The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1924-02-27
Editorial Digest OF the Week
THE LICENSING OF JOURNALISTS
From The Christian Science Monitor.

AiA INT NMISAaA CNNACc HontoI.
Serious thought seems to have been devoted. at the recent
meeting Of the American Association Of the Teachers OF Journalism
in Chicago. 10 the proposal Of Mr.. Justin Miller, professor in the
College Of Law Of Minnesota university, that henceforth steps be
taken 70 provide for the examination and licensing OF journalists.
It is not surprising that evidences outcrop showing this tendency
Of professional, If not popular, thought in the United States. It
is but recently, comparatively speaking, that unlicensed, and pos
sibly unqualified, practitioners found essay access TO the courts and
counsel table. Likewise, i formerly vas less difficult than now
for the "practcng' physician to play his vocation without hind
rance from recognized schools or even from the law itself. The
itinerant preacher, proudly proclaiming himself self-educated and
sef-Hcensed. exhorted and expounded without raising in the
thoughts Of his hearers any doubts as TO his regularity"
But now all tina. IS changed. The different schools OF medi-
cine and Of religious thought first set the pace. Then came the
professors and deans OF law with their theories Of teaching which
established what were regarded as reasonable and wise standards,
later accepted and legaized by legislative enactment. Thus gradu-
touch became in a measure standardized. In some form or another
each has its code Of ethics, generally binding because it has been
subscribed to by students and novitiates and recognized by the
public. Not yet has II been generally agreed that prudence de-
mands the application of the rule to journalists, so called.
It might be conceded, for the purpose Of the present discus
sion, that in the law, as well as in medicine and theology, certain
recognized ethical standards have been raised up. possibly by &C
cretiye rather than careful elimination processes, while in the pro-
fessiOn Of Journalism there remains a lamentable lack Of acknowL-
edged standards or codes.
There exists also, perhaps more particularly in the United
States than in some other countries, that more or less sacred theory
of the freedom Of the press, which might be found to stand in the
way of any determined effort TO regulate or prescribe the methods
of newspaper making. And there are, as must be remembered,
thousands Of sailed country newspapers published throughout
the length and breadth of the land in whose editing and prepare
ton it would be economically impossible to employ a doctor, or
even a bachelor, of journalism.
If it is sought, in the recognition of a need to educate and
license newspaper writer's thereby to raise the standards Of journal
ism, it should first be made clar that by no possibility has the
cart been placed before the horse. There exists already a recog
nized ethical standard of journalism, whose tenets and code are SC
simple that none can mistake them. There Is p G use in licensing
a person to tell the truth, unless he has a desire . ell it. It would
be the height Of folly to pass a law %forbidding TIE readings of un
truthful newspapers until the public voluntarily shows its pref
erence for those that tell the truth. Standards of excellence vii
exist and be maintained whenever the unworthy becomes distaste
full and unsatisfying.