by Erwin D. Canham
Illustrated with photographs
(Used)
Introduction
This does not pretend to be a neutral history of The Christian Science Monitor.
How could it be? The author has been on the Monitor's staff since he was a cub reporter in 192. He has been aided by others who have worked for the paper uninterruptedly from the beginning. We believe deeply in the paper's ideals.
And so, in this account, we try to tell something of what lies behind the paper. It is an inside story. If this leads us here and there into small religious dissertations, we hope our purpose will be understood by those who are not Christian Scientists. To tell about The Christian Science Monitor without some references to Christian Science would be incomplete and misleading. Readers surely want to know why the paper thinks and acts as it does.
The primary purpose is to tell the facts about a newspaper which is to professionals a kind of daily astonishment. In telling them, there has been another difficulty: to avoid institutionalism and false pride. We have to remind ourselves that the Monitor is good enough to tell its own story. We know, too, that the Monitor has a long way to go to be worthy of its ideals and objectives. Everything it does, or has ever done, can be done better. The second half century is full of opportunity and need for doing a better job.
Now, at the outset, let us define terms.
What is The Christian Science Monitor anyway? What is it trying to do? How is it guided and controlled? How does it relate to other newspapers and to public affairs of its time?
The Monitor is one of very few daily newspapers in the world . . .[continued inside the book]