The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1880-01-01
The Power of the Press.

Mr. Wendell Phillips recently deliv-
cred an address at Steinway Hall, New
York City, upon "The Press: Its Pow
er for Good and Evil from which we
Gull the following extracts:
There are careful authorities which
estimate that Is, 100000 of newspapers
and books, the products of the press, are
daily flooded before the eyes of the peo-
pie of the world. It would not be q
large calculation to say that there are
from 10000, 900 to 25,00O,000 human
beings who are daily and hourly sub
jected to the government of this great
power. When we come TO think of the
press, with its 100000 agents, drop
ping an idea into 100000 minds at
once, and following it up the next day,
and surveying it from every point, illus
trating it by aaecdote and history, sur
veying it with logic or with sarcasm,
making fun of it, making it personal,
making it ethical, making it abstract,
putting every possible form to it, adding
to it every possible attraction for 800
successive days, we can see how resist
less to the ordinary resistance of human
nature must be such a power.
He remembered cousin of his who
was a bitter Federalist, when, in the
fierce conflict after the War of 1912, a
Democrat and a Wing would hardly
walk on the same side of the street, who
subscribed, on the 1st day of January,
for Democratic paper for the fun of
s{t. He thought that-at his breakfast he
might be tickled with the absurdity of
what it said. On the 4th day of NOvem-
Der following he voted the Democratic
ticket. Laughterl. Such is the re-
sistless power of repetition. Lord Pal
merstOn had said in the very height of
his popularity, 81 never dare contra
dict q journal, no matter what the as
sault or how offensive the affirmation.
know IL has 800 more days in which to
repeat it, and to make fun of me-" And
so the magnanimous and obstinate Pre-
mier remained silent rather than sub
ject himself to the sarcastic rejoinders
Of the press.
Man was put in communication with
the civilization of the age by the press.
| His hearers should remember, also, that
the press was the exclusive literature OF
/ the masses. To the millions it was lit
erature, church and college. Four out
| of five persons never read a book. II
would be hardly too much to say that,
| speaking generally, four men out of five
| seldom read book. The daily press is
] then to them parent, school, church and
/ college, counselor and amusement. Il
! is their whole. A Scotchman has said
- Let me make the ballads, and [ care
not who makes the laws" To-day, i
he lived, he would change that utter
ance, and say: Let me make the
newspapers, and 1 don't care what i:
preached from the pulpit or what is ell
acted in Congress- He remarked tina
no doubt the material prosperity upOr
which we so much prided ourselves, the
infinite invention and the total subjuga
ton of nature and its forces to the viii
of man, are almost exclusively due Il
the intellectual development which re
suited from the press. 1t is the trained
mind which the press produces. In thu
course of three or four generations i
had actually changed the brain of tn
race. Now, the infant looks over it
cradle, crawls out of it, and patents al
improvement before it is six month
old. Laughter The press and tn,
telegraph wire Is an infinite stronge
cement of the Union of the 40 State
than that golden band, the Mississippi
River, which was thought TO tie 20 State
together. 1t was the Openness OF intel
lectuaI life born of this many-headeC
[
the Union. He thought that Americ,
owed one-haf of its material prosperity
if not more, to the development Of tn
press.
When he went back to the battle 0
Waterloo he found the London Time
consisted of nothing but advertise
ments. 1t did not volunteer a
opinion. It had no discussion, n
leading articles, no editorials. Tn
press, in the sense in which they spOk
of it tO-day-the journalism of the morn
ing-is almost the creation OF the las
80 or 60 years; the effect which W
must try to discover must be fOun'
within the last half century. He re
membered well when Harrison died il
1S40-an event which, considering it
party relations, was exceedingly crit
ical and important in the history of tn
country-and yet when the news of
reached Springfield, Ill, 10 days afte
the Presidents death, it found Abra
. ham Lincoln arguing a case IN Court
and he denied it, because, he said, i
was not possible, if it were true, that
should be known there SO soon. APP
plause and laughter.l To-day, buy
newspaper in the street, and you ma,
read the words that Queen Victoria
at that moment speaking to her Parlia
ment. They might buy an evening pa
per at night, and read what Bismarcl
said before dinner. Such was the en-
terprise and the vast sweep of the pres
of to-day that makes humanity one
The man that reads has a telegraph
wire which connects him with the world
and the man that does not read Nigh
as well be Robinson Crusoe on his island
Applause.