Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1889-07-04
BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW.
Full Text of Judge Hedges Address Be-
fore the Montana Press Association.
An Interesting Review of the Journalists
Life, Province and Duties.

MIssoULA, June 27.-[Special Core
spondence. : Following is the full text o
the masterly address delivered by Judg
Hedges of the HERALD at the Press Con
vention in this city to-day
BROTHERS: You do not need to be tolt
that editing newspaper has become tn
greatest profession of the age, though com
paratively in its infancy. We are Hvin,
in the times that realize the prophecy o
Daniel, when Many shall run to and fro
and knowledge shall be increased Th,
extension of railroads and steamships ant
the multiplication of newspapers seem t.
fulfill exactly what the prophet pictured al
descriptive of the end the end of ignor
ance and all its spawn and train the be
ginning of light, knowledge and progress
towards higher and nobler life
knowledge is certainly increasing, up
ward, downward and outward. With the
printing art, it became possible to preserve
and perpetuate all the additions to human
knowledge. Newspapers are the leaves o1
the tree of knowledge which of old were
promised to be for the healing of the ma
tions.
Other learned professions there certainly
will be. AS the three RS have been out
grown in the school curriculum, so the
three P's have outgrown and burst the pod.
The learned professions are no longer sim
ply law, medicine and divinity. Each has
subdivided and new ones have claimed and
been accorded coordinate positions. Teach
ers and editors have no reason to complain
of the rank, honor and emoluments be-
slowed upon themselves
The editor in his Sanctum is now
preacher, lawyer, doctor and universal
teacher. As printing is the art preserva-
tive of all arts so the profession of editor is
the profession of all professions. There is
not question in theology, jurisprudence,
prOphylactics therapeutics, in ancient or
modern history, geography, science or art,
upon which the editor is not only liable to
be questioned but expected to give correct,
intelligent and immediate answer. But
this is not all. If the poor editor could
give private audience to his interrogation,
divert his attention from the subject that
he knew nothing about to one that his
questioner knew less about, or obscure
sense with sound by use of technical terms
of learned length there would be an
even chance for escape, sometimes, but the
uuSU Ills ItplltS
them out TO run the gauntlet of carping
and inexorable critics, predetermined to
peTvert and miSconstrue. The preacher
can quote scripture, the lawyer precedents
and the doctor medical authority for nearly
any position or opinion, but woe to the editor
who pleads the baby act, or attempts to
skulk behind anybody's authority or ex-
ample. He is coolly reminded that we
live in the last quarter of the nineteenth
century, away along up in the front of the
procession, in this age of progress when by
cones are left to be decently inferred by
the dead past, and consequents outrank
precedents.
The poor editor must produce his daily
tale of brick, straw or no straw. The daily
pulsations of the electric fluid tick out
the text and the EDITORS pen musr follow it
with his discourse. 1t may be a question
of international law, foreign or domestic
policy-it may be an anniversary, decen-
NAL, centennial or millennial-it may be a
marriage or a divorce, birth or a death, a
crime or a calamity, the public comes up
smiling for its good, whole, square bricks,
or the bats will fly. Bulletin boards and
extras may do for soup and pastry, but the
hungry public will have its square meal at
all hazards and promptly on time.
Seeing that there are no councils, presby-
teries, examining boards or civil service
commissions to preside over the admission
of members to the editorial profession. the
devil and the paper carrier, having an equal
show with the college graduate and the po-
sitions in the profession having as wide a
range as the income, can it be any matter
e +l,o+
turned out daily, deficient in straw and
half-baked
The Shiny mud of the Nile furnished the
bonded Israelites with material out of
which they fashioned brick for their Egyp-
tian task-masters, but without straw they
lacked fibre and strength, though sun
baked to any degree 1t cost some fore
thought, extra labor and expense to pro-
vide this straw. 1t did no good for the
children of Israel to strike, for their task
masters could strike the harder
1t has come to be the ideal of folly to
make brick without straw, and the acme
of injustice to require well-made brick
without furnishing the proper material.
The materials for the editor of to-day, as
furnished by the telegraph, post, exchanges
and telephone, are as abundant as the Nile
wash and often quite as Shiny. The editor
must furnish the straw when this is blocked
out for public use. His taskmaster the
public, requires it with ever increasing
emphasis and discrimination. 1t NAV be
nothing but the headings Of kilograms, or
is may be editorials propOrtioned to the
gravity and interest of the subject. Brew
tiles need expansion and more often ex-
pansions need contraction, obscurities need
clarifcation, and contradictions reconcilia-
ton. Devils tempt and try the poor edi-
tor, not only in the outer courts of his sane
tum, but across the street in the telegraph
office; names are incorrectly reported;
dates omitted, and when figures are most
important they are most confused. But
the editor is expected to correct all these
mistakes. 1t is part of the straw
that he must furnish. without de-
laying the brick machine either. If an
English duke has bankrupted, or a conti-
mental no-account has suicided, and the
dispatch fails to give the reason the editor
is expected to supply the deficiency, es-
pecially to say whether or no there was
woman in the case. Or if gold is found in
the bed Of some Bitter Root creek, the edi-
tor is expected to indicate the lead that it
was from. Or if strata of beeswax. or
castor oil or some highly colored perfumery
is struck in an artesian well, the editor
who publishes such piece of news must
have theory to account for it, His Ii
cense does not permit him to deal in brick
without he is prepared to furnish straw.