The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1890-12-12

crto they have been regarded rs pioneers
and benefnctors. Not an owl has stretched
his neck nor an ass lifted his heel against
them. But as soon as they devote them
selves to the development of the manufac-
turing interests OF the South md threaten
to turn the minds of men from the husks
and dogmas of frcc-trade to more material
and profitable aims, this journalistic evan
gelist, this immaculate guardian of the
conscicnces and souls of men denounccs
them rs swindlers and warns the money
lenders against them.
Now VIC can understand how an editor
who has time and again taken the ground
that journalist, like lawyer, may prop
erly take fee to advocate any line OF
policy in any interest, foreign or domestic
might array himself against the interests
of the community that feeds him, but VIC
do not understand how he can command a
decent following in that community.
There are people born to idolatry who,
like the ancient Egyptians, are ever ready
to worship anything from Apis to toad
and who slavshly lick the hand that
smites them; but they should form very
inconsidcrable element in an intelligent
population. The spread of the public
school system and the independence and
manlincss fostcred by our free institutions
arc daily reducing this class to Il mlnl-
mum; but there are many of them still III
the South and likely to remain for line
The young life and the young thought OF
this section, the minds OF viSor and force
are happily superior to such servlIc adu-
lation. and we may early anticipate the
dav when, throughout the South, more
practical views will obtain, and when both
principles and policies will stand or fall
by tests Independent of mere scntimen-
talism and prejudice.
This day will be FASTENED if the rising
generation of journalists will study the
problems of the age for themselves, with
minds untrammclcd by either the tradi-
tions of the past or the self-intercst OF
their supcriors, and will boldly advocate
what they believe to be the truth, looking
we'll to the material needs of their con-
stituency and remembering that moral
and industrial progress go hand i'll hand.
There is no slavery so oppressive and so
disastrous to a country as the slavery of
mind; and its chains may he forged III the
furnaces of passion and prejudice quite
as effectively as in the star chambers and
palaces of kings. Truth is the aim and
instinct of human intelligence, and why
should We be diverted from its attainment
hv the delusons Of others however
honest, or the devices of those employed
70 deceive us?
By all means let the press of the South
give due prominence to physical facts as
they arc developed he the energies of her
people. Fair play is a jewel. Here is the
seat and mid-rcgion of the future wealth
md power of the South. Here are the
elements that arc to render her the richest
half of an already rich nation. Here is
her empire and the throne of her glory.
Give business chance. Place it upon an
equal footing at least with the tiresome
rot which forms the stock in trade of the
politician and the politicians organ, and
whose "damnable iteration" has long ago
Disguised men of brains and progress.