The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-01-28
WESTMINSTER. MD.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 2s, 1893.
A Clean Press.

The New York SIM received from the
women of the late Friends meeting IN bal
timore an appeal in behalf OF the purity
of the press. and protest against the de-
moraIization of the youth Of the country,
through the reading Of the current lltera-
ture of the day as given in the daily press.
The SIN treats the appeal of these ladies
with great Difference and avows its concur
renee with them in the object in view, but
SAYS that the press must print the news as
it occurs, good and bad alike That vice
and crime ever seek to hide themselves
from the public gaze and that they must
be dragged to the light to demonstrate how
odious they are, and that the resultant
decentralization, if any, is in the heart OF
the reader rather than in what is read.
This is the substance of ITS reasoning,
(which is true only in part. As rule, the
pres. gives the fullest and minutest details
of the most revolving crimes The more
revolving, the more minute and sensational
the report This need not be so. Apurer
taste and sounder discretion would avoid
all disgusting detail in spreading before the
public eye the narratives of crime. The evil
of such publications augments the evil IN
digenous in the hearts of those who read.
The poet Is in strict accordance with the
truth, who says
Vice is a monster of such hideons mien.
That to he hated, needs but to be seen.
But. seen too oft, familiar with its face,
We first endure, then pity. then embrace.
\ part of the daily metropolitan press may
Justly be characterized as the o1tltare press,
as it preys upon every foul and feculent
thing Like that unclean bird it scents
every fetid thing from afar, and hastens to
its putrescent feast. There is no necessity
for this kind of journalism, and it ought to
he frowned down, wherever it is seen, by
the pure and virtuous part of the commu-
nifty. Those ladies who made this appeal
are right, in part at least. The press needs
ratification. A much more exalted journ-
alism would subserve its own interests fully
as well, and the public interest far better.
The thinking, moral. portion of the com
munity, have the corrective in their own
hands. Let such patronize only clean
press Let the uuttnre press severely alone,
and there will soon be Il change for the
better. The newspaper that will not purge
It's columns of such foul contamination de-
serves reprobation. If correct moral
sentiment would utter its ipSe Dict on this
subject, the press would make haste To obey
it. Is the moral courage lacking among
the better class of people to make this ut
terance? Freedom of the press is not
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 1t is not decentralization.
1t has been said, that literature, well or
i'll conducted, is the great engine by which
popular government must ultimately be
supported or overthrown.' Let us preserve
the public morals aud the public liberties
by keeping our literature clean. Let it be
IA pure Castalian fount, instead of a turgid
aud turbulent stream, bearing upon its
bosom our most cherished hopes and loft
lest aspirations down to the ocean Of moral,
social and political wreck and ruin. Let
us commend the course of these estimable
women, and of all who would interpose
barrier to the degeneracy of the age, and
elevate not only the press, but all who come
within the scope of its influence, worldwide
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