The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1882-08-25

The Press AND THE PEoPLE.-In our day
the people can no more move aud have their
being in any truly effective sense without
the press than the press can live without
that responsive popular support so necessary
to the wide efficiency of journal, how yer
faithful and earnest its work These forces
then, must move together with cordial
mutuality in order that society should
perform its full functions. OF course We
do not deny that people can cnist with.
ou' the press, but let us Imagine for mo
ment the whole people of free State with
out the modern newspaper. You may re-
move the railway and pull down the tcle-
graph wires, but stop the newspaper, which
finds its way iutc every nook and corner of
the land, however remote or obscure and
you would in our day stop the very springs
Oh @"man action; you would lower the stan
ssssE5l "a ssIss sSssss 80 i
in any given direction, and ch%.! down the
very heart Of the State to the ncuGest aspt~
rations and the patrlest performances
1t may be said with simpl truth that the
newspaper performs greater function in
the economy of a free State in our day and
times than tho most exalted craftsmanship.
Ii makes aud unmakes statesmen and actual
ly maps out affairs for the exercise of proper
craftsmanship. Andin more cases than one
has the pen proved mi ghtier than the sword
We are living in an age OF more or less
military cast just now, and hence military
heroes of all dimensions fill the page. But
we are approaching, if we have not already
reached. the era when facts shall fix the fate
of empires rather than successful cheftains
When truth aud justice aod the actual ne
cessltes of human society shall find big
voice in human affairs When the pregnant
negation of the masses, acting in their own
behalf, shall sullenly stand across the path
whom neither the needle gun can prick to
performance nor the armored monsters of
the deep drive into submission Human
intelligence and will shall be found more
than match for gunpowder.
The power to stand STILL to clog the
wheels, to stop the grain in the fields, to
stop the loouls at their work and the great
avenues of transportation, in lading and
unading, n word the strike that-strikes
all along the line OFFS human production or
its distribution, sooner or later will have its
reckoning. Sooner or later we will hear the
swelling voice of down-troIden humanity
utter in thunder tones Let justice be done
between man and man! And who snail
gainsay the DOMAIN? The quibbles ofthe
court house. the strategy Of so-called states
manship, the deep laid wies of machiue
politicians, the sham worship aud insincerity
ofpriest estcrait-all these things will have had
their day. whilst the actual necessities of the
case, with its actual possibilities, will give
the law to the occasion. For it will soon
be plain to all that no man defeats God
Nor can all the men on earth combined
Sainsay Him who laid the foundations of
the earth and laid the corner stone thereof
This movement Of the multitude hath
come out Of the womb Of our times, and to
no little extent does it owe its origin to the
lolns of the free press of the civilized world
The slavery of our own section found it's
quietus there, aud all things which SAVIOR
Of slavery must die the death. African
slavery was only made in its isolation the
vicarious sacrifice for ull the rest
Now, the same press, fit be free press,
IT 1t be brave press, if it be faithful
press, stands, under God, master of the
sltu',i)n; and. in the end, it will be found
that the press can neither afford to be bought
cajocd or bulled. No mans money can buy
the human heart away from true heroism,
from chevalier love for the right and the true
IN the long run. And there will be, there
must be, born to the demands Of the case,
roes OF the pen no l.ss than of the sword.
men whose words lhul never die and whose
superb instincts shall brill through count.
less generations Of men.
COL Register.