As between countries which muzzle the press and those which allow liberty it is inevitable, then, that the governments of the latter will be charged far more openly and frequently with corruption. Citizens who are shocked by the accusations thus trumpeted forth may be pardoned some apprehensions for the continued stability and success of their institutions. The sentiment does them more credit than callous disregard or brazen Chauvinism, and is altogether more likely to be productive of good works in the future. But it may easily be carried to an extreme. National shamefacedness is not a virtue. In forming a judgment of the extent of contemporary corruption the garrulity of politicians, the sensationalism of the press, the popular demand for highly spiced accounts of official sinning should all be taken into account. A cynical representative of yellow journalism, replying to the criticism that his paper indulged too much in lengthy and lurid accounts of crime and immorality, remarked rather sententiously that “sin is news.” The statement is only partially true. Most sins are too common and too petty to have any news value. Only those offences that to current estimation seem large and dangerous are given prominence and headlines. If Turkey and China enjoyed the blessings of a free press it is hardly probable that the papers of those countries would give much space to what, according to Western standards, would be frankly considered corrupt and extortionate practices on the part of their pashas and mandarins. Such practices would be so common, so universally known, and so little in conflict with contemporary Turkish and Chinese political morals that they would excite little interest and comment. If then, as in our own papers, accounts of atrocious crimes and accusations of corrupt practices are given the same large measure of prominence it means simply that both kinds of offences are considered to possess a high degree of news value. Puritans may deplore the popular taste which finds interest in such reports, but we cannot deny the existence of that interest. Primarily it exists not because sin as such is news but because offences which are considered large and dangerous appeal powerfully to the popular mind.