The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-07-26
THE PRESS AND GOOD GOVERNMENT
Address Delivered al Tacoma at The Annual Meeting Of The Assoc
iaion By Walter lngeMeder, Editor Of
The Evening Statesman

A. the annual meeting OF tne wash
;,,rton Sthate Press association, which
=. nov, being held in Tacoma, many of
tha noted newspaper men of the north
-,.st delivered addresses which were
oerncfaI interest to the delegates at
-. convention. One of the best ad-
5ra..as was that given by Walter Lin
,anraIder editor of the Evening
salesman. The address was as fol-
lo&s.
.Tha only good government, in the
,riuion Of true Americans, is rule by
tr. ppopIe Wherever such govern
mont exists it is supported and main
tanned through the vigilance of a free
and interrupted press. The printing
liberty and the dread of tyrants. 1t
3 IVA, not many years after the art of
rriutiug was discovered by John Gut
aDbarg until the Bible, as translated
nv Wvckliffe, began to be read by the
common people of England, and its
couuterparts in Germany, and as re-
suit the people soon threw off the yoke
If religious bigotry and the period of
the reformation came in. With freer
thought came greater religious free
dom and with religious freedom came
= demand for greater freedom in po-
liticaI affairs. the downfall of many
of the prerogatives of the crown, the
bill Of rights. constitutional govern
ment. a responsible ministry and uni
yersaI manhood franchise. 1t was
slow growth, the people gaining the
iuaIirnable rights of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness inch by inch
through many bloody revolutions,
from the granting of Magma Charta
by King John in 1915. King Charles,
who asserted the divine right to rule
regardless of the will of his subjects,
lost his throne and his head. His son,
James II, was forced to sign the bill
of rights, and when he persisted in
asserting the discarded royal preroga-
tives he was driven from his throne,
and after an inglorous defeat at the
hands of William, Prince of Orange,
at the battle of the Boyne, he lived
and died an exile in France.
Under the Georges.
There was a reactionary period
under the Georges which extended to
the rule of the colonies and terminal
ed in the independence of the thir-
teen colonies of America. The achieve
ment of freedom in America was at
tended by greater concessions to the
advocates of liberty in the mother
country and in France, and while
there have been some periods of ret
repression. we see Great Britain today
with "A responsible ministry and a
government as free as our own except
in name, the king being little more
than an ornamental figurehead, while
France is a republic as free as our
own
In all this slow process of evolution
and revolution, the press, through its
books. pamphlets, and periodicals, has
been the most potent factor in up
holding the banner of freedom and
championing the rights of the people
against the doctrine of the divine right
Gf io1
privilege. \ free press and free speech
are guaranteed by the bill of rights
Promulgated by parliament and signed
by King James II in 1858, and made
part of the constitution of the United
states loo years later, and Incorporate
"a IN the constitution of each of the
- states Of the union. In France the
Press Is quite as free as in America,
ana in England and in Germany and
III Russia We find the power of the au-
''I'acy Is waning as the censorship
u The press grows less exacting
one hundred years before the
american revolution, Lord Berkely
-Sned out Bacon's rebellion. which
destroyed old jamestown, and forth
'7' himself in his tyrannical rule by
'aS all printing presses in the
''oo| destroyed. But in New Eng
'' The Boston News Letter kept the
''-' OF liberty alive. and other pa
Sfrang up, even in Virginia. so
'' when the reactionary spirit in
7'""d brought about the stamp act,
"uuny act and other oppressive
assures for the oppression of the
''eS and the suppression Of re-
,"''ee pamphlets from the press
1.so on the people to rally to the
Of their rights. 1t was from
u these pamphlets, Common
written by Tom Paine. that
aS Jefferson borrowed some OF
must striking passages of his i'm