Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-06
THE WAR AND NEWSPAPERS
An Editorial on the Aims Of the Press Writ
ten Especially for Clergyman

necessity reposed their full faith. 1t is
the newspaper press of the country. On
the newspapers the President and his
officers depend for spiritual and intel
lectual contacts with the people. In the
newspapers the people read the purposes
of the Government-dnd the signs Of
| their destiny.
The Government has been frank. 1t
has withheld no important news. so far
as any journalist in America is aware. A
community that believed its newspapers
mere false to the obligations Of the hour
1Could stone them ont Of eriSfencc-U
,cere not community of scoundreis.
Now and again you will hear man
say that 1.-The papers are unreliable.'
This is the most antique platitude in
popular criticism. Now an Oak Lane
clergyman has dramatized it oddly.
b The Rev. f. J. Humeston, dressed in
uniform resembling that of an army
officer-he served for three months as
cantonment chaplain and is privileged to
wear the garb of a church military
auXiiary-said in a Fourth of July ad-
dress that the press has not told the
truth about the war. They give the
people weak pabulum,' we are told.
They say nothing of a possible "ten
years war" of an army of 100000
men.
Weak pabuI"m! The saddest and
noblcst epic of mans upwn1d Gdren-
tucs rcrerbcrntcs from the foW cor
ners of the earth in c,,"ry hour of the
day and might. The flaming ndrrGttrc
of ,corld being remndc IS sprCod. c'th
all its stupendous meanings, "pon 'rery
printed page Nations perish in Il holy
guest. They cheer-nnd die. Ne" Jus
tify the prophecy. They become as gods.
Weak pdbuium!
Mr.. Humeston is arresting because he
suggests the failings of a familiar class
and the bitter need of a new sort of criti-
cism that shall be adequate to curb all
men who, in times like this, cannot learn
to talk in honor, in knowledge and in
sincerity of heart.
All of the news that pains and trouble
and limitess resourcefulness can obtain
about the war is printed every day upon
the front page of every representative
American newspaper. Such minor details
as are withheld are eliminated at the
suggestion of the military strategists OF
the army and the navy for purely tech
nical reasons. In its critical relation
toward the war the press of the coun-
try is moved by impulses of which Mr.
Humeston and others of his trenG of
mind properly might be informed
1t is the fate of the journalist to be
thrust into close contact with the per-
sonal life of his community - with
strife and struggle, pain and endeavor,
sorrow and triumph. He sees beneath
the surface of affairs and pretensions.
He sees life raw. He becomes aware in
the course of such experience that the
conventional virtues can often be ignoble
and that transgressions often can have
splendid, piteous or even noble origin.
His faith takes new turns. He is apt to
develop a new religion of charity.
And this new sense is likely to animate
him in times like these. The very enor-
nifty of the things presented to his mind
and flung for answer to his intelligence
tends to make him humble in heart and
reverent toward the heroic times in
which he lives and consecrated to purity
of thought and honorable judgments.
Such a man will inevitably realize that
| if ever there was a time for informed
criticism that time is now. To separate
fr-o, bp 1pJU he Ejc M M
| The truth 1UiU be his religion. Its preScn-
tation upon his printed page, IN terms
understandable to everybody, IN terms
that consider no one class or indiUidual
above another, ,CiU be the great ambition
of his days.
But the truth, the unchanging truth,
which Mr.. Humeston, of Oak Lane, did
not or could not consider is at times
elusive 1t has a way of shifting ground
in world of tumult. 1t can become
involved with things that are but half
truths. its pursuit is not the easiest of
pastimes Newspapers are not perfect.
Not all of them are wise. But they and
the men who make them are sincere even
when they are misguided. Because the
responsibilities that fall to all men who
write or talk nowadays for audiences
are heavy beyond words. The mere
sense of an audience, the knowledge that
considerable numbers of men and women
and even children will believe the things
said or written must of necessity inspire
love of justice in an honorable man
This is especially true now. Decisions
made in America now may yet direct the
destiny of the world.
The Government and the President
have put their faith in the press of the
country We believe they have had nc
reason to regret doing so. All that car
be learned in every war theatre, at every
seat of government aside from the mat