The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-07-12

4
takes him. Sometimes it leads over rough
and stony paths, which we must tread
with bleeding feet. There is help to be
rad, to be sure, from without. The coun-
sci OF the wise and prudent is to be priced,
but after all the light within is che final
arblter before which all questions must
be settled
| There are papers / know which echo
only the voice of others. but these are
not worthy to occupy a place in The pro-
fesslon. There are others still which move
and have their being for the money they
can make for their owners, but they are
not those at which this discussion is aim
ed. am sorry to say that there are
newspapers in North Carolina with bright
men In their offices which sometimes cx-
hlbIt painful lack of faitnfulness in the
makeup OF their editorial matter It is
dlsheartenlng to pick up a paper when
you are hungry for helpful suggestion,
and turning to the editorial columns you
are greeted with Letter from Washing
ton, or Bill Apps Letter." or "Zuno
Zephyrs," or 'Thomasville Tidings" or
'Edenton Echoes" Every editor ought
to put the imprint of his soul in the
| columns OF his paper every week. / do
not refer to the dailies in tins connection,
Tor they are Obliged to discard plate mat
| ter IN their editorial columns or their
| readers will soon discard them, but you
weekly brethren whose PAPERS go 80 ten
North Carolinlans where the dailies reach
one-you ought week by week to put brain
and heart and blood into your work This
is not conccit. Why should it be 50 re-
lgarded? Suppose your preacher should
Iannounce on Sunday morning that owing
TO the multiplicity of his engagements
during the week he was unable to prepare
| a sermon, and so he would read for the
instruction of his hearers a sermon from
Mr. Talmage or Mr.. Parker. Why should
an editor whose business it is to help his
hearers be any the less faithful in the
| discharge of his duties.
shall not call names here, bat there is
a paper in this State which has limited
circulation and which is printed in a
small town, twice a elk, upon whose
utterances / have learned to lean 1t is
not making much money but it is making
men. 1t does not wait to hear what the
| big dailies have to say on a subject, but
expresses its own opinion with uncommon
clearness and power, and in a few short
paragraphs occupying hardly two columns
/
| transpired within the past two or three
| days in a way so luminous and direct and
vigorous, that reader lays it down with
his appetite entirely satisfied On the
other hand many of our papers edited by
capable men show so little evidence OF
thought and care in the preparation Of
the matter, that it is thrown away with
disappointment if rot disgust.
But faithfulness to others demands that
we put the very best that there is in us
| into our work. We are teaching thou
sands of men and women and little chill.
dren all they know of the great world
around us Into many homes only the
| local weekly finds its way. What it says
| Is accepted and believed as if it were
| law and gospel. The very spirit in which
| the matter is written is Incorporated in
| the plastic minds of the simple children
of nature upon whose hearts II falls
Faithfulncss to these who follow us week
| by week requires that we should ever
have in our minds in making the paper
the uplifting and ennobling of those who
read our words For after all, nctwith-
standing the cheap jibes and sneers of
those who berate the fidelity of the news
papers, they do believe in us and they
dc trust US. Every editor ought to be
believer in God and in his fellows. 1t is
no place for Skeptic nor Scorner. 1t is
pulpit which thunders week by week.
and It's congregations are the countless
multitudes that throng our cities, our
towns and our country districts. We
are sentiment-makers. We are guides and
pilots. We are eyes for the blind. Let us
not abouse the great trust committed TO
our hands.
We must be faithful to the weak oh,
how utterly unworthy that newspaper
which is not a friend to the poor, the
blind, the halt and the helpless. Thank
God the newspapers OF North Carolina
have been faithful to the weak. There
is not an orphanage in all the State that
has not felt the force of the press, and
where might rises up to Cypress weakness
and money is set in deadly array against
them, where vice clother In soft raiment
would strangle Righteousness in rags,
| there has ever sounded from these faith
| full sentinels of the Peoples rights a storm
| cf protest that quickly throttled evil and
saved the cause of right. This has been
done ten thousand times in North Caro-
lima and / pray that our journalism may
never be subsidized by the devil, nor
overwhelmed by the shining tide of gold
in the hands of the great and strong.
| We must be faithful to the old State
1t is a glorious heritage kird Provi-
dcnce has given us, this good old North
Carolina we love so well. / confess l am
tired of hearing from fervid orators that
North Carolina is great State ard
worthy of our love because of the treas
ure she possesses in forest, in mine, in
field and factory, in railroads, and, even
schools and churches. These are all bless
| ings for which to be grateful, but, breth-
rem, / would love North Carolina if the
rugged sides of her mighty mountains
were bare and naked to the blazing sun,
| if every plain in all her Piedmont regio1
were arid and sterile; if the ocean broke
along all her coast on desolate stretches
of cleaning sand; l would love her still
because she is my home! And this home
of ours ought always and everywhere to
be the object of our jealous care and OF
our courageous defense ! am eyerlast-
lingly tired Of hearing this State spoken
OF as poor old North Carolina. She IS
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