The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1911-04-27
POWER Of THE PRESS
Able and Logical Address of Editor
Harris Of the OcaIa Banner 10 the
Florida Press Association at TaIla-
hassee.

Association at Tallahassee, the states
capital:
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentle
men:
There is a fugitive piece going the
rounds of the press giving out the in
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 a degree of pride that there were
giants in those days" and with a pit
iful lamentation it cries out that now
there is only vanity and vexation of
spirit" Swathed in bitter sack cloths
and ashes, it sadly exclaims: 20 tenn
pora; o mores!"
How unwittingly but faithfully have
We followed in the footsteps Of that
ancient document. We still laud the
fathers and proclaim that there were
giants in those days." Washington
could not tell a 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 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
| son Webb, George d. Prentice an
| 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
a reputation not only national, but
worldwide, yet it was scarcely as
large as the Sunday edition of the
Ocala Banner.
| Such a make shift for a newspane.
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 its circulation scarcely exceeded
that of the Florida Times-Union, an6
cluding its present territorial limits
had a population of at least two mil
lions.
Jacksonville has a population O
there the other day, / was shOwr
through the Times Union plant. 1t:
mammoth press, occupying one of the
lower rooms, cost $4,000. One sec
tion prints sixteen pages, and thu
other thirty-two pages. Both sections
can be printed separately or together
1t has the color attachments and i
eats up great rolls of paper with mar
velous rapidity
Some of the editions of the Times
Union contain 40, so, and on specia
occasions as many as 80 pages. Thir
ty years ago no newspaper in New
York, London or Paris possessed sucl
press or printed anything like g.
large a newspaper.
The press owned and operated b.
the Jacksonville Evening Metropoli
is scarcely a whit behind that of tn
: Times Union, and its achievement. es
pecially in the local field, has bee
wonderful.
After visiting these establishment
was quite surprised to read in on
of our brightest weekly publication
that Jacksonville is without a dali
newspaper"
We are so in the habit of deprecia
ing those things which are immed
ately around us.
Familiarity breeds contempt" N
man appears big in the eyes of hi
valet" are true and familiar quot;
tions
In the good old days" the newsp;
, perS were not only inconseQuential
size but the habits of life OF thos
who were in control of them and en-
= ployed upon them were no better tha
the habits of the average editor OF L
= day. and no bigger in brain-power.
/ | make a random quotation frol
the History of Journalism in Anne
] ica," by Mr.. Frederic Hudson. He
! describing a visit to Mr.. Henry Wa
| terson at Louisville forty years ag
Mr.. Watterson is made to say:
- Concluded on Fourth Page.)