New-York tribune., 1922-08-04
Institute Told
Interest Grows 8
In Foreign News
Williamstown Speakers See
Room for Improvements
of Quality Also; Discuss
Special Correspondence
Stories. Not Connected
Critics Find Editors Sacrifice
Facts for Sensationalism;
Urge More Elucidation
By Arthur S. Draper

WILLIAMsToWN, Mass, Aug. g.
During the discussion to-day in the
course of foreign journalism" under
the auspices of the Institute Of
Politics, it was brought out that in The
opinion of the members there is a
greatly increasing interest in America
in foreign news, and incidentally they
held that there was considerable room
TOR Improvement in the quality and
kind of news published. On the
academic side, represented by Professor
Phillip Marshall Brown, Of Princeton,
and Professor James X. Pollock jr.. of
Harvard, this point was emphasized,
and many OF the lay members stressed
it to some extent.
The subject under consideration was
Special" correspondence as distinct
from news sent by the important news
agencies abroad. OF chief interest
were the papers submitted by the mem
bers in which they attempted to give a
constructive criticism of foreign news
published in American newspapers to-
day. In reply to the query as to the
amount of time they spent each day in
reading newspapers the average was
about one hour and that was usually
distributed between two papers. One
member said he spent about half an
hour reading the morning news and
about fifteen to twenty minutes on the
evening newspapers. Those living out
side the great cities complained shat
they did not get enough foreign news
in their local papers.
One woman member said: Through
out the country we want more interna-
tional news and international news
which is interpreted. 1t is probably
profession to realize how little the
general public comprehends. The need
for wider circulation of intelligible
news is very great. To circulate that
sort Of news we must have more cor
respondents. who before they are
great CORES spondents are great men
men with eyes to see and ears to hear.
men with objective and International
minds and understanding not only Of
international events but of the limited
vision Of the readers. 1t is my opinion
that this is what the public wants
Foreign News Inadequate
Charles W. Spencer, formerly pro-
fessor at Colgate and Princeton and
now librarian at Colgate University,
said that outside the cities east of the
Mississippi he found the foreign news
Inadequate. He as we'll as several
others complained that the newspapers
drop important questions too soon.
"For Improvement in foreign news"
one wrote, 81 should like to see more
continuous treatment of vital topics
and less jumping about to say some
thing startling. One day 1 read a
vivid account of what is happening
in Ireland The next day | look to
see what the outcome has beer and
find nothing. Perhaps for several
days the papers have almost no Irish
news and then the news is almost
entirely unconnected with what I saw
at first. The same thing is true. of
course, about the news from China
Turkey, Greece, Russia and the rest"
This was the view of a clergyman
who reads the papers regularly and
is keenly interested in sports, as we'll
as news Of political events. A woman
from New England said she read two
newspapers daily and sometimes a
third
"On the whole" she said, az have
much faith in the news columns Of the
papers I read. Some of. the news
papers publish too little news; none,
l think, too much l have sometimes
wished that accounts of events and
conditions would go more deeply into
causes and that the dismissal Of un-
acceptable theories and opinions might
be accompanied by reason rather than
by snap remarks, for the truth can
be more firmly established through
reason than contempt"
Finds News Sufficient
representative Of the intelligence
department of the army said he con-
sdered foreign news on the average
Sufficient for our readers, who, in the
main, are interested in domestic af-
fairs" He said he read unsigned