Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-03-20
THE PRACTICAL SIDE.
Editing without Knowledge.
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Training is supposed to be neces-
sary in all professions except that of
editing a newspaper. A large num-
Der of educated men, not to say the
majority, have an idea that they could
take the helm in daily journal and
greatly improve it's interest to the
public and its moral character. They
are not aware that the past is filled
with the wreckage of newspapers,
and that where one has survived 10
or more have persisted. In spite of
this well-known fact. thousands of
men of all professions would be ready
to take the chair of an editor-in-chief
at an hours notice, and would rejoice
in the opportunity to test their air
drawn ideals and original conceptions.
They would not expect nor ask to be
physicians, lawyers, builders or rail-
road managers without long prepare
ton. The religious world takes care
that no one is admitted to the pulpit
without meeting certain fixed require
ments. and beyond that an expert
mental sermon or two are not amiss.
A man may not work a passenger
elevator without an examination.
But anybody, so tradition runs. can
be an editor. And every one of the
multitude willing to try is sure that
he can improve on existing standards.
AS a matter of fact, the duties of
the responsible editor are more diff
cult to master than those connected
with any other profession and none
demand a wider range of experience.
Every state in the union can give the
names of eminent lawyers and doctors,
but how many can furnish the name
of even one eminent editor? A capac-
ity to write can never, taken alone,
constitute an editor. The main re-
sponsibilities of an editor in charge
relate to a clear judgment of men and
affairs, to the tides of public opinion
as they change direction and force,
to the power of the unspoken word,
to the incest apprehension of the
value of time, to an ability TO render
the decision that must often be formed
on the instant, to make the best
adaptive use of the staff, to give the
paper honorable influence and extend
it, to keep it growing as the country
itself grows, and to see that nothing
is missing in the earliest authentic
presentation of the news of the world.
What an editor of the first class must
have is just sense of proportion in
an extremely complex business, and
this comes only by experience, though
marked aptitude is good foundation
for it.
Efforts to teach newspaper work in
colleges have failed. The tasks set are
the merest shadows of the reality.
The true pressure and strain are lack
ing. A tornado sweeps across a city
late in the day and reporters must
have its history written up in a few
hours. They can get their data only
by going into the darkened streets,
filled with debris and a dangerous
tangle of wires. A war correspond
ent will ride 80 miles to save five
minutes. The editors hand is on the
lever. All these and hundreds of
others are his subordinates, aud
timed to count the seconds. When,
therefore, some one not trained in
newspaper work steps in to fill the
head it may be regarded as a fantastic
pleasantly if it lasts only one week,
but calamity if it shou Id take a more
serious shape. The Topeka news
paper has been a Junk shop of crud-
tiles for several days, an exhibit of
amateurish fads in sentiment, fancy
ing itself to be something more than a
dis play of the stale, the sloppy and the
ineXpert. The best newspapers in
the world are governed by far broad
err and higher morality than that re-
vealed in the Topeka freakish revel of
one who knows as much of the pro-
fession he broke into as Dogberry did
of letters and the law.