Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-05-03
SHOP TALK


- is going out of fashion because the aver
age man who has to work TO keep the world
going doesn't like it. Were you to tell this
same citizen that he reveals, in occasional
moods, some of the worst traits of the
Older r-faShioned political tyrants he would
be amazed and shocked. And yet that
charge can be sustained
Any one who enters seriously into the
work of daily journalism knows that he
cannot always present the simple and un-
vanished truth to his readers without some
FISK. IL the truth happens to be unpleas
ant, II 1t is not what the regular subscriber
prefers to believe or If It is opposed to some
tavorite delusion of a community or criti-
cal individual. those who reveal it in print
are likely to be treated as the kings of old
treated the bearers of bad tidngs IL will
not matter how wholesome or how impera-
tively necessary the truth may be- The
Steady Readers and Old Subscribers, who
may find it a bit irritating or even occasion
ally unfattering, will sternly sit down and
in stately language cancel subscriptions and
inform the editor that he has missed his
vocation, that he is disloyal or that he is q
tool of the prop0gandsts
Newspapers that hew to the line and
present all the news uncolored and und-
Iuted, and seek to be guided not by preju-
ace nut by clean reason in their editorial
columns, do so with the knowledge that
while they make friends they make them less
speeuily than those who play deliberately to
the little vanities of readers and encourage
even dangerous obseSsions that happen for
the moment to be popular
Reflections such as these are prompted by
n modest announcement of the approaching
nf ha
Manchester Guardian. The incident ought
TO be OF interest not only in England where
the Guardian has been for n hundred years
the exponent Of journalistic ideals repre-
sentative OF enlightened democratic feeling.
but wherever citizens engaged in the exact
ing business of self government have to
depend on the newspapers for the facts. the
advices and the general information by which
they are guided
No daily newspaper came through the
trying and revealing period of the war with
noOler record than the Guardians. That
journal never yelped, it never went slogan
mad, 1t contributed nothing to the moods of
hFsterla that swept at intervals over Europe
ana the British Isles, and even when pre-
mlers went OF their heads and talked wild
nonsense and sang hymns Of hate. il be-
haVed Ike man able TO face the unpleasant
as well nS the pleasant truth with frankness
and torttude. 1t was one of the few quiet
and assured voices in the bedlam Of the
world
The Guardian was established TO promul-
gate liberal and effectual democratic opin-
ion' to temper the minds of politicians who
were willing to run great risks for the sake
OF immediate and doubtful advantages. to
speak largely for the masses everywhere who
never have any desire to make war. And
one can say no more in praise of its editors
than that they were saying years and even
generations ago the things in which states
men OF today are coming to believe only
after disasters that tried the strength and
staying power of western civilization. II
has never hesitated to tell the Briton the
unpleasant truths about himself. II has
advocated justice for ireland. for the labor
unions. for all the colonies and has made
war against every rcactionary who ever
appeared in the Government. 1t has been
a great aid to all Englishmen who wish and
work to see the empire strengthened by a
new idealism.
Such newspapers do a greater service for
democracy than armies of conventional.
minded and self seeking politicians. For
tnat reason We venture merely to hone that
the Guardian may live for at least another
hundred years