The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1885-08-26
THE ANNUAL GRAFTON.
j B. Hendry's Address to the Montana
Press Association.

Tasslng position OF being expected to az
liver an interesting and instructive ad
dress to a gathering of professions
brethern, many or all of whom are olde
| ia years and in professional experienc
! than I have the honor of being, and an.
ofwhom, am confident, could assum
this arduous task with infinitely create
success. But trust that my frequen
lapses from interest and instruction vii
be regarded IN a charitable spirit anC
that you will attribute them to inability
and lnexperience rather than malicious
desire 10 become tiresome. would ask
too. that ifI sometimes appear to bt
preaching what I have not practiced you
WI not be hasty to invoke the curse
thu belongs to him who, knowing the
pat OF truth, does not follow it. The
sf the past have carried lessons
for the future.
take it that we are not assembled as
mere mutual admiration society and
that you care to listen to no long drawn
glorlfcation of our common profession.
The story of the Press-of its power, its
mission, its duty-has been the theme of
such fertile minds and eloquent tongues
as could not hope to initiate even were
| addressing an audience composed en-
tirely of laymen instead of an association
of practical co-laborers, who may be
reasonably presumed to be. sufficiently
impressed with the magnitude and inn
portance of their chosen work. 1t is al
so to be presumed that the majority if
not all of the members of this association
have fixed upon some department of
newspaper labor as their life profession.
1t should therefore be their aim to study
their work with as much care and with
as close attention to details as is betow-
ed upon any other vocation. There are
prizes in the arena of journalism, but
they fall to those who not merely COM
bine the toiling hand with the active
brain but to those who bring to their
work the close practical study which
every business demands as the condition
of success. The public is apt to regard
an editorial chair as position that can
be filed by any person who wields a
ready pen. We of the inside know differ
emily, but perhaps all of us have not
onfarad rroY, n 6,11 xaaJ;1,k,o., 4boA ,.a4
only are certain natural endowments
necessary to our business, but We can
profitably avail ourselves Of the expert
ence ofour brethren and every item of
our own work should be looked upon as
trainer to guide our later endeavors
If we except the chair of journalism late
ly established at Cornell and the emer-
titus professorship at Harvard, the school
furnish no distinctive training for edi-
torlal work. He who chooses that rug
ged road to fame or competence must
enter uasss Y with only the preparatory
course oil a general education or with the
more practical if more arduous training
Of long apprenticeship in the mechani-
cal department OF newspaper work-at
the case and the imposing stone. A very
large proportion of those who assay to
be editors and publishers of newspapers
seize upon the business with the hope
or untried belief that they viii develop
an adaptability for the work. Of these
experimenters, these raw recruits, the
majority fail ANONYMOUSLY before they
have suffered the hard school of expert
ence to mould such energy and talent
as they may possess into the peculiar
form required by the Press. The edi-
torial profession, more than any other,
presents an example of that evolution
which is accomplished by natural selec-
tion and the survival of the fittest," The
greatest journalists of the country have
reached their proud eminence only
after many years of active work have
brought the experience that ensures
success. We cannot afford to follow any
happy-go-iucky system any
more than can the lawyer or the phYsi-
clan. And the Montana Press Associ-
alton. whose Inauguration has been at
tended with such promising omens, will
prove one of the most powerful engines
for mutual improvement sort of in
formal training school where each mem-
Der can learn something from the exper-
ience or ideas of his fellows.
We are gathered as an association of
editors and publishers for the further
ance of the interests of our common bus
mess, to consider how we can improve
our papers and, as consequence, inn
prove our pecuniary condition, for it
may be laid down as a rule that, other
things being equal, the best paper makes
the most money. Though the public
does not always seem to show proper
of the fact, and though
enough of the Bohemian spirit enters
into the constitution Of every true jour
nalist to make him esteem money but
little for mere moneys sake, yet money
we must have to support position of
becoming respectability in society and to
oil the wheels OF progress represented
by our papers. Our newspapers are our
means of livelihood, and how to honor
ably obtain from their management the
greatest remuneration for our labor and
investments is a vital question just as it
is with the merchant or the farmer. We
bid for public confidence and patronage
we seek to draw and retain the support
of newspaper-reading public. We Of
the Montana Press association are as
sembled to promote these ends by ex-
changing views, making cooperative ar
and cultivating personal
And let me say that from a mere util-
itarian point of view this last item, the
cultivation Of personal relations, is by no
means insignificant Editors as class
are prone to attack each other and to