The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1894-01-11
THE SOUTHERN PRESS

THE SOUTHERN PRESS
1t is very CRAFTY ing when one who
was Union soldier speaks SO we'll of
the South as Gen Felix Angus does.
He knew the South, he says, in war
and in peace; he saw the courage and
self sacrifice of it's people and the
gloomy days of reconstruction. He
has also witnessed it's growth and it's
destinies and it's marvellous progress
under the blessings of union and
peace.
After referring in detail to the
growth of this section he AYERS that
while the wealth of the South has in
creased fourfold, the wealth of it's
newspapers has increased tenfold;
that where there was one subscriber
twenty years ago there are a dozen
today. He continues as follows:
1.-The press has been the missionary
and the evangel, and the South has
followed it's gospel and it's leadership
in ways of peace and paths of pros
prr!ty The journalism of the South
t. day is as different from the journ-
alism OF thirty years ago as the new
South is from the old. In those days
it was full of chivalry, poetry and
valor. Its writer's had the galiantry
and courage of Bayard, France.
Their sentiment fred the soul of man
n time of war, and made strong men
bend the knee in time of peace.
Ranging from Randall's fiery lines,
maryland. My Maryland" to Maj.
Randolph's 'fGrasshopper and Sweet
Potato Vine," the journalists have
contributed permanent treasures to
the literature of the nation.
But this journalism was mainly
editorial-a journalism of comment.
1t required few men, and it enjoyed a
limited audience. When the war was
over the new conditions brought
forth another set of men, more in
touch with the demands of the times.
1t was these men, often laboring in
ungrateful fields, who esta bIished the
journalism of fact, who, with heroic
effort and notwithstanding ignor-
ance and prejudice with which they
had to contend, brought the news
papers into line with the journalism
of the day, introduced the power
press, employed the telegraph, en-
gagged the brightest minds and added
to their equipments the best that
their resources could afford. They
made the vocation of the journalist
one of the hest paid and test respect
ed callings in the South that man
or woman of brains could choose. 1t
was these papers which for the first
time described to the world the riches
which made possible and real what
IN best and most permanent in
S uthsrD growth
"Thess papers have had to deal with
limited constituencies, b cause of the
large mass OF dense ignorance in the
Southern population. They have
worked with splendid and heroic
carrying enlightenment
rom house to hamlet and establish
ing an era of new ideas and new
hey deserve the adj
and support of the world,
for not only have they blessed their
own section and brought to it pros
ptrity and happiless, immigration
and Investment, but they have also
n"blt done their part in the broader
du les Of citizenship aud humanit..
''IG war, III TACT, this new journalism
of the South that made the New
South. There is not a proud page in
it's history that the newspapers did
not help to write. Without their
work the pacification of the country
would have ben delayed twice as
long. They have always been in
advance of their environments, and |
they have enlisted every means that |
would aid the real development of
he moral and material interests of |
their people. They were the advo- |
cates and the promoters of substan
tial investments on q legitimate |
basis, and the unfortunate outbreak |
Of speculative booms in some Sec
lions was the Wickedness of men |
against their good work,
which stands out all the stronger as |
1ne by one the booms disappear into
he thin air out OF which they were
argeIy made. These papers are
lastly brighter and greater than the
lay before. They lay their en-
oloyes, on the average, higher wages
han those of any profession or call
ng in the South, and rs their prop
'rty grows the larger will be their
orces and the more brilliant their
columns. They are out of the woods
low, and are in the race of journal
SIN to win. They will win and will
make the South what it is destined
o be-the most blessed spot on