Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-17
FUNCTIONS OF JOURNALISM.
The Views Of an Eminent Divine on
the Subject


From the Chicago Record-Herad, January r.
THE daily press does right in reporting
vice and crime. We ought to know the
evil things that are going on in the world
We don't want an Index Expurgatorius.
We don't want a censor, either at WASH
ington or in a Chicago editorial chair to
tell us what we may read. want to
know everything
DR.. Lyman Abbott, the preacher editor Of
the Outlook, made this statement with en-
phasis during the course of an address on
The Daily Press and Its Attitude Toward
Religious Education" yesterday afternoon.
The address was the first of a series of
discussions on problems In religious educa-
ton which President w. r. Harper Of the
University of Chicago has provided for
Sunday afternoons this winter. 1t was
given in Kent Theater of the university,
and. although DR.. Abbott had preached
there to large university congregation in
the forenoon and the day was bitterly cold,
the hall was again filled to hear him.
When he declared that the daily papers
should publish facts about vice and crime
DR.. Abbott was discussing the point that all
people. whatever their religion, have
right to demand Of the daily papers men Of
character for editors and reporters. He
said in part:
THE daily newspaper Is a history of cur
rent life. Its business Is to tell us what
went on In the world yesterday. 1t is first
of all reporter. The enterprise Of the
American journal Is beyond all praise. But
we have right to ask for something more
than enterprise. We have no right to ask
the newspaper to select only the pleasant
things for to read.
I'VE do, however, have q right to ask to
have the vice and crime painted with just
discrimination. The way in which 1t will
be painted depends on who holds the pen:
New York wit Is reported to have said
that he read a certain morning paper be-
cause it made vice SO attractive and a GER
tain evening paper because 1t made virtue
so repulsive. We want the opposite. so
that vice shall be repulsive and virtue at
tractve
I'VE have right to ask that the daily
newspaper shall preserve a fair proportion
between the events of the day: that 1t
shall not present a distorted picture; that 1t
shall not make you think that all the events
of the day are crime. We have right to
ask that the great ethical and moral move
ments shall be recorded and so recorded
that they shall be interesting and simple
to comprehend. 1 am not asking that the
newspaper should give pre-eminence to in
stitutional religion, but simply that it should
preserve a fair proportion between the
events Of the day.
THE daily press should be more than a
reporter. 1t should be an interpreter. The
tendency Of human life is development Of
justice, mercy kindness. reverence and love.
pref all events in relation to this progress.
I'VE want to know what is the signif1-
canoe, for example, Of this great struggle
between the coal miners and operators.
Does 1t forecast better organization of
labor? Does it look toward better or
ganization Of capital, toward a better un-
Outstanding between the two! Is 1t q
movement toward more clearly defined
classes? And are We to prepare ourselves
for a war between labor and capital, a
war between classes as there was war
between sections?
"These are big questions. We want men
who have a large outlook, who have in
sight and foresight. to tell us, busy as we
are with our work, the meaning of events.
ut is too much to ask the daily press to
tell the truth, but We have right to ask
that the daily press try to tell the truth.
We have right to ask for reverence as
we'll as truth. 1t is not the business Of the
daily press to give the people simply what
they want. The daily press ought to be
| in the same category with great univer-
sity. To take a commercial Illustration,
has a grocer in East New York right to
give children green fruit? Is 1t right for a
newspaper to regard itself as something
| more than great commercial enterprise?'