Judge — September 14, 1918 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

, { i | | { | as Tue HEADLINE AND THE SONG ILLIAM TRAVERS JEROME once said that he cared not who wrote the songs of the nation if he could write the head- lines. He had license so to say, for the newspapers re-elected him as district at- torney of New York in a famous campaign after he had been denied party endorsement and was destitute of organized support. Carter Harrison on the other hand was elected Mayor of Chicago without the support of a single news paper. The late Mayor Mitchel of New York was decisively defeated for re-election although he had a vast preponderance of the newspapers with him, earnest and aggressive in his behalf. There was a man who earned a good living in a dime museum by writing—and writing well— with his toes. Are we to conclude that we would be better penmen if our fingers were all toes? Was Jerome wrong? Not at all. What he said is even more to the point today than when he said it. With conditions normal, the candidate who can attract the bulk of the newspaper support is elected before he starts, and the candidate who can’t interest the newspapers might as well save his breath to cool his porridge. ‘There are not nearly so many voters today as there were yes- terday who vote the ticket be- cause father did, and there won't be nearly so many of them to- morrow as there are today. More and more we form our political opinions because “the paper says so”—that is, because the headline says so. The headline tells the truth—but not always the whole truth. The headline pierces the candidate with a pen point; it photographs him with a phrase. But he “plays up” his party on the front page and he buries the other party on the inside or omits its arguments altogether. Personal d-slinging is nearly a forgotten art. The party organ is becoming extinct. Where it survives, f the opposition it prints political advertisements of which must make its founder turn over in his grave. The time is not far distant when the newspapers will treat the political news just as they treat the other news. They will give all the real contenders a square > (EDITORIAL Comment Grave and Gay on Things as They Pass Sp . S. Arm & Hammer Brann a wee << — oe deal and meet the arguments of the opposition not by suppressing them but by confuting them. The Jeromes of that day will want to write the editorial paragrap! . SIXEs AND S “Vy O doubt Secretary Baker is perfectly sincere in considering baseball a non-essential industry, but we can’t help wondering if he has heard De Wolf Hopper recite “Casey at the Bat” lately “To him that hath shall be given,” the Bible says. That is a good enough text for the war taxers—only they just add the words “in the neck.” McAdoo revokes all express franks on the ground that in times like these whatever is worth sending is worth paying for. If that rule were literally ap plied to the congressional frank ing privilege it would relieve the mails of a whole lot of the franked speeches—we don’t think. *ALINNGONE yp inwi23 Our ideal of a Napoleonic mil- itary genius is a man who can retreat and make his wife believe it was strategic. Rose Pastor Stokes is wrong. People aren’t forbidden to think in America. All we ask is that in war time they keep their thinker between their teeth What the country needs, ac cording to Senator Borah, is a more expert co-ordination be- tween the tax makers and the price regulators. Well—maybe. But we can’t help thinking of the man who hired the effi- ciency expert to co-ordinate his filing system and then hired back an old out-of-date geezer to find things for him. . . . Straw votes are an infernal nuisance, of course, but if the country keeps on going dry what other use can you make of the straws If we were Jim Ham Lewis of Illinois we'd run for re-election on our looks instead of our senatorial record. * * * ‘The Democratic Party believes in letting the people rule and devoutly hopes his health won’t break down while he’s in the White House. comicbooks.com