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Show SIXTH GRADERS OBSERVE PRINTING WEEK By Cum C. Harvey The Mi I ford Sixth Graders observed National V r I n ling Week, Jan. l(i-22, wilh a special spe-cial program honoring the 24 !) t h iinni versai-y of the famed patron pa-tron of printing, Benjamin Franklin. Highlighting: the program was a talk on printing and journalism by Steve Williams, Wil-liams, editor of The Mill'ord News. Like Franklin, Mr. Williams Wil-liams is both a printer and an editor. Here are some interesitng facts gleaned from notes taken on Mr. Williams' talk, a discussion discus-sion later held in the class, and some reports made by pupils. In America, printing and journalism have had a greater development than in any other country. Everyone is a user of printed matter, and almost everyone is a reader of the newspaper. Progress in science, education, literature, government, govern-ment, and other phases of modern mod-ern civilization is closely connected con-nected with the development of printed matter. A free press and free public schools are two of the cornerstones corner-stones of a democratic society. They go hand in hand in providing pro-viding the essentials of modern progress. Pi mt ng in some lorm dales hack to ancient China. The two bigge.-t nuleUoncs in its development devel-opment were Gutenberg's invention in-vention of movable type in the thirteenth century, and Mer-Kf'ntlialer's Mer-Kf'ntlialer's Linotype in the nineteenth century. Today in the I'nited Slates printing ranks among the ten top industries, amounting to six billion dollars a y ar. Franklin was an inventor, t ienti'-'t. humor j;t, diplomat the first American to achieve world fame. In his autobiography autobiog-raphy he ays that much of his at.h evement cam.; from asking himself What can I do" when he saw something which needed need-ed to be done. Franklin and Jefferson were often referred to as the two firt "educated"' Americans. At the time when they played such a prominent part in writing and adopting the Declaration of Independence, In-dependence, Franklin was .-1:1 old man but Jefferson was a young man. Franklin wished that he could wake up every 100 years after his death and see how his country was getting on. Could he do so, he would no doubt be delighted with what has happened in electricity, printing, print-ing, journalism, and some of his other interests. He would find that journalism journal-ism has become a profession which has a vast organization to gather news from all parts of the world. Country weeklies compare favoiably wilh the best newspapers published in the largest cities in his day. He would be interested in teletype, tele-type, news-gathering agencies such as the Associated Press, the United Press, or the International Inter-national News Service. He would be interested in mechanical mechan-ical advances in prinitng and publishing. He would wonder at the variety of courses offered of-fered would-be journalists at such great schools of journalism as the Universities of Missouri, Northwestern, and Columbia. If Franklin could wake up tcday, he would be interested in tile speed of modern news-rtpoiting news-rtpoiting and also its accuracy. Wire - photo would probably arouse h.s curiosity as much as did his pioneer experiments in electricity. In his talk Mr. Williams pointed out that nothing today can be "sold" without publicity, from the beverage you drink for breakfatt, to the promotions "that make successful the various vari-ous charitable drive campaigns. Business leaders, government officials, politicians, churches and schools all depend on publicity pub-licity in some form to make their programs successful. There are two sides to newspaper newspa-per work, the realistic and the glamorous. Hours of work are long and sometimes irregular.. Whenever an important story breaks, someone must go get it. Some of the things a newspaperman news-paperman must do are often unpleasant, and he cannot be a respecter of personal feelings. Today editors are swamped by propaganda. Hundreds of pieces of mail arrive daily. It is the editor's duty to determine deter-mine if any of this is worth publishing, or of interest or importance im-portance to the community. Mr. Williams pointed out that one of the important functions func-tions of a community newspaper newspa-per is to serve the community and to preserve a permanent 1 record or history of community events. Each copy of The Mil- ford News is microfilmed and placed in permanent custody of the University of Utah library, the Universal Microfilming Co. library, and other places. It serves as a permane.it recoul of I the happenings of this community. commun-ity. Journalism today is a specialized spe-cialized profession which offers of-fers unlimited opportunisms for those who have the right qualifications quali-fications 'for it. The pay is more than that of teaching but less than professions such as law and medicine. Working on school papers is a good stepping stone and in-terneship in-terneship for professional journalism. jour-nalism. The school paper serves the school just as the newspaper newspa-per serves the larger community. commun-ity. Work on The Siren should prove an incentive to some of the boys and girls to take up journalism as a profession. Mr. Williams was asked what story he has reported which he thought most interesting. His answer: "The last one." "The latest one which is covered always seems the most interesting interest-ing one," he said. He recalled that two of the most exciting ones he had reported in lh;s vicinity were when the town was snowed in several years ago, and when an airplane recently re-cently crashed near Black Rock, killing three persons. He mentioned that the Milford Mil-ford Elementary School made national news this year when it was the first in the nation to attain 100 participation in the polio drive. j |