The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1890-07-25
the Privileges ana Responsible
tiles Of the Press.

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PAPER READ BEFORE THE MICHIGAN
STATE PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION AT
EAST SAGINAW, JULY 18TH BY
GEO. NJ. DEWEY.
The field assigned me Is a very broad one.
An independent press, bold and fearless IN
its utterances, Is the safeguard OF civil ana
political liberty, the mighty engine That Is
developing humanity, the lever that Is IN
serted beneath the moral framework or
society for the uplifting of the nations; a
subsidized press simply cumbers the earth
and is detrimental, demoralizing and dam
gerous; neutral press, ii one can exist, Is
as useless an institution as can be found
beneath the sun; while licentious press Is
the concentrated sum of human yillainies.
Possibly the press of the country represents
all of these classes, and then II SO, Is 1t not the
duty of the people to demand OF any who
are responsible for the publication of any
paper belonging to either of the three latter
classes, that they carefully consider the
responsibilities resting upon them and the
privileges and dlgnities that should be
theirs.
Proud as we are today of the press
of the land, bold, fearless and Outspoken
for the right as most of our representative
papers are, is it not true that the average
so-called newspaper is today far less OF
newspaper than it was twenty-five or thirty
years ago? That the ringing, manly editori-
ais of that day have given place in most or
our local papers to the sheerest n0nsensical
twaddle. In proof OF this let me quote from
one of the very best of our state weeklies,
paper that has wide circulation, and for
editorial ability stands in the front rank;
yet it allows weekly from three to half
dozen columns of correspondence from
Pumpkin Hollow, Podunk, Salt River and
other points of equal importance, of no
more practical value than the following
item which we quote, names excepted, YER
batim:
Last night, as was going home from
a flax pulling party, saw Richard Roe
standing by the gate kissing Sal Doe, and
expect to report from this region very soon
wedding or some other great calamity"
And the following, which appeared among
the editorial notes in a Michigan daily a
few days since, stolen verbatim from the
Burlington, VT, Free Press:
"A chronic complaint-DOctOr: What is
your husbands complaint, mann? Is it
chronic?
Wife: Yes Sir; have never known him
to be satisfied with meal for the last
thirty-five years"
And this from New England paper,
claiming daily circulation of over 1907
copies:
'.Adam-What kind of an apple was
that you gave me?
Eve-An early fall"
This instructive and elevating item is
from leading daily, published under the
caves of our national capitol:
1.-The idee" said tramp, who had been
reading about q case of hydrOphobia, ''of
gettin' mad, cos We can't drink water"
Then weAhave this from one of the Oldest
papers published at the hub-the center of
American thought and culture:
''Why did you go down to that low-toned
place to lodge?
Low toned? Why, want you to under
stand that there are lots of big bugs there"
Quotations, of which the foregoing are
fair specimens, could be extended ad infini-
tum, but we submit that they do not add to
the reputation of the press, and that such
items whenever and wherever printed seri-
ously detract from the proper dignities of
the press, and that the editor who writes or
prints them does so at the expense of his
own personal dignity, and fails to compre-
bend the responsibilities that devolve upon
one whose mission it is to lead and guide his
readers into those fields where human
thought is developed and the higher aspira-
tiOns of the soul gratified; into those paths
which lead us along, onward and upward to
the realms where the nobler and purer
purpose of our nature are fully developed
and which ultimately point the way to the
beauties and glories of that unending future
to which all our higher hopes and aspira-
tons tend and Appropriation for which is the
great end of human existence.
The press is the great educator i'm this
land of ours. That is true, whether con-
sidered from social, a literary, political
or moral standpoint. There is nothing,
which it is possible for men to do, that the
united voice of the press could not compel
them to do. Today, divided press, often
l fear, a subsidized press, makes and
unmakes presidents, governors, Legislators
and public officers of all grades. 1t shapes
the public policy. 1t dictates the tone of
the pulpit. 1t wills and its behests are
obeyed, divided though it is on most
of the questions eXtant in the world of
controversy, and sometimes not very free to
express opinions on even the every day
affairs of common life, in the community in
which il crculates. The magnitude of the
influence of the local press cannot be over
estimated, and hence the fearful responsible
ity resting on the local editor. He has no
moral right to be Indifferent to the condition
of things as they are in the community. He
is guilty of great wrong--an irreparable
injury to the public, If he fails to be out
spoken for the right on the moral questions
that affect the welfare of the people, who
are his neighbors. Yet is it not true that.
saloons with their deadening blight, the
gambling hells, the brothes exist. and that
the editor, despite the responsibilities of
his position as the great cOnservatOr of
public morals in the community in which
he lives, fails to raise his voice In denuncia-
ton thereof? Yes, is it not true, that too
often he even fails TO warn the youth
against these highways to social and moral
perdition? And If the answer is yes, as it
must be to be truthful, the question arises,
why is this so? with mingled feelings of
sorrow and shame, answer by asking Is 1t
not because we fear, that by being outspoken
for the right, as it is both our privilege and
our duty to be, we may lose the patronage
of the men who build up these barnacles on
the body polite, ten thousand of whom
would not make man in the highest mean
ing of that phrase. And, If this be true, is
not he who is guilty of thus falling to vindi-
cate the honor of the position he fills, fail
ing to meet the responsibilities Of the posi-
ton he has chosen as his worldly vocation,
nd nv en- doipU rlope no not fOrfaif all of fha