The Forrest City times., 1914-02-20

tions are not cut even though such items as rent and insurance must be cut. With the other advances in the newspaper work have come advances in advertising originated by advertisers which have to great extent put out of commission the dishonest advertiser. Writers of ad- vertisements today put their goods be- fore prospective buyers and then give reasons why their goods should be pur- chased and if they are wise they stick to the truth.
 Publication of Crimes and Divorces.
 It is possible that some of you have already asked yourself why l have not mentioned the class of news so often
 made the subject of criticism by news paper readers-such as stories of crimes, divorces and the like. I do not attempt to justify those few sensational news papers in the United StateG that feature
 the slimy things in our daily life but do say that the publication of crime stories saves life and property and the publication of diVorccs serves to hold down the too large number of diVOrCcS. l can give you one case in point. A lawyer came into my office some time ago and told me that he would be forced
 to file suit for divorce against man of some prominence and that the family did not want any publicity l to!a him
 that the Gazette did not care for news items of this kind and did not feature them unless there were sensational points connected with them which made
 featuring necessary, but that if the suit were filed l would have q brief notice Q: it in the Gazettes court column. He said if 1t were necessary to publish the divorce. he would not institute the suit whereupon l told hinT that had an in creased respect for the Gazette $ court column The suit was not brought and that husband and wife are living to- gether very happily today.
 Here is an incident that justifies the publication of crime stories A few weeks ago in Little Rock a we'll dressed man appeared at a home fin one of the prominent residence sections of the city and told the servant who answered the door bell that he had been sent there to inspect the electric lights. The ser want admitted him and he proceeded to leisurely rob the house When the owner of the house returned and dis covered the robbery, he immediately notified the city's detectives who deem ed it their duty to keep the affair a secret The Gazette got the story two days later and published 1t thereby pro tcCting other householders in the city, but owing to the stupidity of the deteC- uNeS who had the matter in hand the crooks Were able to rob other houses be- fore the people were warned. Even with the constant warnings given by the newspapers, crooks are able to sell gold bricks and work time worn confidence schemes, but each year the newspapers more people.
 The Beiliss Trial
 One of the most notable instances of the efficiency of publicity was shown in the trial of the Russian Jew Beiliss a few months ago at keiff This man was charged with murdering q Gentle boy in order to offer his blood as a sacrifice and the public prosecutor charged in all seriousness that this blood offering was one of the rites of the Hebrew religion Not only this but he was able to bring witnesses who swore to the preposterous lie that the Hebrews offered a human yI, given this case In the United States and in other really enlightened countries and but for the pressure which followed this publicity Beiliss would no doubt have been convicted and his conviction in all probability would have been followed by one of the awful massacres of Jews which have stained the record of Russia during the past few years. am not giving you here my opinion, though I believe what I have stated. but l am giving the opinion of men who are thoroughly in touch with the situation notably MT Melville r. Stone general manager of the Association Press. who IS daily in touch with all parts of the world
 Honesty of Newspapers
 There is another feature of the news paper work to which I think attention should be called All of you know that the goods box philosopher who fears to take up affairs close at home because of more or less speedy punishment con siders the railroads and newspapers legi- innate targets for his criticism He pre- tends to think that all of the big news papers are crooked. You can count on your fingers all of the newspapers of any importance in the l'nited States that are even open to suspicion in this line There are about as few crooked news papers Is there are crooked minister's and there are Very few crooked min isters. Neither law nor medicine uor any other business or profession is cleaner than the newspaper business The men who run newspapers are Ut least uf reasonable iutelligeuce. Any i"an who thinks knows that honesty is the best policy Even if man has no SCrurie, If he is wise, he will be honest neoause lt is the best business plan
 The newspaper man who gets anywhere knows that prerequisite to success IS the establishment of a character for his new Sparer The newspaper that is known to be fair will have many readers who dc not agree with it's editorial policy or even With its news policy. A reputation Tor s4uareness is an asset of untold value and it is necessary to the lasting success of a newspaper
 In closing l should say something about newspaper work as a career cannot say that it can be recommended to the young man whose chief end is the accumulation of dollars but it offers a
 broad field to the young man who de SlreS to live to the limit every waking
 hour Of his life, to know things and to Io thlngs. If you want to make a
 fortune go Into some other business but
 IT Nou nave the newspaper instnct-and l Verily believe new spaper men are hnrT ana not made-if you have this instinct | and do not want to spend your life in 1 the newspaper business keen aUav fro,, the newspaper office because if the hug | hlteS you you are lost Many men have
 gone into the newspaper business and l have been successful for several years anu have turned to other pursuits and Ealned greater success in these pursuits
 I.sNH pot
 near of big story breaking or when
 they hear the thunder of big press or
 when they drop into newspapers city loom and hear the reporters talk -sbor,
 ana reporters always talk shop They
 are Tn the business mp to their eyes and they are a wonderful set They carry Ihe secrets of their town buried in them
 Their loyalty and their energy and their
 honesty would put them well up in the 1 forefront of any other business tbev might enter Maybe they acquire habits Tn the newspaper work that retard their advancement but rarely do these habits afeCt their energy when they are after