Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-04-29


war? What they sacrificing? What they
gving?"
The questions challenge which in fair
should be answered. What the newspapers
doing to help win the war? Well, the best of them
are giving eagerly what money could not buy They
putting what they conceive to be national need
in the first place and making all else subordinate
to it.
Without the willing cooperation of the newspapers
this could not be waged and Without the
ever-present service of the daily papers America
would be, like Russia, mass of disconnected
peoples. \The newspaper is the magic which trans
forms land of endless villages and provinces each
separate the other ignorant what
the other is doing and hoping, into compact people
of unified consciousness, whose will and whose in
tegence include all and are exercised by all.
The newspaper is the one dominant organ of pub
lie opinion. 1t is the information machine 1t is the
civilizing cement of the nation. 1t is the agency
which YIELDS dissimilar units into a homogeneous
whole. Russia had newspapers which reached the
great majority of the people the disntegrating
cess now so evident would not be visible 1t is be-
cause Russia has no common consciousness that de-
structive divisions possible.
A little than a year ago, when Germany
forced upon US, the nation to break sharply
with the precedents and the traditions of the past
Why was that the American people accepted Of
their own free will the selective draft? Was it not
because newspapers had day by day presented
facts which proved the reasonable necessity of the
measure? If the papers of the country had not
whole perceived the connection between the selec-
tive draft and in is probable that any
government would have been able persuade the
country obey such law?
The American people approve the war Every
in the union is patriotic and loyal. There are
great centers of discomfort. What but the news
papers responsible for this? OF course in a
larger sense the dreadful deeds of the German ma
ton converted the citizens of the United States
from traditional pacifsm to a willingness to fight
endlessIy to make the world safe for free peoples
But why is it that America, comprehended the inev-
by Germany, still of the Teutonic pur-
pose? difference indicated by the presence
and absence of newspapers in general circulation?
What havs>the newspapers done to help win the
war? They have assisted the nation to quickly de-
eide vital issues. Had delays the world
might had been democracy. Had not
decision
might have been reached. The newspapers
contributed powerfully this. Yet it will be an
swered in doing all of this they were but selling
their chief commodity-news. They were perform
ing public functions, it is argued but the motive
personal gain That does not tell the full story
Newspapers are admittedly private business ven
lures. The publicly owned newspaper has not yet
persuaded the country of its desrablity But every
privately owned newspaper worthy of the name has
constantly served the country and aided in winning
the itself The New York Times
announced week or two ago that every day it was
refusing advertising worth several thousand dol
lars in order to print cables which upward
of dollar line That attitude is typical the best
OF the industry. Where could it be paralleled?
Finally, ire newspapers every day give to the gov
eminent space which could be bought Every
branch the administration feels free at any time
to ask the papers to donate special position and ,
space to its publicity. Food, fuel ships Liberty
Ioansthese and other great interests of the aation
accorded publicity and emphasis could not be
obtained by money. Editorials and news articles
are printed generously not because the papers hope
for the least profit therefrom but because they are
conscious of the public responsibility.
That is part of what the newspapers are giving |
for national victory They ask credit for it, They
court approval, much less praise. But in this |
time. when some of the captious who do very little
feel qualified to play the confessor those who have
done much more frank speaking is not amiss.-Chi- |
cago Herald