The copper era and Morenci leader., 1913-10-17
DUTIES OF NEWSPAPERS.

Of the making of the laws there
 is no end, some wise man said. And
 proposals of foolish laws are alike
 unnumbered. Which leads to our
 theme A Baltimore man has sent
 a petition to congress demanding
 that it be made grave offense for editors to toss into the waste bas-
 ket communications submitted to them for publication. Those friends
 through a long stretch of years "Vox Populi." Pro Bono Publico,"
 ct cetera, ct cetera, may be expected
 to form a phalanx of support around
 the Baltimorean in his effort to re- strain the highly arbitrary conduct of
 the manipulator of the pernicious press.-Dallas Times-Herald.
 If the Baltimore idea finds favor
 with the congress and is embodied in a national enactment the newspapers of the country will be lively proposi tions. Instead of baseball news,
 news of the movements of the Mexi- can revolutionists, the tariff, the cur,
 rency bill, tribulations of MT. Sulzer,
 the trials of MT. Thaw and the latest
 in slit skirts, peek-a-boos, / etc., the
 public will be regaled with long dis quisitions on how to live on 15 cents a day with steak at a dollar a pound, how to make a folding bed out of an
 old dry goods box and a few barrel slaves covered with 10 cents worths of calico, poetic effusions, yards
 long, sans rhymes, sans felt, sans sense and countless other contribu-
 tions of no interest to anyone but
 the writers. If the law compels the
 publication of all contributions and the news as well, the paper makers
 will reap a harvest. They may be fathering the measure. You never can tell-Times.
 Once upon a time, a certain news editor of one of the greatest papers in the Northeast sent to news edl- tors of papers in cities of promin- 'ence all over America a question the gist of which was: What is news, what is the function of a news paper?" The answers came in thousands, and from the fact that they were penned by men who were of sufficient intelligence to maintain their position of guardians of the public welfare in the matter of news service, and instruction that a news paper imparts, they were undoubted- ly worthy of all attention.
 The answers were carefully stu died and the sum and substance of the great majority, practically all, of them was to this effect: News is the happenings of community, or the world, depending upon the field of the paper, that are or Su1nclent moment in their relations to the public, to justify their publication; the function of a newspaper consists mainly in the publishing of these happenings, and in the comment, from the standpoint of one capable, of these happenings in their relation to the public and it's thoughts and needs. From few papers of small repute, came contrary answers to the query; these Don QuiXotcs in the realm of news service came for ward with any manner of sugges- tions, that a beauty page should be of the primest importance, that chicken hints were helpful, whether the paper served an agricultural com or otherwise that questions of psuedo-psychic-telep nature were of paramount importance, etc.
 Yet it is easily the part of wisdom to accept the answer of the capable many, the answer that news is the life and actions and of a people, and that function is to faithfully and truthfully publish this news af- ter it's being properly written by news editor capable of that manuer of work.