The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-05-19
ElNAL SESSIONS
Editorial Association Meeting Closes
With Speech b. Col. Watterson.

10 election of officers and completion
of routine business.
So great was the desire of delegates
to indulge in fareWells at the opening
of the session today that President P.
v Collins experienced great difficulty
In calling the convention to order.
After continually rapping with the
gavel and appointing extra sergeants
at arms to seat delegates order was
finally secured and Henry WattersOn,
of Louisville, was introduced. Colonel
Watterson took for his topic the Ed
itorial Page" and spoke in part as fol-
lows:
Every profession may be said to have
its mice and it's men; inevitably more
mice than men.
There is the musing politician with
his confusion of the little and the big
in public affairs, great man, as JET
ferson said of Burr in small things,
a small man in great ones, seeking the
bubble reputation cen at the barrels
bung and along with it, the wnere-
Withal to pay for the dance There IS
the housing man of letters, who has
drunk not deep of the Pierean Spring,
quite top-heavy with his critical fads.
his fancied originality, his spites and
envies rafting around in borrowed
plumage and playing nide-and-seek
through a few half-vacant chambers,
chiefly furnished with stolen goods.
And then-let Us confess it-there IS
the housing journalist, whose wares
are mostly secondhand. who imports
affecting loves thunder in the tuTn-
tum of finger bowl in case he hap
pens to be acquainted with that home
" utensil The antftheses to these
several discreditable though not al
ways dis-eDuta Bile persons, are the pup
lie man of integrity and Judgment,Who
is not afraid to do right; the literary
man, who possessed OF some KNOW
ledge of the world of life and thought
as we'll as of books, is not so cock
sure of himself and his opinions, nor so
free with his resentments; ana the
newspaper writer, VINO can give ana
take without brutality, or malice, ana
who. no matter how belicose, brings
to the combat clean hands and little
accuracy both of information and
statement.
In making this brief resume l hope
that no one of you will consider me
needlessIy aggressive or personally OIL
fensivc.
Primarily, the daily newspaper is
the history of Yesterday. If it should
perform this function simply, having
no other end in view, its value to the
community would be priceless In
telligent readers, entrusted with the
facts and unhindered by pressure,
could read their own conclusions. But,
as a rule the daily newspaper accepts
no such limitation. 1t sets up Tor
teacher as well as a historian 1t
would influence mould pelleVe Is
the word-opinion; yet it is not always
the public-toO often it is some pr1-
vate-interest, which colors It's mar
rative and shapes it's oracles, fitting
the one into the other without that
sense of accounta bility to God and
truth which ought to lie at the bottom
of every mans heart and which does
lie at the bottom of every good man s
heart. We read now and again thaI
So-and-SO takes himself too serious
"" as if levity were a merit, whilst,
pursuing the like whimsical conceit,
that which is merely pert, is too often
mistaken for wit.
The editorial page is valuable in
the degree that it aids the reader to
digest the news. It should either be
reformed or abandoned. Under GER
tain spell which has crept upon the
modern newspaper it is becoming, II
it has not already become, a rather
useless appendage-nOt even orEa-
mental-remindin one of those clus-
ters of artificial flowers which at the
more pretentiOuS railway waiting
houses are supposed to decorate the
tables and to deceive the wayfarer.
Yet ought the editorial page after the
exhilaration-the distractions and ex-
cftements-Of the news pages, to be
as a raised dais in the center of d
great hall, a seat of rest and charm;
an elevation from which to survey the
passing show having its lights adj
justed the better to set forth this pass
ing show, and its ready chorus to ex-
plain it.
Observation-Disclosures being the soul,
good humor is the solar system of the
editorial page, which should be held
subject to these precepts:
Write of a man nothing you would
not say to his face, and might not say
IN the hearing of decent people.
Avoid equally intimation and in
timidation, making no suggestion you
are not prepared to reduce to asser-
ton and to sustain with proof.
The leading article" being the
rationale of the most important and
4r,fn nf 10
should have a beginning, a middle
and an end; should be concise and in
cisive; seeking to assist the reader in
his effort to comprehend the situa-
ton.
Satire should keep within the
bounds of the probable; wit under the
restraint of sense; and even invective
-shorn of adjective and adverb, and
stripped to the waist-should strike
out from the shoulder to hit only
above the belt.
The pert paragraph should be al
lowed to die a natural death. No
flowers.
The editorial page thus conceived
and executed, thus inspired and par
titioned, could not fail to impress
itself upon the thought of the time al
once a power and a feature, an arm
of the service and a commercial
asset.
Under the rule of a supervision
wholly adequate it would soon rival
the news departments in point of
popular consideration and interest One
single editorial embodying the quail
ties outlined and appearing each day
or the year, would come to be sought
by intelligent readers as an essential
part of their morning paper; how
much more a page covering the entire
range of the days doings, dealing
with each topic according to it's guam
tum and its kind, from gay to grave.
from lively to severe"
Except it be thus delivered the edi-
3orial page We're best extinguished
To set apart a certain number of col
tlmns for the equivocal dignity of large
type; to i'll these columns with per
functOry matter; with matter as life