The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-05-27
WATTERSON ARRAIGNS
MEMBERS OF PRESS
Editor Says Some Newspapers Have
No Code of Ethics and Lack
Self-Respect.

Toronto. Ont, May 90 Henry
Watterson, editor of the Louisville
Courier-Journal, addressed the Ca
madam Press association recently up
on the changing conditions in the
newspaper profession.
He said newspapers were losing the
affection Of the people because OF
some of their methods. He charac-
teriZed as brutal the publicity given
by some newspapers to the private
affairs of certain Washington
young woman and an Italian prince.
presumably Miss Elkins and the duke
of the Abruzzi
There is more written and said
and less thought said Watterson;
about the profession of journalism
in which we are engaged and to
which we have dedicated our lives.
than about any other topic of IA
miliar discussion.
Il assume it to be profession
Yet it is without and code of ethics
or system of self-respect. 1t has no
sure sure standards either to work
or duty. Its intellectual landscape
is anonymous. It's moral destina-
lions confused, if not impalpable.
''Thn fry
lawyer knows his place and keeps
it; is held by certain obligations
and inspired by certain traditions:
modest and keeping within bounus,
though he may be learned and skill
full. having the consciousness OF SUI
periority.
The journalist, be he of city or
town, has few if any mental per-
spectives to fix his professional hori-
Zon. no canon laws to guide his way
ward footsteps, neither chart or pre-
cedent nor may of discovery lines
have been distinctly marked. He 5
law unto himself, too often free
lance, only the more self-assertive be-
cause he Lacks assurtd position and
is without authority.
I'VE hear a deal about yellow
Journalism. 1t is much like the pot
calling the kettle black. Ofenses
against decency are more or less re-
lative and quilted. More and more
will newspaper owners and makers
discover that integrity and cleanli-
ness pay the best dividends.
The scandal monger will in time
be relegated to the category of the
unprosperous as we'll as the disrepur-
able, and the detective driven out OF
the newspaper service to the com
pany Of the police, where he belongs.
We can as little expect that eacr
newspaper worker shall be a gentle
man as that each lawyer and each
doctor shall be a gentleman; but
manly conduct and aspiration should
fix the rule the brutal and vulgar
the exception, the journalistic brand
no less accepted and honorable than
that of physic, divinity and jurispru-
dence.
"The leading editorial, whose dis
appearance is predicted and whose
decline is obvious, has suffered mos,
by the transition process from the
personal to the impersonal. There
was exhilaration in the pistol and
coffee. The duel was more interest
ing and less expensive than the libel
suit. The good old times of gun
play are, alas. no more. If a gentle
man nawadays shoots another gentle
man they call it murder
Il do not think the newspaper
should consider itself as a public
prosecutor; rather the personel rep
resentative, friend and neighbor of
good men and good women, pouring
in upon the community the sunshine
of heaven, not kindling and stirring
the fires of hell; it's aim, and, first.
last and always, to enlighten and to
brighten, to radiate and to warm.
not to embitter, to browbeat and to
DAZZLE
ID rIce, nnnuv~uYr r0