The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1910-06-07
FOURTH PAPE R.


In this talk, and in subsequent talks,
shall, for convenience, use the words
you" and your" meaning not only you
who read The Boston Journal, but the
whole community as we'll.
Has it ever occurred to you that you
are responsible for the newspapers of
Boston-are responsible for the objec-
tionable advertisements, the big head
lines and the inelegance Of these news
papers?
Well, you are responsible for all this.
primarily responsible. The newspapers
are made for you You buy them and
thereby indorse them. No newspaper man
ever makes a newspaper for himself. II
he were making a newspaper for himself.
he would make a better newspaper.
Nobody hates grotesqueness, fnele-
gance, vuIgarity, insincerity. sensation
alism and sloppy newspaper work so
much as the newspaper man himself He
knows what good work is, knows what
a newspaper ought TO be, and knows
the fakes and tricks of the business.
While the newspaper man would make
for himself a newspaper Of balance and
brains and good taste, he makes for you
an entirely different newspaper. arguing.
as he does. that you wouldn't buy the
kind Of newspaper that would appeal to
him.
How do you suppose 1t happened that
the newspaper man has this idea, and II
is an idea that prevails pretty generally?
I will give you the reason. It is because
you prefer the more lurid type of news
paper. The evidence Of this fact is found
in the greater sale Of this class of news
paper.
The newspaper man is keenly alive to
all that makes for progress. He must
interpret the taste of the people or close
up the shop, and so he is watchful for
every straw that could in any wav serve
as a guide in the making Of his news
paper. He realizes that circulation means
life; the lack Of circulation means death.
To get down TO cases. During my own
ership of The Boston Journal now six
or seven years, there has never been any
harmony of opinion between my asso-
ciates and myself as concerns the mat
ter of headlines and methods of pre-
senting the news. 1 have stood out for
what seemed to me to be good taste and
common sense.
Ny associates are, and always have
been, in perfect accord with me as to the
sOundness of my position, but they
have insisted, and do insist, that it is
bad journalism for Boston Their claim
is that New England newspaper readers
have become so accustomed to the big
gothic headlines and hot stuff" methods
that nothing else is peppery enough TO
be worth while-that nothing else goes.
However this may be, l will say to you
now that so long as The Boston Journal
remains my property, II will never swing
over to the big headlines or to the thrill
theory" Of journalism 1 would rather
abandon journalism in Boston than aban-
don my sense Of the fitness of things. The
returns from the business wouldn't be
sufficient to merit such concessions.
Speaking for myself. I want the news in
a newspaper TO hunt me. l have no time
to hunt it, but I don't want it to screech
at me, scream at me, or come at me with
a megaphOne at short range. By hunting
me I mean that I want the news so pre-
scented that as my eye sweeps over a
page, catch the things worth while
headline type large enough to give
this result serves the purpose for which
it is used quite as well as if five times,