A school, a platform, a beacon – (PIP #39)

By Louise Peloquin

     A series of texts on Lowell’s French newspaper L’Etoile started on August 22, 2023.

The first, “A Star on Prince Street”, presented editor/proprietor Louis-A. Biron.

https://richardhowe.com/2023/08/22/a-star-on-prince-street/

Here is a speech guest speaker Biron delivered, probably in the ’40’s, at a New England Foreign Language Newspaper Association annual convention. L’Etoile was a NEFLNA member.

In a world where concern about misinformation, disinformation and fake news is widespread, it is interesting to read about how a Lowell-based newspaperman described the press some eighty years ago.

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I greatly appreciate the honor bestowed upon me by your invitation to say a few words at this beautiful event. Allow me to add that I would not have accepted it had I not counted on your indulgence. Evaluating the health of the press is a subject which requires long and profound meditation for someone who is not in the habit of speaking in public.

     Ladies and gentlemen, you do not ignore the fact that the press represents a school and a platform. I maintain that it is a school because, each day, it gives either a moral or a historical lesson. It speaks to us about a country, its inhabitants and its customs. At times, its mission is as delicate as it is difficult. Like history, it must relate the facts without wounding susceptibilities. However, it must speak. It is necessary for events to run their course. The press can do nothing but help the reader separate the wheat from the chaff. Therein come the difficulties. But the trustworthy press must not forget the grandeur of its mission. Every day, it addresses thousands of readers who grant it the benefit of the doubt. It represents a school and so would be hard to forgive. It must be untainted. 

     I have also said that it represents a platform. Actually, it is a silent orator who, by means of its pen, makes itself heard throughout the entire world. Its mission is heavy with responsibility. Time somewhat dissipates the words of school. But, as if blown by the wind, the ideas sown by the press do not so quickly disappear. They are seeds bearing good or bad fruit. 

     You will find the newspaper where family members read. It is a companion which, at all times, can do one good. It represents an idea which does not die, is always useful if, as I have said, we separate the wheat from the chaff. 

     The press, ladies and gentlemen, has become an indispensable guide. Without it we find ourselves in obscurity. The enemy is at our doorway and we are not aware of it. The public treasury is being plundered and no one is there to denounce the culprit. Whatever is said, the press watches over the people’s interests like a vigilant sentinel. It is not its fault if today or tomorrow, it speaks to us of distressing things. By following events or even getting ahead of them, it cannot stop its forward march.

     Nonetheless, we must not be frightened to the point of coming to erroneous conclusions about the best of things. On the contrary, every day, we must seek to benefit from the examples it places before our eyes. I would say even more. The press is the life of the people just as it is the life of trade. People live from exchanging products and services. But they live even more fully from exchanging ideas. The press establishes a connection with people we do not know and, does not light spring from bringing ideas face-to-face? I would go even further. The press is a moralizing agent which exalts value and weakens evil. I understand that it can have its hours of eclipse but please, will we disdain the times when it does not provide the same clarity? Its mission is delicate and, I say this even more freely that I speak in its name. When I hear it being denigrated it seems to me that I hear a voice saying – many sins will be forgiven because it has greatly loved. (1)

     French newspapers have existed in New England for twenty years already but how many setbacks have they faced? And, for four or five years now, thanks to the support of our compatriots and even of strangers, they have taken off somewhat. They have fought against prejudices. Their battles to survive have been as great as their mission is worthy of encouragement. Among other events I could relate, I remember a Canadian, newly-arrived in a New England city with the goal of establishing a newspaper there and full of illusions about obtaining encouragement, at least from his own people. What happened? He addressed his newspaper to a man thought to be important because of the lofty position he held. Would you believe it, this man, whose name I want you to ignore, returned the newspaper with a word of disdain. Did not our journalist, from the very onset, meet an owl who was afraid of the light?  Nonetheless, he did not get discouraged and today he owns a very prosperous French newspaper.

     You understand that I want to make no malicious allusions. But it is no less encouraging to observe that the press was able to overcome many difficulties. We have finally understood that it is the people’s friend as well as a necessary ingredient of civilization and of the world’s material and intellectual progress.

     Today it speaks to you about heroic actions, tomorrow perhaps about more somber things. But it will always have something to tell you. It is a tableau representing all facets of humanity. However, it is impossible for it to fulfil all desires and to satisfy all tastes.

     We see the same in nature. What is, for one, the subject of boredom is, for another, the object of salutary meditation. Likewise with reading newspapers. The morale which we find therein does not fail to be beneficial. It helps us remediate many ills. It warns us of danger. It even advises the establishment about waging war or making peace according to the needs of the people and of civilization. Without a doubt, this is the reason why people have at times compared journalism to a lever. This is, in my opinion, the best compliment one could pay. Newspapers and journalists who refuse to change their minds, would resemble maniacs. What do you think?

     We are supposed to live for truth and search for truth and we would make it a crime for journalists to walk in the clarity of a new light? On the contrary, do you not think that journalists must change their path to reach the truth?  Journalist seek truth, a virtue which does not always frequent editorial offices. 

     Be it as it may, the mission of the press is noble despite the difficulties it encounters. You see, through it, every day we witness the tragedy played by humanity around the world. Which lessons does it not give us? I do not see why we would not attach ourselves to such a friend who, by granting people the opportunity to get to know others, allows them to profit from the gifts that Providence has bestowed to each and every one of them. 

     I shall end by admitting that I am incapable of adequately praising the press. Its mission is as great as the world in which it is a beacon and a moral guide. I would go even further. It is the banner in whose shadow the peoples have developed, step by step, the civilization which constitutes the glory of all of the countries in the world. (2)

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1. “Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much.” Luke 7: 47, English Standard Version Bible.
2. Translation by Louise Peloquin.