The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-26

1 management is anxious for nothing so much as for large constituency, and that means catering to the people, telling people what they want to hear Instead of instruC ing them in what great deal more to decide what shall be the ethical tone of the papers than the papers do to decide what shall be the ethical tone of the public. Newspaper Attitudes.
 'To this should ue added the dele- trious effect produced upon tournalis- tic ethics by the prejudice of politi- cal partisanship. If you vituperate Democratic wickedness. Republican versa. If you attack Tammany, all The anti-Tammany papers will idolize you. That is not because they hate 1n1qufty but because they hate Tam many. Pulitzer backed me in '94 not because he loved me or was interest ed in the DecaloTue. but because he hated Dana. These things become i'm teresting a.; you get close to them, but they are little disheartening because they tend to show how few are the journals from which you can expect support that is unqualifedly and un- discriminatory moral in its inten- tions.
 DIucrCuG VlcWpOIuCS.
 "I think I can best put the situa- ton before you by a simple quota ton from my own experiences if you will allow it. For instance, supposing I say something to-day in criticism of the moral awkwardness of one of our Republican compatriots of the board of aldermen or of the legislature. To- morrow morning a Democratic paper warmly effulgent comes out some- thing as follows: The Rev. pr. Park hurst with his customary keeness and vigOr says of MT. so and SO' And then you think what a thing it is to have a powerful journal for moral to allude to the ethical skittishness of some member of the Fourteenth Street gal: and tie day following on turning the pages of the same sym pathetic sheet my eye will be greeted by some such headline as this,-- More of Parkhurst's Gatherings Same paper. But please remember that my reference to the press was : only for the sake of illustrating to you that it is to some other source we shall have to look for the correc- . ton of our civic evils. They are not interested in having them corrected. What is bad they do not hate because it is bad, and if they excoriate any piece of civic crookedness they do not do it because the crookedness is crooked but because it is the crooked ness of some crook other than them selves of their own party.
 Secular Press.
 Just at this point I want to inter polate a remark in regard to a mat ter which seems t. me of urgent im- portance. have had opportunity to form some opinion as to the press, religious and secular, in its relation to the improvement of civic conditions. I have already referred to the fact that Journalism is @ business. busi- ness conducted specifically for the purpose of gain, not to make the world wiser or better, but to make money. I am not going to find any fault with that. It may not be an ideal condition, but ideal or not, it is fact, and leave # there. But in my part of the world the entire spirit of the secular press is secular; and it is definitely understo od to be such by the whole class of intelligent readers. Now under these circumstances any paper is disqualified for th- work of estimating moral questions with an untainted vision, and for giving to those questions perfectly sincere and thoroug.i treatment.
 Religious Journals Incompetent.
 As for religious papers they are to considerable extent the organs of
 
 thought, and the piety of a man or ot a newspaper does not guarantee it's ability to deal with that wide range of questions combining ingredients that are both civic and religious. And there are very few religious news papers printed in our country to-day that would be accepted aS authori- tative upon the great problems that locally or nationally confront us or that exert :. very widely determining i. fuence upon the minds of those whose opportunity and obligation it is to give direction to the current oi event.
 Ideal Newspaper.
 It is verS4difficult to combine in one rect as in one man a practical sense of things earthly and prophetic sense of things spiritual and what the Church needs in order to it's enlight. enment an,. in order to make itself 6 pow r is a journal that is al keen as the New York Sun and with insight that qualified St. John tt write the Fourth Gospo1, in other words an exceedingly expensive com bination of wit, piety and enterprise Now 1t is very easy to say what yos would do with money if you had 1t castles in the air are easily erected but it seems to me now in that con dition of mir 'sterial impecunioslty H which of course l find myself, Ii l had ten million dollar to use Tn th' interests of the coming of king dom of God. would put 1t into jus such a journal as have outlined, tha should bring into its service thu most brainy piety, the most thorough. Iy sanctified grasp upon existing con, ditions. along with the keenest busi ness enterprise that the country af lords. a paper so solidly founded upol tha Gospel and so immensely appre ciative of the situation, social ant noIitical in which the Gospel has t, win it's 1.ay in the world, that il should become a power of nation wide effectiveness in making the trutl and the Spirit and the purpose o Jesus Christ a potency in the thought of thinking men an1 in the activitiel of those who are sent to do the world't work.
 Not Negative Criticism.
 This is not designed to be a mega tive -iticisni upon the journals. tI9 we have, but constructive sugges ton touching what I think we ouS1 to have in order to make the Churcl
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