SLASON THOMPSON

THE ETHICS OF THE PRESS

[Speech of Slason Thompson at the seventy-fourth dinner and fourth
"Ladies' Night" of the Sunset Club, Chicago, Ill., April 26, 1894.
The Secretary, Alexander A. McCormick, presided. Mr. Thompson spoke
on the general topic of the evening's discussion, "The Ethics of
the Press."]

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:--It would be interesting, I think,
for the gentlemen of the press who are here to-night if they could find
out from what newspaper in Chicago the last speaker [Howard L. Smith]
derives his idea of the press of Chicago. I stand here to say that there
is no such paper printed in this city. There may be one that, perhaps,
comes close down to his ideas of the press of Chicago, but there is only
one--a weekly--and I believe it is printed in New York. The reverend
gentleman who began the discussion to-night started into this subject
very much like a coon, and as we listened, as he went on, we perceived
he came out a porcupine. He was scientific in everything he said in
favor of the press; unscientific in everything against it. He spoke to
you in favor of the suppression of news, which means, I take it, the
dissemination of crime. He spoke to you in favor of the suppression of
sewer-gas. Chicago to-day owes its good health to the fact that we do
discuss sewer-gas. A reverend gentleman once discussing the province of
the press, spoke of its province as the suppression of news. If some
gentlemen knew the facts that come to us, they would wonder at our
lenience to their faults. The question of an anonymous press has been
brought up. If you will glance over the files of the newspapers
throughout the world, you will find in that country where the articles
are signed the press is most corrupt, weakest, most venal, and has the
least influence of any press in the world. To tell me that a reporter
who writes an article is of more consequence than the editor, is to tell
me a thing I believe you do not believe.

When Charles A. Dana was asked what was the first essential in
publishing a newspaper, he is said to have replied, "Raise Cain and sell
papers." Whether the story is true or not, his answer comes as near a
general definition of the governing principle in newspaper offices as
you are likely to get.

Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as ethics of the press. Each
newspaper editor, publisher, or proprietor--whoever is the controlling
spirit