Evening star., 1936-04-20
Text of Mencken's Address
Baltimore Writer Cites Rapid Changes and I'm.
broyements in Associated Press and
NEWSPAPERS.

luck Is really with you, you may even
land in jail.
Why are such effects impossible on
the editorial page? They are impos-
sible for several plain reasons. One
is that the editorial page. save in. q
few newspapers. Is so gloomy and for.
bidding. geographically, that only a
reader itching for punishment Is ever
tempted to read it. It prints the
longest paragraphs in the paper, and
under the smallest heads 1t is
mainly written and made up before
anything actually happens. and a,
least half the time what 1t says about
things that happened yesterday Il
blown up by the follow-ups of today
If you printed college yells under
such feeble one-line heads. they would
sound like algebraic equations.
Reacts on Editorials.
There is something else. The effort
to keep the news columns clean OF
editorializing has reacted on the edi-
torial page itself. We have all worked
SO hard-and no one less than the
directors of the Associated Presto
make news-writing really impartial
that we have come near making edi-
torial-writing impartial, too. Is that
an improvement? I begin TO have
some doubt of it. The first Job Of q
newspaper, to be sure, is to print the
news, and nowhere on earth is it done
more diligently or more honestly than
in this great free republic, the envy
and despair of all the decadent prin-
cipalities of Europe. But printing the
bare news is only half of that job
The rest is interpreting it, showing
what it signifies, getting some sense
and conference into it.
In brief, the newspaper Is not only
a news-monger: it is also critic That
it may be a bad one is beside the
point; nine-tenths of all critics are bad
ones. The essential thing is that it
is the only critical agency of ai.y genu-
inc competence and influence that is
left in the American scheme Of things.
The pedagogues Of the country. when
they become public jobholders, cut
lAlCA O"ll Iii llldlly Va IllCtll
now begin to realize. No one pays any
attention to them any more: when
they are heard of at all, it is as comic
characters.
Ameli0rates Heresy.
The pulpit has gone further and
Jared worse. In most communities it
is now tolerated only in so far as it
confines itself to post st-mortem matters,
and never says anything that can be
either proved or disproved. The Lalls
of legislation hardly deserve to be
mentioned at all. The only actual d.
vision of opinion that they ever show
is over the question whether A or p
should have the job. The opposition
in the English House of Commons is
a living force and. as we saw only
lately, is really able to influence gov
eminent policy But in Congress the
minority has no rights that the ma
jority is bound to respect. When It is
knocked in the head it is forbidden
even to howl.
This leaves the field open to the
newspapers of the country. They con-
stitute its only effective opposition
and one of their clearest duties is tc
keep wary eye on the gentlemen who
operate this great Nation, and only
too often slip into the assumption tina,
they own it. don't argue here that
newspapers ought always to be agir
the Government. Far from it. AL
I argue is that they ought to be ready
for it when. as and if it needs a..
tention. And when they have some.
thing to say about it, whether in chal.
lenge or in commendation, they ough-
to say that something in type legibls
at a distance Of at least inches, and
under headlines suitable to the i'm.
portance of the subject, and in a placs
less depressing than the funeral parlo,
of the editorial page.
ameliorate my heresy by hasten.
ing to add in conclusion that the edi.
torial page. with Grape stripped of it
would still have the function Of Of.
fering useful information and refined
entertainment to the more philosophi'
cal type of reader. 1t could go or
printing such things as I have Ions
contributed to it myself-learned, deli
cate essays which strike q neat balance
between pro and con. and leave onl,
the sweet sound of music on the ear
But when there is really something II
be said, why not say it where people
will hear it? Why 60 down into tht
cellar to hold an auction sale-anc
selling ideas Is an auction sale pre-.
cisely like any other? Why not ge
out on the sidewalk and ring a bell?