The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-17
BEST NEWSPAPER
DIR. J. E. Roberts Defines 1t for
Kansas Editors.
Independent Paper Is the Ideal
One.
Kings HAVE CHANGED
People No Longer Want to Be
Directed.
When They Have Facts Will
Think for Themselves.

Think for Themselves.
DR.. J. e. Roberts of Kansas City
addressed the Kansas editors last
night in Representative hall.
That DR.. Roberts is a good speaker
was proven by the fact that he spoke
against great opposition.
In the senate chamber. at the other
end OF the state house. Republican
caucus was being held to choose a
state printer. what could attract
editors more than such a political
meeting which was to decide which
editor should be printer.
But even Tom McNeaI. J. e. Junkin
and Conner Davies who were the can
didates for printer. were in Represent
alive hall to hear him while their fate
was being determined in the senate
chamber.
DR.. Roberts had started on his ad-
dress when Senator Dolley and Rep
resentative Stone appeared in the hall
and dragged McNea1 away. That was
that McNeal had been chosen printer
Roberts did not understand why
one of his audience was thus ruthless
~ torn away from the meeting nor
why there was handclapping, but he
kept right on. In part DR.. Roberts
said
1.-THE independent newspaper is
logically the ideal one.
''It has had a hard struggle in the
past, but so have most things ideal.
I'm times not long gone by the
partisan newspaper was a. necessity.
Men paid their subscriptions with the
understanding that their paper should
tell them what they thought, why
they thought it, and swear that they
thought right. The bitterly partisan
paper was a formidable power in the
Ia CT ca I'm
"A mighty change has supervened.
knowledge and information have
been greatly diffused. The average
man has put his own thinker at work.
He does not go into the newspaper
market to buy convictions. He goes
to buy information. The instinct of
individuality and independence is the
new force to be reckoned with. The
ex cathedra editor is a vanishing fig
ure, and with him Is disappearing the
stop n1y-paper' kind of subscribers.
1t is invariably a man belonging to
the past. who. when he reads some
thing he does not like, seizes a pencil
and a postal card, laboriously writes,
Stop my paper and for long delicious
hours pictures to his unspeakable de-
light the CONSERVATION and dismay he
has wrought in the newspaper world.
1.-THE evolution of the newspaper from
partisan to independent has been ac-
companied by corresponding evolution
of the editor. Under the old regime, he
the people and among the people pas
sions and hatreds ran bank full. Read
ers rejoiced in witnessing vivisection
and hailed with screams Of delight tho
spectacle of an opponent impaled alive
Horse Pistol Age Past.
''The tomahawk and horse pistol age
of the newspaper is gone, simply be-
cause the people have become mere civ
ihzed. As the public has grown more
thoughtful, the editor has grown more
judicial He may be less picturesque,
less in evidence. less romantic, but he is
more useful. In the former times, the
paper was the instrument of the man.
Now the man is the instrument of the
paper. AS the evolution proceeds, the
editor is more and more hidden. His
personality is less vivid. The man loses,
important. What was said is more so.
And thus the perfect art is being APP
preached when the worker will be lost
sight of in his work.
1.-The independent paper requires big |
ger men and larger talents than the |
partisan paper does.
1T is not difficult to produce q. paper |
for a constituency which has uniform
and fixed opinions.
at is always easy and somewhat |
cheap to tell people what they wish to |
be told. The world has always been |
overstocked with that kind of talent. 1t |
is a different matter to forget constit- |
uents, ignore consequences and endeav-
to to see things as they are and report |
them as seen. Yet that is what the in |
telligent prize in a newspaper.
mo one who has seeing eyes need be |
told that a new and unfamiliar move |
ment is beginning to agitate the minds |
Of men. Faster than we know, we are /
being borne away from the old senti- |
ments and ideals. UnthinlSing and |
vociferous partisanship is a diminish |
ing force. Persons and personalities |
are losing theE power to charm and |
enthral Party lines and alignments |
are less distinct. Men can not be
rounded up or stampeded as once they !
could. Cowboy politics are in disrepute. |
The masses are being differentiated. |
The Individual is emerging, and, in the /
self will be nearer right than the man |
who whoops it up at the command of
a boss, or gets his convictions second
hand at a banquet or a barbecue.
an the confused and discordant |
noises of democracy one note may be |
Observation-Disclosures, strident and pene- /
trating. That note is one of ethics. |
There is a general demand for equity, |
for Justice for fair play. This demand |
does not grow out Of any moral en-
thusiasn1 or quickening. It is probably |
at the heart prompted by self-interest. |
but it is none the less determined and |
potent People have become sufficient |
" discerning to see that ineQuities in |
politics and business constitute a |
scheme whereby the many pay trib- |
ute to the few. The only way for each |
to get his share is under the sway OF !
justice. Corruption is good business
for the few. Ethics is good business
no vorr min vOt1Fs hat fOl