The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-04-28
mr.. HARRIS SPEECH AT ITALIA
HASSEE

ence and Scope of the Press" was de-
livered by Editor Frank Harris of the
Ocala Banner on Tuesday. night, be-
fore the meeting of the State Press
Association at Tallahassee, the states
capital:
Mr.. President. Ladies and Gentle
men:
There is fugitive piece going the
rounds of the press giving out the in
7 formation that in the excavations of
the cities of remote antiquity there
was recently unearthed a manuscript
ante-dating the Bible several hun
dred years-perhaps, as many as a
thousand years.
1t is stated that this document has
been carefully and accurately trans
lated, and would you believe it, while
it contains only eighteen pages, it
bemoans the age in which it was writ
ten and eulogizes the good old
times" it extolls the fathers" says
with degree of pride that there were
giants in those days." and with pit
iful lamentation it cries out that now
there is "only vanity and vexation of
Esprit" Swathed in bitter sack cloths
and ashes, it sadly exclaims: 80 tenn
pora; o mores!"
How unwittingly but faithfully have
we followed in the footsteps of that
: ancient document. We still laud the
SAfathers and proclaim that there were
could not tell lie, and the patriots
rushed to arms not for the desire of
office and the privilege of governing
themselves, but because the mother
country placed a little tax on tea
Suppose that we were to rush to
war now for taxing such little things
as bibulous luxuries-"near beer"
and the like-we would be in a more
constant state of effervescence and
eruption than Mexico and the South
American republics.
+. What a conspicuous and formidable
place does the Elder Bennett, Wat
son Webb, George D. Prentice AMI
Hroace Greeley occupy in the history
of journalism in America, yet COM
pare their publications with those of
today, whose authors are almost un-
known, and they appear as the swad-
ding clothes of the infant beside the
costly and elaborate Worth creations
of our times.
Some years ago was shown a copy
of the New York Herald, printed a
day after the assassination of Pres
ident Lincoln. 1t had then achieved
reputation not only national, but
worldwide, yet it was scarcely as
large as the Sunday edition of the
Ocala Banner.
~ Such make -shift for a newspaper
. would not be tolerated today in any
city in the United States of twenty
- thousand inhabitants.
When Mr.. Pulitzer bought the New
York World, not so terribly many
years ago, it was no larger than the
weekly edition of the Ocala Banner,
and it's circulation scarcely exceeded
that of the Florida Times Union, and
- yet New York City, at that time, in
Guiding it's present territorial limits,
had a population of at least two mil
lions.
Jacksonville has population of
scarcely more than $4,000 In visiting
there the other day, | was shown
through the Times-Union plant. Its
mammoth press, occupying one of the
lower rooms, cost $4,000. One sec
tion prints sixteen pages, and the
other thirty-two pages. Both sections
can be printed separately or together.
1t has the color attachments and it
: eats up great rolls of paper with mar
velous rapidity.
Some of the editions of the Times
Union contain 40, go, and on special
occasions as many as 80 pages. Thir-
ty years ago no newspaper in New
York, London or Paris possessed such
press or printed anything like so
large a newspaper.
The press owned and operated by
the Jacksonville Evening Metropolis
is scarcely a whit behind that of the
Times Union, and it's achievement, es-
pecially in the local field, has been
wonderful.
After visiting these establishments
l was quite surprised to read in one
of our brightest weekly publications
that Jacksonville is without a daily
newspaper"
- We are so in the habit of depreciat-
ing those things which are immedi-
!. ately around us.
Familiarity breeds contempt" mo
man appears big in the eyes of his