St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-15

fishers or advertisers ever see the abSo-
Lutte value of this plain principle in
newspaper business ethics, and so the
daily and nightly fact is that the aver
age publisher is always yielding and
trucking to the advertiser, and that
the aggressive advertiser is forever
demanding some new concession, which,
even in his own interest, if he could
but see beyond the shadow Of his nose,
he ought never to want. No good can
come of this line of discussion unless it
be candldly admitted that
fragrant Disregard
of the newspaper reader and greed for
gain from the newspaper advertiser
have blinded all parties in interest as TO
the true office of newspaper publlca-
ton, to the true source of newspaper
power and to the true basis of news
paper value. Whatever of wrong ten
dency or work there may be in the edi-
tOriai rooms, the business department
itself, in its own interest, should not
only refuse to allow the reading col
umns to be encroached upon or subordi-
mated to business demands, but the adj
Vertising columns themselves should
be guarded as by walls of granite and
gates of steel against advertisements
which are deceptive. fraudulent, indeli-
cate, immoral, or which offer immunity
from the results of immortality. And
yet it is true that, so far as l know or
have been able to learn. there are few
newspapers in the United States which
consistently and persistently follow this
high line of business conduct.
Most publishers do, but none ever
should, admit line Of reading into
reading columns which is paid for, and
which is intended to appear as II writ
ten or selected by the editorial depart
ment on its merits as reading matter,
while it is really intended to serve prl-
vate business interests, unless such
matter is in some way, either at Its be-
ginning or end, distinctly marked as an
advertisement.
The chief offense in this particular of
what. for short, we call the country pa
pers, lies in the heterogeneous, injurious
and often wonderfully inapt mingling
of their brief local items and para
graphs with other brief, paid-fOr items,
which advertise every conceivable thing
known to the comprehensiyenes of the
average village shopkeeper, forming a
sandwich of bread,
Fish, Flesh and Fowl,
and congiomerate newSpaperlal adul-
teration, which mnimiZeS the interest
and attractiveneSS Of'that which comes
from the editor and depreciates the real
value of that which proceeds from the
counting room. To some extent in the
smaller papers, but more in those OF
city autOcracy of pretensions, there is
fraud upon the reader by insertion of
more or less lengthy and prominent
articles which are merely and only adj
vertislng in attempted disguise
Another evil in the space selling part
of the newspaper business is the subor-
dination of the rights of the reader,
without whom there can be neither
newspaper nor advertising, by distribu-
ting all manner of displayed advertise
ments through tops and bottoms of
reading columns, to such al extent that
what the publisher owes to the reader
as solid page or part of page of read
ing, assumes the appearance of an in
cipient checker board.
But beyond these are kindred evils at
the business end of the newspaper.
there is another which is a sin, and
which ought to be
Declared a Crime
by every statue book. 1t is the publica-
ton of advertisements which. while
they set forth their apparently diSinter-
eSted benevolence in technical truth,
are really untrue, and result in decep-
tion,-such as the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
ing petty ScOundrelS who hang on to
their more honest acknowledgment
and work the ever gullible public under
the general designation of novelty"
dealers; or of advertisements which de-
fraud, such as the speciOus land enter
prises, illegitimate mining schemes,
guessing contests, lotteries and all the
other related denominations; or of indeli-
cate advertisements, which | cannot
here describe, but which are shame to
any newspaper and pollution to many
households; or OF medical adyer-
tisements which coverly or openly
offer immunity from the results of
immortality; or of that class of personal,
medical, massage and matrimonial adj
vertisementS which, chiefly on Sundays,
in three leading and largely read papers
in New York, and others in Boston,
Cincinnati, st. Louis, and Chicago,
practically constitute an exchange for
the vicious. Before an audience such
as this, close EXPERIMENTATION of this
stain upon daily newspapers and this
menace to society, is impossible. Pure
minded people, for the most part, neither
know nor realize the facts behind this
wicked and insidious agency, which
turks and works among US and all over
the land, and which does not threaten
the young alone, but which invades and
destroys many home. A few years
ago but one paper,of 100000 circulation,
and to the extent of half column each
Sunday. was engaged in
This Infamous Business;
but last Sunday Il am not beating the
distant and empty air, friends), last
Sunday, three New York papers, having
a joint circulation of 100000 copies,
spread over the country two and half
to three columns of these signals and
beckonings of infamy, while newspapers
in Boston. Chicago, st. Louis and Gin
cinnati contained from six to eight col
umns more. You who have seen in
these personal and matrimonial adver-
tisements only the silly sentimentalities
of idle fools may, if you wish, learn the
terrible truth. The men who receive
these things know their meaning. Every
policeman, from the chief or superin-
tendent In his arm chair down to the
patrolman in the street. IN New York,
Boston, Cincinnati. st. Louis, Chicago
and the other great towns, knows it.
The officers of the Society for the Sup
preston of Vice either know it or con-
fesS themselves dolts. l tell you these
departments of these newspapers are
paths for the tread of devils, and that
their steps take hold OH the streets hard