Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1859 — Henry Ward Beecher on Newspapers. [ARTICLE]

Henry Ward Beecher on Newspapers.

Consider how universal are newspapers in America. They penetrate every nook and corner of society. No other element of power has such a sphere. The pulpit, flic court, tiie lec-tiii e , compared with the newspaper, toiu fi society in lut -tew place.--. The newspaper in America is universal. It readies within-and. without, Irom surface to core, it tralyeis -everywhore, is bought by everybody, read by all classes, and -is wholly % or iie.iriy the only reading’ oi more than half our population. Ils.-service to good morals and to intelligence among the people, is incalculable. All the libraries of Europe are not of as much serv-ice to the nations oi Europe as tiie newspaper.-; is to this American nationItsjpower is growing. Who would, twenty ve..rs ago, have dreamed of such a growth untl power, as.has been developed- But the lU'Xt twenty yviws will ii . The editor is to be the si-hduimm-ter; The best, talent will find its sphere in the editoria! room. Already the t'iiair is more influential than the Bei.-cii or the Flaf’orni. No brain can a'' upon so .many as that which speaks by t’e- print! tig pres- of the daily pal’d"- Lit; beats like fil »>d it* the veins of the nation.—.V «• Yo'rk f'idrp ndv/it.