Daily globe., 1883-08-16

OOnUJ, Sol', ID 1A"h1HS nIOHey running
skunk ranch. The animals secretion,
so offensive to the Caucasian nostrils,
is highly priced by Chinese as medi-
cine, and they pay large price for it.
THE CHICAGO "DAILY NEWS, no
JOSEPH COOK.
Mr.. Joseph Cook, of Boston, re-
Gently lectured to journalists in this
city. The speaker was candid and
positive, as he is habitually in his
utterances, but he seems to have ig-
nored the conditions under which we
live and print. The generation and
the times for which Mr. Cooks ideal
newspaper will be printed are not yet
visible save to the eye of faith Com
menting upon the lecture, the Chicago
Daily NeaUs says: Mr.. Cook said some
things that are undoubtedly true, and
many that are, without question, untrue.
The truthful remarks which he made
have been made ten thousand times
over in the leading newspapers of the
country, and it was only necessary that
he should call his memory into play to
be able to repeat them. For instance,
it is true, and no intelligent American
journalist denies it, that the newspapers
of the day do not discuss great ques-
tions of social and political economy as
they ought to be discussed; that the
newspapers are given somewhat to the
exaggeration Of facts; that in moral tone
they do not rank as high as the leading
English dailies; that they contain too
much news of a petty criminal charac
ter; that the news of the day is too
hastily digested, and is often presented
in a shape which is revolving to the
taste of refined and genteel persons;
and that the political, sectional and re-
igious prejudices of many newspaper
writer's unfit them for the task of ed
ucating or leading public opinion. We
will go farther than Mr.. Cook, and say
that there are hundreds of newspapers
in the county, some of them prosperous,
too, which are neither edited nor con-
Quoted by men of culture or high prin-
ciples. Indeed, many of them are in
the hands of uneducated, ignorant and
corrupt men, who have no higher aim
in journalism than to use their papers
as means to reach an end-no matter
what that end may be. All these things
are true, Mr.. Cook, too true, and Jour-
nalists do not attempt to hide or excuse
them. But, Mr.. Cook, is it not fact
that the newspapers are publishing just
the kind of matter that the public de-
mands? IF not, why are they read by
everybody? Why is it that the news
papers which pander to the vulgar
tastes of the American people succeed,
while those which appeal to the higher
tastes, those which print profound ed
itorials upon great national questions,
those which collect news of interest to
great preachers, artists, authors, scien-
lists and philosophers die of galloping
starvation. The fact of the matter, Mr..
Cook, is just this-the average American
newspaper is highertoned than the
average American citizen, and better
than the times in which it is printed. It
costs a great deal of money to establish
newspaper. 1t requires great deal
Of money to keep it going on. The
men who invest their brains, their ener-
gies, their time and their money in es-
tablishing newspapers, very naturally
expect some returA for the investment
Should they conduct their papers as
Mr.. Cook would have them, the red
flag of the Sheriff would float proudly
in front of the Offices some fine morn
ing, and bankrupt proprietor would
be able to find very little consolation
in the fact that his paper had always
been upright, dignifed, high-toned and
esthetieally stupid. The public viii
not wade through labpred discussions
on social or political economy, Mr..
Cook. It demands, light, entertaining,
newsy, spicy controversy on ques-
tions which it can understand without
too much trouble. The public, as it is
to-day, demands all the news, and it
1
seems to be perfectly satisfied with the
newspapers as they are conducted at
the present. It is the reader and not
the publisher who says what shall be
printed and what shall not be printed.
A newspaper can give all the news, and
discuss it in manner that will at once
be entertaining and instructive to the
reader, and yet be perfectly clean. Our
newspapers, as rule, are as clean as
the sermons of our preachers or the
speeches of our lawyers. If they do
not contain matter "that can be made
into books" Mr.. Cook, it is because
you, like other great public instructors,
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