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UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION tell of them. "I have no responsibility for your causes and movements except to report the facts. I am among you, but not of you. I gaze upon humanity as the moon looks upon the earth. I am the eternal bystander. I am the recording angel; every day is the day of judgement. "I am not the magistrate, nor the advocate, nor the bailiff at the daily assizes. I am the court reporter. "My business is not to teach my fellow men, not to lead nor influence them; it is to utter them. My voice has weight only as it speaks the heart of the people. I represent the invisible czar of a free people - public opinion. If I do not speak what the people think I am dead; no amount of subsidy, nor of patronage, can vitalize me. I live, I have power, only as I represent the people. "I am the flower of democracy. Without me no people can be self-governing. They cannot become conscious of themselves. All tyrants, bosses, kings, rulers, all who would impose one will upon the many, fear me, for I am the roar of the multitude. "I speak not for one class or another, not for the good or the bad; I speak for the priest and for the pariah, for the banker and the tramp, for Jew and Gentile, for socialist and conservative, for lawmaker and lawbreaker, for saint and sinner. I cannot be better than you all. I am no worse. "I am torchbearer and transmitter. I am the messenger. I am Mercury. Jove is - the people. I am no fidget and no reformer, just a calm observer of ought and must. "Through me you judge yourselves." Some editors, on the other hand, endorse the "11th Commandment" -- the fictional one that advises, "Thou shalt not take thyself too seriously." An early subscriber to that advisory was Walter Webb, the man who called the formative meeting of Utah Press Association in 1893. He wrote in the Lehi Banner, which he edited and his father, George, published: "No paper that is local in its interests can ever be supported without home patronage. If a road or some public improvement is wanted the newspaper is expected to work for it. If a public meeting is wanted the newspaper is expected to notice it. If a section is 406 |
