The Savannah morning news., 1901-04-26
RESPONDED TO THE PRESS"
,..i,ion of the Editor Defined by MIR.
Edwin RyaIs.

Edwin Ryals.
,,- George W. Beckett was unavoidabiy
,. from the dinner, so Col. Meldrim
nj mon Mr.. Gordon to respond in his
cad 70 the musical number of the pro-
,..n,me. With his accustomed charm of
10 and manner. Mr.. Gordon complied,
his rendition of a pretty ballad was
-,,,cessful as to invoke many COM
arte The president then announced
49, Edwin C. Ryals as the next speaker.
.oD1ing to the toast, THE Press" MIR.
B,..}s smoke in part, as follows:
~ EDITOR of a newspaper has TO face
.,5 .o;ve every day problems that would
,,ar the serenity of the very sunniest dis
ula' He is impressed with the pc
mat in his news pages, it is his duty
- olive the news-nothing more and moth
less. on one side he is besieged by
r7u,l of people who want to get things
IN +be paper and on the other by another
"a equally or more anxious to keep
80 out. With it all he remembers,
49, most people forget, that the publ
t,, of a newspaper is a business, from
ht.b he is trying to make living
..t4ou, &c he TO determine these conflict
. anneals and reconcile these conflicting
,r7arests? What do you do gentlemen,
han YOU find what you conceive TO be
,.orr duty. c.ashing with what you kno"
=, he YOUR material advantage? You COM
rornise lust a little, don't you? You
don't say all the things you think, or 40
III The things you contemplate, when you
, a. mat to say or do these things will
iase YOU client, a patient or GUS
toner -.
livery day and every hour, the news
-,ar editor must make his choice be-
fveen profit and duty. To his credit be
ia IA, nine cases out of ten he finds
rsason why the promptings of his more
ea16sh self should be Discrepancies and
decides to follow the path his better ma
,nre tells him is that of duty ana Oh
right. Ao.,oo,,
i,,,rnalism proves the assertion. OF
curse there are black pages In It, but
tbese are the exceptions-not the rule.
Dirarences between newspapers there
are as between men. Not all OF us see
tbings in the same light or md the
natb of duty leading in the same direc-
tion AS long as men are constituted as
they are. there must be contrarley OF
oninion differing aims, diverse ampltlohs'
There are newspapers that represent ev-
erv shade of opinion and every drtt OF
thought. 1t euffices that they, like men,
should strive to live up to their highest
ideals.
and they have played well their parts.
Wherever right, oppressed, has needed
champion; wherever ravished virtue mas
called aloud for vengeance3 Wherever
merit has deserved reward or treachery
demanded punishment; wherever the sa-
cred interests of the state were menaced
nv the profaning hand of corruption or
greed. there have been newspapers to
step into the breach.
"By themselves and of themselves they
can hone to accomplish little. If the pub
lie conscience is dormant, or the public
intelligence biunted, or the public itself
debauched. the only answer to any APP
neal a newspaper. can frame Will be the
hollow echo of it's own words. Its posi-
ble effect upon conditions can be indirect
only. There must be intelligence, virtue
and manhood in the constituency 10
which it sounds the note of warning ana
exbortation, if there is to be a response
in kind
Newspapers cannot be very far in adj
vance of their readers. In a sense and
in some part they reflect the character
istics of their subscribers. May it not be
that some of the faults we are wont TO
ascrbe to them are in ourselves? Ana
may we not hope that as the
world improves, its newspapers VIII
improve with it? Surely it is
not a vain aspiration. Even their
vices may. in successive TRANSPORTATION
be changed to virtues. The poet has said:
~ held it truth, with him who sings
TO one clear harp in divers tone
That men may rise on stepping stone
OF their dead selves, to higher things.
so it may be with newspapers. Not
one of us is a s good he would like to
he. Not one of us lives altogether up
to his highest ideal. All of us, if we
could would be better than we are. Let
us be charitable and believe that news
papers like ourselves, are striving to cor
rect their faults and increase their vir-
tues-that they are. breathing to them
selves that imprisoned invocation in
The Chambered Nautilus:
" Build, thee, more stately mansions, .
my SOUL
As the swift seasons roll.
Leave thy low-vaulted past.
Let each new temple, nobler than the
last,
Shut thee from heaven with dome
most vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by lite's
unresting sea-"
'ol' Meldrim commented tmpresslVeis
upon Mr.. Ryals' speech. He had been
impressed, he said, by the statement of
the dependence of a newspaper upon the
cleanliness of morals mind and purpose
OF its constituency, and, for this reason
ne declared, the people of Savannah
might, with just cause, congratulate
themselves, for nowhere could there be
round two daily papers that are cleaner
IN their pages, more conservative and ex-
act in their publication and truer re-
Hection of gentility and honor in their
writer's With further complimentary
comments, directed toward the three
members of the newspaper profession
VINO are members Of the club, the pres
Iuent turned to his introduction of Mr..
- j. Travis, whose response was next
upon the programme.
spEIrfrrr ~, -. rur.