The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-29
DUTIES AND IDEALS
OF NEWSPA PER WORK
Henry Watterson Delivers an
Address in New York
TELLS OF EARLY DAYS
Still Able to Hold His Own With
the Reporters In Gathering
News Except Walking

New York. May 2S-Henry Watterson,
the editor of the Louisville Courier-Jour-
nal, at banquet rendered in his honor
by the New York Press club tonight, in
a speech told of the duties and ideals of
the newspaper profession. Mr.. Waiter
son said
Il was born next door to print shop
and grew up in newspaper office First
and last l have filled every newspaper
function from galley boy to leader writer.
[ am proud of my calling and jealous of
its good name. Until 1 gave up all
around, all7night work, I was never SO
happy as toward the wee sma' hours,
when, the boys around me, wires were
flashing and feet were hurrying. and the
presses were beginning to thunder below.
Now that 1 no longer see the paper to
press, 1t rejoices me to find myself still
surrounded by the boys-the boys in the
trenches-and to recall the old days and
nights, and In fancy to believe that there's
life in the old man yeti
Not one of you has walked these
streets In search of work more wistfully,
and sometimes more despairingly than l
have. l remember once seeing young
James Gordon Bennett through a win
dow of the old Herald office down about
the corner of Broadway and Fulton
street, and of murmuring, with John
Leech's ragged urchin, looking upon lit
pudding, Wouldn't it be bully to be
him.? Just So years ago Mr.. Dana. then
on the Tribune, paid me IS for bit of
what would be called space writing now,
and ten years later when we had come to
be, as 1t were, the professional colleagues,
he was pleased to be reminded of the cir
cumstance, and from that hour to the
day of his death, was my most excellent
friend and comrade.
Purpose of Address
II beg you will not be alarmed. | am
not going to weary you with the reminis-
Genital, nor set up for schoolmaster4
Still less is 1t my purpose to deliver a
lecture on journalism. | think l know
what news is and how to prepare it
equally for the tea table and the break
fast table. like victuals, it may be served
hot and savory raw and unsavory,
be brought on plain, or be dressed and
decorated, to suit the ever varying public
taste. There is in this, as in cooking an
art A fine, rudy murder, like a fair
round OF beef, may be ruined in the
roasting, and a scandal, fat and juicy.
blonde and frowsy, wholly spoiled by a
figurative excess of oil and garlic. A
skiliful chef can take a few scraps and
fobricate a dish to delight a gourmet.
So a deft reporter can put this and that
together and piece a story to set the town
| attacking. In both cases, however, there
must be the basis of essential fact. 1t
Is given to no man to make a silk purse
out Of sow's ear to no cook to render
saute out of sawdust and boot heels,
to no reporter to turn a scoop out of a
| lie.
EARLY Newspaper Work
II was engaged as general utility man
upon an afternoon paper in WasayuX sen
| ciry. Each morning there was lala ur<sa
my desk the New York Evening Post and
the New York Evening Express OF the
preceding afternoon. A part of my bust
| ness was with pencil, paste and scissors
to riddle the contents of these two inter-
| estjng sheets. For better attraction,
adopted the form of a daily New York
lettor. Having no leg work to do. and
| fresh from my early coffee with the Post
and the Express before me, knowing all
| the local points and people, nothing was
| easier than the fling of an apt column or
| two with New York date line. fairly
reveled ir my artistic fraudulency 1t was
50 disguised in the warming over process
that for long time the stuff was reg
ularly copied by the papers from which
1t had been originally taken. Those,
however were halcyon, innocent and
| happy days, when genius had some
chance and virtue was its own reward
Nevertheless. l flatter myself that,
| barring the late hours and the loco
motion, I can still hold my own with
the best of YOU in the work of news
gathering and news collecting, in dis
| tinguishing what is and what is not
news, even to the latest up-to date
frills and founces from Park Row and
the Tenderloin resorts of Herald Square
| and Forty-second street, provided
| they be open and above board clean
and truthful-tolerably truthful-and
not furtive and ignoble.
Il draw the line at straight lying
and the station house. The city editor
should never consider himself brevet
chief of police, the reporter a semi
professional detective. The newspaper
with the law, should assume the ac-
| cused innocent until proven guilty;
should be the friend, not the enemy, of
the general public; the defender, not
the invader, of private life and the as
sailant of personal character.
The newspaper is not a commodity
| to be sold over the counter like dry
goods and groceries. 1t should be- as
| it were, a keeper of the public con-
science, it's rating professional, like
| the ministry and the law, not com :
| mercial, like the department store and
the bucket shop. Its workers should be
gentlemen, not eavesdroppers and
| scavengers, developing spy system
peculiarly their own, nor caring for the
popular respect and esteem.
Old-Time Sentiments
IT know that it is the. fashion to call
| such sentiments old timey, just as it is the
custom to call old men courtly who are
not actually vulgar and slovenly. Self
respect can never grow obsolete and self
respect Is the bedrock of the public re-
spect There will be shyster journalists
as there are shyster lawyers, unworthy
men as there are unworthy clergy
men. But in each calling the rule
| Is bound to be otherwise, and they
who seek the imprint of the
higher instead of the lower brand, will
be sure to find it. In short, my dear
young friends, / stand for the manhood.
| for the gentlemanhood, of our guild, a
profession and not trade, and I be-
| lieve that, in the long run, the owners of
newspaper properties Will learn that in
tegrity and cleanliness pay the best divi-
dends and that good faith and good
| humor are positive assets.
Il hope there is no one of you here to-
night who will not be one day a man
aging editor, at least. a city editor, and
whenever any one of you finds himself
| In a position of authority, let him carry
these few precepts in his mind and in his
heart; to print nothing of man which
| he would not say to his face; to print
nothing of a man in malice; to look well
and think twice before consigning sus-
pect to the ruin of printers ink; to re-
spect the old and defend the weak, and,
lastly. at work and at play daytime
and nighttime. to be good to the girls and