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diff --git a/29953.txt b/29953.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d67d20f --- /dev/null +++ b/29953.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1709 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Commercialism and Journalism, by Hamilton Holt + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Commercialism and Journalism + +Author: Hamilton Holt + +Release Date: September 10, 2009 [EBook #29953] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMMERCIALISM AND JOURNALISM *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries) + + + + + + +_The Weinstock Lectures on The Morals of Trade_ + +THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PRIVATE MONOPOLY AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP. +By JOHN GRAHAM BROOKS. + +COMMERCIALISM AND JOURNALISM. +By HAMILTON HOLT. + +THE BUSINESS CAREER IN ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS. +By ALBERT SHAW. + + + + +COMMERCIALISM AND JOURNALISM + + + +By + +HAMILTON HOLT + +MANAGING EDITOR OF THE INDEPENDENT + + + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY +_The Riverside Press Cambridge_ +1909 + +COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + +_Published December 1909_ + + + + +BARBARA WEINSTOCK +LECTURES ON THE MORALS OF TRADE + +This series will contain essays by representative scholars and men of +affairs dealing with the various phases of the moral law in its bearing +on business life under the new economic order, first delivered at the +University of California on the Weinstock foundation. + + + + +COMMERCIALISM AND JOURNALISM + + +In the United States of America, public opinion prevails. It is an +axiom of the old political economy, as well as of the new sociology, +that no man, or set of men, may with impunity defy public opinion; no +law can be enforced contrary to its behests; and even life itself is +scarcely worth living without its approbation. Public opinion is the +ultimate force that controls the destiny of our democracy. + +By common consent we editors are called the "moulders of public +opinion." Writing in our easy chairs or making suave speeches over the +walnuts and wine, we take scrupulous care to expatiate on this phase of +our function. But the real question is: who "moulds" us? for assuredly +the hand that moulds the editor moulds the world. + +I propose to discuss this evening the ultimate power in control of our +journals. And this as you will see implies such vital questions as: Are +we editors free to say what we believe? Do we believe what we say? Do +we fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all the +time, or only ourselves? Is advertising or circulation--profits or +popularity--our secret solicitude? Or do we follow faithfully the stern +daughter of the voice of God? In short, is journalism a profession or a +business? + +There are almost as many answers to these questions as there are people +to ask them. There are those of us who jubilantly burst into poetry, +singing:-- + + "Here shall the press the people's rights maintain, + Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain." + +On the other hand there are some of us quite ready to corroborate from +our own experience the confessions of one New York journalist who +wrote:-- + + There is no such thing in America as an independent press. I am + paid for keeping honest opinions out of the paper I am connected + with. If I should allow honest opinions to be printed in one issue + of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation, like + Othello's, would be gone. The business of a New York journalist is + to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to + fawn at the foot of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race + for his daily bread. We are the tools or vassals of the rich men + behind the scenes. Our time, our talents, our lives, our + possibilities, are all the property of other men. We are + intellectual prostitutes. + +I come to California, therefore, to tell you with all sincerity and +candor the real conditions under which we editors do our work, and the +forces that help and hinder us in the discharge of our duties to +society and to the journals that we control or that control us. + +And, first, let me give you succinctly some idea of the magnitude of +the industry that we are to discuss. The Census, in its latest bulletin +on "Printing and Publishing in the United States," truly and tritely +remarks that "Printing occupies a unique position among industries, and +in certain aspects excels all others in interest, since the printed +page has done more to advance civilization than any other human +agency." + +But not only does the printing industry excel all other industries in +human interest, it excels them in the relative progress it is making. +The latest available figures, published in 1905 by the Government, show +that the capital invested in the publishing business had doubled in the +preceding half decade, despite the fact that publishing is almost +unique among industries in the diffusion of its establishments, and in +the tenacity with which it still clings to competition in an age of +combination. Since 1850 the whole industry has increased over +thirty-fold, while all other industries have increased only +fifteen-fold. The number of publications in the country, as given, is +21,394. These are capitalized at $239,505,949; they employ 48,781 +salaried officers, and 96,857 wage-earners. Their aggregate circulation +per issue is 139,939,229; and their aggregate number of copies issued +during the year is 10,325,143,188. They consume 2,730,000 tons of +paper, manufactured from 100,000 acres of timber. These 21,394 +periodicals receive $145,517,591, or 47 per cent of their receipts, +from advertising, and $111,298,691, or 36 per cent of the receipts from +sales and subscriptions. They are divided into 2452 dailies, of which +about one third are issued in the morning and two thirds in the +evening; 15,046 weeklies; 2500 monthlies, and a few bi-weeklies, +semi-weeklies, quarterlies, etc. + +The number of these periodicals has doubled in the last twenty-five +years, but at the present moment the monthlies are increasing the +fastest, next, the weeklies, and last, the dailies. The dailies issue +enough copies to supply every inhabitant of the United States with one +every fourth issue, the weeklies with one every other issue, and the +monthlies with one copy of each issue for nine months of the year. One +third of all these papers are devoted to trade and special interests. +The remaining two thirds are devoted to news, politics, and family +reading. + +Undoubtedly there are many contributing causes which have made the +periodical industry grow faster than all other industries of the +country. I shall mention only six. + +First. The cheapening of the postal, telephone, and telegraph rates, +and the introduction of such conveniences as the rural free delivery, +so that news and general information can be collected and distributed +cheaply and with dispatch. + +Second. The introduction of the linotype machines, rapid and multiple +presses, and other mechanical devices, which vastly increase the output +of every shop that adopts them. + +Third. The photo-process of illustrating, which threatens to make +wood- and steel-engraving a lost art, and which, on account of its +cheapness and attractiveness, has made possible literally thousands +of pictured publications that never could have existed before. + +Fourth. The growing diffusion of education throughout the country. Our +high schools, to say nothing of our colleges and universities, alone +graduate 125,000 pupils a year,--all of them fit objects of solicitude +to the newsdealer and subscription-agent. + +Fifth. The use of wood pulp in the manufacture of paper, by which the +largest item in the cost of production has been greatly diminished. + +Sixth. The phenomenal growth of advertising. + +I shall not attempt to amplify the first five of these causes +responsible for the unparalleled growth of periodical literature. But +the sixth I shall discuss at some length, for advertising is by all +odds the greatest factor in the case. + +In olden times the dailies carried only a very little advertising--a +few legal notices, an appeal for the return of a strayed cow, or a +house for sale. It is only within the past fifty years that advertising +as a means of bringing together the producer and consumer began. And, +curiously enough, the men who first began to appreciate the immense +selling-power that lay in the printed advertisement were "makers" or +"fakirs," of patent medicines. The beginning of modern advertising is +in fact synchronous with the beginnings of the patent-medicine +business. + +Even magazine advertising, which is now the most profitable and +efficacious of all kinds, did not originate until February, 1860, when +"The Atlantic Monthly" printed its first "ad." "Harper's" was founded +simply as a medium for selling the books issued from the Franklin +Square House, and all advertisements from outsiders were declined. +George P. Rowell, the dean of advertising agents, in his amusing +autobiography, tells how Harper & Brothers in the early seventies +refused an offer of $18,000 from the Howe Sewing Machine Company for a +year's use of the last page of the magazine; and Mr. Rowell adds that +he had this information from a member of the firm, of whose veracity he +had no doubt, though at the same sitting he heard Mr. Harper tell +another man about the peculiarities of that section of Long Island +where the Harpers originated, assuring him the ague prevailed there to +such an extent that all his ancestors had quinine put into their graves +to keep the corpses from shaking the sand off. + +Before the Civil War it is said that the largest advertisement that +ever appeared in a newspaper was given by the E. & T. Fairbanks +Company, and published in the New York "Tribune," which charged $3000 +for it. Now the twenty large department stores alone of New York City +spend, so it is estimated, $4,000,000 a year for advertising, while one +Chicago house is said to appropriate $500,000 a year for publicity in +order to sell $15,000,000 worth of goods. Those products which are +believed to be advertised to the extent of $750,000 or more a year +include the Uneeda Biscuits, Royal Baking Powder, Grape Nuts, Force, +Fairy Soap and Gold Dust, Swift's Hams and Bacon, the Ralston Mills +food-products, Sapolio, Ivory Soap, and Armour's Extract of Beef. The +railroads are also very large general advertisers. In 1903 they spent +over a million and a quarter dollars in publicity, though this did not +include free passes for editors, who, I may parenthetically remark, +thanks to the recent Hepburn Act, are now forced to pay their way +across the continent just like ordinary American citizens. + +It is computed that there are about 20,000 general advertisers in the +country and about a million local advertisers. Between the two, +$145,517,591 was spent in 1905 to get their products before the public. +The Census gives only the totals and does not classify the advertising +that appears in the dailies, weeklies, and monthlies. The Rev. Cyrus +Townsend Brady, however, has made a very illuminating study[1] of the +advertising and circulation conditions of 39 of the leading monthly +magazines published in the United States. The first thing that struck +his attention was the fact that candid and courteous replies to his +requests for information were vouchsafed by all the publishers--quite a +contrast to what would have happened from a similar inquiry a +generation ago. He next discovered that these 39 magazines, which had +an aggregate circulation of over 10,000,000 copies per month, could put +a full-page advertisement into the hands of 600,000,000 readers, or +seven times the population of the United States, for the astonishingly +insignificant sum of $12,000, or for two thousandths of a cent for each +reader. + + [1] _The Critic_, August, 1905. + +The amount paid by the purchasers of these 39 magazines was +$15,000,000, for which they received 36,000 pages of text and pictures, +and 25,000 pages of advertisements. Magazine advertisements are better +written and better illustrated than the reading matter. This is because +they are of no use to the man who pays for their insertion if they do +not attract attention, whereas the contributor's interest in his +article after its acceptance is mostly nominal. That is, the advertiser +must win several thousand readers; the contributor has to win but one +editor. + +These 39 magazines were found to receive $18,000,000 a year from their +advertisements and $15,000,000 from their sales and subscriptions. This +shows that in monthly magazines the receipts from advertising and +subscriptions are about the same. In weeklies the receipts from +advertising are often four times as much as the receipts from sales and +subscriptions, while in the dailies the proportion is even greater. The +owner of one of the leading evening papers in New York told me that 90 +per cent of its total receipts came from advertising. From whatever +standpoint you approach the subject, it is the advertisements that are +becoming the most important factor in publishing. Indeed, some students +in Yale University carried this out to its logical conclusion last +autumn by launching a college daily supported wholly by the revenues +from advertisements. They put a free copy every morning on the door-mat +before each student's room. If it were not for the postal prohibition +many dailies and other periodicals would make money by being given +away. + +Thus you see that if there were no advertisements and the publishers +had to rely on their sales and subscriptions for their receipts, the +monthlies would have to double their price, and the weeklies and +dailies multiply theirs from four to ten times. This advantage to the +reading public must certainly be put to the credit of advertising. + +The preponderance of advertising over subscription receipts, however, +is of comparatively recent occurrence. Thirty years ago the receipts +from subscriptions and sales of all the American periodicals exceeded +those from advertising by $11,000,000; twenty years ago they were about +equal; and to-day the advertising exceeds the subscriptions and sales +by $35,000,000. + +In 1880 the total amount of advertising was equivalent to the +expenditure of 78 cents for every inhabitant in the United States; in +1905 it was $1.79. On the other hand, the per capita value of +subscriptions has increased hardly at all. The reason of this is the +fall of the price of subscriptions. We take more papers but pay less--a +cent a copy. Comparatively few buy the New York "Evening Post" for +three cents. This is all the more remarkable, because advertising is +the most sensitive feature of a most sensitive business and is sure to +suffer first in any industrial crisis or depression. + +No wonder that the man who realizes the significance of all these +figures and the trend disclosed by them is coming to look upon the +editorial department of the newspaper as merely a necessary means of +giving a literary tone to the publication, thus helping business men +get their wares before the proper people. Mr. Trueman A. DeWeese, in +his recent significant volume, "Practical Publicity," thinks that this +is about what Mr. Curtis, the proprietor of "The Ladies' Home Journal," +would say if he ventured to say what he really thought:-- + + It is not my primary purpose to edify, entertain, or instruct a + million women with poems, stories, and fashion-hints. Mr. Bok may + think it is. He is merely the innocent victim of a harmless + delusion, and he draws a salary for being deluded. To be frank and + confidential with you, "The Ladies' Home Journal" is published + expressly for the advertisers. The reason I can put something in + the magazines that will catch the artistic eye and make glad the + soul of the reader is because a good advertiser finds that it pays + to give me $4000 a page, or $6 an agate line, for advertising + space. + +Yes, the tremendous power of advertising is the most significant thing +about modern journalism. It is advertising that has enabled the press +to outdistance its old rivals, the pulpit and the platform, and thus +become the chief ally of public opinion. It has also economized +business by bringing the producer and consumer into more direct +contact, and in many cases has actually abolished the middle man and +drummer. + +As an example of the passing of the salesman, due to advertising, "The +Saturday Evening Post" of Philadelphia, in its interesting series of +articles on modern advertising exploits, recently told the story of how +the N. H. Fairbanks Co. made a test of the relative value of +advertising and salesmen. A belt of counties in Illinois were set aside +for the experiment, in which the company was selling a certain brand of +soap by salesmen and making a fair profit. It was proposed that the +identical soap be put up under another brand and advertised in a +conservative way in this particular section, and at the same time the +salesmen should continue their efforts with the old soap. Within six +months the advertised brand was outselling its rival at the rate of +$8000 a year. + +The Douglas Shoe is another product that is sold entirely by general +advertising. So successful has the business become that the company has +established retail stores all over the country, in which only men's +shoes are sold at $3.50 a pair. Now other shoe-manufacturers have +adopted this plan, and in most of our large cities there are several +chains of rival retail shoe stores. + +But all the advertising is not in the advertising columns. A United +States Senator said last winter that, when a bill he introduced in the +Senate was up for discussion, the publicity given it through an article +he wrote for "The Independent" had more to do with its passage than +anything he said in its behalf on the floor of the upper house;--that +is, his article was a paying advertisement of the bill. And in +mentioning the incident to you, I give "The Independent" a good +advertisement. + +Universities advertise themselves in many and devious ways--sometimes +by the remarkable utterances of their professors, as at Chicago; +sometimes by the victories of their athletes, as at Yale; and sometimes +by the treatment of their women students, as at Wesleyan. But perhaps +the most extraordinary case of university advertising that has come to +my attention was when, not so very long ago, a certain state +institution of the Middle West bought editorials in the country press +at advertising rates for the sole purpose of influencing the state +legislature to make them a larger appropriation. In other words the +University authorities took money forced from a reluctant legislature +to make the legislature give them still more money. + +The charitable organizations are now beginning to advertise in the +public press for donations, and even churches are falling into line. +The Rev. Charles Stelzle, one of the most conspicuous leaders of the +Presbyterian Church, has just published a book entitled "Principles of +Successful Church Advertising," in which he says:-- + + From all parts of the world there come stories of losses in + [church] membership, either comparative or actual. In the face of + this, dare the Church sit back and leave untried a single method + which may win men to Christ, provided that this method be + legitimate?... The Church should advertise because of the greatness + of its commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel + to every creature." To fulfill this command does not mean that + Christian men are to confine themselves to the methods of those who + first heard the commission. + +The question whether advertising pays will never be known in the +individual case, for, like marriage, you can't tell till you try it. +But in the aggregate, also like marriage, there is no doubt of its +value. The tremendous power of persistent advertising to carry an idea +of almost any kind into the minds of the people and stamp it there, is +amazing. How many "Sunny Jims," for instance, are there in this +audience? If there are none, it is singular; for learned judges have +referred to him in their decisions, sermons have been preached, and +volumes written about him, though it took a million dollars and two +years of persistent work to introduce this modern "Mark Tapley" to the +public. Have you a little fairy in your home? Do you live in Spotless +Town? Do you use any of the 57 varieties? "There's a reason." "That's +all." Formerly a speaker used a quotation from the Bible or Shakespeare +when he wanted to strike a common chord. Nowadays he works in an +allusion to some advertising phrase, and is sure of instant and +universal recognition. + +The Socialists and other utopian critics, who are supposed to drill to +the bedrock of questions, have looked upon advertising as essentially a +parasite upon the production and distribution of wealth. They tell us +that in the good time coming, advertising will be relegated to the +scrap-heap of outworn social machinery, along with war, race prejudice, +millionaires, the lower education of women, and other things of an +undesirable nature. This has not been the experience, however, of those +"sinister offenders" who have come nearest to the cooeperative ownership +of wealth in this country--I refer of course to "The Trusts." When the +breakfast food trust was formed, one of the chief reasons for the +combination was that the rival companies thus hoped to save the cost of +advertising that had hitherto been required when they sold their +food-stuffs in competition with each other. But they very soon found +that their sales fell off after they stopped advertising, and they kept +on falling off until the advertising was resumed. This teaches us that +the American people have not enough gumption to buy even the staple +products they need except through the stimulus of hypnotic +suggestion--which is nothing but another name for advertising. Even +such a benevolent institution as a great life insurance company could +not get much new business on its own merits. If all the money now spent +on agents' commissions, advertising, yellow-dog funds, and palatial +offices were devoted sacredly to the reduction of the rates of +insurance, probably fewer rather than more persons would insure. The +American people have to pay to be told what is good for them, otherwise +they would soon abolish editors, professors, and all the rest of us who +get paid for preaching what others practice. + +Now while advertising pays the consumer who buys, the advertiser who +sells, and the publisher who brings both together, there is a limit to +the amount of advertising which can be "carried" by a certain amount of +reading matter. In newspapers we see the result of this in the vast +Sunday editions, with sometimes fifty or a hundred detachable pages. In +the magazines the case is different. Interesting and attractive as +magazine advertising has become--it certainly should be so, considering +the advertisers pay good money to put it before the people--it is not +enough alone to sell a magazine, and when it forms more than half or +two thirds of the number the issue becomes too bulky and the value of +the advertising pages themselves decreases. In making sandwiches the +ham must not be sliced too thin. That necessitates starting a new +magazine; and so we find from three to a dozen periodicals issued by +the same house, often similar in character and apparently rivals. This +accounts for the multiplication of magazines. It is not a yearning for +more love stories. + +Thus you see advertising has made possible the great complex papers and +magazines of the day with their corps of trained editors, reporters, +and advertising writers, in numbers and intellectual calibre comparable +with the faculty of a good-sized university. Advertising makes it +possible to issue a paper far below the cost of manufacturing--all to +the benefit of the consumer. So far as I know there is not an important +daily, weekly, or monthly in America that can be manufactured at the +selling price. But, on the other hand, with the growth of advertising a +department had to be created in every paper for its handling. As +advertising still further increased, rival papers competed for it and +the professional solicitor became a necessary adjunct of every paper, +until now the advertising department is the most important branch of +the publication business, for it is the real source of the profits. +Because the solicitor seeks the advertiser, and, therefore, is in the +position of one asking for favors, he puts himself under obligations to +the advertiser, and so in his keenness to bring in revenue for his +paper, he is often tempted to ask the aid of the editor in appeasing +the advertiser. Thus the advertiser tends to control the policy of the +paper. + +And this is the explanation of the condition that confronts most +publications to-day. By throwing the preponderating weight of +commercialism into the scales of production, advertising is at the +present moment by far the greatest menace to the disinterested practice +of a profession upon which the diffusion of intelligence most largely +depends. If journalism is no longer a profession, but a commercial +enterprise, it is due to the growth of advertising, and nothing else. + +There was a time, not so very long ago, when journalism was on the +verge of developing a system of professional ethics, based on other +considerations than those of the cash register. Then a Greeley, Bowles, +Medill, Dana, or Raymond, with a hand-press and a printer's devil, +could start a paper as good as any university consisting of Mark +Hopkins, a student, and a log. In those days the universal question +was, "What does old Greeley have to say?" because old Greeley was the +ultimate source of his own utterances. Imagine the rage he would have +flown into if any one had dared insinuate that the advertisers dictated +a single sentence in "The Tribune"! But now the advertisers are +aggressive. They are becoming organized. They look upon the giving of +an advertisement to a publisher as something of a favor, for which they +have a right to expect additional courtesies in the news and editorial +columns. + +Advertising is also responsible for the fact that our papers are no +longer organs but organizations. The individuality of the great editor, +once supreme, has become less and less a power, till finally it +vanishes into mere innocuous anonymity. To show you how far the editor +has receded into public obscurity, it is only necessary to try to +recall the portrayal of a modern editor in a recent play. Stage +lawyers, stage physicians, and stage preachers abound; when you think +of them your mind calls up a very definite image. But no one has yet +attempted to portray the typical editor, and it is doubtful if the +populace would recognize him if he were portrayed, for the modern +editor is a mystery. + +Despite the editorial impersonality which controls modern newspapers, +the editors still touch life in more points than any other class of +men. And for this reason, if for no other, it is important to know the +limitations under which they work. I leave aside the limitations that +come from within the editor himself; for manifestly ignorance, +prejudice, venality and the like, in the editor are in no wise +different from similar faults in other men. + +There are just two temptations, however, peculiar to the editor, that +tend to limit his freedom: first, the fear of the advertisers, and +second, the fear of the subscribers. The advertisers when offended stop +their advertisements; the readers, their subscriptions. The editor who +is afraid to offend both must make a colorless paper indeed. He must +discuss only those things about which every one agrees or nobody cares. +The attitude of such an editor to his readers is, "Gape, sinner, and +swallow," and to his advertisers, as Senator Brandegee said at a recent +Yale Commencement in regard to a proposed Rockefeller bequest, "Bring +on your tainted money." As a rule, the yellows are most in awe of the +mob, while the so-called respectables fear the advertising interests. + +Now let me take up in some detail the influences brought to bear upon +us which tend to make us swerve from the straight and narrow path. I +invite your attention first of all to the Press Agent, that +indispensable adjunct of all projects that have something to gain or to +fear from publicity. I have seen the claim made in print, though +doubtless it is a press agent's story, that there are ten thousand +press agents in the city of New York,--that is, men and women employed +to boom people and enterprises in the papers and magazines. You are +familiar with the theatrical press agent, the most harmless, jovial, +inventive, and resourceful of his kind. He is the one who writes the +articles signed by Grand Opera singers which appear in the magazines. +It is he who gets up stories about Miss "Pansy Pinktoes," her +milk-baths, the loss of her diamonds, the rich men who follow her. It +is he who got for me an interview with a Filipino chief at Coney Island +three summers ago, whose unconventional remarks and original philosophy +on America and the inhabitants thereof startled me no less than our +readers. + +When the press agent has no news, he manufactures it. The readers of +the New York papers the other day read that a prominent Socialist, who +occupied a box in the theatre where a play was given in which Socialism +is attacked, stood up and offered to harangue the audience between the +acts. The actor who played the role of the wicked capitalist came on +the stage and invited the audience to vote whether they cared to hear +the Socialist or him. The audience thereupon voted both down. But the +management the next Sunday evening very kindly offered the use of the +stage for a debate on Socialism, to which the leading Socialists and +anti-Socialists of the city were invited. The meeting was a great +success, and all the reporters in town were present, just as by some +singular coincidence they happened to be on the first night. + +One of our most successful operatic managers--impressario, I believe, +is the more correct appellation--was about to produce the opera of +"Salome," which had been taken off the rival stage after its first +performance, on the assumption that New York was shocked. The singer +was not only to sing the part, if one can sing a Strauss opera, but was +also to dance it. Finally, about a week before the opera was produced, +a new soprano was engaged to sing another role hitherto taken by the +prospective Salome. Instantly the dread headlines on all the front +pages of the metropolitan press announced that Miss Garden would resign +before Madame Cavalieri should sing in any of _her_ roles. Mr. +Hammerstein's "eyes twinkled," as the reporters besieged him. He said +he guessed he could untangle matters. Out of the kindness of his heart +he had thought the rehearsals of "Salome" were too fatiguing for Miss +Garden, and so got assistance for her. After a three or four days' +operatic war, in which literally columns of printers' ink was shed, the +_entente cordiale_ was resumed, and the song-birds became doves of +peace again. The New York "Evening Post" printed the next day an +editorial entitled, "Genius in Advertising"; and a week later the +opera, or rather the song and dance of "Salome," was given, with seats +selling at ten dollars apiece, and "standing room only" signs at the +box-office. + +This desire for publicity on the part of the histrionic profession goes +so far, that often absolute fakes are sent out to the poor, +unsuspecting editor. Here is a statement that was printed, let us hope +in good faith, in one of the Brooklyn papers not long ago. It referred +to the leading lady in a popular stock company. + + Miss S. has a remarkably fine collection of miniatures painted on + ivory. Her attention was attracted to them several years ago by a + miniature of one of her ancestors, painted by Edward Greene + Malbone, which came into her possession. The delicate quality of + the painter's art that was of necessity lavished upon the ivory + pleased her as an amateur and she began to collect. Miss S. has + haunted the antique shops of Manhattan and Brooklyn during the few + leisure moments that came to her, in her search after miniatures. + She now owns something like one hundred examples of famous + miniatures. One of her greatest treasures is a portrait of John + Dray, by that master-painter of miniatures, Richard Cosway. + +The publication of this article brought such a number of requests from +the friends of Miss S. to see her collection, that the ingenious press +agent was obliged to invent and publish another fabrication--this time +of a midnight robbery in which the collection disappeared. This +shameless story was told me by the press agent himself, and he gave me +from his scrap-book the fake clipping I have just read. + +Similarly the imitation riots, and protests from delegations of +negroes, where Thomas Dixon's Ku-Klux play, "The Clansman," was to be +produced, were often due to the initiative of the enterprising press +agent--at least so he told me. + +I would not have you think, however, that the press bureau is not in +many instances a perfectly legitimate institution, and cannot be used +with all propriety by religious, reform, political, and other +organizations. The woman's suffrage movement, for instance, has a +well-equipped and organized bureau; while the two great political +parties during campaign times have sent out for many years news-articles +and editorials of great value to the country and partisan press. + +Perhaps the most efficacious press bureau of the legitimate kind is +that of the Christian Scientists. Every time an editor prints anything +derogatory to the Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, or her influential cult, a +suave and professionally happy gentleman immediately sends his card +into the sanctum, and, holding the offensive clipping in one hand, +together with a brief and well-written reply, says with the utmost +courtesy:-- + + "Inasmuch, my good sir, as you deemed it worth while to devote so + much of your valuable space to spreading broadcast before your + intelligent audience an error about Christian Science, I feel sure + that your sense of justice will make plain to you the privilege of + giving us space to demonstrate the real truth of the matter." + +To the editor with a conscience--and some of us still have the vestiges +of one--this is a hard argument to evade; and as a result Christian +Science gets twice as much notice in the papers as it would were there +no smiling press agent to follow up every unfavorable reference, no +matter how obscure the publication. The next time the editor wants to +point a jest at the expense of Christian Science, he thinks twice and +then substitutes some other cause that does not employ an editorial +rectifier. + +But perhaps the best use of a publicity bureau was made recently by the +street-railway company of Roanoke, Virginia, and the water company of +Scranton, Pennsylvania. Both of these companies had become very +unpopular, one as a result of poor street-car service, and the other on +account of a typhoid epidemic supposed to have been started from the +pollution of the company's reservoir. Both companies appropriated a +good sum of money, hired a press agent, and bought advertising space in +the local papers every day for a month or more. These advertisements +gave the companies' side of the case with such candor and convincing +fairness that they soon became the talk of the town, personal letters +were written to the papers about them, and the hostility toward them +very quickly turned to a feeling of good-will. It pays to take the +public into your confidence. + +And now the staid "Rail-Road Age-Gazette" has sounded the call for a +great press agent to arise and stem the growing public hostility to the +railroads. The "Age-Gazette" did not use the phrase "press agent," as +the appellation has not as yet come into its full dignity. It employed +the more euphonious term "Railroad Diplomatist." Still, high-sounding +titles have their use, as when some of my brother editors call their +"reporters" "Special Commissioners," and their foreign correspondents +"Journalistic Ambassadors." + +We had a Peace and Arbitration Congress in New York two years ago. +Being chairman of the Press Committee, I employed a firm of press +agents to get for us the maximum amount of publicity. As a result we +received over ten thousand clippings from the papers of the United +States alone. I do not mean to claim that the Congress would not have +been extensively noticed without the deft work of the agents; but they +unquestionably helped a great deal. The newspapers welcome them when +they represent such well-known philanthropic institutions as the Peace +Society, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the +People's Institute, because the copy they "turn in" requires little or +no further editing before it is sent to the printer. But when they are +employed to promote financial ventures, wars on labor unions, +anti-municipal ownership campaigns, or other private and class +interests, then the editors discount what they provide and they +actually do more harm than good to the cause they are intended to +promote. + +Press agents, however, are sometimes enabled to get illegitimate matter +into our best papers. I recall to your memory the reports favorable to +the companies sent out during the great insurance investigations in New +York. "Collier's" has told the whole story.[2] One of the agents +employed testified on the witness-stand that a great insurance company +agreed to pay a dollar a line for what he could get into the papers. He +made his own arrangements with the journals that took his stuff, and +the difference between the price he had to pay and the dollar a line he +got from the insurance company was to be his private rake-off. He +succeeded in securing the publication of six dispatches of about two +hundred and fifty words, in such well-known newspapers as the St. Paul +"Pioneer Press," the Boston "Herald," the Toledo "Blade," the Buffalo +"Courier," the Florida "Times-Union," the Atlanta "Constitution," and +the Wilmington "News." It is only fair to state, however, that there +was nothing in the evidence to show whether the papers went into the +arrangement on a business basis, or were fooled into thinking the +dispatches they published were genuine reports of the proceedings +before the committee. + + [2] _Collier's_, Nov. 11, 1905. + +Examples of the use of press agents for both legitimate and +illegitimate purposes could be extended almost indefinitely. The +Standard Oil Company, I understand, now issues all its manifestoes to +the public through a trained press-representative; and the fight +against Messrs. Gompers, Mitchell, and Morrison, in the Buck Stove +controversy, was conducted with the aid of a press bureau, as one of +the lawyers in the case informed me. Whenever such a question comes +before the people as the choice between the Nicaragua and Panama routes +for the interoceanic canal, a press bureau is usually an important +factor in the campaign. The big navy craze and the Japan war cry can +hardly be accounted for except on the theory that it has been for +somebody's interest to agitate them through the press. Whenever the +Naval appropriation bill comes before Congress, the Far-Eastern +war-clouds threaten in thousands of newspaper sanctums, while all of us +shudder at the danger of war, for the benefit of ordnance +manufacturers, battleship builders, and every incipient "Fighting Bob" +who hopes some day to command another American Armada on its +gastronomic voyage around the world. + +Fortunately none of our papers are subsidized by the government itself, +as is so often the case with the semi-official organs of Europe. Nor +are any of our papers directly in the pay of foreign governments, +though the espousal of the infamous reactionary regime in Russia by +some of them is at least open to suspicion. The danger of manufactured +public opinion in this country comes not from governments. Even the +political parties are losing the allegiance of the press. The days when +the Republican organs told the people the worst Republican was better +than the best Democrat, and the Democratic papers said the same about +the Republicans, have happily passed, never to return again, though the +spirit still lingers in the organs of the Socialist, Populist, and +Prohibition parties. The growth of the great politically-independent +press is one of the most hopeful signs of the times. + +But we have only jumped out of the frying-pan of politics into the fire +of commercialism, and the fight of the future will therefore be to +extricate ourselves from the fetters of commercialism, just as we have +already broken away from the bonds of party politics. + +But the press agent has come to stay. Indeed, his business has now +assumed such proportions that the profession of anti-press agent will +doubtless soon come into existence. I know already of one gentleman in +New York whose aid has been invoked when people want things kept out of +the papers. On more than one occasion he has prevented good spicy bits +of scandal from seeing the light; though in his case I can aver that it +was his personal influence with the editors, rather than any improper +lubricant, that kept the papers silent. + +Now let me turn from the press agent to the advertiser as a twister of +editorial opinion. Here let me say at once, and with all emphasis, that +the vast majority of advertisements are not only honest but dependable. +Leaving out of account a few stock phrases which deceive nobody, such +as "the most for the money," "the cheapest in the market," etc., what +is said about the goods to be sold is not in the least overdrawn. I +have taken the pains to go over the advertising columns of the leading +papers and periodicals of New York during the month of February, and, +with the exception of a few medical, financial, and perhaps real-estate +advertisements, I could find absolutely nothing that on the face of it +seemed fraudulent, and very little that was misleading. The advertisers +have at last come to realize that for the long run, whatever the rule +may be for the short run, it does not pay to overstate the qualities of +their merchandise. You can now order your purchases by mail from the +advertising pages of any reputable publication about as safely as over +the counter of a store. At all events the phenomenal growth of the +mail-order houses and their sales through advertising, lend strength to +this opinion. On the 15th of March, 1909, a single Chicago mail-order +house sent to the Post Office six million catalogues, weighing four +hundred and fifty tons, and all were to be distributed within a week. + +Many periodicals now claim that they will not take advertisements that +look fraudulent or even misleading. Some papers, like the London +"Times," have a guaranteed list of advertisements which they have +investigated and vouch for, though naturally the advertisers have to +pay extra for the guarantee. + +"The Sunday School Times" printed, several weeks ago, a long list of +secular papers that were "going dry," as so many of our Southern +states. The fact that our best periodicals no longer accept liquor +advertisements is another one of the encouraging signs of the coming of +the new journalism. + +The vigorous fight that "The Ladies' Home Journal" and "Collier's" +waged against the patent-medicine concerns is too fresh in the public +memory to need recounting here. The two pictures printed cheek by jowl +in "The Ladies' Home Journal,"--one, of the tombstone above the mortal +remains of Lydia E. Pinkham, whose inscription showed that she had been +dead since 1883, and the other an advertisement representing Lydia in +1905, sitting in her laboratory at Lynn, Massachusetts, engrossed in +assuaging the sufferings of ailing womanhood,--these are eloquent of +the type of fraud perpetrated through the press upon a gullible public. + +Similarly, in the negro papers the favorite advertisements are those +that claim to straighten kinky hair and bleach complexions--all fakes, +of course. Perhaps the most fraudulent advertisements, however, are +those which purpose to sell mines in Brazil, Mexico, Alaska, or +wherever else the investor is unlikely to go. These offer their shares +often as low as ten cents each, and guarantee fabulous profits. I have +a college classmate who is extensively interested in Mexican mines, and +he tells me that literally 99 per cent of all the mining companies that +float their shares through advertisements are pure, or rather impure, +swindles. I am not in the least surprised, for I know how many letters +come to a financial editor from the dupes of these slick mine +promoters, asking advice as to how they can get their money back. + +The most demoralizing advertisements are those paid for by loan-sharks, +clairvoyants, medical quacks, and the votaries of vice. The New York +"Herald" has recently stopped printing its vicious personals. It also +refuses fortune-tellers the hospitality of its columns, though it is +not so squeamish in regard to loan-agencies and patent medicines. How +many papers still publish the advertisement of Mrs. Laudanum's soothing +syrup for babies? When you remember that the proprietary medicine +concerns have been accustomed to spend forty million dollars a year, +which is distributed among the papers of the land, you can see that it +requires considerable financial independence for a publisher to forego +a taste of their patronage. + +It is a curious fact that, aside from the country weeklies, the papers +most plentifully besprinkled with medical advertisements are the yellow +journals, the religious weeklies, the socialistic and other propaganda +organs, and in general those which preach most vociferously reform and +the brotherhood of man. + +The danger from the advertising columns is not, as I have said, that +the advertisements misrepresent the goods, but that the terms on which +they are solicited tend to commercialize the whole tone of the paper +and make the editor afraid to say what he believes. The advertiser is +coming more and more to look on his patronage as a favor, and he seldom +hesitates to withdraw his advertisement if anything appears that may +injure his business or interfere with his personal fad or political +ambition. + +Let me give you some examples of the withdrawal of advertisements to +punish too daring and independent editors. + +A few weeks ago the paper which, in my opinion, has the ablest +editorial page in the country lost some very valuable musical +advertising because it had published letters of a decidedly +compromising nature, written by a man high in the musical world to a +lady who was suing him for damages. Another paper, which many consider +the brightest in America, discharged its dramatic critic after a +theatrical firm had taken out all their advertising. But strange to +say, as soon as a new critic was engaged, the advertising was forthwith +resumed. I refrain from giving the name of this newspaper because one +brave and witty little weekly published the story with names and dates, +and is now being sued for libel. + +"Life" states that in Cincinnati, lately, every theatrical +advertisement in all other newspapers carried this line:-- + + "We do not advertise in 'The Times-Star.'" + +The paralyzing power of advertising is again exemplified in the case of +a New York evening paper which was so much interested in the +popularization of bicycles that it organized the first bicycle parade +ever held in the city. Just before the day of the parade, however, it +printed an article telling the people that it cost only some fifteen or +twenty dollars to manufacture bicycles that sold at from seventy-five +to one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Instantly all the bicycle +advertising was withdrawn, and the paper lost thousands of dollars. + +The New York "Evening Post" some years ago offended the department +stores by some utterance it made about the tariff, and they withdrew +their advertising. The "Evening Post," instead of quietly backing down, +started in to fight single-handed, calling on the public for aid. The +personal friends of the editor, Mr. Godkin, and a few loyal readers +rallied to its support, and threatened to boycott the stores. But the +public as a whole and all the "Post's" esteemed contemporaries, as +might have been anticipated, enjoyed the conflict from a safe distance +and minded their own business. The department stores not only refused +to make terms, but in some instances carried the war into the enemy's +territory by stopping the credit accounts of those customers who took +the "Post's" side. It was only after a very great financial loss and +many years of estrangement, that most of the stores came back to the +"Post," and it was long before the old relations of cordiality were +entirely reestablished. + +The department stores are seldom or never referred to unfavorably by +the New York papers. When an elevator falls down in an office-building +and somebody is injured, the headlines ring to heaven. A similar +catastrophe in a department store is considered of hardly sufficient +human interest to publish. The name and shame of a woman caught +shoplifting in a department store can seldom be kept out of the papers. +A department store caught overworking and underpaying its +sales-girls--well, that is of no public concern. One of the most +striking articles I ever printed recounted the experiences of a +sales-girl in one of New York's department stores, yet it was unnoticed +by the New York papers, which are quick enough to republish and comment +on such articles when we print them, as "Graft in Panama," "Peonage in +Georgia," or "Race-Prejudice in California." + +Four years ago, in our annual vacation number, we advised our readers +to go back to their boyhood village, buy the old homestead, and take a +vacation on the farm, abjuring the summer hotels with their temptations +to spend money, their vapidities and artificialities, manufactured +lovers' lanes, and old cats on the piazza. This so offended a few +hotels that they have never since advertised in "The Independent." I +will not tell you their names, but you can find out by noticing what +hotels are not represented in our advertising pages. + +Three years ago I printed the life-story of a girl then on strike in a +factory. It was a simple, straightforward autobiography, giving the +employes' side of the case. Although we printed subsequently--as we are +always glad to do--a statement from the company giving their side of +the controversy, we must still be on their "We Don't Patronize" list, +judging by the amount of advertising with which they have since favored +us. Other papers have suffered still more, I understand, from the same +factory. + +The great book-publishing firms are about the only class of advertisers +I know of who do not directly or indirectly seem to object to have +their wares damned in the editorial pages. Whether they have attained +more than other men to the Christian ideal of turning the other cheek; +whether they think that nobody pays any attention to a scathing +book-review, or whether they hold that the "best seller" is the +offspring of hostile criticism, I do not know. But again and again we +denounce books in our literary department that the publishers pay good +money to praise in the advertising pages of the same issue. I know of +only one prominent publishing firm which is an exception to this rule +in that it sometimes attempts to influence the reviews of its books by +means of its patronage. + +But with the small book-houses this happy relationship does not always +exist. It would surprise you to know how many of them badger and +threaten us. Some, I understand, have a rule not to advertise where +their books are not indiscriminately puffed. It is a poor Maxim, +however, that won't shoot both ways; for I am sorry to report that some +papers adopt the equally bad rule of not reviewing the books of these +firms who do not keep an advertising account with them. + +I once dined at a public banquet where the guests were both whites and +negroes, and made some harmless and well-meaning remarks. A +Philadelphia advertiser subsequently said he would never do business +with a paper that employed such an editor. + +Last year an insurance company withdrew its advertising from the +columns of a great weekly because it repeated a disagreeable truth +about one of its directors. + +Recently San Francisco has gone through one of the most important +struggles for civic betterment ever waged in an American city. The +whole nation stood at attention. The issue was clear and unequivocal. +The story of how San Francisco was redeeming her fair name, as every +newspaper man knows, was sensational enough to be featured day by day +on the front pages of every great paper in the land. The Eastern +dailies started in bravely enough, but soon cut down their reports +until they became so meagre and inadequate as to cause people in the +East to surmise that some influence hostile to the prosecution had +poisoned the sources of their information. + +The Archbold letters, given to the press by Mr. Hearst in the late +campaign, are further examples of commercialism in journalism. How the +Standard Oil Company sent its certificates of deposit and giant +subscriptions to sundry editors and public-opinion promoters, and how a +member of Congress from the great state of Pennsylvania actually +suggested to Mr. Archbold that it might be a good plan to obtain "a +permanent and healthy control" of that very fountain-head of +publicity,--the Associated Press,--these sinister transactions and +suggestions have been so fully discussed as to need no further comment +from me. + +From the standpoint of journalistic ethics, the only thing more +reprehensible than selling your opinions is offering them for sale. +This is editorial prostitution. The mere getting out of winter-resort +numbers, automobile numbers, financial numbers, and Alaska-Yukon-Pacific +Exposition numbers is not at all to be condemned, though the motive may +be commercial, as the swollen advertising pages in such special numbers +attest. + +But what shall we suspect when a paper which claims a million readers +devotes a long editorial to praising a poor play, and then in a +subsequent issue there appears a full-page advertisement of that play? +What does it mean when not a single Denver paper publishes a line about +three nefarious telephone bills before the Colorado Legislature? And +what shall we think of a certain daily whose editor recently told me +that there was on his desk a list three feet long of names of prominent +people who were not to be mentioned in his paper either favorably or +unfavorably? + +But direct bribe-giving and bribe-taking are, as I have said, very +rare. Such a procedure is too crude. If you should get up some palpable +advertisement disguised as news, and send it around to the leading +papers asking them to put it in as reading matter, and send you the +bill, expecting them to swallow the bait, you would be disappointed. It +is more likely to be done in another way. A financier invites an editor +to go with him on a cruise in his private yacht to the West Indies, or +offers to let him in on the ground floor in some commercial +undertaking. Then, after the editor is under obligations, favors are +asked and the editor is enmeshed. + +Although I have said much about the sordid side of journalism, and the +temptations that we editors have to meet in one form or another, I do +not want you to think that the profession or trade of journalism offers +no scope for the highest moral and intellectual attainments. I have +dwelt thus long on the seamy side of our profession because there is a +seamy side, and I believe it does good occasionally to discuss it with +frankness. The first step in correcting an evil is to acknowledge its +existence. Were the title of this lecture "Journalism and Progress," or +"The Leadership of the Press," I could have told a far different and +rosier, though a no less true story. + +But, as I approach my conclusion, let me give you some more pleasing +examples of the better side of "Commercialism and Journalism." + +George Jones, the late owner of the New York "Times," when that paper +made its historic fight against the Tweed Ring, was offered five million +dollars by "Slippery Dick" Connolly, one of the gang, and an officer of +the city government, if he would sell the "Times," which was then not +worth over a million. Mr. Jones said afterwards, "The devil will never +make a higher bid for me than that." Yet he declined the bribe without a +tremor. A certain religious weekly lost a hundred thousand dollars for +refusing to take patent-medicine advertisements--probably ten times what +the paper was worth. "Everybody's Magazine," and many others of its +class, refuse every kind of questionable advertising. + +Many editors and publishers scrupulously eschew politics, lest +obligations be incurred that might limit their opportunities for public +service. Some will not even accept dinner invitations when the motive +is known to be the expectation of a _quid pro quo_. + +Perhaps one of the few disagreeable things a conscientious editor +cannot hope to avoid is the necessity of denouncing his personal +friends. Yet this must be done again and again. Indeed, there are +thousands of editors to-day who will not hesitate a moment to espouse +the unpopular cause, though they know it will endanger their +advertising receipts and subscription list. + +"The Independent," for instance, could undoubtedly build up a great +circulation in the South among white people if we could only cease +expressing our disapproval of the way they mistreat their colored +brothers. But we consider it a duty to champion a race, who, through no +fault of their own, have been placed among us, and whom few papers, +statesmen, or philanthropists feel called upon to treat as friends. + +There is a limit, of course, to the length to which a paper can go in +defying its constituency, whether advertisers or subscribers. +Manifestly a paper cannot be published without their support. But there +are times when an editor must defy them, even if it spells ruin to +himself and bankruptcy to the paper. It is rarely necessary, however, +to go to such an extremity as suicide. The rule would seem to be--and I +think it can be defended on all ethical grounds--that under no +circumstances should an editor tell what he knows to be false, or urge +measures he believes to be harmful. This is a far different thing from +telling all the truth all of the time, or urging all the measures he +regards as good for mankind in season and out. That is the attitude of +the irreconcilable, and the irreconcilable is as ineffectual in +journalism as he is in church or state. Thus "The Ladies' Home Journal" +has not as yet taken any part in furthering the great woman's suffrage +movement which is sweeping over the world, and which ought to, but +nevertheless does not, interest most American women. From Mr. Bok's +point of view this policy of silence is quite right, and the only one +doubtless consistent with the great circulation of his magazine. A +periodical which wants a million readers must adhere strictly to the +conventions if it would keep up its reputation as a safe guide for the +multitude. This may not be the ideal form of leadership, but it is +common sense, which is, perhaps, more to be desired. "Ed" Howe, the +editor of "The Atchison Globe," the paper which gets closer to the +people than any other in America, evidently admires this theory of +editing, for he confesses, "When perplexities beset me and troubles +thicken, I stop and ask myself what would Edward Bok have me do, and +then all my difficulties dissolve." + +Despite the sinister influences that tend to limit the freedom of +editors and taint the news, the efficiency, accuracy, and ability of +the American press were never on such a high plane of excellence as +they are to-day. The celerity with which news is gathered, written, +transmitted, edited, published, and served on millions of +breakfast-tables every morning in the year is one of the wonders of the +age. When great events happen, especially of a dramatic nature, we see +newspapers at their best. Witness the recent wreck of the steamship +Republic. Only a few wireless dispatches were sent out by the heroic +Binns during the first few hours, and yet every paper the next morning +had columns about the disaster, all written without padding, +inaccuracy, or disproportion. Also recall the way the press handled the +recent Witla kidnaping case. Within twenty-four hours every newspaper +reader in the United States was apprised of the crime in all its +details, and in most cases the photograph of the little boy was +reproduced. + +It is the gathering of the less important news of the day, however, +where reporting has deteriorated, and yellow journalism is largely +responsible for this. Yellow journalism is a matter of typography and +theatrics. The most sensational, and often the most unimportant, news +is featured with big type, colored inks, diagrams, and illustrations. +"A laugh or tear in every line" is the motto above the desk of the copy +editor. The dotted line showing the route taken by the beautiful +housemaid as she falls out of the tenth-story window to the street +below adds a thrill of the yellow "write up." The two prime requisites +for an ideal yellow newspaper, as that prince of yellow editors, Arthur +Brisbane, once told me, are sport for the men and love for the women; +and as the Hearst papers have secured their great circulation by +putting in practice this discovery, we find the other papers are +consciously or unconsciously copying them. A typographical revolution +has thus been brought about, as well as a general deterioration of +reporting. Even in papers of the highest character an over-indulgence +in headlines is coming into vogue, while the reporter is allowed too +often to treat the unimportant and most personal events in a +picturesque or facetious way without regard to truthfulness. On a +lecture trip West last winter, a reporter of one of the most +respectable and influential papers in the country asked if I was going +to attack anybody in my speech, or say anything that would "stir up the +mud." When I said I hoped not, he replied that it would not be +necessary for him to attend the lecture. "Just give me the title, and +the first and last sentences," said he, "and I'll write up an account +of it at my desk in the office." + +Sometimes, by this method of reporting, a serious injury is done to the +individual. A reporter on the New York "Times" wrote up last winter a +sensational account of the marriage of the head worker of the +University Settlement on the East Side to a young leader of one of the +girls' classes. The marriage was performed by one of the officers of +the Society of Ethical Culture, who are expressly authorized by the New +York legislature to officiate on such occasions. And yet the reporter +called the marriage an "ethical" one, putting the word "ethical" in +quotation marks and also the word "Mrs.," to which the bride was +morally and legally entitled, implying that the marriage was irregular, +and indicated a tendency towards free love. Though many letters of +protest were written to the "Times" about this, the "Times" made no +editorial apology for a breach of journalistic ethics, which should +have cost the reporter who wrote the article and probably the managing +editor who passed it their positions. + +It is this lack of sense of the fitness of things that would make the +average reporter scribble away for dear life, if, when the President's +message on the tariff was being read in Congress, a large black cat had +happened to walk up the aisle of the House and jumped on the back of +Speaker Cannon. Such an occurrence, I venture to say, would have +commanded more space in the next morning's papers than any pearls cast +before Congress by the President in his message. + +The yellows, however, despite their "night special" editions issued +before nine o'clock in the morning, their fake pictures and fake +sensations, have come to stay. They serve yellow people. Formerly the +masses had to choose between such papers as "The Atlantic Monthly," +"The Nation," the New York "Tribune," and nothing. No wonder they chose +nothing. In the yellow press they now have their own champion,--a press +that serves them, represents them, leads them, and exploits them, as +Tammany Hall does its constituency. Of course they give it their +suffrage. The hopeful thing is that yellow readers don't stay yellow +always. When a man begins to read he is apt to think. When he begins to +think there is no telling where he will end,--maybe by reading the +London "Times" or the "Edinburgh Review." In New York the yellow +papers, while they still have an enormous circulation, are losing their +influence as a political and moral force. Evidently as soon as yellow +people begin to use their wits they first apply them to the yellow +journals. + +The daily newspapers, however, both yellow and white, like natural +monopolies, are public necessities. The people must have the news, and +therefore, the predatory interests, whether political or financial, +have been quick to get control of the people's necessity. "Read the +comments on the Payne Tariff Bill," says the "Philadelphia North +American" in its issue of March 20, "and every sane, well-informed +American discounts the comment of the Boston papers regarding raw and +unfinished materials that affect the factories of New England. Most of +the Philadelphia criticism counts for no more than what New Orleans +says of sugar, or Pittsburg of steel, or San Francisco of fruits, or +Chicago of packing-house products. And it is common knowledge that what +almost every big New York paper says is an echo of Wall Street." + +The weeklies and monthlies, however, are not, like the dailies, +necessities. They have to attract by their merits alone. They must at +all hazards therefore retain the people's confidence in their +integrity, enterprise, and leadership. Whether this be the true +explanation or not, there is at least no doubt that the moral power of +the American periodical press has been transferred from the dailies to +the monthlies and weeklies. The monthlies and weeklies have also the +advantage of being national in circulation instead of local, and +therefore less subject to local and personal influence. They are also +preserved, bound or unbound, and not thrown away on the day of +publication like the daily paper. At all events, the weeklies and +monthlies have been the pioneers and prime movers in the great moral +renaissance now dawning in America. Moral strife always brings out +moral leaders. Where will you find in the daily press to-day twenty +editors to compare with Richard Watson Gilder and Robert Underwood +Johnson, of "The Century," Henry M. Alden and George Harvey, of +"Harper's," Ray Stannard Baker and Ida M. Tarbell, of "The American," +Lyman Abbott and Theodore Roosevelt, of "The Outlook," Walter Page, of +"The World's Work," Albert Shaw, of the "Review of Reviews," Paul E. +More, of "The Nation," S. S. McClure, of "McClure's," Erman Ridgway, of +"Everybody's," Bliss Perry, of "The Atlantic Monthly," Norman Hapgood, +of "Collier's," Edward Bok, of "The Ladies' Home Journal," George H. +Lorimer, of the "Saturday Evening Post," Robert M. La Follette, of "La +Follette's," William J. Bryan, of "The Commoner," or Shailer Matthews, +of "The World To-day"? These are the men--and there are more, too, I +might name--who came forward with their touch upon the pulse of the +nation when the day of the daily newspaper as a leader of enlightened +public opinion had waned. As a Philadelphia daily has admitted, "A +vacuum had been created. They filled it." + +Let me quote from a recent editorial,[3] which seems to sum up this +transformation most clearly:-- + + "The modern American magazines have now fallen heir to the power + exerted formerly by pulpit, lyceum, parliamentary debates, and + daily newspapers in the moulding of public opinion, the development + of new issues, and dissemination of information bearing on current + questions. The newspapers, while they have become more efficient as + newspapers, that is, more timely, more comprehensive, more + even-handed, more detailed, and, on the whole, more accurate, have + relinquished, or at least subordinated, the purpose of their + founders, which was generally to make people think with the editor + and do what he wanted them to do. The editorials, once the most + important feature of a daily paper, are rarely so now. They have + become in many cases mere casual comment, in some have been + altogether eliminated, in others so neutralized and inoffensive + that a man who had bought a certain daily for a year might be + puzzled if you asked him its political, religious, and sociological + views. He would not be in doubt if asked what his favorite magazine + was trying to accomplish in the world. Unless it is a mere + periodical of amusement it is likely to have a definite purpose, + even though it be nothing more than opposition to some other + magazine. If a magazine attacks Mrs. Eddy, another gallantly rushes + to her defense. If one gets to seeing things at night, the other + becomes anti-spirituous. If the first acquires the muck-raking + habit, the complementary organ publishes an 'Uplift Number' that + oozes optimism from every paragraph. The modern editor does not sit + in his easy-chair, writing essays and sorting over the manuscripts + that are sent in by his contributors. He goes hunting for things. + The magazine staff is coming to be a group of specialists of + similar views, but diverse talents, who are assigned to work up a + particular subject, perhaps a year or two before anything is + published, and who spend that time in travel and research among the + printed and living sources of information." + + [3] _The Independent_, Oct. 1, 1908. + +Now my conclusion of the whole question under discussion is this: While +commercialism is at present the greatest menace to the freedom of the +press, just as it is to the freedom of the Church and the University, +yet commercialism as it develops carries within itself the germ of its +own destruction. For no sooner is its blighting influence felt and +recognized than all the moral forces in the community are put in motion +to accomplish its overthrow, and as the monthlies and weeklies have +thrived by fighting commercialism, so it is reasonable to suppose that +the dailies will regain their editorial influence when they adopt the +same attitude. + +I know of only four ways to hasten the time when commercialism will +cease to be a reproach to our papers. + +First. The papers can devote themselves to getting so extensive a +circulation that they can ignore the clamor of the advertisers. But +this implies a certain truckling to popularity, and the best editors +will chafe under such restrictions. + +Second. The papers can become endowed. That others have thought of this +before, Mr. Andrew Carnegie can doubtless testify. There would be many +advantages, however, of having several great endowed papers in the +country. The same arguments that favor endowed theatres or universities +apply equally to papers. We need some papers that can say what ought to +be said irrespective of anybody and everybody, and which can serve as +examples to other papers not so fortunately circumstanced. But +manifestly the periodical industry as a whole is much too large to be +endowed, and the few papers that may be endowed by private capital, or +by the Government, would have only a limited influence on the industry +as a whole. Our government now publishes a weekly paper in Panama, +which takes no advertisements, and is furnished free to every +government employee on the Isthmus. It is a model paper in many +respects, but manifestly its example is not apt to be followed +extensively before the dawn of the Cooeperative Commonwealth. It may be +that the practice newspapers conducted by the schools of journalism +connected with our great universities will raise the standard by making +their chief object the publication of accurate and reliable news. + +Third. The papers can combine in a sort of trust. Take the Theatrical +Syndicate, for instance, whose theatres could not be kept open a week +without newspaper publicity. The Theatrical Syndicate's policy seems to +be to single out any paper that becomes too critical and give it an +absent-advertisement treatment. At the present moment this medicine is +being prescribed in several of our large cities. But let all the +publishers form a publishers' trade union as it were, and whenever an +advertisement is withdrawn, appoint a committee of investigation, and +if the committee reports that the withdrawal of the advertisement was +done for any improper reason, then let all the papers refuse to print +an advertisement of the play, or allow their critics to mention it +until the matter is satisfactorily adjusted. This would bring the +advertisers to their knees in a moment. + +The papers have the whip hand if they will only combine, but they are +all so jealous of one another that probably any real combination is a +long way off. Still there are indications of a gentleman's agreement in +the air, for all other interests are combining and they will be forced +to follow suit. + +And what will the public do then, poor thing? A newspaper trust will +certainly be as inimical to the public welfare as any other combination +doing business in the fear of the Sherman law. Indeed it would be more +dangerous, for a periodical trust would practically control the +diffusion of intelligence, and that no self-respecting democracy would +or should allow. But this is borrowing trouble from the future. + +Fourth and last. We come back to the old, old remedy, which if +sincerely applied would solve most all the ills of society. I refer to +personal integrity, to character. Despite what may be said to the +contrary, integrity is the only thing in the newspaper profession, as +in life itself, that really counts. + +The great journalists of the past, whatever their personal +idiosyncrasies, have all been men of integrity; the great journalists +of to-day are of the same sterling mould; and the journalistic giants +of to-morrow--and the journalists of the future will be giants--must +also be men of inflexible character. + +There has never been a time in all history when so many and so +important things were waiting to be done as to-day. The newest school +of sociology tells us that the human race in its spiral progress onward +and upward through sweat and blood, misery and strife, has at last +reached the point where, emerging from the control of the blind forces +of an inexorable environment, it is about to take its destiny into its +own control and actually shape its future. From now on, evolution is to +be a psychical rather than a physical process. The world is on the +threshold of a new era. We see the first faint dawn of universal peace +and of the brotherhood of man. + +Fortunate that editor whose privilege it is to share in pointing out +the way. + + +_The Riverside Press_ +CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS +U . S . 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