JOURNALISM OF TO-DAY 445
thought we had sufficient evidence to convict, the work would have been more valuable. I think we could have secured more complete confessions from those implicated if we had given them to understand that prison punishment would only be resorted to in the event of their withholding any part of their corrupt activities. We could then have made a com- plete expose" which would have been educational, and would have had tremendous value to those who are interested in making our civic life cleaner and our methods more efficient. But we did the best we knew at the time. It was certainly a liberal education for me. Some of the others still fail to see it as I do. They cling doggedly to the jail and the prison as the only cure for evil.
UNFAIRNESS OF PAPERS
Still another charge brought against the American newspaper is that it seldom, if ever, prints a speech of any length unless delivered by the President of the United States or some other very distinguished official. Attention is called to the fact that the report often contains nothing except the startling, foolish, or inflammatory utterances of the speaker. A contrast is drawn between the newspapers of to-day and those of Greeley's time when speeches were often reported at length. Such critics, how- ever, fail to make a comparison of the sizes of the newspapers printed during these periods. The average New York newspaper is not much larger to-day than it was then, except for advertis- ing columns often it has fewer columns devoted to the news. Yet the number of men who make speeches in that city has multiplied to such an extent that a detailed report is now quite an impossibility. Very often, the words quoted of the speaker constitute the only new thing given in the speech, devoted for the most part to generalizations often much better expressed by others. The reading public, like the men of Athens, in Paul's time, is chiefly interested in the new thing and unless the new thing be said, readers prefer newspaper stories of deeds rather than those of speech.
In discussing a complaint of Professor Scott Nearing that he had not been treated fairly by the newspapers, The World, of New York, spoke as follows in an editorial :
It is always a pleasure to discuss journalism with an honest man who knows nothing about it. Professor Scott Nearing, for example, believes that most newspapers are biased or corrupt because they are not dis-
