Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-19
SUCCESS IN JOURNALISM
Principles that Guided the Footsteps c
Charles Emory Smith.
POLITICIAN AT IA AND AN EDITOR AT %
Importance OF Consistency and Con-
ccntration-Power of Journal
ism in Public Lifc-A
Greeley tory,

Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith,
now reaping the richest rewards OF jour
nalism and craftsmanship, has fulfilled the
ambition OF his boyhood. The boy editor and
orator has by constanCy and concentration
achieved brilliant success along the very
lines he laid down as a lad. Each step in
a career full Of interest has carried him
higher. MIR. Smith began life, as he told
Horace Greeley, "a country editor in
reality he began as a boy editor.
The first seven years OF my life" said
he, were spent on a farm near Mansfield,
Conn. That the farm exercised any par
ticular influence on me / am W unless
it was to breed a distinct resolve not 10
DE a farmer. From the time / began to
read and think of the future / wanted to
be a journalist or a lawyer, to achieve the
right to have my name mentioned among
public characters. My parents removed to
Albany, N. Y, In 1919, and soon afterward
the first indications of my decided bent came.
II had not been at the Albany academy
long before ! started my first newspaper,
the Academy Record, one copy to the edi-
tion, all written out by hand, but made up
as far as possible like the printed news
papers Of the day. By this time had de-
cided that journalism was my goal; the law
was no longer in question. When / tried
~ iihH OuN via L SuOulu w ~ II llN sell
specially for the career / had selected /
groped in the dark. Journalism was not a
profession, nor had the intimate relations
of today been at that time established be-
tween journalism and craftsmanship. i felt
sure, however, that Horace Greeley was a
model for any boy. l knew he must be a
scholar as well as a speaker, a statesman
as we'll as a writer. There was certainly
no time to lose if l set myself such an i'm
poJing task.
The politics OF Albany, the capital city
of the Empire state, is always interesting.
] learned all l could about it while l was
at the academy. The presidential campaign
of 1852, when the famous old whig party
of Webster and Clay went to pieces, found
me with rather more than the boys ordi-
nary interest in national affairs. l began
reading the history of my own country,
which to this day l find the most fasci-
mating as we'll as fruitful of studies.
Fervid Politician ut Fourteen.
"The excitement of the Fremont campaign
in 1856 appealed TO me as strongly as to
most Of the electors. A boy of IA, with my
studies to look after, l attended all the meet
ings, listened eagerly to the speaking, took
part in the parades. The republican organi-
cation formed to support Fremont was full
of the vitality of youth, fervid with the
solemnity of conviction. 1t voiced the grow
ing anti-slavery sentiment, which was strong
in the country. The feeling Of national I'M
rest, the presentiment of national disaster,
infamed the imagination even Of the school
boy. This party, which seemed to be founded
on righteousness and justice, which had
sprung from the ruins of the once grand old
wht5 party and now appealed to the con-
science of the country, was the political
organization with which l desired above ali
things to be connected. Its orators became
my instructors, its principles as announced
on the stump were SO many new text books.
Politics was a part of my education.
$50 it came about that when / had finished
my academy course l was able to offer to
tie Albany Transcript, edited by one of my
fermer teachers, editorials which the editor
etked well enough to warrant his engaging
me to go on writing them. The conditions
vi journalism were so different then and now
that 1t is hardly necessary for me to say my
engagement on the Transcript did not estab-
lish a precedent. Few outsiders get into the
sanctum nowadays. The newspaper business
has broadened out on the lines of other
successful business organizations and the be-
ginner must start at the bottom as a rule.
II had a year of this work, which was
also a year of the study and practice Of poll
tics, and then l went to Union college at
Schenectady. The war fever was already in
the air. ! went into the presidential cam
paLgn of 1860 and stumped the counties ad-
jacent to the college, and acquired a marked
taste for political speaking, a taste I'M
marred by the stage fright of most untried
orators. Yet in the more recent years !
have experienced time and time again a
feeling OF apprehension or hesitation, when
rising TO speak on some theme of grave i'm
port. That this feeling was not experienced
in 1860 it seems to me must have been due
to the deep personal interest took in the
canvass. In all the neighboring parades and
professions of that e%ventfuf time, when the
Wide Awakes began to cut a figure in the
public eye, the college campaign club, of
which I was captain, took an active part.
while ! was active as aide to General
Rathbone in raising and organizing volunteer
regiments, the next three or four years of
Ny life were also devoted to political study,
organization and activity. BY 1864 l had be-
come familiar with open air campaign speak
ing. My leisure time l employed in the
study OF general history, American history