Atlanta Georgian and news. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1912, February 02, 1907, Image 10

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

r- THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN. Mibtiai. vmmiUaxil i an. •the same accident has happened % • ' so often— Cartersville, Ga., January 29,1907. The Georgian, Atlanta, Ga. I recently placed with The Georgian, with The and with The an advertisement of a farm for sale, using same copy and same space for each, with a view of testing the relative merits of the three papers as an advertising medium. I received more responses to the Georgian ad than from the other two combined. This may have been an acoident but it is a fact. Truly, W. J. NEEL. A Judge l Some of the Causes: January 30,1907. The Georgian Go., Atlanta, Ga. Gentlemen: I thoroughly appreciate your efforts to S ive the public a “Clean Sheet/’ and I believe you are oingit. I think your paper is the best that is published any where, and I am not tired reading it when I ask that you discontinue sending it to me, and address same to my father, who is on my country plaoe, and I will get to see it often. He gets no daily paper, and I know he will appreciate yours as no other that 1 could send to him. Instead of Dr. W. C. Miller, 731 Greene St., Augusta, Ga., please change to J. A. Miller, Parksville, S. C. Please advise me when the subscription expires so that I can .have it renewed. I .am, with best wishes for your continued success, WALTER C. MILLER. LET’S RAISE THE STANDARD. Th* Atlanta Gtoorgtan la making a crusade against unclean medicine advertising In the newspapers. It Is the earnest hope of The News that the efforts made on that line will meet with good results. A m-wrpaer run on right principles will exert a powerful Influence for good and the ele vation of Its readers. As for The News, we'have tong since cut out the objectionable medicine and whisky advertisements and In the future Items of news thst will leave a bad Influence upon the reader will be left out of the paper. It la the desire of the management of The News to print a paper that not only gives the local happenings of the city und county, but one that will be heartily welcomed to every home circle because of Its efforts to raise the standard of morals of Its readers. Such a newspaper will not possibly receive as large Income from a financial standpoint for the first few years, but we believe in the end wtlt achieve the auccess merited. Let more of the big dallies and the weeklies as well, follow the path marked out by The OeorglAB and the result for good will be plainly seen In a very short time. A Dentist January 25, 1907. The Atlanta Georgian, Atlanta, Ga. Dear Sirs: Please allow me to thank you for your most worthy efforts in your crusade against dirty adver tisements. No attempt in Georgia journalism has been more frequently and favorably commented on than your course in this matter, and I am sure your efforts in this behalf will not go unrecognized and unrewarded by the public. Please find inclosed check for $2.50 to apply on my subscription. Yours truly. A. S. ANDERSON Th« Atlanta Qcnnclnn la living proof of thr fart that a nrwupnprr can have a conactonc* and yet live In Oeorrla. There la not a rleaner, nor an abler paper In the South. It la aurh a paper as we have Iona dealred. one that can ba read by the children of our homee.—Rockmart Courier. A Young Man Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 21,1907. Mr. F. L. Seely, Publisher, The Atlanta Georgian, City. Dear Sir: Allow me to extend my sincere apprecia tion on the stand you have taken in the behalf of your crusade for pure advertising through the columns of our daily press. It is a good step taken in the right direction, and may your influence in this stand be a mighty force to cause other papers of our daily press to clean up their columns of their dirty and filthy advertising that is noth ing more than an insult to public decency. I heartily indorse the move, and may it gain increas ed momentum as from day to day it is upheld and en couraged by the clean thinking and acting public. The press of today is one of the powers that tends to mould the characters of our citisens; if this force is ques tionable, which it is, then it is our duty to uphold and en courage such means as would tend to cleanse this im portant power. You may feel assured of my co-operation in this move. Yours very truly, JACK HEAD. Pres. City B. Y. P. U. A PAPER’S DUTY TO ITS READERS. In a recent sermon on the responsibility of the newspapers to Its read ers. the Hev. E. I>. Ellenwood, according to The Atlanta Georgian, haa many things to say that are true and they are forcefuly said. Taking one back over the lapse of time when In the little red school house they tried their forensic powers, he leads along pleasant paths as he tells of the ad vance* made In journalism. He tells us how the newspapers have grown- until their Influence “has become much greater than that of the pulpit as an educator for the large majority nf men whom the sociology Is pleased to refer to as the ‘masses.* ** He does not say that the church ha* lost Its function, but uses this argument to show that “the responsibility of the public press grows with the world's Increasing use pf It.** The appella tion sometimes applied to the papers, the “dally sewer,” he thinks not In- ’ appropriate since “the sewer Is a beneficent and absolutely indispensable agent In society.” He does, however, decry the flaming headlines and the minuteness of detail that Is often found In the description of crime In Its moat repulsive forms. He only arraigns the papers In a negative way, and ulI he aaya haa the ring of honesty and truth In It. No paragraphs are of more Interest than those which we here quote In full; “But what shall we say of the dally feeders of the public craving for Information who have so far forgotten their moral obligation as to prove traitor to that high Ideal which gave them birth? What shall we say of the publishers, who, Judaa like, have aold their honor for a few paltry piece* of silver? What about the paper which Is not even content to be an honorable, useful, reapectable and eelf-raspectlng sewer, aiding society, through unpleasant publicity, to rid herself of that which Is dangerous and offensive, but which Insists upon becoming a veritable moral cess- pool, actually aiding by Its publicity furnished for a price, moral pesti lences which are a continual offense and menace to society? If an evil Is hard to endure In Its passing, then It Is an unforgivable offense to any community that provision should be made for Its continuance. Beoause a gr»-at newspaper has offered Itself to the public as a purveyor of publicity It does not necessarily follow that it must sell Its columns to those who live by the shame and disease and death of their fellow men. There are some occupations which are technically legal, but which are morally Illegitimate, and It la certainly within the province of the publisher of a dally newspa per to decide whether Its Influence shall be sold to Increase the prosperity of any business whose property means the poverty of the-community. The argument so often offered as an excuse for this moral treachery that the paper cannot live without all of the advertising which It run possibly secure, Is without moral weight even If Its statement be true, for there Is no actual ini ossify that a paper of this type should live. Its death would serve so ciety far beter. “Doubtless every- normal man would choose that the dally papers whlch come Into his home should be of high moral tone, free from all ob scene advertising and sensationally Inflamed news matter, and whose edi torials should be marked by dignity, scholarship and moderation Then why not ask for what you want and Insist*upon having it? And when you have, found It. when you have found a dully newspaper which answers these specifications, then’be Inyaf to It and say a good word for It when ever you can Tb«* world looks forward to that golden age when public educators will not have to be hired to be decent, to teach truth In pref erence to error and to purify rather than to degrade the ideals of men. When that time comes publishers will give to the world what they feel the world to stand In need of rather than what the world may think It wants and may be willing to pay for. But, so long as the appeal for a purified press must be made by way of the pockethook nerve, then let the appeal be a compelling one. If you don't like to wade through a lot of filthy ad vertising to reach the news Item that you need. If you are tired of sensa tional headlines and anarchistic editorials, then say so in tones of silver that will reach all the way from the caahler’s desk to the editor’s sanctum. And your appeal will be heard and heeded.”--Chattanooga Times. The Atlanta Georgian is fast becoming a great metropolitan dally. It fairly scintillates with journalistic brilliancy, and each succeeding num ber Is better than tho first. The Georgian Is destined to become a great power In the land.—Madison Advertiser. A Doctor Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 22,1987. Hon. John Temple Graves, Editor The Atlanta Georgian: A constant reader, though not a subscriber of The Georgian, I was struck with the most forceful article ap pearing in the columns of The Georgian, of the 21st in stant, under the heading—"A dean Newspaper,” from the pen of the Rev. G. A Nunnally. His arraignment of the press, “It is strange to me that the postofflee depart ment does not deny such publications the privilege of the mails,” is severe, but unhappily true. Cnarles Dickens, after his first visit to this country, daring the forties of the last century, in his “American Notes,” made severe strictures upon three phases of American civilisation: The iniquities of our institution of slavery, the cruelty of the penitentiary system of the great state of Pennsylvania and the great license of the American press. "It is not Freedom of the press, but license,” ex claims the Rev. Mr. Nunnally, and what close reader of current newspapers will deny his assertion? I have seen an innocent girl's name heralded in an unfortunate episode as a “Scarlet Woman," nay worse, as a sequence, the poor mother, without a protector, died of a broken heart, grief over the lost reputation of her darling girl. An editor of a large daily published in Georgia, re cently told me that modern journalism "had no ethics,” and in the publication of any article, the chief considera tion was whether or not it would produce a "sensation” —the end, lucre. In the cure of the evil, the optimism of Dr. Nunnally is encouraging even to a skeptic in the general improvement of this wide-spread prostitution of the press. I ardently hope that your clean paper wUl demonstrate that this monstrous evil can be cured and made to “stay cured.” "Though the milU of God grind elowly, Yet they grind exceeding small, Though with patience he stands waiting, With exactness grinds he all." , WAITING.