The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-09-17
DANA ON JOURNALISM
HE DISCUSSES THE TRAINING OF
NEWSPAPER MAKERS.

Doesn't Think the Colleges Are Very Sue
cessfui In Making Journalists, but n
Good Education Is Valuable y what
Greeley said on This Subject.
In a lecture delivered at Union college
On the education needed in preparation
for journalism Charles A. Dana said
The number Of intellectual young men
who are looking at this new profession,
which for the want of better name we
call the profession Of journalism, is very
great. l suppose that | receive myself ev
cry day, taking one day with another, hall
dozen letters from men, many Of them
college graduates, asking for employment
and an opportunity of showing what is in
them. OF course they cannot all get 1t in
the same paper. Now and then one obtains
place, but generally the rule that is OBJ
served in all well organized newspaper Of
fees is that the boys who began at the be
ginning are taken up step by step in accord
ance with their faculties and their merits.
The boys who begin at the bottom come
out at the top. At the same time these
boys do not all start out with the best out
1 fit-that is to say, with the best education
and i have known very distinguished au.
thorities who doubted whether high edu-
cation was of any great use to a journalist.
Horace Greeley told me several times that
the real newspaper man was the boy who
had slept on newspapers and ate ink. AL
though served him for several years and
I we were very near in our personal relations
| think he always had little grudge
against me because l came up through a
college
What sort Of preparation, what sort Of
ill.,. L.
who means to devote himself to this bust
nessp There are colleges which have lately
introduced schools of Journalism or depart
ments of journalism, where they propose
to teach the art Of newspaper making, TO
instruct the student in the methods he
should employ and to fit him out so that
he can go to newspaper office and make a
newspaper. Well, | will not say that is not
useful But there has been department
Of journalism at Cornell university for sew
eral years, and | have never found that a
student or graduate who had pursued that
department there instead of pursuing other
studies was of any great avail as practical
worker in the newspaper work that he had
been trying to learn.
/ In fact, it seems to me, II may be al
lowed little criticism, that the collcl es
generally are rather branching out too
! uluCu, uutli lHcy HTe lnCIlneu 70 take the
whole universe into their curriculum aud
to teach things which do not exactly be
long there. Give the young man a first
class course of general education, and II |
could have my way every young man who
is going to be II newspaper man and who is
not absolutely rebellious against it should
learn Greek and Latin after the good old
fashion.
l had rather take a young fellow who
knows the A jax of Sophocles, and who has
read Tacitus, and can scan every ode of
Horace, / would rather take him TO report
"A prize fight or a spelling match, for in
stance, than to take one who has never had
those advantages. Ibelieve in the colleges.
/ believe in high education, but | do not
believe in scattering your fire before you
are in the face of the enemy.
There is no question that accuracy, the
faculty of seeing thing AS it is, of know
ing for instance that it is q. and not 2&
and saying so-that is one Of the first and
most precious ends of a good education.
Next to that l would put the ability to
know how and where most promptly TO
look for what you don't know and what
you want to know. Thirdly, would put
DIR. Walkers great object, being able to
tell what you know and to tell it accurate
ly, precisely, without exaggeration, with
out prejudice, the fact Just as it Is, whether
it be a report of a baseball game, or of ser |
mon, or of a lecture on electricity, whatever |
it may be, to get the thing exactly as It is |
The man who can do this is very well |
educated man.
In addition come the qualities of person. |
al talent and genius. Now genius is great |
factor When we think of such genius |
as the one have just mentioned-the late |
Mr.. Greeley, why, our minds may well be |
filled with admiration. | do not suppose |
more than one or two gentlemen here ever |
knew Mr.. Greeley personally, but he was a |
man of immense ability, of instincts of ex-
traordinary correctness in many respects,
and Of the power of expression-of telling |
what he knew in delightfully."- picturesque,
humorous way-which not merely instruct
ed the hearer and reader, but gave him a
sense of delight and satisfaction from the |
mere art that was applied in the telling.
He had had no great advantages of educa.
ton. He had to pick up his education as
he went along, reading in the winter even.
tngs by the freight, and never wasting a
chance of learning something.
But he lacked one of the most precious
faculties, which 1t Is another great object
of the college education to cultivate aud
bring out. and that is what we will call the
critical faculty, the Judgment which, when
proposition is stated to you or fact is
reported, looks at it calmly and says, THAT
Is true" or else, That is false;" the judg-
ment, the instinct, the developed and cul-
tivated instinct which knows the truth
when it is presented and detects error when
1t comes masquerading before you, without
the necessity Of any long examination to
ascertain whether it is truth or error.
The next thing that l would dwell upon
would be the knowledge of politics and es-
pecially American politics. This is very
hard subject. Its history is difficult. II
you go back to the foundation OF the re-
public, you will find it was extremely com
plicated even then, and 1t requires very
careful study and II very elevated impair
TALLY to make your analysis ut all salts
factory to yourself as you 20 through the
work. Still it is indispensable to man
who means to ill an important place in
journalism, and all who begin upon it Ger
tainly have that intention.
Still Another wav.