The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-09-01
THE EDITORIAL PAGE
What Is to the Modern Newspaper and Its Readers
Is Much Needed Feature.

: through. Elegance OF language may
mot be in the power of us all, but
: simplicity and straightforwardness
+ are.''
g do not believe that anywhere will
r be found simpler or more straight
forward statement Of what Is desir.
) able in editorial writing. The moral
is that the editorial writer, more even
I than other newspaper writers, should
talk on the level with. and not over,
, the heads of the readers he addresses.
, Other parts of the paper may be de-
!, partmentalized and be devoted to par
ticular classes of readers, may give
one line of lingo to baseball fans, an
other sort of pabulum to women, still
another to bookworms, but the editor
ial page must appeal not to classes
but to masses, not to special groups
4 but to the average reader with aver
age comprehension.
The debate as between personal
and impersonal journalism is almost
as old as the hills, and still, like the
brook, runs on forever. Yet there
are two phases of it too often con-
fused. The Impotence expressed with
4 personal journalism grows out of dis
! gust with petty chickering's and triv-
] ialities of the personal duel or ven
delta waged between editors who
imagine that one another's shortcom-
.ings are of overshadowing public in
! terest. The personal equation of the
editor is of public interest just so
| far as he is public parsonage and
no further-the editor as a rule is
engaged in many activities and his
personality can no more be obliterat-
/ ed in that connection than that of
! the president of bank or a manager
of railroad
On the other hand, personal jour
nalism in the sense of personal re-
sponsibility for what goes into the pa
per, and for the policy which the pa
per pursues, is imperative. There
must be someone to decide-some
one to harmonic what is written by
| different contributors, some one to
map out the path which the newspa-
| PSi - w " oNSi. IL may DC That tuG &C.
sponsible editor does not do any of
the writing himself, or does very lit
tie Of it, but the fact that whatever is
printed is by his consent, if not by
his direction, imposes a moral, if not
legal liability. The great advan-
tage of the good old times" over the
vexatious period that is now upon us,
no doubt lay in the fact that in the
one-man newspapers there were then
mo editorial assistants to write on
unthought-of subjects and ruin your
appetite for breakfast in the morning
because of the things they made you
say"
The first great struggle of the news
paper was for freedom of press, and
century ago freedom of press
meant freedom from governmental in
reference. The right of the newspa-
per to criticise without let or him
drance the acts of those invested
with official authority, to turn the
searchlight on corruption or oppres-
sion was not easily won, nor easily
{ llt dliSu anu SPGlIlOH
laws were enacted in a republic built
on the foundation stone of individual
liberty, and even in this free country
we still have occasional efforts to in
timidate editors and throttle freedom
of the press under the guise of pun
ishment for constructive contempt or
prosecution fer impending justice or
for criminal libel. But the emancipa-
ton of the newspaper from official
censorship Is in this country practi-
cally complete and so also is its
emancipation from party slavery as it
formerly existed. When the newspa-
per was a strictly party organ shar-
ing in the division of the spoils the
editor was too often simply the SER
vile spokesman for the party bosses.
Party success meant political patron
age and political preferment, and the
editor was expected to fight the bat
ties of the party and champion the
party's nominees, good, bad or indif-
ferent, as if that were his first and
paramount duty The most influential
newspaper OI LCudy are SIliI DGTLy
newspapers, but the most partisan of
them enjoy sphere of freedom
which was almost unknown twenty
five years ago. ! do not refer to the
so-called Independent newspapers
which are independent only in eyer-
cising the privilege Of Topping from
one side to the other, or OF trying to
pick upon the most popular men and
measures from all sides in order to
pretend to influence whichever way
the contest turns. II the independent
were to be neutral paper, it would
be colorless and an editor who took
sides with no one would satisfy no
one, not even himself. We have then
free press in the sense of being
free from blind party snbserviency
and dependent upon political patron
age for continued existence. Freedom
to strike at wrong-doing in office,
freedom to demand justice for the
poor, down-trodden and helpless, free
dom from awe of mere power and
riches, freedom to represent the best
interests and welfare OF the whole