The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-06-04
NEWSPAPERS OF TODAY.
It's Influence Unimpaired in Molding
Public Opinion-Never So Popular.


the press as a power in mOlding pub
lie opinion They note the effect of the
dominant commercial and predominant
material tone OF this age upon the max
decline of the oracular editorial page of
the older days from Benjamin Frank
lin and Samuel Johnson to Horace
t Greeley; they emphasize the enormous
development of the newspaper as an
industry, and their deductions are that
the press IS no longer the immovable
maintainer Of the rights Of the people
Unawed by influence and unbribed by
gain.
Certain it is that Democratic govern
ment cannot exist without free and full
discussion and agitation of public Ques-
ions If the time ever comes when the
press is monopolized by monster or
ganizatiOn of the consolidated money
interests of the country, the very eta
del of democracy will have been taken.
But this time has not yet come.
We do not often put radical editors
in prison, as the English did John
Wilkes and Leigh Hunt, not because
we do not have radical editors, but be-
cause popular sentiment viii not per
NIT them to be imprisoned Never be
fore in any country have the newspa-
pers vilified men in exalted public sta
ton as they have in this country IN the
last decade when it suited their pur-
pose to do 50. Perhaps the animus Of
the assumed popular anger as repre-
sented by the press was the desire for
notOriety consequent circulation, re-
sultant advertising and increased in
come. But even the skilled metaphysl-
clan cannot always reveal motives, ana
in this practical age we must look more
to results.
In any consideration of the power of
the daily newspaper at the present We
must not forget that few people read
newspapers in the days of the great per-
sonal editors, where nearly every one
reads newspapers in this day of lmper-
sonal journalism Newspapers were
never so popular as they are today and
were never so widely circulated as they
are in this country. Many men VINO
read nothing else at least scan the head
lines of their morning ana afternoon
newspapers.
The ability to reach a million people
every day means power and influence;
hence the press, whether characterless
and venal or not. today possesses q pow
er far greater than have ever before been
its privilege and opportunity. How
ever cOntemptuous Of that power Few
may pose to appear, this mighty mod
ern engine of publicity strikes terror to
every one who comes within the range
of its revealing headlight or fails be-
meath the weight of its merciless wheels.
Too true. this light burns and sears the
right al well as reveals and rectifies the
wrong. The innocent had better suffer
than the guilty go unpunished, espe-
ciaily in a world conquering, subject
holding, wealth potent republic, where
the dominancy of great fortunes Is SEN
sitive peculiarly to the unrest the press
may excite in the mass Of the people
That subtle philosopher and striking
phrasemaker, Xoltaire, said that Hopin-
ion rules the world and wise men rule
opinion" It would be too much to say
that the men who govern newspapers
are Invariably wise, but it is often true
that they feel after and formulate and
forcibly express the opinion Of the
masses and the masses. delighted with
the appearance in print of thoughts that
appeal to them as their own, thus form
an opinion that becomes formidable
Hence even the strongest and most Sc
cure of the wealth controlling men Of
the country fear the newspaper because
it divines and defines rather than Gre
ates and controls public opinion
The fellow journal does not grow
hysterical in an unpopular cause or
preach in prodigious type and flaming
pictures doctrines the masses viii re-
sent. The press, after ALL frivolous AMI
foolish as it may appear, unbalanced
and unintelligent as it sometimes is in
the worse manifestations Of sensation
aIism is wonderfully human It's sue
cess is built upon a fundamental SEN
sitiveness to the elemental desires of
mankind Whether we like it or not,
we must confess that newspapers which
become conspicuously successful BY