Article June 15, 1912 Issue

A school principal from one of the up-valley towns was...

Waterbury (Conn.) American

A school principal from one of the up-valley towns was discussing the question of newspapers as he journeyed up on the train the other day, and rather astonished his overhearer by saying that the nicest, cleanest paper he was in the habit of seeing was The Christian Science Monitor. He went on to explain that he was not in sympathy with Christian Science as a religion, and he did not subscribe to the paper, but received it from an unknown source. His reasons for liking it above other sheets were that the dirtier side of life was not constantly thrust before the eye in large head-lines. In this paper murder, divorce, and other forms of crime are not mentioned except they contain some special significance. He said that he supposed sewers were needed, but that usually they were well underground, hence he was distressed to see the dregs of humanity constantly paraded in the prints. "Who wants to read about such things?" he asked. There is much truth in the implied answer, "Nobody."

The metropolitan papers have well-deserved reputations for brilliance and even charm, because they are prepared by the highest paid men in the service, of whom a correspondingly high average of efficiency is required. Hence the smaller town dailies, getting much of their general news from these sources as they must, are influenced by them, unconsciously without doubt, and form their judgment of what constitutes news by the standards there set up. There is no need of this. Hartford or New Haven or Waterbury are not like New York. Specialists of brilliance and unrest do not predominate in the population, and the appetites of all the people are more restrained and broadly human. Murders and divorces appeal to the man on the corner, but they do not appeal to the man in the street and the housewife in the home, and it is a mistaken idea to think that the paper sells better for giving such things prominence.

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