Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-01-29
PROGRESS OF THE PRESS.

vention of the Minnesota Editors aad
Publishers Association, at st. Paul, Jan.
IS, 1880. by j. "A. Leonard, Editor of
the Rochester Post.
The newspaper is the natural result of the
highest development of the most progressive
faith of our modern civilization. 1t is the
elimination of centuries of toll and inven-
vention, the highest blossom bursting forth
from the forcing process that the business of
the world ia undergoing in these high pres
sure times.
1t is the wont of the press to boast of its
influences i'll bringing about the great and
rapid changes taking place in the POLITICAL
social and moral world, but is it not rather
sequence than cause ? Is not the modern
newspaper the last result.the ultimate conclu-
sion of the application of steam and electrl-
city The locomotive and telegraph might
exist without the press. but the newspaper
could not exist in its highest development
without them.
Franklin rendered greater service to the
profession that has recognized him as its
tutelary genius by his experiments which lead
to the handling of electricity than by all his
achievements as printer Or publisher.
The paper, as it is to-day, is the product of
the daily mail and telegraph, and 1t is per-
meated with all the vim OF electricity. The
spirit of enterprise is its soul. 1t has al
ready outgrown steam, and no velocity less
than of lightning is swift enough for its de-
mands.
The great newspaper offices, with their
corps of editors, their gangs of employees
and their wonderful enginery of presses,
are immense factories of information, send
ing out their wares with wholesale prodig-
atty, riyaling each other In the novelty of
their issues, and in their omniverous greed
for all intelligence, seizirg upon every new
discovery and making 1t tributary to the
every day uss of telling all the world what
all the rest of the world is doing. Mail
routes, telegraph lines, pneumatic tubes, tel
ephunes, all tend instinctively toward the
newspaper office as their ultimate destina-
ton. The editorial sanctum is the point of
application of all improvements, the goal of
all inventions.
No new development of enterprise which
can possibly be trained to news gathering,
no new adaptation of science to the diffu-
sion Of intelligence, surprises us, but We
welcome it as O matter of course.
The newspapers of these times is untrue
to itself if it is not the widest awake and
most energetic institution of its place of is
sue, whether that place be a capital or
cross roads.
That branch of our profession represent
ed by most of us here present, the local
press, comprising the most numerous and
least honored dispensers of paper and. ink,
may felicitate itself upon the fact that while
the progress of tee press has, OF course,
been most marked in the great dailies 1t has
not stopped there, but our local papers are
also constantly growing il excellence and in
huence.
The local paper should be the meagre city
column of the daily ampiiied and improved
into full paper; sheet instead Of column
of neighborhood occurrences. 1t should be
the daily transformed. with the whole world,
to which it is devoted, subordinated to your
own locality. 1t should be the daily turned
topsy-turvy, with your own locality on top.
1t should be the fullest weekly history ana
the best exponent of all the interests Of its
vicinags.
OF all men, the editor most needs the
faculty of adaptability, the knack OF know
ing the sphere of his sheet and the range OF
his or his papers powers. A paper has as
within that orbit it may BE- omnipotent, ell
efforts to get outside of it must end in fail
ure.
The track of the progress along which the
press has Travelled, while ii has been brilliant
with achievements of business enterprise and
mechanical ingenuity, has also been black
with the wrecks of great endeavors and
high ambitions. Next to the pursuit of
mechanical invention there has perhaps been
TO branch of human industry
in which have been more failures
than in newspaper ventures; and it cor
tanlY is not to the discredt of our craft that
most publishing failures have been the re-
suit of attempting too much. 1t has been
but seldom that publishers have made the
mistake OF undertaking too little while the
number of those whose enterprises have col
lapsed from over expansion Is almost in
Vulnerable.
The newspaper must be to great extent,
what its Surroundings make it. 70 fill its
sphere it must be in full accord with the peo-
pie for whom it is published. Whether at
Okaona or LIE Mars, i: will be most truly a
paper as it most truly represents its region.
1t may he a mean paper, but if go IL will be
g typical meanness. l would not be under
otoOu 40 bhStS - PcPSA o'Ao"AA PhS
fess a conviction in whatever may he the
popular sentiment Or vice of lis neighbor
hood, but 1 do assert that in so far as it is a
teacher of the editors notion in opposition
to the popular notions of his neighbors, it
will be more conscientious than newspa-
portal; and in all probability, will be more
deserving than successful.
We can all of Us well remember when the
local papers were but rehash of the city
dailies and aped, for it was impossible for
them to rival, those oftener issued sheets III
giving the news of the world or in the pro-
duction of heavy editorials. In those days,
the great achievement of the country editor
was the leader. That in most cases political,
generally solemn, almost necessarily prosy,
intended to be oracular, and above all and
under all circumstances lengthy essay-that
psinfullterary production expressive of the
editors or the papers opinion upon some
subject of national, or at least statewide i'm
portance, was as inevitable as publication
day itself. No matter what else faifed to go
Ill or had to come out, the leader must not
fail. The form could not be locked up till
the last stickful of its often stupid preten-
tiousness was emptied in, and the paper that
opened up its editorial page with leader
less than a column in length, of matter orig
inal in form, though every idea in it mig hit