Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-13
JOURNALISM SINCE
EARLY JAMESTOWN
Address by C. S. Noyes Before
Editorial Association.
AT THE EXPOSITION TODAY
Capt. John Smith Lacked Newspaper
Support.
IMPORTANCE OF THE PRESS
Relations of Journalists to Presidents,
Past and Present-Rejected
Criticisms.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NORFOLK Va, June 13.-The National
Editorial Association, meeting at the
jamestown exposition, spent large part
of today on a pilgrimage to jamestown
Island, where they visited the scenes Of the
original jamestown settlement. There was
some speechmaking on the boat going and
returning from the island.
Last night the national editors held a
memorial service for the members who had
died during the past year.
One of the most notable papers read be-
fore the association was that of Crosby s..
Noyes, editor of The Washington Star.
whose subject was Journalism Since
Jamestown" Mr.. Noyes said:
Captain John Smith.
Standing here on the ground thorough
ly identified with the name of Capt. John
Smith, and recalling his remarkable serv-
ices for the establishment and preservation
of the jamestown colony, and the ingrau-
tude with which these services were re-
paid by his fellow-colonists, we have oc-
cason to note how badly he was crippled
by failing to have an energetic, independ-
ent press to back him up in his great work.
Born in an English town in 1873, left an
orphan under improper guardianship, es-
Gaping at an early age from the irksome
home life, he entered upon a career or
ceaseless activities that only ended with
his death, in 1851, at the age of fifty-one
He served in the continental wars Of the
period; then, desiring to see more of the
world, he enlisted in the war against the
Turks He was captured and reduced to
slavery by the Turks, where he was treat
ed with brutal indignity: but he killed his
cruel master and fled for his life on his
owners horse, and after terrible hard
ships endured for nineteen days he reached
a Russian outpost on the River Don;
thence after various desperate adventures
by sea and land, he returned to England.
reaching his home In 1904, when he was
twenty-five years old.
In the next year Q6O5) the restless ad-
venturer entered upon another career of
wonderful experiences, throwing himself
impetuously into the colonizing projects of
GINA He Joined the expedition Of the
London Company for South Virginia, that
sailed December, 1905. Hardly had the ex-
petition got under way when Smiths siren
uous disposition to be doing something In
the line Of lettering the loose condition of
affairs on board, brought him into col
lision with the lazy loafers, the know
nothings and the mollycoddles of the party.
They revolted against his leadership, and
plotted to hang him on the false charge OF
| conspiracy; but they failed In their project.
| on the island they named jamestown. they
| refused to allow him to take his seat as
| councilman, to which office he had been
appointed.
A Strenuous Character.
He challenged their charges, and, as We
are told, SO established his innocence that
President Wingfeld was adjudged to give
him ECO as damages. He was then admit
ted to the council. Thereafter Smith was
the life and soul Of the colony. He COM
PEELED the loafers to work declaring that
wi M
Many times he saved the colony from
starvation by his daring enterprise, through
which, by diplomacy and the force Of gun
powder, he succeeded in procuring supplies
of Indian corn. In one Of these expeditions
he captured by the Indians, carried be-
fore the Sour King Powhatan" (as Smith
described him), condemned to death, and
when the fatal club was hanging over his
head was saved from death by the inter-
position of the adorable Pocahontas.
The story of this rescue has been dis
puted, but there is no way in which her
constant efforts afterward for the welfare
/ of the colonists can be explained, except on
the theory that her sympathies and perhaps
her affections had been warmly enlisted in
behalf of Smith on this occasion.
John Smith then established good rela-
lions with the Indians, and administered
the colony with mastery effectiveness. But
on the arrival of a fresh body of 500 dsor-
derby colonists, who refused to acknowl-
edge his leadership, his authority came to
an end.
We can fancy the cutters, the standpat-
ters, the do-nothings, the know-nothings,
the reactionaries and the molycoddles sit
ting around on the tree stumps at James,
town, grumbling about the beastly climate,
the blarsted mosquitoes, and the bloody diet
Of Indian corn provided by Smith; and
planning to kill him and sail away for Eng
land.
sion of gunpowder and was obliged to 20
home for surgical treatment, never to re-
turn to Virginia, his enemies thought they
were happily rid of him, but they soon
came to realize what they had lost by his
departure. In the winter after he left,
starvation Came upon them, and, lacking
his energetic aid, they were reduced to the
most desperate straits to sustain existence.
Out Of 400 persons in the colony in October
1909. when Smith left the colony all but
60 died by the following March.
One of the sixty survivors of 1.-The starv-
ing time" Richard Potts, gave remark
able expression of his exalted estimate Of
Smiths character as follows:
What shall l say, but thus we lost him,
| that In all his proceedings made justice
his first guide and experience his second:
worthiness more than any dangers; that
never allowed more for himself than his
soldiers with him; that upon no danger
would send them where he would not lead
them himself; that would never see us want
what he either had or could by any means
get us; that would rather want than Dor
row, or StarFe IMAM not pay, that loved aC-
lions more than words, and hated falsehood
and covetousness worse than deat TIL whose
adventures were our lives, and whose loss
our deaths"
What a fine, noble character is here pre-
sented In this voluntary tribute by one who
had served with Smith and knew him we'll
Another writer speaks of him MS broad
| minded and unselfish. "the statesman,
| the soldier, the writer, the navigator, the
explorer, who founded the English race in
America"
His biographer, Tudor jerks, says "this
brave, patient, resourceful, honest English
man and soldier has been awarded a lower
place in history than he has earned"
John Smith and Theodore Roosevelt.
Capt. John Smiths achievements in the
| way Of planting and sustaining the Eng
| lsh colony under the most formidable diff
culties were as worthy Of Qualification as
| the deeds Of Theodore Roosevelt. but he
! lacked the aid of the newspaper press that
| has greatly helped the latter in his up-
| ward career.
The newspapers have given Mr. Roose-
welt their vigorous support in his reform
| policies; have exploited all his sayings and
| dongs through the twenty-four hours of
! the day; glorified the man and his work
and made his name a household word in
| IN he