The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1907-04-18
The Country Editor.
A Tremendous Power for Veal or
Woe is the Metropolitan Press,
but Greater Still is the Influence
Of the Home Paper, the Country
Weekly, for Good Upon the Com
munity in Which it is Published.

munity in Which it is Published.
Oh arlotte Southern Publisher.
In no realm Of human activity has
there been greater or more rapid adj
vancempnt than in the realm OF the
field or journalism. Here talent has
found its gratest incentive and made
its greatest progress. Here mecfia-
nism has done its best work and art
has won its most recent victories.
Here inventive genius has achieved
its greatest success, for the transI-
tiOn from tallOw to electric light,
from trumpet to telephone, from
sickle to binder, from fail to thresh-
er, from oX-cart to automobile has
not egualed the transition from old
fashioned typesetting by hand and
the old-fashioned Washington hand
press to modern printing machinery.
OF the modern miracles Of rnecila
niSm, the types -tting machine ami
the pprfecting press are the browning
glories OF this inventive age.
Art has made but little progress
in recent years outside OF the printing
press. The master printers OF long
ago are the master printers OF today,
but from the modern printing press
come pictures artistic whose beauty
metropolitan newspaper is the eighth
wonder of the world. 1t is we'll that
the printing business has made this
great advancement, for the printing
| press must look for the highest good
of society and the greatest good of
governments. \ tremendous power
| for veal or woe is the metropolitan
newspaper. The lightning is its fleet
footed reporter gathering news from
all the world to enrich its pages.
| Governments through the mail serv-
ice and the rural route delivery are
its faithful errand boys delivering its
| daily message at every door. The
daily paper can make and unmake
statesmen. 1t can allay or inflame the
passions of the public 1t can EN-
| bitter or sWeeten the channels OF
| public thought
III the best OF books it is said in
effect that much shall be required
| OF those to whom much is given.
Surely much is given to the daily
newspaper, much of opportunity,
| much OF power. And to its credit,
be it said, it measures up as a rule
grandly to its responsibility. Some
years ago Il distinguished citizen OF.
my state, an author of worldwide
fame, IL preacher of great promi-
| hence and Il man Of most excellent
character was permitted to give an
| object lesson as the way in which
Jesus would run Il daily newspaper
BY one of the dailes of Topeka.
His experiment lasted week, and it
is no reflection upon the able and eX-
cellent gentleman in question to say
| that his paper was no better upon
he average than that paper is every
week of the year.
But great as the power of the daily
press is, still greater, | believe is the
power OF the country 1t is the
old home paper. From infancy the
children read it. LISA faithful chron-
icler OF local events, as most of them
are il its editor is conscientious and
truthful, us he usually is, the local
newspaper has a power and influence
OF which its maker Is unconscious and
its habitual reader himself scarcely
aware. OF the 10000 newspapers
in the United States one in ten is a
daily. NinP-tenths of them weeklieS
1t must be us Abraham Lincoln
said about the poor in relation to
| the rich, it must be that God thinks
more OF the country editors than He
does of the daily editors because He
makes so many more OF them. The
theories about how to run a cOun-
try newspaper vary widely. One is
that it should run exclusively to
news, that is, should contain little, if
any, editorial comment; that the ed
ltOr should continually crowd him
self out OF his columns tomake room
for local happenings. Others con-
tend that the paper should have in
dividuality, that the editor should
have opinions and convictions and
that his paper should reflect large
ly his own personality. Like the
schOOlmaster in reference to the
question as to whether the world was
round or fiat. take both side. My
observation is this that the coun
b try newspaper that has influence,
that has power, that in the end
E makes money, and that stays, is the
2 paper that gives the news in an at
$ tractive form, but which at tile same
time pumps the personality of it's ed,
Itor lnto the pages every issue. He
must have the right kind of person
atty, however There is no better
index to a town than its newspaper
If it is we'll printed, attractive i'm its
makeup, reliable in it's columns
strong in editorial comment, but
.. above all liberal i'll advertising pat
ronage, depend upon it in nine cases
, out OF ten, that town is an enterpris
ing, up-to-date town; but the paper
: looks shabby depend upon it the
; town is shabby, for IL newspaper
: everywhere and always is towns
best mirror.