Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-08-05
THE TRUTH MUST BE HAD


fraternity and certain Of the courts
toward crime. Some have not over
looked the fact that certain Of the
legal fraternity, who may be assumed
to be responsible for the drafting Of
many Of our laws, profit from the am
biguity or worse - Of those laws;
that they fatten on technicalities
and indirectly If not directly on
crime and come to look upon crimi-
malls as getters of business and fat
fees for members Of the legal pro-
fession.
We are reminded Of these things
by an able argument entitled RE
tribution for Fourth Estate" pub
lshed in the Pittsburg Legal Journal,
July 2s. based on the murder Of Don
r. Mellett, editor Of the Canton, o.
Daily News. Shortcomings, If moth
ing more, of not few newspapers in
this country are excoriated in this
article, not bitterly and not without
basis in fact. 1t is argued that:
Next to the public common school,
the owners of the great daily news
papers of America always have had
the greatest opportunity to be a won
derfully inspiring thing for children
during their formative years" Moth
Ing, however, Is said Of the opportu
nifty afforded lawyers to impress the
public with a purpose to get at
rather than to obscure the truth, nor
of the profit they make from their
skill in obfuscation advertised in the
news columns Of the press.
This neglect does not destroy the
force Of the charge that through the
Sunday supplement, MOSTLY coarse
horse play, slapstick comedy" Is pre-
scented and that much Of the slang,
impoliteness and disrespect of the
children for their parents and elders
in their early years is acquired from
these very coarse and highly colored
caricatures, mostly portraying impos-
sible incidents in life" Again we are
iCAtLilidCo ill1h blAS ONiiCAS VI odSl
papers are out to make money as are
the lawyers; that both share in the
criticism. When the writer asks;
why don't the big newspapers turn
this field into a great means of edu-
eating children" he should also ask:
Why don't the lawyers seek to as
certain and make known the truth
A like inquiry might also be made
respecting the further charges Of
this Legal Journal, but we would not
overlook the business of such criti-
cisms as these:
There Is no deterrent for crime
like publicity. No newspaper Should
hesitate to publish the facts concern
ing offenses against society and espe-
cially to publish all the truth and
what happens when the offender has
been brought to the bar of justice
and punished. Too much publicity
cannot be given to the effects of
crime. But to take the life stories Of
noted criminals, profiigates, lewd wo-
men, and all such characters and re-
publish as serials, exaggerated &C
counts Of their sins, accompanied by
lascivious, disgusting, indecent and
very suggestive pictures, is simply a
wallowing in filth that no publisher
with a family. would care to douse
his children in. If that publisher
gains circulation and advertising pat
ronage from plastering the country
side with his newspaper full of the
rottenness of humanity, what us the
difference between that money he
earns and the money squeezed by the
CRATER of the tenderloin, who, by
connivance with police authority,
Compels the proprietors of gambling
resorts and houses of Ill repute to
pay him toll?
What strange streak OF mentality
IS it which produces powerful
crusade in the news columns against
vice and immortality and the thun-
dering editorials holding govern
ment officials solely responsible for
the conditions condemned, and then
on Sunday clarifying some noted
dissolute, libertine or polyandric?
The police are not alone tR blame.
1t takes people to commit crimes
and publicity to create a scandal.
How can the finer things of life be
taught the youth IL this is the best
effort of intelligent publishers? News
papers are creators of opinion by
the matter they report as facts.
They are educators of children by
the pictures they print just as much
as the public schools are educators
of children, because a picture is in
variably understood by the child just
as soon as he can think.
Newspaper publishers, like the
movie magnate, who follows the line
of least resistance because he wants
the crowd to follow him, excuses
the use Of these things with the
statement that the public demands
such service. I'VE are printing the
only kind Of newspapers the people
VIII buy. We must therefore pub
lish this kind and that rot" many
say.
One might as well declare that
the people demanded the staying
of Mr.. Mellett so that the nau-
seating conditions of the Canton
underworld could be made an occa
sion for filing newspaper columns.
Such argument and reasoning that
the newspapers solely reflect the
demand of the people and therefore
the character of the people is to
declare that Stanford White was
killed on the roof Of Madison Square
Iaroen SO that the Thaw trial
win all Its filthy sequels could be
mace the subject of serials for news
paper feature syndicates. Could
that?" 'naii
Thaw was a degenerate. a repuI-
elve ngure II painted in true lights.
was this done by the press? Was