The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-03-01
The saIutary Effect of Publicity.

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A published letter from Mrs. ANTON
ErrE BROWN BLACKWELL treats Of
the force of vicious suggestion as a
prime cause Of an appalling increase
of crimes" in this country which she
assumes That increase. she further as
sumes, is much greater than the growth
of the population Vicious suggestion,
in her opinion, comes from the publicity
given TO all sorts of crimes and moral
offences in newspapers. Accordingly,
Mrs. BLACKWELL exhorts us to second her
efforts to reform newspapers, 80 that
they shall no longer drench the Com
monwealth with the contagious acci-
mutations Of vicious degeneracy.
Mrs BLACKWELL, who Is now in her
cightieth year. is Unitarian prea cher.
The Bible is the foundation Of the moral
system she teaches Where else is there
more particular record of vice and
crime than is presented in the Scriptures?
So frank il this Biblical exposure of
moral delnquencies that the reading OF
the Bible by young and old, by women
and children, has been repr0bated in at
least infidel quarters. If the reporting
of immoral conduct constitutes "A force
of vicious suggestion, that force has
been exerted most powerfully for thou
sands of years by the Holy Book OF
Christendom, the book which has been
circulated and still is circulated vastly
more than any other ever written.
A force OF suggestion which she
overlooks is the suggestion of the dan
gerous consequences of vice and crime
afforded by newspaper publicity. Fear
of the laws of the State is great de-
terrent from eWldoing, but even more
powerful is the fear Of Mrs. Grundy-
the fear of public opinion. The knowl-
edge that serious moral transgressions
will provoke newspaper publicity is one
Of the most potent OF restraining influ-
enCes
Mrs. BLACKWELL alleges that vice and
crime are increasing much faster than
the population, but il she should con-
suit comparative statistics on the sub
iect she would be unable 10 prove her
point. Actually they are diminishing
under the influence of the publicity
which is now one Of their greatest penal
ties. New York, for example, is a far
cleaner town morally than it was a gen.
Grafton ago, or than il was two hundred
years ago, when it was a village. New
England life is morally purer than it was
in the eighteenth century, at the time
when its moral depravity awakened the
establishment Of WHlTEFIELD and stirred
JONATHAN EDWARDS to his awful SER
mons on hell fire.
II il true that newspapers. with the
aid Of the telegraph reaching 10 every
part Of the globe, now rake the heap of
moral corruption more thoroughly than
it could be stirred in the days of Mrs.
BLACKwELL's youth; but the light Of
publicity poured in on every dark place
makes infinitely more perilous the pur-
suit of vicious ways. Wickedness thrives
best in secret and spreads its contagion
most dangerously when 1t is protected
against exposure.
Actually. contemporary society is NOR
ally much purer than was society in the
times before the development OF the
modern newspaper. Abundant and easily
accessible evidence of the condition
of the past society of every country
Of civilization, including prominently
our own, demonstrates that improve
ment emphatically The days when
highwaymen and burglars were ele-
waited by the imagination into mys-
FERROUS popular heroes have passed away
since the newspaper began to present
such scoundrels as the coarse and cow
ardly rufiians they really are.