The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1903-09-04

|
for School Of Journalism. has focused
public attention "a never before, uDon
the Journalist" or rather, as the
newspaper man prefers to call him
self, the newspaper man. III a gent steps
into a real live newspaper Office and
| introduces himself as Journalist, the
boys give each other a wink, and the
Journalist the guy.
And yet Mr.. Pulitzer was right 10 call
ing his school a School of Journal
ism" for that is what il is. and the dir
Gu .sion his endowment has prcvohed
has done kood already. IL is fair to say
that the world THINKS better already of
the newspaper man than il did; and it
Is safe TO say that many a bright
young mind has already been turned
towards this profession, which had never
thought of it before. For it is a fat
| that the makers of newspapers-the
brightest men as class ana the hard
est workers in the world, have never
taken their proper stand among men.
| There is kind of bohemian spirit
among them that don't care much
not enough perhaps-where they stand.
They are neither covetous nor overly
ambitious, except in their line. They
leave the world of letters to more bookish
men. and society to the frivolous,
and office holding to the papsuckers.
| But they know a good story, and they
know when they have told it we'll, and
their enjoyment is in the consciousness of
duty well done. They play at their work,
and WORK while they play They enjoy
their work more than other people do.
They enjoy each other more than any
other class. In short, the reportorial
room of great morning daily, about the
hour of midnight, is bout the cussedest,
| happiest, frowsiest, iolliest, don t-care'
get-t there place, with more to enliVen,
exasperate, enthuse and delight, that
can be found in the city. 1t pulses
with real life up 10 the moment the
forms close, then it is all over until the
next day.
DR.. George w. Hormer, OF New York,
writing under the above head, "Ihe
Making of a Journalist" says:
Newspapers are necessary ptrt OF
the time in civilized countries. No city
is without one; ali great cities have
many, and their prevalence IS 10 pro
portion to the enlightenmentof countries
and cities. .eatF
Zone cannot imagine an American
city without it's great dailies; one can
not imagine these dailies in the cities OF
any other country: and the reason Is that
in the various countries the newspaper
responds to the qualities of the people.
1--WE may safely assume that the news
papers reach ten million flresldes every
day, and by fair computation it is estlmat.
ed that not less than 2000O,OOO copies OF
newspapers reach the people every day,
each loaded with it's budget of news
from all the world, and with its chronicle
of local stories, and each one also vivid
with arguments that appeal to the
people as taking one side or another IN
the great issue of the day, making each
man party to the common puoHc
debate which is the life of the time, and
inspiring each atom individually with
the passion and energy of that life.
"From these printed sheets many
millions of men and women obtain all
the knowledge they possess OF human
affairs outside their own narrow lie
The common sch ,ol which taught each
one to read, and perhaps taught but
little more, had this enormous conSe
ouence-that it opened to them all this
immense daily storehouse CONFORMATION
They have the activities OF the world
set before them. They are 1.-THE uelrs
of all the ages" and one may read II
any little cabin on the Mississippi the
story OF all that has happened from Lap
land to Peru for day. and men are 80
accustomed to this miracle of the news
that it is commonplace to them. But
the paper feeds their minds. They read
it again and again; they think it over;
they reason upon it: they carry the
CT ronicle with them from day to day;
they live in greater world than their
own; their minds acquire larger scope
and capacity. They form opinions
shaped more or less by their paper.
1.-The great institutions Of lear ming
and their annual outputs of educated
boys and girls are an immense force: but
those institutions teach ten per cent. OF
the population, and the newspapers are
read by that ten per cent, and, in add
ton, by nearly all the other ninety per
cent. Every newspaper is a unit IN this
system.
There are 600 daily papers publish
d in the United States, and not 80
many In all the rest Of the world toge.h
,r. Oars is pre-eminently the country
where tne whole people have that ration
al Gu iosity which ia the beginning of
knowledge, and where the appetite for
news is always keen and almost univer
sal. And it is also the country where
an enlightened public opinion is more
powerful than any other single force;a nd
the newspapers are the organs of the
common mind in developing, shaping |
and declaring that opinion. In no other
country has the press the absolute free
dom that is essential to this function,
for with MS the press is free from every
restraint except that of public opinion
itself.
.'By whom is this immense force yield
ed? What sort OF men are they who
control this aggressive influence OF
2 900 daily papers? These men are, in
their various commu tiles, certainly
,bove the average Of the people for il
formation for energy and enterprise, for
alertnesS, for readiness, for
common sense, and in short for all the
qualities chat are likely to count for sue
9ess in life. In the discharge of their
daily duties they are required to possess
almost universal information, a
great store of special and technical
Wedge, and the habitof laboring 10
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