The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-05-20
Progress and the Press.

"There are at this time more than a
thousand newspapers in the Missouri
Valley, and in the next ten years there
will be a thousand more. 1t is folly to
predict that newspapers are to decrease.
As well might we predict that sunlight
is to decrease. The newspaper has be-
come a necessity, a force, a potent fac
tor of civilization; and just so long and
SO fast as population spreads, and labor
is uplifted, and intelligence grows and
ripens, Just so long and so fast will
newspapers multiply. And they will
not starve either, nor depend upon char
ity or the stiHgy favor of politicians.
The time was when the making of news
papers meant premeditated poverty, and
mothers gave up their sons to BE print
ers with tears and meaning, and men
who were too good aud too honest Tor
any thing else went into Journalism like
martyrs going to the stake. Col. Swift
Ter can recollect it, and so can others of
youT | don't believe my own parents
hare quite forgiven me to this day for
choosing to be Sn editor wien it seemed
50 much better for me to BE a preacher
or something. Those were the days of
the poetry of euf profession, which Col.
Child is going to tell you about-a sort
Of poetry that made q man want to
break all the commandments, just to
see if there ceally was God. But that
time is past. 1t is no longer the Gus
tom to sheer at newspapers, and COM
miserate those who conduct them. The
Press has not only indicated its rights
to exist, but made itself indispensable;
from a weak, uncertain and dependent
thing it has grown to be the first power
of society and Government, the mistress
of intelligence, the autocrat of public
sentiment. is not every editor a
ruler eff the world says Car
lyle, being a persuader of it?'
An editorial in one of the st.
Louis dailies has more influence than u
message from the Governor of the
State. A six-line local in a country
weekly often does more service for
truth and virtue than 4 sermon from the
pulpit. No longer is the editor snubbed
and left to the casual Samaritans; no
longer ascends his mendicant whine for
cord-wood and watermelonS; he is
cOurted now, and feared, and his power
invoked to further all good works, and
he gets his pay like other folks, and can
afford wife and children; and when
he dies, they put him away with flowers
and music, as they did poor, tired,
WORKOUT Mugford the other day here in
Sedalia, rest his SOUL
''And so, | say, newspapers are to
increase, and not diminish, because in
telligence is to advance and the country
is to expand and prosper. Especially
is this true of this nation within
nation, which has the Missouri for its
sign of natural unity, and its argu-
ment for peace, concord and
fraternity. In these central and
striding States the newspaper is
emphatically the sign by which we con-
quer. The press is our advocate and
defender of the faith. A town without
a newspaper is town ready to fence in
and whitewash; a settlement that lacks
a printing-ofice must get one or be sold
for taxes. This characteristic, believe
me, is the touchstOne of our future
progress. Marshal what other appll
ances you will in our behalf, and still
the press must be depended upon above
them all. And what a field it has to
work in and glorify! Think for mo-
ment that Missouri and Kansas alone
are One-fourth larger than Great Britain
and Ireland, with almost enough uncul-
tivated and fertile land in them to make
two Englands Missouri, Kansas,
Iowa and Nebraska are larger than
France or Germany, with Belgium and
Switzerland thrown in. Missouri it
self is almost as large as New
England; Kansas lacks only
few counties of New Mexico to make
her as large as both New York and
Pennsylvania; and New Mexico would
then still be larger than all the Middle
States. Think OF these facts-as fear
few of US ever do-and tell me, if you
can, by what arithmetic we are to est
mate the capabilities and ultimate pos
sible greatness of such an empire as this
which we are considering. And here
lies the mission of Missouri Valley jour
nalism, the opportunity of the pres
which Charles founded seventy-twO
years ago. These vast unpeopled and
undeveloped areas are to be redeemed
and made fruitful and powerful. The
millions of untitled acres in Missouri,
Kansas, Nebraska and the rest, are to
be advertised and developed and
changed into homes and farms, towns
and cities. There are railroads to be
constructed, manufactures 10 be set in
motion, mines to be opened, schools
and churches to be organized,
thousand things to be done
that go to the production of
wealth, the diffusion of happiness and
the promotion of the good, the true and
the beautiful. The interests of these
States are identical and indivisible; the
people of these States are one people.
Every step of progress in any part of
this great basin of the Missouri contrib
utes to the advantage of all the other
parts. The country is too big for
jealousy, too closely conjoined for any
rivalry but that which justiEes its tri-
umphs by making them a common honor
and common benefit. Every cabin built
in Nebraska, every ranch started in
Kansas, every orchard planted in Mis-
souri,, is worth something to the whole
Valley-and when we Kansans come
over here after fruit to win our premi
ums with Gas you say we once did), you
should give it to US, and keep still about
it until you can get even with us by
borrowing some of our uneXampled
stalks of corn to exhibit as a Missouri
"This is the chance, then, and these
are the auspices that beckon and eu
courage the newspapers of which tn,
old Missouri Gazette was the augury and
the forerunner. There are already over
a thousand of these papers, have said
and there are soon to be thousand
more-all working to the same general
end, in spite of politics or State lines,
81 Ill -1,,o 90 opo,D1o raurord - +bayr do