The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-02-03
AT THE 2. M. C. A. BUILDING.
Editor Richardson and Rev. Mr.. Rhames Dis
cuss American Journalism.

|
ian ballot system, and also to hear dis
cussion Of the subject, American Jour
nalism," by such capable gentlemen as
John S. Richardson, editor of the Beacon,
and Rev. Mr. Rhames of St. Johns Epis-
! copal church.
The meeting was not large, but those
| who were present took very lively inter
est in the proceedings.
Owing to unavoidable absence from the
city Mr.. Richardson could not be present
to speak in person, but before leaving he
wrote very creditable article on the sub
| iect, and rather than disappoint the meet
| ing be deputized Mr. Il. W. Sergeant to
read it. The article would read exceed
| ingly well on paper. and would enlighten
many persons who have not a thor
ough comprehension Of the duties of
the editor of daily paper but unfortu-
nately the EAGLE has not sufficient space
| this morning to give the document in full.
! Mr. Richardson's most emphatic idea con-
corning the success CT journalism is to
| give the news, and to give it as rapidly as
possible. He made very readable COM
parison or rather contrast between the
American papers and the continental
papers. and forcibly illustrated his COM
parsons by incidents which have actually
| taken place, such as the telegraphing of
| the changes in the Bible at the time of the
revision and having them before the
American reader a week before the sleepy
newspapers of England furnished them to
| their readers, Notwithstanding the fact
that the revision took place in England.
| In referring TO the hosts of people outside
u newspaper Office who think they could
run paper better than the trained man
| aging editor on the inside he said:
lone man labors under the idea that a
| newspaper makes vital mistake in giving
| publicity to crime, or at least to the details
thereof Were he the editor in charge, lie
4 is confident that nothing more than the
| barest mention of criminal occurrence
would be found in The columns of his pa
| per-
Another would eliminate from the col
umns the coming and going of individuals
and the little events transpiring in the
community, as being unworth of perpetual
ton in the press.
| Another possessed the belisf that it
| is loves labor lost to attempt to educate
the readers on national affairs, such as the
| tariff, the financial question, and similar
current topics. Were he an editor, his
paper would not burden its pages with
such national issues, but in its place
would be found information about home
affairs. The opposite of this critic is found
in every community. He would pursue a
directly different policy, and would devote
all his time and talents to national affairs
to the exclusion of local issues
! Then there is the critic who would, were
he the editor of a paper published in a
town of $4,000 people, publish as large and
as good "A paper as one published in a city
of three or four hundred thousand people.
! And the women have their grievance,
| too. They take no interest in politics, and
are at loss to understand why a news
paper, even in a heated campaign, devotes
so much space to political events Were
they editors they would have less politics
and fewer elections.
One critic believes, and believes it hon
estly, that the mission of the newspaper is
TO educate and elevate the people, and, i'll
accordance with this belief, he would toll
crate nothing in its columns that did not
improve and stimulate the readers to
higher and purer lives. Another has a
theory that the press is to amuse, and that
the perusal of a newspaper should drive
away the blues and act like a draught of
the effervescing champagne.
"Then there is the man, and to use an
Irish bull, | might truthfully say, he is
legion, who wants the Newspaper to go in
to the reform business on a wholesale
scale and like Don Quixote of old to make
war on society in general and the commu-
nifty in which it is published in particular.
This man, of whom there are thousands,
wants the press to purity politics, to make
| men honest, moral and truthful, to create
souls for corporations to the end that they
will not take advantage of the people in
every conceivable shape, to make people
observe Sunday, in short. to bring about a
new order and condition of men aud affairs.
These are some of the many sins OF omis-
sion and commission of the average news
paper as viewd by men and women on the
outside-the dear readers as they are re-
garded from the inside of a newspaper
office"
After reciting many interesting features
of the American newspaper which sound
! ed very natural, Mr.. Richardson conclud-
ed as follows:
THE American newspaper is not con-
| fined to one state or section of the United
States. The American newspaper is pub
! lished in 1892 different offices. The
weekly edition of the American newspaper
| is the most popular issue, there being 49,
942 weekles published, 1925 dailies and
=, l52 of the less frequent issues. New
York leads with l, rs. Illinois being good
/ f. IL ,l,,Tf,
weekly and monthly papers. Nevada
brings up in the rear with forty-four diff
ferent publications. The total issue of
a single edition of all the publications in
the United States aggregate a, 324, 900, or
about one paper for every two inhabitants.
The aim of the American newspaper is
! high Ii is never satisfied with the paper
which it issues but is striving to perfect
itself, to make better record and to &C
complish some real and lasting good. The
American newspaper works today and en-
ploys honest thought for the morrow. 1t
never rests, and is either improving or
retrograding Ii grows with the people OF
the community in which il is published
and languiShes when the people are weary
of the good fight which they are making
for existence, municipal, state or national.
The American newspaper is a CONNER
cial enterprise. 1t is not published for
love or fun, but for money.
Rev. Mr.. Rhames followed Mr.. Richard
sons proxy with a very conservative and
scholarly paper on the same subject. He
did not criticIse the papers OF the day al
though he thought the time was ripe to
elevate newspapers TO a higher plane. OF
! course he had not the experience of Mr..