Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-07-01
ADDRESS
or I,rss. s. j. conkiin. Delivered before
the Dakota Press Association, Held al
Aberdeen. june &c, 1856.

Ny time has been so thoroughly Occur
pied for the past several weeks with the
travel and correspondence necessary to
perfect arrangements to my satisfaction
for this our annual meeting and the excur-
sion that is to follow, that not until last
Friday did find time to commence the
work OF preparing an address for tins oc-
easion, and / should not have written one
at all had it not been that the iron rlle oil
established precedent demanded it, and
would accept no excusefor its non perform.
ance. shall not, however, as is the ire
quent custom on occasions like this, re-
hearse the history OF the art we are disci.
pies Of, nor discourse at length upon the
unparalleled influence and power for good
and evil the press has welded over commu
mites and peoples Of the earth since the art
OF printing was discovered What it has
done We know, what it is to accomplish in
Dakota depends upon the craft itself, eve
nv individual member of which. is RESPONSE
Bile To- his patrons and to the common
wealth for his editorial misfeasance ornon-
feasance.
The transformation OF territory like
ours in a few years, from an uninhabited
and traekless waste, denounced by geogra-
piers and explorers for hundred years
| as fruitful only of gambo grasshoppers,
alkali, billiards, drouths and arctic tenn
perature, into fruitful and prosperous
| empire with all the agricultural, education
| nj and commercial facilities known to
| American states of fifty years growth, was
! accomplished by means and methods as
new and untried as the developing process
engaged in, was rapid and unusual To
| illustrate: Travel through our agricultur-
al districts and make the acquaintance OF
/ Dakota farmers, and you will find among
them D surprising number OF college gradu-
| ates, disciples Of Escalapms, learned law
| yers, eminent divines, knights the shoot
/ ing stick and representatives, OF every art
and vocal ton, all following the pillow with
| patient industry that would do credit to
the most devoted granger, who to such
pursuits had been born and raised.
/ This Infusion of new men trained 30
/ habits of study and thought, has given to
| our agricultural pursuits the benefit OF
| brain as well as muscle and resulted in
many new and improved methods. OF the
settlement and development OF Dakota, it
| may he truthfully said. sold things have
passed away and all things have become
new, and this is as true OF the means and
| methods by which newspaper offices have
been established within our borders, until
| the prairies are everywhere speckled with
them. Back in the eastern states where
! most of US emigrated from, this is how
! printers grew; the boy left the farm or
work shop to begin as printers devil at
/ the bottom round ofthe ladder; he toiled on
month after month AMI year after year to
/ reach the position of pressman, and was as
proud as a. militia colonel il fortunate
| enough to be promoted to foreman OF an
| office. Many such in due time became pro-
] prietors OF newspapers, and nov and then
one an editor OF ability and distinction.
| But that has not been--to use slang
| phrase-the Dakota way Of getting there
| lots OF men who could not tell n shooting
| stick" from stick of cord wood, aspired
| to the profits OF final proof and contest
I notices, now lost in many instances to re-
1 publican gaze and which, in u few moons
at best, will cease to gladden. the heart and
/ replenish the wallet OF our worthy and now
! happy democratic brothers. Scores OF
| young men who had stood at the news
case barely long enough to learn the
| boxes, tocked to Dakota with each
an Army press and hand satchel
! OF type. Merchants, bankers and divines,
too, were all at once inspired with the be-
| lief that they bad special call to start n
| newspaper and publish to the world the
| golden opportunities Dakota offered with
would come and garner them. Men OF rare
nttainments in our art, editors OF age and
experience and brilliant powers also came;
and so it came to pass that where two or
three houses were gathered together there
also was newspaper, and often two or
three OF them.
This new order and almost laughablesta
of things-and it would have been alto
eether, so from an eastern standpoint
"a in az ha ba ha eli
| called for, and without it tie great miracle
OF Dakota settlement and development, we
point to could not have been accomplished.
| Had we been compelled to wait for
men OF experience and means and well fur
nished printing offices to come here and
advertise this country, il would have gone
n long while without advertising; but the
boys came and started their newspapers
and each commenced to boom his own To-
cality. The lonely settler anxious that
his friends should come also took from
one toa half dozen copies weekly and mail
ed them east, and soon, all over the ter
ritory east of the Missouri it was the
same, and booming weekly bulletins vera
showered like snowflalles all over the east
They brought the people here by hundreds
and thousands aud tens of thousands
until now in most counties, the lands are
occupied. Towns are well established. the
booming timeis past; while it lasted it
was easy to publish a newspaper; you had
nothing to do but to describe what you
saw and who came and where from and
how the crops grew and what the yield was.
That satisfied your home patron then;
because he wanted to send such news to
his friends, and satisfied the eastern read
er because that was just what he want ed
to know.
That easy time when anyone could edit
a newspaper satisfactorily has about pass
ed, and the crucial test is lseing applied
which is to determine how many OF you
are fitted by nature and education for edi-
torial duties, how many of you will succeed
and how many fail? Your patrons will no
longer be satisfied, with boom articles that
are not needed. The time is close at hand
when you must leave the smoot. and
placid waters Of the bayous of mere local
journalism where the sailing has been so
easy, and launch out upon the uncertain
and turbulent sea of real journalism which
you will find studded all over with rocks
and reefs that endauger, and storms that
have shipwrecked the staunchest and most
sea worthy crafts that have made the
venture. Something more than descriptive
talent will now be required of you. Minds
stored with the ripe fruits OF education
and experience will be needed
Social, economic and political questions
OF the gravest Importance to the people
OF the whole territory, and consequently OF
interest to each and every one ofyour read.
ers, will hedge you about and must be dis
cussed and answered for or against; ami
here is the true field of American Journalism.
An editor should be a leader and not a fol-
lower IN the community where he labors.
II you find after a fair trial that you pos
sess no power in moulding and leading pub
lie sentiment and action, then you may
know that you, like great many ministers
oil the gospel, have missed your calling and
it would be a mercy to your patrons and
wisdom for yourself to seek some other
niche in the great and varied panorama Of
human pursuits that you were born to fill
and be content with that. Not that
would discourage any beginner, because he
is not a Prentice, Halstead or Greeley,
for. in the editorial profession as in ali
Others, tail oaks from little acorns
grow" But il you are not the acorn.
there will never be any oak in your case
large or small, no matter in what soil you
are planted. II you have it in you to be
come a teacher and a leader of the people
through the medium OF a newspaper, hide
not your light under bCshel; come to the
front on one side or the other of every
question of moment on which man would
have an opinion. Satisfy yourself first
that you're all right and then go ahead.
Let no mere question OF temporary policy
move You; do not stop to enquire, will my
position be popular? Am little ahead Of
my readers? II you are ahead of your
readers you are Just where you ought to
be. When the true interest OF the people
demand that you should strike at some
evil, here or there, do not hesitate nor
stop to count the cost Of possibly losing a
local advertisement OF two, or here
and there subscriber. man who
viii allow such considerations to
influence him, is as unfit to occupy an edi.
torial chair as the devil would be to oc.
cupy christian pulpit. Such considera.
tons are unworthy the high position YOU
occupy as public educators and, he who
viii permit himself to be thus influenced, is
a craven coward ar n tuereanary ,vl,al,