,,vocational ,,series ,,edited ,,by ,e4 ,,hershey ,,sneath1 ,,ph4,d41 ,,ll4,d41 ,,yale ,,university ,,the ,,young ,,man ,,and ,,journalism ,,vocational ,,series ,,edited ,,by ,e4 ,,hershey ,,sneath ,,ph4,d41 ,,ll4,d41 ,,yale ,,university ,,the ,,young ,,man ,,and ,,the ,,law4 ,,simeon ,e4 ,,baldwin4 ,,the ,,young ,,man ,,and ,,teaching4 ,,henry ,,parks ,,wright4 ,,the ,,young ,,man ,,and ,,civil ,,engineering4 ,,george ,,fillmore ,,swain4 ,,the ,,young ,,man ,,and ,,journalism4 ,,chester ,s4 ,,lord4 ,,the ,,young ,,man ,,and ,,journalism ,,by ,,chester ,s4 ,,lord1 ,m4,a41 ,,ll4,d4 ,for forty-one years a member of the staff of the ,new ,york ,sun and for thirty-three years 7#ahhj-aiac7 its managing editor ,new ,york ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company #aibb ,all rights reserved ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ,,copyright1 #aibb1 ,,by ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company4 ,set up and printed4 ,published ,november1 #aibb4 ,press of ,j4 ,j4 ,little ,ives ,company ,new ,york1 ,u4 ,s4 ,a4 ,,editor',s ,,prospectus ,one of the most important decisions a young man is called upon to make relates to the determination of his life-work4 ,it is fraught with serious consequence for him4 ,it involves the possibilities of success and failure4 ,the social order is such that he can best realize his ends by the pursuit of a vocation4 ,it unifies his purposes and endeavors--making them count for most in the struggle for existence and for material welfare4 ,it furnishes steady employment at a definite task as against changeable effort and an unstable task4 ,this makes for superior skill and greater efficiency which result in a larger gain to himself and in a more genuine contribution to the economic world4 ,but a man's vocation relates to a much wider sphere than the economic4 ,it is intimately associated with the totality of his interests4 ,it is in a very real sense the center of most of his relations in life4 ,his intellectual interests are seriously dependent upon his vocational career4 ,not only does the attainment of skill and efficiency call for the acquisition of knowledge and development of judgment1 but the leisure that is so essential to the pursuit of those intellectual ends which are a necessary part of his general culture is1 in turn1 dependent1 to a considerable extent1 upon the skill and efficiency that he acquires in his vocation4 ,nor are his social interests less dependent upon his life-work4 ,men pursuing the same calling constitute in a peculiar sense a great fraternity or brotherhood bound together by common interests and aims4 ,these condition much of his social development4 ,his wider social relationships also are dependent1 in a large measure1 on the success that he attains in his chosen field of labor4 ,even his moral and spiritual interests are vitally centered in his vocation4 ,the development of will1 the steadying of purpose1 the unfolding of ideals1 the cultivation of vocational virtues1 such as industry1 fidelity1 order1 honesty1 prudence1 thrift1 patience1 persistence1 courage1 self-reliance1 etc4--all of this makes tremendously for his moral and spiritual development4 ,the vocationless man1 no matter to what class he belongs1 suffers a great moral and spiritual disadvantage4 ,his life lacks idealization and is therefore wanting in unity and high moralization4 ,his changeable task1 with its changeable efforts1 does not afford so good an opportunity for the development of the economic and social virtues as that afforded the man who pursues a definite life-work4 ,it lacks also that discipline--not only mental1 but moral--which the attainment of vocational skill and efficiency involves4 ,but notwithstanding the important issues involved in a man's vocational career1 little has been done in a practical or systematic way to help our college young men to a wise decision in the determination of their life-work4 ,commendable efforts are being put forth in our public schools in this direction1 but very little1 indeed1 has been done in this respect in the sphere of higher education4 ,to any one familiar with the struggles of the average college student in his efforts to settle this weighty question for himself1 the perplexities1 embarrassment1 and apparent helplessness are pathetic4 ,this is due largely to his ignorance of the nature of the professions and other vocations which appeal most strongly to the college man4 ,consequently1 he does not know how to estimate his fitness for them4 ,he cannot advise to any extent with his father1 because he represents only one vocation4 ,neither can he advise advantageously with his instructor for he1 too1 is familiar with the nature of only one profession4 ,for this reason1 a series of books1 dealing with the leading vocations1 and prepared by men of large ability and experience1 capable of giving wise counsel1 is a desideratum4 ,such men are competent to explain the nature and divisions of the particular vocations which they represent1 the personal and educational qualifications necessary for a successful pursuit of the same1 the advantages and disadvantages1 the difficulties and temptations1 the opportunities and ideals2 thus1 in an adequate way1 enabling the student to estimate his own fitness for them4 ,they are also able to make valuable suggestions relating to the man's work after he enters upon his vocation4 ,fortunately1 in the present ,series1 the ,editor has been able to secure the services of some of the most eminent experts in the country to prepare the respective volumes--men of large knowledge and experience1 who have attained wide recognition and genuine success in their 8callings40 ,it is a pleasure to be able to place at the command of the many thousands of students in our ,american colleges the wise counsel of such experienced and distinguished men4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the 8,vocational ,series0 will consist of twelve books written by representatives of different vocations1 as follow3 #a4 ,the ,young ,man and the ,law ,hon4 ,simeon ,e4 ,baldwin1 ,,ll4,d41 ,professor of ,law1 ,emeritus1 ,yale ,university1 ex-,governor and ex-,chief ,justice of ,connecticut #b4 ,the ,young ,man and the ,ministry ,rev4 ,charles ,r4 ,brown1 ,d4,d41 ,,ll4,d41 ,dean of the ,divinity ,school1 ,yale ,university #c4 ,the ,young ,man and ,teaching ,professor ,henry ,parks ,wright1 ,ph4,d41 ,,ll4,d41 ,professor ,emeritus and formerly ,dean of ,yale ,college #d4 ,the ,young ,man and ,medicine ,lewellys ,f4 ,barker1 ,m4,d41 ,,ll4,d41 ,professor of ,medicine and ,chief ,physician1 ,johns ,hopkins ,university #e4 ,the ,young ,man and ,journalism ,chester ,sanders ,lord1 ,m4,a41 ,,ll4,d41 formerly ,managing ,editor1 ,new ,york ,sun #f4 ,the ,young ,man and ,banking ,hon4 ,frank ,a4 ,vanderlip1 ,m4,a41 ,,ll4,d41 formerly ,president of the ,city ,national ,bank1 ,new ,york #g4 ,the ,young ,man and ,business #h4 ,the ,young ,man and ,mechanical ,engineering ,lester ,p4 ,breckenridge1 ,m4,a41 ,eng4,d41 ,professor of ,mechanical ,engineering1 ,sheffield ,scientific ,school1 ,yale ,university #i4 ,the ,young ,man and ,electrical ,engineering ,charles ,f4 ,scott1 ,sc4,d41 ,eng4,d41 ,professor of ,electrical ,engineering1 ,sheffield ,scientific ,school1 ,yale ,university #aj4 ,the ,young ,man and ,civil ,engineering ,george ,f4 ,swain1 ,,ll4,d41 ,professor of ,civil ,engineering1 ,harvard ,university #aa4 ,the ,young ,man and ,farming ,l4 ,h4 ,bailey1 ,m4,s41 ,,ll4,d41 formerly ,director of ,college of ,agriculture1 ,cornell ,university1 and ,editor of ,cyclopedia of ,american ,horticulture1 ,rural ,science ,series1 ,garden ,craft ,series1 ,rural ,text-,book ,series1 ,cyclopedia of ,agriculture1 etc4 #ab4 ,the ,young ,man and ,government ,service ,hon4 ,william ,howard ,taft1 ,d4,c4,l41 ,,ll4,d41 ex-,president of the ,united ,states1 and ,chief ,justice of the ,united ,states ,supreme ,court ,e4 ,,hershey ,,sneath4 ,,by ,,way ,,of ,,explanation ,the sole object of the following chapters is to tell a young man what is likely to happen to him if he goes into the newspaper business4 ,many young men think of entering journalism1 but journalism is to them a maze of mystery4 ,what does it offer as a profession or a vocation8 they ask4 ,what is the nature of the business8 ,what are its rewards8 ,naturally enough they continue to wonder what kind of preparatory study is desirable4 ,how does a young man make a beginning and how does the beginner make progress8 ,what are the recognized standards of newspaper success8 ,how is news collected and prepared for the public8 ,how is a newspaper conducted8 ,what are the duties of each member of a big newspaper staff8 ,what goes on in a newspaper office1 anyway8 ,the book was begun with the intention of answering some of these queries1 but it gradually drifted into talk about various phases and features of the business4 ,the original intention has not been lost sight of1 however4 ,the purpose is to indicate what journalism offers to a young man as a means of livelihood4 ,it seeks neither to glorify nor to disparage the newspaper4 ,the book is elementary3 not intended or expected to interest or inform newspaper editors of experience4 ,c4 ,s4 ,l4 ,brooklyn1 ,new ,york1 ,nineteen hundred and twenty two4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,,page ,i4 ,,beginning ,,in ,,newspaper ,,work--,,the ,,reporter',s ,,first ,,experiences--,,his ,,progress--,,unpleasant ,,tasks #a ,,ii4 ,,the ,,collection ,,of ,,news ,,and ,,its ,,preparation ,,for ,,print #bi ,,iii4 ,,newspaper ,,composition--,,the ,,art ,,of ,,writing ,,in ,,simple ,,yet ,,entertaining ,,fashion #ea ,,iv4 ,,the ,,fascination ,,of ,,writing ,,for ,,the ,,editorial ,,page #gd ,v4 ,,what ,,to ,,print--,,the ,,problem ,,of ,,how ,,to ,,interest ,,and ,,inform ,,the ,,reader #hg ,,vi4 ,,the ,,pleasing ,,experiences ,,of ,,the ,,foreign ,,correspondent #ajf ,,vii4 ,,the ,,technical ,,press #aae ,,viii4 ,,the ,,village ,,newspaper',s ,,important ,,place ,,in ,,american ,,journalism #abe ,,ix4 ,,the ,,daily ,,newspaper ,,in ,,the ,,small ,,city #ach ,x4 ,,the ,,rewards ,,of ,,journalism--,,they ,,are ,,found ,,chiefly ,,in ,,congenial ,,employment #add ,,xi4 ,,newspaper ,,influence--,,ways ,,of ,,persuading ,,the ,,public--,,community ,,service ,,and ,,service ,,to ,,the ,,government #aei ,,xii4 ,,the ,,study ,,of ,a ,,specialty--,,great ,,advantage ,,follows ,,the ,,mastery ,,of ,,two ,,or ,,three ,,subjects #agi ,,xiii4 ,,the ,,activities ,,and ,,patriotic ,,service ,,of ,,newspapers ,,in ,,times ,,of ,,war #ahe ,,xiv4 ,,newspaper ,,history--,,the ,,modern ,,newspaper #aig ,,the ,,young ,,man ,,and ,,journalism ,,chapter ,i ,,beginning ,,in ,,newspaper ,,work--,,the ,,reporter',s ,,first ,,experiences--,,unpleasant ,,tasks ,the beginner in newspaper work usually starts as a reporter of the simplest and most unimportant kind of routine news4 ,the city editor tells him what to do and how to do it4 ,the start is made easy for him4 ,the prevailing supposition that reporters go out into the streets and hunt for news is far from fact4 ,they do so in the small cities but not for big newspapers4 ,newsgathering has become vastly systematized4 ,nineteen twentieths of the news comes through established channels of information and this explains why nearly all newspapers have the same facts4 ,the sources of information are known in all newspaper offices4 ,if a man falls dead in the street1 or a fire starts in an important building1 or an automobile crushes a child1 or anything unusual happens in any street1 it is known to every city editor within a few minutes2 for a policeman reports it to police headquarters immediately1 and reporters grab it4 ,similarly1 shipping news is sent to the ship-news office2 cases of sudden or unexplained death must be made public by official physicians2 public parades and demonstrations are anticipated through the permit bureau1 and so on4 ,all day and all night this kind of news pours in to the city editor4 ,with almost instant judgment he decides on its news value1 discards it or hustles a reporter for the details4 ,the new man gets the least important of this kind of work4 ,the city editor keeps a future book--like milady's engagement calendar--in which under proper date he records the events to be of that day3 business meetings1 conventions1 adjourned cases1 public dinners1 everything and anything requiring the presence of a reporter4 ,it is one of the important factors of the newsgetting system4 ,its proper keeping involves constant drudgery and painstaking care in the reading of newspapers for announcements or for clews to anything that is to happen4 ,he reads1 for instance1 that an important business meeting has appointed a special committee to report at the next meeting2 but no date of the next meeting is given4 ,so he asks the new reporter1 maybe1 to ascertain and record it in the future book4 ,the new man does many such errands1 verifies many statements of fact1 chases down many rumors4 ,in the great blizzard of ,march1 #ahhh1 when all transportation lines in ,new ,york ,city were abandoned came the story that several funeral processions were snowed under in ,greenwood cemetery4 ,a new reporter was sent4 ,he toiled through storm and snow waist deep to the burial place and back1 a task requiring something like six hours to accomplish1 and ended the day's experience by thawing out his frozen feet in a bucket of water4 ,and what he wrote was3 8,the rumor that three funeral processions were snowed under in ,greenwood cemetery was found on investigation to be untrue40 ,the city editor has many sources of information similar to those just mentioned4 ,in the big cities he is responsible for getting the news of the urban district1 a task that involves almost every kind of newsgetting4 ,this is especially true of ,new ,york ,city1 for taken all in all nearly everything happens in ,new ,york that can happen anywhere4 ,it is of metropolitan reporting that we are speaking just now4 ,the new reporter is asked to make news reports of the simplest of happenings4 ,the narration of ordinary events is the easiest of all newspaper writing4 ,any intelligent high school boy can catch the knack of it and many a bright newspaper office boy has gone on to better things by absorbing that knack4 ,it is easy to acquire because it may be largely imitative--that is1 almost all routine news reports are written in the same groove of construction and in very much the same language1 year in and year out1 for news topics constantly repeat themselves4 ,by routine reports are meant accounts of public meetings1 conventions1 legislative proceedings1 trials in the courts1 market reports1 accidents1 fires1 suicides and petty crimes4 ,these things are of the utmost importance to the newspapers4 ,they constitute a large proportion of the news of the day4 ,they are the very life of the news columns as presenting a record of the day's events4 ,they are easy to write because they are written in the same manner day after day for they are constantly recurring4 ,the puzzled young writer cannot go far astray if he turns back in the newspaper files to a similar meeting or accident or event and imitates that report4 ,but let him be warned that if he continues to work in that way he becomes a routine writer1 a hack reporter1 and his advancement ceases4 ,it is in this deadly dull routine writing of routine news that we have our poorest and most slovenly newspaper results4 ,the indifferent work done in this direction is more conspicuous in the ,london newspapers than in our own for there news reports have been reduced almost to formula4 ,we have said that the dates of fixed events to come are accumulated in the future book--meetings of all sorts1 lectures1 balls1 sporting contests1 celebrations1 ceremonials1 excursions and the like1 of which the number and the variety are innumerable4 ,to each of these a reporter is sent4 ,usually he is told before he starts about how long an article is expected of him4 ,but he is charged to note especially anything unusual1 odd1 strange1 or queer that may happen or be said4 ,and always he must report to the desk1 before he begins to write1 for instructions as to the exact length of his article4 ,often two or three reporters are sent to a big meeting1 one to write the introduction1 another the first half of the speaking and a third the remaining part of the proceedings4 ,this is to save time2 and often the first half has been written and is in type before the last man has quit the meeting4 ,likewise in cases of big disasters1 big celebrations1 big sporting events1 six or eight men are sent1 each with a definite part to cover4 ,each writes his part and the copy reader dovetails them together into one continuous article4 ,team work of this sort is common enough in big offices4 ,the new reporter gets his fling at all of this kind of work4 ,if he has the genuine newspaper spirit he is fascinated by his every experience4 ,he searches the paper eagerly for the bit he has contributed4 ,with a glow of satisfaction he contemplates his little record of a news event standing out in clear type1 and he reads it again with those shivery gusts of emotion sometimes called 8the thrill of authorship40 ,after a time1 from the writing of petty paragraphs1 he finds himself contributing articles a third or a half a column in length4 ,the older men begin to notice his work1 speak to him in praise of a well-constructed sentence or a nicety of verbal expression1 ask him to come along with them to the beanery for a taste of coffee and cakes before going home for the night4 ,he begins to participate in that most helpful and stimulating thing--the comradeship of the office4 ,he comes daily in contact with forty or fifty men--garrulous veterans1 and middle-aged marvels1 and youthful geniuses who are doing all kinds of newspaper stunts from constructing ponderous editorial articles and criticisms to exploiting ,the ,stiletto in ,stanton ,street or ,the ,bludgeon on the ,battery4 ,these men are good-natured critics of each other's work and not less ready to praise than to condemn or question4 ,they take interest in a new man of promise and help him4 ,they read the newspapers and the periodicals1 and the new books--for an intimate knowledge of contemporaneous events is essential to their progress4 ,there are few dullards among them1 few without positive opinions and a vocabulary to express them4 ,our young man greatly enjoys their explosive comments and their ferocious conclusions4 ,they are so alert1 so alive to everything that is going on4 ,their conversation is so interesting to him4 ,the atmosphere is surcharged with good fellowship4 ,nobody is taking himself very seriously yet everybody is doing something in a businesslike way4 ,somehow things are different in the newspaper office from what he had expected4 ,the business of reporting becomes more fascinating as the reporter1 gaining in skill and in ability1 achieves to higher grade work4 ,to write of big and important events becomes his ambition4 ,it gives him prestige among his fellows1 for it is the management's testimonial of confidence in him4 ,not until after careful consideration does the managing editor name the men who are to report a national political convention1 or the inauguration of a president of the ,united ,states1 or a great celebration4 ,the very best members of the staff are summoned to write of such events and the assignment comes to be considered as an office reward of merit4 ,to do the big thing of the day is one of the prizes of the reportorial business4 ,indeed1 it may be said of the newspaper man1 that from his earliest beginnings always there is something higher to be attained until he becomes the editor in chief4 ,in the newspaper offices of cities of the larger size1 reporters develop into desk editors1 city editors1 managing editors1 music or dramatic or book critics1 or editorial writers4 ,many prefer to do outside work rather than become editors or critics--prefer to write for the news columns1 to mingle with the outside world and take part in its stirring events rather than face the routine and the monotony of desk work4 ,they are especially interested in taking an out of town commission for the investigation of a subject of wide importance--a rebellion in ,mexico1 an uprising against the government in ,cuba1 a crisis in ,canadian politics1 a conflict between labor and capital in ,colorado1 a socialistic struggle in ,schenectady4 ,such assignments call for thorough investigation at first hand on the spot1 call for an acquaintance with the leaders of the movement that frequently becomes familiar and lasting1 call for practical intimate study of the convulsion itself4 ,information thus gained may1 after its publication in the newspaper1 be used again in magazines1 in books of record or in fiction4 ,the special writer1 for instance1 who spends a month with the striking miners in the ,michigan copper district comes to know much about life and labor there1 about the copper industry1 mining methods1 the relation of the price of copper to miners' wages1 the smelting of ore1 the transportation of the raw and the finished product and a thousand other details of the business4 ,the newspapers do a vast amount of this kind of work4 ,its proper exploitation necessitates intelligent treatment by the writer4 ,his information forms the basis for editorial comment1 not only by the editors of his own newspaper but by those of other sheets1 the periodical press1 magazines and reviews2 and also frequently it leads to government investigation or interference or regulation4 ,two or three years of this kind of work give a large fund of information to the writer4 ,it is of immeasurable service to him as long as he lives4 ,likewise the man who writes for the news columns on national politics finds himself most agreeably employed4 ,in reality he is a specialist4 ,all of his time is required to keep apace with the kaleidoscopic changes of ,american political life4 ,he must be familiar with the important politics of every state and every big city1 for they have immediate relation to the politics of the nation4 ,to that end he makes many journeys4 ,his most valuable asset is personal acquaintance with public men--the men who make politics and political history--and the more intimate the acquaintance the more interest and confidence he may be able to inspire4 ,the political writer seeks to meet public men on every possible occasion1 seeks to keep in touch with them and with the politics they represent4 ,if a conspicuous political leader in a ,western state goes ,east it will be a part of his routine to see the political writers4 ,with them he goes over the political situation of his region1 tells them just what is going on and what is contemplated4 ,some of the talk is confidential1 and the writer keeps the confidence4 ,in turn the writers interest him in what they know of the politics of the ,east and of other states4 ,in this way--so briefly indicated--the political writer comes to comprehend the politics of the nation4 ,he must read all obtainable political literature and must absorb political information from any source at hand4 ,as said elsewhere in this book1 you cannot learn politics from a textbook2 you must absorb the politics of the day by a study of the events of the day1 and great mental ability is required to keep apace with them4 ,political conclusions made to-day are upset by the events of to-morrow4 ,the issues of one election are forgotten in the burning questions of the next4 ,the newspapers and the periodical press are great sources of information1 but greater than these is association by the newspaper writer with the men who are making politics4 ,the writer of national politics makes frequent trips to ,washington4 ,he goes to the national political conventions and to many of the state conventions4 ,he is called on to write sketches of important candidates and obituary notices of statesmen4 ,his opinions and his information are sought by editorial writers and by public men themselves4 ,the magazines ask him for special articles4 ,the political managers pay him for campaign literature4 ,the greater his experience the more his services are in demand4 ,not infrequently he is called into party councils or is entrusted with delicate political missions4 ,candidates and leaders seek his advice and his influence4 ,presidents1 cabinet officers1 senators1 governors and mayors tempt him to quit newspaper writing to become their secretaries--and these places are usually stepping stones to higher public life4 ,several presidents of the ,united ,states have chosen newspaper writers to be their private secretaries1 half of the governors of ,new ,york ,state1 in the last thirty years1 and nearly every mayor of ,new ,york ,city have drawn their secretaries from the ranks of newspaper writers4 ,moreover writers on national politics frequently are called to the post of ,washington correspondent1 and here too1 in yet greater degree1 are these same requirements essential to success4 ,washington is the headquarters of national politics4 ,nearly every congressman is a political leader in his home district as well as in his state1 and his activities and ambitions are quickened in the national capital4 ,it is the place of all places to study political movement4 ,the correspondent enjoys the personal acquaintance of presidents1 cabinet officers1 foreign diplomats1 the makers of party policies1 the framers of administrative measures1 and from them he comes to know what they are doing4 ,many state secrets are told to him in confidence2 to betray that confidence is to make him persona non grata and to destroy the possibility of getting additional information4 ,the supposition that the newspaper writer prints everything he hears is silly4 ,indeed1 public men have come to know that a safe way to keep a political secret is to tell it to the newspaper correspondents with the injunction that it is not to be printed4 ,in addition to the gathering of political information the ,washington correspondent writes of the doings of ,congress4 ,this of course involves study of public questions1 the burning questions of the day4 ,it furnishes a volume of information to the young man who is to continue his career as a journalist or who may turn to public or professional life1 involving1 as it does1 study of engineering triumphs like the ,panama canal1 public improvements like the development of ,western irrigation1 tariff changes1 taxation1 national banking systems1 the problems of domestic shipping and foreign commerce4 ,the correspondent comes to know about diplomacy1 the making of treaties1 the relation of labor to capital1 railway management1 government regulation of traffic--and so on almost without limit4 ,the correspondent must know about these things if he is to write intelligently about them4 ,he must be familiar with the business of the departments1 must understand the army and the navy1 should know the whereabouts of every regiment and every ship of importance4 ,he should know the name and the politics and the post of every ,american diplomat1 should know government finances--indeed1 should know everything the government does4 ,these things constantly are recurring in new and unexpected ways and they must be treated as important news of the day4 ,not less fascinating to the young reporter is his daily contact with men of affairs whom he meets in the course of his news collecting2 not less interesting his intimacy with the events of the day that pulsate and inspire4 ,his work becomes so varied4 ,it all is so new4 ,his experiences are so interesting2 and they become the more so as he gains in experience and is asked to do higher grade work4 ,in his book on ,newspaper ,reporting ,mr4 ,john ,pendleton of ,london says3 ,the reporter is the collector of news for the circulation of which the paper really exists4 ,on his report of the ,premier's speech the editor bases his leading article4 ,he records the splendor of the ,queen's drawing room1 and the want and wretchedness of the poor4 ,no festival is complete without him2 and he turns up at every calamity4 ,he chronicles the deeds of the hero and the crimes of the miscreant4 ,he tells how the pulse of commerce beats in every market of the world4 ,science and art are beholden to his pen2 and even religion itself has to thank him for some of its spread4 ,he has become a necessity to newspaper production and no inconsiderable figure in national life4 ,the reporter is not sent out haphazard2 he is out for a purpose and that purpose is the collection at first hand of facts and information that are supposed to interest a multitude of readers4 ,if they are interesting to those who read them1 how much the more so to the young man who1 after investigation and verification to his own satisfaction1 puts his conclusions on paper6 ,and note1 if you will1 how important is the work4 ,since the first use of printers' type the great events of the world1 the events that have moved and influenced mankind1 that have made the history of the world1 have been announced first of all in the newspapers4 ,they have been proclaimed to the world not by clergymen from the pulpit1 or lecturers from the platform1 or orators in legislative halls1 not through the medium of books or magazines or pamphlets1 or by the writers of editorial articles1 or by critics--but in burning type by reporters4 ,it seems but yesterday1 that midnight hour1 when a reporter burst into the working room of a morning newspaper with the exclamation3 8,he's got it--we are going to have the electric light in every part of every house and over every desk in this room40 ,he had hurried from ,edison's first big test of the division of the electric current3 had seen a hundred electric bulbs glowing in all their fascinating brightness by electricity transmitted over wires4 ,and the people marveled at what he wrote about it4 ,within the span of my own newspaper experience1 reporters have given first information to the world of the discovery and development of electric lighting1 heating1 cooking and propulsion2 of ,roentgen rays2 of the telephone2 of the phonograph2 of the automobile2 the player piano2 of the typesetting machine and the multiple page printing press2 the shoe-making machine2 of breech-loading guns1 machine-made cartridges and diabolical explosives2 of the airplane and the zeppelin2 of wireless telegraphy2 of steel construction in big buildings2 of the marvels of construction in gigantic locomotives and steamships1 in subways1 and elevated railroads1 bridges1 and aqueducts2 of bacillus treatment in medicine and the wonders of abdominal surgery2 and hundreds of other developments of science4 ,we have seen the declaration of a dozen wars and the signing of a dozen peace treaties2 the announcement of the death of monarchs and the birth of princes1 the assassination of rulers and the inauguration of their successors4 ,some reporter has announced the discovery or the fact of every one of these things4 ,he has been compelled to study the subject enough to write about it understandingly1 and that study has brought him in contact with the men who have caused or invented it4 ,the reporter mingles constantly with the men who control the affairs of the world4 ,this not only is fascinating1 but it gives him confidence in himself1 gives him personal address1 ease of manner and of conversation1 manliness of presence4 ,it sharpens his wits4 ,it takes away that paralyzing emotion so often felt by youth when in the presence of greatness4 ,nothing can be more stimulating to the intellect than association with intellectual men4 ,the reporter who writes of an important event usually is asked to continue on the case as long as it is of public interest4 ,the man who wrote the narrative of the murder of ,white by ,harry ,thaw wrote of ,thaw's publicities for a long time afterward4 ,the man who reports a big labor strike is called on to report the next strike4 ,he gets interested in the subject1 makes it a study1 and becomes authority on the relations between labor and capital4 ,in this way as time goes on the reporter comes to be a sort of specialist in several topics and the knowledge thus acquired is of great value to him when he comes to editorial writing1 or magazine work1 or authorship of any kind1 or if he goes into the law or into the public service or any other business4 ,there is not any other employment probably in which a young man may gather so extensive a general contemporaneous knowledge as in newspaper reporting in a big city4 ,the speakers at a public banquet may drone on for an hour or so without saying anything or giving utterance to a sentence worth reporting and then something of supreme importance may be said4 ,the good reporter recognizes its worth instantly2 the poor one does not4 ,colonel ,william ,rockhill ,nelson1 who won fame as editor of the ,kansas ,city ,star1 had this to say in an address to the students of a ,school of ,journalism3 ,there is just one point ,i wish to emphasize to the young men who are expecting to engage in newspaper work4 ,that is1 that the reporter is the essential man on the newspaper4 ,he is the big toad in the puddle4 ,young fellows looking forward to a newspaper career often have in mind an editorship of some sort4 ,they want to guide and instruct public opinion4 ,the trouble is that the public doesn't yearn to have its opinion guided and instructed4 ,it wants to get the news and be entertained4 ,consider who are making the real newspapers and magazines to-day4 ,not the grave and learned publicist who is giving advice on the state of the ,nation from the seclusion of some hole in the wall2 not the recluse with a bunch of academic theories4 ,it is the reporter with the nose for news4 ,he is the only fellow who has any business around newspapers or magazines4 ,in general his job is not to produce literature1 but to do reporting4 ,often a good pair of legs makes a good reporter4 ,the newspaper man must always be on the job1 always hustling1 always ready to go to any inconvenience or suffer any fatigue to get the news4 ,and above all1 so far as routine reporting goes1 he must be honest and accurate4 ,charles ,dickens1 who was a reporter before he became a writer of novels1 says of some of his experiences3 ,i have often transcribed for the printer1 from shorthand notes1 important public speeches in which the strictest accuracy was required1 and a mistake in which would have been to a young man severely compromising1 writing on the palm of my hand1 by the light of a dark lantern in a post chaise and four1 galloping through a wild country and through the dead of the night1 at the then surprising rate of fifteen miles an hour4 ,the very last time ,i was at ,exeter1 ,i strolled into the castle yard there to identify1 for the amusement of a friend1 the spot on which we 8took0 as we used to call it1 an election speech of ,lord ,john ,russell at the ,devon contest1 in the midst of a lively fight maintained by all the vagabonds in that division of the country and under such a pelting rain that ,i remember two good-natured colleagues1 who chanced to be at leisure1 held a pocket handkerchief over my notebook after the fashion of a ,state canopy in an ecclesiastical procession4 ,i have worn my knees by writing on them on the old back row of the old ,house of ,commons2 and ,i have worn my feet by standing to write in a preposterous pen in the old ,house of ,lords1 where we used to be huddled together like so many sheep--kept in waiting1 say1 until the ,woolsack might want restuffing4 ,returning home from political meetings in the country to the waiting press in ,london1 ,i do believe ,i have been upset in almost every description of vehicle known in this country4 ,i have been in my time belated in miry by-roads1 toward the small hours1 forty or fifty miles from ,london1 in a wheel-less carriage1 with exhausted horses and drunken post boys1 and have got back in time for publication1 to be received with never-forgotten compliments by the late ,mr4 ,black1 coming in the broadest ,scotch from the broadest of hearts ,i ever knew4 ,of the reporter's familiarity with limitless phases of life it has been said3 ,the reporter of to-day has to be courageous1 sharp as a hawk1 mentally untiring1 physically enduring4 ,he comes in contact with everybody from monarchs to beggars1 from noblemen to nobodies4 ,he sees the tragedy and the comedy of human life1 its cynicism and toadyism1 its patient struggling and feverish ambition1 its sham and subterfuge1 its lavish wealth and deepest poverty1 its good deeds and most hideous crime4 ,mr4 ,h4 ,g4 ,wells says of writers that 8they meet philosophers1 scientific men1 soldiers1 artists1 professional men1 politicians of all sorts1 the rich1 and the great40 ,as illustrating the high place a man may make for himself while writing for the news department of a newspaper1 let us quote from an editorial article in the ,brooklyn ,daily ,eagle3 ,of ,saxon stock though of ,irish birth1 a ,royal scholarship graduate of ,trinity ,college1 ,dublin1 ,william ,crooke1 for forty years of the ,new ,york ,sun's staff as a news writer and nearly all that period in charge of the ,sun's ,brooklyn news1 came to be known to every police and fire department official1 to most of the clergymen and all the big politicians of either party in old ,brooklyn as 8,billy ,crooke02 always respectfully and often affectionately regarded1 trusted by every one because he never betrayed a confidence and never misrepresented any communication or interview4 ,mr4 ,crooke1 qualified by high education for the writing that analyzes and illuminates the world's happenings1 and a keen incisive stylist in his reporting work1 was satisfied to be a reporter4 ,he felt to the full the dignity of what he was doing2 he realized that it is news that makes a newspaper1 not features and not comment4 ,he was a newspaper-maker in the best sense4 ,kindliness1 dry humor1 accurate observation1 integrity1 and dignity made 8,billy0 what he was4 ,in most of the college publications one may find under the heading of ,alumni ,notes1 an item such as this3 8'#ah1 ,john ,f4 ,jenkins has accepted a position on the editorial staff of the ,new ,york ,star40 ,this means that ,jenkins has got a job as a reporter4 ,but ,jenkins did not have the easy time getting it that the paragraph in the college paper would lead one to suppose4 ,nor did he 8accept0 the post3 the ,star accepted him4 ,before ,jenkins landed on the ,star he visited five newspaper offices1 reached the assistant city editor of two1 the city editor of one4 ,he did not get beyond the office boy guarding the portals of the others4 ,jenkins left four of the offices with a definite feeling that ,new ,york was none too cordial to a budding newspaper man4 ,but he failed to consider1 because he did not know1 that two or three young men visit the city room of a metropolitan newspaper every day on an errand similar to his4 ,and he failed to realize1 because he did not know1 that in normal times a conservative newspaper hires about one new reporter a month4 ,the city editor of the ,star happened to need a man when ,jenkins called4 ,jenkins was a college man2 that was in his favor4 ,his manner of approach was pleasing to the man who was thinking of hiring him4 ,if the impression was good to the city editor it would also be good to the men to whom ,jenkins might be sent as a reporter4 ,his conversation was direct and to the point4 ,he didn't make extravagant talk about his ability2 he was frank in saying that he didn't know anything about the newspaper business1 but wanted to learn and was willing to work hard to make good4 ,he would be glad to take twenty dollars a week at the start and asked only for a trial4 8,all right1 report to-morrow at one o'clock10 said the city editor and ,jenkins left the office in a daze with a job4 ,he had been trying for three days to get one and the interview that landed it had consumed not more than three minutes4 ,jenkins got the job because he was clean1 intelligent and looked like good material4 ,he had not made the mistake of thinking that impertinent aggressiveness would impress the man who was to hire him4 ,he had not made the mistake of failing to remove his hat when he sat down beside the city desk to make his appeal4 ,several men had made that mistake with the city editor of the ,star4 ,a man who did not know enough to remove his hat even in an office1 did not have manners enough to approach many of the men to whom the ,star would send him4 ,jenkins did not waste the time of the city editor on nonessentials1 and it was to be presumed that he would be as businesslike with those with whom he came in contact later as a reporter4 ,jenkins also had personality4 ,he acted as though he meant business and realized that newspaper work was pleasant but not play4 ,he had no letters of recommendation and the city editor didn't ask for any4 ,letters are easy to get and as a rule do not count for much4 ,personality1 such as ,jenkins's1 counts a lot4 ,the reporter must be prepared to meet the active men of the world3 the men who are doing the constructive work of the world4 ,he must have presence and address to attract their attention4 ,usually he is a stranger to them4 ,his presence is unwelcome to them4 ,experience has attested that the college boy is better fitted for this task than any other kind of beginner4 ,he is familiar with the ways of society and has some notion of the public questions of the day and the vital problems of life4 ,the green young man of uncouth appearance1 of clumsy presence1 of faltering1 stammering speech makes a mighty poor reporter4 ,many newspaper office boys become good reporters4 ,in constant contact with the editorial force they absorb knowledge of the business4 ,noneducated or partly educated youths may and do become excellent reporters of routine news1 but they rarely get beyond the imitative stage4 ,in the race for higher journalistic honors the college boys easily outstrip them4 ,a welcome addition to the staff is the man who comes from a country newspaper4 ,many of the ablest of ,american journalists began their careers in rural offices4 ,the country boy usually knows something of the technical side of the business4 ,likely enough he has learned to set type or run a typesetting machine1 has lent a hand in the mailing room or the delivery department1 has mastered many details that1 though not essential1 have given a comprehensive notion of how newspapers are made4 ,nor should the young man from the country1 ambitious for city experience1 stay away from the city through fear of competition or through timidity4 ,do not be afraid4 ,the newspaper men of the city are not smarter than those in the country4 ,i recall the youngster from a small up-state daily who with fear and trembling accepted a chance to work a few days on trial1 in a big city office1 as reporter4 ,he went smashing around town for routine news and found the work not difficult4 ,in a week confidence had conquered timidity4 ,he observed the other reporters and workers and said to himself1 8,i can compete with these men0--and he did compete with them to his gratifying success4 ,fascinating as the reporter's life may be1 it nevertheless has its unpleasant moments1 its many hardships4 ,the hours of work are irregular and unlimited4 ,men on the big metropolitan morning newspapers report for duty at noon1 one or two o'clock2 those of the evening staffs at seven or eight1 ,a4,m42 and all are supposed to work as long as their services are required--not infrequently for fifteen hours4 ,newspaper-making is a continuous performance1 especially for reporters4 ,frequently those employed in it suffer great discomforts through physical fatigue1 lack of food and sleep1 and exposure to weather conditions4 ,one of the court reporters of a morning newspaper in ,new ,york was finishing his work in the late evening4 ,he had been on duty some ten hours and his work had been hard4 ,suddenly came the big explosion of the great munitions plant at ,morgan1 ,new ,jersey1 and the weary young writer was told to hustle out there4 ,at ,perth ,amboy he encountered the military guard thrown out to prevent approach to the burning buildings4 ,in his attempts to get along he was arrested six times and detained4 ,he phoned his facts to the office and was told to stay on4 ,he could find no place to sleep--couldn't have slept if he had--could hardly find a place to sit down even1 could get nothing to eat or drink4 ,explosion after explosion followed hour after hour4 ,and when at length he reached the office he was too exhausted to write a word4 ,so they sent him to bed for six hours and then he wrote his report4 ,very many other men had a similar experience that day and night4 ,they were in constant danger of their lives1 badly fed and without rest4 ,they were driven from place to place by the military guard1 and most of them were arrested over and over again4 ,it was one of the most trying disasters to report of which we have record4 ,several reporters nearly lost their lives while crossing ,great ,south ,bay in a tempest to the scene of a shipwreck on the beach4 ,they capsized in a sail boat and the life-saving guard barely gave rescue4 ,men sent to the ,johnstown flood found the town wrecked1 scantily provisioned1 and with no sleeping accommodations4 ,they were compelled to stay there a week under most distressing conditions while the search for the dead continued4 ,the reporting of the great national political conventions requires unceasing effort for a week or more1 the utmost vigil through night and day4 ,important committees are reaching decisions1 new pacts and combinations are being formed1 and the entire situation may be changing from hour to hour4 ,there is no sleep for the unfortunate correspondent2 he must be awake to the instant4 ,the reporting of what is done in the public sessions of the convention is the least of his labors4 ,when a man of importance falls mortally ill a reporter is detailed to watch him--to obtain the earliest announcement of his death4 ,the vigil is constant4 ,in scores of instances reporters have sat on the man's doorstep waiting for him to die4 ,this sort of work involves all the monotony of sentry duty4 ,it is disagreeable in the extreme4 ,the newspaper boys are asked to do many unpleasant things4 ,they are compelled to invade private homes and to ask agonized parents why a son or a daughter has committed suicide or has done a disgraceful act2 to ask a husband whether it is true that his wife has run away with a neighbor1 or ask a wife whether her husband is a fugitive from justice4 ,the assignments that take a writer into a family that has been disgraced by one of its members are the most unpleasant1 probably1 of any that fall to him4 ,indeed there is little of joyousness in any search for information that some one wishes to conceal4 ,yet every editor knows that in very many important cases to be chronicled some one is interested in concealing the real facts4 ,the people who want their affairs screened from public gaze constitute a multitude4 ,diplomats are reticent4 ,government officers are evasive4 ,political plans are kept in the shadow1 for publicity has ruined many a political plot4 ,bank officials seek to conceal defalcations4 ,insurance companies try to hush great losses4 ,society leaders wish to minimize society scandals4 ,usually in these cases the inquirer is lied to deliberately and calmly1 or the door is slammed in his face1 or the person sought refuses to be seen1 or the reporter is sent on a fool's errand elsewhere--anything to be rid of him4 ,some one has said that the newspaper man is asked to lie about people almost as often as he is asked to tell the truth4 ,to obtain exact truth always has been surrounded by difficulties4 ,almost every historian complains of the task of establishing the truth of history4 ,he finds the literature of the time at variance with the facts2 public documents and records absolutely contradicting one another2 while the recollections and reminiscences of the oldest inhabitants are fanciful dreams4 ,it was ,talleyrand who said of a treaty that if it contained no ambiguities some should be inserted4 ,the young newspaper writer finds his task of telling the truth quite as difficult1 not only because so many persons seek to conceal the truth but also from the well-known fact--recognized and constantly commented on in our courts of law--that two persons rarely see or hear or comprehend alike4 ,honest witnesses give different versions4 ,but the newspaper manager expects the reporter to get the exact facts1 and frequently the unfortunate writer finds himself compelled to resort to trickery and all kinds of subterfuge to do so4 ,if he fails to get the facts his advancement in the office is checked4 ,inquiry is made into the cause of his failure and if good reason for it appears it may be forgotten4 ,if it is through carelessness or indolence he is discharged1 and the reason for dropping him is known within twenty-four hours in every other newspaper office in the city4 ,it is all very unpleasant4 ,if the new reporter be so unfortunate as to begin his career on a dishonest or an extremely sensational sheet he may suffer an experience yet more disagreeable1 for he may be asked to distort the truth deliberately4 ,fortunately this is not a frequent request3 ,very few newspapers seek to print falsehoods or ask their men to pen untruths4 ,much less of that sort of thing prevails than disgraced the press of twenty-five years ago2 yet a few editors remain who seem to think that exaggeration and falsification attract more readers than does the truth1 and they demand that all news reports be colored with spectacular embellishment4 ,this is unpleasant as well as unprofessional4 ,it is demoralizing to a young writer4 ,it is disastrous to his reputation for serious1 trustworthy work4 ,yet more serious as well as more repulsive is the necessity occasionally imposed by dishonest editors on the reporter of blackening a man's reputation or exalting the deeds of a scoundrel4 ,but this does not happen often4 ,the confusion and noise of the office often annoy the young writer and lessen his ability to do himself justice4 ,the news is usually written and handled in one large room4 ,twenty or thirty reporters1 subeditors and office boys are doing rush work4 ,a noisy reporter blows in1 as though carried on a whirlwind1 talks all the time1 shouts for an office boy1 calls for reference books and newspaper files and drinking water all in one breath1 and keeps it going4 ,hurry-up telephone bells are jingling and men are bawling through the transmitters4 ,typewriters resound their staccato clicking4 ,call bells are striking and reporters are tapping their desk tops for office boys1 and the boys are tumbling over one another in response1 and are darting from desk to desk with copy4 ,persons are coming and going all the time1 talking and laughing and shuffling4 ,the old hands are used to it2 but the young man accustomed to the silence of the study room sometimes develops symptoms of insanity4 ,of serious consideration1 also1 is the fact that morning newspaper work sadly interferes with social and home life and with a host of amusements and entertainments and pleasures enjoyed by day workers4 ,in the big cities members of news staffs seldom dine at home4 ,the news writers go on duty early in the afternoon if not before2 the news editorial staff at six o'clock or thereabouts1 all to remain until well after midnight4 ,dinner parties1 theater parties1 dancing parties--all evening social life may be enjoyed on the one day only of the seven1 known as the day off4 ,the newspaper man toils while others play--and his night's work ends somewhat dismally by his dragging home at two o'clock in the morning1 maybe through storm or sleet or tempest1 to a cold1 cheerless1 silent1 dark home--a home unattractive under these conditions despite every effort to make it otherwise4 ,to the hard-working man of ordinary occupation there comes a certain sense of enjoyment in the relaxation following business effort4 ,he does not want to go immediately and stealthily to bed4 ,the morning-newspaper man is compelled to do so4 ,the day worker enjoys his homecoming1 his leisurely evening repast1 the diversions of the few hours preceding sleep4 ,it is the bright spot in the day4 ,the newspaper man rolls off the editorial bench into bed4 ,this demoralization of home and social life constitutes a very great objection to entering the newspaper business4 ,it affects nine-tenths of the morning-newspaper staff4 ,if the young journalist chances to marry it imposes hardships on the young wife4 ,usually she begins her married life by loyally and cheerfully trying to sit up until long after midnight to greet him on his return--but not for long4 ,the coming of children and the establishing of a home compel normal rest and other attentions1 and she reluctantly ceases her long waiting vigil4 ,instead of greeting him with a daintily prepared bit of warm food she now puts out a plate of cold stuff left over from the day before1 which he mechanically masticates or not as his mood suggests2 and a little later on it is decided that he might stop at a night restaurant for a bite1 if he is hungry4 ,as she cannot go out in the evening with him she misses many of the social pleasures to which presumedly she had been accustomed and which she had expected in her new life4 ,but most of all she misses his presence and his attentions4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,collection ,,of ,,news ,,and ,,the ,,preparation ,,of ,,copy ,,for ,,the ,,reader ,the young man just beginning a newspaper career gets a violent shock almost immediately4 ,he discovers that some one is revising his articles1 changing his words1 shortening his sentences1 omitting entire paragraphs4 ,it gives him much anxiety4 ,all newspaper copy is revised4 ,very little news or general matter is printed as written originally4 ,it undergoes 8editing0 by copy readers1 of whom there are twelve to twenty in the big city offices4 ,the editorial articles are revised by the editor in chief4 ,other copy for the editorial page--letters to the editor1 communications1 verse1 comments from other newspapers1 and the like--is prepared by his assistants4 8,editing0 copy means preparing it for the compositor1 putting it in the exact language in which it is to be printed4 ,systematic1 careful revision of all copy is necessary not alone to correct error of fact1 of judgment1 of good taste1 but also to regulate the volume of matter4 ,the notion that newspapers print articles 8just to fill up0 is as absurd as the intimation that they 8print anything they can get40 ,every newspaper of any account receives1 daily1 double to four times as much news matter as can be crowded into its columns4 ,the news value of each article or paragraph must have quick1 alert consideration4 ,if the reporter has written half a column about an event that is worth twenty lines only of newspaper space the report must be reduced to twenty lines4 ,if an unusual rush of news or advertising compels the order to 8cut everything rigidly0 it is reduced to ten lines4 ,just what to print and what to omit are burning questions and the quality of judgment exercised in the decision largely measures the copy reader's ability4 ,the men who revise news copy for morning editions get to work at about six o'clock4 ,for convenience they group around large tables1 those handling telegraph matter at one desk1 the readers of city copy at another1 the sporting department workers at a third1 while at other desks are the cable editors1 the financial and commercial and the real estate men4 ,it is of advantage to have as many as possible of these desks in one room4 ,how to handle the great volume of matter that pours into the office gives the managing editor much concern4 ,it must be done with a minimum of confusion1 for confusion surely creates error and disarranges system4 ,the edition must be put to press on the instant and always the news pages are closed at the last moment1 under great stress1 with all hands in a rush4 ,the work is well systemized1 but no system has yet been invented that can anticipate or provide for the unexpected event that so frequently upsets newspaper offices4 ,in normal times the managing editor directs how the articles of considerable importance are to be treated and likewise the city editor instructs his men how and to what length they are to write their articles4 ,the size and the quality of the edition may be planned and carried to conclusion with comparative comfort if nothing unforeseen happens4 ,but not infrequently big news breaks out unexpectedly that upsets all calculations and compels a change of all plans4 ,it is the unexpected that drives the news editors frantic and adds to their labors and creates confusion and chaos in spite of everything4 ,let us recall the ,roosevelt attempted assassination1 in illustration4 ,things were proceeding peacefully in the newspaper office on that evening in ,october1 #aiab1 when1 about nine o'clock1 a telegraph flash came from ,milwaukee3 8,theodore ,roosevelt has been shot and killed by a crazy man40 ,here was the biggest news for many a day4 ,roosevelt was perhaps the nation's most spectacular citizen4 ,he had been our ,president4 ,he was known throughout the world4 ,he was running for the presidency as an independent candidate against ,wilson and ,taft4 ,he had split the ,republican party4 ,the election was only a few days away4 ,the political consequences of his death were stupendous4 ,it is quite impossible to describe what followed in the newspaper work room4 ,the managing editor began dictating telegraph orders3 ,to the ,milwaukee correspondent he said3 8,wire with all haste every word you can get about ,roosevelt's visit1 what he has said and done since his arrival1 every possible detail of the shooting1 full description and history of the assassin1 where he has lived1 so we can run him down4 ,send every word he utters4 ,hire a dozen men to help4 ,you can't wire too much40 ,to the ,washington correspondent3 8,wire #aejj words ,roosevelt's chief acts as ,president1 #ajjj on his personal popularity and social life4 ,interview everybody effect of his death on the election1 get ,white ,house comment1 wire #ajjj general effects of the news4 ,you can't send too much40 ,to the ,chicago correspondent3 8,hurry to ,milwaukee4 ,take two or three men with you4 ,find our man in the ,sentinel office4 ,hire a special train if necessary4 ,hire some one to get all he can out of the ,chicago newspaper offices40 ,having wired a dozen or so such telegrams to other parts of the country the managing editor summoned the city editor and said to him3 8,get your entire staff here1 the men who are off to-day and all the emergency men4 ,put on three or four more copy readers4 ,find out where ,mrs4 ,roosevelt is and have a man stay right by her3 also the rest of the ,colonel's family4 ,have four or five columns of his obituary prepared4 ,have interviews with a lot of prominent ,new ,york men and politicians of both parties4 ,have a column written on the effect on the political campaign and also a column of ,roosevelt's reasons for running as an independent candidate4 ,send to the hotels and theaters4 ,don't forget a big portrait of ,roosevelt--better have pictures of the entire ,roosevelt family and the ,oyster ,bay home4 ,keep everybody here until three o'clock40 ,to the night editor he said3 8,the editorial page is full of campaign stuff4 ,have some one go through every line of it and cut out everything intended to influence a voter against ,roosevelt--everything that could be thought unseemly4 ,you will have to leave out two or three of the articles and some of the letters to the editor4 ,find another editorial or two that will do1 on the standing galleys4 ,get the full force into the composing room4 ,tell the stereotype men there will be no end of editions all night long--they will want full force4 ,tell the press room men too2 the circulation will be double4 ,be sure to look out for any slur on ,roosevelt4 ,you must get the mail edition off on time4 ,we can't afford to miss a mail to-night40 ,the foregoing indicates a part--and only a small part--of the preparations made for an edition announcing ,colonel ,roosevelt's death by assassination4 ,within fifteen minutes enough matter had been ordered to fill five or six newspaper pages4 ,the entire news staff jumped into the work4 ,the machinery for that edition began to move promptly in the lines indicated4 ,but in half an hour came this wire from ,milwaukee3 8,colonel ,roosevelt is not dead but has been shot near the heart4 ,surgeons are making examination40 ,and through some unexplained cause not another word came from ,milwaukee for an hour and a half4 ,with this second announcement it was necessary to change the plan of the edition to conform to the situation that the ,colonel was not dead but possibly was mortally wounded4 ,in the hour and a half of suspense thousands of words came pouring in to the copy readers all written under belief that the attack had resulted in death and all had to be edited to fit the new situation4 ,then came word that the ,colonel had not been seriously hurt--slightly wounded only--and that he had started for ,chicago4 ,it was now nearly midnight and a complete overhauling of the paper was necessary4 ,a new set of instructions had to be sent to everybody4 ,everything had to be redited4 ,what was practically a new edition must be made with very little time in which to make it4 ,as it was1 the newspapers printed from three to five pages of matter about the attempted assassination1 but they killed many columns relating to the ,colonel's life1 the effect of the supposed death on the campaign1 appreciations by public men1 and so forth4 ,the writers and copy readers were reminded that the ,colonel was still a candidate1 and that a new issue had been injected into the campaign1 that of martyrdom4 8,better minimize the martyrdom business10 was the suggestion4 ,the copy readers did a tremendous excess of emergency work that night that went for nothing2 so did the correspondents1 the reporters1 the printers1 the telegraph operators1 the directing editors--everybody who had to do with getting out the edition4 ,from reporting to copy reading is a natural step in the progress of the young man in journalism4 ,copy reading has the advantage of fixed hours1 of permanent salary1 of a minimum of emergency or extra work and of permitting daily a few hours for recreation or study4 ,it has the disadvantage of being routine work not especially interesting or inspiring1 without pecuniary reward of importance 7salaries are from forty to sixty-five dollars a week in big newspaper offices and as low as twenty-five dollars in small ones7 and of having the attendant danger of getting a man in a rut4 ,every office has its veteran copy readers who for years have been content to do this work4 ,to perform the service acceptably requires absorbing attention1 unceasing vigil1 a familiarity with current events1 accurate judgment as to the news value of every article and a genius for detecting errors of fact1 or grammar1 or of any kind4 ,colonel ,john ,w4 ,forney said3 ,no man is competent to edit newspaper manuscript or reprint unless he has been an extensive and analytical reader4 ,he should1 moreover1 have a quick and keen perception1 as well as a retentive memory of notorious facts1 of celebrated names and important dates4 ,if he is in doubt he should never fail to consult reliable encyclopedias1 technical books1 pamphlets and like granaries of information and knowledge4 ,how does the copy reader exercise his ability8 ,all news copy goes to the readers1 telegraph copy to the telegraph desk1 the city copy to the city desk and so forth4 ,the head reader glances at each article long enough to absorb a notion of its nature and make a note of its length and passes it to one of the other readers4 ,this man edits it into the form in which it is to appear in the newspaper4 ,if it is too long he reduces it by stripping it of its verbiage and unimportant facts1 cutting out entire sentences and even paragraphs4 ,unconsciously he questions every statement made by the writer1 so keen becomes his search for error4 ,if an article on an important subject is inadequate he sends it back to the city editor for amplification or explanation4 ,if the article is unimportant he kills it4 ,always he has in mind that the sheet is crowded1 that there isn't room for half of what is offered4 ,he acquires the knack of condensation1 of making one word express the meaning of half a sentence4 ,he eliminates superfluous statements and obvious explanations and dull conclusions4 ,if he be wise he rereads the article to confirm his own work4 ,always he seeks to improve the article1 to insert a snappy word1 to give it life1 to smooth the diction or make it more rugged as befits the subject4 ,when reading news the copy reader must be alert for clews to additional information1 for side issues to be added4 8,the assassin has lived in ,canal street1 ,new ,york0 said one of the ,milwaukee dispatches--and instantly the copy reader informed the city editor and a reporter was soon on his way to ,canal street to learn of the crazy man's record there4 8,mrs4 ,roosevelt is at the ,manhattan ,hotel0 said another message4 ,a reporter was sent to her4 ,the copy reader must steel himself against the reporter who tries to be funny and isn't1 against those persons so well known in every newspaper office who seek notoriety by getting their names in print1 against the social climbers1 against the men who want puffs and free advertising1 against the wiles of the press agent and the preposterous stories about the people he is exalting1 against the schemers whose success depends on newspaper publicity1 the fake charity organizations1 the spurious reform agitations1 the organizations started merely to give salaries to the people who run them1 the multitude of movements created to give some one notoriety1 the constant attempts to fool the public--the list is endless4 ,the copy reader must be familiar with the big events attracting public attention for he may be called to revise their next chapter4 ,many big cases drag on for months4 ,above all he should take sympathetic interest in every article he revises and in its writer4 ,his every effort should be to improve the article4 ,my own experience as a copy reader for five years was of utmost usefulness to me4 ,careful editing of copy fixes the subject matter of the copy in memory almost as securely as though you had written the original4 ,surely the copy reader fills an especially important post4 ,it is poor policy to intrust this work to incompetent men4 ,nevertheless1 because of its requirements1 it is a post not eagerly sought4 ,it is thought to be a thankless task with little to show for results1 with maximum opportunity for error and minimum for praise4 ,the copy reader is unlikely to be sought for promotion4 ,he does not mingle with the outside world as does the reporter4 ,he sees no office visitors as do the editors4 ,his work attracts little favorable attention4 ,if he improves a manuscript the author1 not the copy reader1 gets the credit4 ,but if you intend to follow the newspaper business1 by all means take a turn at copy reading1 for it gives valuable experience and information and the practice greatly improves your diction4 ,as the night advances the avalanche of copy increases1 some nights in greater volume than others4 ,it is a curious fact that news volume seems to ebb and flow like the ocean tide1 although irregularly1 not steadily4 ,for days the news world will be calm1 little of interest develops1 nothing but routine news offers4 ,and then for days at a time news breaks out from all directions1 overwhelming the writing and the revising staffs1 upsetting all plans and creating confusion4 ,it is then that the managing editor admonishes3 8,gentlemen1 the paper is already filled2 you must cut everything rigidly02 and the head copy reader1 pushing a column manuscript article toward an assistant1 commands3 8,put it in a quarter of a column02 and the perspiring night editor shouts from the composing room through the telephone3 8,can't take another line except must stuff40 8,must stuff0 means matter that simply must be printed4 8,stuff0 is the common newspaper office vernacular for all copy1 whether it be the profound article of the editor in chief or the incident of a crap game on the pavement4 ,the amateur writer's sensibilities are shocked sometimes when his production is called 8stuff40 ,but whether the tide of copy is at ebb or flood always there is too much of it and the copy reader's night ends in the contemplation of a mass of discarded manuscript and a ruin of reportorial reputation4 ,and on the morrow comes an awful hour of reckoning4 ,the editor in chief misses from his own paper a bit of ,washington political news that some other paper had printed4 ,he speaks to the managing editor about it1 and the managing editor knowing that the news was in the office and was not printed1 damns the copy reader for throwing it away4 ,the city editor who had gone home with visions of two fine fat news features each of an embellished column in length finds in their place two emaciated paragraphs containing naught but cold news facts with no juice in them--he damns the copy readers4 ,the reporters who wrote the column stories1 reduced to shreds1 surcharge the place with spectacular profanity and damn the copy readers4 ,the men who wrote twelve dollars worth of stuff at space rates and had it cut down to three dollars worth1 damn the copy readers4 ,the reporters who wrote reams of routine stuff that did not appear at all1 damn the copy readers4 ,everybody damns the copy readers6 ,the respectable newspapers of ,america strive sincerely for accuracy of statement4 ,reporters are instructed constantly to be accurate4 ,copy readers and every one else in the place are urged to vigil in the detection of error4 ,the news rush and the consequent confusion in the last half hour before getting to press contribute to the danger of mistake1 but for the most part every newspaper article is carefully considered and repeatedly scrutinized4 ,a news report of importance1 for instance1 is written by an experienced reporter4 ,usually it is scanned by the city editor4 ,it is then revised by a copy reader who is supposed to be expert in preparing manuscript4 ,the compositor puts it in type and the proof reader searches it ostensibly for errors in typing1 but always must he note any error4 ,he is expected to call to the attention of the night editor any misstatement of fact or violation of newspaper usage or of practice4 ,then1 too1 in almost every office is 8the learned proof reader0 who bothers himself not with typographical errors but who reads from revised proof sheets in searching quest of anything wrong--misused words1 verbal or grammatical slips1 misspelled proper names1 distortion of any fact--and it is curious what a lot of errors he digs out that have passed everybody else4 ,likewise in many editorial rooms sits another all-wise man who in a semi-editorial capacity reads proof sheets of all matter in the same search for the undesirable4 ,the managing editor1 the night editor1 and the night city editor also have proof sheets of all matter which they read devoutly for a dozen reasons4 ,nevertheless there appeared in one of our especially learned and correct ,new ,york newspapers a sentence written by a reporter and passed by the copy reader1 the proof reader ordinaire1 the learned proof reader1 the editorial proof reader de luxe1 the managing editor1 the night editor and the night city editor--a sentence that read3 8,he had fractured her skull by hitting it with an empty bottle of beer40 ,the same newspaper's music constituency was moved to emotion one morning on reading that applause followed the singing of 8,the ,soldiers' ,chorus by ,faust40 ,whether the writer intended to say that ,faust sang the chorus1 or the chorus was written by ,faust1 or that it was from the opera of ,faust probably never will be known1 but the chances are that he inadvertently wrote 8by ,faust0 when he intended to write 8from ,faust40 ,truth is1 that human intelligence has not yet devised a way of keeping error out of printed publications4 ,the public does not understand the painstaking care with which news is presented by well regulated newspapers1 nor are the difficulties or the unfavorable conditions under which newspapers are made at all appreciated by people who read4 ,men of other professions have almost unlimited time for consideration4 ,the lawyer may devote months to the preparation of his case4 ,the clergyman may take seven days to perfect his sermon4 ,the physician at times is called to quick action1 but usually he may ponder for hours or days over the condition of his patient4 ,but quick judgment and quick action are a daily necessity in the newspaper office4 ,the biggest event of the month may explode an hour before time for going to press4 ,the news must be prepared with frantic haste with half the staff tumbling over each other1 so to speak1 in the rush to be on time4 ,in afternoon sheets all news received after one o'clock and in morning editions after midnight are subject to this acceleration of mind and movement and persons who have not participated in the spasm can little appreciate the opportunity for error4 ,in these hours a man's experience1 his general knowledge of the business1 is of great assistance4 ,it is then that his confidence or his distrust in the source of the information governs4 ,rumor is the busybody of the business and her moments of greatest activity are just before the time for going to press4 ,it is true1 also1 that first accounts of great events are likely to be exaggerated2 almost always are greatly exaggerated4 ,the cable flash announcing the blowing up of the ,maine in ,havana harbor said that not a man remained alive4 ,the first brief telegram telling of the ,san ,francisco earthquake reported that not a building remained standing4 ,with the first report of the assassination of ,colonel ,roosevelt came the statement that he was dead4 ,first reports of losses of life in great disasters1 of losses in big fires1 are usually double the actual loss4 ,it is a vital part of newspaper vigil to question all unusual or extraordinary statements and news editors by habit come to doubt every statement made4 ,this is meant to be said of honest editors2 the dishonest ones seek to exaggerate the original exaggeration4 ,the preparation of newspaper copy in the last hour before going to press gives supreme test to the writer's powers of concentration1 his self-possession1 and his agility of mind4 ,it happens frequently that the managing editor says to him1 8,you have just eight minutes in which to finish that article0 and a little later the night editor may cry out3 8,close everything for this edition in five minutes40 ,it is exceedingly disturbing to the young man who is beginning4 ,the experienced men are unmoved4 ,it is common enough for a man to write in an hour after midnight a column or more about a murder1 a fire1 a calamity1 or the obituary of a distinguished person4 ,men who do this rapid work at the last instant may have been on duty for ten or twelve hours and the climax to the day's labor calls for greater intensity than anything that has preceded4 ,physical endurance is involved as well as mental celerity4 ,the invention of the typewriter has helped vastly to speed up newspaper composition4 ,the reporter may dictate his narrative4 ,in the old days frequently he had to make a long journey to the newspaper office before beginning to work with pen or pencil4 ,nowadays1 if need be1 he dictates his report through the telephone to a typewriter in the office4 ,newspaper correspondents five hundred1 and even one thousand1 miles away do this kind of emergency telephoning4 ,indeed1 it may be said that modern invention has revolutionized the process of speeding up newspaper making4 ,when ,i first went to ,new ,york the capacity of the improved newspaper press was eight pages4 ,if a larger paper were wanted the extra pages were printed separately as a supplement many hours before the main eight sheet was put to press4 ,to-day1 thanks to the inventor of the multiple printing press1 the news editor may decide fifteen minutes before going to press whether to make a twelve page newspaper or a twenty page newspaper or even a thirty-four page newspaper4 ,the big modern newspaper is made with a speed that is almost bewildering4 ,for1 in place of the old laborious journeying to the office1 the writing of the news with pen or pencil1 the typesetting of the same by hand and the old style stereotyping process requiring half an hour1 the printing of sheets limited to eight pages on presses that produced only about fifteen thousand copies an hour--in place of these clumsy processes1 news reports are dictated over the telephone1 the matter is set by machinery in a fraction of the time formerly required1 is stereotyped in six minutes and set going on half a dozen presses with a capacity each of more than thirty thousand copies an hour4 ,the reporting of big events that may be anticipated1 like the inauguration of a president1 a great festival in honor of a martial hero or in commemoration of peace1 or a popular demonstration of any sort--anything that is scheduled to happen1 is carefully arranged for in advance4 ,it is conceded that the biggest and most important single piece of news handled up to that time in a newspaper office was the story of the loss of the ,titanic4 ,the finest steamship that ever had been made struck an iceberg on her first voyage and sank with a loss of fifteen hundred persons1 including scores of our well known residents--and that was all we knew of the disaster until the survivors were landed on a ,new ,york pier4 ,the wireless had sent a partial list of survivors but not a word of detail about the disaster itself4 ,public interest was tremendously excited4 ,it was known that the survivors were to land at a given hour in the evening and city editors had plenty of time to arrange for getting the great narrative but limited time for writing it--for newspapers must go to press on the minute in order that mail and express bundles of the edition may catch outgoing trains4 ,thirty or forty reporters were sent by each ,new ,york newspaper to meet the rescue ship4 ,each man had a definite thing to do4 ,one man1 for instance1 was to write a column of just what had been going on in the ship for the twenty-four hours before she sank4 ,another was to write of the warnings to the ,titanic's officers that ice fields were ahead4 ,another was to explain just how the ship struck1 how she was damaged and how and when she filled and sank4 ,a fourth was to describe in detail how the life boats were manned and launched and who went in them4 ,a fifth was to tell of nothing except what the commander of the ship was doing up to the moment he was lost4 ,six or eight reporters were instructed to get as many narratives of the experiences of survivors as possible--and so on preparations were made to the completion of every detail that possibly could be anticipated--every man instructed exactly what to do and warned not to attempt anything else4 ,the preparations for printing this great narrative--and doing it in a hurry--occupied many hours of the time of managing and city editors4 ,the organization of forces was necessary to prevent duplication and confusion1 useless running about and tumbling over each other by reporters4 ,as an additional precaution to save time of reporters in going from the pier to the newspaper office1 a dozen telephones were set up in a shed on the pier and a dozen of the reporters were instructed to dictate their reports into the transmitters and a dozen typewriters were ready to take them in the newspaper office4 ,the first sentence of this big story was written at #aj3bj in the evening1 and copy for the first edition was shut off two hours afterward4 ,the first edition presses were started on time to the minute with four pages of the disaster4 ,a second edition one hour later had seven pages of disaster matter--the narrative complete--about equivalent in amount to the reading matter of the usual edition of the ,scribner monthly magazine4 ,in doing this task neither the writing force nor the mechanical department was extended or distressed or overworked4 ,they could easily perform the same feat every night in the week under the same organization and loyal staff teamwork4 ,it is the business and the duty of the managing editor to oversee all of these details4 ,he is the executive officer of the newspaper4 ,his first duty is to carry out the policies of the editor in chief or the owner4 ,he is responsible for what goes into the paper4 ,he is supposed to know what is going on in every hemisphere and in every island of the sea and to have it properly presented in the news columns4 ,he must read the other newspapers and periodicals to know what they are printing and what of their contents should be printed in his own next edition4 ,he hires the staff1 except the editorial writers1 fixes the salaries1 obtains and directly supervises the matter for every column except the editorial page4 ,he must1 indeed1 keep a sharp eye on that page as well1 for it happens frequently that after an editorial article is ready for printing1 along comes later news that entirely changes the situation and calls for revision of the article4 ,he decides questions in dispute4 ,his best asset should be good judgment3 judgment what not to print as well as what should be printed2 judgment as to proper news values1 whether to give one1 two1 or three columns to an unexpected piece of news that explodes in ,washington1 ,dawson ,city or off ,montauk ,point2 judgment whether to chance a libel suit on one article or the infringement of copyright in another2 whether to minimize a social or a political movement or boom it4 ,and when these questions are flashed on this unfortunate man just as the edition is going to press it must be a quick as well as a decisive judgment4 ,the managing editor has to deal with men of all ages and of all experiences4 ,a big staff includes cranks1 and enthusiasts1 students and philosophers1 men of every race and religion whose illuminated intelligence reflects every phase of eccentricity1 every degree of sanity1 as well as every perfection of common sense--men of intelligence1 earnestness1 sensitiveness1 filled with ambition and alive with interest and seeking above all to succeed in the business4 ,the managing editor needs the coperation of all these men4 ,a loyal staff is full of suggestions1 will go to extremes in support of its leader2 an indifferent staff is silent4 ,it depends largely on how the staff is treated by the management1 whether it is loyal or indifferent4 ,now you cannot manage a newspaper staff as you might a section gang building a railroad4 ,it is not to be expected that intelligent1 sensitive writers will spring to their work1 will do better work1 while smarting under severe reproof or constant nagging4 ,if they do it is because they fear to lose their jobs1 rather than from zeal4 ,not much good newspaper work is done under an uplifted club4 ,little else than resentment results from angry words4 ,one reason for ,mr4 ,charles ,a4 ,dana's success may be found in his fine leadership4 ,he inspired the confidence of his helpers by his surpassing knowledge of the business4 ,he encouraged them by his recognition and appreciation of superior work and his absolute justice toward them4 ,he fascinated them by his genial ways4 ,everybody loved him and would do anything for him4 ,the editor of ability that endears himself to his staff will surely make a great newspaper4 ,the editor whose ability is not respected1 who does not recognize good service1 who is constantly nagging and complaining and finding fault1 and arousing resentment--he will see his circulation slipping away and his influence diminishing4 ,a newspaper staff is made up of delicately constructed1 sensitive1 self-respecting men and women4 ,the managing editor hires the staff4 ,and1 as the success of the newspaper depends on the writers1 it behooves him to be careful in the selection4 ,the staff changes somewhat rapidly1 its members drop out to go to better posts on other newspapers or into other businesses and new men are called to their places4 ,methods of recruiting the staff differ in different offices4 ,many of the most successful newspapers have a way of hiring young men to join as reporters and gradually advancing them through a continuous process of growth4 ,thus a man is available always to fill a vacancy and the staff in general is always complete4 ,the real vacancy is at the bottom of the list4 ,three months' trial usually tests out a beginner4 ,the newspaper is overrun with applicants4 ,every graduating college class includes some men who wish to try the business4 ,the schools of journalism in the ,united ,states are turning out about four thousand students yearly who want to go to work immediately4 ,many broken-down clergymen and discarded school teachers think they can write and they apply along with professional men1 clerks1 salesmen and others who have failed to make good4 ,a swarm of high school boys come along after graduation4 ,very many men who have succeeded in country or small city newspapers want to get going in the big cities4 ,bright newspaper office boys seek to become reporters and go on to success4 ,it is from all of these that the staff is recruited4 ,the managing editor of experience comes to know almost by instinct whether an applicant will make a good newspaper man1 and while few of those who come are selected1 it is also true that a large proportion of those who are taken make good4 ,the supervision of the modern newspaper is much more difficult than it was forty years ago for the reason that the staff is four or five times as large4 ,the size of the sheet has been more than quadrupled4 ,the managing editor no longer finds it possible to read every paragraph in proof sheet before its publication2 he must trust to his helpers4 ,the increased volume of matter compels increased labor in originating it1 increased attention to its consideration and preparation for printing4 ,the managing editor's work literally is fourfold what it used to be4 ,the tendency of the hour is toward yet larger editions4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,newspaper ,,composition--,,the ,,art ,,of ,,writing ,,in ,,simple ,,yet ,,entertaining ,,fashion ,the young man just starting in journalism is asked to write in the simplest words and the shortest sentences at his command4 ,he is told that the reader wants facts rather than elegances of expression and that the plainest language is the best newspaper style4 ,by plain language is not meant the language of the child's primer1 but rather the use of good ,saxon concrete nouns and active verbs in sentences not embellished with verbose phrases4 ,nevertheless1 when editors tell the young reporter to use the plainest language they mean usually that they will be satisfied with it in his routine reporting4 ,but they encourage the study of 8how to produce rich effects by the use of familiar words10 how to write not only with steadiness and strength1 but also with those little embellishments of incidental word and phrase that lift the work above the commonplace4 ,and they unceasingly urge the necessity of good writing--for not anywhere is good writing appreciated more than in a newspaper office4 ,to write the simple language requires much study and practice--more1 indeed1 than to write the other kind4 ,it is natural for people1 children especially1 to use simple words1 but the schools and colleges have taught1 until within a few years1 the writing of rather high-sounding prose4 ,textbooks have reflected ,dr4 ,johnson's ornate paragraphs1 ,macaulay's massive profundities1 ,washington ,irving's beautifully rounded florid sentences1 and ,sir ,walter ,scott's superlatives4 ,for years and years they were commended to students of literature for imitation4 ,the effect of this teaching remains4 ,we find it difficult to write in the same simplicity with which we talk4 ,it does not come natural to us4 ,the editor gave fine advice to the cartoonist from whom he wanted an article4 ,said the cartoonist3 8,he just offered me one suggestion--inasmuch as ,i was not a regular writer--that ,i refrain from trying to write and simply tell in my own words as though ,i were telling it to my wife40 ,that's it3 refrain from trying to write if you wish to write in simple language and simple style4 ,it is well enough to write as you talk if you are a good talker4 ,hundreds of articles of advice in the last fifty years have urged young men to write as they talk4 ,but almost all talk is without study1 is commonplace1 is not the expression of consecutive thought1 is disjointed construction4 ,it is recognized that dictated articles have less finish than those penned4 ,nevertheless1 the direct way1 the simplest way is undoubtedly the best way of writing4 ,emerson says3 8,the speech of the street is incomparably more forceful than the speech of the academy40 ,lafcadio ,hearn says of ,kipling3 8,no one has managed to produce great effects with so few words40 ,but why speak of it as 8newspaper style10 when there isn't any such thing8 ,almost every kind of writing is used by newspapers4 ,all kinds of literature are printed in them--the scholarly essay1 the article of argument1 the expository editorial paragraph1 the story of fiction1 the language of verse1 the consideration of art1 music1 the play1 all sorts of description of all kinds of happenings in every part of our old earth--and all are written without uniformity of diction or construction4 ,there is no style that the newspaper rejects4 ,the experienced editor seeks diversity of writing and of topic in every column4 ,he studies to that end4 ,some style of writing is so plain that you do not notice it4 ,it is like the well dressed man whose clothing is so simple and appropriate that it is not attracting attention wherever he goes4 ,merimee said of ,stendhal that he despised mere style and insisted that a writer had attained perfection when we remember his ideas without recalling his phrases4 ,of ,george ,saintsbury1 the ,english critic1 it was said3 8,he always thought it of more importance to utter the thought than to care about the form of utterance4444 ,if he had given more attention to style we should have been deprived of some of the benefits of his knowledge40 ,indeed1 some great newspaper narratives are of such absorbing interest in themselves--great disasters like the sinking of the ,lusitania or the ,titanic--that the reader's attention is entirely concentrated on the facts and he does not notice the diction or the construction4 ,no matter how disjointed or horribly written the narrative may be he finishes it with the impression that he has read a great article4 ,nevertheless1 every article is the better for good telling4 ,and probably no greater newspaper accomplishment exists than the ability to write well4 ,it is of increasing value as the young man goes on to higher grade work4 ,sir ,arthur ,quiller-,couch in a lecture to the ,cambridge students urges them to study writing and to practice writing1 to write and rewrite with intent to gain facility in diction and in the fashioning of sentences1 and especially to seek to make their prose 8accurate1 perspicuous1 persuasive1 and appropriate40 ,he would insure greater accuracy by the study and practice of the use of words4 ,thought and speech being inseparable1 it follows that we cannot use the humblest processes of thought--cannot resolve to take our bath hot or cold1 or decide what to order for breakfast--without forecasting it in some form of words4 ,words1 in fine1 he urges1 are the only currency in which we can exchange thought even with ourselves4 ,does it not follow1 then1 that the more accurately we use words the closer definition we shall give to our thoughts8 8,and by drilling ourselves to write perspicuously we train our minds to clarify our thought1 since language is the expression of thought4 ,the first aim of speech is to be understood and the more clearly we write the more easily and surely we will be understood4 ,not to be understood is to be a sloven in speech40 ,lafcadio ,hearn urged the students of the ,university of ,tokyo to study the construction of sentences--to write them over and over again until they were nearly perfect1 saying3 ,a thing once written is not literature4444 ,no man can produce real literature at one writing4444 ,to produce even a single sentence of good literature requires that the text be written at least three times4444 ,for literature more than for any other art the all-necessary thing is patience4 ,he advised the students to write a practice piece and put it away for a week4 ,then to revise it and put it away again1 and to continue the process of revision until they could improve it no more4 ,tolstoy rewrote his important work three or four times4 ,rossetti revised 8,the ,blessed ,damosel0 in many editions until the last was quite unlike the first4 ,tennyson changed his productions over and again4 ,gray was fourteen years in perfecting the 8,elegy40 ,it is notorious that ,sir ,walter ,scott's later novels1 written at great speed1 are much inferior to his earlier more leisurely work4 ,samuel ,butler's masterpiece 8,the ,way of ,all ,flesh0 was under construction for twelve years4 ,all literary history furnishes examples of great authors who toiled long over their manuscripts4 ,macaulay devoted more time to revising his essays than to writing them4 ,their superiority over his history1 as literary products1 is revealed by study of them4 ,the history was written more hurriedly4 ,the essays are the product of nearly one hundred years ago1 but they serve to illustrate the possibilities of our language and the beauties of thoughtful writing and intense thinking4 ,we look elsewhere in vain for such adroit phrasing and such thunder-claps of climax4 ,study them1 young man6 ,some present-day writers criticize ,macaulay for his long-drawn sentences1 his reiteration and his wanderings from the narrative into a confusion of details4 ,yet ,macaulay was imitated by essayists for fifty years4 ,his style was the vogue4 ,and ,macaulay in turn had both praised and criticized in no feeble fashion his great predecessor1 ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson1 who had been the vogue for nearly a hundred years4 ,the men of greatest reputation as critics1 ,sainte-,beuve1 ,edmund ,gosse1 ,macaulay1 ,saintsbury and others1 put intensive study into what they wrote4 ,if they were to review a book they made a study of the subject of the book and of the life and mentality of the author3 and sometimes their production was of more use to the world than the book itself4 ,their works are not so much read in this money-making age1 but they are among the great contributions to thoughtful literature and the student of journalism will read them with great profit to himself4 ,for your own work is to be thoughtful work--work intended to persuade and influence readers to your own way of thinking4 ,writing for newspapers differs from other literary work in this3 the newspaper writer has little opportunity for revision4 ,almost all articles for daily sheets are written at a single sitting4 ,the writers of editorial articles have several hours in which to compose and usually they get a proof sheet for revision4 ,the writers of short news articles may read and correct their manuscript4 ,but in the big offices as soon as the reporter who is writing an article of any considerable length has finished two or three pages they are grabbed by an office boy1 hurried to a copy reader who revises them as best he may and rushes them to the composing room to be typed4 ,the writer does not see his pages again1 does not read them over1 even1 after writing them4 ,all big reports--stories of great disasters1 of football matches1 of public meetings or demonstrations are prepared with this haste4 ,the play house and opera critics compose under these same trying conditions with no opportunity for leisurely thought or revision4 ,it is difficult1 indeed1 to write of a great performance in a whirlwind of hurry1 with less than two hours for deliberate and consecutive thought4 ,the ,french critic's way of presenting a news paragraph in the edition following the performance and reserving a carefully prepared review for a later-date publication commends itself2 but the ,american newspapers continue to print exhaustive comments on first-night performances two or three hours after the fall of the curtain4 ,the opera critic has the advantage of attending rehearsals of new operas and he may prepare parts of his article in advance1 but rehearsals are spiritless1 for performers have not the inspiration and response of the audience4 ,intensity of thought and concentration must engross the newspaper writer4 ,he must prepare himself by study and practice to throw every atom of his mental vitality into the work1 to write immediately and without expectation of revision exactly what should appear in the newspaper4 ,mind discipline is a powerful factor4 ,the man must school himself to work under conditions of mental anguish1 physical distress1 heart sorrow or unhappiness of any sort4 ,he cannot surrender to moods1 whims1 or to physical sensations4 ,he must continue hour after hour1 day after day1 with the same hurry-up speed4 ,as in crowded ,broadway1 if you cannot keep up with the procession you must be trodden on or take to a side street1 so must the active newspaper man everlastingly keep going4 ,it is largely a matter of mind discipline1 of study and of practice1 of intense mental concentration and of swiftness of thought4 ,please do not undervalue the priceless benefits of practice--of practice that will give skill in saying exactly what you want to say the first time you say it4 ,in leisurely writing you may rewrite and change and make perfect1 but in newspaper writing you have one dash only at it without much opportunity for change or revision4 ,your reputation as a newspaper writer hangs on that one attempt4 ,you can cultivate the gift of ready speech in writing just as many a finished orator has cultivated it in speaking4 ,it is said of ,president ,woodrow ,wilson that early in his youth he appreciated the advantages of ready speech and set about to improve himself in its use4 ,he practiced speaking long and constantly4 ,in the seclusion of his room he conducted imaginary debates1 talking to himself on first one side and then the other of some public question4 ,on his walks1 while a student1 he addressed the crags and peaks1 the winding rivers1 the peaceful meadows--all for practice in the quick use of language1 the shading of sentences and the putting of emphasis on climaxes of thought and conclusion4 ,and he became one of the most interesting and convincing and scholarly public speakers this country1 or any other country for that matter1 has ever known4 ,the young writer should seek to rise above the commonplace4 ,it was said of ,machiavelli that 8having adopted some of the maxims then generally received he arranged them more luminously and expressed them more forcibly than any other writer40 ,the young writer should cultivate the art of making his words and sentences exude the very spirit of the occasion--the art of describing joyous events with joyous words and of shadowing melancholy happenings in the language of gloom4 ,he should seek the faculty of 8making obscure truth pleasing1 of making repulsive truth attractive40 ,let him follow the counsel of a distinguished critic who says3 ,choose concrete nouns rather than vague1 abstract woolly ones4 ,use straightforward speech rather than circumlocution4 ,remember that the first virtue1 the touchstone of masculine style is the use of the active verb and concrete noun4 ,when you write in the active voice1 8,they gave him a silver teapot0 you write as a man4 ,when you write1 8,he was made the recipient of a silver teapot0 you write jargon4 ,avoid overworked words is common advice to young journalists4 ,an article in the ,writer has much to say of ways by which the constant use of the word 8said0 may be prevented4 8,said0 sometimes becomes monotonous1 especially in the dialogue of fiction2 but almost always another verb may be found to express the author's meaning4 ,the ,writer printed a list of three hundred and eighty-two verbs1 found in about fifty magazine stories1 which had been used instead of 8said40 ,frequently the use of a verb helps to make more concise as well as to avoid the word 8said40 8#8,it hurts1' said ,john1 in a complaining tone10 is not so good as 8#8,it hurts1' ,john complained40 ,again1 8#8,please help me1' said the beggar in pitiful beseeching appeal10 is better expressed by 8#8,please help me1' the beggar pleaded40 ,the language is rich in verbs4 ,another greatly overworked word1 and a slow word as well1 is the word 8show40 ,it does seem as though the average newspaper writer cannot think of any other word when he writes that 8this action0--or 8this event0--or 8this conclusion0--or 8this computation shows that0--etc41 when he might say1 attests1 evinces1 betokens1 bespeaks1 implies1 indicates1 proves--or any other suitable verb of the twenty-five or more he may find in a thesaurus4 ,constant looseness of speech is found in the use of explanatory phrases that might be expressed by a single verb4 ,the verb is the heart of language life1 the soul of expression4 ,why1 for instance1 do we write1 8,he reflected on the situation0 when 8he cogitated0 would express all8 ,let us illustrate a bit more3 ,he spoke reprovingly to the boy4 ,he chided the boy4 ,he spoke in a mocking1 deriding manner4 ,he jeered4 ,his breath came convulsively and brokenly4 ,he gasped4 ,they exchanged idle words and gossip4 ,they babbled4 ,he gave utterance again to the thought4 ,he echoed the thought4 ,he was filled with wonder4 ,he marveled4 ,he busied himself with the affairs of his neighbors4 ,he meddled4 ,he thought over the situation4 ,he meditated4 ,he uttered a suppressed groan4 ,he moaned4 ,she spoke in low indistinct words4 ,she mumbled4 ,his was an exhibition of empty talk4 ,he palavered4 ,i am aware that these things are elementary--exceedingly elementary1 but they are of utmost import to young newspaper writers4 ,slovenly1 disjointed1 confused diction must retard your progress4 ,it was constant study that made ,dana and ,greeley the great journalists that they were4 ,neither of them wasted a minute4 ,if at the close of the day's work ,dana's final proof sheet was promised to him in seven minutes he withdrew from the little revolving book-rack on his desk a copy of the ,greek ,testament and utilized the seven minutes by reading it4 ,never was a question of fact raised but he joined in the search for the truth of it in the most enthusiastic manner4 ,his zeal and his interest were a source of inspiration to the staff4 ,with him study was the key to every problem4 ,when in #ahhj he asked me to be the managing editor of the ,sun1 the answer was3 8,mr4 ,dana1 ,i do not know enough to be your managing editor40 8,what do you mean by that80 was his question4 8,i mean that the managing editor of your newspaper should have wide1 extensive1 general information4 ,i know very little about politics1 or finance1 or art1 for instance4 ,a managing editor should have expert knowledge of them40 8,what is the objection to your devoting a little time each day to the study of these things in which you feel yourself deficient10 was ,mr4 ,dana's calm reply4 8,i did not know so much about them myself1 when ,i first came to the city as ,i do to-day40 ,i now appreciate that whatever progress ,i afterward made in the business came largely from this suggestion2 and ,i feel like passing it along to the young man who aspires to newspaper honors4 ,how true it is that to achieve you must study to the limit of your resources2 you must think to the limit of your intelligence2 you must strive to the limit of your endurance--then you have done your best and that marks the measure of your success4 ,study--persistent1 laborious1 intelligent study--is the key to success in writing4 ,occasionally a genius startles the public with a spontaneous facility for the use of words and sentences1 but the other nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine of us newspaper plodders must achieve our purposes by the hardest kind of hard work4 ,we must study the derivation of words1 the varied uses of words4 ,and if we are to keep up with these snappy times we must hunt for strong masculine nouns1 and rapid-fire verbs1 and staccato adjectives1 and sudden adverbs4 ,almost always we can find a better word than the one that first suggests itself1 if we hunt for it4 ,almost always we may shorten and simplify a sentence if we study it4 ,the word spoken may be forgotten4 ,the word written stands for all time4 ,the orator may move his hearers by eloquence1 by gesture1 by facial expression1 by the tricks of public speaking1 even though his actual words be feeble or not well chosen1 or his conclusions be not convincing4 ,his words may be forgotten--certainly will not be remembered unless preserved--but they have been reinforced by his arts of eloquence1 maybe by his audacity of speech1 by his personality1 and the net result is favorable4 ,the orator's bluff may at times serve him well1 but the words of the writer must stand on their own merit for all time4 ,type inspires little emotion4 ,there are few typographical tricks that cause heart-flutter or mental spasm4 ,just plain words alone--words1 words1 words1 nearly every one of which is already familiar to the reader1 must make the writer's success or failure4 ,how important that every word be studied4 ,the young journalist cannot be urged too strongly to study the use of words4 ,every word in the language has its correct use2 a vast number are used incorrectly4 ,you will find it a most interesting study4 ,if you doubt its interest1 be so good as to open your dictionary to any haphazard page and read intently for fifteen minutes4 ,you will find words the existence of which you had not known1 the meanings of which you had not understood4 ,observe the derivation and the primary meaning of the word and you cannot miss the proper use4 ,you cannot put time to better purpose1 if you seek for excellence in ,english composition1 than by studying the ,english dictionary a few minutes every day4 ,when a writer is sure of his information1 is sincere in his attitude1 and is eager and enthusiastic for its presentation1 the words and the sentences usually come to him with ease4 ,it is when he is shaky over his facts1 or insincere1 or dishonest1 that his words become feeble1 and lack convincing quality1 do not ring true4 ,it is curious how often dishonest journalism convicts itself through timidity of diction4 ,the ,english language is reaching afar4 ,those there are who predict that eventually it will be spoken everywhere4 ,already it is the language of more than two hundred million persons4 ,it will carry the tourist all over the globe by the established routes of travel1--through the streets of ,japan1 and the bazars of ,india1 and the ,south ,sea islands of the ,pacific4 ,tennyson said to ,sir ,edwin ,arnold3 8,it is bad for us that ,english will always be a spoken speech1 since that means that it will always be changing and so the time will come when you and ,i will be as hard to read as ,chaucer is to-day40 ,indeed1 the ,english language is changing constantly4 ,we are eliding letters1 lopping off terminations1 cutting out phrases and abolishing circumlocution4 ,it is not so old a language as a score of others and every opportunity for improvement exists4 ,it is1 indeed1 8an improvable language40 ,compare1 if you please1 any modern narrative with the beginning of ,chaucer's 8,the ,tale of ,melibeus03 ,a young man called ,melibeus1 mighty and riche1 begat upon his wif1 that called was ,prudens1 a doughter which that called was ,sophie4 ,upon a day byfel1 that for his disport he is went into the fields him to play4 ,his wif and his doughter eek hath he laft in-with his hous1 of which the dores were fast shut4 ,thre of his olde foos have it espyed1 and setten laddres to the walles of his hous1 and by the wyndowes be entred1 and beetyn his wyf1 and woundid his doughter with fyve mortal woundes in fyve sondry places1 that is to sayn1 in her feet1 in her hondes1 in her eeres1 in her nose1 and in her mouth2 and lafte her for deed1 and went away4 ,or imagine if you can to what small space a modern newspaper copy reader would reduce the following bit of ,washington ,irving prose that was printed in school readers sixty years ago as an example of graceful writing and felicity of expression3 ,in one of those somber and rather melancholy days in the latter part of autumn when the shadows of morning and evening almost mingle together and throw a gloom over the decline of the year ,i passed several hours rambling around ,westminster ,abbey4 ,there was something congenial to the season in the mournful magnificence of the old pile2 and1 as ,i passed its threshhold1 it seemed like stepping back into the regions of antiquity and losing myself among the shades of former ages4 ,usage is amplifying the service of many words whose primary meaning is obvious from their ,latin derivation4 ,dexter is the ,latin word meaning the right hand1 and strictly speaking 8dextrous movements0 should mean right hand movements4 ,but usage has brought dexterity to mean readiness1 skill1 adroitness1 aptitude1 both physical or mental4 ,macaulay uses it constantly in all of these meanings4 8,manufacture0 is easily traced to the ,latin origin manus1 the hand1 and facio1 to make--to make by hand4 ,but we have come to use 8manufacture0 for the making of anything1 by machinery1 or chemical processes1 or in any way other than with the hand4 ,and who shall say that these usages1 these enlargements of the meaning of dexterity and manufacture1 have not improved the ,english language8 ,more than ever before is there present-day need for the use of plain1 understandable ,english4 ,we live in a money-making age--an age of industrial development1 in which machines are doing the work that brains used to do1 in which vocational and technical education are demanded of our schools and colleges1 and in which the cry for technical literature is insistent4 ,experts only understand the technical words and the language of their specialty1 hence the cry for writers who can translate technical language into plain ,english that any reader may understand4 ,dean ,west1 of ,princeton1 has deplored the inability of many professors to teach orally or in writing in any other language than the dialect of their specialties4 ,lacking in literary training they are unable clearly to say what they think4 ,some one asked ,william ,t4 ,stead1 the ,english journalist1 whether he would have an astronomer or a newspaper writer prepare an article on sun spots1 and ,stead's instant reply was that the astronomer would write it for astronomers in language that no one else would understand1 but the reporter would tap the brain of the specialist and so serve out his knowledge that the ordinary reader would understand4 ,all the tendency of present-day writing is to translate technical language1 scientific terms1 professional formula1 and medical terms into plain common sense ,english4 ,let the good work go on6 ,and let not the young man contemplating a journalistic career be persuaded that newspaper ,english is not good ,english4 ,the men who wrote for the newspapers of the ,spanish-,american ,war1 of the great political movements of ,europe of later years1 of our great industrial developments1 and of the ,world ,war in particular1 are the very men who have rewritten these things into history for magazines and for book publishers4 ,when they wrote this information for the newspapers1 distinguished college professors and learned critics called it 8journalese02 when it appears in the reviews and in books they speak of it as 8literature40 ,in praise of newspaper writing as good training for writers1 ,anatole ,france has this to say3 ,it is an inveterate prejudice to believe that one spoils his pen in writing for the newspapers4 ,on the contrary one gains in that way suppleness as also ease and that readiness without which the phrase does not move gracefully and never smiles4 ,it is a good school say what one will4 ,some of the modern ,english seems very practical and easy to understand4 ,the use of the words 8scrapped0 and 8junked0 as verbs seems to have been put permanently into the language by the ,washington ,disarmament ,conference4 ,a well known journal says1 8,the newspapers were kidding him10 and very likely we will have to accept 8kid0 as a verb4 ,the entire ,navy now says of a man who goes from one place to another that he 8shoves off40 ,it is proper to say of a dissatisfied man that he is 8peeved10 according to the dictionaries1 but its use is new4 ,food is now known as 8eats0 and the pleasures of the pipe or cigar are called 8smokes40 ,a recent head-line said1 8,flivvers furnish booze to soldiers40 ,another newspaper transforms 8hokus0 into a verb3 8,complained that she hokused him10 while the scholarly ,new ,republic says of some occupation of youngsters that 8it gives them no time to go on the loose40 ,a new invention brings out a new crop of words4 ,we have 8automobile10 8garage10 8speedometer10 8limousine10 8taxi10 8taximeter10 8motorboat10 8motorcycle10 8chauffeur10 all useful and necessary additions to our elastic language4 ,the airplane has brought as many more4 ,our slang goes on apace4 ,make your sheet easy to read1 as well as easy to understand4 ,the other day a morning paper in a ,london cable said1 8,wheat sold at #fj shillings a quarter in the corn market to-day40 ,that sentence gave the mind of the reader a jolt and a pause1 in the attempt to translate shillings and quarters into cents and bushels4 ,few ,american readers are familiar with foreign languages1 hence all words1 as well as quotations1 in the ,french1 ,german1 or other tongues1 should be made into ,english4 ,pounds1 marks1 and francs should be computed into dollars and cents1 kilometers into miles4 ,and who knows where in ,new ,york ,state the ,thirty-fifth ,congress ,district is8 ,why not call it the ,syracuse district8 ,or who can tell where in ,new ,york ,city the ,sixteenth ,precinct police station may be8 ,why not identify it as the ,mercer ,street station8 ,on the first ,sunday of ,president ,wilson's stay in ,paris he went to church and the ,associated ,press report said the clergyman preached from ,isaiah ix4 #i4 ,naturally the words of the text were not transmitted at full cable rates2 and naturally1 too1 a certain curiosity was felt as to what they were4 ,yet of six ,new ,york daily newspapers examined1 one only had taken the pains to dig out the text and print it4 ,that sheet certainly served its readers better than did the others4 ,a little discreet exuberance of expression may be tolerated in newspaper writing4 ,sensational newspapers do no harm as long as they stick to the truth4 ,you may print your editions in red ink1 with job type1 with headlines a foot high if you like1 without other offenses than to exaggerate the importance of your announcement4 ,typographical eccentricity merely attracts attention4 ,it serves the same purpose as does the orator's violent gesture or the messenger's breathless announcement4 ,it excites curiosity1 arouses interest4 ,now1 there is such a thing as harmless exaggeration4 ,it enters largely into our private life4 ,our dreams of wealth1 of success1 of happiness are usually far beyond the fulfillment4 ,we exaggerate our prospects1 ambitions and promises to ourselves4 ,but this form of exaggeration is most beneficial for it is a spur to ambition and a prod to effort4 ,the editor is tempted to exaggeration because a little exaggeration makes it a little more interesting4 ,he sees that the exaggerated novel sells while the novel true to life is unnoticed2 that the actor who gesticulates and shouts has the loudest applause2 that the painter who outdoes nature outsells the artist who is true to fact4 ,indeed1 some philosopher has said that an easy road to success lies through exaggeration4 ,the man who exaggerates his own importance attracts more attention than the modest man4 ,the merchant who exaggerates his wares sells more than the man who does not4 ,sensational clergymen fill churches while prosy ones preach to empty benches4 ,it was ,sidney ,smith who remarked3 8,it is not the first man who says a thing who deserves credit for it1 but he who says it so long and so loud that at last he persuades the world that it is true40 ,macaulay remarked3 8,the best portraits are perhaps those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature1 and we are not certain that the best histories are not those in which a little of exaggeration1 of fictitious narrative1 is judiciously employed40 ,but the editor must use exaggeration with great discretion1 must not pervert the truth4 ,gross exaggeration becomes downright lying4 ,man's language cunningly adapts itself to man's thoughts4 ,sixty years ago writers were under the influence of what may be described as a literary age--that so-called golden age of the intellect that marked the early years of ,victoria's reign4 ,it was a period of intellectual uplift4 ,people were thinking of literature and talking of literature4 ,men hurried through their suppers to read to the family circle the stories of ,dickens and ,hawthorne and ,walter ,scott4 ,the literary lecture was popular and people went to church for the literary pleasure the sermon afforded4 ,the newspaper editors were writing literature and were urging their staffs to renewed literary effort4 ,the magazines were conspicuous for literary excellence4 ,the theaters were instructive4 ,the writers of poetry and prose sought a nicety of literary expression1 a daintiness of diction1 a legato of language4 ,courses of study favored instruction in literature and literary topics1 in language and history1 in science and philosophy4 ,and now1 if you please1 mark the contrast4 ,we are living in a business age4 ,war has blunted our sensibilities1 has made us callous1 has coarsened civilization4 ,we care little for so-called polite literature4 ,we want the rugged kind4 ,the family circle does not meet for literary exercises4 ,we are thinking of commercialism1 of money making1 of gigantic locomotives1 of immense bridges and tunnels1 of aqueducts a hundred and thirty miles long1 of skyscraping buildings1 flying machines1 telephones1 typewriting machines1 typesetting machines1 electric devices4 ,we are thinking of them until we are thinking of little else4 ,it is the age of the machine4 ,mechanical processes are doing the work that formerly demanded mental skill4 ,the village blacksmith no longer commands admiration by his picturesque and intelligent forging of the nail and shoe--he buys them ready made by machinery4 ,the learned shoemaker no longer artfully fashions my lady's dainty slipper--the shoe machine punches it out4 ,we bawl letters and dinner invitations through that mechanical device1 the telephone1 instead of writing them in the old fashioned courtly way4 ,time was when men put brains into what they did with their hands2 but to-day1 machines rather than brains are doing the work of the world4 ,our language and our literature cannot escape the influence4 ,instead of the sweetly gliding words and sentences of the men who translated the ,bible1 the deliberation of ,thackeray1 the ornate embellishments of ,washington ,irving--instead of the soft speaking poetry of #ahej and the flossy velvet prose of #ahfj our present-day writers are using whirlwind sentences and words in staccato that bite and scratch and explode4 ,we are changing our diction from the niceties of literary expression to a blunter and a coarser form of expression4 ,there can be no harm in it1 however4 ,the net result is to improve the language4 ,it is taking on the additional strength and agility and brevity that come of our industrial activity4 ,the very magnitude of our undertakings1 the very dimensions of our ambitions inspire to greatness of thought and forcefulness of speech4 ,the red blood of war is nourishing the vitals of our language4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,fascination ,,of ,,writing ,,for ,,the ,,editorial ,,page ,our young man who has just entered journalism begins soon to look longingly toward the editorial page4 ,he wants to become an editorial writer4 ,he longs to get into the world's controversies1 to thump ,presidents1 to crush cabinets1 to pulverize politicians1 to rebuke rulers1 to sandbag ignorance1 sin and superstition whenever they raise their swollen heads4 ,his immature notion of editorial writing is to smash into somebody or something4 ,he has a lot to learn4 ,the editorial page is the most important part of the newspaper4 ,it gives the sheet its greatest distinction1 its widest influence1 its chief reputation--gives the editor his proudest satisfaction4 ,it is here that the editor shows to the public the true measure of his ability and inspires the confidence and the respect of his community1 if at all4 ,the editorial article is a little essay on a current topic4 ,you may glorify the topic by giving it conspicuous importance in the strongest language at command1 or you may minimize it by inane flabby comments on its weakest features and by ignoring its essentials4 ,you may give it fine literary flavor1 or you may drool over it4 ,the tricks of the trade come with practice4 ,editorial writing is fascinating4 ,to wield influence always gives satisfaction4 ,for centuries it has been the ambition of orators and writers to influence men's thoughts1 to direct men's actions4 ,creative work is perhaps the most enjoyable of all work4 ,in the newspaper it has come to be the most important4 ,an original editorial article summons all the creative ability of the writer4 ,it is the product of his years of study and experience4 ,the news department may be conducted without an access of book learning1 for news getting has become so systematized and its principles so easy to learn that it is difficult to invent a new way of treating the news4 ,but before you have been an editorial writer many months you will have called into precious use all of your reasoning powers1 all of your philosophy1 all of the principles of life and of conduct you may have observed4 ,these modern days are big with new discoveries and they are first made public through the newspapers4 ,they give glorious opportunity for special study1 for mastery of the subject2 not necessarily a profound finality of knowledge of it1 but a knowledge comprehensive enough to write about it1 a knowledge fascinating in itself as a study--enough to give its possessor advantage in social conversation and receptiveness of mind for any new development of the subject4 ,and it astonishes to discover what a lot of information may be had from just a few hours of acute mental concentration on a given subject4 ,in these modern times the literature1 even the textbooks of everything new1 are quickly available4 ,the book publishers never were so alert or so spry to furnish technical knowledge4 ,such facilities for practical study never were known4 ,mere mention to the modern librarian of the nature of the information sought brings you volumes on the subject in a twinkling4 ,in large cities where the newspapers are opulent and large staffs are employed1 the editorial writer is expected to produce one article only each day4 ,if it be for a morning sheet he has a few hours in which to prepare it2 if it be for an evening edition it must be written quickly4 ,but the number of opulent newspapers is few in comparison with the number not able to have large staffs4 ,in almost all ,american daily newspapers the editorial writer is expected to furnish several articles every day4 ,always he is hurried4 ,he has little time for study or for proper thought4 ,his task tempts to a condition of routine thought2 tempts to the utterance of the obvious1 to imitation and the reproduction of the thoughts of others4 ,hurried writing usually is slovenly writing and that is a reason why nine-tenths of our editorial writing is mediocre4 ,the editorial writer should devote much time to study4 ,not in any other profession is there greater necessity for study1 greater use for the knowledge that is power4 ,the editor whose cranium is crammed with facts has great advantage over the editor whose cranium is empty1 for the mind1 especially the editorial mind1 feeds on facts4 ,the editor must furnish information and comment on a multitude of facts widely diverse in themselves1 topics treating of every phase of human life1 every shade of animate or inanimate condition4 ,he must study the topic enough to write on it skillfully4 ,he must convince the reader of his mastery of the subject4 ,bulwer ,lytton's reiteration that 8,knowledge is power0 finds constant verification in newspaper editing4 ,almost all newspaper editorial articles1 critiques of the drama or of music1 and all news articles are written at a single sitting and under the constant admonition to 8hurry up0 both mind and movement4 ,the writer must acquire the art of instant concentration of thought on the one subject1 of instantly recalling precedents and of quickly foreseeing results4 ,this everlasting hurry is a serious drawback to good newspaper making2 but it is a powerful incentive1 also1 to quick thinking4 ,what has been said of the politician1 that often he must act before he has read or thought1 is singularly true of the editor4 ,the editorial writer must understand the political and commercial and social questions of the hour and must be prepared to hop right into a discussion of them at a moment's notice4 ,he must train himself to use quick judgment and to arrive at quick conclusions4 ,news intelligence may be so presented that it will have quick influence on the reader4 ,often it may produce flash conclusions that may be reversed by next day's news4 ,many readers glance at headlines and quickly scan news columns and are influenced by what they see without giving it a scrap of intellectual reflection4 ,but the editorial writer must have real merit to influence other men4 ,he must possess the art of composition1 of ready speech1 of carrying conviction4 ,he not only thinks for his reader1 but he seeks to persuade the reader to his way of thinking4 ,but always the editorial article should be a help to the reader1 should inform1 interest1 explain1 elucidate as well as influence4 ,the modern headline artist has solved the problem of attracting the reader's attention4 ,the editorial writer has not the advantage of typographical eccentricity to help him2 he must attract and convince by what he says4 ,it is difficult to indicate1 even much less to advise the student of journalism1 how to study for editorial writing--so vast is the field of desirable knowledge4 ,but first of all he must read the newspapers and the periodical publications1 for he must understand the topics that are engaging public thought4 ,the editor must absorb and remember a mass of current facts that will not be recorded in textbooks and histories for months or years to come if indeed they ever are recorded4 ,the newspapers are the first to record great events1 the weekly press is next1 and the magazines then follow4 ,histories and textbooks come along later4 ,no other way of keeping up with public events has been discovered4 ,the process is easy and interesting1 however4 ,there should be thoughtful study of the great principles that govern human conduct4 ,all history is useful4 ,and obviously the editor cannot know too much of the fundamentals of government1 of law1 diplomacy1 politics1 and political causes1 of finance1 taxation1 philanthropy1 the relations of labor and capital and so on--the list is endless4 ,the schools of journalism give much attention to these essentials4 ,their courses are prepared with great wisdom for the attainment of practical knowledge4 ,young men who would be journalists will profit greatly by study in these schools4 ,in almost all of the large newspaper offices there is a daily editorial council composed of the editorial writers1 the managing editor1 the city editor1 the foreign editor1 and sometimes the ,sunday editor1 and the special writers4 ,this council meets at the beginning of the newspaper day4 ,the events of the moment have informal discussion and a general conclusion is indicated by the editor as to what must be the editorial attitude toward them4 ,thus the editorial policy of the sheet is understood by all4 ,the editor assigns to the writers their topics for discussion4 ,the editor indicates the paper's policy toward all public questions and the editorial page is just what he makes it4 ,the newspaper does not rise above its editor4 ,his assistants write as he directs and wishes1 without question1 regardless of their personal convictions as to the wisdom of the policy or their personal attitude toward it4 ,but an assistant is not often asked to write contrary to his convictions4 ,the editor usually revises all editorial page articles and his staff does not return for night work as was the practice of morning newspaper editorial writers fifty years ago4 ,one editorial writer remains to comment briefly on any extraordinary news that may develop4 ,this change in general newspaper practice was inspired by the late ,charles ,a4 ,dana who urged that all editorial comment should be prepared with great deliberation and thoughtfulness1 that hastily written articles were perfunctory or were expression of the obvious4 ,he wanted not the editorial expression written at midnight for publication at two ,a4 ,m4 and the other editors came to his way of thinking and doing4 ,little change has been made in the appearance of the editorial page in the last fifty years4 ,the make-up remains about the same1 the most important article or 8the leader0 occupying first place1 the other articles tapering off in the order of their supposed goodness or importance4 ,few new features are seen4 ,the column or two of letters to the editor appear with the same regularity and in the same place as they did fifty years ago1 written1 as then1 for the most part by persons who delight to see their names in print1 who like to find fault or criticize1 who seek to exploit a hobby or a precious project for reforming something4 ,nevertheless1 many letters to the editor are of great value1 informative1 suggestive1 original4 ,some of the newspaper controversies in which the public takes part are amusing and instructive4 ,many of the letters to the editor are written by the editor himself--an easy1 convenient device for avoiding personal responsibility for the sentiment exploited4 ,the increase in the size of newspapers has been that more pages of news and department features may be added4 ,the editorial page has remained unchanged4 ,indeed1 instead of additional editorial articles following increase of the sheet's size the tendency has been to print less comment4 ,we have quadrupled the volume of space devoted to general news1 to sports1 to financial reports1 but have actually lessened the number of columns carrying editorial articles4 ,but we note decided change in the editorial articles themselves1 in the choice of topics for comment1 in the character1 the quality1 the spirit of discussion1 in the diction4 ,the old time editorial page was devoted almost entirely to politics4 ,it was the expression of a strongly partisan editor and was surcharged with vituperation and abuse of his personal and political enemies and of the opposition candidates4 8,you lie1 you villain2 and you know you lie0 was one of the gentler forms of argument in common use4 ,the ability of the enemy candidate and the quality of his political principles were treated with unfairness and contempt4 ,this unfairness flavored news reports as well4 ,i distinctly remember a meeting of three thousand howling1 shouting1 partisan lunatics alive with vim and bursting with enthusiasm all honestly interested in their cause2 and they were described next morning by an opposition newspaper as a handful of silent1 melancholy1 dejected1 drooling curiosity seekers and vagrants who had crawled into the hall to keep warm4 ,but the modern newspaper has ceased to be a rigid partisan organ4 ,it is much more moderate of discussion4 ,there is less acrimonious attack on public men1 less political misrepresentation1 less unfairness toward any opponent4 ,indeed1 it is common enough nowadays for an editor to make a fair and honest presentation of the opposition argument before undertaking to demolish it4 ,it always has been a question whether excessive vituperation and venomous attack have as much influence as temperate reasoning and the moderate expression of righteous conclusions4 ,it is easy to call names--to call a man a thief or a liar--and the personal journalism of fifty years ago rang with such language4 ,the editorial writing of to-day is moderation itself compared with the old time kind4 ,even more conspicuous is the change in the choice of topics selected for editorial discussion4 ,politics dominated four-fifths of the old time page1 day after day4 ,the stirring events preceding and succeeding the ,civil ,war aroused great interest in political principles and in political leadership4 ,it was a continuous performance of political strife involving the issues of secession1 the extension of slavery to the new states1 the conduct of the war1 and the multitude of complications and consequences attending reconstruction4 ,the period between #ahej and #ahgj was perhaps the most important politically in ,american history after the ,revolution4 ,the ,american editor was in his glory4 ,just at that time the ,victorian era of literature was at full growth4 ,it was a literary age4 ,we are living just now in a commercial age and commercialism engrosses public attention4 ,it is changing our processes of thinking1 changing our choice of editorial topics from political and literary topics to commercial topics1 changing our diction from the smoothly flowing ornate sentences of the ,victorian era to a blunter1 more robust form of expression that tells what it wants to say in a staccato of fewest1 shortest words4 ,nevertheless1 in the plain robust writing of the day we miss much of the pleasure of reading4 ,in the everlasting hunt for fact1 for practical information1 there is less food for the imagination1 less suggestion on which we may enlarge the imagination4 ,our thoughts are directed in mathematical lines1 in practical directions4 ,there is less of the sentimental4 ,politics we must have with us always1 but the routine politics of ordinary times do not especially interest the public4 ,it is in the few months of a presidential campaign only that we find the ,american people approaching political excitement4 ,an ,edison test of political knowledge would bring many of us to grief4 ,how many readers of these lines1 for instance1 can name the officers of their state chosen at the latest election1 or can name the state's delegation in ,congress1 or can give even the name of each member of the ,president's cabinet and the post he occupies8 ,always there must be love for good literature among the cultured1 but the mass of the people care less for literature than they did fifty years ago when the literature of the ,victorian period was uppermost in thought4 ,in the larger offices there are from six to ten editorial staff writers who go to the editorial rooms daily4 ,the editor has at command always a number of editorial writers who contribute in the line of their specialties--the writer on medical topics1 the army and navy experts1 the mechanical engineer1 the man who is authority on geographical research1 the expounder of financial and commercial topics1 and so on4 ,these men are useful adjuncts to the staff and they are in constant demand4 ,it is quite the practice for editorial writers to specialize on a few topics1 to become office authority on them1 to be able to explain1 elucidate1 construct1 with that authority and conviction which expert knowledge alone can inspire--to assure the orator confidently that he has evaded the main question1 to riddle the pretension of a dishonest promoter1 or the fabrications of a fake explorer1 or the vaporings of a scrubby scientist4 ,the newspaper has to disclose the humbug of the world as well as its realities4 ,just at the moment 7#aibb7 the world is in confusion in consequence of the great war and the expert writer is in demand to solve the problems growing out of a vast reconstruction4 ,the writer who understands the fundamentals of diplomacy1 or of trade and commerce1 of government1 of international law is welcome in newspaper offices4 ,moreover1 it is cheering to recognize that you know as much about a given topic as does any one else4 ,to do editorial page writing is the ambition of nearly all young journalists4 ,the office hours are fixed and short when compared with those of the rest of the staff4 ,the writer has more time for study and recreation4 ,he has the satisfaction of doing the highest grade of newspaper work4 ,his responsibility is not excessive for his articles are subject to revision and to criticism in advance of publication4 ,it is clean1 wholesome intellectual work with a minimum likelihood for mistake or error4 ,but1 in the larger cities the editorial writer's work is anonymous4 ,he is little known except by his associates1 for the practice of signing editorial articles has not become common4 ,the names of other writers are made conspicuous4 ,the man who describes the financial situation1 the bridge whist savant1 some of the book reviewers1 the playhouse critics1 even the writers of base ball games and prize fights1--these are permitted to print their names at the head of their columns4 ,not so the editorial writers although they perform the highest service for the newspaper1 doing the work requiring the most brains and the severest study4 ,if one of them writes an especially noteworthy article the editor in chief quite likely gets the credit for it from the public4 ,editorial writing requires a different literary touch from that of plain narration4 ,it is harder to catch the knack of it4 ,the special article or news report gives information only2 the editorial article seeks to persuade1 or explain1 or amuse4 ,it must attract the reader's attention and it is the writer's art of combining chat1 information and opinion that accomplishes this result4 ,its opportunities for literary perfection are limitless4 ,every possible conceit1 or trick of language1 argument1 invective1 ridicule1 sarcasm1 humor1 frolic1 pathos1 every element that enters literature1 may be indulged in1 and the more striking the more successful4 ,always the editorial article should have a purpose4 ,always exists the opportunity for nicety of language1 for that use of words to befit the thought that constitutes good composition4 ,the editorial writer must not forget that almost all readers seek to be amused rather than instructed4 8,i had not thought of that before0 is a common comment of the newspaper reader4 ,but the editor had thought of it because he had been taught to think4 ,he must be informed of the world's events and be prepared to tell the reader exactly what they mean4 ,let it be impressed on the young man in journalism that he must learn to explain as well as to record4 ,and let it be repeated that he must expect to think for that very large proportion of his readers who from lack of time and from force of habit and from inability because they have not practiced it1 are unable1 unaided1 to diagnose and draw conclusions from the burning questions of the day4 ,you cannot give better service than by explaining the alpha and the omega of important events4 ,,chapter ,v ,,what ,,to ,,print--,,the ,,problem ,,of ,,how ,,to ,,interest ,,and ,,inform ,,the ,,reader ,in his meditations over newspaper possibilities the late ,joseph ,pulitzer found himself reasoning that the existing newspapers were written above the understanding of the multitudes and consequently were not read by them4 ,hundreds of thousands of the metropolitan district population read no daily newspaper because the prices of the sheets were high and because editorial utterances were 8over their heads10 were too profound1 too argumentative1 too scholarly4 ,mr4 ,pulitzer pictured to himself a newspaper so simple of speech and so simple of editorial expression that this vast population could understand it4 ,he purchased the ,new ,york ,world1 reduced its price1 tried to make it appeal to the masses1 and before long he had attained a very great circulation and a very great fortune4 ,now1 ,mr4 ,pulitzer accomplished this result by contemplating his newspaper from the viewpoint of the reader rather than from that of the editor4 ,he gave the people something they had wanted4 ,giving the public what it wants is the surest way of securing a horde of readers4 ,his reading matter was mild2 the typography spectacular4 ,he attracted attention with headlines a foot high and with letter press that looked like thickly woven barbed wire fence4 ,one half the page was daubed with blotches of black type and the other half was smeared with red ink4 ,but typographical eccentricity alone does little harm2 it's a question of taste4 ,mr4 ,pulitzer had made his great success on the lines indicated above and was breathing easily4 ,it was not until another man came along who outdid ,mr4 ,pulitzer in multiple exaggerations of the same game that the country saw the most riotous journalism ever known anywhere4 ,mr4 ,pulitzer's early efforts at sensationalism were as a smoking ash barrel when compared with the ,vesuvius of volcanic flame and melted lava that followed4 ,that ,mr4 ,hearst would collect a bigger mob of readers was inevitable1 but ,mr4 ,pulitzer lost no readers and gained many4 ,both establishments kept up the contest as long as circulations continued to grow2 but with the pause of the rocket rise things began to simmer down to a less spectacular splendor of insanity4 ,the inflammation of the imagination subsided and gradually they approached the routine and the respectability of the other newspapers4 ,it was the same old story--the story so familiar to every journalist of ripening years--of building up a newspaper circulation by spectacular methods and then relapsing into ordinary goodness with a deliberation so gradual that the reader does not notice the change4 ,for every editor knows that the more details of sin1 vice1 and crime he crams into his newspaper the more copies of that newspaper will be sold2 and every editor knows that the most subtle temptation that besets him is the temptation to print the things that should not be printed and that temptation is the more acute because he knows that the people want to read them4 ,aye6 there's the rub6 ,the people want the sensational stuff4 ,the very sensational newspapers sell three or four times as many copies as do the conservative ones4 ,the proportion is even larger in ,london and ,paris4 ,in our large cities almost all the newspapers of great circulation began the building up process by audacious sensationalism2 as they became prosperous they became moderate4 ,joseph ,addison of long-ago literary fame recognized the public liking for sensation4 ,he says in ,the ,spectator3 8,at the same time ,i am very sensible that nothing spreads a paper like private calumny and defamation40 ,and the ,rev4 ,lyman ,abbott1 in rebuking the sensational press1 was moved to remark3 8,is the defense of the newspaper that it must give the public what it wants a good one8 ,most certainly no6--no more than the selling of whiskey1 opium1 stale fish or decayed vegetables4 ,the editor is or ought to be a public teacher40 ,the popular taste that demands this sensational sort of newspaper stimulant attracted the notice of ,lafcadio ,hearn1 who remarks3 8,everywhere there is a public of this kind to whom lachrymose emotion and mawkish sentiment give the same kind of pleasure that black1 red1 and blazing yellow give to the eyes of little children and savages40 ,conversely1 the ,christian ,science ,monitor is read by thousands of persons for the reason not so much that it represents a religious emotion as that it prints wholesome news free from spasm4 8,it reflects the true balance of the world's work and refuses to see only the evil and morbid happenings in it and let it appear that they are the preponderant forces of the world's efforts4 ,thus it emphasizes the decent things1 the heroic things1 the things worth while40 ,with fairly good service the ,christian ,science ,monitor presents the news of the day1 and it especially appeals to parents who wish to keep the tart news reports of the secular press from their children4 ,what to print8 ,that is a query that has disturbed many an editor's nightcap4 ,so much depends on the editorial purpose4 ,if the editor seeks to have a wholesome influence1 seeks to do good1 seeks a reputation for honesty of purpose and honesty of community service he naturally will stick to a conservative course2 for somehow1 exaggeration and sensationalism1 not to mention falsehood1 do not seem quite to harmonize with moral precepts2 nor do they inspire confidence in the editor's influence4 ,the conservative sheets are duller1 but they are trusted the more--and public confidence is a mighty fine foundation on which to build a healthy circulation4 ,many persons read the same newspaper for years and years4 ,they become used to its ways1 to its arrangement of news and topics2 and they have confidence in its integrity4 ,it comes to be almost a spiritual consolation to them4 ,they swear by it and they believe in it just as they believe in their pastor or their family physician4 ,this is especially true of readers in the smaller cities and villages although it prevails everywhere4 ,now1 it behooves the editor to nurse this attitude1 for once it gets hold on a community it is hard to dislodge4 ,it grows like a river after spring rains1 slowly but surely increasing in volume and in strength4 ,the people bought ,greeley's ,tribune because they believed that ,greeley was honest4 ,they were willing to be influenced by what he said4 ,for the same reason ,bowles's ,springfield ,republican became popular and prosperous4 ,throughout the country we have repeated instances of newspapers having the confidence of the community because they are honestly conducted4 ,the ,new ,york ,times is perhaps our most gratifying exhibit of a newspaper advanced to supreme success by conservative methods4 ,free from exaggeration of statement1 or typographical appearance1 or hysteria of any sort1 it has grown to great circulation and influence4 ,mr4 ,ochs planned this result on the theory of giving to each reader the things in which he was personally interested1 printing the news in such volume as to attract a great variety of interests4 ,the lawyer found the full court calendar1 the real estate man a record of every sale1 the sporting enthusiast the result of every game4 ,reversal of political policy has damaged the prosperity of many a newspaper4 ,in #ahgb the ,new ,york ,tribune1 the ,chicago ,tribune1 and the ,cincinnati ,commercial ,tribune1 that had built up large circulations and had secured a profitable business as ,republican newspapers1 bolted the nomination of the ,republican candidate1 ,president ,grant1 and supported ,horace ,greeley1 the ,liberal ,democratic nominee1 for the presidency4 ,they lost more than half of their readers4 ,in #ahhd1 the ,new ,york ,times1 that always had been unflinchingly ,republican1 bolted the nomination of ,james ,g4 ,blaine and supported the candidacy of ,grover ,cleveland1 the ,democratic standard bearer4 ,it lost half of its readers4 ,in the same campaign1 the ,sun1 of ,new ,york1 that heretofore had favored the ,democratic cause1 bolted ,cleveland4 ,it lost more than half of its readers4 ,many other instances of loss of circulation in consequence of change of political policy might be given4 ,newspaper editors of long memories expect popular resentment of a turn-coat policy and they give great consideration to any change before making it4 ,no amount or degree of caressing talk or pussy-paw argument seems to soothe the man whose politics or religion has been attacked4 ,also1 if you attack a man's politics or his religion you are likely to make that man your enemy--and almost every man has a trace of politics or religion in his makeup4 ,he regards it as a personal assault on himself4 ,he also resents criticism of a friend or of the object of his hero worship4 ,the newspaper that attacked ,general ,grant when ,grant was the idol of the nation1 when he was worshiped because he had led our armies to victory1 that newspaper lost thousands of readers and its editor lost a host of his personal friends4 ,the newspaper that attacked the ,rev4 ,henry ,ward ,beecher with more violence than did any other newspaper1 at the time of the famous ,beecher trial1 lost three or four thousand of its readers a day while the attacks continued4 ,the public had become greatly excited and divided over the question of ,mr4 ,beecher's guilt or innocence4 ,neighbors shook fists in each other's faces on ,brooklyn street corners and the angry controversy spread all over the country4 ,the church people in general championed the pastor and their defense of him came at length1 in a way1 to be regarded as a defense of religion as well1 and the newspaper assaults as an attack on religion4 ,we have said that it behooves the editor who has the confidence of his constituents to nurse that confidence--that a circulation based on confidence is not easily lost4 ,nevertheless1 it is fatal to mislead the public4 ,it is dangerous to circulation to go against public sentiment4 ,a knowledge of public sentiment and the ability to anticipate public sentiment are brilliants1 indeed1 in the editor's jewelbox of sagacity4 ,the absolutely fearless editor who values his opinion more than he values his income1 will slam into the public's most cherished notions if he thinks he is right4 ,he will take a violent attitude on all public questions4 ,the timid editor shuns controversy4 ,his policy is to praise rather than to condemn4 ,he fears unpopularity4 ,he knows that to lambaste the city government is to lose the city printing4 ,he strives to please everybody1 to avoid antagonizing any large part of the community4 ,the fearless editor disregards consequences2 the timid editor avoids them4 ,mr4 ,dana used to say3 8,we must make the paper talked about4 ,we must make it more interesting4 ,the people will not buy it if it is dull40 ,concerning a piece of inconsequential news that he had clipped from its columns he wrote3 8,this is not good4 ,it is too commonplace4 ,there is no poetry in it4 ,a blockhead might have written it40 ,he abhorred the commonplace4 ,he urged constantly that minor routine news be put aside for anything bright or unusual1 that verbal tediousness be hooted out of the place4 ,he loved literature4 ,he appreciated and praised good writing and he inspired his staff to enthusiasm for it1 and to superexcellence of workmanship4 ,mr4 ,dana chose to lead public opinion rather than be led by it4 ,he wrote with extraordinary forcefulness and with entire disregard1 with absolute unconcern1 as to the effect of his utterances on the circulation of the paper4 ,repeatedly he printed articles that he knew must cost him thousands of readers4 ,greeley's idea was to print a newspaper of national importance and national influence2 and that meant of course the printing of a lot of national politics4 ,he sought to be a great political leader1 to be the champion of his party4 ,he was little interested as a journalist in the ordinary run of news4 ,whitelaw ,reid1 who succeeded ,greeley as editor of the ,new ,york ,tribune1 once said3 8,the thing always forgotten by the closest critics of the newspapers is that the newspapers must be measurably what their readers make them1 what their constituents call for and sustain40 ,reid wished the ,tribune to be of national importance4 ,his remark naturally recalls the continuous performance discussion as to whether the newspapers lead the people or whether public opinion leads the newspapers4 ,but we must agree1 ,i am sure1 that it is useless to give the people what they do not want4 ,how can we best interest the reader8 ,people enjoy reading about the things in which they have participated4 ,if you have attended a public meeting you follow with pleasure the newspaper report of that meeting4 ,you are grateful to recognize things you remember the speaker to have said4 ,if you have been to the theater you want to read a report or a criticism of the performance4 ,you are pleased especially if the critic mentions some good or poor feature that you had noticed4 ,it is a sort of verification of your judgment4 ,you feel a sense of personal participation in the article4 ,the same is true of the opera or a music event4 ,all these things are constantly recurring1 and reporters and critics are likely to become so familiar with them that their importance becomes obscured4 ,this is true of opera and theater notices4 ,the opera critic who has been listening to ,faust for thirty years ceases to write much about it2 but the young person who hears the opera for the first time is disappointed because so little is printed about the performance4 ,we are much more interested in accounts of the ball games1 the prize fights1 the contests of any sort that we have seen than we can be in those not seen4 ,to the man or woman in society the news of society is infinitely more than mere gossip4 ,the society man of any pretension must know what society folk are doing1 must be informed of their every movement4 ,his newspaper gives the hint for many letters4 ,he must congratulate the family whose daughter's engagement is announced4 ,he must sympathize with the bereaved4 ,society news has the personal note1 and personalities sell newspapers4 ,cram your sheet with them1 young man6 ,we are living in a commercial age1 a money-making age4 ,people are thinking as never before of money accumulation and business expansion4 ,the journalistic tendency of the hour is to exalt the practical and minimize the sentimental4 ,war has made us money mad4 ,we note a growing fascination for articles of the practical1 of how great fortunes are developed1 of how money is made and lost1 of how the poor become rich and the rich become poor--stories of business construction involving millions1 of the application of invention to everyday needs4 ,this kind of narrative includes the recital of personal successes1 how the quick-witted boy becomes a captain of industry1 how ,nature's forces are utilized and ,nature's secrets are turned to practical account4 ,the details of how great success or great wealth has been achieved never have failed to fascinate mankind4 ,all fiction has been saturated with stories of money-seeking because the topic is so interesting4 ,nevertheless fiction can but feebly compete with the realities of the present4 ,the tales of great gambling in ,wall ,street1 of card conquests at ,monte ,carlo1 of new gold discoveries1 of money made in real-estate speculations1 of gigantic swindling operations1 of big winnings on the racing track1 of mental smartness in money-getting1 of big success in any quest for cash--you cannot give the public too much of this kind of matter if you wish to sell your sheet4 ,but1 if you ask me to describe the kind of news for which the people surge and struggle around the bulletin boards--the most popular kind of news printed anywhere--,i must reply that it is found in the details of a conquest1 a fight1 whether between men with their fists1 or dogs1 or armies1 politicians or polo players1 football teams or racing horses1 church choirs or kitchen cabinets4 ,i remember so well that in my boyhood days my own little village held its breath to await details of the world's champion prize fight between ,john ,c4 ,heenan1 of ,america1 and ,tom ,sayers1 of ,england4 ,not since that day has interest in prize fights languished4 ,the fist fight between ,john ,l4 ,sullivan and ,james ,corbett quadrupled the circulation of next-day newspapers4 ,repeatedly the big ,new ,york ,madison ,square ,garden has been crowded to its roof with enthusiasts who paid from fifteen to fifty dollars to see two men batter each other4 ,fifty thousand persons see the big football games1 and fifteen millions read about them4 ,so great is the interest in baseball contests the newspapers are compelled to print from seven to ten columns a day in description of them4 ,the same conditions exist to a triflingly less degree only with contests in tennis1 rowing1 polo1 yachting1 horse racing1 golf--any event1 especially in athletics1 involving a fight for supremacy4 ,i know of one ,new ,york newspaper that confidently counts on an increase of eighteen or twenty thousand in circulation with the opening of the baseball season4 ,there seems to be no limit to popular interest in the details of any kind of contest1 especially one that has been lavishly advertised4 ,business usually languishes every four years while the fight for the ,presidency proceeds1 and the newspapers print hundreds of columns about it4 ,the squabbles1 the encounters1 the fights in sports1 in business1 in politics1 in the courts1 among doctors and educators1 in the churches even--they all absorb the people almost to the limit of human interest4 ,the young man in journalism should get wise to this interest4 ,whatever is nearest the heart1 whatever is uppermost in mind--that is what we want to read about4 ,we are changeable creatures in thought1 in purpose1 and in habit4 ,the new always is fascinating4 ,the smart editor recognizes the love of change2 accordingly he exalts the new4 ,more than that1 he anticipates interest that is to develop1 foresees changes in government policies1 the introduction of new methods1 the outcome of scientific discovery4 ,he prepares his readers accordingly4 ,man's great interest is in his business1 in his money-making4 ,frequently the newspapers are of especial service to him4 ,in many lines of business they are a necessity4 ,the manufacturer of goods1 for instance1 searches every column for information bearing on the raw product that enters into them1 the price1 the supply1 the demand1 weather conditions that may influence1 the condition and the cost of transportation1 the effect of legislation1 the menace of competition--anything that has influence on the making and delivery of his product4 ,quick information is priceless to him4 ,but interest in war surpasses all other attention1 as it has from the beginning of man's mastery over man4 ,it is difficult to recall any condition of human existence not affected by war4 ,war is supreme as an agent of destruction4 ,it destroys not only nations and governments1 life and property1 but also it blunts civilization1 coarsens refinement1 stops study and progress1 prevents the fulfillment of life-cherished plans and ambitions1 changes the life purpose of millions of men4 ,it is entirely impossible to comprehend the multitudinous effects of war or to appreciate the condition of mind in which a stricken people emerge from war4 ,the study of war gives the journalist exalted opportunity4 ,his readers are interested in war more than in anything else4 ,some folks delight in reading criticisms of their neighbors1 attacks on public men or complaints of the conduct of mankind in general4 ,this is a species of jealousy that rejoices in the discomfiture of others4 ,they gloat over disclosures1 get cynical over the downfall of public idols and the reversals of popular beliefs4 ,nothing pleases them more than to have a clergyman go astray or a church member get in jail4 ,they are fond of investigations4 ,their pinhead perceptions find nourishment in the mistakes of others4 ,they always take the negative side4 ,they question4 ,they doubt4 ,they lament4 ,they scold4 ,it is easy for an editor to acquire this attitude4 ,many editors have assumed it1 beginning with the notion of catering to people who like this sort of reading2 then they gradually absorb the flavor4 ,we have had the examples of ill-natured newspapers nicknamed by the public the 8,growler10 or the 8,scold10 or the 8,old ,pessimist40 ,not long ago several magazines sought fame and circulation by a conduct of criticism of public men called muckraking4 ,the sale of thousands of copies attested general greed for that kind of reading4 ,this public attitude certainly tempts the editor2 but experience has taught that the public scold is vastly unpopular1 be he editor1 preacher1 teacher or oracle of any sort4 ,and many are interested in reading about the weather4 ,it is a universal topic of conversation4 ,it governs our agricultural prosperity4 ,it influences every kind of business4 ,it stops the ball games4 ,it parches our soil1 interferes with our plans1 disturbs our comfort1 upsets mental processes1 compels us to change our clothing when we do not want to4 ,it makes us wear clumsy things on our feet4 ,it raises the very mischief in a hundred different ways4 ,everybody thinks of it or speaks of it twenty times a day4 ,the wise editor will print a fine fat paragraph about it1 describing the weather over all this broad land1 giving the practical1 the scientific reasons for its varied changes1 and explaining the indicated effect on trade1 travel1 and temperament4 ,what shall we print8 ,a ,california newspaper sought through a questionnaire to learn from its readers how much of the sheet they actually read4 ,it summarized the eighteen hundred replies4 ,seventy-five per cent attested that the reader looked at the headlines and rarely finished the article2 only twenty-five per cent ever read an article through4 ,one answer said1 8,i go beyond the headline once in ten times1 perhaps1 but when ,i do ,i read it through40 ,still another1 8,i usually find all ,i want in the first paragraph40 ,the net result seemed to indicate that almost all simply scanned the sheet in search of something to interest them1 and found little4 ,the chief criticism was that the articles were too long4 ,the ,paris daily publications before the war minimized the news and in its place presented discussion and comment1 sketchy description1 much fiction and literary matter4 ,they achieved enormous circulations4 ,the most successful were exceedingly well written1 were distinctly literary2 and they prospered greatly without the aid of news features of the ,american and ,english journalistic sort4 ,they were made attractive and interesting by their excellence of workmanship4 ,the ,new ,york ,evening ,journal was carried to enormous circulation by editorial presentation rather than news exploiting4 ,for many years it had neither the ,associated ,press nor any other news association service4 ,its editorial utterances attracted far reaching attention4 ,what news it had was emphasized by exaggeration and breathless announcement1 and typographical monstrosity4 ,the ,evening ,sun1 which never had the ,associated ,press dispatches1 attained great popularity and circulation through cheerful1 bright1 and witty illumination of things1 and a minimum of profundity4 ,in a newspaper address before the ,convocation of the ,university of the ,state of ,new ,york1 ,mr4 ,don ,seitz1 of the ,new ,york ,world1 said3 ,talent was the thing in the old days1 but we have gotten over that1 alas6 ,energy has taken the place of talent and the sudden fact has taken the place of the news4 ,the modern editor has been misled somehow into using a great deal of display type to handle the few words he uses1 and at first ,i had the thought that this was wrong4 ,but somehow ,i have changed my mind4 ,it is necessary to arouse interest4 ,the vast number of readers are rudimentary in thought4 ,they do not take easily to a dull solid column no matter how interesting it may be4 ,in trying1 therefore1 to catch the largest number of readers the editor conceived the idea of putting in larger type4 ,it has shown what the people wanted1 and that they must have some quick way of learning what was going on1 and mind you1 we have shortened up our reading time a great deal1 which is another fact4 ,with many people newspaper reading becomes a fixed habit4 ,they come to enjoy their favorite publication just as they enjoy food and sleep4 ,it gives them topics for thought and conversation4 ,they become interested in its features1 in the 8colyum0 of fun and chat and josh that has become so popular1 in the illustrated comic strips that started with ,foxy ,grandpa and have come to include ,percy and ,ferdie1 ,bringing up ,father1 ,mutt and ,jeff1 and the rest of the jolly folk4 ,constant reading about them brings a feeling of personal acquaintance with them and the habit of seeking for them4 ,they help amazingly to draw readers and to retain them4 ,the newspaper habit is to be encouraged and these features help to fix it4 ,there can be no doubt of the popularity of the medical column1 of the puzzle department1 of the question and answer feature1 and of the other like things that serve to amuse the reader4 ,parents seek topics1 also1 that will interest the children1 simple and childlike though they be4 ,it is amusing to note how interested older people get in articles on important subjects written down to a child's understanding4 ,somebody is going to make a fortune sometime by printing a children's newspaper giving the news and the questions of the day in language and thought that children can understand4 8,grown-ups0 will appreciate it quite as much as will the youngsters4 ,just how much of exaggeration and feverish language and typographical eccentricity to inject into the sheet always puzzles the editor4 ,he is tempted by public demand for it1 yet he does not want a reputation for sensationalism4 ,the hysteria of the sensational newspaper may not be of harm to a young person who reads it casually4 ,but suppose she1 the shop girl for instance1 acquires the habit of reading it every day4 ,because of her employment1 or her environment1 she has not time or opportunity to read anything else4 ,she comes to think and to talk in its exaggerated1 inflamed1 feverish language4 ,its typographical1 breathless announcements startle her--fill her with feverish emotions4 ,she becomes a pessimist1 for in the sensational sheet the true1 the good1 the normal are ignored4 8,virtue go hang2 vice is the thing that attracts attention0 is the motto4 ,the maiden is fed on the abnormal1 the unusual1 on mental monstrosities1 and fancies4 ,it influences her life4 ,it was said not so very long ago that ten years of cheap reading had changed the ,british from the most stolid nation of ,europe to the most hysterical and theatrical4 ,be this as it may3 habitual cheap reading must of necessity produce cheap thinking1 and cheap expression of thought1 and consequently cheap moral conduct4 ,it is in this direction that the sensational press and the cheap literature of the day have their chief influence4 ,cheap literature produces cheap mentality and1 therefore1 a cheap people4 ,in defense of sensationalism it is urged that you cannot arouse the interest of the ignorant man by ordinary methods of speech4 ,his mind is too sluggish to comprehend it as ordinarily spoken4 ,he can appreciate big headlines and lurid catch words and they attract him4 ,i have lingered over these things in somewhat prosy manner1 perhaps1 but if you are going into the newspaper business ,i know of little more important than real study of what to print4 ,the practical newspaper man thinks of it by the hour4 ,the good newspaper is not the product of chance4 ,every phase of life is thought out and its relation to public interest is weighed4 ,public interest changes almost daily4 ,it must be studied1 must be anticipated1 must be prepared for4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,pleasing ,,experiences ,,of ,,the ,,foreign ,,correspondent ,the post of foreign correspondent is sought eagerly by newspaper men4 ,the work is interesting and agreeable and the experience is invaluable4 ,it gives opportunity for foreign travel and for that mental enrichment through study and observation that cannot be experienced elsewhere4 ,the correspondent is removed from the constriction of home office discipline and office tradition and the everlasting admonition to 8hurry up40 ,in times of war his work is strenuous1 of course1 and highly important1 and entirely different from his activities in times of peace4 ,the more important ,american newspapers have a representative in the chief capitals of ,europe1 some of them in two or three cities1 others in ,london alone4 ,these men send important news by cable and correspondence by mail and it is their privilege to select their own topics1 largely4 ,thus they prove or disprove their possession of that rare quality of journalistic excellence3 the ability to judge what will be interesting or important to the far-distant reader4 ,in the newspaper office at home the writer usually writes to order on an indicated subject and often without regard to his own notion of whether the topic is interesting or not4 ,the foreign correspondent must judge for himself what to send4 ,but his field is large1 his opportunities are many1 and he comes to love the work because it is so fascinating4 ,he writes of the great questions that are moving ,europe1 of the coronation of kings1 the collapse of cabinets1 the burial of popes1 the birth and life and death of revolutions1 of social life1 of political life1 of artistic life1 the triumphs of science1 invention1 and discovery4 ,the treasuries of the ,old ,world invite his study4 ,its follies1 frivolities1 foibles and fashions tempt to his amusement4 ,he has a mighty good time over there4 ,but1 when he begins to send cablegrams to his newspaper he encounters a situation that appeals to his business manager as well as to the reading public1 for the cost of cable messages is great4 ,seven cents a word for those that take their time and twenty-five cents for those that are to be rushed--and columns to be filled4 ,here is where judgment as to what to send1 cunning in condensing1 skill in skeletonizing combine to reap reward4 ,for more than twenty years the ordinary press rate for cable messages ranged between five and ten cents a word4 ,some little time before the war the wireless telegraph people delivered reports for five cents1 but without assurance of prompt service4 ,the system had not been made so perfect as it is now and its operation was not entirely satisfactory4 ,then the war stopped its use for newspaper purposes4 ,it has been resumed recently at the five-cent rate1 messages to be delivered within twenty-four hours4 ,the cable companies made some attempt to meet this price before the war1 but not much came of it4 ,ten cents a word for the regular message and twenty-five for the expedited dispatch was the price for a long time4 ,the expedited message was the message sent immediately without any delay4 ,the ordinary message was taken without assurance of quick delivery4 ,during the war rates varied4 ,the cables were crowded and the newspapers were compelled to use the expedited messages4 ,at one time the cost of this message was thirty-three cents a word4 ,since the war something like the old rates have been restored4 ,just now they are seven cents for the ordinary report4 ,the expedited message arrangement is no longer offered2 but1 by making the report a commercial message1 at commercial rates of twenty-five cents1 the newspaper article takes its turn for transmission4 ,this means that the commercial message is used1 commonly1 for the newspaper cannot wait4 ,it cannot risk missing the news through delay4 ,money is lost on the news-report delivered after the sheet has gone to press4 ,experience has attested that code or cipher messages are not practical for newspaper purposes4 ,the opportunity for error is too great and too much time is required for translation4 ,but experience has taught1 also1 the use of certain prefixes and suffixes and jugglings by which much may be expressed in few words4 ,it is a simple system of skeletonizing1 easy of translation into the finished product4 ,the plan depends largely on complete understanding between the sender abroad and the cable editor in the home office4 ,the ,london man sends newspaper clippings by mail of events that are likely to figure or reappear in future news1 programs of coming happenings like coronations1 or festivals1 or ceremonials1 descriptions of ships about to be launched1 or buildings to be dedicated1 inaugurations1 pageants1 with all of the plans1 arrangements1 and the names of persons who are to participate1 and the like4 ,when the event happens he cables1 for instance3 8,madrid ,alfonso crowned unchange40 8,unchange0 means that the coronation of the ,spanish king was solemnized without change of program1 that the matter sent in advance by mail may be used with what the correspondent now cables4 ,the cable editor in ,america writes from what the correspondent sends1 and from the program slips1 a report of the coronation1 embellishing it perhaps with a few lines here and there about the cheering multitudes1 the elaborate decorations1 and the other things that obviously add splendor to every coronation of a king4 ,the cable editor knows right well that if the crowds were sullen or the decorations were lacking or the soldiers did not strut and shout1 the correspondent surely would say so4 ,the correspondent is keen to notice any deviation from the program and to cable details of the change4 ,the editor at this end pads out the skeleton report into readable narrative with no intention of deceiving anybody4 ,newspaper descriptions of the doings of men in public life1 or who in any manner attract public attention1 are mailed to the home office and they are of frequent use when the man reappears in the news in any way4 ,a few years ago one ,barnard ,barnato made fame for himself by getting a great fortune through ,south ,africa diamond mine operations1 and newspaper cuttings exploiting him were in every office4 ,one night a cable message floated into ,new ,york which ran3 8,barnato homing ,unicorn suicided overboard off ,gibraltar40 ,from these seven words and his newspaper slips and his general knowledge of ,barnato the cable editor constructed an article of a third of a column or so in length which said that ,barnard ,barnato1 the widely celebrated ,south ,african diamond king1 who recently had visited his famous mines a few miles north of ,cape ,town1 met his death by suicide1 while returning to his home in ,england1 by leaping overboard from the ,royal ,line steamship the ,unicorn when the vessel was off port of ,gibraltar1 etc41 etc4 ,and the account included a description of the victim of self-destruction1 his vast operations1 his family and business associations1 and other things about ,barnato that supposedly might interest a reader4 ,again1 there comes a message dated ,london which reads3 ,reading ,readingess ,new ,yorkward safternoon ,philadelphia untalk peace undenied gravity ,russian4 ,from his knowledge of the diplomatic situation and of current events1 and from his bunch of newspaper cuttings the foreign editor finds it quite easy to construct a fat paragraph to run something like3 ,london--,lord ,reading1 the newly appointed ,ambassador to represent ,great ,britain in the ,united ,states1 sailed for ,new ,york this afternoon in the steamship ,philadelphia4 ,on arrival he will proceed immediately to ,washington to enter upon his duties4 ,this is ,lord ,reading's third visit to ,america4 ,he was sent by his government two years ago on a special mission and was in ,washington for two months or more4 ,he is accompanied by his wife4 ,he refused to express an opinion as to the prospects for peace1 but would not deny the gravity of the situation in ,russia4 ,in the above skeleton dispatch the word 8,readingess0 means ,lady ,reading4 ,the addition of 8ess0 to a man's name designates his wife4 ,again came one evening a ,london message that began3 ,pm commons duohours restating aims intended ,russian ,bolsheviki but principally allies position to labor urged ongo warwin quote 8,pm0 means ,great ,britain's ,prime ,minister whoever he happens to be4 ,this message was written out to say that ,lloyd ,george had addressed a meeting of the ,house of ,commons for two hours that evening restating the war aims of the allies4 ,ostensibly he was speaking for the benefit of the ,russians1 but it was plain that he was addressing the labor party of the ,empire in particular1 and that the ,government urged the labor party to push on and help to win the war4 8,quote0 meant that what was to follow was a verbatim report of what the ,prime ,minister said and was to be preceded by quotation marks4 ,close skeletonizing of this sort is used for short and comparatively unimportant news announcements4 ,it cannot be used to advantage in long narration1 in explanation of political complications1 or reports of consequence4 ,but in minor messages it is of frequent use by news associations and by correspondents4 ,it is an entirely legitimate practice since it involves no misstatement of fact4 ,it is simple1 as may be seen1 and the knack of using it is easily acquired4 ,yet obviously the more ingenuity and skill employed the greater will be the saving at seven cents or twenty-five cents a word4 ,the difference in its skillful and its indifferent use amounts to thousands of dollars in a year4 ,in times of war the cost of news transmission by cable is enormous4 ,repeatedly in the late conflict it reached thousands of dollars for the description of a single battle1 or a movement4 ,at times these costly dispatches were sent day after day4 ,in our war with ,spain when reports were sent by dispatch boats to ,kingston1 ,jamaica1 for transmission hence by cable1 as much as two dollars a word was paid for sending them to ,south ,american and ,isthmus stations1 hence north through ,texas4 ,the direct cable from ,kingston to ,halifax was constantly crowded4 ,the ,south ,american route was the only other available outlet and it was used freely4 ,the special foreign correspondent does not concern himself greatly with routine news3 the press associations look after that4 ,the difference in time permits the sending of all news appearing in ,london editions to ,american newspapers of the same corresponding edition1 morning or evening4 ,the ,london papers are on the street at two o'clock in the morning1 which is eleven o'clock or before midnight in ,new ,york4 ,the correspondent seeks rather to elucidate the news or to send exclusive information4 ,he finds the getting of intelligence much more difficult than in ,america4 ,public men are less willing to furnish information4 ,the newspaper man is not so welcome4 ,doors are closed to him that would be flung open here4 ,to a yet greater degree than here he must gain the confidence and the intimate acquaintance of those who are original sources of information1 the confidence of the men who are conducting public affairs4 ,the correspondent may not always print what he learns for he must not make public that which is told to him in confidence4 ,but sooner or later it is of much value to him4 ,the ability to secure the attention and the confidence of public men is the correspondent's or the news gatherer's choicest asset4 ,it is absolutely necessary to success in higher grade reportorial work4 ,the foreign correspondent1 more than any other writer off the editorial page1 is permitted to assume an editorial attitude toward important events4 ,he may comment and seek to persuade in editorial fashion4 ,his articles are the more interesting in consequence1 for not any newspaper writing is more attractive to the general reader than that which contains narrative description with running comment4 ,the ,french journalists are adepts at this work4 ,many of their publications contain no editorial articles after the ,english or the ,american fashion4 ,they treat an important event rather as a semi-news semi-editorial review article--an article of news with interjected comment1 with expression of opinion as suits the writer's fancy or belief or prejudice4 ,in ,american newspapers of high grade the reporter is not permitted to comment or inject opinion or seek to influence the reader2 he must not depart from the cold facts of narration4 ,no comment outside the editorial page is the rule4 ,the foreign correspondent is excepted from this requirement and the ,washington man partly so4 ,not any other kind of newspaper work gives more useful experience4 ,the foreign correspondent must understand the great events that are moving ,europe4 ,when it is possible he goes to the scene of the occurrence for first-hand information4 ,the great disaster by earthquake that destroyed ,messina sent half of the correspondents scurrying from ,london into ,italy4 ,the election of a new ,pope finds them in ,rome4 ,a revolution in ,poland discloses them on the spot delving into the secrets of the leaders4 ,since the great war they have been constantly in every capital in ,europe as some new development of finance1 or a startling revelation of starvation1 insurrection1 or political plot demanded their presence4 ,they watch the activities of a dozen nations4 ,a few years of this sort of thing gives them valuable knowledge4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,the ,,technical ,,press ,as our young man in journalism begins to get a reputation among his fellows for sincere trustworthy work his services may be sought by other editors4 ,hundreds of miscellaneous weekly and monthly publications employ writers and they draw largely from the daily newspaper staffs4 ,more than one thousand persons employed regularly in ,new ,york ,city furnish the copy for these miscellaneous journals4 ,nearly as many more are occasional or special contributors4 ,there are scores of magazines of fiction and scores of weekly journals devoted to literature1 religion1 fashions1 humor1 science1 art1 music and the play-house1 to sports1 birds1 and beasts1 and fish4 ,there are journals devoted to the learned professions1 to medicine1 law1 chemistry1 engineering1 theology1 electricity4 ,and there are hundreds of technical publications and trade papers that cater to the interests of all kinds of business3 banking1 insurance1 shipping1 manufacturing1 railroading1 dry goods1 textile1 grocery1 hardware1 wines1 spirits1 liqueurs1 drugs4 ,almost every occupation has some sort of a publication to advance its interests4 ,many of them are prosperous and some of them are 8gold mines0 for their owners4 ,almost all are very helpful to the trade they represent4 ,they expand in vast detail the things that the daily newspapers pass by with mere mention or do not mention at all4 ,they tell the reader what the other fellow is doing4 ,they cunningly search the entire world for facts bearing on the business they represent4 ,their representatives in ,washington1 and at every state capital1 inform of any proposed legislation hostile to their clients' interests--restriction of trade1 increased taxation1 regulation of methods1 legislative strikes or blackmailing raids4 ,in the editorial columns are discussed every phase of business that could affect the readers' business and the news columns give every obtainable fact1 including columns of routine record such as price list quotations1 statistics of merchandise movement1 government reports of agricultural and metal production1 and the like4 ,a vast volume of technical matter is required to fill these publications1 the writing of which calls for expert and special knowledge and continuous study4 ,the writer's task is difficult for the reason that he is not writing for the general public1 but rather for men who already have comprehensive knowledge of the subject and who instantly detect misstatement of fact or feebleness of reasoning4 ,nevertheless1 the writer appreciates that his business-man reader is keenly alive to know the doings of his rivals who may be smarter and more successful than himself and who are working to solve the same problems as himself4 ,writing for the technical press is not so fascinating as for the newspapers1 the literary weeklies1 or the magazines of fiction4 ,the imagination has less opportunity to frolic4 ,facility of literary expression is not an asset4 ,the embryos of inspiration and ambition are incubated elsewhere4 ,constant consideration of the one topic tempts to routine thought and to imitative writing4 ,nevertheless1 writing for the technical press involves most careful and painstaking effort4 ,it will not do to make a mistake4 ,some of the accomplishments to be desired in the writer are indicated in an address delivered by ,mr4 ,charles ,w4 ,price1 editor of the ,electrical ,review3 ,accuracy in technical statements and simplicity of language are two elements of greatness and distinction in technical journalism4 ,it is not always easy for the abundantly informed technical writer to present his scientific truths in simple limpid language to be comprehended by and thus delight and enlighten the average reader4 ,i am now referring to editorial treatment of such subjects1 and not of course to those technical contributions in which mathematical figures necessarily must appear4 ,the editor or technical writer who can present scientific reasoning and its practical application accurately and simply without the aid of his algebra1 is assured of the largest possible audience1 and is the producer of the greatest influence and information4 ,he is1 besides1 popular in technical publishing circles4 ,another element of greatness is a practical illuminating presentation of what an invention in the field of which that publication is the exponent1 really means to the art to which it relates2 that when an invention of importance is announced1 it be told just what it would mean and how it might or will affect the art or the industry4 ,but the technical writers who can state a scientific fact in a few words and with crystal clearness are not very numerous4 ,the electrical reviews may be mentioned as a fair example of technical journalism4 ,they are large publications of a hundred pages or so1 half of which are given to advertisements of every electrical apparatus or machine known to man4 ,the electricians do not advertise in the daily newspapers1 nor do the newspapers print the news of the electrical business except when some big discovery is made4 ,no way exists1 therefore1 for the electrician to know what is going on in his business except through an electrical review4 ,there he gets not only every treasure of discovery1 but every flash1 every twinkle of the business as well4 ,he may learn what all the electric societies are doing in all parts of the world4 ,he may read the lectures on electrical subjects delivered by experts4 ,he may be told just what the great electrical companies are doing1 what new construction they are planning or finishing4 ,it is a constantly growing and changing business with every day new application of old discoveries as well as new ones4 ,he simply cannot be without an electrical review4 ,in ,new ,york ,city are forty-five publications devoted to drugs1 medicine and surgery4 ,many of them are for the drug trade only and others are highly intellectual reviews of progress and practice in medical science4 ,they are little read except by physicians1 surgeons and druggists2 but of late years1 so bewilderingly fascinating have been their disclosure of medical discovery and progress and so absorbing their illustrations of surgical skill1 the daily newspaper editors have been compelled to read them searchingly for the news they contain1 and they have been generously quoted in the daily press4 ,the medical press exploits all that is new in surgery or practice1 gives elaborate reports of medical society discussions1 descriptions of unique surgical operations1 new uses of drugs4 ,it digs up everything all over this earth that possibly could interest a practitioner4 ,obviously the physician or surgeon who doesn't read the medical literature of the day is miles behind the times4 ,even the newspaper business has its trade journals1 and one of them1 ,the ,fourth ,estate1 was saying the other day that between seven thousand and seven thousand five hundred persons are actively engaged in writing for the ,new ,york ,city press2 and that thirty-five thousand are similarly employed in the ,united ,states4 ,it is quite impossible1 in this space1 to describe these miscellaneous and class publications4 ,they are numbered by thousands4 ,in ,new ,york ,city are more than one hundred literary magazines and weeklies4 ,a recent tabulation attested that in the ,united ,states more than eight hundred publications are devoted to religion1 of which about one hundred are printed in ,new ,york4 ,six hundred are issued to tell the farmer how to till4 ,eighty exploit automobiles4 ,how to fly is told by six sheets4 ,the mouthpieces of the barbers number four and the blind may learn about themselves in eleven4 ,eighteen appear regularly in the interest of the ,american ,indian1 and six for bees4 ,more than six hundred tell about schools and colleges2 twenty about dogs2 twelve about confections and ice-cream2 twenty-three of dentistry2 twenty-six of the theater2 fifty of fashion2 ninety of finance1 of which thirty are in ,new ,york4 ,the grocers support eighty odd and the insurance men sixty-seven1 while two hundred and fifty are in the interest of labor4 ,we find devoted to law one hundred and fifty2 to liquor twenty-seven2 mechanics and engineering sixty-five2 moving pictures twenty2 music trade fifty-four2 the negro about two hundred2 poultry eighty-five2 soap and perfume three2 sports seventy2 women suffrage seven2 undertakers ten4 ,one of the newspaper directories recently gave a list of two hundred and forty-five trades or businesses each of which has its own technical publications4 ,the trade papers have come to form a very important and conspicuous part of ,american journalism4 ,their writers may not be so well known to fame as are other authors1 but they have better business opportunities4 ,their expert knowledge of the business under consideration and the acquaintances they necessarily form with the kings of that business1 frequently lead to advantageous offers to engage in business4 ,a larger proportion of the technical press men quit writing to do other work than is noted in any other line of journalism4 ,the business of furnishing information about business has become a great industry in itself4 ,it has developed amazingly within a few years1 chiefly through the technical journals or magazines1 the number of which has increased greatly1 but also through books and pamphlets4 ,the big banks have their business libraries totalling thousands of volumes1 covering endless topics relating to railroads1 corporations1 specific business1 systems and methods4 ,they preserve newspaper clippings in bewildering numbers4 ,the bureau of information is conspicuous in all big business houses and corporations and all the literature of business is at hand4 ,every ,wall ,street brokerage house of any account employs a man to furnish information to customers4 ,the great war so effectively restricted importation that the country was largely thrown on its own resources4 ,it was compelled to produce or furnish substitute matter for many products it could not import4 ,business facts became greatly in demand4 ,the librarians reported1 and continue to note1 a greatly increased demand for business literature4 ,the book publishers recognize an increasing devouring public appetite for business books4 ,the managers of business journals and magazines tell of largely increasing circulations in this period of great business expansion4 ,one of the managers of the ,system magazine series said not long ago3 ,the demand for our publications has increased tremendously since the war4 ,in the last three years one of our magazines has increased sixty per cent in circulation4 ,blame ,germany for that1 and for the big increase in business literature4 ,we have learned suddenly that ,german business has been studying books all these years4 ,we find now that to compete1 ,american business must also take to books4 ,and that has brought about one big difference4 ,a few years ago when ,i left college to go into business1 my employers encouraged me with1 8,well1 you'll live down your college training40 ,to-day1 a big business man does more reading than a student in college--and he has to do it4 ,technical journalism is a great feature of the journalism of the times4 ,its importance is little appreciated or understood by the general public4 ,it gives employment to thousands of writers and its rapid increase indicates demand for thousands more4 ,trained newspapermen are in active demand as publicity and general aids by big corporations4 ,the salaries paid are larger than is paid by newspapers4 ,these men usually oversee the advertising2 likewise they write pamphlets1 collect information for the use of the corporation1 frequently prepare speeches for delivery by the officers1 make out reports1 read many publications for any information bearing on the business4 ,the work requires fine editorial ability and thorough knowledge of the business4 ,it is far above the press agent work done to advertise theaters1 moving pictures1 or hotels4 ,it involves a study of the principles and condition of other business besides their own1 for in many instances their own business is affected by the business of others4 ,the literature of business has become very important4 ,accuracy is the supreme requirement in business writing4 ,a single misstatement may involve a loss of confidence in the writer or the publication--a loss of money to the reader4 ,simple construction in the plainest of language is the rule for writing4 ,demand for the literature of business has made startling changes in the newspapers of to-day1 affecting daily sheets as well as all journalism4 ,ten times as much space is given to market reports as was used forty years ago4 ,business news is lavishly exploited4 ,it was little noticed in the old days4 ,it is a business age4 ,the educational impulse of school and college is in the direction of business education rather than classical or general education4 ,technical schools are much more popular4 ,business schools are conducted by large corporations1 by banks1 by chambers of commerce4 ,banks1 insurance companies1 the railroad organizations1 and big business concerns maintain statistical and information departments and publish pamphlets and periodical literature4 ,men competent to produce information are in demand and those of newspaper experience are preferred4 ,publishers are putting out an avalanche of books on every phase of business4 ,the demand for books of reference1 books of the practical1 in our libraries is overwhelming4 ,reports of the ,new ,york ,public ,library attest that seekers after books of technical information are numbered by hundreds of thousands4 ,nearly all of the men who are furnishing this greatly increased volume of business information have had daily newspaper office experience4 ,in looking through the lists of technical journals printed in ,new ,york ,i see the names of dozens of men as their editors whom ,i recognize as former daily newspaper men4 ,they now have permanent and responsible posts at reasonably remunerative salaries4 ,the work is not so continuously exacting as that required in the minor places in the newspaper4 ,the hours of toil are shorter1 are in the middle of the day1 and are omitted on holidays and ,sundays4 ,these are important considerations to the man who elects to live by writing information4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,the ,,village ,,newspaper',s ,,important ,,place ,,in ,,american ,,journalism ,the young man about to start on a journalistic career should give long thought to the village newspaper4 ,our schools of journalism are graduating thousands of boys who intend to be editors4 ,a few of them only can be taken on the big newspapers for their staffs are full to overflowing always4 ,it is difficult1 indeed1 for a young man to get a place on a big city newspaper and the prizes are few if he does get it4 ,let us see what the small town newspaper offers4 ,in the big cities nearly all writers are employees4 ,the managing editor is employed to direct the staff and to carry out the owners' policies4 ,editorial writers are employed to write4 ,they have no pecuniary interest in the property4 ,in small cities the editors are part owners frequently2 in the villages they are the full owners almost always4 ,for the so-called great newspaper the staff writes to order4 ,the subjects are assigned and the treatment is indicated by the editor4 ,the policy of the sheet toward the important questions of the day is understood and respected by all4 ,independence of thought is not supposed or permitted to disport itself from that policy4 ,all articles are closely revised by some one else after the writer has finished with them4 ,they are made to conform to established policy1 precedent and practice4 ,this tends to routine treatment rather than to bursts of originality4 ,it influences to dull writing4 ,the knowledge that his work is to be revised is repressive rather than stimulating to the writer4 ,if changes in his article are frequent he chafes and frets1 imagines that injustice is being done to him1 gets discouraged and unhappy4 ,the personality of the general writers for the press in ,new ,york1 ,philadelphia1 ,chicago1 is known to a few of their associates only--is unknown to the general public4 ,indeed1 it would puzzle even newspaper men to name the editors in chief and the managing editors of the morning and afternoon sheets in ,new ,york ,city1 although many of them1 of course1 are known to almost everybody4 ,in the small cities1 and especially in the villages1 these conditions are in exact reverse4 ,the editor owns his newspaper4 ,he is known personally or by reputation to almost every member of the community4 ,he may write as he pleases on any topic1 about anything1 about anybody4 ,he may praise his friends or lambaste his enemies2 may be brilliantly original or stupidly conservative or hopelessly imitative4 ,he is of great community influence and importance4 ,not even the village clergyman is more so4 ,he is made much of at all gatherings and is welcomed wherever he goes4 ,the huntsman brings him bags of game2 the gardener refreshes him with the earliest tender vegetables2 his table is spread with the choicest of juicy fruits4 ,the writers for the big newspapers discourse on topics of national importance--topics that are supposed to interest the masses4 ,rarely do they write about people they know or have met unless they are doing reportorial work4 ,the village editor busies himself chiefly with matters of concern to his community alone4 ,his references to national topics may be few4 ,of his own people he may write with a sympathetic personal interest born of close contact with them1 with knowledge of their whims1 their excellences1 their deficiencies1 and their wants4 ,his purpose is to interest them4 ,he knows that they are more interested in themselves and in each other than in anything else4 ,a considerable proportion of village folks and farmers now take a daily paper from the nearest city of size4 ,this daily sheet covers national and world-wide topics so completely that the weekly cannot compete with it advantageously in these lines4 ,but the daily sheet cannot compete with the weekly in the printing of those delicious little intimacies of village life that most of all do interest the villager4 ,the oft repeated assertion that the daily newspaper is running out the weekly is untrue4 ,if the village editor chooses to do so he may achieve a supremely satisfying influence4 ,he is the spokesman of the community1 voicing its sentiments1 explaining its needs1 defending its rights4 ,he may render it extreme service by appealing to outside interests in praise of its enterprises1 its attractions1 its prosperity4 ,he may assist it immeasurably by helping to organize and sustain its protective associations1 its commercial leagues1 its welfare organizations1 study clubs and charity circles4 ,he may encourage community pride4 ,if he praises ,deacon ,stevenson for the beauty of his lawn and floral effects the deacon's neighbors are sure to make rival lawns4 ,the editor may urge to clean village morals as well as to clean streets and tidy door yards4 ,he may create public sentiment and ripen patriotic spirit and be the moral and the intellectual force of the region4 ,he may lead in all things4 ,the village editor may make himself beloved by his people4 ,his relation to them is that of close intimacy4 ,he may print the good things they say1 may reproduce their ideas as well as describe their doings4 ,he records the important events of their lives1 the details of their successes1 the parts they take in public affairs4 ,he welcomes the babies as they are born and wishes them their full share of all the good things this ,jolly ,old ,earth has to give4 ,he joins in congratulations1 felicitations and joyful vociferations to bewildered brides and grinning bridegrooms4 ,and when the hand of death is laid1 he reverently and tenderly recalls that the summons must come to all sometime2 and he sorrows and grieves with those on whom affliction has fallen4 ,the city newspaper is heartless when domestic scandals or business irregularities are under public consideration4 ,it has no thought of lessening personal sorrow4 ,the country editor reasons something like this3 8,i do not pretend to print all the news of this community4 ,my readers are all known to me and are personal friends4 ,they help me in my business4 ,why should ,i print stuff that will give them pain or sorrow8 ,i am under no obligation to print anything about anybody4 ,my newspaper is conducted as a business proposition4 ,i am responsible for what it says and it is not any one's business what ,i print4 ,i am personally interested in community interests and ,i wish to advance them always2 but ,i do not care to mix in my people's personal quarrels or their domestic affairs unless community interests are involved4 ,why should ,i8 ,some people seem to think that ,i should print everything about everybody--except themselves4 ,there is a certain element in every community that rejoices in other people's discomfiture and ,i do not wish to cater to that feeling40 ,not only does every one in the community read the community paper1 but every young man and every young woman brought up there subscribe for it when going to live elsewhere4 ,it comes as an intimate letter from the old home1 and nothing can be too trivial or too unimportant to interest them so long as it relates to somebody or something they have known in the days of their youth--the bursting of the old dam1 the fall of the old chimney1 the burning of the old academy1 or of the old mill1 the marriages1 the deaths1 the activities of former playmates in political1 business or social life1 anything pertaining to the old home town1 anything that recalls the scenes of childhood1 the memories of youth--all are of absorbing interest4 ,not long ago the editor of the ,fulton 7,n4 ,y47 ,patriot made a big hit by getting a lot of the people who had moved away to write reminiscences of their early life in ,fulton4 ,almost all of the writers were remembered by the home readers and the letters made much talk4 ,every error was pounced on and letters of correction started controversy4 ,people involved in the talk were pleased4 ,members of the human family like to see their names in the newspapers4 ,but the editor should have ambitions and missions far beyond mere village gossip4 ,the small towns of the ,eastern states have become centers in which endless varieties of manufactured goods are turned out1 and it is up to the editor to exploit every new thing connected with the raw material and with the making and the marketing of the product in which the community is interested4 ,the middle-state towns are given largely to manufacturing on a larger scale1 to coal and coke and oil industries1 to steel1 to the making of machinery4 ,the editor should furnish all possible information4 ,the ,south with its cotton1 sugar1 and tobacco is an especially interesting field for community specializing4 ,but greater than these is that vast industry spreading from the ,atlantic to the ,pacific in which one half of the nation's population is interested because dependent on it--agriculture4 ,now1 of the sixteen thousand weekly newspapers printed in the ,united ,states more than ten thousand are published in rural communities--in villages where the prosperity of doctors1 lawyers1 merchants1 tradesmen1 schools and churches depends on the prosperity of the farmer4 ,nearly every farmer takes a journal devoted to agriculture2 but farming conditions vary greatly in different regions1 and the village editor who can furnish real information to the farmer of his immediate neighborhood will perform the most valuable sort of community service4 ,the average man is more interested in his business than in anything else4 ,he delights to read about it4 ,the editor's greatest concern should be to serve the interests of his parish4 ,the people look to him for leadership and help4 ,they want the community exploited4 ,they want their share of everything going4 ,they want the prices of their products kept up and their taxes kept down4 ,they want good roads1 good schools1 good markets1 attractive churches4 ,and they appreciate an excellent newspaper4 ,there are hundreds of villages and hamlets1 especially in the ,south and in the ,west1 that are far removed from any large city4 ,their inhabitants lose interest in the doings of the great outside world1 but their own needs are sensed with no shallow understanding4 ,village life throughout our country is taking on the attractions of intellectual uplift and refinement that long have been the pride and the boast of ,new ,england communities4 ,the ,new ,england village1 made attractive by its imitation of the beautiful village of ,old ,england1 has spread far across the continent4 ,poets and story tellers have idealized its shady streets1 gilded its church spires and praised its intelligence with every felicity of language4 ,it has its libraries1 its study clubs1 its improvement associations1 its lecture courses1 its high schools1 its churches1 its every facility for liberal education4 ,usually there is a college close at hand4 ,it is something of a fad at the moment for our young writers of novels to exaggerate the repulsive features of the ,american village1 to magnify its unpleasant aspects1 to ignore its excellences4 ,but just as the measure of a man's greatness should rest on his highest achievements rather than on his lowest1 so should the beauty of a village be judged by its tidy lawns1 its fragrant flower gardens1 its artistic vistas of shaded streets1 instead of by its back yards1 its ash and garbage heaps1 and its dumps for old tin cans4 ,the degree of its intelligence and refinement should include the people of education and culture in the measurement as well as the louts1 the clowns and the vulgar ignorant4 ,the modern village has many of the essential advantages possessed by the city3 facilities for the development of intellectual life1 for study1 for personal ease and comfort1 for the enjoyment of social life4 ,you have a more wholesome existence2 live a little nearer to nature2 your friendships are finer and more lasting4 ,your very environment persuades to a greater appreciation of community comradeship4 ,printing a newspaper here offers a fascinating and a fairly profitable career to the young man just quitting his studies4 ,electricity and gasoline have greatly increased the pleasures of village life1 have literally transformed rural regions by giving quick communication with business and social and intellectual centers4 ,modern devices have bereft life there of much of its old-time drudgery4 ,the people are wide awake4 ,their general intelligence is quite equal to the general intelligence of city people4 ,likewise1 the newspapers are much improved4 ,modern printing machinery and facilities have removed irksome processes4 ,editorial associations and the technical newspaper press have inspired to higher ideals4 ,the business has become standardized on a higher plane of excellence4 ,many of our high schools and almost all of our colleges have courses in journalism4 ,their educational influences are reflected already in the country newspapers1 especially in the ,west4 ,the state universities of ,missouri1 ,kansas and ,minnesota1 for instance1 have sent hundreds of young men back to their villages to do journalistic work4 ,the leaven of preparation is working wonders4 ,moreover1 success in village or small town journalism frequently leads to success in big cities4 ,the editors of big city newspapers are overwhelmed with candidates for a place on the staff1 but the applicants usually are unknown beginners1 and they are rejected4 ,but the village editor of real ability cannot hide his light2 his good work attracts attention4 ,the managers of the great journals seek men of superior quality and ask them to join the newspaper staff4 ,hundreds of the finest editors in this country started or matured on our rural newspapers4 ,good newspaper work1 whether in city or country1 attracts attention and is sure of reward4 ,the village editor's task is not easy4 ,he writes almost all of the edition and conducts the business end as well4 ,his editorial page may reflect his fancy for little or much comment1 but he naturally will have one article in each edition on a subject of national importance and two or three relating to community interests4 ,he will compile from the daily sheets a column or two of the most important news of the world and will clip from the exchanges interesting miscellaneous matter1 paragraphs and articles4 ,he will encourage his readers to write letters to the editor for publication1 and these he will revise and prepare4 ,he will have a news correspondent in every neighboring hamlet1 and this news must be revised and made ready to print4 ,his neighborhood news is of vital importance for his villagers know almost all of the inhabitants for miles around4 ,but his chief task is to be found in the collecting and writing of so-called local news4 ,the very life of his sheet depends on this information4 ,to gather it involves constant1 painstaking toil4 ,he has to hunt for it1 has to mingle with the people in the search for it4 ,the measure of his success as an editor may be found in his ability to recognize what is news and what is not4 ,this is an editorial accomplishment that may be enriched by study and observation4 ,let him seek to know what will interest his reader1 what his constituents are thinking about and especially what he can print that will set them to talking4 ,to make the paper interesting1 to make it talked about1 should be his constant anxiety4 ,the mission of the village sheet is to amuse1 to gossip1 to reflect community life rather than to educate4 ,the editor lives in close intimacy with his people and if he be wise he will assume the attitude of making their interests his interests4 ,he will make elaborately long accounts of their public meetings1 the social gatherings1 the ball games1 the school contests1 the things the people do4 ,his constituents may know of world-wide events from the city papers but they cannot read about themselves anywhere else than in his paper4 ,thousands of ,americans never see their name in print except perchance in the village newspaper and they are grateful1 indeed1 to see it there4 ,the village newspaper should not seek to imitate the city sheet4 ,its editor should devote his energies to the rural needs and the rural activities of his five thousand or ten thousand constituents4 ,let them get their outside information from the city dailies or the periodical press4 ,and our provincial editor's acute temptation will be to imitate--to make his sheet like his neighbor's sheet4 ,he will be tempted to save time and study by stealing the thoughts of others4 ,he wants a leading editorial article4 ,what so easy as to rewrite one from the columns of a distant daily changing not the form of construction or the argument or the conclusion--changing nothing but the wording4 ,this is a common practice of the lazy editor4 ,i hope to be forgiven for so constantly referring to it as a repressive influence1 as a serious detriment to the progress of ,american journalism4 ,it easily becomes a habit4 ,its practice is alluring for1 if it produces a more thoughtful article than the editor is capable of writing1 the people praise it thus giving to the editor the most subtle of all flattery1 the flattery that is undeserved1 the flattery that attributes to a man something he does not possess4 ,the editor enjoys it overmuch4 ,the village editor usually is deep in local politics4 ,quite as much as any one else does he help to name the town officers1 the county rulers1 the man to the legislature1 the congressman4 ,frequently1 indeed1 he is called to these posts or to the higher honors of the ,state4 ,he sits on governing boards and he is a delegate to all sorts of conventions4 ,he is big in public affairs4 ,this kind of newspaper life is entirely different from that of the city4 ,it is a life that may be made exceedingly attractive and that may be enjoyed to the uttermost because of its independence1 its great influence1 its close intimacy with the people and its opportunities for wholesome service4 ,what the editor writes is read by everybody1 the children as well1 and we all know how a child is influenced by what it reads4 ,some one has said of the village editor3 8,he comes pretty near being the boss of the entire town40 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,the ,,daily ,,newspaper ,,in ,,the ,,small ,,city 8,i had rather be the editor of a daily in a small city than hold any other newspaper post10 remarked a journalist who had tried almost every kind of newspaper work--and many will agree with him4 ,increased facilities for gathering news and information and the wonderful improvement in printing office mechanism permit the making of a complete newspaper almost anywhere4 ,the small cities may have just as good a daily sheet as the big ones if the owners care to pay the price of producing it4 ,the news associations and the telegraph companies deliver news simultaneously in all parts of the country4 ,the newspaper in the remote ,northwest or the extreme ,south gets the same telegraphic news as is furnished to ,new ,york ,city or to ,new ,england4 ,any editor may supplement his news service with syndicate articles--by which is meant1 articles written in ,new ,york1 ,washington1 the ,state ,capital1 or anywhere1 and duplicated to any number of newspapers4 ,syndicate service has come to be an important feature of ,american journalism4 ,its use saves the editor time1 trouble1 and expense4 ,a few syndicates in ,new ,york and ,washington send special news by wire but most of the matter goes by mail4 ,it consists largely of articles on national topics1 social topics1 business1 the theaters1 music1 art1 and sports4 ,at this writing a syndicate is sending from ,new ,york a service of excellent editorial articles on general topics4 ,all sorts of feature matter also may be had3 the medical column1 the cookery department1 the fashion show1 the question and answer diversion1 the short daily or weekly story of fiction1 a daily cartoon or a comic strip or cut4 ,entire pages of matter are offered on every imaginable topic for use in ,saturday and ,sunday edition supplements4 ,they include even the comic pictorial broadsides in vivid color4 ,several of the big metropolitan sheets sell their miscellaneous ,sunday features entire and some of them furnish a special news service intended to supplement the news associations' report4 ,this news service and ,sunday syndicate service sent from the big newspapers furnish the identical articles that appear in the papers from whose offices they are sent4 ,by their use the out of town editor may go a great way toward reproducing the big city sheet4 ,all of this kind of matter is offered at ridiculously low prices1 the profit to the producer being1 of course1 in its repeated duplication4 ,the modern multiple printing press1 the modern stereotyping process and the linotype typesetting machine are in general use all over the country1 giving the same mechanical facilities as enjoyed in the larger cities4 ,by availing himself of all these things the editor in the small city may produce a newspaper of any size and almost any quality to suit his fancy4 ,in all matters of national or state importance or of world-wide interest he may reasonably compete with the big newspapers if he cares to spend the money with which to do so4 ,the chief concern of the provincial editor however will center in his organization for the collection of home and neighborhood news4 ,this must be of superior quality and in generous volume1 for his so-called 8local0 news is vital to his success4 ,in ,new ,york ,city there is practically no such thing as local news4 ,happenings of considerable importance are not printed simply because they happened in ,new ,york4 ,they must possess enough of importance in themselves to interest a large number of readers1 must be just as interesting to outsiders as to residents of the city4 ,scores of big societies and organizations give banquets with three hours of oratory and reporters listening to every word1 but unless something important or highly interesting is said by the speakers the newspapers print not a word about the event4 ,an ordinary murder1 or suicide1 or elopement1 or a celebration like that of a golden wedding1 even though it may have happened in the next block to where he lives does not interest a ,new ,yorker any more than as though it had happened in ,boston or ,buffalo4 ,he does not know the persons involved4 ,the newspapers make very little of the event unless it has some dramatic features4 ,in ,new ,york ,city there are between two hundred and fifty and three hundred homicides every year and not one half of them are even mentioned by the press4 ,the details of them are known in every office but little is printed about them because they are not of general interest4 ,now1 had the big banquet or the murder or the other things happened in a small city the editor must have printed columns of matter about them1 for the very good reason that in smaller communities everybody knows everybody else and all are interested in each other4 ,everybody who attended the banquet must be especially interested in it for people like to read about things in which they themselves participate4 ,the metropolitan press prints nothing of the ordinary happenings in the scores of cities and villages within fifty or seventy-five miles4 ,the small city newspaper has a correspondent in every town and hamlet near by and everything of any account is recorded4 ,in the country1 the newspaper that has the best town and neighborhood news becomes the most popular sheet4 ,in the big city the editor and his staff know personally a very small proportion of the population2 in the small city they know everybody worth knowing4 ,the provincial editor enjoys1 if he will1 the social life of the place4 ,he hobnobs with the congressman1 with the state officers who chance to live near1 with all those who have to do with public affairs4 ,he is influential in their selection4 ,he participates in public functions1 takes a lively interest in all that is going on1 sits in councils1 is a member of the board of education and trustee of the nearby college1 and by personal interest and activity makes himself a 8leading citizen0 of the place4 ,the journalist in the small city1 like the village editor1 is in close intimacy with his readers4 ,he is bound to them by the tie of community interest4 ,he lives with them as well as for them4 ,he may make himself the most influential and the most beloved man in the neighborhood if he cares to do so4 ,repeatedly in the history of this ,republic the editor of the small city newspaper has been called to the ,president's cabinet1 to a foreign ambassadorship1 to the national congress1 to the government of his state and to county and town office4 ,loyalty to community interests is perhaps as popular and as profitable an attitude as the provincial editor can take4 ,if the town needs sewers1 or if its pavements are poor1 or its streets unclean1 or its educational system is faulty1 or any obvious reform is needed1 he easily can effect the change4 ,some public official is responsible for the defect and nothing so quickly warms an official into life as temperate1 convincing criticism of his acts4 ,he cannot withstand public opinion1 and he knows that public opinion finds its first reflection in the newspaper4 ,the editor may influence as none other can toward the erection of public buildings1 the establishment of high schools or colleges1 the making of parks1 and the bringing to town of new enterprises4 ,he may champion the community needs by addressing legislative bodies1 may defend against unjust taxation1 may call for state aid or federal assistance4 ,in a thousand ways he may influence to great benefits4 ,there is no denying the fascination1 the wholesome satisfaction of well directed influence4 ,there is no limit to the honest pride a man may have because he influences the thoughts and the actions of many men4 ,,chapter ,x ,,the ,,rewards ,,of ,,journalism--,,chiefly ,,found ,,in ,,congenial ,,employment--,,community ,,service ,a broader comprehension than that reflected by mere pecuniary results is necessary to a proper estimate of the rewards of journalism4 ,great pecuniary success has come to a few metropolitan newspaper owners1 moderate success to many owners in other cities2 but the number of successful owners is very small compared with the thousands1 in number1 of journalists who are working for salary only--the men who represent the journalism of the day4 ,it is difficult to compare the rewards of journalism with those of any other business or profession4 ,if we consider the pecuniary rewards the comparison certainly must be unfavorable4 ,let us see3-- ,many successful lawyers have incomes from fifty thousand dollars upward1 a year4 ,many physicians and many surgeons make fifty thousand dollars or more by the practice of their profession4 ,there are oculists and artists who make thirty thousand plus4 ,our prize operatic singers have soared to two hundred thousand4 ,the presidents of banks1 railroad companies1 insurance companies1 steel companies1 copper companies--men who have achieved high success in their business--commonly enough have salaries of from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars a year and every opportunity to double the sum if they choose to live up to their privileges4 ,these are the prizes of the calling to the most successful men in it2 and in a way they measure the success of the men who have won them4 ,but there are few prizes in the newspaper business4 ,nothing like these big salaries is paid to the men who achieve supreme journalistic success4 ,in ,new ,york ,city for instance--and ,new ,york is the best newspaper city in the world1 pays the biggest salaries1 and offers the best journalistic advantages and chances--possibly ten editors have twenty-five thousand dollars a year4 ,one brilliant editor has much more than this sum for the reason that his contract with the owner--made when the sheet's circulation was small--was based on the number of papers to be sold4 ,the circulation increased to phenomenal figures and so did the editor's pay4 ,of the seven thousand newspaper editors and writers in ,new ,york ,city1 a number not exceeding twenty have salaries of more than twenty thousand dollars2 yet those who have achieved genuine success in the business--success that is relatively as great as that of the bank presidents and professional men mentioned above--may be numbered by the hundred4 ,newspaper salaries are very much larger than they were forty years ago1 double as much in some departments1 yet1 despite this1 the pecuniary rewards have no comparison with those of many other professions or businesses4 ,since this book's intent is to tell the young man just what journalism offers we may say that in ,new ,york ,city1 at this writing 7#aibb7 the salaries of editors in chief1 for morning and evening newspapers1 range from fifteen thousand to thirty-five thousand dollars2 those of managing editors from eight thousand to thirty thousand dollars2 city editors1 four thousand to ten thousand dollars2 copy readers1 two thousand to four thousand dollars2 dramatic and music critics1 four thousand to seven thousand five hundred dollars2 staff writers on finance and politics1 four thousand to eight thousand dollars2 reporters1 one thousand to seven thousand dollars4 ,these then are the pecuniary rewards of the business to the men who do not achieve ownership4 ,in other cities they are much smaller2 in the small cities not more than half so much4 ,prices paid for newspaper work differ materially in different offices4 ,for reasons of policy or poverty some pay much less than others4 ,the higher sums just mentioned go to the few only1 for it should remain in mind that there is one editor in chief only1 one managing editor1 one city editor1 one dramatic critic on each sheet1 and the daily newspapers under consideration number twelve or fourteen only in the metropolitan district4 ,three quarters of the newspaper workers on these journals earn less than four thousand dollars each a year4 ,the man who earns five thousand dollars a year in a ,new ,york office is rated as highly successful and desirable1 and usually his services are in demand in other offices--for good men in journalism are exceedingly scarce4 ,to the youngster just entering the business these newspaper salaries may look attractive2 indeed one of the magnets of the calling is the fact that from the first the beginner is paid fifteen or twenty dollars a week1 or enough to live on4 ,physicians and lawyers frequently make comparatively nothing for a year or two after they begin4 ,and many newspaper men seem satisfied to work along through life on what they can get4 ,in all offices may be seen the pathetic spectacle of men with silvered locks who have sat at the same desk for more than a third of a century4 ,newspaper work is fascinating1 yet it is sadly ephemeral4 ,in the big city the life of the newspaper is six hours2 in the small city less than twenty-four4 ,the morning newspaper lasts until toward noon2 the evening sheet ceases to thrill at bed time4 ,dawn brings a new edition and yesterday's is forgotten forever4 ,the bright sayings of the editor amuse and interest for the moment but they do not live4 ,they are not of a nature to make a lasting impression or reward4 ,greeley is remembered as a vigorous abolitionist and temperance advocate and a virile writer on national topics1 but to-day his writings are unsought save by a few students of journalism and a few historians of ,civil ,war times4 ,that ,william ,cullen ,bryant was a great editor is almost forgotten2 but his fame as a poet lasts4 ,samuel ,bowles and ,murat ,halsted and ,joseph ,medill and other great editors of the ,civil ,war period had nation-wide reputations as upholders of ,lincoln and as champions of the ,union cause4 ,they are absolutely unread to-day4 ,dana1 whose splendid scholarship1 whose familiarity with all literature1 whose marvelous memory and whose stupendous reservoir of information must have insured him lasting fame had he devoted himself to the making of books1 was so fascinated and so incessantly busy with the making of newspapers that he attempted little that might interest future generations4 ,he must have attained the heights of literary reputation had he undertaken authorship4 ,eugene ,field toiled in routine newspaper work for twenty years2 his fame rests in his verses4 ,nobody remembers ,john ,hay as a hard-working journalist1 yet he was one1 and a good one1 too4 ,he will not be forgotten as a statesman and a poet4 ,walt ,whitman's many years of editorship seldom are recalled3 his poetry lives4 ,who knows that ,edgar ,allen ,poe was an editor from #ahce to #ahdg2 who does not know 8,the ,raven80 ,noah ,webster was one of the founders and editors of ,american ,minerva in #agic4 ,john ,g4 ,whittier was an editor until he abandoned journalism for authorship4 ,oliver ,wendell ,holmes wrote for periodicals from #aheg until #ahia4 ,thomas ,jefferson founded the ,national ,gazette in #agia4 ,james ,anthony ,froude was a newspaper writer4 ,william ,d4 ,howells began his career as an editor4 ,these men must have done fine newspaper work1 but little record of it remains4 ,in ,france1 just at the close of the ,world ,war1 nearly all the members of the government had been writers for the newspapers4 ,they will be remembered as statesmen1 not as editors4 ,of them ,mr4 ,stphane ,lauzanne1 the editor of le ,matin1 says3 ,mr4 ,raymond ,poincar1 the ,president1 formerly wrote articles that were remarkable for their clearness1 lucidity1 and argumentation on the greatest economical and political problems that ever agitated ,france4 ,mr4 ,georges ,clmenceau1 ,premier1 has always been looked upon as the first newspaper man in ,france1 the pride of the ,french press1 for as a matter of fact1 he has been the guiding spirit and active head of several important newspapers1 creating them1 making them up1 editing them and inspiring them--in a word1 setting his mark upon them4 ,mr4 ,stephen ,pichon1 ,secretary of ,foreign ,affairs1 is also a newspaper man4 ,for a long time he was on the staff of ,justice and afterward publisher of le ,petit ,journal4 ,other members of the ,french ,cabinet1 ,mr4 ,lafferre1 ,secretary of ,public ,education2 ,mr4 ,klotz1 ,secretary of ,finance2 ,mr4 ,georges ,leygues1 ,secretary of the ,navy2 have also written in the great dailies of ,paris and ,mr4 ,j4 ,m4 ,dumesnil1 ,under-,secretary of ,state for ,aviation1 was at the beginning of his career a brilliant and active reporter4 ,no1 newspaper articles1 sparkling and spectacular as many of them are1 must be recognized as ephemeral4 ,the editor has no time for leisurely work4 ,he rarely studies a single subject long enough or intensely enough to become profoundly authoritative on that subject4 ,he goes on through life informing1 elucidating1 explaining1 protesting1 analyzing1 until overtaken by the infirmities of years he passes from view4 ,in a hazy sort of a way it is said of him that he was a great editor1 but all that he wrote for his newspaper is forgotten4 ,he leaves little for future generations to ponder over4 ,alas6 ,it is a sickening1 saddening thought that the newspaper is for the moment only and that the editor who leaves behind him a lasting record of greatness has gained it through some other line of endeavor4 ,to the ambitious man the average newspaper salary means little4 ,any possible savings from it must be insufficient to make him especially prosperous4 ,they do not insure against a pinch in old age or against misfortune4 ,they do not permit of the accumulation of much property or capital4 ,they furnish a feeble inspiration to the ambition that seeks the comfort of leisurely life1 the stimulation of extended travel1 or the luxury of intellectual repose and freedom from physical exertion that every one hopes may bless his declining years4 ,and if these conditions be true of metropolitan workers1 how much the more must they befit the writers for newspapers in the smaller cities and villages4 ,it is not the ideal of the ,american boy either in country or city to live forever in a rented house or on a small salary1 or1 indeed1 to live the simple life4 ,the small-city journalism offers little else than these if the young man cannot become a newspaper owner4 ,to the man who owns his sheet the rewards are more abundant4 ,but ownership involves the possession of capital and usually the young man just through with student life has no capital except his brains4 ,in other callings the capital of brains commands success1 notably in the law1 in medicine1 in engineering1 in architecture1 but in the newspaper business1 while brains are absolutely essential they advance the young man only so far1 give but feeble reward1 unless reinforced with capital with which to buy a newspaper property4 ,it surely is a discouraging feature of the calling that1 however intellectual or learned a man may be1 he rarely achieves more than moderate pecuniary success1 as long as he remains an employee4 ,in the big cities the big properties have a money valuation measured by millions of dollars4 ,they are owned generally by very rich men or families and ownership rarely changes4 ,to possess one of them has been the ardent and unaccomplished ambition of thousands of men3 capitalists1 statesmen1 reformers1 philanthropists1 cranks4 ,the chance of the young journalist getting one is infinitesimal4 ,and in the small city the price put on a newspaper that by chance happens to be for sale is far beyond its earning value4 ,there seems to be some mysterious ingredient in newspaper properties that gives them a fictitious value in the mind of the owner4 ,whether it is prospective influence1 or prospective prospects1 or what1 nobody is able to explain2 but the sheet is always 8worth much more than it is earning40 ,it is a curious fact that1 whereas a factory1 or a store1 or a farm1 or a railroad that has not made a cent for five or six years1 will sell for no more than its old junk represents1 nevertheless a newspaper with the same poverty of profits commands a price based on a prodigality of profits4 ,the very great success of some newspapers seems to have inspired the belief that any sheet may be made profitable if properly managed2 but it should not be forgotten that business ability counts for quite as much as editorial excellence on the newspaper balance sheet4 ,indeed1 it may count for more1 for have we not seen excellently edited sheets fail utterly1 and do we not know of others1 utterly devoid of editorial worth1 in which the joy bells of prosperity tinkle a cheerful chime8 ,since then the savings from the salary of even the successful newspaper writer are insufficient for the accumulation of property or the establishment of any considerable prosperity1 and since newspaper ownership involves the investment of capital and smart business ability as well1 it follows that our young man must look beyond mere pecuniary gains for the rewards of journalism4 ,what then are some of the rewards8 ,the editor may exercise his gifts of persuasion in unnumbered directions4 ,the important activities of the world pass by him in daily review4 ,his mental vision may survey the entire field of human thought1 furnishing delightful subjects for consideration1 for study1 for exposition4 ,in all modesty and without vainglory he may rejoice in the satisfaction of well directed influence2 may find pleasure in the responsibility of influencing public opinion2 may take pride in the endeavor to aid in the intellectual and moral uplift of his fellow-men4 ,what greater reward hath man than this8 ,there are no problems of statecraft1 science1 society or religion1 that he may not undertake4 ,everybody likes to tell his neighbor the latest news and gossip and especially likes to add what he thinks about them4 ,the newspaper editor tells his information to thousands2 and he finds additional satisfaction in telling it well4 ,to take a hand in every political shindy is uproariously good fun2 indeed1 notwithstanding all its importance1 its responsibilities1 its dignities1 there is more fun in the newspaper business than in any other occupation known to man4 ,neither are the joys and the advantages of a newspaper connection confined to the editorial desk alone4 ,in consequence of his abundant fund of information on current events and his knowledge of the ways of the world the editor is asked to participate in all sorts of public events4 ,this is particularly the privilege of the editor in the small city where he is well known and where everybody seeks his good opinion and good will4 ,there he is found in meetings and councils and all social gatherings of any account1 taking active part in the speaking and the disposing4 ,there1 too1 he is active in party politics1 in community interests and in the town's public life4 ,in the big cities he is less in public gaze1 yet1 if he has reached editorial success1 he finds himself welcome wherever people gather4 ,if perchance he can speak pleasingly he is asked for addresses to all sorts of audiences and for after-dinner speeches at public banquets4 ,his long experience in mingling with public men gives him ease of manner in social gatherings4 ,constant practice in writing usually gives him the gift of ready speech4 ,the editor is asked to consult with citizens' committees1 to sit with advisory boards1 to take membership in all sorts of organizations and clubs4 ,he has every opportunity to participate actively in the social1 the political1 and the intellectual life of his parish4 ,and the wise editor does all those things1 appreciating that it is to his business advantage to mingle with the people1 to know what they are talking about1 what interests them1 and what may be their opinions4 ,nor can it be denied that the editor of importance finds supreme satisfaction in the acquaintances he makes4 ,no other occupation offers such opportunity for meeting public men1 for intimacy with those who are influencing the intellectual and the commercial world4 ,his very environment brings him in contact with them4 ,he has the instruction of their wisdom and their opinion and they are interested in him because of his familiarity with current events2 and very often the choicest of comradeship results4 ,he knows his fellow editors4 ,he knows the successful authors1 the essayists1 the critics1 the makers of literature and the lovers of literature1 the men conspicuous in education1 the leaders in the social world4 ,he may1 if he will1 find himself in constant association with the brightest minds and the most intellectual people of the period--and who shall say that this is not greatly to be desired8 ,yet more naturally1 however1 comes association with men in the public service1 with the leaders of political parties and of political movements4 ,if the editor's journal chances to be in accord with one of the great political parties the editor finds himself in the confidence of the party leaders and participating in their councils4 ,his advice is sought as to party plans and measures1 the availability of proposed candidates1 the conduct of campaigns and the operation of the party machinery4 ,successful editorship involves a fine knowledge of party politics1 a constant study of national issues and of statesmanship and of the requirements of public service1 as well as searching inquiry into the science of government and the intricacies of diplomacy4 ,the journalist's training especially fits him for political activity and very frequently1 after a few years of editing1 he joins in public service or engages in professional politics4 ,indeed1 very many newspaper writers drift into businesses that promise better pecuniary rewards4 ,they start in journalism because it pays something from the first1 but careful calculation discloses little promise for wealth in the future and they seek the golden dollar elsewhere4 ,it is not to be urged that journalism especially fits a man for commercial life1 nevertheless there is a mysterious influence in it that makes a man out of a boy very quickly4 ,a few years of reporting in a big city makes him mentally alert1 if anything can1 and teaches the ways of the world as nothing else does4 ,he experiences a new phase of life every day of his life4 ,he is taught to search for facts1 to seek for causes and to foresee results4 ,he gets broadness of vision1 expanse of comprehension1 and rugged contact with the world--contact with the men whose efforts are important enough to command publicity4 ,the nature of news reporting is not generally understood4 ,routine reporting is comparatively easy4 ,the reporting of highly important events is extremely difficult4 ,in political convulsions1 in financial panics1 in commercial failures1 in big criminal cases1 in social scandals1 in crooked legislation1 in most of the topics that excite mankind1 the people most involved strive to conceal the real facts4 ,how is the reporter to know whether he is being lied to or not8 ,ah6 but he must know4 ,it is his business to know4 ,it is the commonest of reportorial experience to have the information given by one man positively contradicted by another4 ,all decent newspapers insist on accurate news reports4 ,they cannot afford to be untruthful4 ,it is of the utmost importance to them that the narrative of a great piece of news1 to be read by a million persons1 be written with absolute fidelity to fact4 ,it may be said in all truth that the experienced reporter starts out for the facts of a big case with the expectation that half of the people involved will try to mislead and fool him4 ,he questions every statement made to him and the motive of the man who makes it4 ,he verifies it through some other medium4 ,he becomes a detective4 ,he uses every trick of the calling to extract unwilling information4 ,this search for truth is one phase only of the many that constitute a reporter's experience4 ,they involve the absorption of a mass of information1 an intimate contact with men of affairs1 the cultivation of ability to think quickly and speak easily1 and mingle pleasantly with the world4 ,it has been urged with some reason that five or six years of this sort of thing better fits a young man for almost any kind of business than does sitting at a clerk's desk learning the rudiments of the business4 ,but the intelligent or educated young man with a grain of perception in his makeup should understand that the joy of living is found in congenial employment--in work that inspires and educates and delights4 ,there would not be much happiness in this world if happiness depended on riches4 ,the good physician finds greater satisfaction in the helpfulness of his service than in the collection of his fee4 ,the money value of ,mr4 ,edison's discovery is probably the very last thing he thinks of4 ,the ,rev4 ,washington ,gladden1 who gave his life to the ministry1 was first an apprentice in the ,owego ,gazette and he never thereafter could withstand the fascinations of newspaper writing4 ,while conducting his parishes he contributed to various publications4 ,he conducted a magazine of his own while in ,springfield1 ,mass41 of which he says3 8,i edited it in connection with my parish work1 doing all the editorial writing1 ten pages of minion every month1 conducting all the correspondence1 reading all the proof1 and making up the pages in the composing room4 ,that was really worth while4 ,i never had a better time40 8,to generate and diffuse a sound1 sweet1 generous1 wholesome public opinion is the best and the biggest business in which any human being can engage0 was one of his maxims4 ,there is no denying the fascination of power and of influence1 the satisfaction of persuasion and of direction4 ,the editor comes to love his work because he feels that he is participating in leadership4 ,he appreciates1 perhaps1 that he is the custodian of something new and he glories in the thought that he may communicate this new thing to the world2 rejoices that he is influencing others to see as he sees1 to think as he thinks1 to understand as he understands4 ,he comes to understand the delights and the responsibilities of persuasion1 appreciating1 as ,sir ,arthur ,quiller-,couch tells the ,cambridge students1 that persuasion is the aim of all the arts1 of all exposition of the sciences1 of all useful exchange of converse in our daily life2 as it is the end sought by the artist in his picture1 the mathematician in his problem1 the clergyman in his sermon4 8,nor can ,i imagine any earthly gift more covetable by you1 ,gentlemen10 says this lecturer1 8than of persuading your fellows to listen to your views and attend to what you have at heart4 ,suppose that you wish to become a journalist4 ,well1 and why not8 ,is it a small thing to desire the power of influencing day by day to better citizenship an unguessed number of men1 using the best thought and applying the best language at your command80 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,newspaper ,,influence--,,ways ,,of ,,persuading ,,the ,,public--,,service ,,to ,,the ,,government ,the editor of experience appreciates that in attempting to influence the public he is addressing many men of many minds4 ,an argument intended to convince a scholar or a well informed man would be lost on an ignorant man1 while an appeal written down to the understanding of the ignorant man must provoke mirth from the wise4 ,nevertheless1 all persons frequently are influenced by mere suggestion1 especially when they have not studied the subject4 ,frequently they may reverse a judgment on a mere hint in a newspaper4 ,not all men have time1 in these busy days1 to think out the problems of the hour1 have not the facilities at hand for research1 haven't been taught to think4 ,intelligent thinking is a result of education--the education that teaches to think4 ,mental improvement is the result of thought4 ,progress comes from mental application4 ,what we call 8experience0 is the result of constant thought in one direction or toward a single purpose4 ,lincoln was fourfold the man in #ahfe that he was in #ahfj4 ,any observer could see ,woodrow ,wilson leap forward in mental strength from the instant of his appearance in public life4 ,the editor literally thinks for his readers4 ,he acquires a habit of thought not cultivated or sought or possessed by his readers4 ,he is trained to a mental analysis of the causes of great events1 to an expert understanding of their present importance1 to a clear insight into their future influence4 ,if he has studied1 he knows the great influences that for centuries have governed human conduct4 ,in the big cities the editor knows the quality of mind he is addressing better than does the writer in smaller communities4 ,in ,new ,york1 for instance1 every sheet has a different sort of clientele4 ,everybody knows which newspaper1 by reason of its scholarly editorial articles1 its criticisms1 its reviews and non-sensational news appeals to the highest intelligence4 ,and every one knows the ones that appeal to the non-thinking public4 ,but in smaller towns the newspaper goes to the wise and the unwise alike4 ,the task of pleasing everybody requires study1 and here editorial writing becomes an art1 indeed4 ,the scholar may sneer at the article that pleases the man of toil and both may despise the suggestion that convinces the man of medium intelligence4 ,the editor of scholarly instincts naturally wants to please the highest intelligence among his readers2 but the readers who really think in a scholarly way are few4 ,the great proportion of readers care little for so-called polite literature1 neither do they care for profound instruction4 ,they want the simpler sort of editorial comment and are better pleased with that which explains than with that which argues4 ,they want their news adorned with breath-catching headlines in big type4 ,in the large cities many professional and business men read several daily newspapers1 but their number is small compared with the millions who read one paper only4 ,in smaller cities and in the villages and on the farms it is quite the exception when more than one daily newspaper enters the household4 ,in very many instances this one sheet is all the reading matter the members of the household have4 ,their entire conception of public affairs is had from this publication4 ,it is quite impossible to suppose that they are not influenced by it4 ,they let the editor think for them and they accept his conclusions4 ,it has been argued1 with much reason1 that the newspaper is indispensable to a republican or representative form of government embracing vast territory1 like our own4 ,even the founders of this nation did not anticipate that the government could extend its jurisdiction far beyond the ,alleghenies1 much less to the ,pacific coast4 ,the plea for states rights was founded on the belief that it must be impossible to bring so large an area as the original thirteen states under a single form of government4 ,without the telegraph1 without railroads1 in the early history of the ,american nation there was no way of keeping the mass of the people in close touch with the government1 of supplying quick information on current events without which the people are incapable of forming correct opinions4 ,to-day1 the newspapers1 with their simultaneous publication all over the continent1 their fast printing and quick delivery1 keep all the people instantly informed4 ,they are able immediately to reflect public opinion1 thus making themselves indispensable to the government4 ,vast though our distances may be1 we have the healthiest kind of public spirit and response4 ,the sentiment of the nation is at the government's disposal in a jiffy4 ,this was strikingly illustrated after one of ,president ,wilson's intimations to ,germany that unconditional surrender must be a condition of armistice4 ,the same edition of a ,new ,york newspaper that contained the ,president's declaration also contained comments on that declaration made by more than two hundred different publications from ,maine to ,california1 and every one of them insisted on 8unconditional surrender40 ,the ,president knew instantly that the people were with him4 ,for very many years it has been the practice of governments 7and yet more persistently the practice of political leaders7 to put out 8feelers0 through the press4 ,a new policy1 a questionable nomination1 a new plan of taxation1 may be contemplated4 ,the government seeks to 8feel the pulse of the people0 on its desirability4 ,hints are given to the correspondents that the policy or the plan has been suggested and is under consideration and the correspondents pass it along to their newspapers1 well fortified with those stale old prefixes1 8it is said that0 or 8rumor has it that0 or 8a person high in authority who does not wish to be quoted hints that0--and so on--giving an outline of the proposed action4 ,this is followed by another 8feeler0 passing out a little more information saddled on some other mysterious persons4 ,on any important question the public flashes a quick response4 ,the proposal in ,washington1 for instance1 to double the tax on theater tickets and admissions to places of amusement drew a howl of disapproval that defeated the plan4 ,the people didn't want their pleasures taxed additionally4 ,the government or the political party that deliberately defies public sentiment as expressed in the newspapers is put out of business usually at the following election4 ,throughout the ,world ,war the newspapers were of the utmost usefulness to the government4 ,they stood between the government and the people4 ,they made and reflected public sentiment as never before4 ,government announcements were read in every city in the nation and in most of the villages within six hours of their release4 ,the government spoke to the people in almost instantaneous speech4 ,the newspapers urged and sustained and stimulated the bond sales1 the thrift stamp drives1 the activities of the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 and like organizations1 the merciful ministrations of the ,red ,cross1 the vast collection of money for the relief of stricken peoples1 the food campaigns1 the conservation of heat and light and a host of other material things4 ,it would require pages of print to tell the half of it4 ,it would require hours of constant thought to appreciate it4 ,recall1 if you will1 what your own favorite paper did1 and then be assured that thousands of other daily sheets did the same thing6 ,newspaper influence had perhaps its finest recognition in the various propaganda of the war4 ,all governments used the press lavishly with intent to guide1 to conceal1 to accomplish4 ,they 8felt the pulse of the people0 constantly and subtly4 ,proposed policies were tested out4 ,often they were suggested to direct attention from the real policy or to take the sting from it4 ,the ,french press under the immediate inspiration and control of the government held the people in compact unity4 ,it stimulated the morale and intensified the purpose of the soldiers1 for it was possible to strew the trenches with newspapers within two hours after they were printed4 ,this was of inestimable patriotic service4 ,not any other government used the newspapers with such skill or with greater beneficial results4 ,newspaper influence was sought in the process of the censorship4 ,the object of censorship was not alone to prevent information from reaching the enemy but also to influence public opinion4 ,all warring nations seek the good opinion of the neutrals--seek to have neutral nations convinced of the ultimate success of their armies--hence the impulse to suppress the news of defeat and to exalt victory4 ,early in the war this was the pronounced attitude of ,germany and ,great ,britain toward ,america1 much to the annoyance of the ,american newspapers4 ,germany's efforts to influence the ,american public through our newspapers were so constant1 so vociferous1 so transparent1 that everybody recognized the purpose4 ,yet she continued to spend great sums of money on propaganda to the very end of the war4 ,germany worked the press of every country4 ,it was a part of her war plan just as much as was the making of bullets or asphyxiating gas4 ,it was thought out and arranged for and practiced before the war broke4 ,it was depended on to create sympathy and to establish justification2 and it was exceedingly efficacious in the early periods and influenced greatly to postpone our entrance into the conflict4 ,despite the censorship the war was very well reported by ,american newspapers4 ,our journals were read with an interest approaching to anxiety1 and the public came to believe that the news was truthfully presented4 ,news reading was raised to a high plane of importance4 ,the war gave the public greater confidence in the newspapers4 ,in olden times1 despotic times1 in ,greece and ,italy let us say1 before newspapers existed1 the people gathered in public places to listen to government proclamations and whatever news the rulers were pleased to give out4 ,the information was proclaimed by heralds or was placarded on market walls4 ,the usual policy was to keep the people in ignorance of what was going on4 ,no public opinion existed1 for the public had no information on which to form conclusions4 ,many governments prevented gatherings of the people knowing the power of the people to create sentiment and rebellion4 ,not for weeks or months did remote regions get important news that the government wished to conceal4 ,no means of quick communication existed4 ,the concealment of news and the suppression of public sentiment helped to strengthen despotic government4 ,the rulers might circulate false news as well as the truth1 and frequently did so4 ,our present-day censorship is an hereditary relic of this ancient-day concealment4 ,the newspaper's greatest influence is not in persuading persons who have learned to think for themselves4 ,it is exercised on that great mass of our population that has no other source of information than the newspapers4 ,in thousands of families not more than two or three books are purchased in an entire year1 and these are likely to be books of fiction4 ,yet few families are without a daily newspaper4 ,usually one paper only is taken1 and how could it happen otherwise than that the household should come to the editor's way of thinking when no other thought than his comes to their attention8 ,this condition applies to people in moderate circumstances1 employees1 helpers1 those who live by physical toil or who do the simplest kind of clerical work4 ,these people are easily influenced because they have not been trained to think or analyze for themselves4 ,they depend on the newspaper for information1 explanation1 suggestion4 ,they have little inclination or time to study with diligence the great questions of the day and have few or no facilities for doing so in any event4 ,they are not interested in profound argument but they accept conclusions readily4 ,if the editor be wise he will seek to know what proportion of his readers are of this type4 ,the average newspaper reader does not think overmuch of what he is reading but he is highly receptive4 ,his conclusion is likely to be affirmative4 ,it is his nature to believe rather than to distrust4 ,he is easily led by artful groupings of fact1 rather more easily led thus than by argument requiring much thought4 ,there is not time in these strenuous days for the old-fashioned kind of thinking4 ,quick conclusions are the vogue and they are not the result of profound thought4 ,rather are they the result of hasty thought4 ,this is attested by the rush from one party to another by the so-called independent voter1 or the sudden dethronement of a public idol1 or the restoration of a discarded hero to public popularity4 ,these quick changes in public sentiment have enlivened the history of all times4 ,the poet ,byron1 in the beginning of his literary career1 was praised by men and petted by women until the entire ,british nation was chanting adorations4 ,then1 with the suddenness of a whirlwind1 it turned against him and with furious persecution drove him into exile4 ,the ,american hero of ,manila ,bay was escorted up ,broadway by shouting thousands of admirers4 ,within a year he was no longer a hero4 ,we resisted woman suffrage for scores of years and suddenly accepted it4 ,this nation drank rum from its earliest beginnings and then with comparative suddenness changed the practice of centuries by declaring for prohibition4 ,the newspaper's unconscious influence over the casual reader must be recognized4 ,it is an instructive influence1 usually1 of wide scope1 covering a multitude of topics that do not come to the reader's attention in any other way than through the newspapers4 ,information does not get into the magazines or books until weeks or months after the event but the newspapers print it on the instant4 ,the casual newspaper reader1 for instance1 reads that the new ,roentgen ray has been discovered1 by means of which the interior of an ordinarily opaque substance may be disclosed in photograph4 ,he reads enough to establish that fact1 but as soon as the description begins to become technical the casual reader abandons the article4 ,nevertheless he has absorbed the fact and a crude notion of the discovery and has added just so much to his fund of information4 ,he may study it out if he chooses4 ,again1 there is no other quick source of information on new developments in politics1 in finance1 in the fluctuations of the commercial market prices4 ,almost all of us feel that we must know about the artists1 the singers1 the actors1 and we love to talk about them1 yet what we say we almost surely have read in some newspaper4 ,you get an intelligent idea at your breakfast table of the new opera that did not end until midnight1 of the new play produced on the night preceding1 of the speeches and the spirit of the banquet that did not end until after you were in sleep1 of the conflagration that destroyed some well-known building during the night1 of the railroad accident that destroyed scores of lives4 ,and these are the things that you talk about during the day4 ,they unconsciously influence your thoughts and your actions even when read casually4 ,the busy man is rather easily led along or into the editor's way of thinking especially when the topic is new to him4 ,he is not a trained or analytical thinker at best1 hasn't time to reflect much on the subject1 cannot invent a new line of thought in opposition to the editor's because of unfamiliarity with the subject1 has no quick way of getting additional information4 ,maybe he instinctively balks at the editorial conclusion1 but probably the editor is right1 he reasons1 and he passes to something more interesting4 ,the next article may be a continuation of comment on a subject written about two days before4 ,it becomes a bit more familiar4 ,he half recognizes the argument4 ,he half accepts it now as his own1 has 8thought of that before10 so he approves4 ,reiteration has influenced him2 a third presentation clinches him4 ,reiteration is a most subtle means of influencing public opinion4 ,the man who reads the same thought a few times in different diction comes to accept it as his own thought4 ,it is an unconscious influence4 ,it is little consolation to the editor that his articles are hastily read2 so much the more reason1 on the contrary1 for making them striking and for making their meaning the more easily understood4 ,people like to see their own beliefs reflected in their newspaper2 regard the editorial utterance as a confirmation of it2 welcome a new argument in its favor2 like to read it to a neighbor2 come to look on the sheet as a personal champion4 ,all newspapers have great influence one way or another4 ,they reach the people to an extent not reached by any other influence1 for everybody of any account reads them4 ,consider for a moment4 ,rarely does a clergyman find himself addressing a congregation of more than five hundred persons2 rarely1 indeed1 does the public lecturer speak to a thousand persons2 and seldom1 in the heat of a campaign1 does the political orator find five thousand persons within the reach of his voice4 ,yet a little editorial paragraph1 placed conspicuously on the editorial page of the ,new ,york ,times1 will be read by more than six hundred thousand persons4 ,a million and a half newspapers are printed in ,new ,york city every morning1 and nearly two millions every afternoon1 not counting those printed in other languages than the ,english language of which there are nearly a million more4 ,about the same proportion of newspapers to population prevails throughout the chief cities of the ,united ,states4 8,i never read the editorials0 we all have heard many a newspaper reader say4 8,i simply scan the editorials10 we hear others remark4 ,almost all editorial articles are hastily read1 and so is the entire sheet for that matter4 ,you have only to watch the process to be convinced4 ,the busy man opens his newspaper to the editorial page as he would open a book1 holds it open and high1 one page grasped by the left hand and the other by the right4 ,he scans the leading article1 reads the first two or three sentences and if attention is not instantly attracted flashes his eye down to the beginning of the next paragraph1 and so on4 ,the greater the number of paragraphs in the article the more quick attention it gets4 ,the sensational sheet editors know this and they make many paragraphs in every article4 ,the profound heavy articles with three or four paragraphs only to the column get scant attention except from readers especially interested in the topic4 ,they are looked at for an instant only4 ,in that instant the reader decides whether he is interested in the topic4 ,usually he is not4 ,his eye skims along to the next article with same result4 ,then he may encounter something that he wants to know more about4 ,but it is half a column long4 8,i'll read it when ,i get time10 he says to himself1 as his eye jumps over to the opposite page--a news page--and he begins to absorb the headlines4 ,these he treats in the same hasty manner and in about three minutes he has finished the two pages and has turned over to the next two4 ,he reads all in the same way4 ,he may pause over a particular article but usually the reading is of short duration4 ,he has absorbed perhaps the spirit of the headings and maybe the few lines of introduction to the articles that have had his attention4 ,he is ready with an opinion1 but that opinion is the opinion of the man who wrote the caption or the introduction4 ,the hasty reader has given the subject not the slightest original thought4 ,nevertheless he is influenced by it4 ,it is recognized that almost everything we read has its direct or its unconscious influence4 ,very many busy men confine their morning newspaper reading to the breakfast table1 others 8get through0 their newspaper while on their way to business4 ,very little newspaper reading has their attention after reaching the office4 ,evening newspapers are read more thoroughly4 ,there is more time after dinner4 ,the comfortable chair1 the shaded lamp1 the family near to join in the comment--all help to make the reading more enjoyable4 ,but even then the average reader does not read with intent attention4 ,it is incontestably true that the great mass of the people who read the newspapers in this hasty glancing fashion do not think deeply4 ,this mental attitude has had the attention of observers for many years4 ,hawthorne speaks of 8the wild babble of the town--indicating a low tone of feeling and shallow thought40 ,macaulay said of ,tillotson3 8,his reasoning was just sufficiently profound and sufficiently refined to be followed by a popular audience with that slight degree of intellectual exertion which is a pleasure40 ,lafcadio ,hearn speaks of the masses as people of uncultured taste to whom the higher zones of emotion are out of reach4 ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson remarked3 8,the greatest part of mankind have no other reason for their opinions than that they are in fashion40 ,and one of the conspicuous ,british essayists commented3 8,it serves to show in what a slovenly way most people are content to think40 ,henry ,ward ,beecher ever was impressed with the influence of newspapers4 ,he said3 ,do you ever stop to think that millions have no literature1 no school and almost no pulpit but the press8 ,not one man in ten reads books1 but every one of us1 except the very helpless poor1 satiates himself every day with the newspaper4 ,it is the parent1 school1 college1 theatre1 pulpit1 example1 counsellor1 all in one4 ,every drop in our blood is colored by it4 ,some one has said of newspaper influence3 8,let me write the headlines and you may write the rest10 which was another way of saying3 8,let me handle the news and you may write the editorial articles1 the criticisms and the other things1 and ,i will have the greater influence40 ,it always has been a debatable question4 ,northcliffe1 the conspicuous figure in journalism during the great war1 has said3 ,it is true that an intelligently conducted newspaper can inform and guide public opinion but this is done more through publishing the news than by the dictum of the editorial4 8,ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free0 must be the underlying principle of journalism in a democracy4 ,in an appeal to editors to help spread the war spirit1 a writer in the ,columbia ,university ,war ,papers wrote3 ,editorials1 repeated editorials1 are both desirable and necessary4 ,but to one reader who is influenced by a given editorial many hundreds are influenced day by day by the headlines of the paper and by the wording and form of presentation of the news4 ,it is therefore to a considered and continuous policy of news presentation that we must look primarily for help4 ,of newspaper influence ,arthur ,brisbane has said3 ,there never was a corrupt official who could hear without dread the growling of a hundred thousand human voices outside his door4 ,there does not live a corrupt official1 however hardened1 who hears without alarm the opinions of a million men voiced through a newspaper which they trust4 ,thackeray's famous paragraph with reference to newspaper activities is often quoted as illustrating the power of the press through her writers4 ,pendennis and ,warrington are passing a brilliantly lighted newspaper building4 ,reporters were coming out or were dashing up in cabs1 and ,warrington says3 ,look at that1 ,pen4 ,there she is--the great engine1 she never sleeps4 ,she has ambassadors in every quarter of the world--her couriers upon every road4 ,her officers march along with armies and her envoys walk into statesmen's cabinets4 ,they are ubiquitous4 ,yonder journal has an agent at this minute giving bribes in ,madrid2 and another inspecting the price of potatoes at ,covent ,garden4 ,look1 here comes the foreign express galloping in4 ,they will be able to give news to ,downing street tomorrow2 funds will rise or fall1 fortunes be made or lost2 ,lord ,b will get up1 and holding the paper in his hand and seeing the noble ,marquis in his place1 will make a great speech2 and ,mr4 ,doolan will be called away from his supper at the back kitchen2 for he is sub-editor and sees the mail on the newspaper sheet before he goes to his own4 ,it may be said of present-day news column influence that never have the news columns been so free from personal feeling1 so fair to foe4 ,the public has never had greater confidence in them4 ,almost all editors are honest in desire to print both sides of an important controversy4 ,they have come to know it is best policy4 ,the speeches of rival partisans1 their communications1 their activities1 have well-nigh as conspicuous places in the sheet as do the utterances of their own champions4 ,this helps to aid unbiased conclusion4 ,public questions never have had such elaborate publicity as in recent years1 never have been so intelligently understood2 and public sentiment has not hitherto been so active or so influential4 ,indeed1 the spirit of independent fairness has become so acute that not infrequently the small minority gets a prominence that it does not deserve1 with resulting danger that its activities may be mistaken for genuine public sentiment4 ,this spirit of fairness does not exist of course in all publications1 but almost all newspapers are honest in their news columns4 ,the sheets that deliberately falsify become fewer every year4 ,the influence of the news columns has increased vastly4 ,for individual power and influence ,lord ,northcliffe stood supreme among editors4 ,his personal triumphs during the war were decisive and far reaching4 ,he destroyed one ,british cabinet and built another4 ,he forced the reorganization of departments4 ,he compelled changes of military policy and action and he flabbergasted pretty nearly everybody who opposed4 ,one of his distinguished opponents lamented that ,northcliffe was the most powerful man in ,england's affairs since ,cromwell4 ,his editorial voice reached all kinds of people through the score or more of daily1 weekly1 and monthly publications owned or controlled by him all over the ,british empire4 ,he owned the ,times that for more than one hundred years had endeared itself to the ,british well-to-do and upper classes for its trustworthy news reports1 its superior editorial comment and its fearless political criticism4 ,he owned the ,evening ,mail that scattered a million copies daily among the common people4 ,he talked every day to millions of people1 who1 while not thinking profoundly were willing to be led by intellectual excellence4 ,northcliffe's methods were of entrancing interest to those who observe and study newspaper influence4 ,he admits that in the beginning he was fascinated by the ,american sensational press1 by its ways of doing things1 by the enormous circulations of some of our editions4 ,nothing of the sort existed in ,england twenty years ago and ,northcliffe was the first to introduce ,american methods there4 ,he visited us more than once to study our lurid journalism4 ,he took several ,american newspaper men to help him in ,london4 ,he was impressed with ,mr4 ,pulitzer's thought that our newspapers were too high toned1 were written over the heads of the masses2 that the masses were ignorant of what was going on because they could not understand the newspapers1 and that a sheet written in simple language and sold for a cent must be popular4 ,he would bring his sheet down to the comprehension of any man who could read4 ,northcliffe added acute sensationalism to this general plan1 and his daily newspapers in ,london1 ,manchester1 ,leeds1 ,glasgow1 and elsewhere jumped to big circulations4 ,he did not much disturb the conservative news policy of the ,times1 but its editorial page became livid4 ,of him it was said3 ,sensationalism is his gospel4 ,every day must have its thrill2 every paragraph must be an electric shock4 ,politics are nothing2 parties are nothing2 principles are nothing2 all that matters is that the great public shall be kept humming with excitement4 ,he believes that power and political influence are in the hands of the multitude and that the newspaper having the ear of the multitude will control the tides of national thought4 ,northcliffe's unprecedented attacks on the ,asquith government made the world gasp4 ,friends of the cabinet and some newspapers urged the suspension of his publications and his arrest for treason4 ,his attacks continued4 ,the government did not notice them4 ,his unlicensed freedom of opinion was permitted4 ,the idiocy of the ,gallipoli campaign was exposed4 ,the punishment of its authors was demanded4 ,the inefficiency of the munitions department was made a public scandal and reorganization was compelled4 ,northcliffe insisted on a small war cabinet and on many other changes4 ,asquith's indecision and exasperating deliberation1 at the moment when quick thought and quick deeds were vital1 filled ,northcliffe with rage4 ,the ,asquith ministry fell and ,northcliffe named the succession4 ,the world has rarely seen such an exhibition of newspaper power4 ,the editor's enemies endeavored to minimize the incident4 ,they contended that ,asquith's fall was inevitable after the failure of the ,british advance on the ,somme and the disaster in ,roumania2 that it was another instance of ,northcliffe's newspaper smartness in anticipating a coming event1 urging its enactment and then taking credit for compelling it4 ,this1 ,i am sorry to say1 is a venerable editorial device for making newspaper reputation--learn what is contemplated by the government or some one else and then start in the newspaper a raging demand for it and when the end is accomplished take all the credit for it4 ,northcliffe was an adept at this sort of thing4 ,indeed his enemies accused him of giving the impression of forcing the government against its will4 ,be that as it may1 he was easily the commanding figure in the journalism of the world during the war4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,the ,,study ,,of ,a ,,specialty--,,great ,,advantage ,,follows ,,the ,,mastery ,,of ,,two ,,or ,,three ,,subjects ,now1 if our ambitious young newspaper man intends to be the editor of a sheet in a small city or a village1 he should study every part of the business in detail4 ,but1 if he means to remain on a big city staff it will be to his advantage1 after he has done general work for two or three years1 to decide what particular branch of the work he prefers to follow and then bend effort toward that end4 ,if he fancies the writing of editorial articles1 let him study the art of editorial writing4 ,if he aspires to executive work1 such as is done by managing and city editors1 let him prepare accordingly4 ,but1 if he desires to continue on the general writing staff he will find it very much to his advantage--in connection with his general work--to study a specialty or two4 ,in the newspaper office the man who knows most about a given topic is the man summoned to write on that topic4 ,the expert on national politics is sent to the national political conventions and the man who knows most about finance must write the big stories of financial moment--just as in football the best kicker is called on to kick the goal4 ,now1 of newspaper specialties there is no end4 ,let yours be one in which you will be interested1 to master which will be a delight4 ,one young man of my acquaintance became fascinated with astronomy and he studied it between times while working at his newspaper desk1 mastered it1 became an authority on the subject1 and was soon in demand as a writer of astronomical articles and astronomical books4 ,another young man became interested in geography and exploration until he obtained intimate knowledge of the land and the seas that decorate this fascinating old earth4 ,his articles were soon in demand at altitudinous rates4 ,he hobnobs with explorers1 directs in geographical societies1 superintends in the making of maps1 delivers lectures and writes constantly--and still the wonder grows that he can get so much out of it4 ,men who can write with authority on the subject of music are especially welcome in newspaper offices1 and a writer who knows engineering and construction has a splendid specialty in these days of machinery1 enormous buildings and marvelous public works4 ,but1 conspicuously above all other newspaper specialties let me put politics1 and next to politics in my opinion comes finance4 ,in a whimsical sense they may be said to go together1 for do we not see occasionally that politics has to be financed and that finance is at the mercy of politics4 ,each in itself is highly important and together they rule the world4 ,of politics there is no end--never has been--never will be4 ,year in and year out its discussion fills more than one-half of the editorial page4 ,for centuries it has commanded the supreme mental attention of statesmen and writers4 ,it always furnishes the great public issue1 and here in ,america we all take part in it through our right to vote and through our knowledge of the parties and the issues and the men who represent them as set forth in the newspapers which we all read4 ,we might easily carry this suggestion to indefinite lengths1 proving by argument and by facts that a supreme knowledge of this subject must be of greater usefulness to the newspaper writer than any other specialty2 and it may be added1 in all truth1 that no man can become a really great editor without an intimate knowledge of politics4 ,only a little less important to newspaper men as a special study is the subject of finance4 ,that melange of mystery called ,wall ,street we have always with us4 ,its doings are deep and mysterious to the uninstructed1 but plain as a pancake to him who has studied them4 ,the finances of the nation always have had public attention4 ,john ,fiske1 in his admirable work called 8,the ,critical ,period of the ,american ,republic10 has shown how for eight or ten years after the ,revolutionary ,war the young nation was on the verge of destruction through inability to finance its poverty4 ,since then we have had a dozen financial convulsions called panics1 each one followed by business depression and endless newspaper discussions of causes and possible effects4 ,alway they must continue4 ,this particular study includes an enormous range of topics1 including the banking business and banking systems public and private at home and abroad1 international monetary systems1 foreign exchange1 gold exports and imports1 tariff imposition1 currency systems1 commercial credits1 problems of transportation1 the financing of great undertakings through the issue of stocks and bonds1 the buying and selling of our enormous agricultural product as well as the product of our factories--and many other kindred topics which contribute to the live news of the day and afford important subjects for editorial comment4 ,the principles of finance are given in various textbooks1 but their practical application can be made only through knowledge of causes which change from day to day and which are recorded in current publications4 ,the same may be said of the politics of the day4 ,almost all young men like to write about sporting contests because they are interested and because they enjoy seeing the game4 ,the public demand for superior sporting news has compelled the printing of from one to three pages of it daily1 and the good sporting writer is usually in demand4 ,it is not difficult to catch the knack of writing for the sporting page1 but thorough technical knowledge is required4 ,interest in sporting contests seems to be increasing of late years4 ,they must for a long time to come consume much newspaper space4 ,also1 young writers usually are ambitious to pen theatrical criticism4 ,they are interested in the theaters and like to attend them4 ,but this work is given to men of experience1 as a rule4 ,the field is limited1 the number of dramatic critics required is very few1 and for various reasons the post when attained is of precarious permanency4 ,the writing of book reviews is commonly an early ambition of the college graduate especially4 ,it fascinates with its promise of literary research under the soft glow of the student lamp1 the welcome warmth of the cushion study chair1 and the silent inspiration of dusky volumes on the library shelves4 ,and delightfully clean and interesting work it is1 to be sure1 well worthy any student's quest4 ,many newspapers print a literary supplement once a week and it busies many pens4 ,usually it is under the direction of an editor whose exclusive task is to provide the matter for its columns4 ,a large proportion of the new books sent for review are given out to members of the editorial or writing staff whose attention to them is in the nature of extra work2 but some are sent to persons outside the office4 ,the labors of the literary editor of a big city journal are constant and exacting for nearly every book published is sent to him and they are numbered in thousands4 ,he has to provide for special articles on literary topics1 also1 for answers to correspondents1 and he has to prepare for printing proper announcements of forthcoming publications which he sifts from a mass of matter furnished by publishers4 ,very many books are sent to the daily newspapers in the smaller cities1 attention to which is usually divided among various members of the staff4 ,the general writer on a staff seldom acquires more than a general knowledge of the topic he is writing of2 the specialist has expert knowledge1 and often it is sought to his very great advantage by business or other outside interests4 ,in these hustling times the expert in almost any line of study finds himself in demand4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,the ,,activities ,,and ,,patriotic ,,service ,,of ,,newspapers ,,in ,,times ,,of ,,war ,the war correspondent is perhaps the most picturesque figure in journalism4 ,he endures the dangers and the hardships of war as does the soldier1 possibly more so1 for no one looks out for him in the field or especially cares how he fares4 ,he has some glorious moments2 but for the most part his time is consumed in heart-breaking effort to overcome obstacles4 ,his reputation depends on his success in dealing with these difficulties4 ,the reporting of other wars was easy compared with the late ,world ,war4 ,in the ,south ,african campaign1 for example1 the ,london newspapers were permitted to send as many correspondents as they chose and they went when and where they pleased4 ,the ,london ,daily ,mail had thirty-six men there with a staff editor in command--the other ,london newspapers about the same number each4 ,and all were competing in hustle and grab to get news and flash it to the home office4 ,with little censorship and no restriction the reporting of that war was not difficult4 ,and this was true of nearly all war reporting up to the conflict between ,turkey and the ,balkans in #aiab4 ,but the great war1 #aiad-aiah1 was started with almost as much hostility toward the correspondent as toward the enemy4 ,as though by common consent1 all the conflicting nations sought to crush him4 ,every big newspaper in all the world wanted to send a correspondent to the firing lines3 some of them wanted to send two1 four1 six1 even more1 for the line of battle soon became more than a hundred miles long in ,france and much longer on the ,russian frontier4 ,at first not any were permitted to approach the firing front or even the division headquarters and the correspondents worked under great disadvantage4 ,a strict censorship was made over the little information they were able to obtain4 ,it was very unsatisfactory4 ,at this time ,london was almost entirely without information about the war4 ,the solemn silence with reference to the armies and the fighting served to dampen enthusiasm and patriotic ardor4 ,calls for enlistments were ignored1 recruiting came to a standstill4 ,lists of the dead began to appear1 adding to the gloom4 ,no stirring descriptions of personal heroism or glorious achievement were printed4 ,the newspapers made a great row about it and the people joined in4 ,it was not until later1 when the papers were permitted to print stirring news from the front of the ebb and flow of the battle tides1 that enthusiasm was aroused and ,england made splendid response to the call for fighting men4 ,the government at length came to appreciate that to suppress all war news was to breed indifference2 and in the same proportion as the censorship was relaxed1 public spirit was aroused4 ,all of the ,london newspapers made the most elaborate preparations to report the war4 ,those of the ,times were perhaps the most comprehensive and may serve as illustration4 ,it sent ninety correspondents to the army fronts scattering them all along the lines4 ,they were1 in the main1 high priced men and the expenditure amounted to something like fifteen thousand dollars a week4 ,but the censors shut them out entirely4 ,they were not allowed within miles of the fighting lines and were forbidden to send a scrap of news4 ,it was useless to keep them there and they were recalled4 ,the only news printed in ,london1 ,paris1 or ,berlin1 at first1 were the government reports4 ,it was in response to public clamor for more news that a new plan of war reporting was adopted1 namely1 the syndicating of news4 ,very few correspondents were permitted on the firing line and each man represented a number of newspapers4 ,in #aiah1 for example1 as many as eight or ten ,english newspapers shared the work of one man4 ,reuter's agency had a man at all fronts4 ,his reports went to all newspapers4 ,this was a great service and also a great saving to the smaller sheets2 but the big newspapers wanted their own men to do their work4 ,in ,london1 a combination of all the daily papers was formed1 called the ,newspaper ,proprietors ,association1 and it made virtually all arrangements for reporting the war4 ,if a member had in mind a good thing to do he was required by the arrangement to tell it to all the others1 for nothing could be done except under this cooperative scheme4 ,these conditions destroyed all competition4 ,newspaper 8beats0 disappeared4 ,it was a very unsatisfactory arrangement4 ,there was no freedom of movement for individual publications4 ,and it is more than likely that a similar system will prevail in future wars4 ,no room1 no facilities for several hundred correspondents are to be had at the field headquarters of a fighting army4 ,the number must be restricted and the news passed around to all newspapers4 ,in the latter months of the war1 conditions1 as compared with the first months1 were reversed4 ,censorship was relaxed somewhat and correspondents were allowed to approach the battle lines with greater freedom4 ,the syndicating plan was not changed4 ,it worked more smoothly as the writers had more liberty but it was not ever satisfactory to the newspapers4 ,the feeling of resentment toward the presence of correspondents in the field somewhat passed away4 ,the writers who kept faith and observed the censorship rules were made more welcome4 ,but army officers never have been reconciled to the presence of correspondents and doubtless never will be4 ,it was difficult for the newspapers to obtain quick news of the war for reasons already mentioned1 yet1 reviewing the months of the conflict1 it is difficult to recall any serious misrepresentation of facts or conditions4 ,we understood always1 with substantial accuracy1 how many men each power had in the field1 where the armies were gathered1 what the losses were1 what advantages had been gained or surrendered1 and substantially how things were going4 ,the war was not reported with especial brilliancy until just before its end4 ,in the closing months some very fine work was done1 but until then dull routine narration was the vogue4 ,censorship1 the syndicate requirement1 the never ceasing congestion of the wires1 the compelled reduction in the size of newspapers1 were the chief causes for the moderation4 ,a correspondent who knows that his matter is to be cut and slashed two or three times by censors before it reaches his editor loses much of the inspiration to brilliant work4 ,for the first time in any war1 correspondents were compelled to wear a uniform--the ordinary officers' uniform without any mark or rank1 but with a green brassard around the left upper arm4 ,each correspondent was compelled to provide himself with everything needed in the field including his transport which meant motor car and horses4 ,it has been estimated that the correspondent's expenses were about eight hundred dollars a month4 ,the correspondents were paid from four thousand to ten thousand dollars a year salary1 three or four of especial reputation getting more than the latter sum4 ,the war involved vast additional expense to newspapers4 ,the cost of maintaining men in the field and in news centers1 the cost of transmitting dispatches1 especially through the cables1 as well as the enormously increased price of every product that entered into newspaper construction helped to swell the total4 ,the increase in the price of printing paper alone cost our newspapers of large circulation an additional eight hundred thousand dollars or nine hundred thousand dollars a year4 ,instead of paying from seven to ten cents a word for cable transmission1 as before the war1 the press paid latterly twenty-five to thirty-five cents from ,london and ,paris4 ,some papers paid as much as one thousand dollars for single dispatches and frequently expended ten thousand dollars a week for the transmission of war reports4 ,in the ,gallipoli drive1 messages were sent to ,constantinople by automobile1 thence wired to ,vienna1 relayed to ,berlin1 relayed again to ,the ,hague and again to ,london1 whence cabled to ,america at a total cost of about a dollar and a half a word4 ,yet we failed to note any relaxation of effort or of expense on the part of ,american newspapers to get the news4 ,it is an axiom of the business that the very life of the sheet depends on a lavish expenditure for the purchase of information4 ,the big newspapers were compelled to have special correspondents in all the big centers of allied1 belligerent and neutral countries1 to cover the political situation and other things arising from the administrative state of the war4 ,for example1 ,holland was the center of ,german news1 being on the frontier and on the main route4 ,here1 naturally1 a man obtained the big ,german news first of all1 the ,german newspapers1 the narratives of persons passing from ,germany4 ,switzerland was a news center of almost equal importance for the same reasons4 ,sweden and ,norway had to be covered4 ,it was very trying for the newspapers1 very expensive4 ,in reporting the great war the newspapers were under great disadvantage in consequence of the censorship4 ,it was the more exacting in the ,european cities1 for there it included the censorship of comment as well as news2 but much more important war news was permitted to pass through the ,atlantic cables than was permitted to be published in ,london1 ,paris1 or ,berlin4 ,nevertheless1 every cable message1 every mail letter to ,america was carefully scrutinized4 ,the letters found objectionable were destroyed2 the cables were changed or suppressed at the censor's will4 ,dispatches from ,paris to ,america by the way of ,london were censored in ,paris and again in ,london and also on arrival in ,america4 ,messages from ,vienna were censored in that city1 in ,berlin1 in ,london and again in ,america4 ,but with our entrance into the war all messages from ,germany and ,austria ceased1 practically4 ,at the time ,servia was crushed1 ,american correspondents telegraphed some fifteen thousand words describing the conquest1 not one word of which reached ,new ,york4 ,the reports reached ,london and were held there because thought to be news damaging to the cause of the allies4 ,an ,american correspondent early in the war sent four reports of the ,champagne advance4 ,one third of one of them was delivered4 ,other correspondents had the same experience at this time4 ,in justification of censorship and in appeal to the press for its aid1 the ,war ,college in ,washington1 in the late war1 cited instances of mischief done in other campaigns4 ,in the ,crimean ,war the ,english newspapers gave the ,russians most valuable information about the nature of the trenches and the condition of the armies4 ,wellington complained that the ,english press gave to ,napoleon full details of his troops and movements4 ,the result of the battle of ,sadowa1 in the ,austro-,prussian ,war1 was largely determined by a report in the ,london ,times which told that the ,austrians were encamped on the right bank of the ,elbe4 ,napoleon's letters from ,st4 ,helena attested that he kept accurate track of the movements of the ,english fleets and armies by ,london newspaper reports4 ,the ,english had always given him credit for a crafty spy system1 not appreciating that the letters of ,english officers which filled the newspapers1 were a part source of his information4 ,in the ,franco-,prussian ,war the ,french journals gave the ,prussians full particulars of ,mc,mahon's concentration at ,chlons1 his march to ,rheims1 and his advance to the ,meuse4 ,the ,prussians so directed their army movements that the ,french surrender at ,sedan was forced4 ,the advance of the ,french army for the relief of ,bazine at ,metz1 the success of which depended on secrecy1 became known to the ,prussians through the ,french and ,english newspapers4 ,in our own ,civil ,war1 ,general ,sherman's famous march through ,georgia to the sea was largely directed by newspaper reports and by ,president ,jefferson ,davis's speeches explaining how ,sherman was to be cut off1 which were printed in the ,southern press4 ,and the ,war ,office warning told how in the ,spanish-,american ,war of #ahih1 the success of the ,american expedition that concentrated at ,tampa was seriously menaced4 ,every military movement was reported in our newspapers and the ,spanish ,government had within a few hours complete accounts of the ,american preparations for war4 ,the ,war ,office document made observations on the influence of the press in times of war in the following fashion3 ,the press1 powerful in peace1 may become more so in war4 ,by its editorials and presentation of news it may sway the people for or against the war1 and thus stimulate recruiting and hearten and encourage the fighting forces in their work1 or1 by adverse criticism1 may tend to destroy the efficiency of these agencies4 ,it may by publishing names of organizations1 numbers1 movements1 accounts of victories or defeats1 furnish information to the enemy that will enable him to deduce the strength and location and intended movements of our own troops4 ,by criticism of the conduct of campaigns1 the action of certain officers or exploiting others1 the people will be led to lose confidence in the army with the result that the moral support of the people is lost2 they cry for and obtain new generals and new plans of campaign1 not based on expert knowledge and thought with a consequent lengthening of the war or even defeat4 ,war has added greatly to our information about foreign countries4 ,we studied their geography as we followed their armies1 their history as we became interested in various regions4 ,we have come to know of their resources1 their products1 their agricultural and their financial condition4 ,every day for more than four years1 in hundreds of newspapers' columns1 we read of their statesmen1 their generals1 admirals1 soldiers1 sailors1 their people1 their purpose1 their patriotism1 and their courage4 ,we know of their cabinets and their parliaments as never before1 their industrial troubles1 their petty politics as well as those larger problems that require diplomatic interference4 ,the war brought us into a new intimacy with almost all the nations of the globe4 ,it incubated hundreds of new problems4 ,it must be quite impossible for the public to appreciate the patriotic assistance and the pecuniary sacrifice of the newspapers in the war4 ,they surrendered hundreds of pages to appeals for aid1 to arousing interest1 to patriotic propaganda4 ,let us glance at the work of a single sheet3 ,mr4 ,william ,h4 ,field of the ,chicago ,tribune attested 7,april1 #aiah7 that at that time his newspaper was devoting fifty per cent of its space1 other than advertising1 to matters concerning the war4 ,in response to the question1 8,what can we do to help win the war80 it was decided to serve patriotic purposes both practical and inspirational4 ,mr4 ,field said3 ,in the ,sunday edition1 fiction section1 we print at least one patriotic story4 ,the pictorial supplement contains war photographs and portraits of military leaders4 ,the woman's department is devoted largely to war service4 ,one section is given to the work of the ,red ,cross and especially to its needs4 ,we give scientific and practical information about food and preach economy and conservation in cooking and urge coperation with the ,food ,administrator4 ,we advocate the making of war gardens and give explicit directions4 ,we have a ,camp ,stories contest in which we encourage soldiers to send short stories of camp life4 ,we print one page of signed editorials on the war4 ,the idea of the page is to give articles such as may be found in magazines of the caliber of the ,atlantic ,monthly1 the ,yale ,review1 the ,north ,american ,review and the ,new ,republic4 ,on the club page we have one article and picture from the ,woman's ,committee of the ,state ,council of ,national ,defense4 ,under the heading 8,woman in ,war ,time0 we report the activities of the various patriotic women's organizations4 ,a three or four thousand word letter of society gossip has been a feature for many years4 ,i find in the last one fifteen hundred words devoted to the work of the ,woman's ,committee on the ,liberty ,loan campaign1 one hundred words on war talk at one of the clubs1 five hundred on the entertainment of soldiers and sailors1 five hundred words to the ,woman's ,land ,army1 three hundred words on the work of women in munitions factories1 five hundred to appeals for war donations from ,new ,york committees1 and three hundred words on a sale of ,easter cards for the benefit of the wounded4 ,this one article1 indexed as 8,society ,letter0 is one hundred per cent war propaganda4 ,the only feature section not contributing to war material is the comic section4 ,what has been true of the ,chicago ,tribune was true also of nearly all the important newspapers of the ,united ,states4 ,nothing was permitted to come before the most insignificant bit of war information4 ,the newspapers made all news subordinate to war news4 ,day after day no other intelligence than war news appeared on the first page of our metropolitan sheets4 ,with glowing patriotism they surrendered column after column to appeals for help for ,belgium and for scores of other charities growing out of the war1 and not in all the long years did they cease to print appeals4 ,through the coperation of the newspapers millions on millions were raised before we entered the war4 ,then began renewed efforts to help the ,red ,cross1 the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 the ,knights of ,columbus and kindred organizations4 ,and in still greater patriotic endeavor the press of ,america urged support of the ,liberty ,loans and the thrift stamp movements4 ,the newspapers spoke for the national government4 ,they printed the government appeals4 ,they counted not the cost to themselves although every additional page meant hundreds if not thousands of dollars in additional expense4 ,in no other way could the government so quickly reach the people4 ,the ,president's appeal to public sentiment1 the treasury's call for financial aid1 the plans for taxation1 the demands for conservation of food and resources1 the thousand and one suggestions to the people were all before the people in less than twenty-four hours in every city of this broad land4 ,through the press1 the government could almost instantly communicate its wishes to more than three-quarters of the people4 ,yet the attitude of the government1 and especially of ,congress1 was that of antagonism to the press and in some directions almost of hostility4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,newspaper ,,history--,,the ,,modern ,,newspaper ,the young man contemplating journalism may be interested in the beginnings of the business4 ,the little known about them is abundantly repeated in various histories4 ,china seems to have been the pioneer at a time before the ,christian era4 ,but the records of those early years are hazy4 ,it is known that the ,peking ,gazette1 as the sheet now is called1 has been in continuous publication since the year #fah and mention is made of the ,peking ,news as being much older4 ,news-sheets printed in the time of ,julius ,csar speak of their esteemed contemporaries published in ,china4 ,before the invention of type and printing all communications intended for public consumption were written on papyrus sheets and were hanged in the market places1 or were read to the people1 or were circulated in various ways4 ,fifty years before the coming of ,christ1 the ,roman government sent out an official sheet for the information of its public servants1 the army1 and the people1 and this publication was continued for many years4 ,latterly it was called ,acta ,diurna 7,daily ,news7 and it seems to have been exceedingly popular4 ,the public appetite for news and gossip appears to have been quite as voracious then as now4 ,the news-sheets were almost sensational in their telling of scandals1 of murders1 and the details of crime4 ,there seems to have been little regard for the proprieties in those days1 for we read in the ,acta ,diurna that 8the funeral of ,marcia was performed with greater pomp of images than attendance of mourners40 ,extracts from ,cicero's speeches are given1 and one commentator writes3 ,when ,cicero was sent as governor to ,cilicia he asked a friend to send him the news of ,rome4 ,the friend employed scribes1 the reporters of that day1 to gather the information and prepare the letters4 ,the man who wrote the first letters reported everything from the procedure of the ,senate to the result of the latest gladiatorial contest4 ,cicero objected to his methods and complained that the letters contained items that he would not have bothered with when at home4 ,what he wanted1 he explains1 was advance information to keep him in touch with the political movements of the time4 ,it was during the reign of the ,csars that the news-sheets were in full request4 ,they were written in ,latin1 of course1 and were marvels of the penman's art on papyrus2 and they were expressed with an epigrammic terseness and a snap that might well be imitated to-day4 ,dr4 ,johnson translates a few of them in the ,gentleman's ,magazine as follows3 ,the ,latin festivals were celebrated1 a sacrifice performed on the ,alban ,mount1 and a dole of fish distributed to the people4 ,a fire has happened on ,mount ,coelius2 two trisulae and five houses were consumed and four damaged4 ,demiphone1 the famous pirate1 who was taken by ,licinus ,nerva1 a provincial lieutenant1 was crucified4 ,the red standard was displayed at the ,capitol and the ,consuls obliged the youth who were enlisted for the ,macedonian war to take a new oath in the ,campus ,martius4 ,the ,aedile ,tertinius fined the butchers for selling meat which had not been inspected by the market overseers4 ,the fine is to be used to build a chapel for the temple of ,tellus4 ,m4 ,tullius ,cicero pleaded in defense of ,cornelius ,sylla1 accused by ,torquatus of being concerned in ,catiline's conspiracy and gained his cause by a majority of five judges4 ,the ,tribunes of the ,treasury were against the defendant4 ,one of the ,praetors advertised by an edict that he should put off his sittings for five days on account of his daughter's marriage4 ,a report was brought to ,tertinius1 the praetor1 while he was trying cases at his tribunal1 that his son was dead4 ,this was contrived by the friends of ,coponius1 who was accused of poisoning1 that the praetor might adjourn the court2 but the magistrate having discovered the falsity of the story1 returned to his tribunal and continued in taking information against the accused4 ,after ,csar's time the ,roman sheets gradually disappeared and newspaper history becomes very misty4 ,news publications reappeared1 however1 in ,vienna and in ,augsburg in #aebd and ,pendleton in his 8,newspaper ,reporting in ,olden ,time and ,to-day10 after quoting ,chalmers in his 8,life of ,ruddiman10 observes3 ,but he admits that the first modern sheet of news appeared in ,venice about the year #aecf1 that it was manuscript1 and was read aloud in certain parts of the city--a journal that proved a great attraction1 for it was issued once a month only1 and narrated in polished stirring words how the ,venetians fared in their war against ,turkey4 ,the fee paid for reading this sheet in manuscript was a gazzetta1 and the news-sheet gradually got the name of the coin 7,the ,gazette74 ,at least ,blount1 in his ,glossographia published in the seventeenth century1 would lead on to this conclusion1 giving as the definition of the word gazzetta1 8,a certain ,venetian coin scarce worth one farthing2 also a bill of news or short relations of the occurrences of the times1 printed most commonly at ,venice1 and thence dispersed every month in most parts of ,christendom40 ,it was not until #afab that the gazzettas of the ,venetians first appeared as numbered sheets but some years previously the thirst for news--now well-nigh unquenchable in every civilized part of the globe--had spread to ,england4 ,all through the ,middle ,ages the news-letters were restrained both by church and state4 ,the privilege of printing them was withdrawn1 and by the year #aejj they virtually had ceased to exist4 ,when they reappeared they were under strict government direction and censorship4 ,the use of movable type and the printing press now facilitated their production1 but all authority frowned on them save that authority which made use of them for its own ends4 ,the newspaper censorship of the next one hundred and fifty years was the severest ever known4 ,lord ,burleigh1 who was ,prime ,minister in ,queen ,elizabeth's reign1 seems1 however1 to have understood the value of publicity--understood that a handful of facts is worth a hatful of rumors when it comes to influencing the people4 ,the appearance of the ,spanish ,armada in #aehh1 with its one hundred and twenty-nine ships1 its twenty thousand soldiers and its ten thousand sailors1 bent on the invasion of ,england1 had long been looked for1 and on its approach the people were overcome with hysterical excitement4 ,but ,burleigh had a news-letter printed from day to day telling the exact facts of the situation and the panic subsided4 ,dr4 ,james ,melvin ,lee1 head of the ,department of ,journalism in ,new ,york ,university1 believes that the first newspaper to be printed in the ,english language was published in ,amsterdam1 ,december #b1 #afbj1 and in proof of his belief he produces a facsimile of the sheet4 ,it was half sheet folio and had no title4 ,a descriptive of the battle of ,weissenberg was its chief feature4 ,in a discussion as to the early use of the word 8reporter10 ,mr4 ,henry ,n4 ,cary1 a ,new ,york journalist1 quotes from a pamphlet of #afac of which the title is3 ,the ,wonders of this windie winter1 by terrible stormes and tempests1 to the losse of lives and goods of many thousands of men women and children4 ,the like by ,sea and ,land hath not been seene nor heard of in this age of the world4 ,london4 ,printed by ,g4 ,eld for ,john ,wright1 and are to be sold at his shop neer ,christ-church dore4 ,in this pamphlet is the following3 ,ships were perishing to the number of a hundred1 and forty seafaring men1 besides other passengers1 both of men and women which at that time made their watery graves in the deep sea4 ,this first strooke feare into the hearts of people1 which hath since seconded with many calamities1 which lieth heavily upon the heart of the reporter4 ,the details of this storm's destruction are far less interesting to us than is the way they circulated the news in #afac when there were no newspapers4 ,for the next one hundred years the news-sheet was the chief source of information to the ,english people4 ,a few weekly newspapers were started1 the first being edited by ,nathaniel ,butter1 in #afbb4 ,it was called the ,weekly ,news1 but it seems to have had few readers4 ,the people stuck to the news-sheets in which they had confidence4 ,possibly they did not credit ,butter's yarns4 ,pendleton quotes two of them as specimens of seventeenth century journalism3 ,a true relation of the strange appearance of a man-fish about three miles within the river ,thames1 having a musket in one hand and a petition in the other1 credibly reported by six sailors who both saw and talked with the monster4 ,a perfect mermaid was by the last great wind driven ashore near ,greenwich1 with her comb in one hand and her looking-glass in the other4 ,she seemed to be of the countenancy of a most fair and beautiful woman1 with her arms crossed1 weeping out many pearly drops of salt tears2 and afterwards she1 gently turning herself upon her back again1 swam away without being seen again any more4 ,later in the century the use of the news-sheet became so general as to clog the mails4 ,macaulay writes interestingly of the disseminating of information in those days3 ,in #afhe nothing like the ,london daily paper of our time existed or could exist4 ,neither the necessary capital nor the necessary skill was to be found4 ,freedom too was wanting1 a want as fatal as that of either capital or skill4 ,during the great battle of the ,exclusion ,bill1 many newspapers were suffered to appear4 ,none of them was published oftener than twice a week4 ,none exceeded in size a single small leaf4 ,the quantity of matter which one of them contained in a year was not more than is often found in two numbers of the ,times4 ,after the defeat of the ,whigs1 it was no longer necessary for the ,king to be sparing in the use of that which all his ,judges had pronounced to be his undoubted prerogative4 ,at the close of his reign no newspaper was suffered to appear without his allowance2 and his allowance was given exclusively to the ,london ,gazette4 ,the ,london ,gazette came out only on ,mondays and ,thursdays4 ,the contents were generally a royal proclamation1 two or three ,tory addresses1 notices of two or three promotions1 an account of a skirmish between the imperial troops and the ,janissaries on the ,danube1 a description of a highwayman1 an announcement of a grand cockfight between two persons of honor1 and an advertisement offering a reward for a strayed dog4 ,the whole made up two pages of moderate size4444 ,the most important parliamentary debates1 the most important state trials1 recorded in our history1 were passed over in profound silence4 ,in the capital the coffee houses supplied in some measure the place of a journal4 ,thither the ,londoners flocked as the ,athenians of old flocked to the market place1 to hear whether there was any news4 ,there men might learn how brutally a ,whig had been treated the day before in ,westminster ,hall1 what horrible accounts the letters from ,edinburgh gave of the torturing of ,covenanters1 how grossly the ,navy ,board had cheated the crown in the victualling of the fleet1 and what grave charges the ,lord ,privy ,seal had brought against the ,treasury in the matter of the hearth money4 ,but people that lived at a distance from the great theatre of political contention could be kept informed of what was passing there only by means of news-letters4 ,to prepare such letters became a calling in ,london4 ,the news-writer rambled from coffee room to coffee room collecting reports1 squeezed himself into the ,sessions ,house of the ,old ,bailey if there was an interesting trial1 nay perhaps obtained admission to the ,gallery of ,whitehall and noticed how the ,king and ,duke looked4 ,in this way he gathered materials for weekly epistles destined to enlighten some country town or some bench of rustic magistrates4 ,such were the sources from which the inhabitants of the largest provincial cities and the great body of the gentry and clergy learned almost all they knew of the history of their own times4 ,we must suppose that at ,cambridge there were as many persons curious to know what was passing in the world as at almost any other place in the kingdom out of ,london4 ,yet at ,cambridge during a great part of the reign of ,charles ,,ii1 the ,doctors of ,laws and the ,masters of ,arts had no regular supply of news except the ,london ,gazette4 ,at length the services of one of the collectors of intelligence in the capital were employed4 ,it was a memorable day on which the first news-letter from ,london was laid on the table of the only coffee house room in ,cambridge4 ,at the seat of a man of fortune in the country the news-letter was impatiently expected4 ,within a week after it had arrived it had been thumbed by twenty families4 ,it furnished the neighboring squires with matter for talk over their ,october1 and the neighboring rectors with topics for sharp sermons against ,whiggery and ,popery4 ,it is scarcely necessary to say that there were then no provincial newspapers4 ,indeed except at the capital and at the two ,universities there was scarcely a printer in the kingdom4 ,this was the condition of the newspaper business at the end of the reign of ,king ,charles ,,ii4--a period distinguished by less interest in literature and study than any period of ,england's history after the ,elizabethan revival of learning4 ,the reading of books and the search for information had been abandoned in the quest for pleasure4 ,the people had joined in imitating the profligacy1 the licentiousness and the revels of ,charles's court4 ,they who champion the newspaper as a great uplifting influence in community might instance these profligate days in which there were no newspapers and compare them with later years4 ,but the opening of the eighteenth century brought fresh impetus to study and a new interest in literature4 ,several weekly newspapers had been set going4 ,the first daily newspaper was started in ,london in #agjb4 ,it was called the ,courant4 ,it was a small single-sheet publication printed on one side only1 and it gave but a meager assortment of news items4 ,it refrained from expressing opinions1 the editor saying that 8he would give no comments of his own as he assumed that people had sense enough to make reflections for themselves40 ,scores of editors even to the present day have launched initial numbers of their editions with this same resolution1 expressed in the same way1 but somehow it does not last long4 ,then came the ,review founded by ,defoe1 and ,richard ,steele's ,tatler and the ,spectator by ,steele and ,joseph ,addison1 which publications mark the real beginnings of journalism4 ,by this time ,pope and ,swift1 ,william ,walsh1 whom ,dryden praised as a great critic1 and ,arthur ,maynwaring and others of the famous ,kit ,cat ,club were writing for the periodicals4 ,editorial comment1 or the expression of editorial opinion seems to have had no place in newspapers until toward the close of the reign of ,king ,charles ,,ii4 ,then1 while the ,london ,gazette1 appearing under government direction1 was printing news only1 ,sir ,roger ,lestrange was permitted to print a journal of comment without news1 called the ,observator4 ,lestrange had been a ,tory pamphleteer1 and for a short time had edited small news-sheets and under the government4 ,he had been ,surveyor of ,printing ,offices and ,licensor of the ,press4 ,the ,observator was ferociously against the ,whigs and the ,protestants4 ,because editorial comment was new1 it focused much attention4 ,here was the first editor to write violent political editorial articles4 ,he confined his subjects to politics and to religion which was then a part of the politics of the day4 ,he inspired a host of imitators and the leading article1 of which he was the parent1 has been the leading feature of all journalism ever since4 ,great in its political use1 immediately after him1 were ,dean ,swift in his ,examiner1 and ,daniel ,defoe in the ,review which he started in #agjd while in jail for political offense4 ,it was just at the beginning of the eighteenth century that ,steele and ,addison began their ,tatler and ,spectator4 ,their first impulse was to write of politics1 for ,steele was alive with political zeal and ,addison was interested2 but presently they seemingly sensed the opportunity for success in the new direction of a publication given to the elucidation and the discussion of general topics1 of subjects on which politics was unlikely to produce diversion of opinion--social life1 play-house criticism1 literature1 morals1 ethics and personal conduct4 ,the ,spectator was printed daily4 ,to the policy of minimizing politics and exalting general topics of interest it adhered4 ,newspapers and periodicals increased rapidly after this time4 ,henry ,fielding1 the novelist1 was editor of the ,true ,patriot in #agde and the ,jacobite ,journal in #agdg4 ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson started the ,rambler in #agej and the ,idler in #ageh4 ,in #agad1 eleven papers were appearing in ,london4 ,in #agcc1 the number had increased to eighteen and in #aggf1 to fifty-three4 ,john ,wilkes in his newspaper the ,north ,briton accused the king of lying in his address at the opening of ,parliament in #agfb1 for which ,wilkes was committed to the tower and expelled from the house1 of which he had been a member4 ,oliver ,goldsmith wrote his delightful letters from 8,a ,citizen of the ,world0 for the ,public ,ledger4 ,samuel ,taylor ,coleridge1 ,hazlitt and ,john ,campbell were writers for the ,morning ,chronicle4 ,and in after years1 contributing to the ,london ,times at one period or another as writers1 were3 ,beaconsfield1 ,lord ,chancellor ,brougham1 ,cardinal ,newman1 ,lord ,grey1 ,lord ,macaulay1 ,sir ,william ,harcourt1 ,moore1 ,dean ,stanley1 ,lord ,sherbrook1 and ,dr4 ,groley4 ,the constant and consistent progress of the newspaper since its feeble beginnings1 and especially its development in the last two hundred years1 attest its importance to mankind4 ,rarely1 indeed1 has progress been more deliberate2 rarely has it been more substantial4 ,long years of experience with it have tested and verified the newspaper's usefulness4 ,thirst for news and for information has always prevailed and newspaper progress undoubtedly must have taken a vigorous spurt with the invention of type and printing but for the reason that both church and state joined in its repression4 ,in #afhe1 at the close of the reign of ,king ,charles ,,ii4 there were in all ,england two newspapers only1 worthy of the name1 and both of them were under the strict supervision of the royal censor4 ,the first real jump in newspaper progress came with the relaxation of government repression just after the year #agjj4 ,it was then that ,addison1 ,steele1 ,defoe1 ,fielding1 ,swift and ,dr4 ,johnson1 gave the real beginnings to journalism4 ,thereafter1 for a hundred and fifty years1 the advance and improvement in the making of newspapers were deliberate and irresistible4 ,from chatterers and gossipers only the journals came gradually to be leaders of thought and of public opinion and circulators of essential information4 ,but the change in them was so slow as to be almost unnoticed from year to year4 ,in the latter half of the nineteenth century1 however1 came the invention of the modern printing press which permits the printing of a newspaper of thirty-five pages or more at the rate of thirty thousand or more copies an hour2 the invention of the stereotyping process by which newspaper pages may be duplicated to indefinite numbers1 in solid metal1 and used on an indefinite number of presses in the printing of a single edition2 and the invention of the typesetting machine by which type may be cast and placed with something like six times the speed of the old-time process of hand composition4 ,they were marvelous inventions4 ,these inventions removed mechanical difficulties that had confined the size and restricted the circulation of newspapers1 and great changes came quickly4 ,heretofore the newspapers had been restricted to eight pages and many of them printed four pages only2 but immediately twenty and twenty-four page editions appeared and thirty-five and forty page ones are common now4 ,this great increase in volume permitted a like increase in scope and we now see in the newspapers a mass of information on an innumerable number of topics4 ,moreover1 all changes in national or social life bring changes in newspapers4 ,big business brought big newspapers1 as soon as they could be made4 ,greatly increased newspaper importance has followed this expansion4 ,it is possible to present great events with a fullness of detail and an attention to side issues hitherto unknown4 ,a senator's attack on the ,administration may be printed in full--six or seven columns of it4 ,an investigation involving the conduct of the war may be reported question and answer verbatim4 ,pages are devoted to a catastrophe like the blowing up of ,halifax that a few years ago would have been described in as many columns4 ,scores of special articles are printed the like of which never had found place in the daily newspaper4 ,and in the evening sheets1 especially1 are department features intended to interest women and children1 funny picture series1 puzzles1 medical information1 screeds1 and freak features--all of which emphasize the very great change from comparatively a few years ago4 ,and every change from the beginning has been in the direction of progress1 has made the newspaper a greater and a better product1 has given to it the increased confidence of the public4 ,confidence in a production of any sort usually is withheld until experience has tested and verified it4 ,the value and the importance of the newspaper have come to be firmly established4 ,many persons do not require the services of a lawyer4 ,many rarely employ a physician4 ,thousands seldom listen to a clergyman4 ,but in these wide-awake days everybody of any account must read the newspaper1 for the reading of the newspaper has come to be absolutely essential to the daily routine of every intelligent person4 ,the things we read in the morning newspaper are the things we talk about during the day4 ,if you are interested in politics1 or if you are interested in finance1 or the fluctuations of prices1 or the movements of society1 or any phase of trade or commerce1 or in any of the vital questions of the hour--for all of these you turn to the newspaper4 ,the things taught in the colleges are the things of the past1 or the principles that experience has tested and verified4 ,the things taught by the newspapers are the things of the present4 ,you cannot learn politics from a textbook4 ,you must absorb the politics of the day by a study of the events of the day4 ,your financial policy must be governed by existing monetary conditions rather than by conclusions drawn from the panic of #ahgc or that of #aijg4 ,the events of the day1 the progress of the day1 are of more importance to the man in business life or the man in social life than any other consideration4 ,the newspaper is his great source of inspiration and instruction4 ,the newspaper informs you1 instructs you1 influences you1 amuses you1 inspires you1 directs your thoughts1 assists your conclusions1 fires your ambitions1 enlarges your vocabulary--all of which are of the utmost importance to you4 ,it may be said1 therefore1 with confident complacency that the profession of journalism rests on the solid foundation of supplying an essential need4 ,in a lecture before the students of ,dartmouth ,college1 ,mr4 ,john ,lee ,mahin said3 ,the family that pays a cent or two for its big morning newspaper receives a carefully digested review of the political1 economic1 social and commercial activities of the entire world for the previous twenty-four hours4 ,probably five hundred men in ,new ,york ,city would pay a thousand dollars a year each for the commercial information alone that they receive from the ,new ,york ,times if they could not obtain it in any other way4 ,in considering these changes it should be remembered that the journalism of fifty years ago was conspicuous for the reason that a famous bunch of editors stamped their personality on almost every column4 ,it was the period of personal journalism4 ,these editors were inspired by the tragedies and the ferocities of the ,civil ,war and by the magnitude and the political importance of events involving as they believed the very life of the nation4 ,they were made conspicuous by the very greatness of the causes that moved their minds and their pens4 ,they were stimulated to the limit of mental exaltation in what they wrote4 ,the country was surging with excitement4 ,part of the people were clamoring for peace on any terms4 ,others insisted on fighting the war to a finish at any cost of life or money4 ,still others were for compromise4 ,it is hardly possible for generations of to-day to appreciate how intensely the war agitated the people4 ,the editors fought each other with a ferocity otherwise unknown in ,american journalism4 ,they were the people's champions and their names were known in every household2 and doubtless their names will live for years to come as the country's greatest editors4 ,nevertheless1 let it be said1 in all truth1 that we have to-day scores of editors equally capable of producing the crisp and pungent paragraphs as well as the profound editorial articles of ,prentice1 ,greeley1 ,raymond1 ,dana1 ,bryant1 ,bowles1 ,watterson1 ,medill and ,manton ,marble4 ,the personal journalism of that day was impetuous and impressive1 but latterly and by degrees1 in the big cities especially1 8the supreme importance of the editor has been transformed into the supreme importance of the newspaper10 and we hear less about the editor and more about the newspaper itself4 ,this effacement of individuality influences to exalt the newspaper and to exalt journalism as a profession4 ,the greatly enlarged field has attracted thousands of most excellent writers1 fine editors1 conductors1 and managers4 ,news-gathering and news-presentation are now regarded as of supreme importance4 ,our pages bristle with specialties4 ,our ,sunday editions are magazines of information4 ,the great modern newspaper represents the product of the profession rather than the genius of a single writer4 ,it was not so fifty years ago4 ,these men1 whose names have come down to us1 were great editorial writers rather than great editors of the entire newspaper4 ,aside from the editorial page their editions were devoid of genius4 ,the news columns were slovenly in appearance and dull in narration4 ,they lacked the cunning of embellishment with the flavor of literature and the charm of fiction4 ,the book reviews1 the critical articles were excellent--but the editors daubed dullness over everything else4 ,the newspaper of that day is not to be compared with the newspaper of to-day in general excellence4 ,the editorial pages and the criticisms1 however1 were of high excellence4 ,it was a literary era and the literary impulse was a conspicuous factor in public thought4 ,marble1 ,dana1 ,bryant1 ,curtis and others made reputations for literary excellence in journalistic work that would not to-day attract so much attention2 for literary excellence1 while commended and appreciated1 is not so much insisted on1 encouraged1 or taught1 as it was forty years ago4 ,the foreign correspondence of that day as printed in the newspapers consisted largely of descriptions of scenery and revelations of the writers' emotions while climbing to ,alpine heights or floating by moonlight on the silent waters of ,italian lakes4 ,it was written mostly by staff members who were on vacation trips and who were inspired by the travel notes of ,washington ,irving and ,nathaniel ,hawthorne that had obtained great attention4 ,the journals of fifty years ago did not maintain regular correspondents abroad4 ,all first class important papers to-day have representatives in the capitals of ,europe1 but they do not write descriptions of scenery4 ,some of the foreign correspondence of that day was very good1 however1 notably that of ,bayard ,taylor for the ,new ,york ,tribune4 ,the most conspicuous difference between the newspapers of #ahej or #ahfj and those of to-day is in the treatment of news4 ,very little space was given then to really important events4 ,the national convention that nominated a candidate for the presidency was reported in two columns or so1 whereas to-day from three to six pages are required4 ,a bare half column was given to the stock market4 ,the commercial markets were equally pinched2 two or three pages of matter are now devoted to them4 ,there was no real estate department4 ,the court calendars were not printed for the lawyers1 nor the list of buyers in town for the merchants2 nor was there a sporting page1 or a woman's page1 or a list of school teachers appointed1 or of policemen transferred1 or of firemen granted a leave of absence4 ,the news was presented in the most perfunctory and routine fashion1 with no attempt to make it attractive or interesting4 ,news collecting had not been systematized or especially studied1 as to-day4 ,the ,associated ,press was in its infancy1 devoting itself almost entirely to congress proceedings and to market reports4 ,raw reporters were permitted to intersperse their own comments through what they wrote and their conclusions received little revision or supervision4 ,every line in the modern newspaper is revised by a copy reader editor and not a suggestion of reportorial opinion is permitted4 ,the edition of fifty years ago was more or less subject to haphazard inexactitude and casual error4 ,the present-day newspaper is prepared with great care4 ,its ambitious articles are studied out4 ,the errors in its news columns are the results of haste rather than ignorance--the haste compelled by necessity in getting to press on the minute4 ,the ,sunday edition supplements1 devoted to general topics and to literature1 are already taking the place of many kinds of literature4 ,they print new fiction by popular authors4 ,they exploit and expand the latest developments in science1 art1 music1 medicine1 mechanics1 construction1 transportation--indeed1 anything that is new or important4 ,they quickly transfer to their columns any important matter contained in a new book4 ,the reading of newspapers is immeasurably greater than the reading of any other kind of matter4 ,the new book of which fifty thousand copies are sold is called very successful1 of which one hundred thousand are sold is pronounced a wonder1 of which two hundred thousand are sold1 phenomenal4 ,yet in ,new ,york ,city alone a million and a half newspapers are printed every morning and nearly two millions every afternoon4 ,in ,america1 millions of persons who do not read more than five books in a year read a newspaper or two every day4 ,and the newspaper of to-day is a better paper because it is more accurate of statement and more faithful to fact1 and more fair-minded in the presentation of passing events4 ,the long weary day of misrepresentation in news reports is drawing to its close4 ,the chief events of the time are recorded with such fidelity to accuracy that in future years they must be accepted as historically correct4 ,all decent newspapers now take pride in their accuracy of statement in the news columns and there is little intentional misrepresentation4 ,in our political campaigns the attitude of each candidate is decently described and what he says is faithfully reported and made equally conspicuous4 ,in this respect the newspapers have changed greatly within a few years4 ,moreover1 the collection of news has been greatly facilitated by increased telegraph and telephone and ocean cable efficiency4 ,these agents give much better transmission1 making communication with all parts of the world little short of instantaneous4 ,speaking of the benefits to the world secured through electricity1 ,mr4 ,w4 ,w4 ,harris said in a recent address3 ,when the ,norsemen were on their way to the discovery of ,america they had no compass2 yet the compass had been discovered by the ,chinese many centuries before4 ,but the news of the compass had not in all these centuries gotten half way around the world4 ,and the science of navigation came not until that piece of news had made its way to the ,european world4 ,to-day any important fact girdles the globe in a cable's flash4 ,the newspapers of to-day are better because more study and thought are put into their construction4 ,not only are the editorial writers men of education1 but the sub-editors1 the night editors1 the revisers of copy and the reporters are mostly educated men--men who have been taught where to seek and how to find information1 who have been taught to be confident and self-reliant and original4 ,the proportion of college-bred men on newspaper staffs is much greater than it used to be1 and the intelligence of the staffs has increased in the same proportion4 ,the modern newspaper wants men of brains who know how to use their brains--men who can think rapidly and act instantly4 ,this unceasing1 irresistible1 cumulative progress is making newspapers more important1 is making the profession of journalism more attractive4 ,even as years of experience and study and laborious patient application have perfected and solidified the practice of law and medicine1 have made firm and substantial the developments of electricity and mechanics1 and have solved the problems of transportation and great business1 so the making of newspapers is settling down to a strong substantial basis4 ,,index ,abbott1 ,lyman1 #hi ,acta ,diurna1 #aig ,addison1 ,joseph1 #hi ,arnold1 ,sir ,edward to ,tennyson1 #fd ,barnato1 ,barnard1 #aaj ,beecher1 ,henry ,ward1 #ic1 #agc ,bowles1 ,samuel1 #ia1 #adh ,brisbane1 ,arthur1 #agd ,bryant1 ,william ,cullen1 #adg ,burleigh1 ,lord1 #bjj ,butler1 ,samuel1 #ee ,butter1 ,nathaniel1 #bjb ,cary1 ,henry ,n41 #bja ,cable1 ,costs1 #ajg1 #aab1 #aij ,censorship1 #afd ,chaucer1 #fe ,christian ,science ,monitor1 ,the1 #hi ,city ,editor1 ,the1 #b ,conquests1 the public's great interest in any kind of a fight1 #ig ,copy ,readers1 #bi1 #ce ,correspondent1 the ,washington1 #aj1 #ab ,correspondent1 the ,foreign1 #aab ,corbett1 ,james1 #ig ,courant1 ,the ,london1 #bje ,crooke1 ,william1 #ah ,dana1 ,charles ,anderson1 his fine leadership1 #dh2 great as an editor1 #fa2 advice to his ,managing ,editor1 #fb2 on hasty editorial writing1 #hj2 on making the ,sun talked about1 #id ,dickens1 ,charles1 experience as a reporter1 #af ,edison1 first public test of the household electric light1 #ac ,editorial writer1 ,the1 #gf1 #gh ,editorial council1 ,the1 #gi ,editor in chief1 ,the1 #gi ,editor1 letters to1 #hj ,emerson1 ,ralph ,waldo1 #eb ,exaggeration1 where it may be tolerated1 #gj ,field1 ,eugene1 #adh ,field1 ,william ,h41 #aid ,fiske1 ,john1 #aha ,forney1 ,colonel ,john ,w41 #ce ,fourth ,estate1 ,the1 #aai ,france1 ,anatole1 #fh ,froude1 ,james ,anthony1 #adh ,gazette1 ,the ,peking1 #aig ,gazette1 ,the ,london1 #bjf ,george1 ,lloyd1 #aaa ,gladden1 ,washington1 #aeg ,gosse1 ,edmund1 #ef ,gray1 #ee ,greeley1 ,horace1 #fa1 #ia1 #id1 #adg ,harris1 ,w4 ,w41 #baf ,hay1 ,john1 #adh ,halsted1 ,murat1 #adh ,hearn1 ,lafcadio1 #ec1 #ee1 #hi1 #agb ,hearst1 ,william ,r41 #hh ,heenan1 ,john ,c41 #ig ,holmes1 ,oliver ,wendell1 #adh ,howells1 ,w4 ,d41 #adh ,imitation1 its repressive influence against a writer's advancement1 #ace ,irving1 ,washington1 #fe ,jefferson1 ,thomas1 #adh ,jenkins1 how he got a job as reporter1 #ah ,johnson1 ,samuel1 #ef1 #agc ,journal1 ,the ,new ,york1 #aja ,lauzanne1 ,stphane1 #adi ,lee1 ,james ,melvin1 #bja ,lestrange1 ,roger1 #bjf ,lincoln1 ,abraham1 #aei ,macaulay1 ,t4 ,b41 #ee1 #ga1 #bjb ,machiavelli1 #ei ,mahin1 ,john ,lee1 #baa ,mail1 ,london ,daily1 #ahe ,managing ,editor1 #df-di ,medill1 ,joseph1 #adh ,nelson1 ,colonel ,william ,rockhill1 #ae ,newspaper1 the modern1 made with bewildering speed1 #dc ,newspaper1 the village1 its opportunities for community service1 #acj ,newspaper specialties1 those embracing politics and finance the most important1 #ahj ,newspapers1 indispensable to republican or representative form of government4 ,the government speaks to the people through them1 #afa ,news1 local1 does not exist in ,new ,york ,city2 all important in the village1 #adj ,northcliffe1 ,lord1 #agc1 #age ,observator1 ,the1 #bjf ,ochs1 ,adolph ,s41 #ia ,patriot1 ,the ,fulton1 ,n4 ,y41 #acj ,pendleton1 ,john1 #ab1 #aii ,policy1 newspaper1 its reversal is dangerous to its prosperity1 #ia ,price1 ,charles ,w41 #aag ,proof reading1 #dj ,publications1 technical and class1 #aai ,pulitzer1 ,joseph1 #hg ,quiller-,couch1 ,sir ,arthur1 #ed1 #aeh ,reid1 ,whitelaw1 #id ,reporter1 his beginnings and progress1 #a-i2 the political1 #h-aj2 his unpleasant tasks1 #bb ,reporters1 first announcements of great events made by1 #ac ,review1 ,the1 #bje ,roosevelt1 ,theodore1 #ca ,rossetti1 #ee ,sainte ,beuve1 #ef ,saintsbury1 ,george1 #ec ,salaries1 newspaper1 #adf ,sayers1 ,tom1 #ig ,scott1 ,sir ,walter1 #ee ,seitz1 ,don1 #ajb ,sensationalism1 wherein harmful1 #ajc ,smith1 ,sidney1 #gj ,spectator1 ,the1 #bje ,stead1 ,william ,t41 #fg ,syndicate service1 #ach ,system1 #aba ,sun1 ,the ,evening1 #ajb ,talleyrand1 #be ,tatler1 ,the1 #bje1 #bjf ,thackeray1 ,william ,m41 #agd ,times1 ,the ,new ,york1 #ia ,times1 ,the ,london1 #ahg ,titanic1 steamship1 loss of3 how reported1 #dd ,tolstoy1 #ee ,tribune1 ,the ,chicago1 #ia ,tribune1 ,the ,new ,york1 #ia ,victorian ,literature1 ,era of1 #hc ,village1 the ,american1 its newspaper opportunities1 #acb ,war1 its supreme interest to newspaper readers1 #ii ,weather1 the3 its importance and interest to the reader1 #ajj ,webster1 ,noah1 #adh ,wells1 ,h4 ,g41 #ag ,west1 ,dean1 #fg ,whitman1 ,walt1 #adh ,whittier1 ,john ,g41 #adh ,wilson1 ,woodrow1 #eh1 #fi1 #aei1 #afb ,writer1 ,the1 #fj ,transcriber's ,note3 ,punctuation has been standardised4 ,spelling and hyphenation have been retained as published in the original publication except as follows3 ,page #c everything happens in ,new ,york than can changed to everything happens in ,new ,york that can ,page #dg or off ,montauk ,point3 judgment whether changed to or off ,montauk ,point2 judgment whether ,page #fj better expresed by changed to better expressed by ,page #hi kind to whom lacrimose emotion changed to kind to whom lachrymose emotion ,page #id who succeded ,greeley as editor changed to who succeeded ,greeley as editor ,page #ajb exaggeration and breathless anouncement changed to exaggeration and breathless announcement ,page #aaa opinion as to the propects for peace changed to opinion as to the prospects for peace ,page #aih sent as governor to ,cilica changed to sent as governor to ,cilicia ,page #bai accounts the letters from ,edinburg changed to accounts the letters from ,edinburgh ,page #bcf ,gazette1 ,the ,pekin changed to ,gazette1 ,the ,peking ,page #bbj ,lausanne1 ,stphane changed to ,lauzanne1 ,stphane