The Progress., 1893-01-28
THE MODERN JUDAS.


| liver him unto you? And they weighed untC
him thirty pieces Of silver.-Masthew XVI, H.
While we rejoice in the advent of q
Christ and while the earsh should Justly
ring with joyous notes, it is a fact which
we must recognize that truth was born
to be betrayed. Over the JOY of the birth
Of Jesus even in that hour there stalked
the shadow of him who should betray
There is for every JOY and every truth
and every glory of earth this stalking
shadow. So even III the Christmas fes-
tival beneath all its rejoicing there is a
subtOne of warning.
| In the coming year, among those who
| are called to walk with us, there may he
one who will betray the trust imposed,
one who will prove false to the highest
responsibility. There was with the
Christ one who thus proved recreant.
Today there is this incarnate power here
on earth that is betraying the Christ,
and he is so omnipresent, so nearly ON
nipotent, that the chances are that every
one of you will feel his damning touch
in the coming year, will feel ON your
cheek the foul breath of the lie when he
comes up and kisses you, protesting
friendship and loyalty.
Do you ask what power could thus be
betraying the Christ, and from which
you are i'll danger of contamination?
refer to the daily newspaper that
shall come into your house
With every mans life this power is
wrapped as closely as Judas Iscariot
walked with the Christ and with power
TO betray a1d to damn. with power to
bind and to sell for thirty pieces of sill
YER just as truly as Judas had in the
days of old. want to read you a toast
a newspaper man gave the other day to
the independent Press" at dinner to
members of the press in New York city
1t is an honest confession. Listen:
A HUMILIATING CONFESSION.
There is no such thing in America as
an independent press unless it is out in
the country towns. You are all slaves.
You know it, and know it. There is
not one of You who dare express an hon
est opinion. If you express it, you know
beforehand that it will not appear in
print. am paid $3.50 per week for keep
ing honest opinions out of the papers ]
am connected with. Others of you are
paid similar salaries for doing similar
things. If | should allow honest opin.
ions to be printed in one issue of my pa
per, like Othello, my occupation would
be gone.
''The business Of leading Journalist
is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to
pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of
MammDn, and to sell his country and
his race for daily bread or for what is
about the same-his salary. You know
this, and l know it, and what foolery
to be toasting an independent press
We are the tools and vassals of rich men
behind the scenes. We are jumping
jacks. They pull the string, and we
dance. Our time, our talent, our posi-
bilities, are all the property of other men.
We are intellectual prostitutes"
That is the most terrific Indictment
and arraignment of the press, which you
receive into your homes daily, that
ever read, and it is from the lips of one
who sits at the desks Of the great papers
and who knows from life that of which |
he speaks.
The netcspaper is the heart of modern
ciCilizdtion into ,rhich foacs the daily life |
Of the race.
First-What does that signify? 1t sig
niies that it should there be purified by |
a process of elimination. Into my heart |
flows the blood from my body, and it
flows into my heart contaminated from
a thousand sources. 1t flows there 20
go through process of regeneration, of
publication. before it shall go back to
touch the body. This is the function of
the heart. So of this great reservoir of a
worlds history and daily life. You and
| in our lives and civilization, in our
churches, in the saloons we maintain, in
our hospitals, in our politics, furnish the
for this history of a world
hours old that pours thus
into the heart of civilization.
The daily newspaper is the history of
the world for twenty-four hours. 1t
should be true history of the world.
what is true in questions Of
of art and science and litera-
ture. and of true biography, and of the
and fashioning Of true opinion.
It is impossible to produce history of
the race for any space of time-that is, a
true history-that does not shadow forth
the evil as well as the good God wrote
the history of the race for / 600 years,
and some of its pages are SO dark that
,ould scarcely read them before you this
1t takes you into the very dis
'ecting room where, with the knife, God
,pens all the dark secrets of mans soul
md lays them bare. 1t is true history
complete history. The daily
should report evil as the Bible
'eports it-that is, make us hate it. The
lificulty is in the method of preseNa-
ion.
Second-What does the great press of
oday reflect? Does it send back the
blood to the body purified, cleansed? 1t
lot only sends back all the impurities it
Possesses, but it goes out and searches
or them and overturns and explores all !