The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-20

l The advertising sign nuisance began with | modest hand bill and was followed py | the billboard. Now blazing electrieH signs, decorative displays of dimensions | immeasurable street cars and platforms
 fields and fences, barns and warehouses are all utilized for advertising purposes | and supplanting the use of the newspa- per When everybody had plenty of ad- l vertising, you said this diversion was not worth noticing; but, when hard times began to cut your patronage, you sudden | ly realized that yoV had rights that ought | to be respected. l fear that, Wlth all | their boasted power, the editors of this country have not as much influence on | legislation. at Washington especially, as | Sam Gompers. Today the power or poll | tics is the party boss whom the press
 makes, but cannot unmake or control | The maker should be the master.
 "The credentials of popular Journalist | are not found in a university edueatloh | or the requirement of universal khoWi- edge, but in the possession or d NiVlu
 imagination and ability to write hctlon. | TO degree the nations welfare Is at | the mercy of a profession open to any | one who can borrow a pen and hlre ] press Is it surprising that the sugges- | ton is heard that journalism should De | made by statute, a regular profession, with entrance into it dependent upon
 ones ability to pass rigid eXaminatlon' | such as that required for medicine or the | bar?
 "The urgent need of every great Amer
 ican city is for a daily newspaper that | shall print less and better news; that | shall exercise such censorship over its | columns that no ones character shall | be assailed, no institution's standing be | discredited, no vested right be jeopar-
 dized, and no man or woman's motives | impugned until the editor has Justified ' his statements. Better less news and
 real news; better news day late and
 right than a day earlier and wrong.
 Ut has been said that this is a time of many books and little literature. It | might be added that this is an age of l many newspapers and little news What | do the voluminous Sunday newspapers give to uplift humanity? They give just l what the public seems to crave-pages | of divorce proceedings, frivolitfes of fashion, piquant and often painful per- sonalities, undertaking attacks on men in public and private life, exposures Of | the degradations of the sums, imaginings of the absurd and the impossible, with little poetry. religion or sentiment, and
 no attempt to uplift or refine. So the
 most remarkable religious gatherings in
 many years, the quadrennial conference
 of one of the largest denominations in
 the world, held in Baltimore last May,
 received less attention from the news
 papers than contemporaneous prize-ights
 and horse races.
 Plenty of sensations can be found in the field of legitimate endeavor. An hon. ored townsman of this beautiful, hospita-
 ble and progressive city, MT James J. Hill, one of the greatest captains of in-
 dustry of his day, recently startled the country by his striking address at a gathering of notable men at the White House. in which he pointed out the im-
 minent peril from the approaching ex- haustion of our greatest sources of nat ural wealth. This was a sensational dis i closure, and as truthful as it was sen | sational. Why did not the muck-rakers, | always searching for sensations, have
 Mr. HilPs foresight? Are they so busy
 with the muck-rake that tlsy have no time to lift their heads and see the things in the sunlight?
 Lord Cromer in his recent book on Modern Egypt attributed to an English daily paper that outburst of hero worship in 1885 which compelled Gladstone against his judgment, to send General Gordon to his tragic death in the Scudan. How many men eminent in public and private life in the United States lave been hound- ed into retirement, disgrace, and in some
 instances to death by the injustice of
 thoughtless and sensational press? But Get circulation is the motto. Get it, for
 1t means money and power! Assail the rich, print the sanguinary details of every horrible crime and disaster, varnish vice, appeal to the passions, distort the truth | divide the people into masses and classes
 and pit them like wild beasts against one another, shock the sensitive, mock | the reformer, show the people how they | are deceived and oppressed, and never fail fa inn fha 1A1 rT.Tt are creating that you alone are the friend
 of long suffering people.
 'The press thought it was helping itself when it joined in the assaults of the l much-rakers upon capital the railways, | and industrial combinations If few | great captains of the railroads, of indus 1 try and finance get more than the rest of
 us, this is only what happens in all lines | of business including our own. It is the | royalty paid to genius, foresight and in | dustry. When the panic came, instantly l every railroad and factory was compelled l to economize. The first cut was in their 1 advertising. It will startle you to hear l that over s5,O00,000. that under ordinary
 circumstances would have been appropr- | ated for advertising purposes this year, | was necessarily eliminated from consider
 ation by railway and industrial corpora
 tions after the panic. For how much of | this are we responsible?
 l ''Whether it's material rewards be great l or small, journalism is the most attrac- 1 tive of all the learned professions. 1t | has a fascination found in no other It | brings a certain influence and power that 1 money cannot buy, and it commands a | deference that many seek and few obtain. | It Is the new estate to which Edmund | Burke so eloquenty referred when he | said that there were three estates in | parliament, but in the reporters gallery | wonder there sat a fourth estate, more
 important far than they all.
 Are we of the fourth estate deluding i ourselves with the thought that our post l signs of a decided reaction against sem
 sationalism on the part of our best read l CTS? Would it not be better if we con- | ceded more to the growing demand for l accuracy and moderation? Ought we not l to do this, moved by a patriotic purpose, 1 in view of the appalling danger to repub- | lican institutions that so many foresee in | the rapid spread of class hatred and so- I cialistic notions? I leave these questions | with you for those moments of quiet re- 1 flection that must inevitably come if we l do not speedily awaken to the dangers | involved in the delusions and illusions
 both of the press and the people
 Be strong!
 | We are not here to play, to dream, to drift.
 We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.
 Shun not the struggle, face it. Iris
 Gods gift."' ''
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