NEW TESTAMENT JOURNALISM
Shortly before the period opened, the Reverend Charles Sheldon had published a book which had a nation-wide sale under the title of "In His Steps, or What Would Jesus Do?" The suggestion was made to The Daily Capital, of Topeka, Kansas, that it would be a good idea to turn the paper over to the Reverend Dr. Sheldon for a week to be conducted as he thought Jesus Christ would have edited it. The offer when made to Dr. Sheldon was accepted and the experiment began on March 13, 1900, and continued for a week. Dr. Sheldon had long held the view that the daily newspaper was as much bound to give readers the things they needed instead of what they wanted as was the pulpit to give what was needed instead of what was wanted. He once asserted, "I have as much right to go into my pulpit next Sunday and preach to my people the things they want in theology or moral living as editors have to print in their papers anything below the high standards that govern human beings, for the rules of moral conduct are the same for an editor as for a minister." The edition during the week of Mr. Sheldon's editorship of The Capital, of Topeka, was sold on the newsstands all over the country. The immediate result was that several editors offered to preach the Gospel as Christ would have preached it, if pulpits were provided. The latter offers, however, were not accepted by the clergy. Fourteen years later a number of distinguished Kansan editors occupied pulpits and preached lay sermons on journalism the Sunday preceding the meeting of a National Newspaper Conference held under the auspices of the University of Kansas, at Lawrence, Kansas. For that conference Melville E. Stone, general manager of the Associated Press, prepared a lay sermon, using for his text, "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." (St. Luke, xu, 48.) The conclusion of the sermon thus summed up the text, as applied to the Associated Press:—
Obviously then, the very magnitude of the Associated Press work tends to make truthfulness and impartiality in the service imperative. It cannot be used for private aims, to serve any special interest, or to help any political party or faction or propaganda. I am not laying
