The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-12-17
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The women who compose what is known as the General Federatson of women's Clubs think they have found . remedy for what they conceive to be the evil caused by the publication in the newspapers of criminal pro- ceedings in the courts. and of scan- dais of all kinds. Some years ago Mir. Melville Stone. president of the As- sociated Press. in letter to the Fed sration, told them with almost brutal rrankness that mot ono line of scan dal would appear in any American newspaper If not read and demanded by women" And then he proceeded to rub 1t in by declaring that the scandal papers of the country are sup ported by women.-
 Whether or not MT. Stone was strictly fair and correct in his charges and assertions we are not prepared to say, but his letter was evidently something of facer to tho Fedora ton and its members but they have apparently been pondering over the matter ever since. and now think they have found the remedy for what they consider a great evil. Their plan is that all reports of criminal trials. all accounts of crimes. all divorce pro- ceedings. and in fact everything that can be considered scandalous or unfit reading matter shall be segregated by confining all such matter to one page of a newspaper, to be printed on a separate sheet. so that when a moth CT opens the newspaper she can take out the scandal page or section and burn 1t before the young people can see it. By thus segregating and clas- sifying all the bad stuff" instead of scattering it promiscuously through the paper, they think the problem could be solved.
 This Is about the most thoroughly Utopian proposition we have heard. The question of what to print and what to leave out'is one that worries and perpiexes all conscientious edi- tors and publishers. If a big daily should refuse to print all details of crimes. of criminal proceedings-of everything. in fact, that would not be considered strictly proper for family reading. that paper would soon go out of business. whether Mfr. Stone was correct in saying that the women are the ones who insist on the publication of siander of all sorts. or whether he was himself guilty of promuigating a islander against the women of the country makes little difference: the fact remains that a newspaper must print the news or quit the business, and each manager must decide for himself what is proper to print and what should be left out.
 The suggestion that every item of news that could come under the head of ''scandar should be printed on one page or separate section of newspa- per is practically impossible. and shows how little these women know about the making of daily newspa- per. News of all kinds is coming in- to the office at all hours, of the day and night. and those whose business it is to prepare the matter for the press must use 1t as 1t comes to them, and put 1t where they find room for 1t as they so along. To follow the suggestion of the women's Federation would be q practical impossibility for a daily paper. And as to that mat ter we may be a trifle illiberal. but we are inclined to the opinion that if the suggestion could be carried out the scandal section" would be most generally read. and not entirely by