Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1898-01-27
INCENTIVE TO CRIME.
DIR. STANLEY WARREN Ar
RAIGNS THE NE SPAPERS.
He Calls Them Hypnotic Agents.

He CalIS Ihem Hypnotic Agents
!, he Discusses Their Attitude and Point
Out Their Influence Over wea.
Minds: Re suit of Published sugge.
tions Seen All Over the Country: III
Traces Their Influence on CrImina
Minds to There Sources.
The ARGUS from its first issu,
now nearly thirteen year.
ago-to the present has ever rec.
ognlzed the high responsibility
resting upon it in it's relation tt
the home circles of its patrons,
its influence upon the public minG
of the community and upon its
readers in general, aud all along,
its one ruling impulse has been
to maintain it's columns whole.
some aud it's influences right
and it's benefits as a public edu
Gator per nanent; and while it has
not ~refrained from attacking vice
and censuring crime anc in
structing the people in good pol
itlcs. 1t has ever appealed to the
hearts and minds and consciepces
of men rather than catered to the
morbid sensibilities of the sensa-
tionalists or the partisan bitter
ness OF the unwary.
1t is therefore with a satisfac.
ton bordering on self gratulatlon
that We LOW view the crystalrzing
of the great minds Of the country
and the coming together of the
recognized leaders of thought
and morals everywhere against
the yellow journalism" of the
day.
In the last number of the Uni
versity Medical Magazine, DIR.
|Stanley Warren, of Washington,
D. c., contributes a wellsstudied,
comprehensive and wholesome
arrangement Of the modern news
paper. The article is entitled
1.-The Newspaper as a Predispos-
ing Cause to Crime, and de
serves to be carefully read and
duly considered.
From the medical view all
crime is the result of disease,
either hereditary or induced by
immoral stimulus, Or bad hygen-
lc surroundings" be says.
Crime, like other diseases, is
contagious and infectious. It has
It's microbes coataminating the
moral atmosphere Of a commun:-
~. and, unfortunately, these mi
crobes are visible to the eye, and
have access to our brain through
the organ Of hearing, and SO We
I doubly exposed to it's poison.
La al hours time a full, illustrat-
ed account Of some horrible
tragedy. committed a thousand
miles away, goes into every home
IN the city or town, and SO the
SEED is sown to spring up aud
bear fruit in a dozen different
cities as a counterpart of the|
original crime, yet realistic in all
of its horrible details except or-]
iginality"
SOURCES OF THE INFLUENCE.
DR.. Warren traces the influence
press accounts of criminal
happenings in three sources: To
its power of suggestion, to the
fact that it creates an insane de-
sire for notoriety. and to the fact
that it places a premium on
crime. "The newspaper" he
sis a hypnotic agent, and
stands in the same relation to the
people as does the hppnotist to
MS subject. Hypnotism. as We
understand it, is the influence OF
mind over mind. and through !
mind over matter.
In the newspaper we see the
suggestion Of the crime, the no.
toriety from the commlttal of the !
crime, and many times the pre-
MUM given in the way of i'm
mense sums of money by rival
papers, for the only true confess
sion or for a detailed account of
the methods employed. Some
may suggest here that the news.
paper prints the penalty Of the
crime, but conscience does this
also, and a man or woman who
not hear the warning cry of
his or her conscience pays little
attention to the warning of a
newspaper. 1t is easy to
see the result of newspaper sug-
gestion, for instance, some fend
by decal itation in San
In a weeks time spor-
adic cases of like crimes occur
over the entire country. A man
throws vitriol in the New Eng-
land States; read the papers and
will see in a few days notice
Of a like crime in another local.
lty perhaps a thousand miles
away.
"Among certain classes of geo
pie, especially those of the lowest
morally and Intellectually,
with criminal hereditary tenden-
cies, there is along with. these dis
eased predispositions an insane
desire for newspaper and all
kinds of notorlety. Where is it
better illustrated than in their own
quarters! 60 into their circles and
notice how the leaders conduct
when their anne APP
pear in print as witnesses or par
Elephants In street rows, &c. How
hey pose before their fellows as-