The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-07-02
ADDRESS
OF Pres. $. ,. ConIiin, Delivered before
the Dakota Press Association, Held al
Aberdeen, June 22 1886.


Aberdeen, June 22, 1886.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE Press AS,
ISOLATION OF DAKOTA.
My time has been so thoroughly occ6.
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 las;
Friday did / find time to commence the
work OF preparing an address for this oc.
casion, and should not have written one
at all had it not been that the iron rule oil
established precedent demanded it, and
would accept noexcuse for 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
piles 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.
ry individual member OF which. is RESPONSE.
BILE to his patrons and to the common.
wealth for his editorial misieasance or non.
feasance.
The transformation OF a territory like
ours in a few years, from an uninhab:ted
and trackless waste denounced by geogra
pliers and explorers for hundred years
as fruitful only OF gumbo, grasshoppers,
alkah billiards., drouths and arctic tenn
tnr int Fr,ttff fui
empire with all the agricultural, education
al 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 agrcultur-
al districts and make the acquaintance OF
Dakota farmers, and you will find among
them a surprising number OF college gradu
ates, disciples of Escalapins, learned law.
yers, eminent divines, knights of the shoot
ing stick" and representatives OF every art
and vocation, all following the plow 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 to
habits OF study and thought, has given to
our agricultural pursuits the benefit oi
brain as well as muscle and resulted in
many new and improved methods. or the
settlement and development OF Dakota, it
may be truthfully said: "Old 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
workshop to begin as printers devil at
the bottom round the ladder; he toiled on
month after month ana year after year to
reach the position of pressman, and was as
proud as d militia colonel il fortunate
enough TO be promoted to foreman OF an
Office. Many such in due time became pro-
prietors Of newspapers, and now and then
one an editor OF ability and distinction.
But that has not been-to use a slang
phrase-the Dakota way OF getting there;
lots of men who could not tell a shooting
stick from stick OF cord wood, aspired
to the profits OF final proof and contest
notices. now lost in many instances to re-
publican gaze and which, in few moons
at best, will cease to gladden. the heart and
replenish the wallet OF our worthy and now
happy democratic brothers. Scores oil
young men who had stood at the news
case barely long enough TO learn the
an Army press and q hand satche
OF type Merchants, bankers and divines,
too, were all at once inspired with the be-
lief that they had a special call to start
newspaper and publish to the world the
golden opportunities Dakota offered with
out money and without price to all who
would come and garner them. Men OF rare
attainments in our art, editors Of age and
experience and brilliant powers also came
and SO it came to pass that where two OF
three houses were gathered together there
also was n newspaper, and often two OF
three OF them
This new order and almost laughablestat
OF things--and it would have been alto
gether, so from an eastern standpoint
was Just what the hour and the occasion
called for, and without it the great miracle
OF Dakota settlement and development, we
point to could not have been accomplished
Had we been compelled to wait foi
men OF experience and means and well fur
nished printing offices to come here ana
advertise this country, Il would have gone
q 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 to hall dozen copies weekly and mall
ed them east, and soon, all over the ter
ritory east OF the Missouri it was the
same, and booming weekly bulletins wer:
showered like snowhakes all over the east
They brought the people here by hundreds
and thousands and tens OF thousands
until now in most counties, the lands are
occupied. Towns are well established, tne
booming timeis past while it lasted y
was easy to publish newspaper; you mac
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 yorr home patron then,
because he wanted to send such news 70
his friends and satisfied the eastern read.
or because that was just what ~ wanted
to know. X.
That easy time when anyone could edit
a newspaper satisfactorily has about pass
ed. and the crucial test is being applied
which is to determine how many Of you
arc fjtted bv nature and education for edi