Expurgated

Few remarks quoted in the public prints are exact reproductions of what has actually been said. Reportorial practice is to set down the gist of a speaker's words, couched in phraseology approximately but not actually his own, except for any memorable "purple patches," i. e., neat or colorful or specially emphasized word combinations. But "purple patches" are indeed preserved and different accounts of a given statement or interview usually tally very closely. If they do not, a variation indicates either bad reporting or the pressure of policy.

A fortnight ago, General Dawes stood in the wet outside the Coolidge homestead at Plymouth, Vt., posed with his famed pipe for the benefit of patient photographers. Before the cameras clicked, he made a remark. Three Manhattan dailies recorded that remark thus:

Times (Dem.) : "Let me light the damn thing first."

World (Dem.) : "Let me get the damn thing lit first."

Herald-Tribune (Rep.) : "Wait until I get it lighted"

Profession?

"Can Journalism Be a Profession?" wrote Ernest H. Gruening, experienced journalist* for the September Century. He well knew that his., question was academic; that readers, not journalists, direct the tendencies of newspaperdom. But Dr. Gruening has something of what another famed editor/- calls the journalist's "apostolic zeal." Said he: "A survey of American newspapers today leads to the inevitable conclusion that two tendencies more or less antagonistic are moulding the destinies of our press. In the conflict of the profession of journalism versus the newspaper business, the latter is romping to victory.

"The Chicago Tribune . . . boasts that it is 'a commercial institution.' . . . Take that newspaper Herod, Mr. Frank A. Munsey. He regards his newspapers little differently, except as to size, from the merchandise that passes across the counters of his successful chain of grocery stores. In such an atmosphere. . . . the profession of journalism reaches the vanishing point. . . .

"How could it be otherwise ? He regards his newspapers little differently, except as to size, from the merchandise that passes across the counters of his successful chain of grocery stores. To him, apparently, the newspaper differs in no essential respect from a can of peas in which the editors, writers and reporters are of as little significance as the individual pea in the can. . . . This . . . destroys individual initiative and enthusiasm and tends to transform his editorial writers into hired men who, within the narrow limits assigned to them and the still narrower limits inspired by their fear of making a mistake, pound out expressions of what they believe he wants. ... In such an atmosphere . . . the profession of journalism reaches the vanishing point. . . .

"Along with the shrinkage in the number of newspapers has been launched a counterbalancing effort to 'professionalize' journalism. Today seven full-fledged schools, departments in a score of universities and courses in two hundred colleges teach journalism. "But there is still another aspect of the question Whether journalism can be a profession. This relates to the 'difficulty, if not the impossibility, under present conditions, of maintaining any consistent standard of ethics. . . . There are, to be sure, certain associations of journalists. Last year was formed the American Society of Newspaper Editors ... 'to develop a stronger professional esprit de corps, to maintain the dignity and rights of the profession, to consider and perhaps establish ethical standards for professional conduct' . . . with an initial membership of 124 editors-in-chief and executive editors. . . . This group . . . adopted a set of 'Canons of Journalism' prepared by Mr. H. J. Wright, at that time Editor of the New York Globe. Excellent! But-without wishing to prejudge the utility of such a body, the creation of which is surely a step in the right direction, it is significant that membership belongs not to the man, but to the job! ... It is ironic and significant that the author of this code is no longer in a position to enforce its practice and that several who took prominent parts in the proceedings are no longer eligible to meet with this gathering. . . .

"In how many sancta is there an editor who, responsible only to his conscience, is free to live up to Dean Williams' [of Missouri University] splendid creed?

"Take our metropolis. The Globe is no more. There was a paper whose editorial page reflected the views of its editors. . . .

"There is likewise the morning World (steadfast in the principles of its founder, Joseph Pulitzer) for which the late Frank Cobb created the most notable editorial page in America. He was wholly untrammeled, as is his successor, Walter Lippmann.

"The Times is undoubtedly our greatest newspaper . . . but they [the editorial writers] cannot pen what they would and could were they truly editing their paper. . . .

"In Boston and Pittsburgh it is much the same; ownership rules, editorship bends the neck. Only in these two cities and in some others is the situation far graver in that it involves the integrity of the news columns, which in New York fare on the whole free from advertisers' and other privileged pressure. ... If journalism is a profession then the sole business of the 'business side' of a newspaper is to nourish the 'editorial side.' . . .

". . . How few and far between are the editors conspicuous in their communities as editors? William Allen White [Emporia, Kan.] is the shining example. In Columbus, Georgia, Julian Harris, struggling bravely with his Enquirer-Sun, bids fair to 'become for the South what 'Bill' White is for the prairies. . . . On the coast there is Fremont Older, lone survivor of a bygone epoch, who by virtue of his character, repute and personal following maintains an exceptional autonomy under Hearst ownership. There are the Scripps-Howard papers, a notable chain of twenty-six dailies in large and medium-sized cities, where the central editorial control is the slightest, and the editor of each paper is the captain of his craft not only over the editorial and news columns but over the advertising columns as well. . . . Finally, there are the Baltimore Suns. . . . On the Baltimore Suns journalism is a profession, and an honorable and distinguished one. And it has paid. . . .

" 'A good game to get out of is a definition current among journalists. And yet to no calling do young men throng with a deeper enthusiasm. ... The best preparation for journalism is still, in my judgment, a general education, especially in English, History, Political Science and Economics. . . ."

* He has been Managing Editor of the Boston Traveller of the Boston Journal, of the New York Tribune, of The Nation; and General Manager of La Prensa of New York. /-H. B. Swope of The New York World.