The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-25
THE FUNCTION OF THE PRESS

The newspaper in. it's proper function is not only the medium through which the news is disseminated, but it is also the organ of the public right as against any other sort of influence or purpose. An editor likes to think of himself ns the advocate of the pub lies side in any issue in which the public welfare is concerned, is threatened or is at stake. Even though on many public ques- tions the newspapers are divided in opinion and take opposite sides, it is understood that the difference is sincere and that each is championing the case in the interest of the public as it sees it. There is among all newspapers of the right sort a unanimity of purpose if not of belief on many specific sub iects. Journalism is in this sense a fra ternity, in that the editors work in q con- mon cause, even though they pursue differ ent routes to reach the destination.
 So important is it that the press should be untrammeled by any inhibitions on opin- ion that the press has constitutionally the same safeguards that protect the right of free speech It may be that sometimes this right is abused, but it must never be diminished. No one better realized the significance to our institutions of a free press than the late President Harding, who, on his visit to Alaska last summer, made this statement to an attentive audience:
 An honest and intelligent press, which
 necessitates a highly -purposed press, af-
 lords limitless opportunity for com
 munity service and the loftiest employ
 ment in life. It may preach to the larg-
 est congregation. It has every oppor-
 tunity to commend and defend the law.
 It is the effective mouth-piece of our
 politics. It is the teacher which knows
 no vacation It is the recording angel
 of human accomplishments, whose sim
 pie story is the ever-continuing inspira-
 tion to loftier achievement.
 If the press has an opportunity, it has no less a responsibility. It is q sobering re- flection to know that the minds and thoughts of the people are often moulded by the edi- torial expression of our great journals. Un- mistakable evidence of this influence of the press upon public sentiment is perceived on every hand. In those sections served by aDle newspapers OA d Sih6AO "PA"t"A NAA SON leading subject of public moment, the senti- ment of the people of those sections is in accord with editorial opinion. In other sec tions served by newspapers of the opposite view, the majority opinion is likewise the re- verse. It is true that readers often differ with the opinions of the papers they read, but likewise, in an incalculable measure, they are in agreement with the editorial views of those same papers.
 It may be that the press, while perhaps in some measure causative of local views on public questions, is also in considerable de gree reflective of the local view. Often the editor is the product of the same environ ment, training and outlook on life as his readers even though he may have travelled far or been born elsewhere. There is communality of opinion, common heritage of right sentiments, a similarity of mental and moral reactions among right-minded people. no matter where they were born, nor in what locality they grew up The press is the great medium through which this mutuality of belief and sentiment in funda- mental alliances are cemented into what is known as public sentiment. The ideal is high. and newspaper is measured by the margin between it's journalistic achievement and this ideal.