1ccess, let him waste no time in whin- G
lg, but either gracefully surrender or p
y again. The public has no spmpa- b
~ for unsuccessful men, and the r,
lrest way not to get their support is il
, let them think that they cannot Il
lrive without our assistance. To "
lead poverty and beg for sympathy is g
IMPLY to admit that we can do the il
ublic no good and thus insure our Il
wn failure. h
Power and wealth crown the sue n
essfui journalist. and above all the n
of having done good for n
Success is worth trying for, q
ut is only grasped by those whom no "
ificulties can discourage and no fail $.
res can daunt. 4