The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-06-29

to the number of her troops tn an any
other state.
It was the Kansas press that urged
the state to those
suPRE1GEEzBDzEe OF fATRIoTIsM,
Just as it had inspired the unyieldine
courage and patient devotion of the
territory. And this, too, without ne
glecting lighter duties or lighter in
terests, for it secured the enactment
of homestead exemption law, and
got mp \ first class impeachment trial,
and formed an editors society, and
had a state fair held, and an agricul-
tural paper was founded, and the first
cylinder press was brought to the
state-all while the bullets were fly
lug like hail at the south, and Kansas
herself was being laid vase by the
common enemy. Even party mat
tiers were not allowed to lag, and
though nearly all the able bodied eiti-
zens were in the army, it wasn't any
more trodble than is now to get can
didates for office. Not q convention,
not an election, was missed indeed an
extra party was invented, and an ex-
ira senatorial contest was evolved, by
those busy brains. The democrats,
what there was left of them, came to-
gether in 1862 to declare for "the con-
stitutiOn as it is" and again in 1864 to
say they were Gin favor of making
Kansas free white state" and to
ratify the "peace at any price" plat
from on which McClellan's heels broke
his neck; and the republicans met to
ask for ga vigorous prosecution of the
war" in 1862, and to subscribe to the
doctrine of Universal Human Free
dom-with three capital letters-in
1864, though it will not do to forget
that after the war was over, and con-
gress had passed the fourteenth
amendment, and impartial suffrage
was clearly inevitable, Kansas voted
against striking the werd white out
of her constitution by almost a two
thirds vote. But we made that all
right few years later, when our leg
lslaIure ratified the fifteenth amend
ment, and democrats contested with
republicans the honor to cast the
quickest and loudest votes in its favor.
L nope you don't think I am talking
politics. = There is too much
politics in the state already. and a
great deal too much in our newspap-
ers. The true function of Journalism
is not the election of sheriffs and coun-
ty treasurers. even though the sheriff
may nave an execution against you,
and the treasurer q possible taX-list
TO publish, for you can beat the eXecu-
ton with our insurmountable eXemp-
ton law, and if the tax list doesn't
come TO you in regular way and at
regular rates it isn't worth having.
The potiEtcidnS are not the men to lean
upon toEth q newspaper, and their
schemes and ambitions are not the top
les that should find prominence in its
Lar
columns. plead for free
dom, for manliness, for independence.
know how straining it is to be virtu-
Gus on the slender profits of a Kansas
newspaper, for 1 have tried it but
there is no patronage and no luxury
worth as much as your manhood.
MATERIAL INTERESTS.
The Triumphant ending of the war
lett the Kansas press free to concen-
trate all its energies and its tact upon
that task OF forwarding the material
interests of the state. Our popula-
ton was then about 10000, and we
had some thirty papers. And those
papers went to work with one accord
to clear away the ruins that the fight
ing had left, and to crown Kansas
with the histories of peace which are
no less renowned than those>of war.
When 1870 came In it
found US with a population of over
372,OOO-a gain of nearly 24O per cent
Ia ten years, against an average in the
whole country of less than % Der
cent, and more than four-fifths of it
wrought in the latter five of those ten
years. 1t seems incredible, doesd't it {?
But Kansas history is full of increCli-
BILE things Where ten years before,
the whole cultivated area OF Kansas
could al most have been crowded with
In the limits of Leavehworth county
there were now close upon two mil
lions acres OF improved land, valued
at ABOUT seVenty-nine millions OF dol
lars: and the annual farm products of
the state were returned at a valuation
OF over twenty-four millions. Where
only eight years before there had been
mile of railroad built, there were
now twelve hundred miles; and new
towns had sprung up in every direo-
ton, and Kansas had taken a national
prize for the best fruit, and
LAST, BUT NOT LEAST,
the number of papers had increased
TO seventy, with lively demand for
MORE mere were too many of them,
an outsider would have said and now,
seven years later, in a state a little
over sixteen years old, we have hum
dred and seventy-two of them. and it
really looks as if the thing was being
overdone; but somehow they pull
along, and when one drops out two or
three others take its place. Do Won
know why? 1t is because this people
is newspaper people-an Intelligent.
an energetic, thrifty and progressive
people. 1t is because Kansas knows
that the printing press which the first
settlers saw under the elm tree down
yonder by the river was the sign by
which she was conquering. It is be-
cause even our sehoOlboys can see and
understand that newspapers are our
motive power, our reliance and our
security, our great hope that never
goes down. 1t is, in short, because
THE PRESS MADE THE STATE
here in Kansas, and can safely be
trusted to guide and uplift it in the
future as it has done In the past.
There is nothing here but soil and the
sunshine WHICH the press has not
made or bought here. There is moth |
ing OF which the state is capable that |
les press cannot accomplish for it. |
And OF what is not such a state cap
able? Here is now a population Of |
100000 - more than doubled |
in seven years-with 2,1OO miles of |
of railroad, and plenty of coal, and |
lead too, hope, and state bonds held |
at premium of seven per cent. Here
are over five million acres of cultiyat-
ed land, more than three millions of |
which was mystery of undisturbed |
prairie only seven years ago; and we
shall produce this year a hundred |
million bushels of corn and twenty /
million bushels of wheat--if the rains
stop and the bugs let US alone. Here
are four million dollars worth of |
school houses, and a school system |
without flaw, and churches pushed
out to the very verge of the settle
ments. Which such a record and |
with such appliances, with the mani
fold advantages given to it by nature,
and with a hundred and seVenty-twoI
newspapers, what is there we do not
expect of Kansas What has been
done is an assurance of
WHAT CAN BE DONE
by Yigilant and jealous press like
ours. It is not perfect press, l know.
We couldn't hope so much from it if it
had reached perfection, for perfect
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