Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-01-23

From the Springfield Union.
What are we coming to il the press is going
to take the starch out of everything? An es-
teemed contemporary 1--WE have forgotten which
one) has complained that the reports OF the
daily press have made the recent heresy trials
appear ridiculous in the eyes of the public.
The dignity and mystery Of theological discus
sions, once SO awful that angels scarcely dared
to tread the platform where the discussion was
carried on, have been reduced to a common
placeness comparable to the reports Of a ward
meeting or flibustering session in Congress-
The impertine9t press persists in treating
everything and everybody in an everyday sort
of way. Even religion has to undergo the
same treatment. If there is any sham or mys-
ticism or superstition in ii it is liable to be
handled as a detective handles an embezzle-
ment The press a rule believes in pure and
undefiled religion. but it wants a religion that
is good for Mondays and Thursdays and Satur-
days as well as Sundays
1t is complained by some Roman Catholic au-
thorities that the press is unnecessarily med
ding with the alleged controversy between the
archbishops. and that the laity of the church is
being stirred up by contest which ought to
have been confined to the prelates and settled
by them. But everything is news, and 80 i'm
portant a matter as alleged insubordination in
the high places Of the Catholic Church can no
more be kept quiet in these DAYS than could the
outbreak OF a volcano on Manhattan Island. 1t
does indeed detract from the dignity and mys-
terry of ecclesiasticism to have its quarrels re-
ported in the papers. but it cannot be helped,
except in one way. Let quarrels cease and the
press will quit its impertinence.
This meddlesomeness of the press is more
marked In this country than in any other, but
in Europe the trouble is growing worse and
worse Emperor William is in perpetual fear
that some newspaper man will remove one of
the casters from his throne and show the world
how unsteady it is. As for the French press 1t
has been meddling with things to its own hurt,
and yet 1t Is turning great floods of light upon
the mysteries Of Partisan officialdom. In
England the press has been free to criticise ex-
cept in certain directions, but once in a while
takes the bits in its teeth and runs away and
smashes something.
Probably the time is coming in the halcyon
future when everything that everybody does
will be open and above board, when there is
nothing hidden that shall not be known, when
that which is spoken in the ear shall be pro-
claimed upon the housetops, and we rather think
that the impertinent press Is helping to bring
about that day. The fear of publicity deters
many man from doing wrong or delivers him
from the temptation to go astray. Men who
seek to take unfair advantage of their fellow
men because of their poverty or ignorance or
weakness, or for any other reason, find an
obstacle in the light which the press throws upon
their actions and motions. Individual news
papers have their idiosyncrasies and other
faults but, as a whole. the press believes in
right living, honest dealing. truth telling and
doing as you would be done by.