334 T^HE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
willing to trust it with regard to recognition of merit in journal- ism.
Indeed, "trust the public" might be recommended as a good substitute for the motto that has so many sins to answer for, "Give the public what it wants."' Credit the public with sanity and fairness, and the offensive characteristics of journalism will be wholly deprived of their alleged warrant. Instruct reporters and correspondents and copy-readers to bear in mind that they are addressing rational and reputable men and women, and a premium will be put on veracity, on care, on respect for fact and principle. "Copy" will be edited in a different spirit; news will be handled after a different manner and ignorant or flippant and unscrupulous disciples of the journalistic fakers will find their occupation gone. There will be fewer complaints of misrepre- sentation and less disposition to ignore scornfully — as many educators and scientists have had to do — newspaper reports and newspaper comment.
The newspapers, even the worst of them, have done so much for moral and political reform, consciously and unconsciously, deliberately and unwittingly, that they might do something for their own elevation and improvement. If they should neglect or fail to mend their ways, to remedy the serious defects justly complained of by so many intelligent and right-minded men and women, the penalty — unavoidable in the long run — which threat- ens them is moral decline, contempt, and a place among the forces of disorder and evil. There can be no justice, sanity, due process of law, decency in modern society unless the great and influ- ential newspapers, with their smaller imitators and disciples, apply and respect these fundamental virtues in reporting events and holding the mirror up to life and human affairs.
