this is a motive which, however human and natural, must be strictly kept out of the way.  It takes all sorts to make a world; and it is not in the least necessary that everybody should have that love of subtle and unobtrusive perfections in the matter of manners or literature which does often go with the type of the ethical idealist.  It is not in the least desirable that everybody should be earnest.  It is highly desirable that everybody should be honest, but that is a thing that can go quite easily with a coarse and cheerful character.  But the ineffectualness of most protests against the abuse of the Press has been very largely due to the instinct of democracy (and the instinct of democracy is like the instinct of one woman, wild but quite right) that the people who were trying to purify the Press were also trying to refine it; and to this the democracy very naturally and very justly objected.  We are justified in enforcing good morals, for they belong to all mankind; but we are not justified in enforcing good manners, for good manners always mean our own manners.  We have no right to purge the popular Press of all that we think vulgar or trivial.  Dr. Horton may possibly loathe and detest Limericks just as I loathe and detest riddles; but I have no right to call them flippant and unprofitable; there are wild people in the world who like riddles.  I am so afraid of this movement passing off into mere formless rhetoric and platform passion that I will even come close to the earth and lay down specifically some of the things that, in my opinion, could be, and ought to be, done to reform the Press.

First, I would make a law, if there is none such at present, by which an editor, proved to have published false news without reasonable verification, should simply go to prison.  This is not a question of influences or atmospheres; the thing could be carried out as easily and as practically as the punishment of thieves and murderers.  Of course there would be the usual statement that the guilt was that of a subordinate.  Let the accused editor have the right of proving this if he can; if he does, let the subordinate be tried and go to prison.  Two or three good rich editors and proprietors properly locked up would take the sting out of the Yellow Press better than centuries of Dr. Horton.

Second, it’s impossible to pass over altogether the most unpleasant, but the most important part of this problem.  I will deal with it as distantly as possible.  I do not believe there is any harm whatever in reading about murders; rather, if anything, good; for the thought of death operates very powerfully with the poor in the creation of brotherhood and a sense of human dignity.  I do not believe there is a pennyworth of harm in the police news, as such.  Even divorce news, though contemptible enough, can really in most cases be left to the discretion of grown people; and how far children get hold of such things is a problem for the home and not for the nation.