Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-10-15
For What Are We Here2

At the University of Kansas during
Newspaper week last May, DR.. Lyman
Abbott, editor of Outlook, replied te
the question: rs the defense of the
newspaper that it must give the public
what it wants, good one?" DR.. Alb
bolt said:
answer emphatically mol" II is
no better defense than it would be for
the selling of whiskey, cocaine and OPP
iur,, for the marketing of stale fish
and decayed vegetables, for the pub
lishinq of obscure literature and OBJ
scene art, for putting on the stage Ii
centious dramas, for houses of prosti-
tuition and gambling bells, for the
manufacturing of dynamite bombs for
anarchists. In all these cases the SELL
or gives to the people who buy what
the people who buy want. The editor
is or ought to be public teacher and
he ought always to give to the pub
lie the facts of life and the truths of
life as honestly and as accurately as
he can do it with the means at his
disposal.
In our humble opinion this greae edi-
tor should have told the ESQ Kansas
editors and others present, that the
cultivation of the immoral and I'M
wholesome is for a commercial pur-
pose. The pioneers in yellow journal
ism reaped rich harvest because they
met a demand that had not been pre-
viously supplied. That portion Of the
public really demanding it may have
been small indeed, but uncounted
thousands were fooled by the plausi-
biIity of the new field into increasing
the demand.
And right here stands out the root
of the Lyman Abbott logic--in yellow
journalism and in all the other evils
which he named, the constant aim is
to increase the demand and thus make
the evil profitable to the promoters.
We believe sensational journalism
should be prohibited by law. just as
obscene literature and art are sup
pressed. Both tend to degrade. The
tendency is always downward, the evil
cumulative, the ratio increasing. First
tolerated. then shared, then embraced.
An evil that is tolerated must be
constantly fought. Would the Rev. Alb
bolt recommend regulation" of OBJ
scene art? Yet we are told by liquor
interest press that he prefers "regula-
ton" of the liquor traffic to prohibit
ton. In the words above attributed to
him we believe he has repudiated his
own position. The liquor traffic is an
example of an evil grown beyond con-
troll until men as good as DIR. ABBOTT
are afraid to stand for laws prohibit
ing it-as he would prohibit some of
the other evils mentioned of less COM
mercial Importance.
DR.. Abbott wisely answered the
question of giving those people who
want unwholesome things what they
want, when the result is sure to he an
increase of the numbers of those who
want unwholesome things. He says an
editor should be public teacher; then
let editors stand in such majority
against evil traffics that the minority
will be ashamed. And Dr. Lyman Alb.
bott, from his towering mentality,
should stand host in himself at the
front.
Vitiating the minds and the habits of
the people would not be attempted by
any human being, we believe were it
not for the root of all evil. And he
who feathers his own nest out of the
weaknesses Of his fellows is a vulture
to be restrained by public rule. The
devil is not confined to union hours.
and goodness is apathetic. The grocer's
wife walks and the rum sellers wife
rides in limousine.
The editors job is to combat bac
taste and appeal to intelligence and
justice. 1t does not pay as we'll in doll
iars-but why are we here?