p. 10 | The Bane of Cheap Reading

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 4, 1914

The Bane of Cheap Reading

Mr. Chester S. Lord, for a long time the editor of the New York Sun, in a recent speech before the Connecticut Editorial Association, discussed the baneful effects of the large amount of cheap literature now in circulation. He declared:—

Our discussions are on the everlasting sex question; many of our plays have excited public indignation; some of our moving picture shows have been suppressed by the police even. Our dances have been denounced by the church and by the few old-fashioned mothers who remain, and the same church and the same mothers have proclaimed against the clothing our wives and daughters are wearing as being immoral and demoralizing. Nine tenths of the novels now written are so-called sex novels, in which sex relations are described and discussed with a freedom that could not have been tolerated fifty years ago, and that must have excluded them from libraries and from homes. The three novels by British authors that attracted most attention during the winter—those of Hall Caine, H. G. Wells, and John Galsworthy—are conspicuous examples of this modern literature.

The best seller in America was an attack on religion and an indirect plea for socialism. What the immediate future has in store in the direction of intellectual and moral nourishment may be indicated by some of the publishers' announcements of books for summer reading.

He does not feel that the fault is alone with authors or editors, but with the depraved public taste which demands literature of this character. He quotes the late Whitelaw Reid, editor of the New York Tribune, as saying:—

The thing always forgotten by the closest critic of the newspapers is that they must be measurably what their audiences make them; what their constituencies call for and sustain. The newspaper cannot uniformly resist the popular sentiment any more than the stream can flow above its fountain. To say that the newspapers are getting worse is to say that the people are getting worse. They may work more evil now than they have ever wrought before, because the influence is more widespread; but they also work more good, and the habitual attitude of the newspaper is one of effort toward the best its audiences will tolerate.

To these observations by Mr. Reid, Mr. Lord replies:—

Is the magazine editor or the newspaper editor to print the things the people should read for their instruction and general betterment, or is he to give them what they seek to read for their amusement only? Every editor knows that the more details of sin, vice, and crime one crams into a newspaper the more copies of that newspaper will be sold, and every editor knows that the most subtle temptation that ever besets him is the temptation to print the things that should not be printed, and that temptation is more acute because he knows the people want to read them. Ay! that's the rub! The people want the sensational stuff! . . .

There seems to be a fascination about exaggeration that appeals both to the liar and to his victim. It makes liars out of well-meaning people, and well-meaning people seem to enjoy being lied to. Indeed, some philosopher has said that an easy road to success lies through exaggeration. The man who exaggerates his own importance attracts more attention than the modest man; the merchant who exaggerates his wares sells more than the merchant who does not. Sensational clergymen fill churches, while prosy ones preach to empty benches.

And since newspapers are no longer edited for glory or printed for fun, it becomes us to consider these things. The honest newspaper editors have indeed given them the most thoughtful consideration, and every honest newspaper editor will join me in saying to you: Print your edition in red ink if you like; print your edition in job type if you like; print your edition with headlines a foot long if you like, but—stick to the truth!

Admitting the growing depravity of the human family, which creates a demand for the cheap, shoddy literature of the present day, it is sad indeed to see editors of great journals,—men who stand as teachers and leaders of the people,—from a monetary and commercial motive, cater to this evil tendency. If these men could but sense their responsibility and eliminate from their journals much of the crime, scandal, and riffraff which is now published, they could at least have the satisfaction of feeling that they had done their best to turn the tide, and that instead of actually ministering to the commission of crime, as there is no question but that such newspaper reports do, they had thrown their influence on the side of clean thinking and right living.

It takes brave men in the newspaper world, as well as in the religious and the political world, to stand against the clamor of public demand, and uphold the standards of right. We believe, however, that if a man publishes a newspaper or engages in any other kind of business, he should be true to the higher interests of those who look to him for leadership. Otherwise a fearful account must be rendered at the last day.