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A Family Companion, Devoted to Literature, Miscellany, News, Agriculture, Markets, &c. Vol. XII. WEDNESDAY MORNING, JUNE 14, 1876. No. 24. THE HERALC is PU13INHEI) EVERY WEDYESDAY MORNING, At Newberryq S. 03. BY TH{OSt F. GJRENK19%R Editor and Proprietor. Terms.9 $2.50.p"r jAnul9k Invariably in Advance. 27N,e~ el to*pd at the expiration OJ Uop The X4 mark denotes expiration of mb sception. ADDRESS CAPT. FRANCIS W. DAWSONq (Of the Charlwston News and Courier,) -_T0 TE STATE PMWS ASW=TIN101 Delivered at the Annual. Meeting in SpartanbuT.q, S. C., May 10, 1876. GeAtlemen of the South Carolina 'Press Association, and Ladies and Gentlemen: "The Press is a mill that grinds all that is put into its hopper. Fill the hopper with poisoned grain and it wlllgrind it to a meal but there is death in the bread. 7-Bryant. Whether the newspaper press shall build up or pull down; whether it shall StinmulateLaorality or enqp age vice; whether it shall give health fulness to thought and vigor to ac tion,or palsy the hand and fetter the toune of them who wouLld ex pose the myriad forms of modemn P smdepends mainly upon the ebaracter and pDurposes of those heavens where each word, as it i~ uttered, sets its eternal seal. And so, oat of his own mouth, shall ev must he be imbuedwith a deep sense of personalresponsibility; It is his first debt to the public. "This responsibility is not a sen timent. It finds practical expres sion in every department of a news paper; in conscientious working, in doing nothing and writing nothing that is not, in him who says or writes it, generous and just. It forbids whatever can defile or de base ; any dalliance with impurity, any gloating over sickening sto ries of crime. The newspaper must give the news. Little is gained by attempting to suppress it. But between the coldly exact statement, which is assumed to be indispeisa ble, and the highly colored pen pic tures of which some journals are fond, there is the difference that we see between a nude antique and the meretricious suggestiveness of Op era Bouffe. And in editorial writing, in expressing the thoughts and opin ions of the newspaper, the sense of responsibility should be even more keen and constant than in determin ing what shall go to counting-room orfiresidein the guise of news. What is said by any of us in the streets has little effect upon the fortunes of a people ; it is heard and re membered only by the few. But what is printed in a newspaper be comes known to thousands; and for it,the community known to read and support that newspaper are held accountable. It matters little, in these disjointed times whether the community approve or disapprove of what is written; whether the newspaper represents or misrepre sents them. Their enemies take their approval for granted; the wish again is father to the thought. For the reason harsh and bitter words in the public prints are sins against the public. They are made the excuse for. new wrongs and fresh oppressior. They thrust peo ples assunder, and are the breath in the nostrils of the demagogue. Blame not the Southern newspaper if it speak less hotly and defiantly than the private citizen is tempted to do. It counts the coast to the public. A day will come, perhaps, when lips need not be sealed ; when manly indignation and bold rebuke will not be misunderstood. That day has not come yet, and un til it does come the conscientious journalist must think first of the welfare of his public, and last of his own inclinations. There is another day that will never dawn ; the day when it is wiser, as it always is eas ier, to be headstrong and heedless than temperate, jtLdicious and full of thought. The sense of his rssponsibil ity will govern the journalist in small things as in great. No recog nized cheat or fraud should be al lowe I to make the press its instru ment or decoy. The ingenious knaves who prey on the public have little scope, unless, through unaccustomed or un susp ect e d channels, they can reach the pub lic ear. Close against them the columns of the press, and the big gest swindles of the day will plague their inventors more than they will harm the public. A corollary of this axiom is that advertise ments-announcements of any kind for whose publication money is paid -shall be so printed that their true character is known and cannot be mistaken. A particular part of every newspaper is allotted to paid announcements. Shrewd advertisers always prefer that their advertise ments shall go in some other part of the paper than in. the regular advertising columns. Their object is to give to their announcements a weight that they would not have if their true character were known. Their reason for concealing the fact that these announcenents are paid for, and are neither more nor less than advertisements, is a sufficient reason why these announcements, and all of the same class, should be marked and designated as adver tisements. Then the advertiser can vaunt the merits of their wares as they please and the public read and judge for themselves. This rule applies to all pur chased or purchasable praise or censure of any person or thing. The newspaper is expected to give the public .its candid views ; and jwhen we print for price any opin tertained we must be open to the imputations, that we have sold our influence with those who only trust us because of our fancied disinter estedness. It is hardly necessary to say that announcements that are evidently against g o od morals should not be taken at any price. The journalist who prints-bqch no tices as those which are flaunted in the wealthiest journal in America, is no better than a pander. These are illustrations enough of the application of that sense of practicable responsibility which is demanded of the journalist; and with that responsibility must be as sociated its handmaidens-Fear lessnes and Indegjndence. The truth is seldom welcome; the whole truth is commonly un palatable. To dare to tell the truth is, generally speaking, to dare to be unpopular. Untruth is more attract ive at the first glance than truth and not in the 19th century more than in the 16th. Wise Bacon said: "This same truth is a naked and open day light that doth not show the mas ques and mummeries and triumphs of the world half so stately and daintily as candlelight. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a dia mond or carbuncle that showeth best in varied lights." Is it not, however, the place of a journalist to play the pedagogue, md treat the public in administer ng the naked truth, as children who 3an be "kept in" or birched, if they nurmur or sulk. It is his duty to remonstrate, to rebuke, and to con lemn, when pernicious plans are doot, an d pernicious counsels fhreaten to prevail; when what is learly and palpably bad or injuri >us is advised or contemplated. Lhis is Ao pleasant task. It is eas er to float with the popular tide ;han to pull against the stream. ind to pull agaisnt the stream is. bhe inexorable duty of every jour 2alist who believes that the tide is getting away from the shores of ruth. Hence the need of fearful aess in journalism. Whether a newspaper must, with aut reservation, proclaim whatever its conductor believes to be true md knows .to be unpopular is a ~noot question. It has a double bearing. Continued unpopularity, iowever gained, ensures failure in journalism Shall the journalist then unhesitatingly say and do what, in his judgment, will ruin the busi cess of his newspaper, cause the oss of its capital, and deprive him of the means of serving and hding the public ? This ques tion each journalist must decide for himself. I am free to say, how ver, that in my opinion telling the whole truth, frankly and kindly, not with dogmatism and temper will in olve no newspaper in lasting loss. This requires nerve, and financial strength to stand the temporary oss that will surely come. So too there is need of adroit management. To make a blow effective we must be able to tell when the iron is hot. And persuasion oftentimes succeeds where dictation only excites opposi ion. In the old fable of the man and the cloak, the mild rays of the sun were more potent than the blus tering winds. The lesson is a wholesome o n e. Nevertheless, stern, sharp, truths, cutting like a sword, crushing like a hammer, are frequently requisite. When a member of the body politic is cor rupt to the bone, it is idle to talk of slave or potion-the time for saw an knife has come. To tell the truth one must know it. How shall the journalist know the truth ? There cannot be two op posing and equally truthful views of the same subject. As to one thing there is only one right and one wrong. Yet journalists stand on different lines and with perfect sincerity advocate diametrically dif ferent views of the same question. This must be so. Time corrects the evil. What is wholly true will live, and the newspaper that preaches and practices it will live likewise. The pretended truth will die. Shall the newspaper that expounded it, and taught as true that which is shown to be false, likewise die the death?i Not unless it holds fast to the un truth, when its falsity shall be made -maniet e mnewsapers do this;: their commercial instincts forbid it. Obstinate perseverance in the practice of what has been proved to be untrue is left to knaves and fools.. Their journals die; or die for them, in changing hands and management. a To the sense of responsibility and the fearlessness of which 1 have spoken, the journalist should add independence-n o t independence of the profession of journalism, but independence in the sense that he shall have no calling or tie that can, under any oircumstances, place his personal interest in oppo sition to those of his public. Where newspapers are poor in purse, because newspapers readers are few, only a newspaper here and there can afford to engage the entire services of an editor fully qualified for the high duties of his place. The custom is to hire or beg the spare moments, or leisure hours, of some gentleman of ability, some fluent writer, who has opiniofs and likes to circulate them. In my judgment, and speaking of the South Carolina of to-day, it is wiser to hire the whole time and thought and work of a far inferior person. The latter can be independent, and except in rare instances, the former cannot. Suppose, for sake of ar gument, that the Judge of this Circuit is tyrannical, incapable, or corrupt, and the newspapers in the circuit are edited by lawyers who are dependent o-i their practice at the bar. Dare those lawyer-journalists exp6se the faults of that Judge, and condeng them as the public w requires that they be condemned ? To denounce the Judge is to be out of favor with him. To praise him, as Judges go, is to stand well with him. Lawyers known to be disliked by a' Judge are shunned by lit igants. What these want is to gain their causes; and they natu rally incline towards the lawyer who is supposed to have the ear of the Judge and is familiar with the court-house brick stairs. The law yer-journalist, in the case I suppose, is forced to choose between bold1 speech for the sake of the newspa per which amuses him, and silence of himself and his family. Is it to be expected that under such circum sances, the lawyer shall think al ways of his duty to the abstract public, and never of his obligations to himself ? Like cases in which absolute free dom from other ties and interests is essential to independence in jour nalism will readily suggest them selves to~you. I will mention only one of them. So long as a journal ist is in the active pursuit of his profession, he should not consent to be a candidate for any public office. I do not so exalt the profes sion of journalism as to think that the editor of a newspaper is more than Governor, Senator, or Pres ident. Nor is it meant that because an editor is a candidate for public office, he will necessarily be un faithful in journalism, or sleep on on his post. The objection is fundamental. Unless the public have implicit faith in the unselfish ness of a press, that press is shorn of its power; and the- public will not believe in the unselfishness of a journalist who is the champion of a party which isto give him, if the party prevail, some office of hon or and profit. Though he be pure as an angel, he shall not escape ! And, in truth, he must be more than a man to do his whole duty, bravely and vigorously, when, upon making friends here and avoiding making enemies there, shall depend his nomination and election. No act in the busy life of Horace Greely be came him more than his prompt with drawal from the newspaper he had founded, as soon as he was nomi nated for President. It had been better for him, if, true to the mis sion of journalism, he had neither coveted nor obtained the fatal prize. Still another quality is demnpnded of the journalist; something more than responsibility,fearlessness and independence. It is. Honesty, the Keystone of the arch. The Press is no Pope. It makes no serious claim to infallibility. What it must claim, what the public requires of it, is honesty of purpose. This is the paramount need of the journal ist. Without it, Responsibility and Ferlesness a n d Independence count for little. Remember, that insincerity in journalism is more injurious than in private life, because the printed and published equivocation or deceit goes forth to thousands who see it and are af fected by it. When then a journal ist publishes what he does not believe or defends what in his heart he condemns, or cringes to preju dice for. his own or his party's good, he is as many times a falsifier and deceiver as there are sheets on which his words are printed. A journalist, of course, should be loy al to the political party with which he is in sympathy. There is no thing dishonest in that. But polit ical parties are, in their purity, the exponents of well-defined and un derstood political principles, and the Press should not allow those principles to be overlooked or for gotten. In being the supporter of a particular party the newspa per is, or should be, the exponent of its principles; not the mere mouth piece of the leaders of the party defending them and their aims, whether constant with party p.i1 ciple or not. A newspaper,whatev er the fervor of its personal allegi ance, cannot be false to the govern mental principles which are the rea son of that party's being, and still truly be the representative of the party. It must talk plainly and constantly when a party is so con trolled that the objective of its managers is opposed to the purpose for whici the party was formed; and that purpose is, and always must be, not the preferment of in dividuals, but the good of the State and the Nation. Just here I venture to remind you of the difference between a po litical principle and those moral principles which form the moral law. Whosoever steals is a thief, and whosoever murders is a mur derer. There is no room there for dmnbt or misapprehesioi. But political principles are only con venient formulas, expressing what are conceived to be fundamental political truths. They are rules of tiction; they are laws, but not laws like the law of motion or of gravitation, which are exact, and admit of no dispute. We who are Democrats, and are guided by the principles of the Democratic party, are con.fident that our principles, and none other, are true. And they who are, intelligently and by conviction members of the Repub lican party believe that they- alone are right, and we are wrong. Nei ther can be sure that they are wholly right. The lapse of years, the survival of the fittest, will tell which of the two will best "insure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity." We should, therefore, be careful that we do not confound moral principle with political principle; what is sure with what is uncertain ; that we blame no man for honestly and con scientiously preferring one political creed or party to another; that we do not even censure him, who, with no selfish object, is converted or per verted from one party to another. All that we can fairly insist on is, that the man or the journal shall be true as steel to the party whose creed he or it professes. All that we can fairly demand is, none shall remain in our camp whose opinions or fancies fit them, as they and we know, to serve only with our enemy. I grant that the sense of respon sibility, the fearlessness, the hon esty and the liberality, whose nature and application I have endeavored to describe, are more difficult of complete attainment in journalism than in most professions. Mount we never so high, the peak where perfection sits is far beyond. Yet in gazing upon it, and aspiring to it, are we already elevated above those who linger on the plains, or are hidden in the valleys. The way of the journalist is steep and rugged ; but if it be seen that he steadily press onward, that his eye fixed on the heights above him, is few or none will be quick to blame if the bruised feet sometimes stum ble and slide, or if he should go astray, in some moment when the clouds of political discussion hide the straight path from sight. At ast I trust so ! The press, as I have shown, owe much to the public.; but the public owe something to the press. They 1who read can no more evade their obligation than they who write and print can escape theirs. It is to the interest of the reading pulMic to encourage men of character and standing, of brain and culture, to remain among them as journalists to encourage them by recognizing the nobility and value of their work. Journalism ranks high as a profes sion, because its capacity is great for good or evil. It preaches to more souls than the church does; it pleads more causes than the bar do; it destroys or confirms more diseases than medicine knows of. Of it may be said what Sieyes said of the Third Estate, the People: "It was nothing, it is something, it aspires to be everything." There should then be, in the dealings of the two powers, the Press and the Public, no sense of favor on either side, an entire absence of any feel ing of pecuniary obligation. Fa miliarly speaking, the purchaser of -t newspaper no more confers a fa -.or on the publisher of that paper than he who buys a piece of long cloth confers a favor on the mer chant who sells it-unless he knows that the article is not worth the money, in which case he has only himself to blame; or unless he was deceived as to its value, in which case he certainly will not buy a similar article at that place again. It is a business transaction. The newspaper is siold at so much a copy, and.its advertising at a fixed price. They who buy either get fall value for their money-so the seller thinks. If the buyers do not think so, they need not buy. Let this be once understood; and the public will no more expect valuable favors from a newspaper, because they are "old subscribers," "regu lar advertisers," and the like, than the purchaser of a barrel of flour expects the seller to throw in a demijohn of molasses as a mark of his appreciation of the honor done him in buying a good article at a fair market price. This may seem a very independent way of conduct ing a newspaper. It is nothing less. And in no other way that I know of can newspapers be made to occupy their proper relations to each other. But 'The support and countenance that the public owe to the newspa per is not entirely a matter of mo ney. In buying a newspaper the public do not buy men's souls. Yet it is expected, many a time, that the newspaper shall bow obsequiously to the demands of its readers, and, right or wrong, echo their com plaints. Of what worth is such a newspaper, a journalistic chameleon that takes the hue of what it feeds on? My friends ! the journalist who says or does any single thing, merely because it accords with the likes or dislikes of its readers, is unworthy of his profession, and un true to his public. For this reason should the publisher be at least as tolerant in dealing with newspapers as in dealing with each other. When one friend differs from another in opinion, does he denounce that other as dishonest or corrupt be cause of that difference ? Of course not! They believe each other to be upright and sincere, aiid lose no whit of their common respect. This is what the journalist exacts of his public. Be sure that his aims and objects are good, and you may be pretty sure that he will reach the right goal in the end. And if, work ing honestly and assiduously, he should fail, need he be outlawed and branded ? We of the South .know, only too well, that the cause which is lost is not always the cause which deserved to be lost'; and we who suffer by defeat, and, therefore, are quick to censure those who were conspicuous in a disastrous fight, should take heed, both press and public, lest our inactivity or distrust or obstinacy was instrumental in making that a rout which else had been a victory. When then any body of persons call upon the press to grapple with great wrongs, to expose evil-doers, to crush vice in the bye ways and expose, fraud and rascality in high places, those, persons must sustain that press heartily and ungrudging 1y. ts revenuae rnbuiness income is to the newspaper what the voice is to orator, and his verse is to the poet. It is, what, in man, the body is to the mind. The newspa per may hunger and be honorable; it may thirst and be true. But it is easier, my friends, to be honor able and true if hunger and thirst be satisfied, and there is, to them, no care for the morrow. In dealing with the press the public should judge as they would be judged, and do as they would be done by; they should recognize the many hardships and few re wards of the journalist's life; they should require only that the journal ist be faithful to the best that he knows, and, knowing that and feel ing it, they should hold up his hands in what is, at last, their bat tle, and. must be their gain or loss. For the journalist cannot prosper in his profession unless the cause of the public be his own. If he run counter to their best interests, he will go down as he ought to go down. Only see to it, you who are the public, that he go not down be cause of your lethargy or your dis trust! No doubt You recall the sweet sad words of Dryden: "My errors, I hope, are qnly those of charity to mankind; and such as my own charity has caused me to commit, that of others may more easily excuse." May it be thus with all of us. South Carolina, as a newspaper reading State, is far behind New England and the Northwest. This is a misfortune. Each one of you can do something to remedy it; not for the sake of the newspaper, but for yourselves. By reading and digesting the well-considered -views of others, you will enlarge and ripen your own. By knowing what oth ers around you have done,7owu will learn what best -to do yourselves. By looking across the mountains and over the waters of South Caro lina ; by watching those whose field in art, in commerce, and in agri culture, is broader than our own ; you will extend your horizon, strengthen your mer tal vision and become sensibly higher, better, and more liberal men. So can you, and shall you embrace what is best, cling to what is most wortyy and noble and true. Gentlemen of the State Press Association, my last words are to you. None deny the importance of the work that, as a body, we do; and "the degree of estimation in which any profession is held becomes the standard of the esti mation in which the professors hold themselves." Cicero has said that "there is not a moment with out some duty," and it becomes us, it is incumbent upon us, in. every duty of every moment, to act in such manner that we shall honor and respect oursevles in deserving the honor and respect of our pub lic. This, at least, we can do. It is charged, I know, that we some times abuse our power and neglect our opportunities. This may be so;, and yet J am confident that, when the great account shall be closed ; when the good and evil shall be weighed, and the debit and credit of journalism shall be count ed up, the balance will be in favor of the universal press, as having sought after and striven for the right, and having, in the midst of doubt and trial and peril, in the very shadow of tho Valley of IDarkoess, done what it could. Some such hope and faith as tbis is needed; for, of honor here and public fame, the journalist has lit tie. The greater the authority and the wider the sphere of the newspaper of which he is a part, the less is his need of public praise. No fumes of incense rise before him, as before the popular preach er; no plaudit comes to him as that which swells the breast and lights the eye of orator and actor. What the journalist says is said to thousands, enters into thousands - of hearts and is pon dered in a thousand brains ; and he who says it is unseen, if not unknown. The press makes thous andsTamous while its conductors are unhonored and unsung. The work that journalists do is bread cast upon the waters that seldom cometh back, even after many days. It matters little ! "Fame," in Pope's words, "can never make ADVERTISINC RATES, Advertisements inserted at the ra&% oft$.0 per square-one iuch-for Ainlsetion, and 75c. for each subsequent insertion. Double colamn nAvertisements tenPer cent on.W*be. Notices of meetings, obituaries and tibu Ids of respect, same rame per square as ordinaty advertisements. Special notices in local cola=n 15 cents perline. AdverdisemtntffnotmwA*ed wttb e -num - ber of insertions wff.be k%p* - n VU forid a nd charged acrigy Special coutraeft.ma& wMt lows adver tisers,2wimm,berad=sm abM-isrtes Jos PAtwwod;~ Done with Neatness and Dispatch Terms Cash. us lie down contentedly on a death bed." Nor are the substantial rewards of journalism in proportion to the_ wear and tear of the body and brain which whiten the hair and dim the eye of the working men. of the daily press. While others sleep we must work on. Abuses which escape the attention of the public must not escape ours What every other agency fails -to ACCOM-; plish, the press is expected to do,' and do it well. In the public,blan dering and negligence -and -indo lence seemed to be no serious f&ult -in the press they -are anp on able. And, at last, when the slep less vigilCnce, the keen criticiAm. the caustic humor, the sarc-asm. and invective, the loyalty and val or have done their work whin purity of government, publ-ic0 in:"" tellig6ee, and the public'ProsPer.i ity have been won, the journaliA' fee and recompens is-hM? T 7 enjoy their blessiWseqaiafty '' U& those to whom they-ca6me, as'thW