The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-09-14

Our virtues, our vices, our thoughts and
opinions, our politics, our trade, our push
and pride, our weakness, strength, creed,
customs and civilization are all imaged to our
memorable periodical publications. The
American newspaper has no rival on earth
| in the volume and variety of its Issues. More
than eight thousand papers appear each
week from our newspaper press. More than
a thousand million copies are circulated
annually They cover tho whole field of ha-
man thought and interest Every depart
ment Of business, manufacture and trade has
ts advertiser. Social, scientif moral, edu-
cational, religious, political and charitable
societies and organizations publish newspa'
pers devoted to their interests and illled with
their ideas. But stating the number OF
newspapers does not tell the whole story
| One must no.e well the great
army OF writers who help to I'LL
their columns. The editors, assistants, re-
portors, correspondents, critics and contrib
utors OF all kinds, which, paid and unpaid,
includes large proportion Of the talent OF
the country. The best brain Of the country
speaks through the newspaper. The latest
and freshest thought Of tho people IS to be
sought in the last paper issued. Malice,
meanness, ianaticism, folly, lalsehood and
fraud, which mix with our daily life, cannot
be shut out from the paper. But truth,
wisdom, practical sense and the love Of pub
lie good, sohd learning and courageous
criticism are also in force in tho newspapers,
so that we may easily forget the bad elements
which miuglo with them, 1t is the business
of eocial science to take account OF all great
public forces, to mark their eXact character
and tendon los, and to learn the amount and
direction of their power for good or evil.
The newspaper is ut once the product and
exponent OF the American mind-no better,
no worse. The good probably exceeds the
bad In the newspaper In larger proportion
than among the people, for vices seek seclu-
sion, not publicity. In no other country
does the newspaper exercise such power us in
America.
FREE PRESS AND FREE SCHOOLS.
Americans live, work and think through
newspapers. Acting Ms II public conscience,
it places its seal Of shame or honor upon
each chapter of our history AS it transpires.
Nor American forgots it. 1t watches to re-
ward the good and punish the bad Good
men trust to il and bad men fear it. The
power of the newspaper is not the mere force
Of printed thought. 1t is the embodied
power Of public lite of the day. Each
reader feels that no is surrounded by an I'M
seen multitude who are reading the same
lines and he grows excl ed with imagined
responses. All the lOrCds Of current history
prove themselves through the press. Force
never remains idle. 1t Is impossible that so
gigantic force us the American newspaper
should exist without eXerting u correspond
ing influence upon the character, affairs and
destnies Of the entire people, All things cd
ucate u.s. Country, climate, scenery and
society, business, ind pleasures and environ
ments exert power on our minds and charac-
tors. While few have deeply considered the
depth and extent of the influence of the news
paper, few will deny it. The free press is the
necessary complement Of free schools. With
out the schools the press would lack readers !;
without the press scholarship would fail OF
half itS,usos. he newspaper is n public
agent. II offers to the public for pay certain
services, and on this work rs nm adyor.
Using agent and a public herald it depends
for It's support, But to reckon it only rs u
public enterprise would insult public intelli-
genco MS much Ms il would trilo with the
public interests and rights. In its public
character the paper enters into the ranks Of
the worlds teachers. Education has two
chief factors culture or discipline and
knowledge. Tho one come by fit exercise
or training, the other by whatever furnishes
information by observation, by reflection,
and, most of all, by reading. With all our
schools we could never De an Intelligent peo-
Pile without newspapers. They are the peo-
plo's libraries tho Cyclopedia Of the millions.
Scholars and professional men must read
books, but woe, woe to them if they read not
the newspapers. Even the fragmentary and
ephemeral character of its articles lend ad.
ditional charms, if not additional utility to it.
The freshness and the variety of the articles
lure the reader on. II talks to men of their
business, their political party, their church,
themselves. The men it describes are their
contemporaries, their neighbors. 1t thus
adds something of dignity 10 their lAily lives
The newspaper Of to-day chronicles the
movements Of thought ms well as those Of
men and nations, All And places in these
perpetual schools and text books of popular
learning, Facts will sustain this estimate of
the educating power of the newspaper.
AMEAsURE OF INTELLIGENCE.
Other things be in equal to man or family
who take and read good newspaper will te
more intelligent than the neighbors who do
not silt from the American people the for
cgn importatons of non-reading masses, and
the remsinder will be found the best read and
most intelligent population of the globes.
The newspaper is not advocated as substi-
tuto for schools, but asa compliment to
them. The American press, directed by
men Of educational minds, viii find their
way into the school rooms. The schools will
be taught their uses and furnish them more
Interested and intelligent readers. Let the
schools introduce this. new text book, and
we have at work an agency never surpassed
to make an enlightened and free people