The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-25
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To the President and Members of the
 Alabama Press Association:
 Since I have had the honor of being the Historian of this Association. great deal of interesting matter has been gath cred together. Owing to the great length of what has been prepared, fully 200 pages of printed matter if in book form. 1t has been impracticable to submit a report. From year to year 1t has been withheld hoping that some plan would ss r 6syisd ssr assalrsa sstns # into it better to make partial reports. and that the matter be published in our regular annual proceedings: With that object in view I herewith submit ment. It begins with Mobile. in which county was launched the first newspaper publication in Alabama. Fraternally submitted,
 A glance at the history of journalism will show that its progress has been IT. line with the growth of population. Ac- oording to Thomas, History or frintlne. .l there is positive evidence that printing press was established in Mexico as early as 1540, and, 1t Is stated as a fact thas readers familiar with early books re. .lating to Mexico have seen menffon of a book printed there as early as 1535.
 There is evidence in the annals Qf the ne wspalser and periodical press of the United States, published in connection with the census of 1880. that in the year i532, the Viceroy D Antonio de Mendoza carried printing to Mexico. The first printer was Juan Pablos. and the first book printed in the new world was that written by St. John Climacus. entitled Spiritual Ladder to Ascend to Heaven.
 It is also shown that there were ninety three books printed in Mexico prior to and including the year 1890. While our Mexican neighbors. therefore. antedate us in the knowledge and use Of the print ing art it is not clear that they were also in the enjoyment of ehe luxury of newspapers before the people of the New England States. The probabilities are. however. that they were. for sev gazettes existed in Mexico before the close of the seventeenth century monthly magazine called Gazette do Mexico was certainly published in 1928, counts of religious functions, with de- scription3 of processions. consecrations of churches, beatifications of saints. fes- tvals. etc. Civil or commercial affairs. and even the tra asactions of Europe. oc. cupy but a small corner. of this monthly magazine of intelligence"
 Colonial Journalism.
 The royal governors of the colonies were vested with censorship of the press, and on no class did the Stamp Act of 1765 rest with greater hardship than the publishers of the few newsp apers then published in this country. Quite a num- Der, especially in the South, had to sus. pend until this act was repealed. As a part of the history of the progress of journalism, 1t is well to quote from the annals above referred to. as to the effect of onerous taxation upon newspapers Referring to the period when the Stamp Act bore so heavily upon them. 1t says: but farc h. fishers, when the act was to take effect. for few weeks omitted to publish them. Others, less cautious, but apprehensive of the consequences of publishing newspa. pers without stamps, omitted the titles altogether, or altered them as an eva si on. Those publishers who continued to print without reference to the stamp act, took risk which proved how thoroughly imbued they were with the spirit out of which grew the revolution. The stamp act was but a temporary check to news. paper growth; but it must be regarded as the manifestation of a spirit which these early printers knew to be ever present. the spirit to coerce the press into more orcumSpect allusion to the causes of fric- tion between the colonies and the mother country. The colonial governments in the colonies of Massachusetts and New York also resorted to stamp acts as a means of raising a revenue. Such an act was passed in Massachusetts in 1755, and q similar act by the assembly of New York In 1756. which was continued until Jan uary, 1760. During this period the papers were then published in that colony some