Sermon Summary – Rev. Chaney Press and Morals

THE PRESS AND MORALS.

Rev. George L. Chaney Delivers an Interesting Lecture on Newspapers and Morals.

Sunday night Rev. George L. Chaney preached on “The Press and Morals,” at “The Church of Our Father,” on Church street. After taking for his text the words, “Some new things,” he began by a talk about the Greeks and the interest they showed in the news, speaking of that as one of the reasons why they became a leading people, quick-witted and interested in what was new. They were not devoted to past events. In their natures he said the Greeks were like the patrons of modern newspapers. He spoke of the history of newspapers, beginning with the first paper the Gazetteer published in Venice in 1536 and read on the street corners to keep the people informed about the war with the Turks. He went on to give an account of the growth of the press in England. At first it was controlled by the government, thus having no freedom. Afterward it achieved its freedom and began to increase in power, so that the eighteenth century, which was the century of development, witnessed such a growth that there were nearly 1,900 periodicals issued in the kingdom. In America the growth has been still more marvelous. In Franklin’s day his brother James was dissuaded from printing the Boston Couriant, on the ground that the people said one paper was enough for America. Just one hundred years from that day there are in America over eleven thousand periodicals.

Mr. Chaney spoke of the London Times and the New York Tribune as representative papers. They had editors who had convictions, and would stand by them independent of party and patronage. He spoke of the career of Mr. Walters, the editor of the London Times, who, although he knew he would lose heavily exposed the errors of Lord Melville’s administration and would not let his losses be made up because he said no paper could help a cause if it had to be helped by the cause. At the close of the war Greeley warned his associates that it was as impossible to build up a great party on hate as it was to plant a colony on an iceberg that was floating down to a southern ocean. He criticized one of two things about the press, objecting to the publication of details of trials. He said editors should remember they were not writing for the mob, but to people who had education. He said writing smut was no more excusable than talking smut. He quoted Lamartine as saying that by the end of this century the newspaper would be the only book; that thought would not have time to write itself into a book. Mr. Chaney did not think so unless the press would take higher ground than at present.

The lecture was much enjoyed by those who heard it.

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) – Tuesday, Apr. 8, 1884 – Page 7

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