News of Yore 1913: Sunday Comics Denounced

 Was there something in the water in the spring of 1913? Seems like. From The Fourth Estate, a trio of articles denouncing the Sunday color comics section:

April 12 1913 -- DROPS THE COMIC. 

Cyrus H. K. Curtis, publisher of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, has discontinued the use of the Sunday comic supplement in his newspaper. This section had been a Sunday feature with this newspaper for many years. Recently the Philadelphia Ministers’ Association requested Mr. Curtis to stop his Sunday edition entirely, but that Mr. Curtis refused to do. His relinquishment of the comic section, it is thought, in a way comes from the objections of the ministers.

 

April 26 1913 -- NO “JOURNALISTIC VAUDEVILLE” FOR PUBLISHER CURTIS.

As noted in The Fourth Estate last week the Philadelphia Public Ledger has discontinued its Sunday comic supplement. Its reason is given in the following statement by its publishers:

“It was concluded that the subject matter and treatment of the comic illustrated serials exercise a
mischievous influence on boys and girls and have demoralizing tendencies. This step was taken in full realization of the fact that these supplements are supposed to have large circulation value.

“The Public Ledger believes, however, that the substitution of other features of superior quality will have more worthy appeal to the intelligence and good taste of the great mass of its readers. It is the
province of a newspaper to undertake to inculcate in its readers appreciation of what is elevating and
artistic, rather than merely to seekvpopularity, and not to encouragevthe circulation of pictorial or othervmatter, the popularity of which isvdue more to the obviousness of itsvappeal than to any inherent meritvof its own.

“The Public Ledger is replacingvthe comic with other features thatvwill have equal interest as well as
superior value. It intends to eliminate journalistic “vaudeville’ andvsubstitute therefore something more in keeping with the higher purpose of an enlightened newspaper.”

May 10 1913 -- “COMICS” DENOUNCED

Addressing the members of the International Kindergarten Union in Washington, D. C., Miss Anne
Moore of New York City denounced the comic Sunday supplement as injurious to the minds of children.

“The kindergarten must overcome the deleterious influence of the Sunday comic supplement,” she
said. ‘The pictures are in most cases not funny, and the humor that they depict makes an impression on the mind of the child that is not the best thing for the child at a tender age. The portrayal of practical jokes, and the picturing of scenes which appear to the older mind as funny, work harm on a child when imitation is its psychological tendency.

“It is time that the kindergarten took matters in its own hands, and if the newspapers won't print proper humorous pictures the kindergarten teachers themselves should come to the front and select the the pictures themselves, if necessary bcoming their own cartoonists.

Miss Moore recommended that in place of the comic supplements there should be established for the use of school children a series of weekly color pictures, to be distributed throughout the schools, to be of a wholesome character and appeal to children without teaching them practical jokes.