The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-06-30

ISOLATION brings out the main idea 1
wish to present and leave with you.
OF course, | shall suggest numerous
ways in which the editor should act
as crusader, but my main purpose Will
be achieved if only the simple seed
though of my title gets well lodged
into your minds and takes good root
there.
The editor, / repeat. must be a cru
sador-a fighter for the common good.
lie must not only record what is, but
he must hold up the vision of what
ought to be-and help achieve that
vision.
lie must not only record his DRY,
but he must help make history. His
true function is no more limited 10
that of holding up a mirror of the
community's activities han is the
preachers true function limited to
holding up q mirror Of the
ity's moral life. Each instead must
be a crusader, a leader. The editor
who regards his duty only as that Of
recording the news of the community
of setting down that which is with
out making a fight for the finer thing
hat ought to be-such an editor
makes himself q mere photograph
record in a place where the Almighty
intended him TO he a leader and a
prophet.
This then is the burden of my mes
sage: You must be a fighter. You
must see a vision. You must follow
the CLEAN.
Twenty years ago when I was a
barefoot farm boy in q one-room
schoolhouse in Chatham county,
found in old Reed and kellogg's
Grammar a paragraph from Horace
Greeley on the editors duty hat
have never forgotten, and since it
presents more forcibly than language
Of mine could do the ideal | am try
ing to hold up for every editor, L beg
your indulgence while l repeat to you
this paragraph:
PATH know not whether there be
any now qualified to tread it; / am
not sure that any one has ever fol
lowed it implicitly; in view of the Ger
tain meagcrness of its temporal re-
wards, and the haste Wherewith any
fame acquired in a sphere so ephe.
neral as the editors must be ShrOud.
&c by the derk waters OF oblivion
This path demands III ear ever OpeT
to the plants Of the Wronged and The
suffering, though they can never re
pay advocacy, and those who mainly
seaport newspapers Will be annoyed
and often exposed by it; Il heart q.
sensitive TO oppression and degrade
ton in the next street as if they were
practiced in Brazil or Japan; a pei
as ready to expose and reprOye tn,
crimes whereby wealth is amasSed ant
luxury enjoyed in our own country a
this hour as if they had been com
mitted only by Turks or Pagans il
Asia some cetHuries ago.
The Difficulties summed Up.
OF course, l realize that it is no
always easy to live UP to Greeley
IDEAL. and by way of making du
nllnyEnnra for the 6iHinJ1jtipC a IN re
minded Of a rather accurate summing
up of these difficulties which wa
given by Will Allen White, the famou
Kansas editor. at a meeting Of tn
National Editorial Association | at
tended some years ago. 1t was Will
Roosevelt was President, and Whit
put the matter in his usual vivid fash
ton by comparing his own case wit
thai of President Roosevelt:
The President he said, is a SUI
cessful reformer. He has done mar
useful things, in a fine a But some
times when the telephone in the CO
zette office is having a fit, and til
man with a firm set mouth and
naughty air, is in the business offic
stopping his paper, there comes
funny thought. to the editorial mine
What do you suppose Roosevelt woul
do if he were running the oyster b
Tribune? Would he go right afts
the gamblers and Saloon-keepers an
violators of the law. who lived in h
town. would he print the item tn;
showed how the local banker w;
gouging in his interest account, wou,
ne dare To go to the courthouse ar
get the personal property tax list al
run tor would he consider IL
larger good and take his typewritt
in hand and blaze away at the pra
tice opolygamy in Utah, the iniqui
OF the fruit trust in California, or I'll
violation of the game laws in Maine
Vt is one thing to be a President wi
fifty thousand dollars a year rainil
on the tin roof whether you work
not, and quite another thing to
be the editor 81 n country paper in
board sidewalk town, dependent up,
retaining the good graces of the pc
pie for your board m keep. The
1is something inspiring in the sweet
solemn thought that you lon't fe
Saturday night, that gives q Pre-!
dent courage in busting the trus
which a country editor knowing tn