Mohave County miner., 1912-01-13
Editor as Preacher.

years ago abandoned the profession or journalism to become minister of the gospel, in an article in recent issue of the Editor and Publisher, draws com parsion between the two profess sions, which is extremely apt, showing the functions of the pulpit and press and the relations which each bears to the public, as well as the relative in- Huence of each. In part he says:
 I've parsons are naturally prone to exalt preaching, especially if we hap pen to be good preachers ourselves. But no less judge of such matters than the Apostle Paul referred to the "foolishness of preaching" and if we are honest we will have to admit that that sort of preaching has come down to our own time. Nor is it found eX- clusively in the Christian pulpit. It sometimes emanates from the editorial sanctum.
 Now, if the Christian preacher can not handle wisely few great themes, as to which there is general consen- sus of opinion, it is not strange that the editor sometimes makes mistakes, since his field of discussion includes man in all hls relation, past, present and future. Not even a cub reporter would claim the wisdom and ominisci- ence necessary to cover such field.
 hp adj ,,l duck awkward questions that come up for discussion. while the preacher gen. eraily can. If my congregation is about equally divided on the question of, say, prohibition, and I would there- fore aleniate half my people by taking sides on that burning question, l can solve the problem by saying that the question is political one, in regard to which the pulpit should not speak, and then can satify both sides by making eloquent pleas for temperance. Once in while the editor can take the same course, but even he realizes that it is source of weakness to him thus to be muzzled on any great question; while on the other hand, it may seem a serious loss of popularity or income bodily to say what he thinks; so he is generally between the devil and the deep blue sea, -..-
 "Hardly week passes in which some newspaper does not make me in- dignant, either because it suppresses what believe must be the honest be- lief of the editor on some question, or because it misleads the public by ap- bearing to support some view which every thinking man knows the editor cannot hold.
 But having been for many years in journalism myself, my indignation dies away as 1 begin to realize the difficult ies of the editor. Certain superior persons indeed speak with much vir- tuous scorn of the editor whose opin- ions are shaped by the counting room, as is sometimes the case. But such critics forget that in this respect the editor Is not sinner above other men. The preacher who carefully prepares hls sermons so tha: they will not offend certain moneyed interests in thu pews is not wholly unknown to the church. No lawyer tells his client all he knows or thinks, and the physician who would bluntly express his honest opinion to all his patients would soon find himself without any patients at all.
 ''I used to have a vision of an endow- ed newspaper having for its editor a man who was great moral leader, an altruist and philosopher. This won- derful person by reason of the paper would print all the facts and tell the truth in regard to them, no matter who was offended thereby. But that vision no longer appeals to me as with in the bounds of possibility. With enough money such paper doubtless newspaper; for newspaper is the complex product of the men and women who read it and are swayed by it, and not a heaven decended thing of perfection. such as saw in my vision.
 ''It must therefore, in the nature of the case, be a mixture of good and evil, of truth and falsehood, of perfection and imperfection, and the only way in which we can eliminate from the news. paper is, first, to eliminate those qual.