The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1896-09-17
CHAMPAIGN OF EDUCATION"
Charles Emory Smith Speaks Flo
qucntly 10 Editors.

Canton. Ohio, Sept. S.-The Republican
Editorial association assembled in ElkS
hall this morning. The venerable John Hop
ley of BucyruS, was in the chair, with Col.
II. II. Brown. of the GAINESVILLE Courier,
vice president. and c. Il. Mccoy Of CoShCc-
ton, secretary. An able paper on the inan-
cial question was read by IL. Z. Boyieu, Of
the Cincinnati COmmcrcial-Tribunc. The
feature Of the afternoon session was an adj
dress by Hon. Charles Emory Smith, editor
of the Philadelphia Press, ana cX-niuister
TO Russia. Dir. Smith clOquCntly said In
part on The Campaign Of Education:"
at is a high privilege and distinction TO
address this notable body in this mCm0ra-
BILE year on this interesting occasion. | am
fully sensible of the honor you do me, and
beg 10 return ny grateful acknowledge
mentS. When Jefferson said that he would
rather have newspapers without a govern
ment than a government without news
papers, he Indicated he vital part which
newspapers play under free institutions.
That was a hundred years ago. They were
then printed with all the limitations of the
hand press, with only the infreQuent mail
as their feeder and only the stage coach
as their distributor. To-day liberty is their
vital breath, but the telegraph Is their
nerve center and the railroad their arterial
circulation. Government has expanded and
population multiplied twentyfold; but news
papers circulation and resources and infu-
tlIto hdft LiuiltIiiIu q "A
hundred years ago newspapers were senti-
nels at the outpost. To-day they hold the
central citadel as leaders and opponents;
they are the very life blood Of free discus
sion.
Horace Greeley was the greatest con-
troversialist and moral force the world has
ever seen in the editorial profession. but
Whltelaw Reid, with consummate skill. or
ganlZes and directs Il far more complete
and progressive Journalism. Thurlow Weed
was an unrivalled political oracle and seer,
but Charles A. Dam. master OF every wea-
pom. Yields a rapier or fires a Calling
broadside OF which the leader Of the pre-
ceding generation never dreamed. James
Gordon Bennett, the elder, raced the pony
or few the carrier pigeon, but James Cor
don Bennett, the younger, speaks 10 two
continents at once. The journalism OF the
interior Ohio town surpasses that OF the
metropolis thirty years ago, ard the great
newspapers of New York, Philadelphia,
Boston, Baltimore, Cincinnati. Cleveland,
Chicago and st. Louis have grown incalcu-
lably in scope, resources, expenses. profits
and power.
The intimate connection between poll
tics and journalism suggests the thought Of
the hour. This Is Lre-eminently a campaign
of education. 1t Is thus peculiarly our cam
paign. The journalists are the real edu-
Gators. A thousand men hear and a million
men read. II 5 true there are great text
DOCKS frOm the masters. Inere Is Il new
Adam Smiths Wealth of Nations with
American applications; a new Bunyan's
Pilgrims Progress through the slough of
despond Of Democracy and up the hill Of
difficulty; a new Bakers Saints Rest.
under assured Republican restoration. The
other titles OF these masterpieces are Will
lam McKinley's complete political economy
OF open mills for full labor. rather than
open minis for free silver Benjamin Har-
rison's satlrical renectio.s on The alb
surdities of a boy orators idea Of indepen-
dence of the law of cravitation.' and
Thomas b. Reeds Old Orchard 'Plums Of
Political Philosophy But the old text
books are expounded by the professors In
the classroom, and so the new text books
are edited with notes and index and daily
calculation by the schoolmasters Of journal
Ism.
I'VE must first educate ourselves, We
must educate the people in elemental princi-
pies. We must educate them 10 understand
that we cannot have two standards OF value
any more than two standards of weight or
length. In our modern civilization the func-
tion OF a measure of value Is even more i'm.