The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-10-14
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THE EDITORS MISSION.
Manufacturers Record.
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None knows when the first sentinel
was posted. No doubt the caveman set
his son upon high place to shout
his warning of impending danger.
Armies do not sleep without keen,
wakeful men to guard them. More
important than any army is a civiliza-
ton. 1t is vast thing, outreaching
the horizon of any human eye, always
moving, never still. 1t represents
wealth, achievement, the accumulated
accomplishments of centuries in
knowledge and experience. 1t, too.
must have its sentinels.
Men have said to us that editors are
always finding something the matter
with things. 1t is pity that the all
legation is not more generally true 1t
is an easy task to sleep on duty. Nor
is the trained and skilled sentry apt to
waste his time in calling out at the
midnight hour that the stars are twin
king and that all is peace and quiet
1t is not his duty to note the usual
ana Identify the harmless. He is at
MS post to look for trouble and report
1t when 1t comes. What the sentinel
is to an army, the editor is, or should
be, to civilization and to national in
stitutions.
An intellect trained In the science of
close analysis. apt in the ability to
pierce through the false and see the
truth beneath, competent to unearth
concealed dangers, quick to sense the
menace in proposals that are plausible
but Inherently menacing, as sensitive
TO illogical conclusions as the trained
ear is to discord, is true editorial in
tellect
The instinct for the chase which is
thus developed in the editor is the
warranty of his efficiency. There are
editors, of course, who achieve success
by not thinking. They are content to
say nothing in many words. Thus
they offend none. They are impotent,
but not harmless. The editor, on the
other hand, who is true to his profas-
SIGN and dedicated at heart to Ihe
full performance of the functions his
calling demands of him is inevitably a
srin1ng mark for the arrows of those
who love sham and hypocrisy and
hate truth. He Is a fighter, battling
fOoay against hypocrisy and tomorrow
against the rattlesnike He is no cyntc
and no pessimist, although his pen is
forever pointing out the weak spots
and excoriating the corrupt. The doc
tor does not, bother with the well. his
place of business Is the sickroom, The
editor, unfortunately, must spen6 noxt
Of 'llis time also at the operating
table
IL we should try to describe all that
Is good and true and holy and rca
Ing and inspiring in America. ouf
hand would palsy before the task couId
be accomplished, and there IS not
enough white paper on which to print
the fact. There is so much more good
than there is bad; so much more To
commend than there Is to condemn
But that which is good needs no euIo
gist. and that which is bad can never
IND enough denunciators.
Tnis country and the world needs
more editors who can see straight and
who are not afraid to tell what they do
see. Ii those who by their calling are
charged with the responsibility for
diagnosing the wisdom OF government
proposals and the trend of events
prove incapable or negligent, the peo-
pie must perish. Progress is no. a
natural thing. 1t is won by hard
fighting and retained only in the same
way. The tendency of mankind is 70