JUNE 1925
THE UNITED AMERICAN
Page Nineteen
Movement to Suppress Sordid Crime News Beneficial to Citizenship
By H. J. LANGOE
representative one, or do you stand in a minority on the matter ?
<<¿2 RIME NEWS is not of social importance. A large How does the general public feel about crime news ?
you want reports of crime suppressed in the papers
amount of space devoted to it is not socially advan­ you Do
read?
tageous. Such news makes a depressing newspaper
Do you approve of the way crime news is handled by
and it gives a distorted view of a rather well advanced the papers?
Do you disapprove of the way crime news is handled by
civilization. News of crime is monotonous, for the
papers ?
events chronicled have been happening for thousands the Do
want reports of any types of crime suppressed?
of years.”
Which ones?
Do you want classes of individuals protected in crime
If the above quotation is a criterion of what is
thought to be in the minds of America’s thinking citi­ stories? If so, who?.
Do you believe the publication of crime news, with proper
zens, Eric W. Allen, Dean of the University of Oregon handling
of details and reports of convictions, tends to deter
School of Journalism has put it plainly enough to cause crime, or to raise moral standards? Does it deter prospective
every interested citizen in the state of Oregon to give criminals ?
Do you believe the sensational paper’s method of handling
a personal response. The following questionnaire,
news tends to encourage or to discourage crime ?
prepared by George S. Turnbull, professor in journal­ crime
Do you believe it possible to report crime news in such
ism at the University, has been submitted to the a way as not to encourage criminal acts on the part of certain
newspaper reading public in this state for the purpose types of renders?
Do you believe that the evil of whatever encouragement
of obtaining individual opinion on the subject:
Do you believe that the newspapers ought (a) to give
considerable prominence to news of crime and punishment
with a view to the deterrent effect of publicity, or ought
they (to) to give very little prominence to such news on the
theory that prominent crime news increases crime ?
Whatever your belief on the first question, do you your­
self read the crime news with interest? Which do you
actually prefer to read, a paper like the Christian Science
Monitor, which virtually ignores crime news, or a paper like
the Chicago Tribune, which gives crime news emphatic display ?
Apart from your own personal preference, what preferences
have you actually observed on the part of friends, associates
and persons with whom you come in contact. In other words,
do you believe your .degree of interest in crime news is a
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there may be to crime in the publication of crime news is
counterbalanced by the good to society resulting from a full
knowledge of the state of law enforcement as shown by
publication of the news of crime?
Do you believe that the bare essentials of crime should
be reported in the papers, without special effort to make this
news attractive to the readers?
Do you believe that the trouble with crime news in the
papers is largely due to improper handling of the details by
reporters and editors devoted to sensationalism ?
Do you believe that it is passible to reform reporting of
crime without suppressing the details altogether?
Where, in your opinion, should the line be drawn between
crime news that should be suppressed?
Do you believe that the publication of illustrations (halftones
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The Paulsen Reader
(INTERMEDIATE BOOK) 1925
been used in schools where every man
The well trained and experienced teacher
was American born. It was built by a
appreciates a practical and interesting
teacher, and rebuilt by fifty other
text book.
teachers before reaching its present
The untrained and inexperienced teacher needs
form.
a practical and interesting text book.
It contains two hundred and twenty-seven
pages—a full year’s work, and a supple­
The Superintendent or the director of classes
in Adult Education realizes that a practi­
ment of unusual material not found in
any other reader. Every lesson is com­
cal, well tested, and thoroughly up to
plete, consisting of vocabulary, lesson,
date text book insures the maximum re­
verb forms, blanks, questions, syno­
sults in interest and instruction.
nyms, etc. The word list consists of
The pupil, especially the adult, advances in
eight hundred graded words.
direct proportion to the practical value
The Monthly Calendar of events offers a
of the text he is asked to use.
series of suggestions for the last half
hour of each period. In other words,
THE PAULSEN READER
it is different and has set a standard.
has been used in manuscript form in
schools where the men were of seventy-
A forty-two page section of the PAULSEN
one distinct nationalities — it has also
READER will be sent on request.
EDGAR P. PAULSEN
Director of Americanization
Torrington,
::
Connecticut
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