The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1889-09-05
TIE NEWSPAPER MEN.
WHAT THE REV. DIR. TALMAGE
HAS TO SAY OF THEM.
Sensible Talk by the Famous Preacher
as to the Work of the Press-He
does not Believe in ImpersOnal
journalism.
Minneapolis Tribune. I

Minneapolis Tribune.1
Every newspaper reporter in New
York is my personal friend. l have
been betrayed by about every class Of
men in the world, but never by news
paper man, and l believe there is
spirit OF fairness abroad in the news
papers that is hardly to be found any
where else. There is no man, however
poor, if he has been done an injustice,
that cannot get himself set right by
the newspaper. We find great deal
of fault with the newspapers. Perhaps
by our own instinctness we are reported
as saying just what we did not say,and
there is regular riot of commas and
semicolons and periods, and we get
used to talking about the sblundering
printing press Or sometimes We
take up paper full Of social scandals
and divorce cases and we talk about
the filthy, scurrilous press, but I could
preach whole sermon on the ever
lasting blessings OF good newspaper.
A good newspaper is the grandest
temporal blessing that God has given
the people of this century.
In the first place all the people read
the newspapers, and the newspapers
furnish the greater proportion of the
reading to the people. They don't
read books. The old people look for
the deaths, the young for the marriages,
the business man reads the business
and financial columns, and those who
are unemployed read the want "ads. !"
! Great libraries make few intelligent
men and women, but newspapers lift
the nations into sunlight.
My idea of good newspaper is
mirror of life itself. Some people
complain because the evil of the world
is reported as we'll as the good. The
evil must be reported as we'll as the
good, or how will we know what to
guard against or what to reformr
There is a chance for discrimination
as to how much space will be given to
reports of such things as prize fights,
but the newspaper that merely presents
the fair and the beautiful and the
bright side oflife is a Misrepresentation.
That family is best qualified for the
duties of lite who have told to them
not only what good there is in the
world, but what evil there is in the
world, and is told to select the good
and reject the evil.
Do you believe in impersonal jour
nalism?
l believe great improvement will
be made in the newspapers when they
drop the impersonal style. The best
pens and the best minds are engaged
to-day in writing for newspapers and
their writings often appear in the edi-
torial columns, yet most of them die
unknown, and live, many of them, on
incompetent salaries. After a while
their hand forgets its cunning and
without resources they die. The world
never knew them. If this impersonality
were dropped in the more important
newspaper writings,it would be greater
justice to those engaged in newspaper
work. 1t used 10 add weight to an
article in the New York Tribune to
see the initials al. g." at the end oi
it. When men sign their names to
what they write, literary men will come
to larger appreciation. No honorable
man would write anything that he
would be ashamed to put his name to-
and writers can then be held response
Bile for what they write. The editori
al impcrsonal "we" will not ther
stand between a man who has been
assailed and the writer who is respon
sible for the article.