“His
voice at times trembling with intensity and emotion, evidencing that he spoke
sincerely, Rev. S. Banks Nelson, D. D. last night went after newspapers and
newspapermen from the pulpit of Know Presbyterian Church”1
Hamilton
Daily Times. January 5, 1914.
The
sermon advertised to be delivered at the evening services was titled “A
Forecast of 1914.” The minister of Knox Presbyterian Church never disappointed
a congregation seeking sensationalism, and despite the terse sermon title, Rev.
Dr. Nelson did not fail to deliver.
A
reporter for the Hamilton Times who, along with many others who were not
members of that church, attended in the hopes of hearing something remarkable.
He did, calling the sermon a “tirade of abuse
- for it was little short of that , and was of a nature that could
hardly be called fair criticism.”1
1 “Called Reporters Garbage Vultures : Dr.
Nelson’s Choice Talk at Knox : World Better In spite of Newspapers”
Hamilton
Times. January 5, 1914.
Rev.
Dr. Nelson’s sermon for the start of the new year of 1914 began with a strong
emphasis on the necessity of determination to make a success of any enterprise
and lauded all those prepared to turn over a new leaf.
Success,
the “local divine” (the Times reporter’s label), did not come as a result of
good luck, but as a result of persistence and that every effort would be rewarded
with due deserts :
“The great difficulty in the world was
that people had gone silly over chance, and games of chance, with the result
that they introduced it in everything that occurred.
“ ‘The world has gone silly over chance
as American people have over that silly game of cards. It is spreading to
Canada, and I know that people play cards on Sunday in Hamilton. Stop talking
about the world being lucky. First give up cards. Nothing particular wrong with
cards, anymore than there is with checkers. It is all in the hand you get, the
skill is in the dealing of the pack. Stop playing a silly chance of chance such
as cards and get chance out of your mind. He that seweth, reapeth, and there is
no luck about it.’
“Delving a few moments in poetry, Rev.
Dr. Nelson quoted, ‘Something attempted, something done, has earned a night’s
repose.’ Then burlesquing it, ‘Something tricky, something done, has earned
nervous prostration.’ ”1
Rev. Dr. Nelson then advanced another
theme he was passionate about, namely that the world was generally getting
better despite the way the general negative attitude that newspapers took:
“ ‘Don’t tell me the world is not
getting better, Mr. Newspaper Reporter – you garbage vulture,’ shouted Mr.
Nelson loud enough to be heard on the street. ‘Don’t tell me the world is not
improving, for I know better. If I want to find out what conditions do not
exist, I look in the newspapers.’ A laugh provoked Dr. Nelson to continue : ‘We
never find in the papers accounts of marriages from love. Lots of society
marriages that may or not be love. But the papers will not publish the others.
Why, only one marriage that I have officiated at in Hamilton have I seen in the
newspaper.”1
Dr. Nelson then declared that it was a
sin that Hamilton did not have a morning paper :
“Dr. Nelson did not advance any
particular reason why there should be one, except that he wanted to read one
each morning, and he is also seemed quite peeved that the local evening papers
did not establish morning sheets.
“ ‘I read the Toronto Globe every
morning,’ declared the speaker, ‘ and I find a column headed Hamilton
Intelligence. That shows that there is a lack of intelligence here. Why don’t
Hamilton newspapermen get busy, and get a morning paper of our own? The idea of
a city the size of Hamilton without a morning paper! I want one in the morning
because I have more time to read it then than in the evening.’
“Dr. Nelson closed with the declaration
that the pillars of the world, Truth, Courage and Love, would prevail all
through 1914, and the world would continue to get better, despite the
newspapers.”1
Newspapermen generally show no hesitation
to respond to challenges, especially if matters of journalistic integrity are
involved.
Such was the case with the editor of the
Hamilton Times who wrote the following editorial (quoted in full) under the
headline “Garbage Vultures” :
“There is such a thing as yellow
journalism. Is there such a thing as yellow preaching? Over in the United
States sensational journalism has become a marked feature of the newspaper
press. But as time has repeatedly shown that, in the long run, yellow
journalism does not always pay, this sort of newspaper work has not spread of
late.
“And we are pleased to think that even
in the States, the newspaper world is dominated by many newspapers of high
standing whose influence is for good. We could name many influential newspapers
over there which take a prominent part in the work of bettering the world, both
socially and morally, newspapers which spend money lavishly for the public
good.
“In Canada, there may be one or two
unifluential newspapers which may try to live on literary carrion, but
otherwise, the whole press of Canada strives to be as clean and wholesome as
the pulpit itself.
“We do not know where the Rev. Dr. Nelson,
of Knox Church, got his idea of newspaper reporters, so that he was moved last
evening to brand them as ‘garbage vultures.’ Certainly, he could not
characterize the young men who act as reporters for the local press as such.
“It is a weakness of human nature for
the layman to imagine that he could run a newspaper better than can those
engaged in that occupation, and many people believe that they could report a
meeting or an incident better than can the average newspaper reporter.
“But newspaper work is like everything
else. It requires an apprenticeship, an education, judgment and a ‘nose for
news’ to make a successful reporter. In ‘holding the mirror up to nature,’ the
reporter has often to deal with unsavory subjects, and in reciting the details
of some foul crime, he has often to lay bare moral sores that require strong
language. If the reverend gentleman was in earnest when he so heartlessly
besmirched the good name of a lot of decent fellows, he owes them an apology.
“If the newspapers are carriers and disseminators
of garbage, why is Dr. Nelson so anxious to read one every morning? We would
imagine that he would put it from him as an unholy thing, instead of wasting
time that might be devoted to the service of his Master.
“Were Knox Church people really needing
to be told in last night’s sermon that the preacher wanted a morning paper
established in Hamilton? Was that what they went to church to hear?
“A story is told that a stranger once
went to hear the former Bishop of London preach. When afterwards asked what he
thought of the sermon, he replied : ‘I went to hear of the way to heaven, but
instead I was told of the way to Palestine.’ ” 1
The
Hamilton Spectator’s final word on the matter, in an editorial:
“The average reporter perhaps thinks it
is tough enough luck to be sent to listen to a sermon by the present pastor of
Knox church. Imagine his feelings, then, when he is awakened from his doze in
the comfortable pew by hearing himself denounced as a ‘garbage vulture.’ Talk
about adding insult to injury! It really might affect an ordinary individual,
but the newspaperman receives more buffets than rewards from fortune’s hands. Does
the pastor place his own sermons among the filth the reporter preys on? Or is
it only when they are defiled by the reporter’s touch that they become ‘garbage’?
Or is it possible that even the loathsome hand of a reporter can’t spoil them?
We give it up. Somebody seems to be in need of a lot of sympathy, and, after
careful inquiry in the ranks of the reporters, the congregation can have first
claim.”1
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