Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1900-07-24

Before the Ediorint Association at
Parkers6urg.
Andnow, Mr.. President, to what extent
has the press of the State figured in its
growth and progress2 In I6ss, Stephen
Daye, an English printer. arrived at
Boston, bringing font of type. and in
the following year set upa printing press
at Cambridge. The first American pub
lication was an almanac, calculated for
New England, and bearing the date of
1859. From this beginning the ." art
preservative" began to spread, and now
we find printing press in every town
throughout the land.
Sir William Berkeley, of Virginia, was
lamentably wrong and narrow in his out
look in 1871. when he said: "I thank
God there are no free schools nor print
ing and 1 hope we shall not have these
hundreds years; for learning has brought
disobedience and heresy and sects INTO
the world, and printing has divulged
them, and libels against the best govern
ment God keep us from both" Look
ing back two hundred years. we wonder
that even then one could be so hidebound
as to allow himself to utter such a senti-
ment as that. The press is the leading
educator in all lands to-day. Itis essen
tial to progress and good government
everywhere. 1t is mighty lever to up
lift all nations and all peoples. News
papers and books have awakened the
sleeping talents of millions, and have
lifted them to higher conceptions of life
and duty. Paper bullets of the brain
are more powerful in the cause of truth
than grape and canister belched from
the muzzle of seventy-six-pound Krupp
guns. Newspapers are necessary for the
advancement of the interests of men, and
this is why they are now so numerous in
the civilized sections ofthe world. Thirty
years ago. when l was the publisher of a
weekly newspaper in West Virginia, such
publications were by no means numerous,
but now one or more are issued in every
county in the State, and in every city of
5000 inhabitants we have the daily mes
sages to every household. These publica-
tions have attracted the attention of men
of means in other and older common
wealths, and have done much to induce
them to cast their lots with us in the
wealthy Mountain State of the great re-
public. Too much credit and praise, there
fore, cannot be given to the West Virgil
MIA newspapers for what. they have done
and are now doing for our people, from
the brickyards of Hancock county, to the
Great Kanawha, and from the coal fields
of Mcdowell to the rock-crowned ridges
of the Potomac.
On the whole, my fellow citizens, all of
us are justly proud of our Mountain State,
because mountains are useful, healthful,
grand. They inspire their inhabitants to
higher aims and purposes in life. They
are essential to ones growth, develop
ment and happiness. Man naturally longs
for mountain air and mountain freedom,
because mountaineers are always free.
Plow down your mountains and your hills,
and the world will become a desert. They
furnish fountains for our rivers. timber
for our dwellings,, stones for our quarries
fieldstor our herds, scenery for our people,
minerals for our wealth they break the
deadly sweep of the tornado and in ways
without number they add to our comfort
and enjoyment. Above the crests of our
West Virginia hills shines the eternal sun,
as he rolls his fiery chariot across the sky.
The silver streams wind their meandering
ways down the slopes, murmuring their
endless songs The majestic rivers sweep
through the gorges, canons and wales as
they drive ever onward toward the seas.
The music of the mountain songsters. as
they leap from bough to bough of the trees
along the hills, ceases only by the coming
of the night. The roar of the cataract
lulls our people to rcstful repose, and
awakes them from their slumbers at the
dawning of morn. These majestic West
Virginia mountains have withstood the
storms of the centuries. and will stand
amid the sunshine of millenial glory.
Great cities. massive temples, granite
cathedrals. will sooner OF later crumble
into dust. The pyramids will finally fall.
The sphinx will be gnawed assunder by
the tooth of time. The globe itself may
ultimately melt with fervent heat. The
sun may drag along the jarring heavens
and refuse to shine The light of the
stars aypale away. The moon may roll
up the rending sky. and hang her latent
livery on the wings of the dying night
but these West Virginia hills will continue
to stand until the centuries cease to roll.
Mr.. President. we havein the Mountain
State no malaria. no grasshoppers, no
mosquitoes, no razorbaczed hogs. no
cyclones, no deep SHOWS. no long winters,
no glaciers, and pauthers and bears and
wolves and foxes are rapidly going, and
are we'll nigh gone. We have no State
debt; taxes are reasonable churches are
fiourishing our schools are as good as
the best we have over a million popula-
tion; upwards of a million dollars in our
treasury. and yet We have but fairly started
into business. Talk about West Virginia,
my brothers, she is to-day the rushlight
of the republic She is the coming com
mouwealth of the continent. She is the
hub of the universe in natural wealth.
She is the flagship in the procession of
progress. She is the wonder of the cen
tury, and is the favored State for young
men to live in and for old men to die in.
She is the Eldorado of the coming cen