University Missourian., 1909-09-30
british JOURNALIST
PRAISES u. OF NJ. IDEA
s,ourbridge, England, Editor Discusses the
Efforts Being Made in That Country to
Train for Journalism.

ed in Dublin at the Institutes annual
conference in that city in 1906. The
Provost of Trinity College, DR.. Trail,
became a whole hearted enthusiast for
the University education of journalists
Had the students and the funds been
forthcoming, his college would have
formed school at once. The wolling-
ness was and still is there and Mr..
Stoddard, of the Irish Times, advanced
the suggestion that the future journal
ist-undergraduate of Dublin University
might walk" the daily newspaper offices
OF the city, just as the medicals walk
the hospitals. Objections were raised
to this suggestion upon grounds which
purely affect working journalists, but
you i'll Missouri have found a much
better way, to which no possible OBJ
lection can be raised. l can venture
to assert that no British university has
paper of its own comparable with the
University of Missouri, and the object
lesson which it has afforded may yet be
taken as Il pattern for the first British
university to found a faculty in jour
nalism.
If Trinity College, Dublin, could not
give us a school, she has done what she
could. A sufficient sum has been guar
anteed for number of years and lee
lures upon journalistic subjects have
been inaugurated. These are given by
some of the most eminent working jour-
nalists of the day. They have attracted
considerable attention and have been at
tended by personages eminent in politics
and in other departments of state and
learning and they have done excellent
service in directing the attention of
those undergraduates who may be cast
ing about for a future profession to the
possibilities of journalism as a calling.
Trinity College, Dublin, then is lead
ing the van. The newer University of
Birmingham (the arrangements for the
opening of whose new buildings by
King Edward on the 7th of July, are
being settled as 1 write) has shown a
keen disposition to follow The princi-
pal, Sir Oliver Lodge, is fully alive to
the Importance of the subject and at his
request the late Professor Churton Col
lins-whose memory will be cherished
wherever any knowledge of English lit
erature obtains-drew up a syllabus for
!. courses of lectures for journalists. just
: as the matter was materializing, Pro.
: fessor Collins unhappily died, and the
. scheme is therefore temporarily dormant
Manchester University, Cork University
: London and Bristol have all become in.
terested. The seed is being sown and
sooner or later, there will be the harv.
r est. Of course. the universal difficulty
is that of finances. Our universitie:
are businesses. Their ruling bodies have
: to cut their coats according to theil
: cloth and we who have been trying tc
do our share of the spade work are wait
2 ing for some philanthropic spirit to star
l the ball rolling by endowing a chair
: of journalism.
Dean Williams suggestion as to th'
f responsibility of the state towart
: journalism touches a responsive chor,
1 in the hearts of all who have ideas a
r to the power and influene of the press
e Had 1 been present at his address,
S should have marked the passage will
: an emphatic hear, hear" and parenthet
e ically, had 1 been sub-editing his copy
5 I would have lifted these sentences t.
o the top of the report and set them il
r very bold black type. Mr.. Carnegi
n hopes to improve the mental qualitie
d of the British race by dotting the ma
: of Great Britain with free libraries
|, There is hardly a town of importanc
: in these islands which does not com
:. memorate his name by one of these in
It stitutions. However great their in
o fiuence may be in the direction for whic
II their founder hopes, this influence woul
e have been multiplied over and owe
again, had the money been expended i
l. endowing chairs of journalism at OH
# universities and in founding scholarship
!. to help necessitous students to take
# course of instruction which would in
70 fuence every word they wrote durin
,e their professional life.
5. I hope I have shown that a gradus
e evolution is taking place in our att
in tude as nation toward the subject.
h must not be supposed, however, tha
50 opinion among journalists is unanimou
G. We are a conservative race and old tra