Arizona republican., 1901-05-20
AMERICAN JoURNALIsM.

Colonel McClures tribute to the pro-
 fession:
 American Journalism, It's Develop ment. Activities and Responsibilities" was the theme of an address delivered by Colonel A. K. Mcclure. retiring ed- itor of the Philadelphia Times in his home city last Tuesday night. The oc- casion was a banquet rendered by the Clover club of Philadelphia to the ne2- tor of American editors, as a tribute to Mir. McClures fifty-six years of active life in the profession he adorns.. Re- spending to the enthusiastic greetings of 300 distinguished guests the veteran editor said in part:
 I have never conscientiously appre- ciatei the exceptional responsibilities of the editorial direction of a widely read daily newspaper. and In retiring from such exacting duties I can freely de- clare tonight that. fully appreciating the errors which are common inheri- tance to the best of human efforts. there are a very few of my earnest edl- torial struggles which would efface
 
 In no other calling are men so likely to err because of the necessity of prompt criticism of public men and measures, and it has always been a cause of sincere regret to men that the fidelity of journalism to public interests Is so imperfectly appreciated. In all the other great professions there Is ann- ole time for the fullest consideration of every subject; but the editor is aalled upon to give expression on the moment of information. with his circle of news enhracing the circle of the world it. self. Journalism is often criticized for reeklecsL~ss in publishing news which the trained ,nhtning and Its hosts of contributors ptSS into the sanctum in the midnight Eouf><hut there are few indeed outside of the<~2rofession who understand the care that 's>exercised to assure fidelity to the public, and the generous charity with which news is halted at times in every well regulated newspaper office. by which the guilty often easape their punishment to shield the innocent from needless sorrow.
 " ,ditors in the sense in which they were accepted half century ago, not be- cause there are no longer great editors among us, but because they have so largely multiplied as to efface individu- ality. The towering lords of the jour nalstic force tocay are as great and grand as ever in the past. hut host of their fellowo has grown up with them, and the resistless logic of their advent has made the journalism of today ab- soiutely impersonal This change has come because the rapidly widening field of journalism has summoned a large proportion of the best intellects of the country into it's service, and the edito- rial writer has ceased to be the news paper.
 The newspapers which fifty years ago had attained national fame hardly ex- ceeded 8 score in number, and the rela- tive importance cf each was measured solely by the individual importance of it's editor. The National Intelligencer wac accepted by all as a model Ameri- can newspaper but I could today name several Philadelphia staff editors who, with their present exceptional ability and trained experience. wiuld have written leaders for the National Intel- ligencer as forceful In logic and as pol lshed in diction as those of Joseph Gales; and with their appreciation of Journalistic progress any one of them would have made a great newspaper of the nation more attractive and poten- tial than it was made by the then nes- tor of American Journalism.
 There was then only one Horace Gree Icy and the Tribune was widely read and greatly respected because of the in cisive paragraphs and impressive lead CTS which came from his pen. but to- day there is hardly leading newspaper office in the country that has not some one on it's staff who is as pungent in paragraph and as forceful in leaders as was Greeley in the zenith of his power The Louisville Journal acquired a greater national fame under George D. Prentice than any other journal in the country with the single exception of the Tribune His sparkling wit and keen inventive displayed in his brief. brist- ling paragraphs. made his journal one of the high water land marks in the Journalism of that day. but there Is a Prentice in nearly every great newspa- per office in the country today. Indeed there wae not great editor of the old en time who has not his counterpart numbered In scores in the Journalism of today and the sober editorial leaders of this age are vast improvement on the carly great editors at whose utteTances the nation took pause. The complete transformation of journalism from the