Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-11-08
PREACHER ON NEWSPAPERS.
DIR. COMBS LOVES THEM, DESPITE
ALL OF THEIR FAULTS.
In Perfect Sympathy With Their In
reduction Into Public hoo
The Histories Of the
Present.

flck. III. ItOISS ~. SoiAbe ~ N
evening at the Prospect Avenue Christian
church on the subject of Newspapers
While the ideal newspaper described by
DR.. Combs may be an impossibiity until
the advent of the millennium his views were
in the main in accord with the newspaper
thought of the age.
II do not believe there is 4 city on Inc
face of the globe that is blessed with as
clean. truthful papers as Is ms cits IA
which you and / have the pleasure ~
live" said DIR. Combs.
There are very few of you Dut faNe
noticed that the newspapers are 10 De IN
PRODUCED into our schools. 40 form a part
oil the education Of our land. l am IN per,
feet sympathy with this, believing Win az
my heart that If history Is TO De recosIiIeu
as a branch of study the history OF to-Idy
IS lust as important as that OF yesterday,
and that this history you can hho aiohe
recorded in tho newspapers. u,toh
brrcced Professor Greenwood upon ITS
courso in the Cisneros incident ana saiu
every school child should read the rscord
of her delivery from prison. de incident,
aflv remarked after an almost lneftectuai
effort 10 pronounce I.er name that NILS
Cisreros never had SO hard a tune III prs, ;,
pronounce her name. de referred TO the
recent New York campaign. with which ne
said every pupil IN the s SCI 9arS S9o GearG De
said whom a Catholic priest rightly says
came from Cod" .,,oo,s
may be abused: everything in life may be
abused. Whatever is not tit for the child
10 read is not fit for the man to read, and
when you have told me what the child
should read you have told me what the
man should read"
DR.. Combs said the newspaper should he
frspirational, interpretative and informa-
tive. He said the people wanted the news.
II believe If a man should come down from
Venus. the most natural question of Amer
there 1t is a characteristic Of the times.
We want to know what is going on; we
want the newspapers to inform US. 1t is
not only the mission of the newspaper to
They not only tell us the happenings. but
they tell us the meaning Of them. l be-
lieve that is the first great work OF the
press"
DR.. Combs and the Editorial Page.
1.-The newspaper without an editorial page
is to me an anomaly. If 1 could make a
newspaper I would have Its editorial page
to tell the meaning Of the wealth OF its
reportorial column. I believe that when the
ideal newspaper comes. its editorial page
will serve as an intelligent summing up
of every particle Of news in its reportorial
THE mission OF the newspaper is to in
spire. / cannot conceive how a man can
ing to wipe it out. / believe that every
newspaper in this world. and every news
paper man. ought to be a reformer; not
OILY % til "Tdl III u - NoAASs odk
to make it better. Everything runs into
religion at last; the goal to which every
thing must point is Righteousness;
81 am talking about a vast thing to-
night: ] am talking about a vast power. l
never look upon a man connected with
him Of the great responsibility that is rest
ing on him. i want to tell him that more
than any other man: more than all other
men. he has it within him to mold the
DIR. Combs quoted from the New York
Herald a statement that the press is super
ers are to abdicate in favor of this modern,
strangely mechanical preacher. We ought to
know something of our successor: | be-
the thought of the world than almost all
other agencies combined. You speak
l0.c0. possibly 100. 900. YOU speak from the
platform and you reach 1.Oo0:speak through
the press and you reach numberless thous-
ands.
What ought the newspaper to be-. I
think there are some things that we can
is that it Should he religious; that it should
be a bulletin for church news We cannot
expect: We cannot expect that 1t will be
bipartisan.
.Independent. ~Non-Partfxan Paper"
The independent, non-partisan newspa-
per Is as thin as a ghost. A newspaper
must be partisan; 1t must take sides along
all the lines of political and philosophical
matters. We have a right to demand that
- ~
to be sacrificed to truth: even sensational
ism. Better be dull than be a liar; the
fake story ought TO be barred. No mat
ter how strong the temptation, newspaper
men ought to resist the temptation to tell
more than the truth.
when i read an editorial I often feel
II does not represent anything: / wonder
when / read another editorial whether it
voices the sentiment of the man or the
management. Let the opinion be honest
DIR. Combs told of his acquaintance with n
man who wrote for months on one side of
a question. his opinions being all the time
on the other side.
The newspaper ought to be less Cos
SPY" he said. There isn't anything in
the universe that isn't pried into and spied
out and reported. All sort Of privacy is
invaded and every sort of sacredness is
gone. In the name of all that is rational, 1
want to protest against this flood of Cos
sipy talk that rolls over us in the columns
of the press.
There ought to be a fair attitude main
tanned toward Christianity. We do not
ask that the church be not criticized: we
do not feel We have any immunity from
criticism. but We do expect that the news
papers will be fair with the church. Some
newspapers are not, always. Newspapers
which derive their support in the main
from men and women who believe in Chris
tianity ought to cease from defamation.
Newspapers ought to be clean: they
ought to be wholesome. The world needs