To the Editer of the "Norru-Cama Dairy News."
Sir,—In reading your comments on the address of the Rev. Paul Rader, in which he expresses the opinion that "It is the evil in the newspapers which makes them sell," I was struck by the forcible return of an old conviction of mine on this subject. Mr. Rader-is correct in part, but the more important fact is that it is the evil in the people which makes them buy such papers. With all due respect to him I could not help thinking it quite evident that he must come from either Chicago, as he does, or San Francisco, for such an opinion as that expressed by him must have been born in one of those two places.
Any one so unfortunate as to have the papers of either of those cities for his daily diet has.my sympathy and I do not wonder that such an opinion_is the result.
At the same time I am sure Mr.
Rader must admit that there are hundreds of papers which do not thrive on such filth and there must therefore be hundreds of communi-. ties to which it does not appeal. It is true that the press does to a great extent mould public opinion," but on the other hand the papers are more or less bound to give the public what it wants. The class of news demanded by a given community is a fairly safe gauge of the moral standard of that community, and this being the case it strikes me forcibly that, however well intentioned Mr. Rader's evangelistic efforts in Shanghai, they might with advantage be directed to those cities which on his own admission, prove by the class of news they demand that such efforts are very badly needed.
I am, ete., Shanghai, April 27.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.