Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1869-10-22
Tearhing Journalism.

| Ism cannot be learned outside Of a newspaper
| office, and the first business Of a colleye-bred
journalist, when he enters practically upon his
profession, will be to unlearn the theoretical
| Journalism which he has acquired Give a
young man. they say, good general education,
and leave him to get his special training in the
school Of practice.
This seems to US an empirical way Of looking
at the matter. 1t Is true enough that a thorough
| newspaper mau cannot be made without prac-
| ice any more than a thorough lawyer or a
thorough physician can be made without prac-
tce. But law schools and clinical lectures are
not useless for all that and there is no more
reason in the nature Of the case why journalism
should be impossible to he taught theoretically
any more than law or medicine Ii depends al
together upon what you mean by successful
journalist whether special culture is or is not an
| advantage 10 HIM. If you mean by the term
only man who makes a fortune out of a news
| paper, it Is possible that ignorance may be no
! great detrment 10 him. Certainly, some Of the
most signal " successes'' in this sense have been
achieved by men Of very limited requirements
and very narrow minds. But men OF this sort,
however much money he may have made, bears
| the same relation 10 journalism that a shvs-
ter" bears to law or quack to physic The
/ end Of the law is not TO make money for its pro-
| fessors, bu; to administer justice. And the end
/ Of medicine is not TO make money for its proes-
sors, but to heal the sick. And so th- end Of
| journalism is not TO make money for it, pro-
tessors, but, first, to gather and present the
news in the fullest, fairest, and prompte-t way
which is purely practical function and,
1 second, to comment upon it 80 as best TO pro-
mote public intelligence and public virtue
/ which is purely a spiritual function
! pt course, in this, as in all other pursuits,
/ nobody, or nobody but a fool, " g0eth warfare
at his own cost" And so il is essential to the
existence Of newspaper that people should
| buy it. If it fail in its first function-that Of
l giving the uews-t may editorialy irculcate
| the purest moralities and the suhhmest wisdom,
and nobody will be the better Of it, for nobody
Will read it, It is by superiority in this first e.
/ sential that illiterate men have made fortunes
out of newspapers, Of which all that was not
news was cant and drivel But we question
/ whether in the future even such successes will
/ be possible. There i no reason why uewspa-
/ per should not be equally excellent ~ both de-
/ partments-Why it should not in its news col
umns real ze Burke's ideal, and be the a. history
I Of the world for day. and in its editorial
/ columns fulfil "a still higher ideal. and he the
| philosophy Of that history. The reason why no
/ such newspaper has ever existed, with the one
exception which modesty flrbid- our mention
/ ing. is that 20 produce IL there l. requisite a
/ and stu. more rarely united in a single person.
/ There have been few occurrences, in the history
Z Of uruali-m, of q man who was a once first
I rate newspaper manager and irstrate
newspaper writer. One function requires
a man Of business. The ther requires a think
er The late Mr. Raymond united the two re-
guisites in remarkable degree. There were
I more successful editors than be. There were
also more effective writers. But his euiiuence
was due to the fact that be understood 50 well
the iuterlepenieuce If the two departments.
AMI the extent o. which each needs To be subor-
iinated 10 the other And Mr. Raymond hai
received both a scholastic education and a Sc
we're apprenticeship in the drulgery Of a news
paper ihce-
Journalism l. Yet everywhere in It's infancy
Bu, We look In the progress OF It's systematic al
iustmeut TO see the division Of labor. which is
the FIRST step toward. perfection in any pursuit.
made much more exact than it is n0w, ,ani o. see
a broad line drawn between editors and writers
For each Of these a special training would be
great benefit But for a man who aspires 10 be
at the head Of corps Of both, and 20 reconcile
their respective functions 50 as 20 bring both 70
their highes, perfection, such a training viii, in
the future Of American journalism, be found IN
i.spensaUle
There are some special branches of ku0wleise
which every newspaper ueophyte ought % know,
and which none but newspaper experts 10 &C
quire. Stenography is one Of them. Coutem-
porlue0us politics are another Political ec1uo-
my is a third No journalist is fully equipped
withou, these things. Yet few journalists 10 iu
fact know them all. And those few acquire them
under every disadvautage-uo =. in the still arr
Of delightful studies" with the facilities waieh
competent teachers and scientific system Of in
s,ructi0n gise but after they have entered upon
the practical work Of their lives in the intervals
they can snatch from the immediate duties Of
their profession, and by their own unaiiei and
ungsuiiei euieavors. A course Of instruction
which should teach these subjects thoroughly
and as preparatory to practice is what few news
paper men will deny to be a iesiieratum.
So much Is necessary for journalist. con-
siieriug public journal merely receptacle .
Of news. But much more Is essential. consider
ing it as vehicle of thought. I,has become
truism. though even thirty years ago u was
thought paradox, that journalists are the real .
priesthood Of a modern nation. What influence
has an utterance from the pulpit on Sunday
compared with utterances from the editorial .
tripod every day 10 the week Mankind. in this
age, estimates them both alike, by the amount
of matter it finds in them Or. If either has an
eutriusic advantage. it is the writer and not the
preacher. For the divinity that in the old times
ell from the imagnatous Of men, while the uim-
bus Of anonymity which sti.. surrounds the form
er gives him a certain oracular Importance in .
the ewes Of his readers. The most popular
preacher in this country weekly addresses an
average audience Of three thousand people The
writer, on every one Of four or i've newspapers .
daily address sn audience Of ten times that
number Let alone the other advantages the
written word has over the spoken. il is obvious
that, rs Sir. Lecky has remarked, the power Of
iterati.n which the journalist possesses in de-
hveriug himself daily gives him a superiority
hardly TO be overestimated in influencing those
TO whom be speaks, Accordingly, We need not
wonder to ind - what we do fnd-that the
opinions and character even Of church-Coinc
man are moulded much more by the newspaper
he reals than by the clergyman he sits under
And for the vast and increasing body whom the
preacher cannot reach, even in his limited wav,
there absolutely Is no alternative 10 the newspa-
per as a moral teacher. And newspaper writers
are gradually superseding the writers Of books
as well As the preachers Of sermons. No busy
man viii read book upon a subject which he
can have trr2tei with equal talent and far more
terseucss ia a newspaper article In the arts,
in social topics, and in politics. as well as in re-
sion. the newspapers are getting to be the su-
pseme arhiters Of public opinion.
are manifest enough. The newspaper is literally
an ephemera. 1t must not strain the reader'sst
tention too closely. nor detain it too long But
this defect Is partially neutr7,lized by that same
power Of iteration; which enables it TO return
again and again to its topic. This Is the contin-
val dropping that wears away the stone Of preiu-
dice and gradually shapes the minds Of meu
The influence Of the newspaper writers Of this
country Is clearly greater than that of any other
class Of men in 1t. The only safeguard against
the abuse of this vast responsibility is in the
character Of the men who WELD it, And that
character must be formed by education To say
that herd Of clever youngsters can be turned
loose into newspaper Offices and trusted to write
happy-go-lucky articles upon the momentous
themes which there engage their pens, is to say
that it is of no consequences whether the destin
les OF the country, which they help so much to
shape, are shaped well or ill., They must be
trained to a notion Of the dignity and responsi-
bility Of their work, if they are to do that work
it ought to be done.
The usefulness of journalism is unquestionable
The only question about the probable usefulness
Of the professorship instituted to that end in
Washington College depends upon the further
question whether journalism is likely 10 be well
i'll taught there. The school of American
journalism ought 10 be in New York, where are
its brightest exempars and its necessary centre
But we believe that almost any teaching Of il
will be better than none.-.N y. WoTId
Governor Senter's Message to the new Leg
islature Of Tennessee is very good. He proposes
that the existing disabilities upon disfrancbised
rebels be reuova1 he ur,rns ha of