The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-11-17
THE MILLENNIAL NEWSPAPER,

Al 81
Journalists are 80 in the habit OF Civ
ing advice without stint that they
should be willing to take a little occa-
sionally. Therefore we salute the Rev.
G. Q. Brown, D. D., pastor of the First
Congregational church of San Fran
cisco, and acknowledge our obligations
to him for words Of discriminating crit
icism on the daily press. Much of
what he says regarding the p]roneness
Of the newspapers to dip into scandal
and impurity is we'll said. When, how
ever, he undertakes to tell what a news
paper should be, We beg to suggest to
him that experience has shown his ideas
20 be impracticable. While it is true
the newspaper is, or should be, a moral
agency, it must first CT all be a business
enterprise. There are a few p%hilanthro-
pists in the country who publish news
papers for glory, or for political ad-
vancement, without regard to whether
they are self-sustaining or not, but such
men are raro birds and their number
yearly becomes less as they realize they
are being plucked to no purpose.
Mr.. Brown pictures the happy time
when the proportions OF things in the
newspapers shall be reversed, or. as he
puts it, "When the press Of this country
shall be Christian" We hope he will
live to soc this happy day. At the same
time, until Mr.. Brown can demonstrate
that his sort of newspaper will gain cir
culation and advertisements to a point
that will make it actually self-support-
ing, he is not likely to see one to his
liking. Picking up a newspaper at ran
dom from a pile before him, MI. Brown
says he found its contents we're:
"Eleven columns of legitimate news,
seven columns Of vice and crime, three
OF editorials, three of sensational at
tacks on personal character, two and
one-halt Of races and prize fights, less
than one-fourth of religious news, and
only ten lines report Of the dolngs Of a
great national missionary society to
which thousands of this community are
donors and in which they are intensely
interested"
There have been at least two notable
efforts to establish daily newspapers in
this country in which the above pro-
portions were reversed. One was the
New York World and the other the
Now York Witness. Both were started
with large capital by religious enthusi-
asts who believed that in tho great city
of New York and it's vicinity there were
enough Christians to support a daily
newspaper which should give the first
place in its columns to the greatest of
all questions that concern us here and
and Observation-Disclosures. Hundreds of
thousands of dollars were sunk in these
experiments. The papers were edited
by able mon and enjoyed every facility.
The prize fights, the horse races, the
pugilistic encounters and kindred hap
penings were carefully excluded. Ser
monsa and church sociables and mission
airy meetings and lectures, and all the
other happenings in the world of reli-
gion and morals were to be found in
their columns, but the good people
themselves who rather approved such
newspapers did not buy them. They
languished and died from lack of sup
port while the less careful and more
sensational journals flourished and
gained in circulation. The World was
sold and became a wicked newspaper
and grew like a green bay tree. The
Witness ruined Its owners and disap-
What was the matter with these reli-
eious dailles2 Why, they simply foun-
dered or the memorable law of supply
and demand. They could not exist be-
cause the very people for whom they
were made preferred newspapers of the
other sort. Alas, for the perversity
of human nature! And we wish to
warn Brother Brown that the first San
Francisco newspaper that he induces to
print eleven columns Of religious news
to a stickful OF a murder or a prize
fight will go the wall.
The newspapers are far from what
they ought to pe, heaven knows. But
they are made for their constituencies,
people without wings, of the earth
earthly. Few of them are worse than
the communities in which they are pub
lished, and a large percentage are much
better. If Brother Brown will see to it
that the people are regenerated the
newspapers will reform themselves.
LONDON has been much disturbad FOR