The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-10-07
SHALL IT BE FREE
DIR. C0untermine DiscussesF Free
dom of Press and Speech.
He Does Not Believe in Muz-
Zling Either.
ELEVATE THE TONE.
He Says That Such Effort
Should Be Made.
Let Newspapers Speak Fully
and Tell the Facts.

'Shall Free Speech and a Free Press
| be Muzzled?" was the query put by
Rev. ]. d. Countermine at the evening
| service at the First Presbyterian
church. His text was from Proverbs
25:26: "a righteous man falling down
before the wicked is as a troubled
fountain and as a corrupt spring.
Rev. Mr.. Countermine said:
Man is an animal; a carnivorous an
imal; an animal that thinks. That
makes the difference, that lifts man
above mere animaliSm, that links him
to privilege, to duty, to responsibility,
to judgment, to eternity, to God.
Thought in man is the principal thing;
the creator and vivifier of all human
affairs. Thought touches the bitter APP
pie and it becomes the golden pippin.
touches the sour grape and it becomes
the sweet Concord, touches the wild
rose and it becomes thing of fraS-
rance and beauty, touches the swinging
lamp and it becomes the ticking clock,
touches the forked stick and it becomes
the steel pillow, touches the crude sickle
and it becomes the Mccormick reaper,
touches the boiling tea-kettle and it be-
comes the mighty engine, touches the
1un bering stage and it becomes the ex-
press train, touches the howell and 1t be-
comes the stately mansion, touches the
wigwam of the poor Indian and it be-
comes the mighty, matchless, and souul-
uplifting dome of St Peters, Take
thought out of our civilization, take it
out of our philosophy, our science, ouc
literature, our history, our religion and
what would we have left? Nothing but
the life1ess cinders of an extinct vol
cano.
There are, however, different kinds
and degrees of thought. Sometimes men
think right and sometimes wrong,
sometimes wisely, and sometimes
unwisely. Sometimes their thoughts
lift them up, enlarge the horizon
of their being, enrich their ma
ture, clarity their vision and make
them the fit companions of all the high
er intelligences. At other times their
thoughts drag them down and trans
form them into beings of prejudice.
lovers of darkness, enemies of truth,
strange, degraded compounds of error,
absurdity, and all manner of fncOnsist-
encies. Here is where the great danger
turks.
1.-THE mightiest instrument for good,
that instrument the progress of which
determines all other progress may be-
come the D1ightiest instrument for evil.
No righteous man ever broke with his
righteousness and fell down before wick
ed men, without first breaking with pure
thought.
Here is where the trouble began.
Here is where the first sin was commit
ted. 1t was an intellectual transgres-
sion, a mental weakness. Hence he fell,
UuC dldS III Ealing ne IelI not alone Inc
fountain of life was disturbed and the
springs of thought corrupted. What
shall we do about it? Shall we publish
it in the newspaper and proclaim it from
the house-top? Two hundred years ago
when Sir Richard Steele, the great Eng
lish essayist, began to publish The Tat
ler,' he said: Tt has been said of So
crates that he brought philosophy down
from heaven to inhabit among men,
shall be ambitious to have it said of me
that brought philosophy out of closets
and libraries, schools and colleges, to
dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea
tables, and in coffee houses.
Here is the great mission of free
speech and free press 1t Is not so
much to create as it is to communicate,
not SO much to think out as it is to give
out 1t is a sad thing most humfliat-
ing commentary on human nature, when
either the press or public speaker so far
forgets his almost divine mission, and
abuses to such a degree free speech and
a free press as to give out only that
which disturbs the fountain and cor
rupts the springs of social, intellectual
appropriately called the paradise of
newspapers and so it is. The paradise,
however, is not without its snakes. The
snakes are here. Shall we therefore clip
the wings of the eagle, or cut out the
tongue of the nightingale, or do any
thing else to muzzle free speech and a
free press? 1t is not too much to say
that free speech and free press have
done more than all other instruments
combined to make America what she is
and to give her the exalted position
which she holds among the nations of
the earth. Man has always been a think
er, but even his best thoughts have Of
ten failed in their full effect simply be-
cause there was no instrument to bring
them out and to give them to the people.
Thought, like every other force, must
have. in order to accomplish its best
effects. an appropriate medium of con-
tact.
srr1,o ,,r;ptod voua '<a,, or. -,-r,o,.o 49,
living voice cannot reach. Hence the
power of a free press. Who can fully
measure it? 1 believe in killing snakes,
not in muzzling them If there are
snakes in our national paradise, if the
SO-called satanic press is here disturb
ing the fountain and corrupting the
springs of our national life, why hesi-
tate to destroy it? We destroy other en-
emies of our country. Why therefore
harbor in our national bosom the vile
creature that has been warmed into a
vigorous life by our national liberties
which liberties it now seeks to destroy.
Liberty is not license.
mo man or number of men should
have license to girdle the noble tree
that has for more than hundred years
furnished US with both shelter and
food. The value of a good, honest,
clean newspaper in any community is
above rubies There is no other office
except that of the Christian ministry,
that is more to be earnestly coveted
than that of newspaper editor. 1t is his
privilege to sit upon a great intellec-
tual throne and rule through the au-
thority of facts gathered from every
possible source, north. east, west and
sOuth--news.
''In the twenty-one principal news
circles of the United States the news
paper matter published every day is
equivalent to seventy books containing
one hundred thousand words each.
What a. force either for good or for
evil, to save life or to destroy it. God
forbid that the many righteous men
who today sit upon this throne so high