The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-03-23

ii tacit alliance with the minions OF
sects and organizations, powerfully
financed and skillfully Differed. whose
mission in life is to legislate people IN
to morality and goodness? 1t matters
not, my friends, whence emanateS this
insidiOus movement. 1t is enough TO
know that it really exists, that it is
not chimera or myth. Such let
ter is an insult to the intelligence and
the integrity of every publisher in
America, and there is no redress for
the studied affront.
Quoting from one who has made
long study of this insidious advance up
on the freedom of the press, let these
statements have place in your minds:
The fight for censorship Of the columns
| of the newspapers will not stop with at
tacks on liquor advertisements. or. indeed,
| with attempts to control advertisements.
Several states now prohibit the manu-
| facture or sale OF cigarettes, and it IS
inevitable that legislation against news
papers carrying cigarette advertisements
in such states will be urged.
After the advertising department of
| every newspaper and magazine has been
subjected 20 censorship, how can the news
| columns remain free? What Of horse
| FACING reports; stock market quotations;
| Sunday baseball information-indeed. why
not suppression of Sunday papers, and of
! Monday papers printed in whole or in
part on the Sabbath?
But what of editorial liberty? If 1t be
| decreed that the use of liquor and of
! cigarettes is hurtful alike to the Individual
and to society. is II not an act of hostil-
! ity to the state and to the church for
an editor to praise an old wine, or to
refer indulgently to the ''makins" Of a
! cigarette or to oppose In any way the
cause Of prohibition?
How long will It be, wonder, before
American people are Jared into realiza-
! ton that soon they must look for dicta-
ton to what they may eat or drink.
as to what lines OF business they may
engage in. and as to how a newspaper
| may be edited, and what forms Of ad-
vertising it may carry into the different
! states?
And, gentlemen Of the Associated
Ohio Dailies, we are to blame. We
have created the Frankensteins that
are now turning to rend us limb from
limb Drunk with power, riding a
wave of fanaticism in a sea of pater-
nalism, the creatures Of our own max
ing seek our destruction. The Wanted
power Of the press is no more. The
locks of Sampson have been shorn by
the Delilahs, miscalled statesmen, and
the press grovels before oficialdom
| grateful for look, kind word or a
less importunate kick than usual.
Intolerance Of Offcialdom.
Two years ago, before this body,
| nj nf "a nu-th Of
governmental officiousness which was
more prophetic than | knew. Your
attention was directed at that time to
the increasing insolence and intoler-
ance of officialdom and the prediction
was made that, unless checked and re-
pressed with a stern hand, it would
rise up to strike down its creators. It
is in no spirit of arrogance or boast
fulness that these facts are recalled,
but in spirit of sorrow and humilia-
ton. Our sins of omission and COM
mission are engulfing us. Instead Of
rising like valiant fighting men, true
to conscience, TO honor, to the spirit Of
freedom and progress of civilization,
to strike down our shackles, we sit
like hoary dotards wrapped in the
sackcloth and ashes of lament and re-
shall this endure?
Where are the forward looking men
of today? Certainly not in the halls of
legislation. State legislatures from
the Atlantic to the Pacific are feeble
cOunterfeits merely of a dOddering
congress. Here in Ohio why can we
not have constructive legislation on
the subject of taxation? The answer
is painfully simple because we lack
constructive statesmen in the general
assembly. Too great a percentage Of
the membership can not lift its ears
from the ground to take a good,
square, honest look upon the neces-
stiles Of sections and taxing divisions
remote from the bailiwicks to which
they look for continued lease on Off
cial life.
A Dartmouth professor is sponsor
for story that aptly portrays the sit
uation in which we find ourselves
A householder was dismayed one night
| by the sudden eXtinguishment of the cleo
trio lights in his house In little while
1T became apparent that the darkness
/ would probably continue through the night
unless the break could be located and cor
rected. Una BILE at that hour to secure
the services of expert electrician the
householder hit upon the happy scheme Of
detae ching the batteries from his doorbslls
and connecting them with his electric
feed wires But no light resulted. Next
day the experts to remedy the
trouble, and seeing the hapless eXpedient
Of the owner, remarked:
Don't you know that 1t takes 500 times
more power to produce light than 1t takes
! TO produce noisef"
There 10 the whole situation in q
nutshell. We are troubled with low
voltage statesmen, the tiny dry cells
of whose brains are just powerful
enough to make unceasing racket,
while great dynamic minds that might
food the world with legislative light
and wisdom are disconnected from the
machinery of government.
Two years later at this annual gath
| erinR | yentured to scold and to Al.