Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-12-21


been importuned with tears to keep
the name Of some offender against he
Jaw out OF his paperg Many there are
who can also remember the threats Of
dire vengeance If the request TO kill
certain story was not complied with.
The average publisher does not take
pleasure in parading the misfortune
OF some man or woman in the ccl-
umns Of his newspaper. but as a pur-
veyor of the news OF the day he'is Of
ten called upon TO print things he
would much prefer not to. Here is the
reply Ct John L. Sullivan. editor of
the Evening Leader. St Mary's Ohio,
to those who try to prevail upon him
to overlook certain matters Of news:
Life would be much more pleasant
to the average newspaper publisher II
everybody were TO walk in the straight
and narrow way One OF the real
painful duties OF the publisher is to
print the news concerning peoples
rong-doings. That may appear al
most incredible to the reading pub
lie. but il is a fact, just the same. 1t
Is the good that men and women do
that we like TO publish. and not the
evil they do Although the evil 10
ing make more spicy reading mat
ter and are received with more APP
parent relish by those who delight in
the sensational side OF human life, we
always try to put ourself in the other
fellows place
There are very few households but
that have their family skeletons, very
few homes where misfortunes Of some
kind or other have not caused heart
aches and humiliation. Ii is not be-
coming, therefore. for one person TO
gloat over the misfortunes of another
persons, or laugh in derision when the
shadows of scandal hang like pail
over the other fellows home. II would
be pleasing to US if there were law
prohibiting the details of scandal Of
any sort whatsoever from appearing
in the public prints. But it would
seem that the welfare Of society de-
mands that such things should be pub
lished and we cannot have our way
as long as such is the case.
There are very few days of the
week when some one does not call up
and request that this, that and the
other thing shall be kept out of the
paper. Reference is had, of course, 10
matters affecting the morals of peo-
ple and there is only one answer that
we can give, which is: We cannot
make fish OF one and flesh of the 9TH
err. That is to signify that if we keep
one offenders name out of the paper,
we must keep the other offenders
name out OF the paper, and vice versa.
Furthermore, il we kept all OF their
names out of the paper, the whole
community would be on our back
nguratively speaking, because the
community is not so charitable as may
seem upon the surface.
Now. there is only one way by
which you can keep the names of Of
tenders against the laws of the COM
monwealth out of the newspapers, and
that is to turn their footsteps into the
paths which lead TO righteousness and
not to the police court. Whenever a
man or a woman is so unfortunate as
TO get his or her name onto the police
court blctter. the newspapers duty to
the public is to publish the facts, no
matter whether the offender be high or
low. rich or poor, learned or unlearn-
ed. So it is a waste of time and en-
ergy to give the editor curtain lee
lures over the phone simply because
he has performed a duty that is every
thing but pleasant to him.