Truth Might Hurt

Strange Expressions Heard from Men Who Have Thrived on Publicity.

The answers to the question of the Correspondents' Club, "How can the influence of the press be increased?" received from a half hundred more or less well known citizens have attracted some attention and not a little wonder.

Of the fifty asked only one man confessed himself unable to answer. The others settled the matter in a cheerful paragraph. There were the usual freak answers. Susan B. Anthony declared the only way consisted "in giving the right of suffrage to women;" Horace White, "by an honest effort to deserve it."

The rest answered according to their vocabularies that "truth" was the sole test and the only solution. Some of the answers in this respect create feeling of surprise. Thomas A. Edison, for instance, said: "By publishing a fact now and then." When it is remembered that Mr. Edison has given out interviews in which certain alleged discoveries were revealed which were to revolutionize the world one is jarred slightly. During the Spanish war it was to surround the continent with an electric belt and shock any hidalgo to death who came trespassing.

Nikola Tesla "wants a better system adopted by the papers for informing the world of scientific achievement." It is hard to see how Nikola Tesla could get any more space in the public print than now except by encroaching on the advertisements or having a special supplement for himself. In most offices he is known as the man who can be depended upon as a "filler" at any lax time. Within the month Mr. Tesla, it can be remembered, has, by the aid of an observatory at Pike's Peak, communicated with Mars, or was just about to do so, and a day ago announced that he was about to project a wireless telegraph message across the sea.

A pathetic answer was that of Gen. Russell A. Alger, once Secretary of War. "Let the press," he says, "be overzealous in ascertaining whether its publications are founded upon fact or not." Gen. Alger was not of that opinion two years ago, and his friends somewhat sharply criticised the overzealousness of the press. Some of the others were:

Joseph Jefferson — Bringing to bear on it industry, ability and integrity.

H. H. Kohlsaat — Be less cynical and more sincere. Be more optimistic in views of life. Be more considerate toward the unfortunate and more generous.

W. J. Bryan — A newspaper will exert a greater influence, other things being equal, if it is known to represent on public questions the deliberate convictions of some person, a person of flesh and blood, not a corporation.

Jeannette L. Gilder — By less sensationalism and more truth.

Arthur T. Hadley — Is not the question rather how that influence can be so directed that it shall work more toward permanent ends and less toward temporary ones?

Cardinal Gibbons — By a strict adherence to facts in recording events and by a scrupulous accuracy in reporting the expressions of public men.

Andrew Carnegie — The paper which obtains a reputation for publishing authentic news, and which editorially writes temperately, although always decidedly, will steadily increase its influence.

Wu Ting Fang — By strict adherence to fact.

Bishop Henry C. Potter — By the education and elevation of its readers. A decent, intelligent, thoughtful constituency will compel a decent press.

Gen. O. O. Howard — By having the privileges of education extended by all lawful and honorable means to the illiterate classes the world over.

The Rev. Charles M. Sheldon — By having the management more and more removed from partisan politics; speaking for the people as a whole.