The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-05-21
WAXING POWER
OF JOURNALISTS
Never Was the Press Of This
Country So influential - -
R~N-s&&


some one mas UenueU JOUFIIdliSIu as
stthe art OF Disgusting your ignorance
I'm order to add to other peoples" Ii
so the United States is growing more
and more ignorant. Wendell Phillips
said, in 1861, that types are the faith
ers OF democrats" If so. democracy
I'm the United States is striking deeper
and deeper root. The same gifted ora
tor and reformer. defying Boston au-
dience hostile to him. once said, point
ing to the representatives OF the press
before him: "Howl on. I speak to 3d.
100000 here" How vastly greater now
both population and circulation of the
daily newspaper!
There has just come from the Census
Bureau a bulletin showing the striking
Increase in circulation Of the periOdi-
Gals of this country during the decade
1S9O-1900 - an increase certainly not
Eiackened during the nearly two years
which have passed since the census
was taken.
In 1900 there were published 1926
newspapers and periodicals of all
kinds, an increase Of 22.3 per cent. Of
these, 2226 were dailies, 1879 week
lies and 1917 monthlies. Comparison
with the census report OF 1890 shows
that there has been marked falling
OFF in the number of journals devoted
to special aspects OF knowledge-the
percentage OF decline varying from
a per cent. in society and art journals
10 IL per cent in religious periodicals.
But while there has been this marked
falling off in the numb2r-if not in the
total circulation-of journals devoted
TO special provinces of news and opin-
ION. there has been, as might be eX-
pected, an equally striking gain in the
number of and circulation of daily
newspapers and monthly periodicals.
Thus, in 1890, there were 1910 dailies
with total circulation per issue of
1887, 1S8 copies. In 1900 there were
2226 dailies with total circulation per
Issue of 15,102,156 copies. In 1890
there We're 1874 monthly periodicals,
with circulation per issue of 1924
O3S; in 1900 the number had risen to
1Sl7, and the circulation to 1858, 1877
copies per month. Multiply this by
twelve and you have the circulation by
the year; multiply this by five, the es-
hmated number of persons who read a
periodical. and you begin TO have some
conception of the place in the intellect
nal furnishing of the people which the
mQ9thIy mag9zi9es ef this o1nfry
play: Inc late Rev. DR.. Richard 8.
Storrs. Of Brooklyn, who in his day had
few peers among American clergymen
as q thinker and orator. said, in 1890,
describing the Sources and Guarantees
OF National Progress. aEither one Of
several of our current magazines is q
better exponent of the modern civiliza..
ton than the Parthenon was of the
Hellenic, or the Forum Romanum Of
that which ruled from the Tiber.' !.
THE common school system gr3 dua, t,ces
each year AID eFer-ilc re Samber
Of intelligent, acquisitfye readers. Ap-
piled science has made the process of
printing and illustrating large editions
possible. Better appreciation of the
profit to business of advertising has
stimulated income, which makes posi-
BILE large outlay for attractive contribu-
tors, authors and illustrators. Last,
but not least, with the coming of rural
delivery and better postal facilities,
the area of swift distribution OF the
product of editor, contributor and
printer has been vastly increased.
The newspaper of to-day, to quote
Professor Ell. S. Nash In his Ethics and
Revelation, is ~tfle symbol OF the wild
ened social responsibility OF the race"
Wonderful to him that has eyes to see
it rightly is the newspaper" is the
word of Homer Wilbur. in Lowell's
1.-THE Pious Editors Creed" which bit
of satire has for its prose appendix one
of the finest appreciations OF the place
Of journalism In life which have ever
been written.
Years after writing this In the I'm
mortal Bigfew Papers, when he was
representing the United States at the
Court of St James, Mr.. Lowell adj
dressed a company of Journalists in
London, and to them he said that he
felt as if he were talking to the ear Of
DionysIus, at the other end of which
the world was listening. He asked his
attentive hearers-journalfst s-whether
they were aware ito how great an ex-
tent they chad supp1anted the pulpit,
to. how great an extent you have sup
planted even the defiberatiye assem-
bly,. You have assumed responsible
fes,- should say, heavier than man
ever assumed before. You WELD an in
fuence entirely without precedent hith-
erto IN human history"
About the same time, 1889 (lIr. Low
ell spoke in 1884, President Eliot. of
Harvard University, was writing on
1.-THE Education OF CIergymen." and in
his article he pointed out the changed
conditions under which the clergyman
OF that time did his work compared
with the conditions OF the colonial
days. He said that formerly sthe
weekly sermons and prayer meetings
were almost the sole Intellectual exer-
cises In the last century, except for the
very few who could afford the luxury
of books. In our time four days labor