Public Taste

Dr. Albert Shaw's Review of Reviews will not say whether the American people are unpatriotic in their lack of interest in politics or whether the newspapers are criminally negligent in failing to print political news. But the following paragraph diplomatically scolds either the press or the public or both:

"Sweeping assertions are seldom valuable, and it would not be wholly correct to say that senators during the past two years have been really useful to the country in inverse ratio to the publicity they have received. But it would be true to say that publicity has not borne much relation to merit. This is due on the one hand to sensational tendencies in journalism, and on the other to the fact that readers are superficial. In earlier periods, newspapers were much more political in their character than at present. In those days, except for an occasional prize fight or horse race, there was no sporting news in the daily press. But nowadays the sport pages alone occupy more space regularly than the political affairs of nation, state and city, all put together. The financial and business pages are vastly more elaborate than political and governmental news. The theatres, and other so-called amusement interests, are also accorded more attention than the affairs of the country. Many newspapers give more space by far to comic pictures that introduce the same characters in unending series than they give to all the doings of all governments, foreign and domestic. This is not remarked by way of finding fault with the newspapers. It is intended rather to help the reader understand how it happens that public opinion, in relation to the affairs of Congress, drifts so easily from indifference and neglect to impatience and disparagement."

Mr. Louis Seibold, political expert of national reputation, has engaged to write a series of 25 articles for The New York Herald dealing with political, economic and general conditions throughout the country. The articles are appearing in The Herald on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.