Morning journal and courier., 1880-09-20

Social, scientific, moral educational relig- ious, political and charitable societies and or ganizations publish newspapers devoted to
 their interests and filled with their ideas; but
 stating the number of newspapers does not
 tell the whole story one must note well the
 great army of writers who help to fill their columns, the editors, assistants, reporters, correspondents, critics and contributors of all kinds which, paid and unpaid, includes l large proportion of the talent of the coun- | try
 The best brain of the country speaks through the newspaper the latest and fresh- l est thought of the people is to be sought in | the latest paper issued. Malice, meanness, | fanaticism, folly, falsehood and fraud, which mix with our daily life, cannot be shut out 1 from the paper but truth, wisdom, practi- | cal sense and the love of the public good, | solid learning and courageous criticism, are I also in force in the newspaper, so we may easily forget the bad elements which mlngle with them. It is the business of social sci | ence to take account of all great public for ! ces, to mark their exact character and ten | dencies and to learn the amount and direc- \ tion of their power for good or evil
 The newspaper is public agent. It offers \ to the people for pay certain services, and on I this work as advertising agent and public her
 ald it depends for it's support. But to reck- \ on it only as public enterprise would insult public intelligence as much as it would tr1t1e with the public interests and rights. In it's public character the paper enters into the ranks of the worlds teachers. Education has ! two chief factors-culture or discipline and | knowledge. The one comes by fit exercise or 1 training the other by whatever furnishes in formation by observation, by reflection, and | most of all by reading.
 | Z With all our schools we could never be an ! intelligent people without newspapers. They
 are the peoples libraries cyclopaedias of mil I lions. Scholars and professional men must ' 1,,k1 fTaf | not the newspapers. Even the fragmentary ! and ephemeral character of it's articles lend I additional charms if not additional utility to \ it. The freshness and variety of the articles ! lure the reader on. It talks to men of busi- ness, their political party, their church, them selves The men it describes are their con- \ temporaries, their neighbors. It thus adds ! something of dignity to their daily lives. | The newspapers of to-day chronicle the \ movements of thought well as those of men and nations. All find a place in their \ perpetual schools and text books of popular
 learning. Facts will sustain this estimate of the educating power of thenewspaper- 9th | CT things being equal the man of family who takes and reads good newspaper will be | more intelligent than the neighbors who do not. Sift from the American people the for | eign importations of non-reading masses, and ! the remainder will be found the best reading \ and most intelligent population of the globe. The newspaper is not advocated as a sub | stitute for schools, but as a complement to | them The American press, directed by men ! of educational minds, will find their way into \ the school rooms. The schools will be taught \ their uses and furnish them more interested [ and intelligent readers. Let the gigantic \ force of the newspapers be turned upon the work of popular education; let the schools introduce this new text book and we have at ! work an agency unsurpassed to make an en- ! frightened and free people.