| Show THE THE NEWSPAPER PERIL In Iii a tl recent issue of Colliers one Frederick Peterson M 11 D diagnoses iv what hat he ho calls Tho The Newspaper Peril Perila a n malady malad of or the modern mind In its It is an indictment of ar the mod rn newspaper and an l newspaper reader h comas comos pretty near being an in indictment Ind d Sot of oC the civilized world but particularly of tho the American people The arraignment is well written s f K arranged and based on the that newspapers are crim criminal mat hUll in their intent and effect where ihy t hf Y are not simply a demoralizing f T riP e That it finds acceptance In Col Coi ers Is not to bo be wondered at though that uprightly weekly is more nearly 1 Uhf ko IH R a newspaper than any other week U iy publication in America both in its matter and its g policy Tn r begin with tho the writer describes an newspaper which it may be been ben beian en ian n at once is a New York paper That Thatto s to In say it is provincial and almost 1 I u ely local emphasizing the trivial in news and embellishing the criminal features f Nl t u res attractively It preserves no noI I ense of ot proportion in its treatment of affairs of importance pays pas little to the need of voracity and andi i UI liO o attention whatever to the decencies Dr Peterson goes goos on to say Suh I is III the newspaper what is its ef c cr r fd Manifestly ono one does not read d all allUiS th tb UiS printed matter of his dolly daily news but he selects such articles or par part t as especially appeal to his In Int tr t rrt t Yet in order to make his hi selection fH t reader scans headline after aCter bend hoad IK n ii sometimes f selecting what ho bo desires nut but ut quite as often orten lured by b a novel nov l or ort t title to peruse mattor matter quite apart f m hl hi his original selective intention Tho The Thoi i J ii reader may pot not read all the newspaper but he ho reads rends all the head boad Each headline excites In his mind minda a U i of thought with possibly many manyas n as d concepts but only x y as is he skips from one of little to one oner f r I greater interest And It is not an or array of ot impressions that is thus m tt upon his brain but on the contra r rv n one on of or extreme disorder a u stream f r facts acts widely dissociated an incoherent of concepts which must in the nature flat lire of things s gradually wear out the theof Tn r of the he to take M I r f render the Impressions themselves ratable r table and diminish tho the faculty of the thet t i V o IM for tor permanent perm nent registration And Andt AndL t J L i m in n lies the real peril of or the tho press 4 iv begin gln to cultivate the art of for of a progressive Im T ment In the building up of tho the fac fae fact t ty of ni memo mory which should be the law lawf ff lIt f our ur intellectual Intel growth we wo are arc obliged i t the habit of at obliterating Im Fm ir merely as a s means mean of ot o protect t i n II I from this enormous normous onslaught on laught of oft t I lull What will b be the results as to ton n menial progress in a n brain dally daily exercised 1 n VI f the art of forgetting for bes beset t by ihl concepts concept utterly Incoherent ns as to hen f h t in consciousness con all too generally Jf jc inane frivolous unimportant n whose who e chief effects are upon the tho thern thorn rn emotional side of our nature differ as to the th capacity of oft tIt t h average brain to receive the i us ls of a lifetime It Is J pretty well bc be H d 4 that there In is in the brain a centre entro distinct from the tho centre contre of j i I t option eption 44 1 FEn in n without reading the resident of a 8 ai ay i us I Y must receive ra Ive an incalculable number nf of impressions lons upon his hi brain overy every t hours hoursH H Lir Jrr r Is he a n boast b ast of the tho London Lond n Times nm 8 TI Tb Times for the th year you 1000 contained va exclusive of or advertisements a noar near nearS S twenty wenty f per pr cent more reading mat matr f tr r r than han the H that If you diligently read the Times for of one year ear you ou will have If perhaps as us much energy ell erg and as ns rany brain cells as If tr you ou had read rend th the Encyclopedia Britannica through I Crr ind nc nd to end And what will you vou have gained gaind sain In either case On the one hand In b your lour our diligence nce you will have acquired a S good fod knowledge of or the events of or the Klob Klo p during the apace of Jess less than three hundred 1 days between two to eternities and nu will have occupied a good doal deal ol ot brain capacity with the tho meanings of ot that Juxtaposition of million words On the other hand an epitome of or human culture and progress since tho the dawn d Von of history Would It not be better to tn spend even thrice three throe hundred days dayson on nn those tho a ponderous volumes If one ono granted that such a newspaper n as is described represented the average of or the American press the conclusions might be conceded Us s a matter of fact such newspapers represent nt a small smal fraction traction of the tho daily dally publications and they are not read by b mon man or women who would take any interest in the En El Encyclopedia cyclopedia Britannica or any other oth r form of ot instructive literature The ma majority majority majority of the newspapers of America are carefully edited intelligently di directed directed directed and quite as honest and sincere in their policy polley as the average weekly or monthly or annual publication If It the danger of ot multifarious and dis dig disorderly disorderly orderly mental impressions Is an argument argument ment mont against newspaper reading it i Is likewise an argument against social socia gatherings against the use of at the tele teJe telephone telephone phone or the tho typewriter or any other othe necessity of or modern life lite Dr Peterson overlooks or ignores the possibility that thai the tile modern mental equipment may be adapted to the demands of its environ environment environment environment ment including the reading of or newspapers newspapers newspapers pers The director of or any great bus busl busness busness ness for lor instance instance t encounters le details making an equally number of or mental impressions but Ut he has learned to 10 use his selective faculty acuity learned to forget if you ou please and the faculty of forgetting is quite as ts important as the Ithe faculty of remember rememberIng Ing ng although the tho ho learned doctor thinks or says he thinks quite otherwise No doubt newspapers can and will be improved with time No doubt some of them are injurious to their readers So are some individual associations some theatres some doctors But the world worlds Is s not going to stop reading newspapers or going to theatres or employing doc doe doctors doctors tors torn It will use more Judgment in all aU these selections all |
