The Power of the Press

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 3, 17 January 1907, Page 33

The Power of the Press

' Mr. Dooley,' _F. P. Dunne, never wrote a better ' Dooley ' article than the one he publishes in the Oc- • tober number of the ' American Magazine.' This new ' Dooley ' article is on '.The Power of the Press.' It is the splendid sane brain of the great American philosopher at its best. Alter showing what* th' press can do f 'r thiin v it loves ' and ' what it can hand to thim it don't love,' after amusing references to his colleagues, and to Winston Churchill and Roosevelt and others, ' Mr. Dooley ' says : l No, sir, as Hogan- says, I care not who makes-" th' laws or th' money iv a, counthry so long as I run th' presses. Father "Kelly was talkin' about it Mi' other day. " There ain't anvtiiing like it an' there 'niver was," says he. " All th' piiests in this diocese together preach to about a hundred thousand people wanct a week/ an,- he says, "all th' papers preach to three miliyon, wanct a day,aye, twinty times a" J day," he says. "We give, ye hell on Sundahs, an' they give ye hell all th' time,"he says. " 'Tis a wonderful thing-7' he says. " I see a bar'l iv printer's- ink gohV into a newspaper office and it looks common enough. A bar'l iv' printer's ink, a bar'l iv linsee ile an' lampblack, with a smell to it that's half stink an! half perfume. But I tell ye if all th' dynamite, lyddite, cordite* an' gun cotton in th' wurruld wuz hid behind thim hoops there wu'dden't be as much" ' disturbance in that bar'l as there is in , th' messy stuff that looks like so much tar," he says'. " Printer " ink ! A dhrop iv it on wan little wurrud in type," he say.s, " will blacken th' fairest name in Christendom or," he says, " make a star to shine on th' lowliest brow," he says. . " It- will find'ats way Mnto hearts an' memories, an' will go through iron dures an' stone walls, an' will carry some message that may turn th' current iv ivry life it meets from the imperor -iv _Ohiny to th' baby in th' cradle in_ Hannigan's flat," he says. "It may undo a thousand prayers or start a millyon. It can't be escaped. It could dhrag me out me parish house tomorrah an' -make me as well known in Peking as I am in Halstead^street, an' - not as fav'r ably." To-day th' Pope may give me no more thought thin- he gives Kelly th' Rowling Mill Man. To-morrah -he may be readin' about haw great or bad I am in th' ' Popvlo Romano.' It's got Death beat a mile in levellin' ranks." » Yes, s<r," says he, « th' hand that roclcs th fountain pens is the hand that rules th' wurruld. .Th' press is f f r..th' whole uriivarse what Mulligan was f r his beat.' He^ was th' best polishman an' th' worst I iver knew. He was a terror to evil doers whin hewas sober, an' a - terror -to iverbodv whin he was dhrunk. Martin, I drink to th' la-ads all over th' wur'ruld who use th' printer's ink. May they not put too much iv th' r-red stufl in it, an* may it " niver CO -to their hpjwls '» ' '

• A destructive fire occurred at the meal and flour* mills of Messrs. Stewart and Sons, CoaKsland, County Tyrone, early in November, when damage to the amount of £20,000 was done.