POWER OF THE PRESS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 42, 18 August 1930, Page 3

POWER OF THE PRESS

■ *r. ~~ COMPLIMENt AND CAUTION MASS PRODUCTION. IN IDEAS (From "The Post's" Representative.) " ■ . ■ LONDON, 19th June. Overseas delegates of the Imperial Pross Conference were entertained at dinner on Monday night by the Great Britain and Northern'lreland delegates. The function was held at tho. Royal Academy, and afterwards a reception was held, when over a thousand guests' assembled in the various galleries. Mr. Stanley Baldwin was the principal speaker at.the dinner. "Here in London, the centre of the Empire, and the centre, still, of the world, wo a«t as a seismometer, and no disturbance, however remote, occurs in any part; of the world but it is recorded instantaneously here. "These new channels of communication have been put at your service. Upon you rests the responsibility of what conies to this country and what goes out, and what good report and what «vil report may emerge through tho waves of the sea and through tho waves of th« air. "Your power is-tremendous. • lou can promote amity in the Empiro and among nations, and you (can promote enmity according as you' further understanding or suspicion. But there are great reconciling forces. There is a long family tradition; there are oldestablished ideals, of. conduct, of decency, and of fair play, and, above all, there is a great literature and a great language-I—the greatest literature in tho worl(Jt .„ -r , . "Shall I be presuming if I beg of the children of our blood to write and to preserve tho writing of Englis , because, after all, however beautiful in American ears the American language may be, we are English, wo speak the Euglishjlanguagc, or try to, and let vs N write it. We hays, moreover, our common sufferings in tlie Great War." A DANGER IN TRIVIALITY. Speaking as a politician, Mr. Baldwin asked,the Press to make the best and not the worst of them. "You are," ho said, "tho only reference we have got for the character of the members of the family that wo do not know. You write the testimonials, and you paint the pictures, and wo rely on you for tho trustworthiness of the reports we get. If tho reports are false, everything goes wrong. You cau build tho Empire, or you can break it. . "Wo live in an ago of slogans and mass productions. Slogans are dangerous; I am afraid of them, not for myself, but for tho Empire. Muss pr- Auction in industry is ono thing, but in ideas and opinions it is another thing. "There is a real danger to democracy in the mass appeal to instinct and sentiment, and not to reason. There is a real danger in putting too many trivialities before democracies." A great Empire and a trivial Press go ill together." Mr. James Hutchison proposed the chairman. Sir William Llewellyn, president of tho Eoyal Academy, paid a tribute to the Press, and added: "Before long I hope wo shall be able, in co-operation with the Royal British Colonial Society i of Artists, to hold an exhibition in these galleries of Empire.Art.