Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1923-01-05
n, CHESTER VI. WRIGHT.


al the news that's MT 10 prlnt, .he e
~ York sun proelaims that III
-. IN the Sun its so, While some
se,rspapers proceed on the assump-
- fhat If its nj TO happen us NJ
mint Still others leave little
.s65 = fer doubt that they NIL their
ssl9mns in the cheapest and easiest
e3,aIy an Insignificant number OF
sss,ss outside of the newspaper
PIs baYe any true idea about how
5tsr,sl Is gathered and put into the
n11agans where il is read.
rseant outhurst on the subject
u. Increasingly with one phase.
VI a bulletin that comes over the
- / padded into a column or more
.te oaiee. The morgue" in news
nsnsr offices is the file system where
pobs papobi cuts. ETC., are kept. An
e,.aat about which a bulletin gives
IL main, skeletonized points, will
h. nadded out, either from material
h. "morgue" or in some stan
~ n,on's head. If the mans information
= faulty. or If the .'morgue' pocket
:, thai subject contains mostly ma
,syial furnished from partisan sourc-
a there will be biased, faulty, or
Inaccurate story as the result.
The newspaper world is probably
.s good as it can be under present
circumstances. Certain conditions
make definitely for evil. Evils in
newspaper making translate them
selves into malformed public opin.
ion frequently. In no place is evil
more productive of evil than in the
making Of newspapers.
Great organizations and enterprises
are constantly using a high-priced
hrains to find out ways of cheating,
deceiving or corrupting Newspapers
and newspaper writer's.
There Is l-defined code of
ethics in the newspaper world, but
this code of ethics is frequently
demolished by persons who do not
believe in being hampered by codes
of ethics. 1t is here just as it is in
other occupations.
But the most damage is done, not
BY weak individuals, but by powerful
forces and by exceedingly bad ad-
iustments in relationships. 1t is
estimated that in 1916 the nations
advertising bill ran up to $2,O0O,000,-
900. Ii Was much more than that in
1921 and n 1922-perhaps as much
as S3000,000000 and maybe more
than that. Some of that advertising
was for the purpose of compelling
consideration in news and editorial
columns. Some of it just naturally
begot consideration, even if there was
no thought of it in the advertisers
minds.
Small pay for newspaper employees
causes damage to the cause of truth
in newspapers. Newspaper men who
are underpaid sometimes go looking
for work to help bring up the income
figure. Sometimes they find work
that conflicts with their newspaper
work. Sometimes their newspaper
work suffers and the reader pays the
penalty. One very large and power
fu newspaper is said to pay its
principal Washington correspondent
$3.50 per week. That same news
paper used to pay SIS to its Wash
lngton correspondent.
In the mass the working news
papemen of the country will stack
up well with the men of other trades
and professions. But there are some
weaknesses In the newspaper system
that result in poisoned news, cor
fuption and betrayal. There are
wrongs that mere honesty cannot cor
rect, because thousands of honest
newspapermen themselves know moth
ing about them or why or where they
exist.
Newspaper readers pay the penalty.
In addition to propaganda of
purely domestic character, there are
many varieties of international pro-
paganda, not the least of which is
propaganda having to do with the
creation of sentiment in support of
foreign concessions and of national
governments in which Americans are
Interested in concessions.
The Christian Science Monitor calls
attention to Admiral Chester's "fam-
our eulogy of the Turk" in recent
magazine article, in which he, as the
Monitor puts it, "was frank enough
70 admit the heavy obligations laid
upon hlm by the granting of the
Ohester concession by the Ottoman
government" The Monitor finds in
certain paragraphs from the foreign
correspondent of the Philadelphia
fabiie Ledger at Lausanne "some ex-
planatlon 5. of the singular insist
eehee up the virtues of the Turk" and
II quotes the following from the dis
patch to the Public Ledger:
The general sentiment here
seems to have confirmed the
statement in the Ledger foreign
service that America enjoys the
most favorable position in Tur-
key, especially economically, and
now has the chance of a life
ume IN the Turkish Market
Among Americans going to
;Shgora recently were M. Gobe-
In, district manager of the
standard Oil Company, while
o1aer concerns, such as the Ches-
y ssf group, the American Foreign
ulfaae Corporation, the General
motors Company, the Edgar
howard Company of Philadel-
ggna, which is represented at
CC.onstantinople now by Ralph
oaeeseoorough, all are meeting
S'h favorable receptions, al
lhoagh no concessions nor con-
tracts have yet been made.
herewith is published an editorial
from the aEditne ona p,,LI;rLo,U &c