VENTNOR NEWS
Established 1907
<Somers Point Record)
Official Newspaper of Ventnor City
Published ’Every Wednesday and
Saturday by
AMUSEMENT PUBLISHING CO.
Atlantic City Office:
506>508<510-512 N. Tennessee Ave.
_ (Atlantic City, N. J.)
Telephones, Marine 1890-91
Ventnor—6210 Ventnor Ave.
(Ventnor City, N. JK)
Telephone, Neptune 1090
Subscription Price..$1.00 Per Year
Payable in Advance
Single Copies..........Two Cents
Editorial Staff
CHARLES SCHEUER
ARTHUR G. WALKER
H. C. TEST
CARL M. VOELKER_
LIONEL SCHEUER
Business Manager
P. COLLIS WILDMAN
Circulation Manager
On ssle st stands of the Union News
Company in the Eastern District.
-- /•Entered at eecond-claee matter July
n, 1907. at the Poet Office at Atlantic
City, New Jersey, under the Act of Con
greve of March 2, 1879.” \ ^
This publication is tree and inde
pendent. It iB not controlled by trust,
creed, advertiser, political party, mil
lionaire or anybody or anything except
its own conscience.
The Vbwtnob News has the largest
circulation of any weekly newspaper pub
lished in New Jersey.
Emerson loved the good more than
he abhorred evil. Carlyle abhorred evil
more than he loved the good.
If you should, by chance, find anything
in this newspaper you do not especially
like, it is not all wise to focus your
memory on that, to the exclusion of all
else. Bless my soul!—C. S.
SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1923 i
RESCRAMBLING
RAILROAD EGGS
' Veptnor as well as every
" other resort on Absecon Island
> has live and active interest in
the protest of President Agnew
T. Dice of the Reading Railway
against plain big stick methods
being attempted to amalgamate
that line with the Baltimore
and Ohio system. To the
greatest extent possible, the
officials and prominent citizens
of this resort should show their
appreciation of past Reading
favors in line of upbuilding
transportation advance by
voicing their protest in opposi
tion to any move which will
. take from the Reading the
power to continue to give
service, and to improve service,
| to Atlantic City which means
Ventnor.
4 The proposal to which objec
. ? tion is raised by President Dice
and other experts in railway
transportation lines, is that
roads now under separate
v,' management shall be merged
§ Into a few great systems to
be managed without opportu
nity for that almost personal
contact between the lines and
p those they serve which has
been a potent force in recent
§ travel and civic growth and
’ advancement. The idea is
- advanced that by such consol
P idation and centralization sav
I ing would be made in operating
and other costs, and that groups
, of railways could be made more
? profitable than are present
single lines.
•ft; But a short time has passed
since acrimonious battle was
waged for securing of the very
decentralization w'hich now
exists. Political demagogues
made capital out of their
demands that every sort of
railway combination be broken
down and that the roads be
forced to grow, or to fall, alone.
In face of the wide diver
gence in viewpoint of probable
results, either the old or the
new viewpoint must be absurd.
For ourselves, and speaking
with admitted selfish motive,
we believe in the present
system under which the men
who direct the destinies of the
railways which serve us shall
remain not only to us known
but to us civic, if not personal,
friends. We feel that in ability
to appeal to the men whom we
know we are more likely to
secure those railway advantages
that we need than are we in
event it becomes necessary to
make our pleas to a man or
men alien to our communities
and more . than likely un
interested in the very problems
of transport which are to us
the most important.
It cost millions of dollars
and great effort to unscramble
certain railroad eggs after the
riot of consolidation of a few
/ears ago. Let us continue
jnder the present policy which
las proved so highly successful
jefore we give the plan of big,
inwieldy' and possibly—dan
gerous policy of rescrambling
he railways a new trial.
A POWER FOR GOOD
Several months ago, at a
gathering of prominent men in
the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Godfrey Mahn, there was or
ganized the Ventnor Club of
Men. At that time the news
papers and the persons not con
nected with its formation gave
the club but a cursory notice.
However, in the short time that
has elapsed this organization
has gained a firm footing and
is now demanding, by its pur
pose and expansion, the interest
of the entire community.
A description of this club is
a prediction of its future great
ness. Men from every field of
endeavor and prominent in the
affairs of Ventnor are members
or prospective members of this
civic organization whose en
rollment is confined to one
hundred representative men of
the community. Meetings are
held once a week, not only in
the wintertime, but in the
summer as well. This means
that these men, who by the
sheer diversity of their in
dustrious and political interests
represent all Ventnor, will be
able to exchange ideas for
civic improvement. *~
The benefits or detriments
to the different fields of en
deavor that would result from
the * adoption of any proposal
being considered by the city
will be explained by leaders in
that particular line of work.
Since these meetings are held
once a week immediate expres
sion on every timely subject
affecting Ventnor is obtained.
£ In*order*to gain even a more
general expression of the people,
public-spirited women are tc
' meet once a month in con
junction with ,the club, and
are to discuss with the men,
questions as viewed from the
feminine angle. j
Furthermore, the conclu
sions, as reached by the Vent
nor Club of Men, will be more
than verbal suggestions; they
will be the advice of foremost
citizens backed by the rep
resentation of the whole com
munity. What these men
decide as the best policy or
the best plan must be accepted
as the views of Ventnor, and
therefore, worthy of adoption.
Tovjnsure the integrity of
the organization and to keep
its standards civic rather than
political, and its aim for. the
improvement of the city free
from any exploitation of in
dividual or party interests,
there has been chosen a commit
tee who pass on names for mem
bershiponlyafterbeing satisfied
that the prospective members
are sincerely interested in the
prosperity of Ventnor.
With such a purpose, such
procedure and such members,
the Ventnor Club of Men is
certain to be a power for good
and uplift in this city.
NEWS • ,
By Charles Scheuer
When Curiosus lately ac
costed the writer with the
question, “What is the news?”
:he writer made the usual
reply, “Nothing.” The an
swer is certainly as common:
as the question, and it is
singular that there should seem
to be a universal and instinctive
disposition in modern society
to put a question which is
generally received with so baf
fling an answer. But Curiosus
is not easily baffled, and he
persisted in his inquiry, ex
plaining, however, that he did
not mean the current gossip
of the moment, but generally
what is news—or strictly—
what is the news which justifies
the name of the newspaper.
“You mean to ask, then,’’
returned the writer, “what is
the news which we may
properly expect to learn from
the morning paper?” -
“Precisely Socrates,” said
Curiosus. ,
The young friend has £sked
the writer what the divines
call a large question. But it is
one which has been forcibly
suggested by recent publica
tions and comments in the
press. Jf a newspaper is directly
challenged to declare why it
publishes certain things, its
reply, ex officio, is that it is
obliged to supply its readers
with all the news, and that it
is a reporter and not an
inventor; consequently that it
must -publish whatever hap
pens, however disagreeable it
may be. But this is a soph
istry', like the other theory of
many newspapers that correc
tions of editorial statements
must not be made. “Sir,”
said an indignant man to
Omniscentius, the editor, “your
paper states that I have com
mitted suicide by hanging my
self. It is false, sir. I am not
dead by hanging, and I demand
a full and apologetic retraction
of the calumny.” “My dear
sir,” answered Omniscentius,
the editor, “you must not
demand impossibilities. The
Tongue of Truth never retracts.
But we will perhaps consent to
state that you were cut down
before life was wholly extinct.”
The sophistry lies in this,
that all that happens is not
news, and that, if it were, no
paper could publish it all, and
;onsequently that every paper
must choose. Thus the whole
category of crimes and ac
cents includes innumerable
incidents, that by the limita
tions of space cannot be, and]
by considerations of morality
ought not to be, published, j
Of all that occurs, therefore, j
every newspaper must choose!
what it will print; and then,]
having chosen, it must decide
how it will print it. The
newspaper, therefore, has the
whole responsibility, and can
not throw it upon fate or the!
necessity of the case. Fate
does not compel it to print
even a very small proportion
of the incidents of a day, nor
the necessity of the case force
it to print what it selects in a
way to demoralize the public
mind. The newspaper may
select any spot in a large city
five hundred feet square, and
while in every such space there
occur every day andv night
incidents whose mere publica
tion would create an uproar,
the newspaper does not publish
them. It is prevented by two
reasons: one is the law of the
State; the other is the law of
public propriety.
/ It is untrue, therefore, that
a newspaper must publish
whatever happens. It does
not and it cannot. Con
sequently it must choose from
v BUM « "
He’s a little dog with a stubby tail, and a moth-eaten coat of tan,
And his legs are short, of the wabbly sort; I doubt if they ever ranf^
And he howls at night, while in broad daylight he Sleeps like a bloomin’ log,
And he likes the feed of the gutter breed; he’s a most irregular dog.
I call him Bum, and in total sum he’s all that his name implies,
For he’s just a tramp with a highway stamp that culture cannot disguise;
And his friends, I’ve found, in the street abound, be they urchins or doge
or men;
Yet he sticks to me with a fiendish glee. It is truly beyond my ken.
I talk to mm when I’m lonesome-like, and I’m sure that he understands
When he looks at me so attentively and gently licks my hands;
Then he rubs his nose on my tailored clothes, but I never say aught thereat
For the Good Lord knows I can buy more clothes, but upver a friend like that!
So my good old pal, my irregular dog, my flea-bitten, stub-tailed friend,
Has become a part of my very heart, to be cherished till lifetime's end-'
And on Judgment Day, if I take the way that leads where the righteous meet
If my dog is barred by the heavenly guard—we’ll both of us brave the heat’.
V-vwv '.v-i- —Redmond Radtliff
the vast mass of incident that
which may be considered -to
be of public importance. This
includes what may be called
general political information;
facts In all the departments of
! human activity, and as illus
I trative of the actual condition
i of society, local crimes and
'casualties. This is all news,
! or incidents and facts in which
the-general public is interested.
But the manner in which all
this shall be published, the
proper proportion and detail
of circumstance, is wholly at
the discretion of the .news
paper, and for this the news
paper alone is justly
accountable.
The execution of a noted
criminal, for instance, is a
matter of news. But descrip
tion of the execution is a
matter of choice. If two or
three columns be given to it,
and every ghastly detail of the
event be laid bare, it is plain
that the object of the publica
tion is not the conrtnunication
of news, but the gratification
of a morbid appetite and a
demoralizing curiosity. * So the
reports of crimes of various
kinds are news; and the trials
of criminals may be properly
reported in detail, because in
this way the public learns how
the crimes were made possible,
and how they may be baffled
hereafter. But the publication
of the details of trials of other
criminals, whose crimes^ have
no other public bearing than
every violation of human and
divine laws, and which pander
only to the worst appetites and
passions, is in itself a gross
offense against the community.
It is not the necessity of the
case, and the duty of a news
. \ ■ " .... • ■ . ■ ■ ■ .' / ' ‘
paper, and the condition of the
enterprise, and the right of the
public,- and the improvement
of society; it is the choice of
the newspaper to pander to
foul tastes, because, for what
ever reasons, it believes such
pandering t6 be pecuniarily
profitable.
“The high mission of the
press," and “the press a great
engine of public morality,” and
all similar phrases, do not
conceal the disreputable fact.
A newspaper which would pub
lish such things as have been
published, under the plea of
exposing social classes and the
hollowness of the fashionable
world, would go further in the
way, if it did not fear that it
would be unprofitable, by caus
ing the paper to fall into the
hands of the law. Such a
paper is in no sense a champion
of public morals. It is a
pander to immorality, and goes
just as far as it dares to go with
selfish regard to its own safety.
Such a newspaper supplies a
precise measure of its estimate
of its readers. “This is what
you like, ladies and gentlemen;
fall to, then, in Heaven's
name, and bon appetitV’
Curiosus will perhaps gather
from these remarks that while
a sudden insurrection and the
dethronement of a foreign
Prince is a matter of public
news, the incidents of the
interior life of his harem, if he
have one, is not; and that if
the Sultan is murdered in his
seraglio, the newspaper which
tells the news by an elaborate
account of the private conduct
of the Sultanas is not publish
ing news, nor “discharging the
often painful duty of a news
purveyor.1’ _
-Need Protection
’v..
.. • If you have securities, such as bonds, !
stocks, mortgages or other valuables,
v you should have the protection
afforded by our Fire and Burglar
, - Proof Vault. A Safe Deposit Box
here costs only a small amount
v, per year
The Ventnor City
National Bank
Atlantic Ave. at Surrey Place
V VENTNOR, ATLANTIC CITY, N. J.
MEMBER FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
A National Bank with a Savings Department