Time Lag

George Bernard Shaw is fond of saying that he was born about 50 years ahead of his time. In London last week he told newsmen of the Institute of Journalism that their minds function far behind their time. Their backwardness of comprehension he called "time lag." Just as Great Britain long failed to recognize the United States as a permanent Republic and George Washington as anything but "one of the blackest scoundrels that ever existed," so today "the press has not yet recognized that the [Russian] revolution has taken place," said he.

"Do not start time lagging, for example, about the customs union between Austria and Germany. They are bound to unite, not merely in a customs union but in a national union. ... Do not write about [modern republics] like a very old fashioned governess in a very old fashioned cathedral town. . . . You will lose your power over the public mind and a great deal of that is already passing to the radio. . . . People for whom we write have never seen us or heard our voices, and I often think a journalist in a city should be made to go around in a large cart as if in a circus and people would say, 'Great respect. Look at him.' "

G. B. S.'s concluding toast: "The profession of journalism--God help it! Is it a profession or is it the last refuge of any young person hopelessly illiterate and hopelessly inaccurate?"

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