Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-01-02

Gives Vast Values for Penny and Its Power Was Never Greater Than
Today-Relations Between Press and Public.
By BURTON KLINE

best intentions in the world it may reform
or denounce itself out Of existence People
turn away from a paper that nags too per-
sistently. 1t may make virtue hideous with
It's praise.
"The Power of the Press"
He probably wonders what has become Of
that power of the press" that we used to
hear mentioned so often. Yet that power Is
there, stronger than ever, but vastly different
from the personal power exerted by such
men as Greeley and Dana and GodlSin That
is due to the spread of education. The editor
bulks less large among his fellows than he
once did. People now follow the fiery editorial
column of paper with a good many reser-
Vations. They are apt to think they know
as much as any editor about the way the
world should be conducted-and vast deal
more. The editor is now very much like his
music or dramatic critic. He no longer ex-
poets his thunders to alter the political
opinions of his readers over night in the
good old way-not If he has n sense OF
humor. He is a critic, a commentator at
the drama OF life, that is ala more i'm
portant commentator than his dramatic critic
only as the drama of everyday affairs is more
serious than the drama of the stalls and the
footlights. And yet the EDITORS power re-
1t lies now in his choice and his manner Of
presenting the news 1t lies in the license
that he allows to his reporters. 1t lies in the
incalculable possibilities of suggestion. The
editor sways public opinion now by what he
sends his reporters to learn, and by what ne
allows them to say. Once he thundered IN
terms of opinion; now he wins or warns in
terms of facts
The Reporters Warrant @
That means that the reporter, the gatherer
of facts, has become the most potent force
for good or evil in the wide world Time was
when the humblest of Gods creatures might
resent the interference of a reporter in his
private affairs or his public acts. Harvard
professors still follow that procedure-and 50
publish the distance by which they lag be-
hind the world they are supposed to interpret.
The fact is that 1t Is no longer the reporter
who knocks at your door; 1t is public opinion
knocking there.
The late Mr.. Hartman learned that to his
amazement. He began his public career with
the outworn superstition that his business
was his business alone The public, speaking
through the reporter, quickly taught him
that what he did, no less than what Dick
Smith or Ned Jones is doing, was done al
public sufferance, and must be done under
public supervision No man, whatever MS
Importance, can damn the public any longer
We instantly suspect any piece of business
that lis not subject to public scrutiny. That
Is the warrant that the reporter holds in his
hand when he knocks at your door, He Is
daylight the policeman. He is a better cor
rective than the law.
That is the new power of the press-almost
too vast to trust to any individual. And the
evilly inclined reporter or editor has been
quick TO make the wrong use of it, Even the
high-minded newspaper man will sometimes
do unwitting mischief with it, Any luckless
devil who has ever been witness in court
knows how difficult It is to give a correct ae-
count of the simplest facts and occurrences.
Certainly the editor and reporter know how
difficult 1t is. Most OF them are conscientious.
They have to be, for they more than all
others do their work in the daylight. How
painstaking most newspapers are, too few or
their readers appreciate. The reporter who
wrote the story OF the breaking ice-bridge at
Niagara knows. He put his soul into the
story. Every day somebody is putting his
soul into the article or comment that you
read once and toss away forever. What
tremendous volume of genuine literature you
buy every evening with penny