326 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



involves earnest, thoughtful labor, and that it can be turned to 

 your advantage if you will co-operate with the men who are en- 

 gaged in it. I have aimed only to make you think — and if I have, 

 I have done you, as well as my profession, some service. I thank 

 you. 



ADDRESS OF C. L. HOBART. 



(Mr. Hobart is Editor of The Holden (Mo.) Progress.) 



This is one part of the great practical program of Farmers' 



Week that is pure theory and opinion. The 

 average country editor has a policy in re- 

 gard to his farmer customers which he 

 opines is right, but he does not know 

 whether his policy is the best, or even, a 

 good one. Another editor pursues a policy 

 vastly different, yet each man claims he is 

 right, asserting that results justify his be- 

 lief. Here are my theories and opinions 

 and my reasons for thinking they are 

 correct. 



First of all, the question must be set- 

 tled, what is the mission of the news- 

 paper? And I answer it accordmg to my 

 theory: Primarily to publish the news, to chronicle the facts. I 

 take issue with the majority of the profession in the matter of 

 editorial opinions. I claim they are not worth the paper on which 

 they are written. One instance proves this to my own satisfaction. 

 Two years ago the mill-tax amendment was before the people of 

 Missouri. Certainly nothing could be said against that; surely 

 not, after going over this magnificent plant of ours, the greatest 

 University in the West. The only question should have been the 

 size of the majority in favor. The press of the State stood 

 practically a unit for the amendment. Columns upon columns of 

 argument, sent out by the State schools and by that splendid body, 

 the alumni of the University, were printed in addition to the 

 personal adjurations of the editors. What happened? The people 

 rose and swatted that meritorious amendment with the same spirit 

 that they manifested toward the prohibitory amendment, which 

 amendment, by the way, was sincerely and enthusiastically sup- 



