The record-union., 1897-06-29
A PLEA FOR TEMPORARY
DECENCY.

1n.no spirit of pharisaical criticism is
1t once more suggested to our metro
pohtan contemporaries that they re-
frain, during the stay of the Christian
Endeavorers in California, from undue
exploitation of the criminal tendency
even by those who most strenuously
object to the publication of the details
of every atrocity occurring in the
State, that legitimate news shall be
suppressed during the brief period of
this convention. Such a demand would
be ridiculous, in view of the fact that
the subscription list of any San Fran
cisco newspaper emitting to publish at
least six columns a day of the latest
sensational murder or current scandal
involving prominent or notorious peo-
pie, would suffer in direct ratio to the
number of columns less than those
published by it's rivals in the business
of purveying to a morally vitiated con-
stituency. But the request is made by
the representatives of decency that
these newspapers shall, for few days,
restrain the Zolaesque genius of their
morgue reporters and curb the erotic
nastiness of the persons, male and fe-
male who pander to the lascivious
imaginations of their slum readers.
The Portland "Oregonian" once call
ed San Francisco "the tenderloin of
America" The newspapers of the me-
tropolis resented the appellation as a
personal insult. They were not far
wrong, for it was called forth by the
rabid journalism that defies every con-
sideration of decency. decorum and
delicacy; it was the criticism of an
outsider unfamiliar with the condi-
tions except as they appeared on the
surface of an unclean exaggeration
presented in the columns of the San
Francisco dailies.
If the newspapers of San Francisco
are inclined to- deny the assertion that
they print more than the legitimate
news let them recall the pages of mas
tiness that flowed from their presses
during the trial of DR.. Brown, and
one of them need only refer to a paper
on it's files in which birds eye" dia-
gram of a slum section of the town
was printed to render more graphic
a minute account of the strangling of
a woman who lived in that quarter.
t. 4foo+
compels the inference of a superior
wickedness in the city where these
newspapers are published. 1t is the
publication of this news" that induces
strangers to believe that San Francisco
is ''the tenderloin of America" And
it is in fear of a repetition of the
rank offense that they are requested to
refrain during the few days that the
visiting members of the Christian En-
deavor are in the State.
A Journalism" that viii offer a
woman S100 to ride through the streets
in the patrol wagon Haunting herself
as a martyr suffering indignity for
refusal to answer "a priviledged ques-
tion" is not the kind of journalism
that commends itself to self-respecting
men and women. The journalism
that sends one of its women reporters
to the Receiving Hospital, hoping that
she will be insulted by the internes,
cannot claim that it never publishes
anything but Legitimate news" This
is the Journalism that is requested TO
depart from the evil of it's ways until
after the Christian Endeavorers go
home.
The request is made by citizens who
do not wish these visitors to so away
with utterly false ideas of our moral
standing as a community. These peo-
pie are wise enough not to be de-
ceived by the specious argument ad-
vanced by one of the San Francisco
newspapers that there is too much
crime in all sections of the Union
to permit any one to be unfamiliar
with it, and the Illogical conclusion
that 1--WE cannot gain the respect of