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Show ELBERT ''HUBBARD'S- VIEW OF THE DAILY PAPERS. I know tho nowspaper business from cellar to cock-loft. That is tu say, irom tho big presses- 011 the cement ce-ment noors, to tho placo where the boys grind out copy on plno tables In an atmosphere of tobacco and' proiun-ity, proiun-ity, that is sweetened only by mucn iranlc good fellowship, expressod by, indirection. 1 hen 1 Know the counting-room, that, palaco-like apartment of marble and brass, beautiiul as a chemical blonde, talr and lino as a silver dollar saloon, made up for tho public approval, like the Iront of tho tueatro compared to the back where the actors navo goose-llesh, goose-llesh, waiting for their cues, and whose lite and work are quite as genuine as thoso of tho persons in Iront. I began life as a printer's dovll and still have a few of that worthy's virtues. vir-tues. I havo reported things that never happened; written solemn, poi-lucld, poi-lucld, pescud editorials by the yard about nothing; sat in tho managing editor's uneasy chair, and I have checked tho receipts from advertisements advertise-ments and chuckled over the balance in the bank. I know tho taste of gluo rollers, tho mysteries of tho waiting galleys, the slap-dash, bllly-be-damnod quality ot the editorial room. Some of the best men on earth are nowspaper men journalists are different. dif-ferent. Tho nowspaper man works for the paper that hires him; hates the peoplo the owner hates; saps the paper's pa-per's game and partakes of its prejudices; pre-judices; and wears out his llfo In loyal loy-al service for a management that doe3 not give a tinker's tool for him or anybody. The owner of tho paper has no opinions opin-ions on nnythlng no Ideals he has only a thirst, and a lust to own. What ho wishes Is to mako money havo a big circulation, wield an influence, and ride in a red-devil automablle. Ho has certain bulldog qualities which tho writing men havo not, otherwise they would own tho paper and he would be working in Dold's packing house a member of tho Meat Cutters' Union or running a saloon. But as for honor and intellect, ho is a bankrupt. Thero may be exceptions, nothing is impossible with God. The daily nowspaper is the supreme corrupter of tho life and morals ot tho people. It familiarizes tho youns with vice and crime, and emphasizes everything that should bo forgotten. Not long ago tho owner of tho Indianapolis In-dianapolis "Star" was in Washington making a plea before tho senate committee com-mittee in behalf of certain newspaper privileges. Ho argued that tho dally newspaper was tho educator and en-Hghtener en-Hghtener of tho people.. A member of tho committee produced a copy ot tho "Star" and showed that one-third of the entire space was given up to advertising pelvic diseases and men only abominations, and that four-fifths of tho news items related to elopements, elope-ments, defalcations, seductions and unnameablo crimes. Tho daily nowspaper tho educator of tho peoplo? That senate committee commit-tee should havo adjourned to laugh aye, to weep. The daily nowspaper tho educator of the peoplo! No newspaper man over ov-er had the effrontery to say so only a fat and crinkle-necked proprietor, lachrymose with red rum, dare put forth such an assertion. Take tho papers, say in Buffalo, Cloveland, Indianapolis, Toledo an:l Omaha, do any of them stand for higher high-er endeavor, art, education and human betterment? Do any of them make It their policy to encourage, that which is excellent and true? On tho contrary, con-trary, do thoy not all feature tho base, tho wrong, tho trilling nnd tho transient? tran-sient? Are not the men who own th6m'Sv'lthoui exception, 'chucklS-hbtril-ed ignorami, fawners and trucklers for place and power, boosting this grafting bigwig and that, aild smothering smoth-ering the worthy with silence? Realizing tho vileness of their so called news some of them print mushy sermons by persons of literary notoriety, noto-riety, so as to make us believe the press is the agent of morality. A hair page of tho trite, tho true and the fet i "unco gude" can never season U13 barrel of swill It Is a daily newsp.t-per newsp.t-per just the same. Your private character is nothing to tho newspaper owner ho . of the wrinkled neck he hires young men to rip reputations up tho back, an I rend and tear your very heartstrings with headlines about things that ndv-er ndv-er happened, or if they did, ara not ' tho business of tho public. -He wants fj to sell his paper! He chase3 the l stricken, just as tho wolves .on ths prairie follow the lame horse, tho cow v that is great with calf. The newspapers newspa-pers wnx fat on calamity because there is an evil streak in our common na- tures that makes us gloat over the fallen and the disgraced; laying the flattering unction to our souls that it is not we, ourselves, but the other fellow who lies thero on the cold marble mar-ble slab in the morgue with n tiny blue spot over his heart and his stiffened stif-fened Angers folded just so, forever. The newspapers all have their porch-climbers who hunt your housa through for closets where skele.ons aro locked. They want to educate U13 public; and woo betide the reporter who seeks to save somo good nam 3 from pollution! Ho is paid to smut fair names, and so in time he becomes be-comes subdued to what ho works in, and his soul takes on a saffron tinge. Thus does Mr. Redneck not only pollute pol-lute tho public, but damn the souls of the young men ho employs they who aro beguiled by the siren song of literature. The newspapers give a "society page," and a "church page" on Sundays Sun-days and Mondays, and lo! our orthodox or-thodox brethren gloss tho penny-royal pills and declare that llfo without the Morning Slopjar would be unendurable. Newspapers aro business ventures run to make money, and tho money is made through tho sale of advertising adver-tising space. In order to sell this space the paper must have a circulation, circula-tion, and to boom this circulation tho paper resorts to sensation, and panders pan-ders to tho weak, tho depraved, tho vicious, the immoral and the prurient. It panders to the worst peoplo, and it pandoi's to the worst in tho so-called good people. Wo are all In degree corrupted through tho dally nowspaper. We are obsessed with tho hallucination hallucina-tion that wo must read tho dally paper pa-per in order to Keep Informed on tho news of the day. We allow our brains to bo used as a sieve for sewage, In the hope of finding find-ing a grain of corn. The Newspaper Habit is upon us, and wo cravo the salacious morsel as a tumble bug turns to his dessert. Tho insignificant price one cent' makes it deadly easy to succumb, as ' tho waiter at supper or tho boys In tho street thrust at us the latest Issue, printed at three o'clock, and marked "Six o'clock Edition." Tho newpapers employ an army of children in tho streets who cry their wares. Veiy many of them aro beggars beg-gars and wo buy to get rid of them to salve our conscience with tho thought that wo aro doing chnrlty; and tho proprietor fosters tho charity idea with Thanksgiving dinners and donations to newsboys' homes, proclaiming pro-claiming his own goodness in flaring head-lines. Wo speak sometimes of tho "Yellow "Yel-low Journals" they aro all yellow 'only Yomo' are deeper' tinted than 'others. n6lWhen you read a newspaper and are not reading scandal you may ho reading read-ing pald-for telegrams ahout the Mc-Curdys. Mc-Curdys. A straight "Special Telegram" Tele-gram" In most of the newspapers last week reads this way, "The largest hot-tie hot-tie order ever given, etc." It was from Milwaukee and cost tho malt man $2 a lino In each of a hundred "high 'class newspapers." A week heforo Miss Roosevelt's ,imarrlago an Assocatcd Press dispatch from Washington flashed tho news around tho world, "Alico Hoosevelt's a Monkey Is Dead." At first glance wo i all thought tho wedding was off, hut , on reading the precious news wo wero ' Informed that a pet monkey presented " . to Miss Roosevelt In the Philippines I , had succumbed to pneumonia after a '""painful illness, where tho best of ' medical counsel failed and every-v every-v thing but Osteopathy and Christian ;;Scieuco were tried! Alas! Tho daily newspaper tho educator ,of tho people! ,. God help us, it may ho so! It edu-t edu-t cates into inattention, vacuity, fool-lshness, fool-lshness, folly and sin. It saps concentration, con-centration, dissipates aspiration, .scrambles gray matter and irons out convolutions. Watch tho genus commuter rush .for his dope when ho reaches tho station sta-tion in tho morning. Ho may be a Sunday school superintendent, a college col-lege graduate, a man of social ''standing, but ho must have his matin-mess matin-mess of rottenness or ho would dlo of . fidgets. He reads of how a man in Manitoba elopes with another man's "wife, with consuming interest. Ho scans tho advertising pages with their columns of fakery and liltli, and it never occurs to him that a certain amount of the slimo that slides into his brain must stay there and line tho vacuum. At night when ho goes homo ho -buys the last edition, reads the whole ' thing over again written 'tother end to. Ho does this for ten years, twentydoes twen-tydoes it not make him what ho is? Would you like to go to Heaven with him? I knew one commuter, ten years 'ago, who refused to read tho daily pa-, pa-, .pers, but Instead carried with him In 1!hls side pocket a volume of Emerson. That man is now a marked personality, personal-ity, wielding a largo and healthful Influence In-fluence in a rational way. His old-. old-. time fellow passengers aro still feverishly guzzling their last edition. Every city in tho land has periodic perturbations about "Jack tho Stab-ber," Stab-ber," "Jack tho Snipper" and "Jack tho Peeper" fanned into flame by tho molders of public opinion, these beneficent ben-eficent educators of tho people. Even staid old Boston had a week of ilts a short time ago, when every paper In tho city combined to terrorize women and children by conjuring forth an awful "Jack," who finally was run to cover and found to be a mischievous ,, clgarettist boy who should have been left, from tho beginning, to the police and alienists. But not so! The newspapers news-papers saw their chanco and they grabbed it in gladsomo glee. Tho per- f nleious effects of such an epidemic ot fear, to say nothing about a million people devoting an hour a day to tfl reading and talking about it, cannot 'bo computed. If tho men who prepare tho copy for 'tho daily papers wero allowed to wrlto out of their hearts and state their beliefs, be-liefs, what they would say might bo worth reading; although the printed words of a commonplace person exert an influence far beyond the speech of vv tho same person, for wo still worship at the fetich and miracle of a printed hook. But what shall bo say of tho writing of mediocre men who wrlto on order! What tho world needs Is a great - temperance revival where men will swerir off and quit reading tho newspapers. news-papers. Quit and you'll bo tho gainer. At tho Roycroft Shop wo tako-no dally nowspapers. Occasionally they aro smuggled in, like cigarettes, but tlie rule is no newspapers. And the very fow who think they havo to have their daily dope of blood, murder and Sherlock Holmes aro our poorest workers. Tho individuals that tho Shop cannot do without, do without with-out tho papers and thrive in mind and soul. I sympathize with tho man whe said that "nothing really Important has happened In America since Leo surrendered to Grant, and if anything does happen I do not want to deprive my neighbors of tho Joy of telling mt of it." "Existence is a limited affair wo only havo so much energy at our disposal. dis-posal. So should wo not be jealous jeal-ous of this little leavo of life? Why give an hour, morning and evening to the loul vaporlngs ot Papa Pulitzer's hirelings and be convinced that wo have varicocele, vari-cocele, like tho old lady who recently applied to my neighbor, Dr. Mitchell, for help. You havo what you think you have, and nobody can long read tho rottenness of tho dally press without with-out being Infected with tho microbeb and maladies which tho daily press exploit ex-ploit and advertise. A somewhat curious freak of human nature is that occasionally good people peo-ple are shocked by things they read In Tho Philistine, and yet these same people cannot breakfast without a copy of tho Morning Sower-Trap beside be-side their nlate. The New York Herald calls itself a high-toned paper, but If I should print their personals In the advertising columns col-umns of this magazine the publication would bo excluded from tho malls as obsceno literature. This shows how we get used to things and accept them as a part of our daily meat and drink. In one way it is complimentary to me that the reading public demand that 1 shall bo decent, while they swallow tho last edition of the dally Rat-Biscuit and never think about it. Tho Philistine makes them think; tho Sunday Sewer fuddles and befogs. be-fogs. Shake! The writers on the dally papers have no timo to formulate thought or to express it. Revision Is out of tho question and literary style or accuracy accur-acy aro Idle dreams. All is dono in a fever of unrest and rush. So the whole product Is cheap and unworthy, and Is done, for tho most part, for tired, cheap, and unworthy people, or good peoplo in a cheap mood. Truth In a nowspapor ofllco is a joke. Tho only question Is, will it go? Weekly newspapers llko tho San Francisco Argonaut and tho St. Louis Mirror aro worth reading. They are written by men with opinions and Ideals. They possess literary quality. Tho Literary Digest and Public Opinion Opin-ion give us a glimpse of tho passing show. Tho monthly magazino from Munsey's to tho Atlantic can be safely omitted they aro without exception published with an apprehensive do siro to offend nobody. Tho men who publish them aro tho same men who issue tho daily nowspapers. They lull, sleepily satisfy, and advertise Ivory Soap. Tho villainous daily newspaper ex Ists through its advertising. It Is too much to expect that humanity will very soon turn In lothlng from its putrid pu-trid pages. All Christian people tako tho dally irapers oh, yes indeed! Wo pray, "Give us this day our daily Guzzlo." But surely some day tho tide will turn. Possibly wo will havo to wait for tho Co-operative Common-Continued Common-Continued on Pago 12. ctswn,mrpontlmic(i''froin Pago-Oi . i '1 wealth to knock tho one prop that sustains sus-tains tho dally Swash from under It. -Most advertising Is economic wasto, 'paid for by tho consumer. If there were no advertising wo would get along wltnQut.ourdally,.rot, afld If wo ' got falling 'Without' 'owf- Jallyfrot, and Lit wb gofrulong withoutltlfor Just a Ufow months '.pur sensd . of (i decency Kwoifldl'ifoibld' our '. o'Ve.i getting It jback. -i In that lino book, Lccky's "Map 01 Llfo," I ilnd this: No ono can study tho anonymous "press without perceiving how largo a .part of It is employed systematically, persistently and deliberately In fostering fos-tering class, or race, or International hatruus, and often In circulating absolute ab-solute falsehoods. Many newspapers notoriously depend for tholr existence on such appeals, and more' than any. ether Instruments they Inllame arid perpetuate thoso permanent nnlmosl Unties which most endanger the peace of mankind, The fact that such nowspa pors aro becoming' in many countries tho main and almost, exclusive read- Ing of the poor, forms the most serl-'ous serl-'ous deduction from tho value, of pop- ular education. How many books have attained ppularlty, how many H seats in parliament havo been won, how many posts of Inlluenco and profit prof-it havo been attained, by appealing to 'such passions! Often they dlsgulso themselves under tho lotty names of ..patriotism and nationality, arid jnen whole- whole lives -havo been '.spent id sowing class hatreds and dividing kindred nations may bo found masquerading mas-querading undor tho namo of patriots, .and havo played no small part on the f'stage of politics. Tho deop-seatod 'sedition, tho llorc'o class and national j hatreds that run through European life would havo a very different lnten-' lnten-' sity from what thoy now unfortunately unfortunate-ly have, if thoy had not been artificial-j. artificial-j. ly stimulated and fostered through y- 'purely selllsh motives by writing dom-' dom-' agogues, working for a venial press. |