“Being frequently censur’d and condemn’d by Different Persons for printing Things which they say ought not to be printed, I have sometimes thought it might be necessary to make a standing Apology for myself, and publish it once a Year, to be read upon all Occasions of that Nature.”

So began an article published by Benjamin Franklin in his Pennsylvania Gazette on this day in 1731. In using the word Apology, Franklin of course meant explanation. It is interesting to note that his apologia keeps the terms printer and printing uppermost. Present-day newspaper owners never think of themselves as printers, being more con scious of their importance as molders of public opinion. To most of them, printers are just the craftsmen who are necessary to mechanically produce the newspaper.

Some of the high points of Franklin’s remarks follow:

“That the Business of Printing has chiefly to do with Mens Opinions; most things that are printed tending to promote some, or oppose others.

“That hence arises the peculiar Unhappiness of that Business, which other Callings are no way liable to; they who follow Printing being scarce able to do any thing in their way of getting a Living, which shall not probably give Offence to some, and perhaps to many; whereas the Smith, the Shoemaker, the Carpenter, or the Man of any other Trade, may work indifferently for People of all Persuasions, without offending any of them: and the Merchant may buy and sell with Jews, Turks, Hereticks and Infidels of all sorts, and get Money by every one of them, without giving Offence to the most orthodox, of any sort; or suffering the least Censure or Ill-will on the Account from any Man whatever. . . .

“Printers are educated in the Belief, that when Men differ in Opinion, both sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Errors have fair Play they chear-fully serve all contending Writers that pay them well, without regarding on which side they are of the Question in Dispute.

Being thus continually employ’d in serving both Parties, Printers naturally acquire a vast Unconcernedness as to the right or wrong Opinions contain’d in what they print; regarding it only as the Matter of their daily labour: They print things full of Spleen and Animosity, with the utmost Calmness and Indifference, and without the least Ill-will to the Persons reflected on; who nevertheless unjustly think the printer as much their Enemy as the Author, and join both together in their Resentment.

“That it is unreasonable to imagine Printers approve of every thing they print, and to censure them on any particular thing accordingly; since in the way of their Business they print such great variety of things opposite and contradictory. It is likewise as unreasonable what some assert, That Printers ought not to print any Thing but what they approve; since if all of that Business should make such a Resolution, and abide by it, an End would thereby be put to Free Writing, and the World would afterwards have nothing to read but what happen’d to be the Opinions of Printers.

“I consider the Variety of Humors among Men, and despair of pleasing every Body; yet I shall not therefore leave off Printing. I shall continue my Business. I shall not burn my Press and melt my Letters.”