University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1911-12-01
Journalism

! At the Hotel Somerset on the cele.
bration of the twenty-fifth anniver
sary of the founding of the Boston
Press Club, Henry Watterson, the
veteran editor of the Louisville Cour.
ier-Journal. delivered an address
which will be remembered with grea,
pleasure by all those who were 81
fortunate as TO hear il. He has
been described as the last of the
personal journalists" and to ;ha:
characterization he alluded. Surely
for quarter OF century Waiter
sons individuality has stood out
from his vantage point OF observa-
ton on the border land between the
North and the South like q light
house on great headland. He has
expressed himself in speech AMI by
pen with rare grace and vigor.
Colonel Watterson said:
The newspaper is not a commod-
| ity to be sold over the counter like
dry goods and groceries. Ii should
be. as it were. keeper OF the pub
lie conscience; its rating profession
al, like the ministry and the law, nor
commercial like the department store
and the bucket shop. Its workers
should be gentlemen, not eavesdruy-
pers and scavengers, developing a
spy system peculiarly their own. nor
caring for the respect and esteem of
the vicinage.
You may not have quite forsot-
ten that Boston gave birth TO The
first and greatest of American jour
nalists. But Franklin, anticipating
counsel of Horace Greeley to go West
and grow up with the country, ran
away from Boston and went to Phil
adelphia. The disappearance OF the
Imam idea from the newspaper is a
part Of the universal decline of inii-
vidualism in contemporary life.
1t is the offspring of conditions in
evitable to the leveling tendencies
CT modern invention and the central
izing force of population and wealth.
Still is it true that the personal
can never be wholly obliterated from
Journalism? AS there must always
be a man behind the gun. there will
always be man behind the printing
press: somebody in authOritr; ;p-
stairs or downstairs. whether he he
editor or publisher. and never SO
retiring and reserved. If he holG
the place of control he cannot hide
himself from the community in
which he lives. In many ways the
newspaper has always been and mus,
even continue an autOcracy.
Joseph Pulitzer's success in lir-
ing was hardly so great as his success
i'll life; his success in life was the OFF |
spring Of true basic sources. | did |
rot quite see these in the beginning.
In some ways ] disapproved manv |
Of his methods.
But We must measure every man |
by the whole, not part, Of his work,
and I cannot allow this occasion to |
pass without offering my personal
testimony to the truth of the Worlds |
editorial summary OF it's great crea-
tor just after his demise.
las the public comes to be better
educated in the virtues and not the
vices Of the newspaper will its vir-
tues command priority in the mark.t.
DisinterestednesS the mainspring,
good will and good cheer, the solar
system of good journalism, the de-
cent. the truthful. the unselfsh -
not inconsistent with enterprise and
interest-will more and more direct
the ambitious among the conductors
and the workers of the daily press.
for these in the long run are the only |;
qualities which will insure prosper
ity. |:
Never to seek Office Never Ia
take gift stock. Never to touch cam
paign money. These are the precepts
the young journalist should hang
upon his bedpost''