Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-26
Afternoon Session.

Previous to the lecture at 2 80 p. M,
two little misses, aged respectively s
and s years, played selections in the
prodigy contest.
THE POWER OF THE PRESS.
A fair-sized audience was present to
listen to the Rev. J.. H. Gunnett's talk
on the modern newspaper. He first
traced the gradual growth of the paper
from an early epoch down to the pres
ent time. When men dwelt together in
small communities they were content
to impart facts by word of mouth
and in the days that Socrates spoke in
the streets of Athens, the memory was
a waxen tablet, on which was engraved
his thoughts. But there came change,
and as men gradually lived in larger
settlements, other means of communi-
cation were devised, and today we have
the daily newspaper. OF all the products
of the printing press, the speaker added,
the miracle and the marvel is the daily
paper. He quoted Carlyle as saying
''The true church of England lies in her
great editors"
But, said the speaker, / will speak to-
day only of the American daily, first be-
cause ] know more about it, and second,
because it is the equal of any in the
world.
He gave some statistics of the value
OF eight newspaper plants from the At
lantic to the Pacific coast, aggregating
81 1852 800. The New York World was
the most expensive, he said, while the
Oregonian was the least. He then told
of the various departments of metro
politan daily, and briefly related the
process of the daily makeup of paper.
from the time that the copy is handed
in by the correspondents till it is
turned odt by the press. He then gave
some of the distinguishing features be-
tween the American and the foreign
papers.
The German daily has as its chief fes-
ture the leader. The French paper is,
he said. unique. Its principal feature
is it's criticism; the publication of
continued story is another one, and
the last one is that it does more than
any other force, to preserve the art and
literature OF the nation. But the pride
of the American daily is to give the
news. He then spoke of the secular
spiri. of the American newspaper and
quoted an article in the Forum as say
ing that of the matter composing a
newspaper OF today eleven per cent was
given to crime, while three per cent was
| devoted to religion, and added that when
the accounts of falling from grace by
different church people had been taken
out, only small part of the three per
cent consisted OF the real religious hap
penings. The reason that we do not
have more of 1t is because we do not
want it and this three per cent is an
honest reflection upon life in America
today. He quoted another article from
the Forum as saying that during the
past twenty years the tendency OF the
American papers had been to disillu-
sionize public life and to fill it with
realism.
There is no sentiment in this country
and it is running to realism. The re.
suits and dangers confronting such 9
state were also portrayed. The speaker
said that sensationalism was the charac.
teristic of the American dailies. But
there were two kinds of sensationalism
He quoted the city editor of the Exam
liner as saying that he was glad the pa.
per was sensational, because it gave the
naked facts. And the speaker contin.
ued "We curse it, and yet we like it
and 60 and pay our money for it."
The other kind OF sensationalsm was
| that which was unauthentic and
ought not to be tolerated. He
related an amusing incident of how
a friend of his had been misre
ported in San Francisco. If he had
the right he said he would have law
enacted by the legislature requiring re-
porters to go to school. He next added
that the cause of this unauthenticity in
the papers was due to their sending
young, uneducated boys around to re-
port and to practice at the various
meetings, and they generally began on
the preachers, who had to be misre.
ported, stood on their heads, and be
otherwise juggled with by these boys
He did not know if there were any in