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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.
