The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1890-07-24
N. {. .PRESS ASSOCIATION.
THE ASSOCIATION AND THE MEN
WHO FOUNDED 1T.

IL mould be the subject Of CratuEatio,
10 members Of the North Carolina Pros
Association that their body has lived =
Iong as to be entitled to historical con
SlderatIon. 1t yet fourishes while il
records reach bach into a past that !,
me ordinary career Of th2 journalist. is
remote one, including several succeesiv,
generations OF editors, and unhappil,
lhcladlng a lapse Of time sufficient,
great to have carried off in the sweeninc
'ide Of mortality some of the most active
and distinguished members of the Asso
citation.
Measured by years only, the life of the
Association has not been a long one
measured by the experienced period OF
existence achieved by most voluntary
organizations, it has lived, grown and
hourlshed to a very hopeful degree of
longevity, with the prospect that, as it
adheres to its principles and renews its
youth by the steady accretion of new and
fresh material, it may never know the
deerepitndH Of age, but always live in
perennial vigOr and viyacity,
Inc present organization of the North
Oarollna Press Association is not the first
Oh us KIND attempted in the state. As
lar back as 1867, w. ". Holden. Dennis
lieartt and other leading editors formed
themselves into a State Press Association
upon the principle that organization in
the editorial profession was as essential
10 success and influence as il had nroved
" " Ill other crafts or vOcations. But
from many causes, chief of which was the
absence of the facilities the present era
so a~bundantly provides for convenient
meetings, and largely also to the distrusts
ana hostlIItles engendered by very en-
differed Fparty feeling, the organization
dlcd, as it were, still born. There was
never healthy vitality in it and it Sc
completely passed from memory as t.
nave been practically forgotten; TO sucl
extent, indeed, as TO have had no part ir
Tie suggestion Of the steps leading to til,
foundation of the existing organization.
l'urIng the winter and spring of 1873, |
new impulses began to animate the blood
Oh The North Carolina Press. The heated
political atmosphere which inf1amcd boil |
patrlotIc and partisan feeling during the
stormy political times that succeeded the
PERIOD OF interstate hOstilitics, had nat
urally and unavoidably drawn the pres.
OF the state into the vortex of the agitatcd
1t had, in fact, forced the press
to the head to direct, or to give impctu-
oslty to, that current. The result was
that many me Jtt # ncudl6Iir4NtGG44r aa and ih~ii9nrEsaFps
tcmperaments, had taken post at the
editorial helm. The influence achieve"
by. or ascribcd to, the press, reacted upon
its leaders; and they naturally telt the
citation and consequence that such IN
luCnce had brought to them. 1hey were
brought to feel and recognize the tact
too oft through mOdesty or deficiency III
self-respect disclaimed, that the press was
an order; that it was the great fourlh
Estate: that it was the peer OF all other
Estates; and that the time had come when
it should signalize its power ana lmpor-
lance by presenting itself to the world as
an organized embodiment, capable OF
asserting and defending its own rights,
while at the same time giving guarantee,
bv its unity of purpose, OF greater capac-
itv for usefulness to the state thrOughthe
onerotion of all the agencies Of intelil-
gence and patriotism the press was so
well fitted to employ.
The suggestion, therefore, Tor ule can
of a convention of the press 10 form d
State Press Association, met with large
and enthusiastic response and on the
l4th of May, 1913, a meeting was had at
GoldsborO, in the court house OF ina Guy
The press of this state at that time was
composed Of seventy-four Journals, OF
which three were dailies. AT this mrs.
meeting t~hirty-three papers were repre-
scented 1t is a melancholy retrospect &c
refer riot the names of those who RESPONDED
TO the first roll call. Many OF them nave
rome to their final account. Among tn'
dead are ]. \. Engelhard, brilliant edito
OF the Wilmington Journal, the mrs
president of the Association, atterWaru
the able secretary of state; John SPei
man, then representing the Ralelgh Sen
tinel. afterwards the industrious editor o
various campaign papers; R.T.tuish"n
of the Agricultural Journal, and secretar
Of this Association William BIggs, 'h'
of the Tarboro Southerner; W. ;. M'
Diarmid, OF the Roocsonian, an act''
and able participant in the proceeding
of that the only meeting OF the Assocl'
ton lie ever attended, for, not long a't'
its adjournment, he came 10 his death 1
drowning near his home in LumoeF'on
C \. B. Evans, the Oldest editor at IL
time in the state, of the Milton Chronlcl
once editor of the Hill>boro lfecoruc
and as the last scene in the drama Of
life somewhat prolonged, state senate
from Caswell, dying during his term al
dying in harness.; Charles '. li".tH'
~hln ~ Iii