USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 43
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 43
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 43
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"In my judgment and I hope in yours, that convention will be a .ailure if it does not enable us to obtain the initiative and referendum, by which the direct powers of the whole body of citizens may supple- ment the present form of representative government and keep it free from those vices which the unequal distribution of wealth and the re- sulting concentration of financial and political power, through the rise of powerful public service and industrial corporations, have introduced into our body politic and are now threatening our representative form of government."
In this initiative and referendum struggle one of the Plymouth County members, E. Gerry Brown, of Brockton, took a prominent part. It was a familiar plaything for Mr. Brown. He could take hold of it anywhere
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and feel at home and he helped keep it in the air during the long period it seemed to be the only measure deemed worthy of serious considera- tion by the large number of delegates.
Mr. Bridgman truly said in his book: "If a convenient, correct and . historic name is wanted for the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention which first met in 1917, the name of 'the I. & R. Convention' would have high claim for preference. From the beginning of the convention the element which wanted the initiative and referendum amendment was the controlling factor, or their subject was the dominating subject. After the matter was disposed of, the hiatus left by its omission from the program had its influence upon all subsequent proceedings in way of reduced attendance and comparative want of interest, accompanied by lack of devotion to duty."
While the initiative and referendum resolutions were under consider- ation debates went on day after day. One morning the Boston "Daily Advertiser" said :
Rioting seems to be about the only thing left for the constitutional convention to indulge in, and yesterday's session brought all the long-hidden bitterness between the I. & R. proponent and opponent to the surface. At one time a free-for-all looked imminent. The session went through its last two hours amid a continual bedfam of shouts, catcalls, booing and hissing. The chairman, former Attorney General Pillsbury, was powerless to stop the disgraceful scene.
To quote that alert and faithful historian, Raymond L. Bridgman, again :
But there was a crisis in the debate when Mr. Loring of Beverly replied to the labor argument. This speech was one of the marked incidents of the entire discussion because the speaker had not claimed the attention of the members previously. He was an unknown quantity. He spoke without oratorical ambition, but made such a forcible and direct argument that he held the attention of the members to an unprecedented degree, for being the head of the well known Plym- outh Cordage Works, which had been having trouble with its employees, he was recognized as a man with practical experience, while his subsequent position as author of the famous "Loring amendment," changing the form of the entire propo- sition and making it possible for members to vote for it who could not have sup- ported it otherwise, put him in the position of being one of the master minds of the entire I. & R. debate.
The delegate referred to, Augustus P. Loring, of Beverly, was not only at the head of Plymouth County's great rope-making industry, the largest rope-making concern in the world, but he became a member of the Massachusetts Senate, following the Constitutional Convention, and it was Senator Loring who, as a member of the Legislature in 1920, petitioned that the Constitution of 1780 be repealed and that the rearrangement of the constitution adopted by the people, November 4, 1919, be adopted as the constitution of the Commonwealth. The
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Supreme Judicial Court, to which the approval and ratification by the people at the State election, in November, 1919, had been referred, returned a unanimous reply, signed by each justice separately, conclud- ing with the words:
"We therefore answer that, in our opinion, the 'rearrangement of the constitution' described in the order of the governor and council is not 'the constitution or form of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.'"
CHAPTER XXVI THE FOURTH ESTATE.
First Copy-Maker Was William Bradford Who Should Have Packed a Printing Press Instead of So Many Bureaus on the "Mayflower" -- Winslow and Brewster Were Printers in Holland-First Printing Press Came to Harvard College in 1654, but is Not the One the "Lampoon" is Printed On-Early Journals Included Boston "News- Letter," Published by Postmaster-Benjamin Franklin Tried "Yel- low Journalism"-Oldest County Weekly Passed Century Mark Six Years Ago-Two Dailies but No Sunday Newspaper-Notable Mem- bers of the Profession Who Have Passed Away-Men Who Owe Fame to Reporters-Tramp Printers Recalled Who Became Eminent-Mag- azine in Interest of Shoe Industry-Newspaper Men Signed Declara- tion of Independence, Became President, Governor, "Rough Riders," City Officials, Private Secretaries, Consuls, War Correspondents and Tramps.
"All I know is what I read in the newspapers." Thousands of times we have read articles by Will Rogers which started with that con- fession and if we were as honest in giving credit where it belongs it might be uttered by everyone of us to a much greater extent than most people ever stop to think. About the only occurrence of any great account that ever took place in this country of which the news- papers did not give us the first account, and from which history has been written, was the landing of the Pilgrims on Cape Cod and Plym- outh Rock. There was on that historic ship of about one hundred and eighty tons burden a good newspaper reporter, William Bradford. He did not know he was a good newspaper reporter any more than half a hundred of his fellow-passengers knew they were good ancestors, and all were equally oblivious of the fact that three hundred years after they began to live good newspaper copy, the events in their daily lives would prove interesting reading to generations beyond their reckoning.
William Bradford had his note-book always at hand and in that book he wrote faithful reports of what he saw and heard, considerable edi- torial matter, copy for the sporting page, the shipping column, the household page, department of finance, health hints, religious intelli- gence, politics, comment on the military and men in public life. In fact William Bradford was capable of writing "all over the paper," and evidently he covered his district thoroughly and was only "scooped"
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on some stories which have since proven to have been untrue. William Bradford wrote no copy concerning the feminism of Priscilla Mullins or her leap-year proposal to John Alden, and did not include in his story of the wedding a description of Priscilla's wedding trip on a white bull, a year and a half before there were any domestic animals in this new world. That was one "bull" William Bradford cannot be accused of making.
But this first newspaper reporter kept a well-filled note-book and began writing copy while the "Mayflower" was tossing on the waves. No one knew where they were going or whether they were ever going to get there, but Bradford was a typical reporter. He stuck diligently to his note-taking and, in case he landed anywhere there was a news- paper, his copy was ready, up to the time of the next edition, and he hadn't missed a bet.
It is unfortunate that there was not a newspaper artist on the "May- flower" as well as a reporter. However many pictures we have seen of the "Mayflower," the only way the artists had of preparing them for our optical pleasure was to draw them from accounts of other ships of about the same size and class. The "Mayflower" was one of the larger ships of the merchant service of England, heavy-built, with high poop and forecastle; broad of beam, short in the waist, low be- tween decks, of square rig with a lateen sail upon her mizzenmast. In all probability she had three masts. With high stem and stern she was what was known as "a wet ship." There was considerable cabin space and overhead floated the flag that King James of England or- dered in 1606 to replace the English ensign of earlier date. It was one of the early voyages under the Union Jack, which represented, and still does, the uniting of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland ; the red cross of St. George superimposed upon the white cross of St. Andrew, on a field of dark blue. James I was a Scotchman who didn't hesitate to change things, if he wanted to, even though his predecessor, Queen Elizabeth, for whom the first English colony in America had been named, had tried most everything once, as the expression goes, and got away with it. James had the New Testament written to suit him and whether he was entirely satisfied with the whole work or not, he surely had no reason to be otherwise than delighted with the very flattering introduction to the King James version, which is still printed in the first pages of that world's best seller.
William Bradford, however, included in his manuscript as much as any good reporter could, aside from illustrations, and for his faithful work deserves the gratitude of every Pilgrim and descendant of every Pilgrim in America, whether they were Pilgrims of 1620 or came by any of the later boats or by airplane. This manuscript was kept for
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many years in the old Bradford House in Kingston, which is still standing. The house was nearly burned by the Indians on one oc- casion and the manuscript later fell into the hands of the British in the War of 1812 and was taken to England. Many other valuable records were wilfully destroyed by the British in that war, but the Bradford manuscript seems to have been providentially preserved and a quarter of a century ago was printed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, so that everyone who wished to do so might read it or have a copy of his own.
Many students find it very easy to agree with May Alden Ward in her opinion expressed in her book "Old Colony Days," in which she says, "As Americans we can never be grateful enough that in the little band of men who first set foot on Plymouth Rock was one who realized that they were making history, one who felt that the rock was to be- come the cornerstone of a nation. He saw that from the moment when they first resolved for freedom's sake 'to tempt the dangers of an unknown sea, to plant a home in an unknown wilderness,' their lightest acts became important and worthy of recording. To him we owe the chart by which we follow this heroic band step by step, day after day, through the long privations, the terrible sufferings, and the crushing sorrows which attended the birth of New England.
"Now that Forefathers' Day is celebrated from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and a splendid monument marks the scene of their martyr- dom; now that great paintings of the embarkation and of the landing adorn not only the walls of Pilgrim Hall at Plymouth, but the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, and the Peers' Corridor of the House of Parliament,-we are apt to forget what very unimportant events these were at the time of their occurrence. We cannot realize how little noise they made in the world, and how easily all record of them might have been lost. England took no note either of the embarka- tion or of the landing ; and the Peers would have been mightily amused had it been suggested to them that the departure of that little band of stubborn 'Separatists' was an event of historical importance, worthy to be perpetuated on the walls of the House of Parliament. Painters, poets, and historians would have been dependent on imagination and tradition in portraying these scenes were it not for the pen of William Bradford, to whom belongs, unquestionably, the title of 'The Father of American History.'
"By this opinion no slight is intended to his famous contemporaries. Their greatness lay chiefly in other directions. Some touches, it is true, were added to the history by Edward Winslow; but his sketches, rare treasures as they are, narrate only detached incidents. To Brad- ford alone belongs the credit of having written a connected history
Plym-26
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of the 'Old Colony' during the first quarter century of its existence, while it was still doubtful whether it was to exist at all. He must be placed first in that great triumvirate of Plymouth men of whom it has been said that Standish was the hand, Winslow the tongue, and Bradford the guiding brain."
No Chance for a Free Press-Edward Winslow and William Brew- ster had been printers in Leyden, Holland, and the latter had issued from his press books and pamphlets for some years before starting for the New World. Governor Bradford, in his history of "Plimmoth Plantation" says: "He (Brewster) also had means to set up printing, (by ye help of some friends), and so had imploymente inough, and by reason of many books which would not be allowed to be printed in England, they might have had more than they sould doe. But now removeing into this countrie, all these things were laid aside againe, and a new course of living must be framed unto; in which he was no way unwilling to take his parte, and to bear his burthen with ye rest, living many times without bread, or corne, many months together, having many times nothing but fish, and often wanting that also."
If William Bradford had only had a printing press at his disposal after arriving at Plymouth he would, undoubtedly, with his faithful enthusiasm for keeping records and describing events, have kept as busy in his native line as did Captain Myles Standish in matters of military life. He might have established the "Patuxet Colonist," or a newspaper of some such name, Patuxet being the Indian name for Plymouth at that time. Surely there were interesting occurrences in the early days for a newspaper, even though the readers would have been few. Strangely enough the third printing press to be set up in the colonies was established by a William Bradford in Philadelphia in 1685. The first press was brought from England by Rev. Joseph Glover in 1638, but he died at sea. The press, however, and the re- quired type and print paper arrived and started its mission in Cam- bridge, Massachusetts. Harvard College came into possession of the press in 1654. A printing press was set up in Boston in 1674.
It was farthest from the intention of the British rulers to have anything like a free press get started in the colonies. The first news- paper established in Boston by Benjamin Harris, "Publick Occurrences, Both Forreign and Domestick," September 25, 1690, was soon sup- pressed by the governor and his council, charged with having "con- tained Reflections of a very high nature" and "sundry doubtful and uncertain reports." According to C. A. Duniway's "The Development of Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts" each of the colonial gover- nors sent over between 1686 and 1730 had included in their instruc-
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tions : "And forasmuch as great inconvenience may arise by liberty of printing within our said territory under your government, you are to provide by all necessary orders that no person keep any printing-press for printing, nor that any book, pamphlet or other matter whatsoever be printed without your especial leave and license first obtained."
Benjamin Harris was an exiled English newspaper publisher and, while he was permitted to get out only one issue, that issue contained about twenty paragraphs of news and only two of them were devoted to foreign affairs. It was put together well and it was many years before another newspaper as good in its make-up was produced. Harris had a better sense of news values than the postmasters and printers who attempted to get out newspapers after him.
The "Boston News-Letter" was the second newspaper and it con- tinued seventy-two years. The first eighteen years it was published by John Campbell, postmaster at Boston. The newspaper was "Pub- lished by Authority," by virtue of Postmaster Campbell "waiting on His Excellency or Secretary for approbation of what is Collected." The "News-Letter" was a copy of the style of newspapers published in England in those days. It was a financial struggle for Campbell and grants were received twice in 1706 from the government. At the end of fifteen years the circulation was about three hundred copies. Camp- bell was most painstaking and apologetic in his conduct of the "News- Letter." In one issue he explained that, in a report of a fire in Plym- outh in the preceding issue "whereas it is said Flame covering the Barn, it should be said Smoak."
Of the "Mayflower," Thomas Carlyle wrote: "Hail to thee, poor little ship 'Mayflower'-of Delft Haven-poor, common-looking ship, hired by common charter-party for coined dollars,-caulked with mere oakum and tar,-provisioned with vulgarest biscuit and bacon,-yet what ship 'Argo' or miraculous epic ship, built by the sea gods, was other than a foolish bum-barge in comparison !"
This is the ship which brought over the man who deserves to be called the first American reporter, the man who gave his fellow-voyagers the name of Pilgrims, the man who started writing the history of America day by day, and is not that what the newspapers are doing, nothing else? Let's therefore open a bottle of ink or consecrate a typewriter or do whatever the proper journalistic thing it is to do, in honor of William Bradford, America's first news-writer and, in that connection, recall and echo his own words: "Out of small beginnings, great things have been produced; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yes, in some sort to our whole nation."
William Bradford was "one small candle" which kindled the light
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of journalism in the New World. It would be eminently fitting if the newspaper men of America should erect a monument to his mem- ory in that connection.
The only important war which has ever taken place in America without a war correspondent was King Philip's War. A quarter of a century after the dethroning of this king of the Wampanoags, there appeared in the united colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay the first newspaper in New England which lived any length of time, the Boston "News-Letter." A copy of the first number is one of the valued possessions of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It bears the date of April 24, 1704. William Bradford did not live to see this new light. If he had he would have been in his one hundred and fif- teenth year and it so happened that he died at the age of sixty-seven, May 9, 1657, at Plymouth. He was governor of the Plymouth Colony from 1621 to 1657, except in 1633-34, 1636, 1638, 1644. His "History of the Plymouth Plantation" covered the events from 1602 to 1647, as he covered the doings of the "Separatists" while they were at Ley- den in Holland and remained on the assignment when they were moved by "a hope and inward zeal of advancing' the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the remote parts of the New World; yea, though they should be but as stepping-stones unto others for performing so great a work."
Ben Franklin, Boston's First Newsboy-Two years after the first ap- pearance of the Boston "News-Letter," there was born in a little house which stood at No. 17 Milk Street, Boston, Benjamin Franklin, destined to be the first real newspaper reporter to liven up the old town of Boston. Benjamin Franklin was Boston's first newsboy. It was a part of his job, as an employee of his brother, James Franklin, to sell the newspaper which his older brother published in the vicinity of their home. Benjamin Franklin conceived the idea of turning in some real news and printing something in the paper which would sell it, since he was responsible for increasing the circulation on the streets. Having had the same experience with editors that many others newspaper men have had since, and having accumulated rejected manuscripts to a distasteful degree, Ben Franklin wrote some live copy and slid it under the office door one night, to hide the identity of the writer. In this way the report was read without prejudice and pronounced good. It had some references to the Mather family, at least Rev. Increase Mather and his son, Cotton Mather, chose to believe the coat fitted them and put it on. One of the Mathers, who had been in the habit of practically being the Mussolini of early Boston, met James Franklin on one of the crooked streets of Boston and proceeded to bawl him out
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with eloquence and without mercy. James Franklin took the rebuke in true journalistic style by reprinting the article and appealing to his readers if the name of Mather was mentioned in it anywhere or if there was anything in it which, by any means, indicated that Rev. Mr. Mather of either generation was the man under discussion. Sub- sequently, however, James Franklin and his cub reporter had a private session, as the editor and the printer's devil have many times had since. The result of this heart-to-heart talk caused Benjamin Frank- lin to move to Philadelphia where, among other things he did, was to become editor and proprietor of the "Pennsylvania Gazette" in 1729.
Acting on the suggestion of Major Patrick F. O'Keefe, a delegation of newspaper men placed a wreath on the statue of Franklin in Boston, January 17, 1927, on the two hundred and twenty-first anniversary of his birth. Mayor Nichols, of Boston, himself a newspaper man, made an appropriate address.
While Governor Bradford was in advance of his time as a newspaper man, another William Bradford was one of the first American journal- ists. Born in Leicestershire, England, in 1663, he became an Ameri- can printer, the founder of the "New York Gazette." This was in 1725, two years before the first newsboy in the Plymouth and Bay colonies started his newspaper venture in Philadelphia. Both Franklin and Bradford printed almanacs as well as newspapers, Franklin his "Poor Richard's Almanac" and Bradford his "America's Messenger." The latter was, however, first in the field, the first almanac being for the year 1686, twenty years before Franklin was born.
The Bradford name has been much associated with newspaper work and history. Alden Bradford, born in our own county, at Duxbury, in 1765, edited the "Boston Gazette" in 1826. He wrote a "History of Massachusetts" for the period between 1764 and 1820. He was secre- tary of state for Massachusetts twelve years, following the War of 1812, and possessed many of the characteristics of his distinguished ancestors, as well as carrying the names of two of the prominent Pilgrims.
John Alden, it will be remembered, was a writing man, acting as secretary to the military commander at Plymouth, Captain Myles Standish, while a member of his household, and it was from him that Alden Bradford received his surname.
Plymouth County is today rich in the possession of two daily news- papers, both in Brockton, the only city in the county; and numerous weekly papers, several of the larger towns having more than one each. There is a bi-monthly magazine, "The Brockton and South Shore Magazine," published at Brockton, which carries the message of the
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shoe industry in that section which produces the most high-grade shoes in the world. The State Normal School at Bridgewater, several of the high schools and some other institutions of learning, issue worthy publications, the work of the student body. The publicity representa- tive of the Brockton Agricultural Society has printed during the days of the Brockton Fair each year a daily newspaper, "The Brockton Fair Periscope." The Brockton Fair is the only fair in America in the interest of which a daily newspaper is printed.
The first daily newspaper printed in the county was the Brockton "Daily Enterprise," which made its first appearance January 26, 1880. The first edition consisted of five hundred copies which were eagerly purchased by the 13,000 people who constituted the population of the town in that year. It was the following year that Brockton became a city. A more extended history of the "Daily Enterprise," the out- growth of the "Weekly Enterprise," and the story of the other county daily, the "Brockton Times," are given on a later page, in chronological order.
Newspapers Sold the Idea of Freedom-A congress of representatives of the English colonies was called to meet at Albany in 1754, in an- ticipation of the French and Indian ·War. Benjamin Franklin printed in his "Pennsylvania Gazette," a one-column, two-inch wood cut of a snake divided into eight segments, each of which bore the initials of one of the colonies. Under the cut were the words, "Join or die." Four other newspapers, including those in Boston, printed practically the same cartoon, and it had its effect upon the people, same as car- toons have had ever since. When the war came, Massachusetts and New York imposed a stamp tax of one-half penny on every copy of the newspapers printed in the colonies, and this extra tax had to be met by the publishers in Massachusetts for two years. Later a tax of two shillings was imposed on every advertisement, which caused some newspapers to suspend.
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