The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-06-18
THE BAMBERG HERALD THURSDAY, JUNE 49, 1914
NEWSPAPER AND HISTORY.
Relations of the Educator and Jou1n-
alist Described.

!
the education of the possible young
| Journalist to see the profession in this
light, says the New York Evening
Post, was the theme of an address by
Waldo L. Cook, an editor of the
Springfield Republican, delivered be-
fore gathering of New England his
tory teachers at Springfield, Mass,
and printed in the current number
of the American Historical Review.
! The address is given in part below:
Suppose that all the editorial writ
ers in the land and all the Journals
tic commentators on current events
could be trained for their work some
what as historians are trained, would
we not have a much better press, and
would not the press perform what
ever function it has an as en-
gine of public enlightenment to
the greater advantage of the
people? For the press is his
tory-not in it's finished form
but in those primary elements which
make possible the history of the
schools. There are two ways in which
the press may make history. 1t may
actually influence events themselves,
or it may influence the media through
which those events can be seen both
by contemporaries and by posterity.
If it does one thing or the other, it
influences the making of history as it
will be read in the books.
1T is easy to see, therefore, how
the press, as a tremendous engine OF
publicity, may affect history in the
making. The civil war, in it's early
stages, was certainly affected, from
the military point of view, by the New
York Tribune's cry of lon to Rich
mond." The Spanish war was hasten
ed at least, by the exploitation in our
press of the starving reconcentrados
| in Cuba. The Boer war was largely
the product of skilful and rather
/ unscrupulous newspaper campaign
against the Transvaal republic. Cen
eral Sir William Butler, in his me-
moir gives illustration after illustra-
ton of how the London press work
ed up a militant spirit in England
through the South Africa correspon-
dents.
"A very rich man may have con-
troll of many newspapers and maga-
zines; if he uses the publicity they
command for him to promote good
causes and advance the interests or
careers of good men, he helps to bring
about events good in themselves; If
he does the opposite, he helps to
bring about events in themselves
bad. For the press is not exclusively
used to record events as they happen
perchance: it is often used to make
things happen in a particular way.
The Reporter as Historian.
I'VE come now to consider the
press in it's relation to the writing of
history. Professor Munsterberg not
long ago wrote for one of the maga-
zines a very entertaining article on his
melancholy experiences with news
paper reporters. The case of the
reporter.' he said as a final word,
has not yet found that attention
which it deserves to the fabric of our
public life When finally we came
to the ascertainment of current facts
in the moving life of the world, and
the earliest recording of those facts
in a literary form, we run straight
into the hospitable arms of the re-
porter. 1t is not necessary, in this
connection, to quarrel with Professor
Munsterberg's statement that the
editorial page has declined in it's in
tuence'-although personally l do
not believe it. He writes no less than
the truth, however, in saying that
the vivid living report of actual ex-
periences has taken firm grasp on
the popular interest. This focuses
the interest of the social student on
the reporter who supplies the news.
Does the American reporter fulfil his
task in a spirit that is helpful to the
community
The chief public duty of the press
is to get current history straight.
That is it's most important obligation
to society and the State. But while
the press in it's relation to history
is of paramount concern as it writes
history, rather than as it utilizes or
makes it, it is we'll to remind ourselves
that perfection in the writing of his
tory, under any circumstances what
ever, is difficult. Now, the reporter
and l use the word reporter in a
sufficiently broad sense to include all
who ascertain the reporter has his
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