Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-07-13
CHAIRS OF JoURNALIaM.

The matter OF establishing Chairs Of
journalism in the colleges is again re-
vived, and it Is now insisted that one shall
be maintained in ell the leading Univerai.
ties. If it is done the result will
be disappointing. a man of good
abilities will learn more of the duties and
responsibilities of journalism in practical
newspaper office in one year, than in
college in ten years. Indeed the essential
things cannot be communicated in any
educational institution. Journalists are
born, not made. That peculiar, unexplain-
able observant faculty, that adaptability
to quick and correct methods of work,
that natural resource that supplies every
emergency with remedy for its ills, the
capacity to foresee, the ability to dis
criminate what is and what is not news,
can never be taught in colleges or any
where else outside of a newspaper Office,
and much of it cannot be there acquired.
a liberal education is most desirable in
any profession, but man may write text.
books about journalism until he is gray, and
lecture to classes for q lifetime on
the subject, and not one of his pupils
be able to get up a presentable local
page, or to answer to the demands of
city Office for days news, condensed
and presented in readable shape. And as
to making editors off hand, that is equally
as absurd. Nothing short of years of ex,
perience VII do that which the friends of
the new system hope to accomplish in
schools. Bat we are told that the study
will be exemplified by practical work upon
papers published by the class. There again
resides fallacy, for no amateur paper is a
fit school for the would.be journalism
fact, it ia the worst school imaginable,
since it assumes to teach, where there is no
responsibility, and the effect is to inspire
the pupil with the idea that he is fitted for
real work, when in fact he has not taken
the first step. And the reason for this is.
that no course of study can prepare any
one for the peculiar conditions that must
surround each paper. There never were
two newspapers alike. There never will
be two papers published under like condi-
tions. To the outsider it is all but i'm
possible to explain the many other reasons
why journalism can never be scholastic
study. But the attempt may be made in
single instaDce-that of the managing edi.
tor, That officer on staff, is oneof the most
important, and his ability and success
depend wholly upon natural talent, and
the training of experience which teaches
him exactly what is for his ofioe good
issue, and that inssructs him in the tastes of
the public upon which his paper is depend.
emit for patronage. He must be informed as
TO every department of his journal and be
an impartial critic for each department..
lie must adjust the difficulties that daily
arise, Intricate the machinery, st the
working parts one 70 the other, stand Ike
q rock between the "plant and the de-
partments of the paper, and see to it that
the one is not sacrificed TO the other. lie
is the balance wheel in the whole ma
chine, and his art is of the kind that comes
from actual experience alone. Neither do |
we believe that reporters can be made in
colleges, and of all the machinery of an (
Office they are the most important. A
paper may issue without the telegraphic
and local reporters aid, hut it VIII not be
a nelcs paper How any collegiate course
is to prepare reporters is a question
the old hands a. the business, who are
not, for the He of them, able to tell
how they acquired the skill they pos
sess, cannot understand. Nor can a news
sditor be made by educational processes