The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-07-27
THE GEORGIA EDITORS.

| The Georgia editors have just concluded
their annual outing. The convention was helc
at Carrollton, where the scribes were royalty
entertained From there they went to his
toric Chickamauga, where a repetition OF
delightful entertainment was showered up
on them.
1t is opportune to pay a tribute to the
sterling integrity, the splendid character and
the lofty idealism of the men who in the city
and town and even in hamlet weekly give
their efforts and their souls to the common
good Once the editor was sem-obJect OF
economic charity. Now he is an outstanding
business man whose success is the work. OF
! his own hands, the product of his own energy
| the result of his own ability. Newspaper
publishing is on a business basis now just
as the bank, the retail establishment, or any
other enterprise is The editor walks with
head erect among his fellowmen, asking no
favors and making no complaints about the
Injustice of an ungrateful public. He has a
substantial commodity to sell-a commodity
that is demanded by more people than de-
mand any other single article except bread
and meat and clothes. He no longer sells
moonshine, but substance.
The changed conditions of newspaper pub
fishing from what they were twenty years ago
has not lowered the dominating force and
power of the man who yields the quill. On
the contrary, the editorial power of the press
has increased with its business betterment.
Instead of few great geniuses, few Hor-
zers and Charles A. Danas who in their
day dominated the newspaper field by their
giant intellects and force of character, the
fraternity has become more equalized. There
are fewer great lights and fewer mediocre
ones. The level of journalism in the mass is
far higher than it was twenty-five years ago.
True there are yet plenty of publishers who
are not editors. There are many who look
at the cash register instead of the public in
terest as the test of their newspaper sue
cess. But they are decreasing, and the de-
mands of the reading public for matter in
stead of filler" is forcing men of that tenn
permanent either to quit the business or to
change their policies. The editors are doing
much, both in their conferences and conven-
tions and as individuals, to raise the standard
of journalism as the standard of the bsiness
office has been raised.
The editors have forgotten the worries of
the grind, the pressure of details and Difficult
ties, the sharp points of life in the harness,
the grouches and pessimism and iconism of
the ffty-two weeks and twelve hours day
of the publishing office, and fraternized and
mingled and jollied in a brief respite and
vacation. They have forgotten the undis-
tributed pile of ''pi," the stones loaded with
"dead ads" the dirty fountain, the bucking
the soft rollers, the absence
of print stock, the hook of waiting jobs, the
unwritten copy and the decreasing bank bal
ance in the delights of a week with their fell
low publishers.
The editors return-to their work with re-
newed force. They have a wider view of
humanity. They begin anew the effort to
serve their fellowmen with brain and effort
and wisdom, each as he sees the right, but
always with the same idealism. The acrimo-
MES of partisan strife will be more tolerant
and fair, and will have more of the give and
take than would be possible without the in
of editors in person. And in the
end the great work of the press-'the coun-
try press"-will be bettered. It's influence
will multiply and its power increase as the
conservation of the editors flow into
the columns of their papers.