Why do I say, then, that in spite of such formidable obstacles, both
in its own character and in the resistance it must overcome, the Free
Press will probably increase in power, and may, in the long run,
transform public opinion?
It is with the argument in favour of this judgment that I will
conclude.
My reasons for forming this judgment are based not only upon the
observation of others but upon my own experience.
I started the "Eye-Witness" (succeeded by the "New Witness" under the
editorship of Mr. Cecil Chesterton, who took it over from me some
years ago, and now under the editorship of his brother, Mr. Gilbert
Chesterton) with the special object of providing a new organ of free
expression.
I knew from intimate personal experience exactly how formidable all
these obstacles were.
I knew how my own paper could not but appear particular and personal,
and could not but suffer from that eccentricity to general opinion of
which I have spoken. I had a half-tragic and half-comic experience of
the economic difficulty; of the difficulty of obtaining information;
of the difficulty in distribution, and all the rest of it. The editor
of "The New Age" could provide an exactly similar record. I had
experience, and after me Mr. Cecil Chesterton had experience, of the
threats levelled by the professional politicians and their modern
lawyers against the free expression of truth, and I have no doubt that
the editor of "The New Age" could provide similar testimony. As for
the Free Press in Ireland, we all know how _that_ is dealt with. It is
simply suppressed at the will of the police.
In the face of such experience, and in spite of it, I am yet of the
deliberate opinion that the Free Press will succeed.
Now let me give my reasons for this audacious conclusion.