The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-04-15
JEFFERSON DAY
At UNIVERSITY
ALL LECTURES SUSPENDED TO
HEAR ADDRESS BY DIR. Will
LIAMs ON "PUBLICITY."
FUNCTIONS OF PRESS
FIRST CENTURY OF PUBLICITY
BEGAN WITH THE PRESIDENCY
OF JEFFERSON AND II
STILL CONTINUES.

/ 4,-Ihe university VI lIElitiA ttIhN
celebrated in a formal way the birth
day of it's founder, Thomas Jefferson.
All lectures were suspended this
morning and the faculty and students
assembled in Cabell hall at II o'clock
to hear the chief speech of the oc-
casion, delivered by DR.. Talcott Will
liams, director of the Pulitzer School
of Journalism, who had for his sub
ject, Publicity"
DIR. williams began by saying that
this is a Jefferson year, that presi-
dent of the Jefferson type is at Wash
ington, In his task Woodrow Wilson
has profted beyond any other man
in our recent history by the news
paper. Thanks to the advance in
Journalism he. through all his cam
paign. had the country for an au-
dience. To jefferson no such fair
fortune came. The real extent of
their INSTRUMENTATION Is known only
to those who are In a position to
confront facts within their knowledge
with the lies of the day" said JEFF
ferson
Yet the man who said this laid
the foundation Of national liberty for
the press of the nation. He urged and
aided in securing its protection in our
fundamental law He pressed like
safeguards In the constitution Of Vir-
ginta- "Our liberty" he declared.
depends on the freedom Of the
press Were it left to me to de-
eide whether We should have a gov
eminent without newspapers or news
papers without a government, 7 should
not hesitate a moment TO prefer the
latter" Where the press Is free and
every man is able to read, all is safe.
He rejected official censorship.
Press Is Not Partisan.
Our first century of publicity began
with his presidency. Congress opened
its doors. The executive made pub
lie every act The area Of social,
personal and official facts laid bare
by the press still yearly grows Moth
ing Is concealed. Jefferson's condem-
nation of the newspaper Is still re-
peated, but the principle that pub
Lefty is the best protection of liberty,
he urged, is universally accepted. The
personal attack from which jefferson
suffered is not remotely equalled by
the press OF today at its worst Par
tisanship never has less controlled
the newspaper. The American news
paper never so truly broke from party
ties. the Democratic in 1895 and the
Republican in 1912, as in the past
twenty years.
The newspaper is no longer In
dividual No newspaper Is one man.
When newspaper circulation was
numbered by hundreds or a few
scanty thousands, one man spoke.
When circulation Is numbered by the
hundred thousand. many speak. The
newspaper is composite. 1t is the
office Of a newspaper to create and
express the common consciousness Of
- L
mon knowledge. Its opinion expresses
the mass opinion of the larger share
Of its readers or 1t gradually colors
their thought and purpose. In news
papers, he e4tp he State and the
nation each knows itself Through
publicity, public acts become visible.
public will forms, When national con-
ventions meet and legislatures, State
and national. assemble, the greater
parliaments of the people have re-
duced their action 10 a narrow choice
and decided enactments.
Publicity Then and Now.
To jefferson. publicity was the
publication in small sheet written
by one man of meager and Inaccurate
knowledge. crumbs fallen from off
ciaI tables, Publicity today in the
the newspaper is vast meshed net
cast into the ocean of national life,
sounding all its depths. revealing its
lowest depths and gauging all its NOV
ing floods, refiuent as the tides OF
Aulis To picture daily, as does the
American press, the acts, the events
the purposes and the will of the
nation as a whole. is n greater
achievement than to he, AS newspapers
once We're, the megaphone of some
genius in journalism.
ta kYzSe 8
the public itself Unless the light of
consciousness he without wavering. no
knowledge can be trustworthy, no
purpose can he wise. no Will can be
guided Alright to nohler and greater
ends. The newspaper alone groups,
co-ordinates, unites and sets in MT
tual action and i'm common knowl-
edge. the working of all the parts Of
society as consciousness brings to
one focus In the individual. sense
experience, memory. intellecton,
Judgment and will.
At Bar of Public Opinion.
1t is because 1t has this high and
unique duty that the newspaper is
peretually at the bar of public opinion
How can the public practice patience
forhearance or forgiveness with the
precise organ by which and through
which society sees itself as a whole
and comes TO the common conscious
ness of its own common knowledge.
thought. desire and will? This is
the mystery in the soul of the Ameri-
can State that in the newspaper it
has found the medium by which an
hundred millions. over 5000, 600
square miles, have daily the same
facts, think the same thoughts. pom
der the same issues and divide, aware
of the difference which leads to
division. The German newspaper eX-
presses a bureaucracy. serving an
autocrat. highly organized admins
trative unit. French Journalism Is
Paris.
Up to this present day, the Eng
lish press led by the Times, expresses
the ablest ruling class, constantly
recruited from below, history has
known The American newspaper
instead had to bend the bow Of that
many natured Ulysses much travelled.
a great nation widely diffused and
thronged with that man of many wan
behring's. the immigrant 1t has ac-
complished the task and its bow once
strung. its arrows have slain many
public marauder pretending love for
the people but to rob The more
Union the statesmen of Virginia saw