The record-union., 1896-04-15

VTtdIlOn TO the dSSOcldtlOuS W WISH lie
State Printing Office.
The first paper read was by S. S.
Boynton of the Oroville Register on
THE Value of Newspapers.
Mr.. Boynton believed that a paper at
such meeting should be practical and
he would deal with the historical value
Of newspapers. Looking back for three
hundred years does it not seem that the
world stood still until newspapers took
up the work Of disseminating know
ledge and spread abroad over the world
the discoveries that were made? His
tOrianS have never given the news
papers the credit they were entitled to.
None of the inventions of the world
were made at one time or by one per-
son. The ideas were often suggested by
the papers and taken up by different
persons and perfected and the progress
Of the human race was thus aided.
The steam engine, the sewing ma
chine. steam hammers, photography,
Franklin's discovery of electricity,
Morse's invention of the telegraph and
other inventions were all heralded to
the world by the newspapers. They not
only recorded the discoveries of others,
but if they had not printed various dis
coveries would so many things have
been invented? Morse invented the
telegraph, but many before him had
been gathering up the points and their
discoveries had been published and he
put them together. So many improve
ments have been made since then that
he would hardly know his own work
now.
A short time ago the Rotengen ray
was discovered If it had been left to
be printed and sent out to the world in
books, how long would it have taken to
disseminate the information? Would it
have done SO much good, or been so
generally known in SO short a time?
The cathode ray was published to the
world instantly and right away expert
ments were made with it. The art of
printing was discovered in 1850 in Ger
many. 1t was not known in Italy till
fifteen years afterward, in France in
nineteen years, in England in twenty
four years and in Spain in twenty-seven
years.
Newspapers have done far more for
the world than they have been credited
with. Their beneficial effects extend
over 200 years and most of the inven-
tions have been made within that time.
They helped to educate the people dur
ing the revolution by depicting the out
RACES of the British. Have not their
editorials influenced great public ques-
tions? In former times the water in
f1uenced the people. Now the news
paper speaks to thousands where the
water spoke to one. Newspapers are
elevating mankind and educating the
world, and aiding it now, as in the past,
to be better.
The next paper was by George F.
Weeks of the Bakersfield "Califor-
man." and the subject was "Some
Amenities of Country Journalism" It
dealt with the difficulties of the coun-
try journalist and the people he has to
deal with. Among them is the man who
takes the paper for years, but never
pays attention to the bill sent him, or
if he does, orders the Postmaster to
send the paper back as having been re-
fused; the man who asks the newsboy
to let him look at the paper a minute,
and the one who waits until it is laid
on the news stand and then picks it up
and reads it.
The ladies, and especially the new
woman, were dealt with in a humor-
Gus but keenly satirical vein, in which
the assertion was made that reason and
the new woman were at total variance.
There is also the man who never ad-
vertises, and who schemes for notices
gratis. There is the man who wants
a retraction.
But the newspaper mans days are not
all gloomy. Just before election the
candidates at the last one hurry up to
pay their bills that have grown messy
with ages. and make a fresh start.
The proposition would scarcely be
contradicted, he said, by anyone, least
of all by any newspaper man or woman,
that there is no place in the world
where such an insight into human ma
ture can be obtained as in a newspaper
office. 1t is safe to say that the innate
cussedness and despicable meanness Of
manhood in general is more fully dis
played in the dealings of the average
community with the average newspa-
per than in any other walk of life.
There appearsto bea popular idea afioat
among an all too large class that a
newspaper is sort of public convent
ence, to be made use Of by everyone at
no expense to themselves, and to be
abused without stint for all it's sins of
omission and commission. Indeed,
the worst abuse usually comes from
those who do not contribute a dollar in
the way Of either subscription or ad-
vertising toward the maintenance of
the local paper.
The paper was an exceilent and