Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-01-18
TRUTHFULNEss OF HISTORY

In his address as president of the American Historical Association Professor Albert Bush nell Hart made sweeping assertion that hls- tory was no longer trustworthy. He dealt a blow at the Pilgrim fathers and at the southern cavaliers as history has painted them. He at Jacks the historian and the editor of the daily paper for the errors that, he believes will some day cause us to doubt all history. The follow ing is an extract from his address:
 ''The pressing danger of the republic is in- accuracy We know that the daily press has lit tie regard for truth because every evening pa per is constantly convicting every morning rival of falsehood public speakers make up their anecdotes and distil wrong deductions into the minds of their hearers; the records of congress are full of speeches that were never spoken, and omit much of the raciness of actual debate"
 President Hart finds several distinct attempts to manufacture myths. The first of these IS the effort to exat the Pilgrim fathers. He decries the ascription to them of virtues they never pos sessed and made no claim to possessing He ad- mits they represented splendid cause and were pioneers in a magnificent historical pageant, but We should let their praises stop there.
 He finds similar myth in the exatation of the cavalier, who he declares, was as infrequent in Virginia as in New York. He adds:
 ''It is at least remarkable that few of the great Virginia families of the nineteenth century can show a cavalier lineage; neither the Jeffer- sons, nor Madisons Monroes, Marshalls, Car ters, Carys, nor Bryans trace undoubted descent from one of the bearers of the love-locks. 7"
 When he assals the daily press he fails to distinguish bewteen news and history. News is current happenings placed before the world for information; history is the concrete fact, which is unchangeable. News is the process of forma- ton; history is the completed act When the morning paper denies what the afternoon paper printed, or vice versa, it does not mean that either erred 1t means, in most cases, that addi- tona information is placed before the reader
 There may be a train wreck and ten persons killed. The press bulletins the list at eight or, again, at fifteen. When the paper goes to press the incomplete story is still coming over the wires. The newspaper does not stand sponsor for the information, nor does the reader find fault with the information. When the final re- port comes Tn, the newspaper will be found giv- ing the facts according to the official records Then it becomes history
 When speech in congress is changed in Con gresslonal Record proofs after midnight the correspondent who sent out his story the even ing before cannot be blamed for having quoted the speaker as he heard the speech delivered When election returns are a day late because tn party in control of the ballot boxes has an oh1e"tt in withholding the result, the paper is not at fault in giving the result as in doubt
 The newspaper is so accurate as to be mar vel when the matter is closely studied Stock market reports, results of baseball games, votes in congress on important bills, appointments by the president, decisions by the courts, and hun dreds of other items are flashed over the wires the moment the information is made public and the chances are 10000 to that the report is cor rect Newspapers of the conservative class are truthful and accurate. The reader, however, must possess enough general knowledge to de- eide between "closed incident" and news in the making.