The Daily Texarkanian., 1895-06-16
DUTY OF JOURNALISTS.

UU1 UF JUUhN hLlG10.
The Austin (Tex.) Statesman has
this is to say of very important
matter
A local physician with national
reputation criticises the press in an
interview with a Statesman repre-
sentative yesterday on account of
the publication of "the disgusting
stories of Oscar Wilde and his fol
lowing" Such filth ought to be
kept out of the press, and far away
from the purity of homes, but the
physician is in error in blaming the
press. The fruit lies with the pub
lie. The public demands all such
information and the press, it seems,
can not correct that vitiated taste,
Some newspapers will minister to
this depraved taste and Others
must do so or withdraw from com
petition for public patronage.
Newspaper editors desire most
earnestly, as a general thing, to
elevate the tone and taste of their
readers but their readers make
obedience to their demands in this
respect a condition to the life and
prosperity of newspapers and such
a demand forces its compliance.
If this eminent physician desires to
exclude such obscenity from the
homes Of the land he must 60 to
the bottom of the thing and correct
it there and that is the vitiated
taste of the reading public for all
such garbage.
We beg to differ absolutely from
the Statesman. When the report
of the first days trial of Wilde
came to the Commercial Appeal an
editorial announcement was made
promptly, that the details would
not be printed in this paper. If
The Commercial Appeal has lost
single subscriber on that account
we are not aware Of it. If any
person has bought another paper
because The Commercial Appeal
refused to give the testimony, we
do not think he holds The CONNER
cial-Appeal in less esteem. The
Statesman is altogether wrong, The
newspaper which can not withstand
the competition OF the purveyor of
filth should stop its press, for when
journalism may not be profitable
unless the columns Of papers shall
be open to news that corrupts the
reader, then there should be an end
of the newspaper business. The
Statesman is laboring under a
strange misapprehension. 1t evil
IDENTIFY does not know that the
most influential and the wealthiest
newspapers in the country--those
that have become 50 strong that
competition may have no effect
upon their evenues--never print
such scandal as that which marked
the Wilde case. This Is true, and
the fact is creditable in supreme
degree to the American people,
The newspaper scavenger can al
ways make money, but not so much
as the self-respectlng journalist
who refuses to vend the wares of
the gutter If the editor of the
Statesman will take his newspaper
directory and read 1t carefully he
will discover that the newspapers
which are the richest and most
stable and the Oldest are those
which do not make Il business of
selling dirtiness, A newspaper has
obligations to the community which
it must fulfill, 1t must not take
advantage Of It's freedom 1t must
be a conservator Of public morals If
II would occupy an honorable place
and would gain that support
which counts in the business Office.
When 1t takes undue advantage Of
It's privileges and prints matter
which Is destructive of the
morality of youth; II may
gain in circulation for day
but no such paper is worthy the
service Of honorable men, and such
a paper dlsgraces journalism and
tends to destroy the might Of and
the public respect for the press,
The publc--the newspaper sup
porting public-does not want
prurlencNand the'paper that caters
to the prurlent Is to be despised,
Memphis Connercial-Appeal