The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1922-07-14
A Newspaper That Serves
Friday, July IA, 1922.
COMMERCIAL NEWSPAPERS

Governor Robertson, in his ad-
dress here last night dragged out
the time-honored and thread-bare
criticism that newspapers OF today
were commercialized. This is ever
the retaliation OF men who can't
get everything they want out OF the
press; it is the harangue sung by
Socialists, political misfits and cor
rupt public officials who have felt
the ire OF the press.
To say that the newspapers are
fighting man is about all the evi-
dence needed to ascertain his un-
worthiness. Newspapers are run by
ordinary men, very ordinary in
some instances, just men who are
rearing families, trying to help their
communities and who realize their
obligation, to print news and help
in a small way toward clean public
affairs and progress in home life
and government.
Perhaps a newspaper will stray
off now and then, but seldom A
newspaper by its very nature must
fight for things that will better the
community state and nation.
To be sure newspapers are COM
mercialized. Newspapers are run
for livlihood. And in this connec-
tion we reprint in full an editorial
from the Saturday Evening Post OF
recent issue which is entirely apro-
pos, we think. Says the Saturday
Evening Post:
Fair play has never been uni
versal characteristic OF the attacks
upon the prevailing standards of
the spoken drama and OF the daily
press. A curious yet exceedingly
popular Indictment against both is
that they have been commercially
ed, and the word is mouthed as il
il implied something shameful or
unclean. Now there is no inherent
reason why we should not display
ordinary common sense in dealing
with the common things OF life
and yet no one can escape the CON
clusion that in 4 great proportion
OF cases the habitual upliiters,
though often men OF honest con-
yictions and high cultivation, are
sadly lacking in this saving grace.
No man with the smallest capa-
city for clear thinking really be-
lieves that either stage or press has
been suddenly or even recently com
mercialized. VIII Shakespere's Globe
Theater was a business proposition,
1t represented the invested capital
OF gifted actor-manager who
made i; yield the best return he
was able. The early newspapers
we're established either as avowed
money-making enterprises or as or
gans Tor shaping political opinion
In their essentials they are TODAY
what they were centuries ago. with
the difference that time has given
the press far livelier sense OF
public obligation thS at first eX-
isted.
The production OF plays and the
publication OF newspapers are two
of the most hazardous enterprises
in which capital is commonly EN-
ployed. At bottom both are either
legitimate undertakings entitled to
returns proportional to the risks as
sumed or they are vicious corrupt
erS OF morals that ought to be
ruihlessly suppressed for the com
mon good. To charge eontemptu.
ously that they are eommercialized
is merely TO make faces at them.
There are. to be sure. supersensi-
tive souls whose whole natures re-
volt and whose nosrtils culver as II
beset by an evil odor at. the mere
mention of commerciaAsm: but
these are not they who do the
worlds work. Men OF broader con.
facts with life know that anythinp
useful or desirable. whether i, is a
telephone or a talking machine j.
most successfully eommereiaii,ed
when !, is exploited by men OF high
character and ability who are fully
alive to their unwriiten obligations
to their customers and to the pub.
lie as a whole. Both stage and press
have their shortcomings. but they
will never be raised to higher elhi.