The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-16
The Mirror Newspaper
From Leslie's.

| It has no opinions and no principles.
 It wants none. Those things are difficult l to acquire, inconvenient, costly, tor even
 dangerous to hold or defend.
 | The Mirror Newspaper has one sole ob- ] ject-te, sell it's issue. It is not concerned with what people ought to think, or would
 do well 70 think, but solely with what
 they do think. Which way will the cat
 jump? Guessing that, it plants the mir TOT right there, and a large male element l of the Vox Populi is abundantly de- 1 lighted to find its preconceived opinions brilliantly reflected in the paper. They really seem brighter in the glass. What fine mirror! The readers do
 not learn anything, nor get anywhere. There are not the objects of life. They see the reflection of their own dear selves and rejoice that they can still think what
 they thought before.
 The Mirror Newspaper does not expect | to teach anything, oprove anything, or to teach anything, to prove anything, or
 many difficulties, and is likely to get one into trouble It holds the mirror up 10 (human) nature" and hides behind the mirron so that every one of it's readers
 sees only the satisfying vision of him. self. It is never an educator. 1t Ire fleets public opinion" But the public opinion must first be formed, before it can be reflected
 So the Mirror Newspaper always fol- lows, and never leads All the same, the great work of the world has not been done by mirrors. The real man looks in the glass to see that his tie is straight, and the pin in the middle, and then, &C., cording to the incisive remark in the Epis- tie of St. James, "goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of
 man he Was"-going for something more important than how he looks.
 The real man is aware that he doesn't know everything. He reads not to find out what he already thinks-of which he
 doesn't need to be told--but to find ma terial for new, better. broader wiser thinking. He is disgustei with his pa- per- if he finds he has got no further when he lays 1t down than when he took it up. The looking glass may be sa1able but it's poor sort of man who is willing, to spend his days holding it up for the general public to gaze into, and persuade themselves that they are handsomer than they are. t
 Too many newspapers and periodicals simply give the public what 1t seems to want in sensational demag goguery- at the same time giving it a temporary appetite for more.
 They fail to realize that the really sub stantial element, of the general public is
 getting very tired of overmuch unrest agitation, condemnation and legislation. There never was a greater need than now for editorial leaders, men of vision, and fearlessness and sincerity in their presentation of the bright side of the marvellous industrial development of America
 There exists vital need for fairer rep resentation of average business and of the average business man; need for change from the misrepresentation that has been the vogue in recent years. Instead of mere mirrors for reflecting the f'ighty and minimizing impulses of the radical unsuccessful, shifting ele-
 ment, we need more sincere holders of thought-at once representing and helping to mold the thought of the conservative. successful. practical people of this coun- try. "