The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1909-04-30

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gian contained a rhapsody after the
following fashion:
Into my poetic soul there came an in
/ spiration,
! = took unto myself a wife,
/ And moved out to this station"
CThree years later.)
Going from my poetic soul is every
! inspiration,
burned if 1 dent believe
have gone ard married Carrie Ma
ton"
take it that in a distinguished
gathering of this character that l. is
not necessary to go over the history
of Journalism, as it is so familiar to us
ali anu the mission of the press Is so
thoroughly understood.
shall say, however, that some con-
tend that the germ of newspaperism
had it's beginning when Moses wrote
the commandments on the tables of
stone. Long years after this. when
Rome had reached the zenith of her
splendor, a newspaper in manuscript
was issued annually called the Actur
Diurna. 1t was not until a long time
after this that the art of printing was
made practicable, and the newspaper,
as we know it, was born. Indeed, it
was not until 1927 that the first cylin-
der press was manufactured, and it
was some years after that before one
was manufactured in the United
States.
Notwithstanding the high encomi-
ums paid the newspapers by Mr.. JEFF
iferson and other statesmen of his time,
there was not a single daily newspaper
printed in the United States during
the revolutionary period.
The newspaper as we know it is of
modern growth and origin. The appl-
cation of of steam to vehicles of trans
portation gave a great impetus to the
size and circulation of newspapers, as
did the invention of the telegraph and
cable. All of which have occurred
within the history of men yet living
But the more recent invention of the
linotype machine gave them their
greatest impetus.
A great many complaints are lodged
against the newspapers and especially
lagainst what is termed yellow Jour
nalism," yet take it up )ne way and
down another, and it will be found
that the world owes its growth along
the lines of trade, traffic, commerce
land righteousness, more to newspapers
than to any other single force or fac
tor Indeed, il may be said that the
newspaper is the pulpit. the school and
the circulating library combines. 1t
has proven itself to be a potential pow
er and has climbed from the fourth
to the first" estate. Its influence has
been civilizing and refining, and that
the world is growing better, and the
people everywhere more jealous of
freedom, and are more tolerant in
their discussions Of religion and state,
is largely because of the powerful and
splendid influence exerted by the
press.
!, But what we want to know tonight
is the relationship existing between
the bankers and the newspapers.
Newspapers cannot exist without mon
ey and the banks are generally sup
lposed to furnish this necessary
"wherewithal." I wish, at least, that
that were true.
, 1 believe in an abundancy and re-
dundancy of money. 1 do not submit
to the doctrine that too much Of a
good thing is gocI Cor nothing" Be
lieving that every artery of business
would be improved by a liberal supply
, of money constrained me to advocate
the free coinage of silver on a parity
with gold" I was not a particle alarm
ed by the argument that the nations of
the earth would dump all their silver
Oh US. L was ANXIOUS IOE l0em 10 DC
so.
I shall cite an Illustration of the
great benefits of even cheap" money.
I shall cite the government of the
Confederacy. Even before its organi-
cation it was showered with shot and
shell. 1t was called and properly call
ed the storm Graded nation" What
did it do? There was but one thing
for it to do, and it did that. 1t imne-
iiately put its printing presses to
printing money and kept them steadily
at it from its beginning to its close.
! There. was nothing back of this money
but the love and loyalty of the people,
but it enabled the government to put
vast armies into the field and it ena-
bled it to supply those armies with all
the munitions of war. This money,
cheap and worthless as it was, enabled
/ tbiS oovarnr,,apt RI l-aay, fl,OSa oy-y,;aO