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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1878)
432 TltK MAUCII OK 1NTKM.KOT. Vol.. Vlt. the press. Wlint cim be ils power? When wo 9nv uctlvity pervading every workshop mul wealth glcam"d from every hamlet, wo ulso saw this mighty industry thrown to the winds und u million men enraged by the harangues of the press, step forth to nobly decide the fate of slav crj. So thoroughly had the freeman of the North been instilled with hatred foitlie horrors of slavery, that it required only the electric spark to explode the mine of civil war. With that struggle we realized the power of the press. Then when wo sue such a colossal pow. cr augmented by its influence and intrin sic value, vested in the press, how great must be its trust, how grave its rosponsi hilitvl Man can as easily fathom that responsibility as estimate its power. If conllicts have occurcd before, they will occur again. If society has been once revolutionized, it will be again. Up on all these changes, theso trials the press now sits as judge and jury. Society is ever active, cither progress ive or digressive. Every day presents a new development in the mysteries of the universe. The responsibility of the press is then conUnual. If justice is domanded, the press suggests. Without its support the judge delays his decision. The me chanic watchos it for inventions; The scicntest for new theories. Then when we see tho fate of society bound up in so mighty an invention, wo can but wonder at its complicated machinery yel quail before its colossal power. What wo want, then, what the times imperatively demand, is an impartial con trol of the press, not monopolized by par. tisans but controlled by mon who hayo brains enough to look at both sides of the same question. Without this partial re form in the press tho friends of liborty may well mistrust the motives of its ac tions. For though it has brougnt freedom in its early youth, yet in its gigantic growth it must not snatch that liberty from our grasp. To protect this liberty and to insure tho purity of tho4"prcss, this thas; become tho duty of tho citizen. Hut to guide the so. cial and political interests of forty mill ions of people, this.has bccomo4tho duty, this tho responsibility of the Amorlcan press. ToxoraiMJs. THE MARCH OF IXUSLLKOT. From the time of creation till now, change has been the one important word stamped upon the pages of history. Parts of tho earth onco graced by nut lire's fairest ornaments now form the beds of oceans. Cities, the birth-place of thought and intelligence, lioburiod in the dust. Nations have risen, passed away, and are forgotten. Theories, govern ments, and customs have had their day and been replaced by others. Languages, by which mind communicated with mind, arc now unspoken. Countless ages have marked these changes, but the end is not yet. The crown of perfection, which the nations of the earth have been slowly Hearing, is .still immeasurably distant. The past is unchaugable; the present and future arc moulded by our lives. What shall tho future be? I doubt not that somotimo in the life of every individual, this question .has proscnted itself, but to very many it remains unsolved. They pass it by, and livo they know not why. Some, however, realize 'the responsibility of their existence, and livo for thejennobl ing of humanity and the enlightenment of tho world. No ago is without .its Tew great men. Injovicwing the past, we find a Ciusar, the greatest ruler tho world has over known, to whom the common people bowed in reverence, and had no will but Ciusar's; a Shakespeare, whose dramas to-day move an audience to tears or laughlor, so ntal are his pictures; a Michael Angolo, whose paintings hold the eyes of tho world in wonder and ad miration; a Watt, who saw in invisible