The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-07-22
Sunday Edition of Herald a Credit
Il - Washinrton Rsrald

Editor The Washington &STald:
Permit me TO tender a word OF appre-
citation for your Sunday edition. For a
time I allowed my children access tO
Sunday papers which contained a comic
section and other departments OF non
sensical NATURE. noted that the effect
upon my children was detrimental, and
ordered the newsdealer not to deliver
such papers. I wished 10 keep in touch
with current events, but did not think il
either consistent or fair TO read myself
that which I denied my children. When
the Sunday edition of The Washington
Herald made its appearance. almost en-
tirely free from the Objectionable features
of other papers, you can readily under
stand that became an appreeiative sub
scriber
The following paragraphs from an arti-
Gle, entitled AN Analysis of Modern
Printing" by Henry Turner Bailey. in
The Printing Art, for May. 1907, speaks
the truth clearly and forcibly:
The Sunday edition presents one Of the most
serious problems o. our time Il is not my purpose
10 discuss II here but In passing let me say that
children love Of truth, respect for the aged and
for law a belief in virtue and honor reverence for
womanho0d and for the great spiritual realities,
an enjoyment Of beauty. and a refined taste Tor
literature and art. is opposed, vtiated. ana some
times ! am almost ready % say nullihed. by the
Sunday papers. In the Sunday papers impotence
is uraiScd the bad boy Is fortunate the police are
outwitted the foreigner, the old the laWabiding.
the virtuous. are held up 10 ridicule. The things
we revere ara made the britt Of every coarse joke.
and the colofs are brutaly crude The incidents
recorded are said % be comic. amusing,
funny. They arc not they rather tend to de
struY the power 70 appreciate genuine VII and
hunof.
do not forget other parts Of the Sunday papers.
where artists Of talent and writers Of ability con
tribute 10 the instruction and pleasure Of adult
readers. / lament chiefly the wretehed stuff these
papers provide for our children. u Is simply vile
With all the wealth Of fable. myth, folklore, his
torical adventure BY land and sea; with al the
wealth Of modern literature. fun Of happy e1-
perences and wholesome fun for clildreni with the
modern facilities for reproducing effectively views
from nature, pictures Of merit charming sketches
drawn by szilful artists; with all this 20 draw
from on the one hand and the other with all
the increasingly efficient graduates Of our art schools
anxious for remuneTaJTe WORK. all. all az the dis
posal Of newspaper syndicates, there seems % be
absolutely no excuse for the stream Of sewage IN
the Sunday papers
sented By the size o. these Sunday editions As
the principal Of one Of our largest industrial srt
schools in the country said recently in my hearing.
1t is fast becoming a question OF wood pulp The
SUNDAY edition wastes enough good wood pulp 70
supply paper for a reasonable daily whole week.
sunday editions are dcnuding our hllsides and en-
dangerinC our water supply. while they pour per
petual flood Of poison into the minds Of the boys
and girls Of the country.
In harmony with the above is the fol-
lowing from an editorial in the New
York independent of June q:
Almost needless to say. the Apeft 10 be derived
from the picture supplements ofthe Sunday papers
is more than dubious. while the positive disad-
vantages seem easy 10 appreciate at once. These
crude pictures, badly drawn, luridly colCred, with
little OF no meaning 10 them at best and often
meanings that are not good for children at worst.
cannot help but vtiate taste and depTaye intelli-
gence Il does not seem quite the proper thing
that children should be shown the humor Of playing
tricks ON anybody and everybody, parents and
friends relatives and servants, sometimes the old.
often those who are helpless and almost he taught
10 laugh at the TTeiiCaments they place them in.
as If this were the right thing TO do. This
seems 90 BE- an excellent time. then. call atten-
non 20 the dangers that urk behind the apparently
harmless, though il would scarcely be called limo
cent amusement that Is afforded 10 children by the
vicious colored supplement
May The Washington Herald continue
to increase in efficiency and continue a
power for all that is pure. virtuous, and
honorable.
JOHN n QUINN.
Takoma Park, D. c.