The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-26
CO-EDUCATION A SUCCESS
DECLARED AND PROV ElD ~
REV. ]. O. ATKINSON.
,Ms. FousT's EXCELLENT PAPER
To-Nigh, Mai. +. j. Hale Will Talk on
1.-The Educated Electorate
soaaI Mention interest IN
Assembly Continues.
Assembly Continues.

Morehead City, \. c., June 25.-(Spe-
ciaD-ouite Il few of those attending the
Teachers Assembly have gone home,
but the number here for that purpose is
still large and interest in the exercises
continues.
This morning an address was delivered
by Rev. Il. \. lvey, editor of the Chris
tian Advocate. and his subject was 1.-The
Educational Mission OF Journalism.
The address was fun of interest and
evidenced a high appreciation of the
force and influence of the press, and inn
pressed the audience with the mental
strength of the man and his thorough
preparation on the subject In substance
he said:
The restless busy age has
hardly learned that the newspaper has
a mission. A lack of a serious settled
idea on the part of the public has prevent
ed the newspaper from taking its legitl-
mate place in the great popular mind
and heart of the great American public.
THE true glory of journalism, said the
s,roprietor of one of the great metropoll-
tan dailies, which Mr.. Dickens once
facetiously. if not truthfully, termed the
great sewers, is to be able TO help
your friends and TO attack your enemies,
TO promulgate doctrines you love and to
crush the shams you hate. to have IN
your hands an instrument with winch you
can crush one not similarly armed, and
with which you can resist the onslaught
of any publication" mis- crazy patch
work of motive, function, and end, is
undeniably the original pattern by which
the popular journalistic idea is cut.
The newspaper has broad, far-reach-
ing. dignifed, divine mission. 1t is truly
the gift of God. 1t came from the forest
of Germany as John the Baptist came
from the Wilderness spirit indeed pre-
paring the way of the Lord, and making
his path straight" For centuries the
human voice sounding from forum, acad-
envy and pulpit, had wrought its mighty
and peculiar work. But the world swept
through the darkness of the Middle Ages
into an era which demanded multi
plication of voices and audience and
molded permanency Of expressed thought.
These were furnished in the printing
press. The day that saw the newspaper
as a fact and fixture ushered in new
era in the life of Christian civilization.
The newspaper became mighty power
for good or evil, and able either to keep
the moral world revolving in its orbit
or to shake it with seismic commissions.
The church of Jesus Christ is, of course,
the supreme moral and spiritual force
of the world. Extensively considered,
the newspaper yields a mightier scepter
than is welded by the school house or
even by the church. These sway their
thousands; the newspaper its tens of
thousands.
This power was not given for naught.
The idea that the newspaper is simply
to fill the till of the proprietor with sor-
did gold; to bolster the sinking fortunes
of some political party; to advance the
interest of some struggling town, city or
community, to pander to the prurlent
taste of modern Athenianism, ever seek
ing "some new thing" to be the news
carrier of the public, metropolitan
scandal monger, is farcical and libelous.
1t is like saying that the mission is to
dry up the mud and afford warm cor
ner for some thriftless loafer. The mis-
sion of the newspaper is something high
and noble. A thing which is the vehicle
of thought and the hand that plants the
monuments of thought on fixed founda-
tions must lift itself into higher spheres,
become a noble thing, and burn its in
cense at the innermost shrines of mans
nature. It cannot waste itself in low
things. 1T is one of the angels leading
the Lot of humanity from the Sodom
of ignorance and depravity, and is there
fore in the strict sense educational. The
school is educational in that it leads out
into active life a developed mind under
the sway of morally developed heart.
The church is educational in that it leads
out the soul into a broader purer life,
and utilities and universities it. But
the newspaper, roaming the world,
threading the rivers, scaling the noun
tains and sounding the depths, becomes
the ubiquitous ally of the church and the
very vicegerent of God in aiding both
school house and church in leading man
from the lowlands to the shining table
lands" Of a broader manhood. This is
the mission of the newspaper. The pro-
fessional lip will curl with scorn at the
thought. But the fact remains. Charles
Sumner once said, II am not in politics
but in morals" The newspaper can
never legiimately be anywhere else than
in morals.
Zone great essential to the success of
the educational mission of journalism is
the elimination from the journalistic mind
of the ideas that the paramount function
of the newspaper is to give any and all
news. 1t is plain doctrine of common
sense that some news is not to be pub
lished. The publication of such news
is simply an offence against all purity
prosperity and justice. The publica ton
of such news cannot be excused by the
saying, Business is business and news
is news" The neighborhood tattler or
even the highway robber could with equal
propriety use the same plea. The ideal
of a newspaper which is to publish any
and all news is low and must beget low