The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1888-05-18
CsLEANHNGs
From Address of Mars. VA. R
Fields, Catherine COIe) bee
fore the Press Convention.

fore the Press Convention
To-day, i You viii show me your parish
newspaper, viii tell you what sort of peo-
pie live in your parish"
"An editor may personally be good or a
bad man, but in large sense he does not
put himself into his paper He cuts bis
paper to suit his community"
"EVen the brightest and cleyerest editors
do not always get credit for what they do,
The editor, In fact, so far as | know, fire.
| credit anywhere"
"There is a bright side that we may look
| upon, and 1t is always best to look at life
from cheerful sunny point of view, There
| is bright future for Louisiana and a glo-
rious one for her press"
'iTake any newspaper and compare its local
columns with its editorial. The local, the
news columns of a paper are its life. The
| reports tell what is-the editorials what
ought to be. Reports are or ought to be
facts, for they make public opinion"
"a man who keeps up with the times by
reading borrowed literatuTe-whO sends to-
day to one neighbor for a look at his paper,
and Tomorrow to another--is quite mean
enough to be the husband of the woman
who bOrrows Mocha coffee and pays 1t back
with parched beans aud chicoTy."
"There Is not an editor In this State, dare
say, who would not rejoice at being able to
publish better paper than he is now pub
fishing If his people would stand by him. He
does the best he can for two dollars year,
and often is waiting for that until his clothes
are threadbare and his heart discouraged"
Accounts of the resources of this State
read like pages out of fairy tale, and 1t Is
only to-day that the outside world has come
to believe In them and has learned that our
papers with all their urging and reporting of
facts about land, cattle, flowers, minerals,
grains, vegetables and fruits have not told
the half"
"Ihe power Of the press is an old story.
Mr.. Wilkie Collins made one OF bis brightest
and smartest old ladies lay all the blame of
the Franco Prussian war to the newspapers
that would write about ii. The press Is the
reflex of the people. IL makes and unmakes
the statesman, 1t cannot always make him
do his duty, but 1t shows him the way"
"We must stand by each other, shoulder
TO shoulder, men and women of the press.
We must respect epeh other, and make our
selves more respected at home and abroad,
Ours Is q great profession, let MS be great In
1t. have but little sympathy for the editor
who is'toO meek, who sits Off In 0 corner and
says, humbly, anything is good enough for
me-"
''The world is looking at us. The world
has read our best immigration documents,
our newspapers, and we are to get the bene-
Ut we have earned. Immigrants are coming
to us and men and women In all places are
asking where they shall find land for pleasant
homes beneath kind skies and among neigh
borly and intelligentpeople. No person In
the world can answer them so well, so clearly
as the press Of Louisiana -
'An editor works 365 days per year to get
out fifty two issues of paper that's labor
Once in a while somebody pays him for a
years subscription that's capital and once
IN while some son of gun of deadbeat
takes the paper for year or two and van
lshes without paying for It that's anarchy.
But later on justice will OVertake the last
named creature, for there is place where
be will get his deserts"
1.-THE man who loves his country, his State
Or his town will do all he can to support Its
press. II be faYors education, refinement,
progress and the power that comes with
knowledge, he will stand by bis newspapers.
They are his yoice-they are his mirrors
they show to the world, to speculators, to
would-be immigrants, to enterprising men
everywhere precisely what he is, how he
lives and what he wants"
81 remember once writing a careful article
describing some possessions Of q certain rich
man IN my city. II appeared N the sunday
paper and was generally read. The next
morning the gentleman came to the Office
and asked to look at the Sunday paper, He
read over the article, seemed pleased with 1t.
bought single copy of the paper and had
that charged 70 bis mother-inlaW. II com
munities were composed Of such men as this,
editors would starVe and newspapers would
cease to be-"
''The wise man Or woman will never at
tempt TO rob the publisher of a newspaper
No one bnt the publisher can appreciate the
crime Of taking o newspaper and falling TO
pay for II. No one but an editor can express
what despieable thing It Is to steal brains
The publisher and the editor are constantly
being robbed. It Is robbery to steal items
from an exchanges news columns 1t Is rob
berry TO work the editor for free advertise
ments II is worse than robbery to give him
Q Decent treat IN expectation of $40 notice;
to move out Of town without paying the over
due subscription, or to read a borrowed pa
per simply because one is too mean to buy a
paper for ones self.p