Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1909-11-30
NEWSPAPER MEN AND THEIR,WORK.
What Machinery is to Hand Work News
papers are to the Spreading Of Information.

What Machinery Is to Hand Work News
papers are to the Spreading Of Information.
The following letter we clip
from the columns Of The Chris
tian Sun. It is from the pen of
Rev. w. W. Staley, D. D., pastor
OF the Christian Church at Suf-
folk, Va.
The first newspaper, 1.-THE
Weekly News was published in
England in 1862, and that is only
287 years ago. The first religious
newspaper, the Herald of Gospel
Liberty, was published in Ports
mouth, N. H., September 1. 1908,
more than one hundred years ago.
If one will review the history of
civilization and Christianity it
will appear that this agency we
call journalism has led in human
progress. The newspaper is to
knowledge what transportation is
to commerce. Before railroads
and steamboats,, the products of
the earth were exchanged in small
quantities and in small Arrears
but now ice from cold regions and
fruits from sunnyssclimes are ex-
changed and all thessworld contri-
butes to the local markets.and the
dinner table of peasants rs we'll as
kings. This does not only increase
the wealth of the world but the
sympathy and interest Of man
kind. The man in Canada is con.
cerned about the orange crop in
Florida and the pineapple in Gu
ba. The exchange of ideas is as
important as the exchange of ma
terial products. The thought of
far-of lands is brought to us on
the printed page. We know TO-
day that the Shah of Persia was
deposed yesterday and we will
know tomorrow whether Persia
will be partitioned between Eng
land and Russia. A cargo of in
formation is transported more
rapidly than acargo Of wheat and
cotton, for much of it is sent by
wire. This electric current can
carry thought around the world in
very shorttime. Then the pa
pers reproduce it, multiply it, and
send it forth into every nook and
corner of society. Millions read
it and feel the nearness of far
away peoples. Our thought is no
longer the thought of our neigh
borhood. the provincial stock of
our local output, but our thought
is made up of the thinking and
doing of the world. As exchange
of products makes us richer and
better furnished, so exchange of
ideas makes us wiser and reduces
the prejudices of dead centuries.
In the Bible we have not only the
thought Of centuries, but the
thought of God. It is this
thought that enl1ghtens our spirit
ual understanding and enrlches
our souls. A god of stone can
produce nothing but a small cold
man; but God of Heaven and
earth can enlarge the worshipper
until he shall be like Christ As
good flowers reproduce the beau.
teous oolors of the seven. .colored
light and the sweet odors of earth
and air, SO good papers reproduce
the intelligence and heart char.
acter of all ages and all climes.
I am writing all this to enquire
of the reader whether we apprec-
late a good paper. Dc we appre-
ciate the labor, the wide research,
the self.denial, the honest effort
of the editor who endeavors to
spread before us safe and nour-
ish1ng soul-repast? Left to your.
self how much would you know?
Do you not parrot the newspaper
and almost forget where you got
your last supply? Even SO you
eat your oysters and do not think
of the man who stood on the boat
on cold winter day, when the
wind was tossing his barge up and
down and, with almost frozen
hands tongs up from the bottom
of the river those luscious BIZ
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