The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-01-27
TIE PUBLIC PRESS.

Education is the most essential ele.
ment in good government. The
greater the general intelligence, the
eafer our liberties. An appeal TO an
intelligent mind will meet with rea-
sonable and intelligent response, but
an appeal to an ignorant mind will be
sesponded to by uuintelligible supersti
tion. Public schools, academies and
colleges are of the utmost Importance,
aud their value cannot be measured,
nor estimated as a power for local, in
dividual and intellectual discipline, in
the mental and moral development, If
the young and rising generations, in
their preparation, preparatory to busi.
ness life, which, as yet, is in course of
theoretical possibilities, which, later
on, must be produced to practical prob
abilities, through the exertion
of experimental knowledge, be-
fore success can crown their efforts.
But, should their education remain
confined to book learning, without en-
ploying other means of acquiring a
general knowledge of the worlds
daily doings,their learning would soon
collapse into forgetfulness, through
Indifference and neglect. The public
press is more powerful agency than
the above systems, and serves as
better medium for disseminating uni
versal knowledge among The people;
though not no profound, yet, more en-
during and practical. 1t ia like tree,
spreading its branches everywhere,
shedding its leaves daily and weekly,
continually dropping, ripe with all the
events of the day. whose tidings they
bare to every longing sreside each day
and week throughout the year, on the
swift current of progressive intelli-
gence.
Dark and supersti,ious must be that
home, where this most welcome leaf
let does not drop, to diffuse some ef-
fulgent rays, through the crevices of
the bolted, blinded and pent up, big
nted minds, swollen and bloated with
ignorance, wholly incapacitating them
Of responding to the great intellectual
light without, even through the force
of public sentiment. One might as
we'll be isolated, or exled, 30 far as
loneliness is concerned, as to live with
out newspapers, Some people get
along without them, and make money,
too; but they have no Higher motive
than greed and avarice. for which they
sacrifice every principle, personal honor
and reputation, rather than spend one
dollar for newspapers. The children
love them and it is good economy to
supply them with all the respectable
papers they wish to read. They Guilt
yate tas,e and habit for reading, re-
fine and culture home, educate the
people, and are the only source of
power that give tone and character to
,ur institutions, snd our public men
must stand or fall through the ligh,
hey shed upon them. The public
press is the light house and safeguard
for the ship of state, warning its
mariners of approaching dangers, when
nearing dou 'tful harbors, through the
darkness and fury of political storms.
The American idea of government re-
volts at monarchy, yet, America is
governed by the most powerful mon
arch on earth, into which enters and
centers every individual idea of pro-
gressive liberty, not as the power of q
man, or sovereign, but as of men and
sovereigns, combined and united into
one harmonious whole,no, by arbitrary
power, but through the power of the
public press, which is more powerful
than all arbitrary power. ].