The Citizen

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Leroy E. Eastman

In America the ruling element, the element always to be reckoned with, is Public Opinion. Without it the man who would be the leader can do nothing and with it he can accomplish anything.

The greatest factor in moulding public opinion we recognize to be the power of the press. It not only moulds, but feeds and sways the thought and feeling of the nation.

The newspaper is the mediator between the leaders and the people. Thru it the men who see the needs of the country speak to the mass and thru it they read the thoughts and will of their constituents. The man who is best able to see these needs, to read these thoughts is the one who is best fitted to be the leader. It is thus that the newspaper becomes a great instrument in making our system of popular government a possibility. By its columns the merchant, the farmer, and the laborer may keep in touch with the affairs of government as well as the lawyer and legislator. In a country of so vast extent as ours any kind of spontaneous and concerted action would be a failure without facilities for rapid and universal communication. In our day we find this thoroly accomplished by the press, with the assistance of the railroad and telegraph, but in the formative period of our government, before these things were invented, we see it done by the newspaper alone.

It is the press then, with its power to mould and sway public opinion that makes our government such a unit in strength and action.

Today every voter in Kentucky may know how his representative voted yesterday: he may know what laws were passed and what bills were rejected. Today every voter in the U. S. whether in the east or west, the north or the south, may know the progress of the Panama canal; he may read the president's message sent to Congress yesterday.

It thus becomes not only the privilege, but the duty of every man in the U. S., of every man in Kentucky to read a newspaper. We recognize our duty to vote and we must, also recognize our duty to vote intelligently.

We must keep in touch with the representatives of the people and sent telegrams to their representatives instructing them that they wanted the laws passed at once, and the victory was for Gov. Hughes.

There are other reasons why every mountain man should subscribe for a good, wide-awake, paper. It will pay you in money. No matter in what trade or profession your activities lie there is something of value for you.

For the farmer there are the market reports giving him the prices of farm products, and articles on scientific farming from which he may get ideas for improvement. For the merchant and tradesman there are the advertising and want columns. There are articles of educational value for all. Every phase and field of activity is brought into the public eye. The latest discoveries of science, the newest inventions, and the great enterprises in our own and foreign countries are brought to the notice of everyone. In the social columns you will find the news of your own community. You will find a bright and interesting story continued from one number to the next. The value of such articles and stories in the mountain home where there are few books and no access to libraries, cannot be estimated. The effect of such reading will show in after years in the children and in the present will lighten the toil and gladden the heart, making home the dwelling place of peace and cheerfulness.

The person that does not read a newspaper is like a man riding in the back end of a wagon, he never sees anything until he has passed by it.

The man who is not interested in what his state is doing, in the great things his fellow men are striving to accomplish, is not likely to be much interested in his own work or in the needs of his community.

We should expect to find his fences down and weeds in his garden. If you are interested in these things, then you must read the papers.

The great need of the mountain world the hearts of the people of the great Appalachia.

Where we see such communication going on by a weekly circulation, when we find the products of the press coming to every mountain home—books magazines and papers, when we find the children reading wholesome stories by the fireside, when we see the mountain farmer keeping his eye on the market reports and using the scientific methods of farming and stock raising, when we see him awake to the political issues and acquainted with the leaders of the day, then shall we see the dawn of our ideal for the mountains—good roads, good schools, good churches, a great people.

forms, the movements and the political issues of the day, so that when we are called upon to cast the ballot we shall not be obliged to vote blindly for the Republicans or the Democrats, or the Prohibition ticket, but be able to intelligently uphold or oppose the issues brought to the polls. But there are other things besides an intelligent vote, which we are able to attain by being posted on the affairs of the state and nation. We shall be able when called upon to do something of more immediate value. For instance in the State of N. Y., when the legislature refused to pass laws that the Governor saw were needed, he appealed to the people thru the newspapers. The voters responded. They wrote letters and sent telegrams to their representatives instructing them that they wanted the laws passed at once, and the victory was for Gov. Hughes.

communities is cooperation. They must pull together. The only way to effect such action is by the establishment of means for more frequent and easy communication. Just as modern appliances of intercourse have brought about the rapid spread of modern civilization, so will the more general use of these appliances in the mountains aid in the awakening that is already begun. It will bring about a unity of thought, a unity of interest, and thus a unity of action. A wide newspaper circulation among the mountain people will draw the attention of editors and statesmen to their needs. It will reveal to the mountain people ideas of the more progressive parts of the country; and will reveal to the