Noble Effort

Noble Effort

Citizens of Mexico City take their wives and children into ancient Chapultepec Park for outings. Suppose a man should go raving-mad during such an excursion and suddenly strangle his wife and children for their pocket money or otherwise become sensationally criminal?

In England such a case would not make Page 1 of the Times because that space is used for advertisements. In France the story would be so flavored with Gallic prosody in Le Temps that newsreaders would have difficulty in learning the who-what-where of the affair. In the U. S. the New York Times would publish dignified front-page headlines--and all the ghastly details. But in Mexico City, used though the people are to blood and violence, the biggest and best Mexican newspaper, El Excelsior, would omit the episode altogether.

This situation is only a week old. El Excelsior has hitherto joined with other Mexican dailies in playing up crime at its goriest. But thoughtful Mexicans have been saying that the press may be to blame for such Mexican wrongdoing. El Excelsior last week voluntarily took this view, announced it would suppress all news of crime. Good Mexicans thought this action well befitted the daily whose circulation (61.500) and influence are the largest in the land. Well pleased was Editor Manuel L. Barragan to be able to reprint a feather for Excelsior's sombrero, a letter from President Ortiz Rubio, concluding: ". . . It would be desirable if all of Mexico's press would second the noble effort of Excelsior."

U. S. newspapers periodically announce they will play down crime news--usually as a publicity stunt. The only consistently crimeless U. S. daily of any size: The Christian Science Monitor (132,058 circulation).

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