Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1892-07-30
Newspapers and Roads.

unWOnted hardwood, eSSayeu recent
ly to controvert the JOURNALS modest
claim that it sis the pioneer of the last
and most vigorous agitation for good
roads in this county"
The JOURNAL was forced to make
this statement by the Cumberland
Times extraordinary assumption that 1t
made the motion and the JOURNAL
seconded it.
Forced to this, we repeat, not only
by the misleading squib of the Times,'
but by the immemorial determination
and usage of the JOURNAL to follow no
mans lead and no papers chart.
That point disposed of, turn we now
to the independents very inapposite
plant:
If the JOURNAL and Times would wait for
some effect from the agitation, before pouting
over who did it, their childhke peevishness
might be partially excused. But when they
commence to dispute the possession of the
contents of an empty vessel, the circum-
stance indicates a spirit Of smallness too petit
for a newspaper.
The summer is too short for the In
dependent, or it discredits the old maxim
-"Rome was not built in day" The
Independent is in too big hurry. A
road is not good the morning after
it is made, nor is limestone to be
had at every turn, nor can crusher
be located at once on every hillside.
The independent should be philosophic
enough to give causes chance to work
effects.
But what the JOURNAL most finds
fault with in the independents unwar-
rantable disquisition is the utter worth
lessness in which it holds newspapers
as educators and inspirers of public
action. 1t says:
The idea that any newspaper should have
the barefaced audacity to claim notoriety by
weekly defending cause, the right of which
single man would not dispute, is extremely
unreasonable.
Good roads are a necessity, and every news
paper in this county has from time to time
recorded itself in favor of a better condition
of the public highways.
The agitation of the road question originated
with no newspaper; it was born OF the very
nature of things, and reared in the public
mind by need too apparent to escape notice.
Not long since we read a magazine
article on the "National Road'-we
regret we cannot re locate it with suf-
ficient distinctness to find and quote
literally therefrom-whicha scribed the
building of that great thoroughfare
principally to the agitation of the
newspapers of that day.
There were no ''ifs" or "ands' about
newspaper agitation kept the need
of such highway before Congress and
the people "until it was completed!"
SO that to-day if there is a single mon
umental testimonial in this country to
the value of newspapers, it is "The
National Road'-one of those institu-
tons which, the independent contends,
twas born of the very nature of
things" etc.
1t is a sad tribute, therefore, the IN
dependent pays the press as an upbuild-
er of the community and promoter of
material development.
But neither history nor common
sense justifies its contentious. News
papers have blazed the paths, staked
the routes and laid the tracks for rail
roads. They have gone in the van of
civilized empire and pointed the way
until the Atlantic and Pacific sea-
boards have been knit together by
strands of steel. They have told where
bridges were to be builded and struck
the first blows where mountains have
been tunneled. They first furnished
the printed page which won from the
capitalist his investments and then
led the workingman to settle in the
new Paradises of the west. 1t would
be hard to name any public enterprise,
great or small, in which newspapers
have not taken leading and forceful
part.
The Chinese Wall was ''born of the
very nature of things" SO was the
Tower of Babel, and eventually the
Cumberland independent. Two of
these institutions have long outlived
the folly to which they owe their
origin, and the third has made con-
fession that the most it has been able
to do is-with others of Its superhuous
class, that it has ''recorded itself in
favor of better condition of the pub
lie highways"
Here, Lord, give myself away
IT'S all that can do"
is beautiful accommodation which
a beneficent system of religion offers
the weakling sinner, but it isn't worth
a cent as an apology to the public for
publishing a paper confessedly inane
and forceless.