St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-16
MISSION OF The PRESS.
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT J0HNSOy.
or EDITORIAL ASSOCIATION
RICHEST TYPES OF MANHOOD

Are Found at the Desks OF Amer.
al loan Editors-Their EverIast.
e ing Contest for Free Thought
aad Free Speech-rhe Ideal
Editor Always az Fair to Foe
as Friend.
q Address by President j. A. johnson be-
fore the Minnesota Editorial association.
Minneapolis. Feb. Is. 1894
u The student of classics will remember
thatlit was Cicero who said that elO-
quence was mistress of all the earth.
That TO this quality were his people
indebted for the liberty they owned and
their removal from all the Ills of a saw
age and barbarous life. This ancient
Zero was an orator and lived i'm that age
when men learned from the lips of one
another. A man not SO great. perhaps,
as Cicero, for few men are great now.
has more truthfully said that ''the news
paper is the school of tue people, and
the main dependence of the people for
the degree of relief that is rational to
be hoped for is the press" In these
days it Is the newspaper that binds
mankind by the community of privilege.
of laws. and Of civil society. l said
that few are great now, not for the
reason that the world has gone back,
but because in the natural law of prog
ress people have gradually moved fol-
ward, and now SO even seems to be the
distribution of intelligence that few
excel. and none in great degree. The
greatness of the ancients laid to large
extent in their physical development.
PHYSICAL FORCE
was the pedestal upon which the statue
of their government was erected. Few
then resorted to mental development
and training, and those who did became
great by reason of the established fact
that rulers of mind are rulers of matter,
and consequently rulers of men. In the
days when the minds of the masses
were uncultivated it was comparatively
easy for the eloquent to sway multi
tude with the shower of pearls which
fell from his lips. Then prejudice and
passion were easily appealed to, and
men were ruled by wit and words.
Centuries have rolled along and men
have advanced until today the seat of
power is not of physical force, but of
intelligence. The people are learned,
and dominion over men now is and only
can be reached through conviction.
Conviction can only be created through
but one medium-the power that
has wrought the beautiful civilization
of this grand nineteenth century-the
press. 1t has been the mission of the
press to restore man to his lost estate,
and it is fulfilling that mission. A mis-
sion which is grand and lofty, and
which is sure to be realized. because
enlisted under Its banner is an army OF
men containing the highest types of
manhood and the souls of honorable
rfeu-men loyal to the cause of human
ity and loyal to that keystone OF our
national existence, the constitution of
government. The profession, while
not divine, is co-ordinate-with that of
the church in that it teaches a code of
morals ana ethics to class which can
not be reached by those who sound
their ideas from the pulpit. Day by
day Fam more convinced that to COM
plete the grand
SUPER STRUCTURE OF OUR GOVERN
- MENT. '-"0 r'7-ef-
to raise man to his highest position in
life. the realization Of the theory of the
brotherhood of man, to create more
perfect harmony and unity among all
the people, is the unfulfilled but pres
ent mission of that profession which is
here represented by yourselves. 1t is
the guardian of our rights. 1t has ere
ated the true liberty, and so dissem
mated it as to make man capable of its
enjoyment. 1t is the custodian of vir-
tue and civil rights, and as such every
man should be proud 20 be sentinel
upon its watch tower OF human liberty.
But with all its greatness the ideal
newspaper has not yet evolved. | have
all abiding faith that it will, but as
progress Is naturally slow. so must the
elevation be gradual. We stand upon
the threshold of new century, and, as
we look into the glass of the future, we
intuitively glance at the past, and can
only proclaim for the future golden
success. The progress of the past cent
ury has found an improvement that is
both startling and wonderful. In every
age the banner of progress has been
borne aloft. 1t has been handed from
one generation TO the next, until today
it seems the end must have been
reached. but not so, for the coming will
be greater than the going. The next
century will be
BRIGTER AND BETTER
than this, and the progress of journal
ism will keep up its swift pace. The
newspaper of that happy time to come
will stand out
Like some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale and midway leaves the
storm;
Though round Its base the rolling clouds may
spread
Eternal sunshine will settle on its head
In that golden future it Will be.
come inyincible in its advocacy
of right, and will be well-nigh omnipo-
tent as force for the destruction of
evil and the correction OF wrongs and
abuses. and thereby maintain Its SOW
ereigntY in maintaining dominion over
the honest convictions of mankind, con-
victionS upon which rest the right of
free thought and free speech. When
the founders Of this government en-
bodied in the bulwark of liberty the
right of free speech they enthroned
the press and made it sovereign, and
that sovereignty has been maintained
in acts which have firmly established it
in the hearts OF the people and planted
it highest upon the throne of public
opinion.
The newspaper of today makes and
unmakeS public men. II controls to n