The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1898-03-18

were the Marathon and the Tberm0py-
lac, where tire battle was fought which
decided the freedom Of the press ia
England and America and ali the pow
ers Of earth aud hell viii never again
be able to put upon the printing press
the handouts and the happles Of lit
efarY ana political d~espotisrn. Il is
remarkable that Thomas jefferson,
who wrote the Declaration of indie
peudence. also wrote these words;
ri I had Is choose between a gov
eminent without newspapers, and
newspapers without a government
/ would prefer the latter. Stang by
some new fabrication Ia print, we
eeHaa 60 write er speak about an 'HH-
hridled printing press" Our new book
ground up in unjust criticism, p come
to write or speak about the unfair
printing press. Perhaps through our
own indistinctness Of u]tterance we r
reported as saying just the opposite Of
what we did say and there Is a small
riot of semieolons and hypens and
commas, aad we come 10 write OF talk
about the eblundering printing press,
or we take up a newspaper full Of
social scandal and Of cases OF divorce,
and we write or talk about a filthy,
scurrilous printing press But this
morning / ask you to consider the inn
measurable and everlasting blessing Of
q good newspaper.
I find no difficulty in accounting for
the worlds advance. What has made
the changer Books you say. No,
sirl The vast majority of citizens do
not read books. Take this audience,
or any other promiscuous assemblage,
and how many histories have they
read2 How many ~treatises on consti-
tutional law, or political economy, or
work Of ~seienee2 How many elaborate
poems or books of travel? Not many.
In the United States the people would
not average n such d book a year for
each individual Whence, then, this
intelligence, this capacity to talk
about all themes, secular and
religious; this acquaintance with
science and art; this power to appre-
eiate the beautiful and grand2 Next
to the Bible, the newspaper, swift
winged and everywhere present, flying
over the fence, showed under the door,
tossed into the counting-house, laid on
the work bench. haHked through the
carsI All read Invite and black,
German, Irishman, Swiss, Spaniard,
American, old and young, good and
bad, sick and we'll, before breakfast
and after tea, Monday morning, satur-
day night, Sunday and week day. /
now declare that | consider the news
to be the grand agency by which
the Gospel is to be preached, iguo-
rance cast ont, oppression dethron-
ca, crime extirpated, the world raised,
Heaven reioiced, and God glorifed in
the clanking Of the printing press, as
the sheets fly out, / hear the voice of
the Lord Almighty proolaiming to all
the dead nations Of the earth. sLaza-
rus, come forth! and To the ~retreating
surges Of darkness, "Let there be
In many Of our city newspa-
pers, protesting nc more than secular
information, there have appeared dur
ing the past 30 years some Of the grand
est appeals in behalf of religion, and
some of the most effective interpreta-
tons Of Gods government among the
nations.
There are only two kinds Of newspa-
one good, very good the
other bad, very bad A newspaper
may he started with an undecided
character, but after it has been going
for years everybody finds ont just
what it Is: and it is very good or it is
very bad The one paper is the en-
bodimcnt of news, the ally of virtue,
the foe Of crime, the deIectation of ele-
waited taste, the mightiest agency on
earth for making the world better. The
other paper is a brigand among moral
forces; It is a beslimer of reputation, it
is the right arm of death and hell, it is
the ]mightiest agency in the universe
for making the world worse and bat
thing against the cause Of God. The
one al. angel Of intelligence and mercy,
5he other a ieud Of dark
ness. Between this Archangel and
this Fury is 10 be fought the great bat
tle which is to decide the fate Of the
world. If you have any doubt as to
which is to be victor, ask the
prophecies, ask God; the chief batteries
with which He would vindicate The