' Il I -' 1eman• orts January,l95l

Current Libel· Trends Harold L. Cross

The Touchstone of Freedom James R. Killian, Jr. I

Role of the Newspaper Broker Malcolm Donald Coe

The American Newspaper Crisis John Gleason

The lnd~vidual Standards of Journalism Louis M. Lyons

Reminiscence of Grover Hall Carroll Kilpatrick

The Philosophy of a Great Newspaper R. A. Farquharson

Reviews - Scrapbook - Nieman Notes

Nieman Reports is published by the Nieman Alumni Council, elected by former Nieman Fellows .at Harvard University. It aims to provide a medium for di,scussion by newspapermen of problems common to their profession. Nine out of ten subscribers to Nieman Reports and very many of its contri"Wltors pre not themselves former Nieman Fellows but share a belief in the purpose of the Nieman Foundation "to promote and elevate standards of journalism in the U. S."

( NIEMAN REPORTS to enmesh this good man's unwary foot. Finally, finding that the ordinary temptations with which he purchased the soul of the average citizen did not seduce his soul, the Devil went to him and made him a straight-forward proposition NiemanRe:ports and said to him: 'Now if you will give me your soul when you die, I will honor your draft for any amount while you Nieman Reports is published by the Nieman Alumni Council: Paul L. Evans, Delaware, Ohio; Lawrence A. Fernsworth, New live and nothing you desire shall be withheld from you.' York City; Thomas H. Griffith, N~w York City; A. B. Guthrie, Jr., The man accepted the proposition and entered upon a career Lexington, Ky.; John L. Hulteng, Providence, R.I.; Weldon James, of luxurious living not recalled since the days of Babylon. Louisville, Ky.; Robert Lasch, St. Louis, Mo.; Justin G. McCarthy, The first thing he did was to buy a residence on Fifth Ave­ Washingto~ D. C.; William J. Miller New York City; Leon Svirsky New York City; Lawrence G. Weiss, Cambridge, Mass.; Louis M. nue and entertain the 400; then a yacht was added to his Lyons, Cambridge, Mass., Chairman. possessions, and he took his friends on a cruise around the Published quarterly from 44 Holyoke House Cambridge 38, world, entertaining lavishly on his yacht and at the chief Mass. Subscription $2 a year. Entered as second-claSs matter De­ hotels of Europe. The expense was great but the Devil cember 31 1947, at the post office at Boston, Massachusetts, un­ der the Act of March 3, 1879. honored his drafts. He went to Monte Carlo and got on the wrong side of every game and lost millions, but the inex­ VOL. V, NO. 1 JANUARY, 1951 haustible treasury of hell was at his command. After travelling all over the world, and spending as if he was a reincarnated Croesus, he tired of pleasure and travel and The Devil and the Editor determined to go into business, so he bought a seat on the l The following is from an address by Josephus Daniels at stock exchange and plunged into speculations recklessly. l the Associated Press Banquet in New York on April 24, Everything he purchased went down like McGinty. He 1913, when Daniels was the successful editor and publisher got on the wrong side of every market, but the devil made of the Raleigh News and Observer and the newly-appointed no complaint. He then engaged in high finance of the most frenzied type and his money took wings. Finally i Secretary of the Navy: excitement palled upon him and he decided he ought to "The appointment a few days ago by the President of the enter upon some work that would be of use to the world United States of Mr. Walter Hines Page, of your state, as and so he decided to establish a daily newspaper in the Ambassador to Great Britain recalled to me the .warning Metropolis. He purchased the finest presses and the most given by Mr. Page exactly a quarter of a century ago of the up-to-date machinery regardless of the cost; he empl~yed fate of a man who became editor of a daily newspaper. That the most gifted writers and most celebrated artists and distinguished scholar and diplomat, early in the eighties, es­ everything that money could buy was at his command to tablished at the capital of North Carolina a weekly news­ establish his daily newspaper. The plant was a thing of paper by the name of the State Chronicle. It had about it a beauty and the product was a work of art. But, My! How fineness and quality and vigor that made it a power in a it did deplete the treasury of the infernal regions, and community that lacked the population to give it the support finally, when the drafts became so heavy as to alarm the which its excellence demanded. When he heard the call of Devil, he sent for the man and said, 'What in the -- are the wild and went to Boston to become editor of the Atlantic you doing now, you are about to exhaust the treasury of Monthly. I succeeded him and in a few months the bee of hell.' The reply was: 'I was trying to establish a daily converting the paper from a weekly into a daily began to newspaper.' Whereupon the Devil said, 'I will withdraw buzz in my bonnet. That bee had a great big sting, partic­ from the contract. If you are trying to establish a daily ularly in a town with a population of only 15,000. About newspaper, you will exhaust the treasury of hell before you that time, upon a visit to Ambassador Page in New York, I do it, and besides if you try to become editor of a daily news­ confided to him that I was considering changing the paper paper I will get your soul anyway.'" from a weekly into a daily. He made no reply to me, and, Well, despite the story, Daniels established the daily turning to my wife, he said: 'If ever he gets to the point of News and Observer in Raleigh and made a success of it­ seriously contemplating doing this dangerous thing at and he was one editor whose soul the Devil didn't get, Raleigh, I wish you would tell him this story which will either. enable you to keep him from the rash act.' "The story was like this as near as I can recall it: Once Carroll Kilpatrick, Washington correspondent of the San upon a time there lived a man whose soul the Devil coveted Francisco Chronicle, contributes this anecdote of Josephus and he threw out all the nets known to his Satanic Majesty Daniels. "Untackled Probl "'' of J ttrnaliam. THE TOUCHSTONE OF FREEDOM by James R. Killian, Jr. A scientist describes the crucial need of society for informed reporting of the complex and vital knowledge that men must have to resolve the world crisis for peace and freedom. This is from a talk by Pres. ]ames R. Killian, ]r. of M. I. T. to the lOth annual dinner for the Nieman Fellows at the Brotherhood of Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline, Mass.

Both education and journalism stand in the front ranks a mighty effort to see that our activities support the pur­ as guardians of freedom of speech and information and poses of a free society. champions of these freedoms as a first prerequisite of a If the purpose of a free society is to enable men to de­ peaceful vvorld. velop as individuals and to participate in the decisions of Peace and freedom and individual rights go hand in the day, education and information are of essential im­ hand. And freedom of information has been called "the portance. We have recognized this. In the United States touchstone of all the freedoms to vvhich the United Na­ we have mass education and mass journalism on a scale tions is dedicated, vvithout vvhich vvorld peace cannot vvell beyond that to be found in any other country. But our very be preserved." mccess in this respect has raised its ovvn problems, problems Perhaps vve should think less about peace as the absence vvith vvhich both journalism and education are confronted. of vvar and more about peace as a vvay of life. It is the Can vve take care of the mass vvithout a. steady drop in peace of a community of men living in harmony, a fellovv­ quality? Is there perhaps a need for more differentiation ship of men vvith a future.- among institutions, especially among those that attempt a Here in the United States vve have gone as far as any mass coverage and those vvho are the pace-setters, the stan­ nation in demonstrating that such a vvay of life is not dard bearers, and the small quality institutions? Are vve only right but possible. We and the other free nations of succeeding in our job of helping our citizenry to become the vvorld have by our actions put meaning behind the vvell enough informed and vvell enough educated to carry vvords "individual rights" and "order under lavv." But if out their responsibilities in a free society? · a free. society is to live up to its promise, it must keep its The American voter novv deals vvith issues vvhich have sense of purpose constantly in vievv and implement that effects far beyond the local community. His vote-some­ purpose in all that it does. times even his casual remark-may cause a tremor on the Recent years have seen us lose some of this sense of the political seismograph of some distant nation, and every po­ purpose behind the institutions vve say vve cherish, and litical act can have a long-term, moral significance. At have found us using our freedoms in vvays inconsistent the same time vve live in an age in vvhich science and tech­ vvith freedom. Novvhere is this more true than in our use nology are vastly and vvith extreme rapidity increasing of free speech and our thinking-or lack of thinking­ man's knovvledge and the tools vvith vvhich he can be ef­ about the right of a free people to be informed. fective. Each increase in knovvledge makes additional de­ Much too often have disparag~ment, condemnation, sen­ mands on man's understanding. It is a nevv age, one vvhich sationalism, taken the place of constructive discussion. In requires nevv things of man. We live in a radically different journalism fright and bite have been all too frequently vvorld than that of fifty or even tvventy-five years ago, and substituted for light. In both educatio~ and journalism this vvorld changes daily. The responsibility for keeping quantity has been achieved at the expense of quality. Yet American citizens informed has a nevv and avvful magni­ cynical men cannot build the good society. Nor can igno­ tude. It is a responsibility that is shared by both our uni­ rant men face the great decisions of our day. versities and our press. It is a responsibility to help men Education and the press stand at the bar of public opin­ to be rational rather than visceral in their reactions. ion, and vve must ask in all seriousness to vvhat extent the As developments in science and technology increase the failure of freedom to shine as a beacon of hope to the vvorld complexity and the importance of the problems vvhich vve is their failure. I think that out of the present vvorld crisis have to solve, and make of the world one neighborhood, freedom vvill re-discover its conviction and its voice. But the very nature of the problem of information is changed~ the voice of freedom vvill become strong only if vve make I am inclined to believe that one of our great troubles today, NIEMAN REPORTS one of the causes of a general loss of faith in man's ability to make themselves understood, to translate the jargon of to meet the demands of freedom, lies in our slowness in their specialties into negotiable ideas and language. In a solving the enormous problems of information and com­ democracy scholarship should come out of its ivory 'tower. munication which the rapid increase in specialization and On matters of public concern we must try in every pos­ our progress in all directions has· posed. sible way to increase discussion and exchange of views. We For those of us who share the responsibility of helping need more of such devices as convocations and Columbia our citizens to become well-informed, a major problem University's American Assembly. We must develop better is that of transmitting complex and specialized information methods of bringing about a clarification of-opinion and to the general public. For example, the American voter of arriving at a consensus on public issues. A good example needs far more information than he now has about Russia, of a question which needs such discussion at the present about the Russian mind. In our universities in recent time is that of manpower, and how we can best build our years there have grown up the area studies or regional armed services to a total of three million mien or more. study groups which have been systematically accumulating President Conant has presented his informed views, and a vast amount of information about their countries. So far this gives us a good basis from which to start a full dis­ only a little of this has become generally known and un- cussion . . derstood. Just the other day I was talking with a professor I would like to say, too, that I believe there are untackled who headed one of these regional groups, and he was ex­ problems of journalism implicit in the need for public pressing concern that the information now available is understanding of the relatedness of diverse branches of not reaching the American public. Both the press and the knowledge. Is the public informed or only confused by educational institutions have an obligation to find tech­ the heterogeneous collection of news items with which it niques of making the fruits of scholarship available and un­ is confronted each day? Must random reports depend for derstandable to the public. integration on the editorial pages or the reader's own knowl­ These techniques are being developed. Recently the Amer­ edge, or are there perhaps techniques of news presentation ican Society of Newspaper Editors decided that the field that can be developed to help the reader see a situation of atomic energy was one in which men at the copy desks whole through having related reports brought into juxta­ needed better background information if they were to have position in some orderly fashion? Should reporters use a basis for evaluating news stories as they came in. The more enterprise in searching out related information which Society got in touch with M.I.T. and asked the help of will give meaning to a particular report? I do not know. the Institute in planning a seminar for newspapermen. I only throw this out as suggestive of the kind of thinking As a result, a group of nuclear physicists, representing which I believe must animate the approach of journalists several institutions, and a group of representative editors, as well as educators if we are to do our job as it should held a two-day discussion on the atomic bomb and atomic be done. I can think of nothing that would pay greater energy. Of course no classified material was involved. Dis­ dividends in strengthening the voice of America and the cussion was completely off the record with no reports of voice of freedom than to have our mighty complex of daily any kind. The result was to put at the disposal of both information services nmrshal their full potentiai to the the journalists and scholars negotiable information on these purpose of serving free men in a free society, and experi­ problems. This conference, and similiar ones which have ment with radically new methods to meet the radically new been held in other parts of the country, have had an observ­ demands of this day and age. able effect on the quality of reporting and press coverage with respect to our total atomic energy situation. This type The problem of secrecy, arising from the current dictates of conference represents a kind of responsibility which a of national security, is another example of a problem which university or group of specialists ought to take in a field must be of major concern to both universities and the press. where it has special knowledge. Secrecy can seriously retard creative scholarship and teach­ To see the interdependence of specialized knowledge and ing. A ban on information strikes at the heart of a democ­ to develop techniques for bringing many specializations racy. to bear on single problems, is to re-invigorate our concepts No one can question the fact that security problems in of freedom by making freedom meaningful in terms of the face of a well-organized and invidious world-wide con­ the citizen. If we are to avoid being panicked into think­ spiracy against the free world, are grave and difficult. But ing that these vast new developments make dictatorial con­ we must be very careful that we deal with security prob­ trols necessary, we must fast develop the teamwork which lems with full understanding of what security means. For is the answer of democracy to the great challenges of our many people secrecy is mistakenly considered synonymous age. with security. A little thought will show that security is Our scholars and specialists have an urgent responsibility not that simple to obtain. NIEMAN REPORTS 5 For instance, it is clear that scientific progress is an es­ which they are a part. Education can affirm this faith by sential part of any program to increase our national strength helping men learn how to think and how to develop their in the face of the present challenge. Yet secrecy and scien­ powers of judgment. Or education can deny the assump­ tific progress are mutually inimical. Science and technology tions and needs of democracy and concern itself with teach­ depend for their advance on communication among men ing men to learn by rote and thus training automatons. working in various fields, on stimulating exchanges of in­ Likewise journalism can affirm our democratic faith in formation on new techniques, new discoveries, and new man by giving him the information he needs to act with rea­ insights. son and judgment or it can deny this faith and feed him Nor is secrecy compatible with democracy. Yet only if on sensationalism . and appeals to his emotions rather than we have a functioning democracy will we have anything to his intellect. worth making secure. Here again we run up against the hard necessity of protecting legitimate military secrets. But We are reluctant to give up our cherished conviction that we must try at the same time to give the public the maxi­ because "facts" are blessed with neutrality, the men whose mum opportunity to debate and appraise policies and de­ job is to handle facts must pretend to be neutral too. To cisions which affect the national welfare and which involve say that a reporter must be neutral seems to me to be the moral considerations that are best resolved by the open same thing as saying that it makes no difference what kind procedures of aemocracy. of a person a scientist is because his job is to learn the The problem of how to keep secrecy confined to the facts of an impersonal universe. Common sense tells us, minimum necessary for obvious security needs is not an however, that it does make a difference, a very" great deal easy one to solve. It will demand a lot of thought and a of difference, what kind of men play these crucial roles great deal of discussion by all of us. But I think that we in our society. are now letting ourselves drift dangerously with the tide, A good reporter, no more than a good scientist, will tam­ despite some loud talk by people like myself about the per with facts a~ they are revealed to him. He will con­ shoals ahead. As we drift the tide strengthens. Just the scientiously present these facts with as much objectivity other day President Truman a$ked the Bureau of the Bud­ as is humanly possible. But we overlook at our peril the get to study the need for putting more restrictions on the fact that the choices a reporter must make at every step release of government reports. of his activity will reflect his general knowledge, his personal Public discussion of this urgent and serious problem will set of values, his view of what is important. The choices a be immeasurably aided by the studies of our security pro­ newspaper will make in the way it presents the news will gram which have recently appeared, "Security, Loyalty, and reflect an opinion of what its readers will want to hear. Science," by Professor Gellhorn of Cornell, and "National Even a superficial look at two reports of the same event Securi~y and Individual Freedom" which Harold Lasswell can show in what different ways the same facts may be has just completed for the Committee for Economic De­ interpreted. But the semi-fiction that we have created velopment. I hope that this excellent source material will about the objectivity of news reports as compared to edi­ now be used to stimulate wide public interest and under­ torials has imposed an almost insuperable barrier to clear standing and that out of this will come an awareness of thinking on this matter. true and false dangers which will lead to a constructive However, a good beginning is being made through such re-appraisal-! won't say re-examination--of our security careful and precise analyses as that which was recently program. I believe that the mounting world tension makes done by the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia it more rather than less important that we do so. University on the press coverage of the so-called "Condon Case"-the attacks and replies to the attacks on the loyalty I of Edward U. Condon, Director of the National Bureau of \ Before closing, I would like to turn to one other aspect of Standards. At the request of six university scientists and the responsibilities which seem to me to concern journalism the magazine Scientific American, the Columbia group, a as well as education. That is the importance of making group which is engaged in communications research, made the unifying concepts which bind the free w:orld together an objective study of the New York City press coverage of both explicit and implicit in all activities whch affect pub­ this case during the Spring of 1948, the nine general daily lic knowledge and understanding. papers of that city being chosen as a representative cross Let me give one example. The very heart of our belief section. in democracy is our faith that if given the opportunity men This study, using carefully developed techniques of com­ will on the whole act with reason and judgment in assum­ munications analysis, did not deal with editorial comment; ing responsibility for their own affairs and the society of it was concerned only with news reports. It was able to 6 NIEMAN REPORTS classify statements of fact as pro-Condon and anti-Condon. This illustrates the point I want to make, that there are An anti.1Condon statement might be: "Dr. Condon was many ways of presenting the facts, and that the general accused by a Thomas subcommittee of associations with education of both the reporter and the man who buys the Soviet spies." A pro"Condon statement might be: "The paper will have a bearing on how the facts are presented Committee's attack on Dr. Condon was condemned today and what total picture of a 'situation is given. I would sug­ as irresponsible by 20 leading scientists." In the nine pa­ gest, too, that we may be tending ,to institutionalize a dis­ pers covered, the difference in emphasis was shown by the regard for some of our basic concepts because of our failure percentages of pro-Condon and anti-Condon statements: to take cognizance of the fact that in the news columns 65 per cent pro to 35 per cent anti in the New York opinion is both reflected and formed. Times; 18 per cent pro and 82 per cent anti in the New York Journal American. Further analysis showed that the It has become widely recognized as imperative that sci­ anti-Condon statements were almost entirely statements of entists and engineers must be well-educated men, and men the Committee on un-American Affairs, or references to that who are committed to the concepts of democracy if freedom Committee's statement's. The pro-Condon statements came is to remain strong. It seems to me that no one should from a wide variety of sources-government departments be immune from tMs injunction. That is why I believe and loyalty boards, university professors and dozens of that the Nieman program is such an excellent one because scientists and scientific societies. Four of the nine news­ it stresses the knowledge and understanding of the journ­ papers gave considerably more attention to the wide support alist rather than his training in techniques. of Dr. Condon than did the other five whose coverage When it comes to the matter of making our democratic largely ignored these letters and statements. Seventy-seven concepts explicit in journalism and education, we run into per cent of the case for Dr. Condon as presented to the a great wall of misconception, I believe, about the role of readers of those papers came from Dr. Condon himself, reporter and teacher in transmitting ideas. In journalism from representatives of the Administration, or from un­ we have sometimes acted on the assumption that it is a bad named sources. technique to deal with ideas as a part of the news of the day. Today when our democratic concepts are in danger One method of determining objectivity, which was used of being forgotten because we as a people have lost a sense in this analysis, was the examination of the background of the relation of our ideals to our everyday activities, I material presented each time a new development occurred. wonder if we should not at least raise the question of It was found that the newspapers in their review material whether perhaps we have been wrong. repeated general denunciations of him six times as often as I think that education and journalism have common re­ they repeated general statements in his support. On the sponsibilities if the voice of freedom is to become so strong committee's promise to give Condon the hearings he re­ and clear that freedom will again become a crusade. I have quested and the subsequent breach of that promise, the confidence that we will be successful in meeting these re­ Times, Tribune, S~ar, and Post published fourteen state­ sponsibilities. These are perilous times. But if our faith ments on the committee's promise for every ten statements in freedom, and our faith in our ability to make freedom on its failure to keep the promise. In the other five papers live up to its promise, remains strong, we can look forward rhe overall ratio was about eight to one. to the day when freedom and justice wiH prevail. CURRENT LIBEL TRENDS

by Harold L. Cross

Libel, with its perplexing and changing interpretations has long been the-bane of journalism. Here its flexible and varying forms are discussed in fascinating detail by one of America's great spe­ cialists in libel, Harold L. Cross, distinguished lawyer and former professor and associate dean of Columbia's School of Journalism.

"The newspapers, magazines and other journals of the the diminished volume-diminished in relation to the past country, it is safe to say, have shed, and continue to shed, and especially in large metropolitan dailies-of local crime, more light on the public and business affairs of the nation sensational and other kinds of "libel-sensitive" news. For­ than any other instrumentality of publicity." In that and eign news, so-called "socially significant" news and types of other utterances United States Supreme Court Justice "heavy news" are less productive of libel suits. It is safer to Sutherland, in writing the opinion in which his court struck defame a sheik in Afghanistan than the sheriff in Altoona, down as violative of the First Amendment Louisiana's at­ to expand interpretatively on sex problems in South Africa tempt to restrain the press by means of taxation, pointed up than to crack a brothel in San Francisco, to cover a purge in the signficance to the public welfare of decisions of courts Petrograd than a brawl in Boston. Other things being and acts of legislatures affecting newspapers and empha­ equal, the number of libel suits against a metropolitan daily sized the concern with which readers in their own interest is likely to bear a fairly definite relationship to the number ought to view a legal event which might diminish the news­ and nature of its local crime and court stories. This trend papers' rights, abilities or incentives to shed the light of full may go too far, as several writers pointed out in Nieman publicity. Reports for April, 1950. It will do so if it sets up fears that Significant legal events affecting newspapers, therefore, trammel the press. are more than mere determinations of the personal rights Second. A short-term trend toward increase in volume of · of private litigants. They constitute, in the functioning of a litigation in one field-that of "politics." This trend, in complex society, mechanisms of adjustment of the balance connection with the first, resembles the occasional higher between the conflicting rights, desires and interests of (1) wave that rolls in on an ebb tide. The term "politics" is used the newspaper, which are to speak out and shed the light of here as referring not alone, or even as much, to campaign full publicity; (2) of some individual or office holder, which stories in the ordinary sense as to articles dealing with poli­ are to avoid publicity; and (3) of society-the readers-to tics in the broader sense. Thus, several years ago there was "preserve the untramelled press as a vital source of public a rash of suits over such terms as "Fascist," "Quisling," "pro­ information" with a minimum of individual injustice. Thus Hitler" and the like-the sort of thing of which John each such event, especially in the field of libel, represents the O'Donnell's suit against the Philadelphia Record was typi­ end-product of a three-sided controversy in a sensitive area, cal. The current epidemic involves particularly, though not and libels trends reflect and to some extent create shifts in exclusively, various forms of the charge of "Communism." the opinions of courts, legislatures and readers on a wide Other types in this area include the suit threatened by Col. variety of subjects including the matter of performance by James V. Hunt against the New York Herald Tribune the craft. over its initial exposure which set off the five-percenter in­ quiry; the suit by former Governor Millard V. Caldwell of Current libel trends appear to include these: Florida which resulted in heavy verdicts against Collier's First. A long-term trend toward decrease in the volume and suggests as the court intimated that the War between of litigation. This seems traceable to three factors-an in­ the States is not over when litigation between a Virginia­ creasingly high sense of ethics and responsibility evidenced, born Floridian office holder and a damn-Yankee periodical for example, by emphasis on these matters whenever news­ gives the opportunity partially to reverse the verdict at Ap­ ·paper performance is under discussion and the growing pomattox; the defamation suit of Alger Hiss against Whit­ number of specific, down-to-earth "care and accuracy" pro­ taker Chambers and the million dollar claim of William J. grams in newspaper offices; an increasing "libel conscious­ Connors of Honkytonk Chicago against Robert Montgom­ ness" evidenced, for example, by the frequency with which ery. The causes of this trend appear to include the increasing "libel talks" are called for at conventions and seminars; and number of stories in political-ideological fields, the provoca- 8 NIEMAN REPORTS tive nature of output of columnists which set in motion a That was false, mildly disparaging, perhaps productive of sort of fashion to sue, and increasing sensitiveness of poli­ some actual damage and certainly productive of grave in­ ticians. jury to the feelings of the alleged deceased. For the truth Third. A trend toward judicial severity in determining was that Mr. Cardiff was very much alive. Moreover, the what constitutes libel or, in other words, what constitutes place where he was said to be lying in state was not a mortu­ a newspaper article that is defamatory so that the court ary establishment or a suitable place for a wake, but a bar will not dismiss the case as non-libelous but will put the and grill-Mr. Cardiff's own bar and grill. Yet the court newspaper to proof of its defense-truth, privilege, fair com­ quite properly dismissed the ensuing libel as non-libelous on ment or some other complete defense or, if no complete de­ the ground that the publication was in substance merely a fense is provable, partial defenses in mitigation of damages. premature announcement of an event which is neither es­ This is discussed further below. capable nor necessarily discreditable. Fourth. A long-term trend toward judicial and legisla­ tive liberality in the matter of defenses. This liberality has In order to have a libelous publication the matter printed been two-fold. It has operated, first, in easing the. law as to must have been of such character that the court may deter­ the existence of defenses with recognition of new ones and, mine that its natural tendency was such that it might be second, in easing the requirements as to the facts recognized conclusively presumed without proof to have damaged the as sufficient under the law. And recently something new person identified in the minds of other persons in respect of has been added by some state legislatures in the form of his reputation or good name, his means of earning a live­ strikingly favorable law on partial defenses in reduction of lihood or his right to normal social contacts. Of course, even damages. This also is examined in some detail below. if the article had that tendency the plaintiff is not entitled Fifth. A trend-operative when the published matter is to damages if the article was true or privileged or otherwise libelous and no complete defense is proved-toward larger the subject of a complete defense. Therefore, a fair general verdicts. The reasons here, of course, are the diminishing statement in brief terms of what constitutes libel is this: a value of the dollar and the tendency toward a more open­ newspaper publication is libelous if it identifies a person to handed distribution of wealth. The trend is not peculiar to any readers and produces an ill opinion of him in the minds suits against newspapers. It exists more or less in all litiga­ of a substantial number of reasonable and right-thinking tion where damages are not liquidated or otherwise sus­ readers. ceptible of yard-stick measurement. It applies especially, It is apparent that that general statement has been and however, in libel suits against newspapers for the reason, will continue to be the subject of uncertainties, difficulty and among others, that the elements of damage-injury to repu­ differences in application. In applying it the courts are in tation, capacity to earn and wounded feelings-are sin­ effect determining public opinion without the benefit of gularly difficult to measure and peculiarly the subject of election or poll, for the result depends not only on what is emotion. Examples are the $237,500 verdict on the first printed but also on the state of mind of readers. Thus, trial of the Caldwell v. Collier's case and the $100,000 under court rulings applying the same rule of law as to what award on the second. constitutes libel, to say of a white man that he is a Negro is libelous in Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma and some other The judicial trend toward severity in determining what is states, but is not libelous in Maine, New Hampshire or and what is not libelous, that is actionable defamation, or Vermont or some other states probably including New mere non-libelous disparagement, is not uniform, clear-cut York. Similarly, it was libelous at the turn of a century to or statistically provable. Yet it is sensed and its existence say that a man had gone to Utah and joined the Mormon deserves recognition. A newspaper article is not libelous Church-a statement which, of course, would not be libelous merely because it is false, or is merely disparaging or has today. In like manner, it was probably not libelous in any caused a~tual damage or because of its effect on the mind or American jurisdiction in 1940 to charge a man with Com­ the feelings of the person identified (though such effect may munism, whereas such a statement published today would be considered on the issue of damages if the article is libelous almost certainly be held libelous in every American juris­ and there is no complete defense) or because of the presence diction. of a combination of two or more or even all of those char­ acteristics. This is illustrated in the recent case of Cardiff v. Such elasticity, which prevents safe reliance on precedent, Brooklyn Eagle. The newspaper ran a paid obit to the creates problems for publisher, broadcaster and their law­ effect that Mr. Cardiff (the plaintiff), prominent Irish­ yers, but on balance constitutes a continuous and highly Republican patriot, had died, that he left certain survivors, salutary process of adjustment of the rights and interests of that services would be held at a stated time and place and individuals-and newspapers in the light of shifting public that his remains were lying in state at a named address. opinion and changing social needs. When the process be- NIEMAN REPORTS 9 gan, long ago, defenses were few and difficult to prove and sorship of a tax refund bill which the records showed was the consequences of libel, especially libel upon government, actually introduced by another-a case of an inadvertent were barbarous. It was natural that the courts, in their urge error illustrative of two of the trends mentioned, for a few to produce justice, were prone, even to the point of un­ years ago such a suit would hardly have been brought by abashed rationalization, to seek an innocent meaning for a politician and if brought would hardly have b'een viewed published matter and to hold it non-libelous even when it as libel. was susceptible, perhaps logically more susceptible, of a defamatory meaning. Later, as defenses became more If there be poison in the adverse trends as to what is libel­ readily available and the freedom of the press concept ex­ ous, some antidote is found in the favorable trend in the panded, the courts, still with the same urge, felt less need field of defenses. Viewing the field as a whole, the law of to proteot the publisher at the threshold, tended to stop hunt­ libel recognizes and, depending on the fact, applies one or ing for an innocent meaning and became inclined to apply more of eight complete defenses-defenses which wholly the "natural meaning" of the words. bar recovery no matter how libelous and injurious the pub­ Now two tendencies seem detectable. One is to enlarge the lished matter. Two have nothing to do with the language jury's participation in determination of the primary ques­ of newspaper published matter. One is the statute of limi­ tion-is the publication libelous. Whether or not a publica­ tations-a statute of repose which kills suits not brought tion is libelous is basically a matter of construction of the within the required time after publication, the required pe­ meaning of a printed document which is primarily a ques­ riod varying from state to state and ranging from one to tion of law for the court and not, under our system, a ques­ three years. The other is the absolute privilege which at­ tion of fact for the jury. Now the courts seem prone to taches to pertinent utterances by participants in judicial, look for two possible interpretations of the published matter, legislative and some public and official proceedings-a de­ one of which as a matter of law is libelous and the other of fense for judges, legislators, witnesses, etc., not for reports which as a matter of law is not libelous, and then to leave it of the utterances or proceedings. to the jury to determine as a question of fact which of the The other six do depend on the content of the published two interpretations was actually adopted by readers. The matter and in some instances, but not all, on matching up other tendency is for the courts, without departing from the published statements with the actual facts. There are: their basic rules as to what is libelous, to construe the mean­ Truth, which has long-nearly always in Anglo-Saxon ing of the published matter strictly against the publisher law-been a complete defense in civil actions to recover and let him justify as best he may what he has printed in the damages. In most states truth alone-and that means proof light of easing rules in the field of defenses. not of the literal accuracy of the report but of the truth of An example of the latter tendency is a recent decision in the substance or gist of the defamatory charge made in the Massachusetts where the court held libelous of a naval offi­ report-is sufficient. A few states require more-usually cer parts of the movie "They Were Expendable," based on that the matter was proper for public information or was William L. White's book of the same title narrating ex­ published with good motives and for justifiable ends or the ploits of PT boat officers in Pacific waters shortly after like. The trend here is away from necessity for proof in Pearl Harbor, on proof that the picture was shown in Bos­ exact, precise and complete detail toward recognition of ton to an audience which included career officers of the sufficiency of proof of "substantial truth." Navy. The plaintiff naval officer was depicted as fine, brave, Privilege, which provides the basic protection for, stated indeed highly heroic, but also as somewhat impetuous and in general terms, fair and true reports of judicial, legislative perhaps "undisciplined," on which ground libel was found and other public and official proceedings, published without because of adverse effect on the reputation of a naval officer actual malice. Old rules which limited the privilege to r~­ in the minds of other Annapolis men. ports of proceedings in courts of record, to proceedings relat­ The same court held the same film non-libelous when ing to the merits of the controversy and to proceedings shown to an audience free of naval officers. Thus the court which are not ex parte and in which both parties were heard, adopted as the test the effect upon the minds of a particular have quite generally been abandoned. New York has class with a special, and perhaps unreasonably exalted, set dropped the need for proof of publication without actual of standards; and that is a far-reaching and potentially dan­ malice and other states are squinting that way. Texas and gerous doctrine. One shudders for society editors if the California have extended the privilege to meetings which same doctrine applies to a piece about a society leader's are "public" even if not official-a strong advance. New cocktail party because of effect on the minds of career offi­ York and California in court decisions grant the privilege cers of the W.C.T.U. Another instance is a recent decision to reports of judicial proceedings which have actually been of the high court in Georgia ruling libelous a story in mild, commenced in accordance with procedural requirements straight narrative form that a legislator had asserted spon- but in which at the time of publication there had been no 10 NIEMAN REPORTS judicial action, ,that is, action by a judge. So do Kentucky substantial judicial recognition in some states, but in many and Kansas. states there are no decisions; in all states broad areas are in That liberal view, in line with realities, has brought the need of clarification and in general courts of last resort have law to correspond with common practice-to report the not spoken with finality. commencement of suits when they become of public record The first of them is the defense of reply or self-defense. in clerks' offices without waiting action by a judge. It is As in the area of physical assault and self-defense, where the hoped, and reasonably to be expected, that other states will plaintiff has begun a public controversy against the defend­ fall in line when the issue is presented. ant newspaper, the latter has the right of reply or self-de­ Criticism or fair comment, which is available in proper fense at least in the same media and, in the exercise of such circumstances to protect defamatory expressions of opinion right, may not only block or parry the blow-that is, deny as distinguished from libelous statements of fact; and, the charges-but may also us~ reasonable affirmative force along with truth and privilege, forms the great founda­ -as, for example, by publishing statements exposing what it tion for freedom of the press so far as libel is concerned. believes to be , infirmities or misconduct of the plaintiff, The press may be singularly free from fear that libel law though such statements be libelous and turn out to be false, will stifle discussion in the form of adverse criticism in provided they were made in good faith, on reasonable matters of public interest and concern. Thus a high court grounds and without actual malice. This defense, which in New York has recently held clearly justified as criticism protects in the circumstances stated, libelous statements not letters and editorials bitterly assailing a Congressman for defensible as true, privileged or fair comment, has been al­ his vote on lend-lease. The newspaper said the Congress­ lowed in many states where the initial attack was on the de­ man was hardly dry behind the ears; discussed "softening" fendant newspaper. In some cases it has been allowed when and found it was not necessarily in the muscles and in­ the attack was aimed at someone whom the newspaper was quired whether he was going to take the line of least re­ sponsoring-a_defense resembling that available to a parent sistance and end up with the Quislings, whether he was where his child is attacked physically. In at least two lower th~ representative of the district or "merely of a small court decisions the newspaper was given the benefit of the minority of weak-kneed, jelly-backed, slab-sided, parasitical defense available to the person attacked though the news­ mugwumps," etc. The court, viewing all this as non­ paper itself was not attacked and was not sponsoring the defamatory criticism, said, "In times like these through person who was attacked. In one of.them the plan tiff had which we have recently passed, the doctrine of fair com­ given an interview to the New York American to the effect ment should be extended as far as the authorities permit. that her dismissal as a college faculty member was due to With unprecedented social and governmental conditions, race prejudice. The New York Herald Tribune ran an in­ our own institutions threatened, national legislators . . . terview with the dean denying the charge of race prejudice should be held to strictest accountability ... Queasy words and saying dismissal was for incompetence-a libelous state­ will not do . . . Great issues require strong language." ment. College, dean and newspaper were sued for libel; the The "Kansas Rule" of qualified privilege which grants newspaper received the same status defensively that college a defense for libelous statements which, though untrue, were and dean clearly had and all three were thus relieved of the published of a candidate for public office or a public officer burden of proving truth. if the publisher acted in good faith and had reasonable The other such defense is that of consent or authorization. grounds for believing his charges to be true. This favor­ In ordinary circumstances a person cannot sue in a libelous able rule has limited litigation by politicians in the states article if he has consented to its publication. Consent does which have it. It is, however, a minority view, for the not include an assent obtained by fraud or duress or from a majority of American jurisdictions deny this privilege for person, such as an infant or mentally incompetent person, untrue libelous statement of fact however liberal as to ex­ lacking in legal capacity to give valid consent. Consent may pressions of opinion, and decline to discriminate between be express or implied. If express it may be written or oral. those who are candidates or office holders and individuals Express consent, written or oral, will rarely be forthcoming who are not. Nevertheless, the trend is toward adoption from the subject of a libel. However, even in the absence of the Kansas Rule, Florida being one of the recent con­ of express consent or in circumstances in which express con­ verts. sent might have been withheld, consent may be implied. Decisions have held that consent by implication may be The remamlll'g two complete defenses, less commonly available as a complete defense where the person who was used and far less well-known, are in process of develop­ the subject of a defamatory article about to be published was ment in response to the needs of society for more informa­ given the opportunity to state his side of the controversy and, tion and the needs of modern journalism for better protec­ voluntarily and in his own interest, without being over­ tion in performing that service. Each of them has received reached or threatened, and without express disclaimer of NIEMAN REPORTS 11 consent or warning against publication, furnished the re­ Punitive (or exemplary, vindictive or "smart money") porter with statements he wished to have appear in the damages, which may be awarded, in addition to special and forthcoming story and where, of course, such statements compensatory damages and without regard to actual injury, were published. Whether or not consent by implication at the discretion of the trier of fact if, and only if, actual actually happened as a complete defense is one of fact to be malice was found to be present or, in other words, if there determined by the reasonable inferences from the words and was ill will, gross carelessness or a false publication of ex­ conduct in the light of the surrounding circumstances. At treme or atrocious character. Here lies the chief danger of all events it appears that the decent journalism of "giving catastrophe verdicts. the other side" has acquired a legal advantage which may · rise to the dignity of a complete defense. Many state legislatures have been moved to temper the damage situation by statutes to the general effect that, in Where no complete defense is present to bar all recovery, the absence of personal ill will, unless the plaintiff demands the law of libel recognizes and, depending on the facts, per­ and the defendant refuses a retraction, the former shall re­ mits recovery in general of one or more of three kinds of cover only "special damages," as some states enacted, or damages. These are: "actual damages," as others provided. Usually, though not Special damages, which are specific items of pecuniary loss always, the legislative intent was to dep~ive the plaintiff of proved to have been caused by the publication. These are both compensatory and punitive damages. Quite generally, not presumed, must be proved, are difficult to prove, when though not in all states, that intent was thwarted by the proved are essentially liquidated and rarely, if ever, produce courts which, disliking the special interest character of the large verdicts. legislation, construed the word "actual" to include special Compensatory (or general) damages, which are awarded, and compensatory damages thus depriving the plaintiff of as the legal parlance is, "to make the plaintiff whole." The punitive damages only; or, with like effect, held the legis­ law gives the plaintiff the right to recover these and con­ lation unconstitutional so far as compensatory damages clusively presumes that they flowed in some amount from were concerned as deprivation of a right. the publication. Therefore, the plaintiff need not prove any such damage and the defendant cannot wholly disprove The current trends include highly favorable decisions in any, though the plaintiff may introduce competent ·evidence California and Florida on retraction statutes. Each statute to enhance, and the defendant may do likewise to reduce, requires demand for a retraction as a condition precedent the amount. The amount is in the discretion of the trier of to the commencement of suit. In event of demand and pub­ fact, usually a jury, which may take into account injury to lication California limits recovery to "special damages" and reputation, means of earning a livelihood, mental and Florida to "actual damages." In each state the high court physical pain and suffering, etc. Quite often large-verdicts upheld constitutionality and dismissed suit for failure to de­ result. mand retraction. PORTRAIT OF A NATIVE A Reminiscence of Grover Hall by Carroll Kilpatrick

One hot summer day in Montgomery, Alabama, nearly When still a plowboy in Henry County, he was invited fifteen years ago, a distinguished looking man in a hand­ by his older brother, then editing a paper in Dotham called some double-breasted suit, a cane on his arm and a talisman the Daily Siftings, to join the paper as a printer's devil. Not rose in his buttonhole, walked spryly down the main street, long thereafter the paper folded and Hall spent several attracting much attention. He tipped his hat to his friends, years on several different nearby small town papers. who looked a bit startled but warmly returned his greeting. In 1910, he moved to the capital of his state to become as­ Not until he sat down in his favorite restaurant did he real­ sociate editor of the Montgomery Advertiser, a vigorous, ize why there had been so many lifted eyebrows. His care­ conservative newspaper with a strong political bent. His fully-trimmed mustache was in order, but he had left his first editorial was in defense of the right of Alice Roosevelt collar and tie behind, hanging on the old-fashioned hatrack to smoke cigarettes. From that day on he fought against . in his office, under the portraits of Lee, Jackson and Cleve­ • Prohibition and Blue laws, against anti-sedition and anti­ land. evolution laws and for the right of man to govern himself. That was one of the few times that Grover Cleveland He continued as associate editor until1926, when he became Hall, editor in chief of the Montgomery Advertiser, was not chief editor of a paper that always gave the editor very equal to the occasion. great freedom of action. Grover Hall was one of the South's greatest editors in a When Hall moved into the editor's office at the age of day when fighting, personal editors were largely a thing of thirty-eight, Alabama was dominated by the KKK. Senator the past in American history. He was a human being with J. Thomas Heflin, Governor Bibb Graves, a large part of the a greater passion for life and people-and a greater passion Legislature, much of the Baptist and Methodist clergy and for the basic human decencies-than anyone I have known. many of the small town editors were pro-Klan. Hall at­ His religion was freedom-freedom of the human spirit­ tacked them all, savagely and by name. Physical floggings and he practiced his religion faithfully and fearlessly. For increased. Night riders could be seen almost every week so doing he was honored with the love of thousands of performing their vicious missions against the weak and un­ people, and he won nation-wide applause. protected. Hall was the product of our eroded soil. He lived all his Hall's vigor and his anger were equal to the challenge, life in a state once ruled by the Ku Klux Klan. He had only and he gave no quarter. He wrote powerful, vitriolic ed­ a meager education and he was untravelled. But he be­ itorials, highly readable and effective. "What a callous and lieved in the dignity of man, and he spent his life trying to wretched demagogue Heflin is," he wrote. lighten the burdens of his fellow men. · Finally, the inevitable threat on Hall's life was made one In his youth, Hall knew the deepest poverty. His later night in a telephone call as he worked late, as usual, in his life was not without tragedy, for his wife was long an in­ office. . Hall bought a pistol and carried it for two da,ys. valid. Yet this man, without inheritance except the great "Then I put it aside with scorn and shame," he told me freedom to make his own life, was an example of the bless­ later. "I'm no gunman anyhow. I can't shoot." He was ing that freedom can be and of how it can enrich our soil. never threatened again. But the violence of the fight con­ To a whole generation who knew his tremendous buoyancy, tinued. his relish for life and his essential goodness, Hall was a In January 1928, as if to throw further defiance at the symbol and a guide. In this present time of troubles, when Klan, Hall declared for the nomination for President on we are confronted with another terrible challenge to our the Democratic ticket of Alfred E. Smith, a Catholic and a faith in our heritage of freedom, the thing that Hall was and wet and a darling of the anti-Klan forces throughout the the faith he maintained stand as proof of the genius of this country. free land. Tom Heflin immediately went after Hall and the Adver­ tiser. "When I said the Advertiser had come out for AI Hall was born in 1888 on a farm in one of the poorest Smith," Heflin solemnly informed the United States Senate, parts of Alabama. It was nine miles from his home to the "I said the whiskey interests and the Roman Catholics had nearest railroad. His town had never known, he once said, gone down there and put sugar in their coffee." Heflin later a football player, a Roman Catholic or a Harvard graduate. pledged more than thirty-five large audiences to boycott the NIEMAN REPORTS 13 Advertiser. But the paper's circulation increased steadily as like minorities and to distrust majorities with regard to all the campaign developed, and Smith carried Alabama in No­ questions involving delicate human relationships and preju­ vember. His majority was assured by the vote he won in dice. I had Jewish neighbors along with Catholic and the middle- and south-Atlantic counties where the Adver­ Protestant neighbors, but that was after-or maybe it was tiser was the Democratic Bible. how-l came to know that Jews were people like other Hall's unrelenting fight against Heflin and the Klan won people, a part of the warp and woof of the same country him the Pulitzer Prize "for the best editorial writing in that had nurtured my ancestors and me." 1928." His campaign against gangism, flogging and racial Despite his qualifications in forebears, Hall could not have and religious intolerance had brought him national atten­ survived a day in a country where one group ruled over tion. another and where one man claimed superior wisdom. If Two years later the victory was complete. Hall saw Hef­ he had not been shot for defying the regime, he would have lin's strength as a towering Alabama politician broken at died of suffocation. In a letter to me that could apply just the polls, and the Advertiser's candidate for Governor on an as well today to another monstrous totalitarianism, Hall anti-Klan platform carried the state. outlined his basic philosophy. The new Governor unmasked the Klan, broke its grip on "The Advertiser," he said, "has but one dogma-freedom the jury boxes and reformed the primary voting laws which of the human spirit. It believes in the right of each and had made many Klan victories· possible. The Klan was a every human being in the two hemispheres to think and say thing of the past in the state which once had been the home what he likes, and it will angrily attack anyone who ques­ of the Confederacy. tions that right. "With reference to all other social and political questions, A few years later, Hall, sentimental human being that he the Advertiser is purely pragmatic. It supports what it likes, was, appealed to Alabama's Senators to help Heflin find a rejects what it does not like. The Advertiser pleads always job. The two old enemies, who had little in common but for the utmost freedom of the human mind, at last the only their love of politics and good yarns, became reconciled. friend of man, the only known link with what we call God. But when Heflin later tried to make a political come­ It affirms that the man has not yet lived who has the right back, Hall dipped his pen in the old ink and helped block to say what another human being, however lowly, shall the former Senator's last attempt to gain public office. "Hef­ think and say. This is the Advertiser's primary passion." lin is Heflin, a buffoon and a hog-bladder," Hall wrote in When Hall offered me his old job as associate editor he summarizing his opposition to Tom. said I would never be asked to write anything I didn't want "I know I'm a softie," Hall used to say after spending a to write except the anniversary and "drive" editorials. "You few hours swapping stories with Heflin. "I have never would be expected to whoop for the YMCA, the Salvation really hated anyone-and I've known some of the lousiest Army and the CQillmunity Chest once a year," he said. men ever born of woman. Stump speakers have called me Hall thoroughly disliked the task of writing anniversary variously 'liar,' 'buzzard,' 'kept,' 'atheist' and 'Roman Cath­ and "drive" editorials. He had done only one that had olic'. But most of them have been courteous and generous, really pleased him-a Christmas editorial fourteen words and we usually became friends in the end." long, written one year when he was engaged in a particu­ The Klan in Alabama in the nineteen twenties was pri­ larly bitter fight with a couple of political bosses. Hall's ed­ marily anti-Catholic, directing only secondary attention to itorial that Christmas morning said: the Jew and the Negro. It was the effrontery of a majority "With one or two well chosen exceptions, we wish every­ attacking a tiny minority that aroused H all's burning con­ one a very merry Christmas." tempt. Everyone got the point. Hall's anger was aroused again a few years later when The anniversary that almost proved Hall's nemesis (and the Nazis sought to make a scapegoat of the Jew. "In Nazi confirmed his opposition to anniversary editorials) was a Germany," he said, "I should probably be accounted eligible Fourth of July-a Fourth that Hall never forgot. Just be­ for all the current benefits of citizenship. My line must fore the holiday, he stuck his head into his assistant's office have been purged soon after the panic in the Garden of and said: Eden. I am Anglo-Saxon-Pict-Celt-Welsh, out of an inter­ "We have a lot of Fourth of July fans. I think I'll write minable line of deep~water Baptists. My forebears on both a piece in honor of the great day." sides 'Lindberghed' across the Atlantic, the biggest ocean He did. He wrote a long, glowing editorial about the then known to them, and some of them later became in­ birth of the Federal Constitution! The next morning as he volved in the American Revolution." drank his coffee he looked over his handiwork. Hall said he was either born tolerant or learned tolerance "I read the editorial and nearly fainted," he confessed early. "At any rate," he wrote, "I came early in my days to afterwards. "As soon as I saw it I realized that the Fourth 14 NIEMAN REPORTS is the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, not of Every young writer had Hall's help and encouragement. the Constitution. I expected to be kidded outrageously "Read David and Solomon," he would say to them. "They from one end of the state to the other. But my original were the best columnists of their time. They could do thei; theory was confirmed-nobody takes note of an anniversary stuff and bring down the curtain in a flash. editorial." "Pour your souls into your work. Write no witticism that The next day Hall wrote a nice editorial about the Dec­ does not spring from conviction, or some principle of phil­ laration of Independence, but he did not stop to explain osophy, but take liberties with style. Get fresh about pomp­ that the day to celebrate the birth of the Constitution is ous utterances of vast wigs. Speak softly of the sad-and September 17, not July 4. quit when you are through. Spoof, sympathize, interpret -but quit writing when the sap stops flowing." Hall's lighter side, which endeared him to thousands of When the time came to speak softly, Hall could speak as people and won him an amazingly large audience, found its . Father Montgomery. When a local dignitary deserved hon­ best vehicle in Clarabelle. One day as Hall sat at his type­ oring, Hall knew how to do it well. When a friend died, writer in the old building that had been a hotel during the he was deeply shaken and his obituary editorials came from Civil War, he was interrupted by a purring noise. A stray the heart. Here is the first paragraph of one on the death cat, dirty and hungry, had made its way to his office. of a local clergyman: Hall fed the visitor, gave her a name and began writing "Dr. Charles A. Stakely came quietly into this strange occasional short paragraphs about her activities; · The re­ world, remained for 78 years to study some of its mysteries, action of his readers was spontaneous. "We have decided but never to be bowed down by any of them, and then at to name the office cat Clarabelle," he wrote, "but actually she last breathed softly and made a characteristically quiet exit. does not deserve so swell and lovely a name. She has dirt He was a compassionate, wondrously understanding man. all over her body. She is the most ungrateful bum among He never said a harsh thing about those who were destined all the retainers of the Advertiser." to live this unpredictable life. He counselled them and To satisfy the demands of his customers, Hall wrote more strengthened them, but he never condemned them beyond and more about the cat, of her views on Hitler and other their grace to bear." disturbers of the peace. Before long his mail became so heavy with comments about his feline visitor-one reader The Advertiser was founded in 1828 by a Jacksonian ed­ sent him a cat encyclopedia-that he threatened to be rid of itor, who soon thereafter was run out of town by the Whigs. the animal. "The Advertiser remained from its birth until1929 a hardy But Clarabelle was an institution. states rights newspaper, always under vigorous editorship," "The Advertiser is asked to write more about Clarabelle," Hall once told me in the mid-thirties. "But after the de­ he said one morning. "But what is it to, say of such an un­ pression I compromised to conform to the unexpected needs worthy, unreliable member of the staff? She comes by this of society, and today I do not know whether we are for office only to eat her beef and sip her cream and take a nap." states rights or human rights first. Lately I have endeav­ For two years, Hall reported on Clarabelle's love life, her ored to reconcile Bourbons to the facts of a changing life and offspring, which were numerous, her unruly disposition a novel experience." and her ability to absorb great quantities of coffee cream. Hall was a poor economist, however able he may have Whenever Hall made a speech, there were demands from been as a philosopher. He was bored by statistics. He was the floor for the latest intelligence on Clarabelle. Hall spent often swayed more by human appeals than by factual an­ hours trying to pet the sullen cat, all the while insisting that alyses. The New Deal often disturbed and perplexed him, he did not like cats. Once, when he couldn't find her but the personality and humanity of Roosevelt won him. kittens after he had promised one to a neighbor's child, Hall supported Roosevelt in three elections and unques­ he wrote: tionably would have a fourth time had Hall lived. "Clarabelle never hides herself, being without reticence, Hall was proud of the staff he organized on the Adver­ but always hides her kittens. She is a chiseller, a cynic ap.d a tiser, and he spent hours with the men who worked for him. dead-beat. The Advertiser is on the point of breaking with "The Advertiser is the least bossed newspaper gang I ever her once and for all." saw," he said one day. "I don't like to have people around But as long as Clarabelle survived, .she was fed and hu­ me who need bossing. I like gentlemen who love their mored-and talked about wherever Advertiser readers work and will respond to suggestion and their native in­ lived. stincts." Hall loved the cat, but his greatest love was the newspaper The publisher of the Advertiser and Hall were on good business. He thought that it was favored above all others. terms, but Hall did not hide the fact that he looked askance And he thought that newspapermen were a race apart. at business-office publishers. Once he was invited to address NIEMAN REPORTS 15 the American Society of Newspaper Editors on the subject, kenesque invective when the occasion warranted. Hall did "The Problem of the American Editor." A few days after not feel a close kinship with the latter-day editors of some he accepted the invitation to make the speech, he received a of the more serious and solemn dailies. telegram explaining that he would have to keep it to fifteen "They have native wisdom and acquired culture," he said. minutes. "I don't need that much time to expound the "They are bright and entertaining. But they lack passion." problems of the American editor," Hall replied. "The prob­ And that is what Grover Hall never lacked. lem can be put in one sentence, to wit, how to get the pub­ lishers out of the second grade." CARROLL KILPATRICK was associate editor of the Mont­ Grover Hall's heroes were the famous personal editors­ gomery Advertiser under Grover Hall when he was award­ Frank Cobb, Henry Watterson, William Allen White. He ed a Nieman Fellowship in 1939. He is now Washington had their gift of an easy, readable style as well as a Menc- correspondent of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Individual Standards of Journalism by Louis M. Lyons This is from a talk to the National Confere_nce of Editorial Writers at Des Moines, November 18, 1950, by the curator of the Nieman Fellowships. In his will, leaving his paper with his hopes for it to his future change of control of the Washington Post in a dis­ children, Josephus Daniels said: "I have never regarded tinguished committee who had no part in ownership. the News and Observer as property, but as having an un­ In the case of the New York Times, Adolphe Ochs and purchasable soul." his great editors so impressed a character on the Times that the paper had acquired in his lifetime the status of an in­ He wrote of it in his will: stitution; so that a course that was "in character for the It is my earnest desire and hope that the News and Times" was clearly recognized by the public and could Observer shall be edited and directed by my descend­ be identified and faithfully applied by his successors. Indeed ants, though I do not believe the dead hand should at­ it would have been recognized as a public loss had his suc­ tempt to control the living spirit ... cessors failed faithfully to continue the character of so Its future depends upon complete devotion to the vital an institution. ideals that have characterized its course. I advise and The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Raleigh enjoin those who direct the paper in the tomorrows News and Observer and other papers newspapermen honor never to advocate any cause for personal profit or prefer­ are today recognized as institutions whose character is a ment. I would wish it always to be "the tocsin" and force in the American community and whose responsibility devote itself to the policies of equality and justice to in the performance of their indispensable function is count­ the underprivileged. If the paper should at any time ed on as confidently as that of a great university. Yet only a be the voice of self-interest or become the spokesman generation ago each was the dream, the ambition, the life of privilege or selfishness it would be untrue to its struggle of a man who had to create the character of the history. institution he established. It could be said of Daniels' paper that the character of He did much more. He created standards-he and his the paper was the character of the editor. It was a moral devoted colleagues and similarly dedicated contemporaries force because he was. Every one of our great newspapers­ -standards out of their own character which today could regardless of si:z:e-has been the projection of the personal­ not be traduced or ignored without the undermining of a

I ity of a great man. With luck the character he infused into strategic part of the fundamental concepts on which a free II~ the paper has been maintained by those who followed him. society rests. All around them other papers fail to achieve A community is fortunate if it has the continuity in a and often even fail to attempt such a standard. But every­ paper provided by Jonathan Daniels, who wrote of his body knows what the standard is and where it is to be found. father's final admonition: "They are the words we were And it is only because it can be found and identified as the taught to live by. They represent our faith and our con­ standard, that the press of America has the standing it viction." has and the opportunity it has as one of the great forces To insure the continued independence of another news­ to maintain and defend and develop the American tradi­ paper of character, Eugene Meyer invested approval of any tions. 16 NIEMAN REPORTS For those who believe in the press and its potential to saw the incident through partisan-colored glasses, but it pull its weight with the other great institutions men must is worth recording that two leading papers did not let live by, these standards are what we have to hold to. They their traditional support of Republicans determine their are essential to our faith in the worth of the profession we expression. Of course they were not alone, but they will . claim. They give whatever distinction attaches to the serve as distinguished examples. ).,9-~ Fourth Estate in our time. And they have been created " out of the life force and faith of individuals. We have to remind ourselves that the standards of journ- 1--, It is healing and restorative for a newspaperman to re­ alism are individual standards. Yet when the individuals mind himself of these standards when he sees the shocking are strong enough to maintain their own standards these cynicism with which standards are turned aside in many become by the very fact of their continuity and persever- \ places in such a political campaign as we have just had. ance institutional standards. It can be true in a community \ As newspapermen we can feel a sense of relief that, with the size of Emporia, Kansas, as much as in Louisville or very few exceptions, newspapers did not at any time in the Milwaukee. The standards of individuals can be imparted recent political campaign reach the lowest levels of the poli­ to institutions with such force and clarity that they become I; ticians. permanent and our children can speak of the character of 1 Indeed our major papers will generally be found over­ an institution as our fathers spoke ot_ t~~ char~er of a j riding narrow partisanship to take a responsible position man who launched the institution./' It is n o small thing on some of the most vital issues affecting human rights. to establish an institution and endow it with character. Our The Buffalo Evening News points out (October 28) great universities are the product of many generations of that the metropolitan press spoke overwhelmingly with dedicated men. But such is the tempo and pace of journ­ a voice of skepticism and warning when the McCarran alism that our greatest journalistic institutions are identifi­ bill on "subversives" went sailing through Congress over able after one generation. True it was what Allan Nevins a presidential veto: has called a transitional generation, and the question is The congressional vote on final passage of this bill raised whether the present economics of newspapers would was 313 to 20 in the House and 51 to 7 in the Senate. allow the repetition of such individual creative achievement. No similar statistics are available on the way the press But every present unit of power will in a generation pass "voted." But a fairly comprehensive roster of the so­ to individuals now too young to exercise it. They are now called "conservative" newspapers that criticized or forming the standards they will apply. And their standards warned against it, in whole or in part, may be compiled are formed out of their present associations and influences. from the editorials that have been inserted in the Con­ Any man in a newspaper job is a part of the total associa­ gressional Record, and from the many "exchange" tion and influence of the young man, whether in the edi­ papers that have come to our attention. torial or publishing office, who will inherit or achieve the / Among them, for example, are the entire Scripps­ power of the future control. "7 Howard chain, the New York Times and Herald Trib­ No man in any part of a newspaper can be so isolated une, all three St. Louis papers, the Washington Star and from the influence of its printed columns as not to identify Post, the Boston Herald, the Christian Science Monitor, what has merit and distinction and character in those col­ the Minneapolis Star-Journal and Tribune, the Balti­ umns-and to be influenced by them. By them an indi­ more Sun, the Portland Oregonian, the San Francisco vidual performance by reporter, editorial writer, city editor Chronicle, the Denver Post, the Atlanta Constitution, and headline writer does contribute to the character of his the Raleigh News and Observer, the Louisville Courier­ paper and to the awareness of its ownership of ~hat gives .; Journal, the Des Moines Register & Tribune, the Phila­ it character. And this in its effect is cumulative. delphia Inquirer, the Milwaukee Journal and-as our Whether journalism is a profession or not is an academic I readers needn't be reminded-the Buffalo Evening question. What matters is that those engaged in it act as News. if it were-that they assume and exercise a responsible atti- This is an honorable roll and, as the Buffalo Evening tude toward the reporting and editing of a paper. Every t News says, many others could be added to it. time they do they bring their calling closer to the standing It is also noteworthy that in the heat of the recent na­ of a profession. \ \., 1 tional election campaign, the Portland Oregonian, which The standards of an individual can affect a whole office. is listed as Independent Republican, headed its editorial We have all seen it happen. And then you get the standards ! 1 on the Dewey-Hanley letter episode: "Doesn't Smell Good." of an office and an esprit de corps that make a strong team. And the conservative Milwaukee Journal stated explicitly The tone of an office is reflected in everything published in its editorial: "From this distance the smell seems posi­ in the paper-and ultimately in the tone of the community ~ively bad." It is not surprising that other important papers -for no institution has a greater opportunity than the news- NIEMAN REPORTS 17 paper by its daily impact to affect the moral tone of a give it a further and valuable function of a· public forum. community. But only if opposing views are welcomed and adequately Journalism can be a lonely calling. Its most important published. Especially in a one-newspaper town this is the work is done alone-the reporter following a difficult trail l only opposition or challenge the editorials have. Without -the editor striving again st lethargy or corruption. He it the page can become a tedious monologue. And a letter must find his force within him. He has only his own may often afford a useful corrective to an editorial that standards to apply. Except as he has the morale of the office may have been less than fully informed, or written too on his side. Then he is not alone. He is sharing in a task i hastily or in less than complete equanimity of mind and that commands his utmost. );_ spirit. The editorial writer, especially in the paper with a small editorial staff, suffers most, I suspect, from a sense of iso­ The best editorial pages are apt to draw the best letters. lation, of working alone. He has to find his standards And if the editorial pen slips, such letters are a safety where he can and erect principles sufficient to deal with valve. The great pages often draw distinguished letters, the chaos of events and to guide him. No one else can and even short miscellaneous letters add to the interest of tell him where to find them, what books will be the great the page. They are often easier to read than the editorials. books for him, where to find his lode star. But find it he They attract other readers. And they are free. They may at must if his work is to have meaning for him. times raise the tone of the page, as for example in the heat The editorial writer sees the columnist encroaching on of a political campaign if a temporary bias leads the edi­ the editorial function-actually encroaching onto the space torial writer further than in a calmer season he would go. of his page, and dealing with many aspects of national When Lt. Gov. Joe Hanley of New York released a and international affairs. The columnist often writes with letter that revealed the circumstances of his yielding place a license denied the editorial writer, and he often succeeds to Gov. Dewey on the state ticket, the variation in its in dramatizing and individualizing his contribution so as handling, both in news and editorial, made a convenient to draw attention to himself and away from the impersonal index, for any who sought one, of the moral tone of dif­ editorials. ferent newspapers. Whether they gave the news its full Many papers offer their readers such a variety of points impact, top of · page one and full text and revealing back­ of view through their columnists that it leaves little to be ground, as the New York Times did, or blanketed it by said on national issues by the editorial writer. something else, and backed into by way of denials and 'But it leaves him inevitably the area of local and regional counter charges before the news itself was printed, as some affairs. This after all is where his reader lives. So he can, other papers did. And on the editorial page, the attitude if he is able, come closer to the reader's immediate interests. varied from the Times' "concern" all the way to complete It is in the area of local affairs, both in news and comment, cynicism. But on both the Times and the Herald Tribune that the paper must depend to establish an individuality a few days brought the reader response, and the readers of its own. Outside news is collected largely by the press for the most part went beyond their papers in expressing associations. Column commentators are syndicated. Any their views of the Hanley letter episode. In the Herald other newspaper can and will have the same general Tribune seven of the ten letters printed October 24 rebuked news and columns. But what it finds newsworthy in its the paper for failing to come down harder on Mr. Dewey. own area is its own distinctive news, and the position it The Times the same day gave two full columns to its chooses to take on home affairs is its own. Neither the wire readers' view of the incident. This may have been momen­ service nor the columnist can encroach far into this domi­ tarily embarrassing. But in the long run the editors of those cile of local affairs. papers must feel an added security in having such readers. This is the most challenging area for journalism, for Such readers themselves set a standard. The cynical paper the reader knows more about these events, and is more doesn't have such 'readers or doesn't long keep them if there closely affected by them. He is most apt to be critical of is any other place they can go. his newspaper service in the area closest to him, on matters The editorial writer has a task to write in competition he is most aware of. This is good luck for the editorial with the columnist to keep the attention of the reader. He page, for as a critic the reader comes into a relation with can't do it wholly by synthetic processes. He has to have the page-either as a contributor, if he is articulate enough something to write that interests him, that seems to him to write letters, or as a reader who can have his own in­ worth the trouble to get over to the reader. And he has to formed appraisal of the performance of the page. It seems feel something to say about it. If he has been a reporter, to me that critical letters should always be welcomed, so he is lucky in that he has always the chance to report a long as they stay within the bounds of libel and good taste. situation so that he can add to the reader's information. They can add an additional dimension to the page and Most of the editorial writing at its best is reporting. It is 18 NIEMAN REPORTS informed reporting, that expresses a judgment, and that is something in it-that the newspaper job he is apprenticed interprets and clarifies a situation that brings the reader up to offer·s a way to influence the community to the ends that to date, and gives him a better chance to make his own are implicit in the American tradition. If he finds a cynical judgment. The editorial writer may often see a chance or static attitude in the newspaper, there is nothing to hold to add up the score after a period of news on a given de­ him against the inevitable pull of higher pay in public re­ velopment and help the reader to keep up with it. Or if lations or any of the variety of fields that lure away men the news is incomplete or inconclusive it may be a real of newspaper training. If we are to attract and hold the service to tell the reader so. men who are most needed in journalism and most worthy The e~itorial writer can often supplement the news out of its high calling, then those in the strategic spots in a of his own background or that of others on the paper. He newspaper need to keep a flame burning that will hold ought to keep in touch with the news room to be sure he a glow to the acolyte. If it flickers out with them, what's knows all that the reporters can tell him of what's going left of the job is cold fish for a man who has an urge to on. His page will be more appreciated if he keeps in mind qualify for a career of service. chances to lighten the page with any bit of humor or color And you can't laugh it off. These are the only people that offers. who should ever be allowed . near an editorial job if the He can share with the reader his reading, if he has a character of the press is to remain worthy of the Horace chance to read, whether it is a new book on China, or a Greeley tradition. new American biography. The paper may have no regular reviews, and the page may have scant space for any. But It's always easier not to do the whole job that needs a short editorial on a point in the book may be a refreshing to be done. Often the only spur to do it the hard way, as change of pace-and it may lead some readers to get the it needs to be done, comes from within oneself. Unless-and book. this is the big if-unless it is in the climate of the office that there's only one way to do it, then the new reporter There's one very fundamental problem of journalism is not alone and the crusading editor speaks for an institu­ that seems likely to increase-to get and keep the best tion that is a force in the community because he and his quality of men on newspapers. Competition for the best dedicated staff make it so. · brains is severe and growing. America's new position in Carr Van Anda, the great managing editor of the New the world adds to it. ECA has taken away some of our best York Times under Ochs, had a principle: The reader is newspapermen-and the Atlantic Pact. The Far East is entitled to the facts. That was his standard ~ and it became only beginning to make its demands to staff the agencies the tradition of Times reporting. The boss' standards, if he and special commissions by which our aid is implemented has them, will quickly be shared by the staff, for the and our responsibilities met. The demand will increase. staff are idealists at heart, given a chance and a lead. Every Newspapering has much- the same problem as teaching newspaper is potentially a great moral force just by its to get good enough people at the wages available. existence and its function. It is always a tragedy when it It takes something to offset the relatively small financial fails that function-through inertia, incompetence, or cyni­ return. The teacher has a sense of a call of service that Clsm. attracts a kind of person who gets a satisfaction out of use­ I remember long ago joining with another young re­ ful service. The newspaper job at its best has offered that porter in an interview with William Allen White. As we kind of satisfaction. I sometimes think it offered it more, left he put his arms over our shoulders and said: or more often, at an earlier time than now. The kind of We all have the same face. The newspaper face. fellow who comes in to see me to talk about going into It is not an acquisitive face. journalism is usually an idealist. He wants a chance to ex­ By that act he shared with us a standar9 which prevailed, press ideals; to crusade for them, to help make a better so far as it did prevail, because it was his own standard community. Such a fellow will'work hard at a low begin­ and one that younger men out of admiration for him sought ning pay in an arduous apprenticeship if he can feel there to make their own. ROLE OF THE NEWSPAPER BROKER by Malcolm Donald Coe Many newspapermen cherish the hope of owning a newspaper. But most know nothing about the business of buying or selling a paper. They must usually depend on a newspaper broker. Mal­ colm Donald Coe, of the journalism faculty at the University of South Carolina, has looked into the role of the broker and is con­ vinced that q system of accrediting brokers is needed.

Every year about fifty high-class newspaper properties, buyer's point of view-is not prohibitive. The broker's valued upwards from $35,000, change hands. And many fee technically is paid by the seller. In practice, however, more smaller properties, of course, are sold in a single year. the fee is added to the selling price of a paper and passed Increasingly the man behind these newspaper sales is the on to the buyer. This writer's investigation shows that newspaper broker. Like the reporting of news, the selling reputable brokers do not charge more than five per cent of newspaper properties has become a specialized job: a of the selling price for handling papers valued at $5,000 specialized job that few prospective buyers know about. or more. For papers selling at less than $5,000, brokers To get some facts about newspaper brokers, this writer may charge a flat fee ranging between $200 and · $500. has corresponded with all the leading brokers in the coun­ Most brokers claim that in view of the protection and try. He interviewed several brokers personally, and he help they give bQth buyers and sellers in newspaper trans­ solicited the comments of others through a mail question­ actions, they are worth much more than their fees. The naire. What follows are the fundamental findings of this validity of this claim, of course, depends on the particular investigation of the methods, techniques, and value of broker and on how much protection and help he actually newspaper brokers. gives. It seems clear that the good broker, as defined by First of all, why are newspaper brokers today regarded as Knox, is worth more than his fee. iiiliPortant and practical in almost any newspaper sale? The Most of the listings that a broker has are weekly prop­ answer is that a good newspaper broker may save money erties. The brokers who advertise in the leading trade for both the buyer and the seller in a newspaper transac­ journals, for example, have listings that are more than tion. The broker may do this by protecting the buyer seventy per cent weekly papers. But .this predominance against any incomplete or -inaccurate information that of weekly listings means only that dailies sell too fast to could lead to later dissatisfaction. And the owner may be listed. In this connection, one newspaper broker told the profit from the .broker's experience in selling other prop­ writer: erties. A good newspaper broker will quickly detect any We seldom have a daily listed any length of time. flaws anywhere on either side of a deal. In this way he We have just sold one. We have nothing in the daily may be worth much more than his fee. field at the present time. But should one come up to­ A definition of what we call a "good newspaper broker" morrow, it would soon be disposed of. We probably is not easy to make. But we think that Clyde Knox's com­ have thirty people on our waiting list looking for ments on the qualities of a good broker are apropos. Be­ dailies. fore his recent retirement, Knox was one of the largest Most brokers insist on exclusive listings: that is, they and most respected newspaper brokers in the country. He insist that the property not be listed with any other broker. said that good newspaper brokers should be working, prac­ While there is no direct evidence to support his hypothesis, tical newspapermen who understand every detail of the the writer suspects that there is a direct relationship be­ newspaper business. He said they should be men of the tween the caliber of a broker and his policy on exclusive highest integrity, who are diligent and firm in protecting listings. The more established a broker is, the more se­ the interests of sellers and buyers alike. He suggested that cure his finanical status; so the better-it appears- is his they should be men adequately financed so that no tempta­ position to demand exclusive listings. tion to sacrifice a principle for the need of a quick com­ Brokers prefer exclusive listings because their experience mission could ever prevail. We shall see later how brokers has shown that multiple listings (properties listed with meet these professional standards. more than one agency) frequently lead to expensive and The cost of using a broker-from either the seller's or unpleasant controversy when a sale is made. Controversies 20 NIEMAN REPORTS usually involve arguments about the commission. Many pr~spects. Curiosity seekers frequently account for sev­ brokers, too, believe that newspaper brokerage is semi-pro­ enty-five per cent of a broker's mail. fessional in nature. Accordingly, they feel that multiple Most brokers recognize that they cannot fit buyers to listings cheapen the profession. papers and locations without a consideration of the buy­ This brokers' practice of exclusive listings means that ers' preferences, finances, and newspaper experience. Ac­ unless a buyer deals with a broker he may have no access cordingly, most brokers urge serious prospects to visit to desirable newspaper properties. This clearly is an im­ them in person or to write to them in detail about their portant consideration. backgrounds. The function of a newspaper broker varies a little from A few brokers inspect personally each paper they list. broker to broker. Basically the broker represents the man However, most brokers inspect only the papers that are who hires him, the seller. This fact, however, works to the within a two-day automobile trip of their offices . .This is advantage of the buyer, too. The broker who wants to stay an important fact for buyers to remember. A broker who in business must provide for the long-run interest of the has never personally inspected a paper may urge a client seller. Accordingly, a good broker must not induce a to buy it. He may describe the paper ideally and give the buyer to purchase a property he is not capable of operating impression that he has actually seen it. successfuly. He must not induce a buyer to pay more A buyer may inquire about the l.istings of any broker I than a property is worth, nor to agree to terms of payment without obligation. Some brokers list papers· throughout which a reasonably competent man could not expect to the country. A buyer who wanted to see if these brokers I meet. had any desirable papers for him would have to get in Besides this indirect representation of buyers, brokers touch with each broker. If a buyer were interested in lo­ may represent purchasers to this extent: when a broker cating in a particular state, he could deal with brokers who gets an inquiry for a specific type of paper he does not limit their operations to an area including this particular have, he may try to locate an appropriate paper. If the state. Conversely, if he knew he was not interested in par­ broker finds an acceptable property, the seller, nevertheless, ticular areas, he could avoid brokers specializing in these pays the brokerage fee. areas. Besides handling the actual sale of newspapers, some It is important to remember that brokers who deal in brokers provide various other services. They may, for papers from all states may have exclusive listings in the example, act as appraisers of newspaper properties. This specialized areas of other brokers :who do not have the list­ service is usually available whether the paper is listed with ings. Wayne Peterson, for example, limits his brokerage the appraiser-broker or not. Some brokers provide contract business to papers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North service, making contracts, mortgages, notes, and other legal and South Dakota. Yet the Dial Agency in Michigan may forms available to buyers. This service, the charge for list exclusively papers from these states that Peterson does which is commonly included in the five per cent brokerage not list. Ordinarily, of course, the broker who operates fee, can be exceedingly valuable. Usually the average at­ in a specialized area may have the most desirable papers torney is not particularly qualified ·by experience or train­ from that area. By reason of his proximity to papers he ing to draw up a newspaper sale contract. A few brokers sells, he may be of more service to a buyer than a more also may provide a consultation service in which they give distant broker. their experienced counsel to a publisher on some serious The most important problem in selecting a broker is problem that confronts him. This service usually incurs no ascertaining his integrity and qualifications. Part of the listing obligation. reason for dealing through a broker is to take advantage There should be no mystery about how brokers operate. of the judgments he can make about the value of a paper Brokers get their listings through advertising in trade journ­ and the ability of the purchaser to run a paper. Unless a als, direct mail advertising, and personal contacts. Some broker understands every detail of the newspaper busi­ brokers have been established many years and get listings ness, he will not be qualified to make these judgments, on the basis of their reputations without solicitation of any and his value to a buyer will be limited. If the broker is kind. May Brothers in "t'Jew York, for example, reports not absolutely honest he may misrepresent the buyer and that in recent years virtually all of its listings have come seller, making difficulties for each expensive and even disas­ in unsolicited. trous. Clients are referred to brokers by satisfied buyers and There is no complete list of approved or rated newspaper sellers, and by advertising in the trade journal. A client's brokers that a buyer can use as a guide in choosing a brok­ initial contact with a broker is ordinarily by mail. In deal­ er. There are various directories that will tell him about ing by mail with buyers, most brokers use form letters to the training and experience of any lawyer. But there are separate the curiosity seekers from the really interested no similar directories of newspaper brokers. Those who NIEMAN REPORTS 21 are concerned about the professional element in journalism to $125,000. Obviously they could not be interested in might be able to render a real service to their cause by both. And when they refuse to be specific about their sponsoring such a directory. wants, there is little we can do to help. In the meantime, the buyer or seller must investigate for himself the qualifications and integrity of the broker Besides being specific, most brokers want their clients he uses. It is true, of course, that most state laws require to be honest. The buyer should state definitely what he that newspaper brokers be licensed as real estate men. Yet can pay down, and he should describe his newspaper ex­ a broker may be licensed as a real estate man and still be perience honestly. When this information is known in neither qualified nor honest as a newspaper broker. So the advance, a broker may be able, for example, to get a seller burden of investigation is with the buyer or seller. Most to reduce his down payment if necessary. But the result of the investigation may be through contact with the is inevitable when a buyer represents that he can pay $15,000 brokers' past clients. In any event, a buyer can learn such down, for example, and after protracted negotia.'rtons re­ things as: (1) what a broker's financial standing is; (2) if veals that he has only $10,000: the result is an irritated seller and no deal. This fact may seem obvious. But it is the the broker ~nows anything about the actual organization and operation of newspapers; (3) whether he is fully li­ complaint of many newspaper brokers. censed; and ( 4) whether he has ever been found guilty of Brokers emphasize that the buyer must be prepared to malpractice under state codes. pay a fair price for a newpaper. They report that too Inherent in this study of newspaper brokers is the pro­ many buyers want something for nothing. They urge that cedure-from the buyers' point of view-for dealing with a buyer acquire an understanding of newspaper values be­ brokers. Yet some special points may be emphasized here. fore he looks for a paper or deals through a broker. The buyer who wants to use a newspaper broker, must It is clear from this study that newspaper brokers can first of all make up his mind definitely about what he wants _ offer a valuable service in a newspaper sale. In a business to buy and say so. The importance of this matter is stressed as specialized as the newspaper business, the newspaper by one broker: brqker has a legitimate place and function. In the news­ We receive many inquiries (he says) from correspon­ paper profession, however, where the professional element~ dents who ask for "your listing of properties for sale." are still not conclusively established, the broker's function When we ask them to be a little more specific and give could be much improved. The way to this improvement is us a definite idea of what they have in mind, they through .an accrediting system voluntarily set up by the decline. We have weekly listings running from $10,000 profession for brokers meeting approved standards.

THE CHURCH BEAT

by Martha Hall Martha Hall covered ch·urch news for the Washington Post. When she left the Post to do graduate study at t.he University of Michigan the city editor asked her for a memorandum on the church beat. It proved a frank and provocative analysis, which he distributed to the staff.

I. Church Beat is that he should take care of the churches, keep them calm To many on the staff the church beat is a joke. and not bother the desk. The desk does not read the church Reporters and editors think of it as a dull and bothersome page and often demands stories on things already handled part of our coverage of the city. there. Stories on the churches are often relegated to the obit But the fact that 54 per cent of the Nation's population page. Items not newsworthy enough for the daily paper claims membership in some church should remind us that are tossed to the church reporter for use on the church the church news is of interest to many in our city. One-third page. Ministers too frequently make the news columns of the city's population claims to go to church regularly. only when they do something wrong. Many who do not go to church are still interested in reading The church reporter sometimes finds the desk uninter­ about what has been happening in their denomination. ested in ideas for changes in coverage or in the features This church strength should be borne in mind constantly written. At times, one gets the idea that the desk's feeling by both church editors and editors. It should also be re- :22 NIEMAN REPORTS membered that the church people, on the whole, are pretty tion. The minister may agree completely, but he may latc;r responsible citizens and active in community life. They feel that the reporter has revealed favoritism or prejudice, are the ones whose backing for certain city proj~cts 1s which will influence his work. voiced often through their church organizations. In my opinion, the reporter should do his best to keep II. The Church Reporter his own religion completely out of any discussion. I have The church reporter is faced with a complex beat. He been frequently asked what mine is, and have come to should become familiar with the total picture of church the conclusion that a non-committal answer is the only life. In addition, he should know about the organization solution. Tell the questioner that that is the one question and general beliefs of the major church bodies. a church reporter never answers, or something of the sort. A knowledge of the church administration is particu­ Joke about being a mixture of them all as long as you larly important: that it, how are ministers hired and fired, are on the beat. what is the training of the minister, how is the local church The reason for this is pretty obvious. If one tells a Bap­ governed, etc. We don't deal with theology a great deal. tist he is a Baptist, the minister will expect special treat­ The ·reporter should know, however, the major theologi­ ment for the Baptists. But if one tells a Baptist one is a cal differences of the denominations. Congregationalist, the man may immediately decide that Some of the information can be gained from reading the church reporter has always been pro-Congregationalist, church histories and a good comparative religion book. which explains the anti-Baptist tone of the paper. Where the reporter finds these sources inadequate, the best Never promise anyone anything. Some ministers demand thing to do is talk with someone in the church who will to be told when and how a story will appear. In view of explain the setup. Most ministers are happy- to explain the fact that the church page is made up by someone other things to anyone who wants to do the job right. than the church reP?rter, the reporter couldn't guarantee With this general background of knowledge, the reporter anything if he wanted to. And he usually doesn't want to. will be better equipped to deal with the stories that come III. The Church Page up. He will know whether an action taken by a church body is significant and represents something new, or is A constant attempt should be made to keep the church merely a ·reaffirmation. page lively. Of course it is necessary to get in the ground­ The reporter will also learn a great deal about church breakings, cornerstone layings and dedications. These organization and politics from talking informally with things are terribly important to the members of the church, ministers at meetings. A meeting of the ministerial union who have spent years and months raising money and plan­ may not result in a front page story for the next day, but it ning the program. may tip off the reporter on something of importance which The liveliness can come from good perky features which is coming off, or may give him a background for something are of interest to church people. Good art is a big help which will happen later. in livening the page. • In writing about any phase of the church's doctrine, it It would seem to me that a good formula for the page is wise to make a check with someone who knows before would be: one good local feature with art; one good nation­ sending the story out. The church people take mistakes al or international (church conventions, legislation the to heart. - churches are interested in, work of national church bodies, Words which are peculiar to a church should be marked etc.; both .the church reporter and wire editors should be so that the desk will not change them. An editor, when on the alert for things of this nature) ; and the remainder of reading a story; should check back with the reporter on the page devoted to the regular advances and news of the changes which may seem harmless, but which may be churches. important because of some particular practice within the As for the news, the church reporter often has to dig church which makes a certain terminology necessary. for it. The churches seem to be a little afraid of the papers The reporter should be friendly with the church people, sometimes, or maybe they just forget them. They don't use a sense of humor, but maintain a certain amount of tell about their regular activities in which there may be a formality. The first name business, on the church beat, good story. Instead they wait until they have a ground­ should be used very carefully. breaking, then expect the reporter to get all excited about A reporter shouldn't give a clergyman the impression it. that he thinks that clergyman's church better or worse Talking with ministers at meetings, reading church bul­ than any other. This does not rule out compliments and letins, etc., will give the reporter a line on many good news the normal amenities. The reporter should be very wary or feature stories. of talking down another church, minister, or denomina- Of course there are also some churches which are dis- NIEMAN REPORTS 23 tinctly unafraid of the papers and want to be featured IV. General News every week. The church reporter should keep an eye open for stories Some of these people seem to think the church page is that will break for the news columns. It is wise to make not good enough for them; they want all of their storie5 regular checks on when conventions, area meetings and in Sunday papers. such things are coming up. As long as people have this attitude about the page it The desk should be told about these in advance, and ar­ will never be any good. But if they send the good stories rangements made for coverage. It is at these conventions, for Saturday, the page will gradually improve in prestige, presbyteries, church councils, etc., that the resolutions and and they will want to be on it. I think we should remind actions on race relations, housing and other things of cur­ the ministers and church people that the Saturday page rent interest are passed. is for them, that we want to make it what they want, and On the whole, it is best to cover these things in person. that we want to do a good job so that their people will In covering general news stories, as in all church cover­ look to the page for the news of the churches. age, the reporter's background comes into play. He should Balance on the page is especially important. Wherever recognize certain factors in the life of the church in the possible there should be top heads on each of the major nation today and be prepared to write a story which will groups, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish. Some connect the local with the national. weeks, of course, this will be difficult. I think stories on I hope that gradually we can improve our coverage of church cooperative work are also particularly valuable. The these national meetings. The wire services, at this point, reporter should watch carefully to see that he is not over­ do not do an adequate job of it-at least they do not playing any one group. appear to when compared with stories sent from the meet­ If one church has had a big story, say a feature with ings by George Dugan of the New York Times. Local art, I usually hold off on it for a while. A single good people are very interested in these meetings, and want to story creates more good will than a lot of little insignificant know what happens-often their church is affected. The ones, and the church which has had such a story should reporter should always alert wire editors about these meet­ be willing to be out of the limelight for a while. Once in ings. a while someone will be resentful about this policy and will The Sunday sermon round-up, as a rule, is completely have to be reminded that there are more than 1200 churches dull and worthless. I have the same high opinion of the in the city and they will have to compete with them all. system · of asking each of the ministers in the city to write us a piece for a certain Sunday of the year. On this matter of balance, the church reporter must also The alert reporter can usually spot a few things that be careful when it comes to feasts and holidays celebrated might make good sermon stories while he is writing the by all groups. For exa~ple, the Catholic Church at Easter church page, or by careful study of the ads. He can call time has a particularly impressive ritual. Stories written the clergyman in advance for excerpts or can cover the should not tell all about the details of the Catholic wor­ service. Some weeks the Sunday coverage need not be ship and give the impression that Protestants .don't cele­ of sermons, but can deal with the various activities of the brate the holiday or pass it off with a few hymns. A story day-May processions, ground-breaking, dedications, tear­ should tell about all groups, and if possible treat all equally. ing downs. I still think the idea of church features for This also comes up on the matter of art. Some of our Monday papers is a good one, in spite of the fact that not largest Protestant thurches are thoroughly non-liturgical. everyone agrees, , Their ministers look like any business man. When we I believe we should beware of playing up the screw-ball. want church pictures, we head for the Catholics and Epis­ · Such things are all right once in a while, but too much em­ copalians. It may take more work, but the reporter should phasis on the odd things about the churches doesn't set well look for something in the non-ritualistic church which will with the traditional groups. also make good art. It can be done, but it takes searching. In conclusion, I think the church coverage can be what­ The reporter may at times have to defend his policy by ever the reporter and his superiors want it to be. If they balancing the church news before the desk-that is, by want to do it in a minimium of time with a minimum making a Christmas story a general story, he may have of effort, it can be done, but it will look that way and no to tone down on one group a bit.- An editor familiar with one will be interested. that group may feel that it should be played to the hilt. But if the reporter will really dig at it and if the desk The reporter must explain the reason for his action in such will recognize its importance, it can be as readable and in­ terms that it will be understandable to all. teresting as anything in the paper. "Tomorrow's Newspapers" THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER CRISIS by John Gleason

Paradox-ridden since birth, the American newspaper Newspaper Publishers Association that they could not raise business now faces one of the most threatening contr:adic­ their single copy prices beyond five cents or they would tions in its 260-year-old history. Publishers are peddling price themselves out of the mass circulation market. What more papers and taking in more money than ever before; happens when the squeeze becomes as great as this? News­ and newspapers are going out of business faster than ever papers "merge" usually, "cease publication" occasionally, before. Since 1929, dailies have been shutting up shop on but in effect go out of business. an average of almost three each month (with 1930 depres­ Since 1929, 714 daily newspapers-40 per cent of the sion losses lending emphasis to the statistics). Weeklies dailies now publishing-have failed or have been absorbed and semi-weeklies are disappearing even more rapidly. by other papers. There are now 1776 daily newspapers in Some 1400 of them have closed their doors during the past the United States, 80 per cent of them under 25,000 circula­ three years. tion and only 6 per cent of 100,000 circulation or more. In the meantime, the circulation of daily newspapers In the fight for solvency the most fortunate publishers, has reached almost 53,000,000, an increase of almost 2 per according to the ·cost records compiled by Editor and Pub­ cent over 1948. Thirty years ago daily newspaper circula­ lisher, are those with newspapers of 100,000 or more circu­ tion totaled about 28,000,000; it reached 39,000,000 in 1930 lation, whose incomes have risen an average of 7.74 per and 48,000,000 in 1945. Weeklies have a total circulation cent and their costs an average of 7.32 per cent in 1949, a of about 18,000. The annual newspaper income following small gain which has not been maintained with the continu­ World War II reached an all-time high of almost $2,000,- ing rise of labor costs and the demands, particularly by the 000,000 and is still growing. mechanical brotherhoods, for higher pay, pensions and in­ Increase in costs, ltowever, has completely outstripped in­ numerable other benefits which most newspapers cannot crease in income in the post-war period, despite the fan­ meet. tastic growth in advertising volume and circulation revenue, The hardest hit financially are newspapers under 100,000 according to statistics reported by Editor and Publisher. circulation. For example, although on newspapers between In 1947 revenue was up 24 per cent over 1946, but costs 25,000 and 50,000 circulation expenses rose 11 per cent, were up 28 per cent. In 1948 revenue was up 15 per cent revenue advanced only 7 per cent in the past three years, over 1947, but costs were up 20 per cent. In 1949 revenue obviously a trend that will eliminate profit and thus de­ was up 8 per cent over 1948, but costs were up 10 per cent. stroy some of the nation's best newspapers. Except for extremely large and powerful newspapers, usu­ ally monopolistic, the margin of profits has narrowed to the vanishing point. In an effort to dramatize the effect of costs over revenue Yet to keep readers happy newspapers had to increase in the struggle of a socially-conscious newspaper to stay the number of pages of information and entertainment. To solvent, Editor and Publisher for the past several years has stay in business, they had to increase the number of pages been telling the story of an unnamed but actual 50,000- devoted to advertising. Generally, the publishers compro­ circulation daily newspaper. In 1948 this newspaper an­ mised at first with a ratio of 60 per cent advertising to 40 nounced a gross revenue of $260,000 over 1947 and all but per cent editorial content. This subsequently increased on $1,000 was eaten up by higher costs. In 1949 revenue went many newspapers to a 70-30 ratio, a prevailing standard up $180,830 and costs $244,811. On this daily; operating in many parts of the country. But under the stress of expenses have increased 83.48 per cent in the past four rising labor costs in an era of forced expansion, publishers years. Profit in this period totaled $35,608, or about $8,000 soon saw that even a 70-30 ratio was only a makeshift ar­ a year on a business worth several million dollars. rangement, and could only be developed when the news­ The condition of the. 1416 dailies under 25,000 circulation ·paper did not find it necessary to rely on its second-class is little better. Last year costs rose 9 per cent and income permit for distribution. 7 per cent. During 1950 revenue has continued to lag Increased circulation revenue has been prohibited by a behind expenses. Publishers of the smaller dailies can self-imposed five cent ceiling on price per newspaper copy. see no let up until they find it possible to adopt new meth­ Publishers agreed at a recent meeting of the American ods of production that might eliminate the expensive and NIEMAN REPORTS 25 complex mechanical problems of printing a newspaper. newspaper was making $16,000 a year, $2,000 more than the Yet in this circulation area, and in the weekEes, through editor. the promise of technical advances, lies the greatest oppor­ Actually, the mechanical employees of newspapers are the tunity for young men and women entering journalism, highest paid workers in the country, with wages averaging and on the shoulders of newspapers in the smaller circula­ 15 per cent more than any other like group. The back­ tion group rests the responsibility of continuing to main­ shop costs run 10 to 14 per cent higher than front shop tain a free press while metropolitan newspapers disappear expenses, although front shop employees are expected to or succumb to other influences. be well-dressed, well-educated (usually with one college Through 1950 costs have continued to rise faster than degree) and capable of adjusting themselves to extreme revenue for all newsapers-large and small, dailies and conditions of environment and enterprise. weeklies. There has been no abatement in failures or news­ At a recent meeting of mechanical employees in Buffalo, paper mergers which, since the latter part of 1948, have New York, James M. Cox, Jr., president of the Dayton been occurring on the average of one a month among daily (Ohio) Journal Herald and News, a victor in many a newspapers. Just how long newspapers can survive this newspaper amalgamation battle declared: battle of unprofitable publication is a matter for specula­ "I have no quarrel with organized labor and I feel it tion. Some are already in the red. Consequently, any de­ has been one of the great contributing factors in giving cline in revenue would be fatal. A score or so of daily our workers the highest standard of living in the world. newspapers could stand no more than a 5 per cent drop However, there is a point beyond which demands and in advertising if costs remained at the 1949 level. A drop practices which threaten the existence of a business must of 10 per cent would eliminate possibly 100 dailies and be refused if we are to survive ... we can't continue to a loss of 20 per cent could destroy the whole industry. raise advertising costs nor can we price ourselves out of How much publishers may increase their advertising the mass market by increasing circulation rates." rates depends naturally on how much advertisers will However, continuous high pressure by backshop unions stand without decreasing their volume. Ahhough pub­ for higher wages and increased benefits has resulted in lishers only several months ago decided that advertising a major reaction-a search for quicker, better and less ex­ rates could not be increased, they now have reversed their pensive ways to produce a newspaper, a search that has stand by querying their agencies and representatives on been a long time coming. In fact the salvation of the how much rates might be increased. They are thinking in newspaper industry rests upon the total discard of repro­ terms of added income anywhere from 2Yz per cent up duction principles which date back five centuries, and ac­ to 10 per cent. About 26 per cent of the daily newspapers ceptance of the photographic and electronic principles of have aheady jumped their prices an average of 10 per 1950. cent, but whether they can retain their volume is still to . be determined. Nor are the unions solely to blame. To some extent it These appear to be stopgap measures, however, and is the publishers who have kept the industry static through have not diminished the efforts of publishers to analyze their lack of interest in technological development and the reasons for their financial predicament. They have simplification of printing methods. As Elzey Roberts, pub­ inspected their costs carefully, of course, and have dis­ lisher of the St. Louis Star-Times, has stated: covered that one obvious difficulty continuously shows up: "Some of the blame for this (technological) backward­ the amount of money involved and complexity of produc­ ness must rest on the many publishers who have been more ing a newspaper physically. The printing department of interested in using newspapers for purposes other than as newspapers unfailingly dramatizes itself in red on every a public service and a private livelihood. Part of the blame ledger. must rest on the restrictive agreements between manage­ William M. Garth Jr., president of the Graphic Arts ment and labor. But the consequence is that newspapering Research Foundation, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is technologicaUy archaic. It stands on the brink of vast stated in a talk recently that "We must first turn to the technological changes. Some of these changes are in the elements of the production process and study the cost realm of photographic reproduction, others in the realm relationship of composition, of plate making, of press oper­ of electronics." ation and of the mail room to the total cost. This will Certainly, there is sufficient evidence to point not only locate for us the area that should be first attacked." to vast technological changes but also toward the most Since 1945 composing room costs have risen more than 100 successful era of newspaper publishing the country has per cent; stereotyping costs 90 per cent; photoengraving ever known. It is a particularly hopeful situation for the 90 per cent, and press room 70 per cent. One editor of a publishers now operating weekly and small daily news­ daily newspaper recently revealed that a pressman on his papers and for the young men and women seeking to enter 26 NIEMAN REPORTS the business but lacking at this point the opportunity and tory stage or are already on the market. The most publi­ capital for original investment: cized machine is the Higonnet-Mayroud photo-composing Both publishers and the unions have stood by while machine which is being perfected in the Graphic Arts persons outside the industry itself have invented, designed Foundation laboratory in Cambridge, Mass. Vannevar 'and in some instances have placed on the market various Bush has affiliated himself with this revolutionary device types of machines which have divorced printing from which is based on· both photographic and electronic prin­ mechanical procedures and have established reproduction ciples. It has a keyboard much like that of a typewriter, processes around photographic principles. There is also occupies about as much space as an ordinary office desk and an obvious reluctance on the part of men trained in the looks very much like one. Instead of setting type, it photo­ centuries-old techniques of movable type to accept the graphs images of type, enlarging or reducing them as the new principles. As one printer expressed himself recently requirement might be, and preparing them for offset plate after observing the functioning of the new machines, "It reproduction or any similar process. just ain't type." Simply, the H-M photo-composing machine photographs However, publishers in the past several years have pulled the type characters and makes available the incredible num­ out of the lethargy that has so handicapped their thinking ber of 11,000 characters, differing in either size or descrip­ unti1 this post~war period of spiraling costs. The American tion, in a single machine at one time. Type styles <,:an be Newspaper Publishers Association has established a re­ mixed at will.. Point size can be mixed in the same line. search division with its plant and headquarters in Easton, corrections can easily be made at high speed. Pa., to conduct original research into quicker and cheaper The H-M photo-composing machine should be in use methods of publishing and to cooperate with and encourage on a Boston area newspaper by the time this is published. outside investigation and discovery. Under the guidance Since photographic principles are used, offset would be of C. M. Flint, the ANPA's research department has in the most adaptable form of printing. But offset machines the past several years accomplished amazing results. are unavailable in sizes large enough to handle the press It must be remembered that until within the last few run of a daily newspaper. In any case newspapers don't years no fundamental changes in the principles of printing want to scrap their expensive presses. So, the ANPA's had been made since Gutenberg. The invention of the research division has developed a magnesium plate that linotype by Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1886, the improve­ can be etched in less than five minutes by a "vapor blast" ment of motorized presses and the development of stereo­ process. The magnesium plate is backed up with metal typing processes have not fundamentally altered Guten­ on either a flat-bed or rotary press and scotchtaped to the berg's invention of movable type in 1450. They certainly press, and in a few minutes is ready to print. Thus the have improved upon the principle that raised metal or three-quarter of an hour photoengraving process has vir­ wooden letters can by use of pressure leave their impres­ tually been eliminated so far as newspapers are concerned. sions on paper, but they have not altered the principle that Other devices are the lntertype Corporation's Fotosetter, type is fixed material dependent wholly upon mechanical the International Business Machine Corporation's electric procedures for its maximum use. typewriter, the DSJcomposing machine which is an electric typewriter with changeable type faces, the new Lithotype The change is coming swiftly. It is so far advanced that produced by the Fairchild Camera and Instrument Cor­ Mr. Flint told the daily newspaper publishers meeting in poration and many other products not yet on the market. New York last spring that, "Relief offset ... is well beyond The IBM, DSJ and Lithotype machines justify the type the stage of an inventor's dream." Relief offset to which automatically and differ not at all in principle but differ Mr. Flint refers is the use of metal plates, usually zinc, in the manner in which fonts of type are employed. These aluminum or -magnesium, which have been etched by three machines print from direct image and do not em­ acid, then attached to an offset press. The press is called ploy photographic p~inciples. They all look like the elec­ offset because it does not print directly from the plate, tric typewriters which indeed they are. but from a rubber mat on which the plate has left its The Fotosetter is only one step removed from the old impression. Offset printing is so simple in concept and type-casting machines, employing a camera instead of practice that a layman wonders why it hasn't been used the metal-casting assemblies. It has retained the appear­ before. Actually, offset machines have been available for ance of a type-casting machine and is only a little faster. years. Their use has been delayed by the fact that type Of these various methods Mr. Flint of the ANPA has still had to be set, then photoengraved, before it could be said, "These new composing methods will provide the photographed on a plate for offset reproduction. economy required to make offset applicable to small news­ A number of inventions which eliminate typesetting in paper production." the process of making a printed page are either in the labora- A number of weekly newspaper publishers have amici- NIEMAN REPORTS 21 pated Mr. Flint by a year or so. Some of them have young man with a shirt-tail full of type can actually start turned to the DSJ and offset to keep from going out of a newspaper of his own." business. Others have adopted it for what it is-a simpler, He also stated in his article that the next ten years will less expensive production method. About 165 weekly news­ see the greatest changes in newspaper production that this papers now use offset production methods and only those country has ever known, opening a new way to variety and published by persons unfamiliar with newspaper tech­ flexibility in the appearance of newspapers and of maga­ niques, and in some instances with the possibilities of zines as well. He included daily newspapers in his predic­ the machinery, have failed to profit. What has resulted tion of newspaper changes in the next ten years but stated in general is a smaller, more compact and more versatile the "number of large newspapers in America will con­ newspaper. Pictures can be used liberally, since no photo­ stantly decrease." So in the end it is to the small dailies engraving need be employed for halftones or line etchings. and weeklies we must look for a revitalized press free­ Advertising can be changed or developed in any way the do~, greater opportunity, larger acceptance of community publisher or advertiser desires, since the engraving camera responsibility and improvement of newspaper content. photographs anything that is placed before it, just as any Exciting years are ahead in all areas of publishing-years camera will include any material in focus; the chemical of expansion and enterprise for newspapers that exist and bath will etch anything the camera picks up, and the off. . the hundreds of newspapers that will be. Mr. Walters in set press will reproduce anything that is etched. his prophecy maintained: "While the press of this nation today is by far the best Apparently the cost of going into business depends more in the history of the world and the best in the history of on the initiative and willingness to work on the part of this nation, we shall look back upon the papers of today and the persons involved than on actual cash. Two young regard them as Model 'T', good but outmoded. men starting a year ago with $200 capital are now publi~h­ "Many of the so-called giants of today will have disap­ ing a successful weekly newspaper in the outskirts of peared. Those that disappear will have held too long to Akron, Ohio. Two others are publishing a successful pa­ the past and failed to keep up with the times. They will per in the metropolitan area of Chicago after establishing be replaced by papers inspired by youthful ideas. their businees with an investment of $500. One of the "We know now from actual demonstration and experi­ country's outstanding editors, Basil L. Walters, executive ence that new papers cannot be founded with money alone. editor of the John Knight newspapers (Chicago Daily Ideas, backed by the daring to risk untried fields, will pro­ News, Miami Herald and others), recently declared in vide the new papers of tomorrow." Quill magazine: "The cheering thing about these new production meth­ John Gleason is head of the Department of Journalism at ods is that it is bringing back the day when an ambitious Boston University. Reviews NIEMAN REPORTS business managers, to deter workers from Lawsuits in Russia tardiness or absenteeism. New 'official by William M. Pinkerton crimes' and 'crimes against the administra­ tive order' provide sanctions against wilful JUSTICE IN RUSSIA, by Harold J. .ability,' decentralization of operations. The or negligent breach of planning discipline Berman, Harvard University Press, $4.75. parties are now government officials rather by officials and administrators." Indeed, than priTate capitalists, but the questions A system of law and a system of "un­ "criminal law is central to the whole So­ which confront the courts are the same: law" exist side by side in the Soviet Union, viet legal system." according to Harold J. Berman, Harvard Was there a contract? Was there offer law professor and associate of Harvard's and acceptance? Did the director act The "Restoration of Law" since the Russian Research Center. beyond the scope of his authority? Is a mid-1930's, a movement in which the "Soviet law is always precarious; the superfluous turbine basic capital or work­ present Soviet foreign minister Andrei secret police may step in at any time," ing capital within the meaning of a stat­ Vyshinsky played a leading role, is linked writes Mr. Berman in a book, Justice in ute restricting the sale of basic capital?" by Mr. Berman with "the return to a Russia, published by the Harvard Uni­ The Communist manager of a factory sense of tradition, to Russian history, to versity Press. or trust has more legal worries than the patriotism." Instead of Communism swal­ But where no question of political or threat of suit by another company, Mr. lowing up Russia, "today we see that Rus­ "counterrevolutionary" crimes is involved, Berman reports. sia has swallowed up Communism." the Stalin regime in the past fifteen years "Under socialism,'' he says, "new eco­ "The Revolution is in process of settling has officially emphasized "stability of nomic crimes are created to protect so­ down,'' he writes. "But this process is laws,'-' based on Soviet Russian concepts cialist_ property, to prevent and punish not an easy one. The first and the second of justice. negligence or wilful misconduct of state phase of the Revolution are in conflict." Although the Soviet rulers started out with the theory that law altogether is a capitalist bogey which would completely disappear in a socialist planned economy, In Praise Of Harvard as few other American institutions of learn­ Mr. Berman reports, Soviet courts now HARVARD. Four Centuries and Free­ ing dare to do. This spirit springs, in our hear hundreds of thousands of lawsuits doms. By Charles A. Wagner. 326 pp. author's view, ft:om the instinct of the between industrial trusts, factories, and New York, E. P. Dutton & Co. $5.00. other state economic enterprises, as well rebel that created this nation, and it is that as cases involving crimes, family matters, by H. I. Brock instinct, inherent and persistent, that gives workers' grievances against management, You might think, after Samuel Eliot to Harvard today distinction and keeps personal property, and the like. Morison had taken care of the matter, alive and enlarges its influence in all walks In his study of Soviet legal -literature that little more need be done in the way of American life. and court cases Mr. Berman was aided by of a history of Harvard. Yet Morison is Mr. Wagner, who is Sunday editor of Boris Konstantinovsky, a former Russian a Harvard man from the beginning and the New York Mirror, teaches journalism lawyer now in America, who served as by inheritance, and the attitude of all such at New York University, and is a prize­ counsel for the Odessa Bread Trust for Harvard men is touched with a spirit-or winning poet besides, has written a book many years. affectation-which treats their Alma Mater, in which the academic panorama of 400 In explaining the Soviet "police state" however fondly, with a certain irreverence. years becomes a procession of affirmations and the Soviet "welfare state" as two sides It is different with this author, who is a of our fundamental freedoms. His enthusi­ of the same coin, Mr. Berman traces the Harvard man only because he held a Nie­ asm pervades the whole, though criticism sources of Soviet law to the requirements man Fellowship at Harvard for a year. Mr. is by no means lacking when "Tory" ten­ of a planned economy, to the pre-revolu­ Wagner cherishes an admiration which has dencies crop out-as they do, sometimes, tionary Russian heritage, and to the So­ no reserve. He regards the institution as even at Harvard-and his industry and his viet concept of the individual as a child the well-spring and flowing river of all interest have produced information, scenes or youth to be educated and disciplined that is best in the cultural expression of and anecdotes which even Morison has by the state. this democracy. In that mood he tells the omitted despite his industry. "A Five-Year Plan may be a beautiful story from John Harvard and his gift of Mr. Wagner's estimate of Harvard's thing,'' he writes, "but it is not self-ex­ books to James Bryant Conant, now en­ last three great presidents is fair and gen­ ecuting; and in its execution the very gaged in completing the transformation erous, his admiration for Harvard's liter­ problems which socialist theory has sought of a Massachusetts college into a univer­ ary, scholastic and political luminaries is to eliminate return to haunt the planners." sity truly representative of all these United grateful and sincere. He has supplemented Bottlenecks of planning have "caused States. his text with pictures all the way from Soviet economists and lawyers to empha­ The incorrigible spirit of criticism of H. R. Shurtleff's sketch of the Yard, when sized managerial responsibility and initia­ what happens on the home lot-the old cows still browsed there in 1638, to photo­ tive, strong personal incentives both of Yard and its broad extensions-has caused graphs of the great university city of today. reward and punishment, 'business account- Harvard to wash its dirty linen in public -N.Y. Times NIEMAN REPORTS 29 of his murder case against Anastasia (for The Racliets That Menace Labor which the Grand Jury severely rebuked by Sylvan Meyer him), and Governor Thomas Dewey's apparent knowledge without action of wa­ CRIME ON THE LABOR FRONT, by glove with lieutenants of the Capone gang terfront conditions, certainly suggest that Malcolm Johnson, McGraw-Hill, N. Y. in grabbing control of the Building Ele­ both Democrats and Republicans in high $3.50. 243 pp. vator Employes' union in New York. places might have done more toward re­ This union knocked down hundreds of The concise, emphatic reporting and form than they attempted. thousands of dollars from building owners the involved, painstaking research that to "protect" them from strikes, then hired For once, it is clearly established that won Malcolm Johnson the 1949 Pulitzer out as strikebreakers when the workers the press, New York's newspapers par­ Prize for news writing bring to his book walked off anyway. ticularly, did just about everything the oa labor crime a terrifying trustworthi­ Willie Bioff, a convicted labor racketeer, printed word can do to break up labor ness. This quiet and effective volume is revealed in all his despicable machina­ racketeering. Johnson's own paper, and leaves no doubt that gangsterism in labor tions as a graft artist in the movie indus­ others as well, screamed, supplicated, edi­ unions is a real threat to the union move­ try from which he obtained a $2,000,000 torialized about conditions which were ment, even to the nation itself. protection contract. He promised to keep breeding poverty, murder and corruption. Johnson uses his prize-winning series projection machine operators on the job. The story was made clear to public and on waterfront labor crimes in the New The operators, of course, received nothing. politicians alike. York Sun as a springboard for describing Bioff later spilled the whole sordid tale of mob setups in other labor fields. When The finger points toward politics and alliances with top executives of the picture labor leaders. William Green, president the Sun was purchased by the World­ industry to save themselves some profits. Telegram, Johnson's new employers, the of the AFL, is charged with condoning, Johnson explores union gangsterism in at the very least, the operations of such International News Service, gave him Philadelphia's Dock street market, in the a leave of absence to finish the book. gangsters as George Scalise and George Pittsburgh beer war. He reveals the fine, E. Browne. Both men were later con­ INS, I think, thereby made a genuine strong lines which tied together the far­ victed by Dewey and sentenced to prison. contribution to nationwide u~derstanding flung Capone organization in a syndicate of a terrible problem in organized labor, which did millions of dollars worth of Johnson's book is a straight, factual pres­ because Johnson, a native of my home­ business. These costs, naturally, were entation, unemotional as a court record, town of Gainesville, Ga., is more familiar passed on to consumers also. of labor crime in the theaters he has with labor crime and particularly dock­ But it is in the story of New York's chosen. It seems to me essential reading front racketeering than ·any reporter in docks that Johnson hits his real stride. for anyone covering l~bor, required read­ America and has done a workmanlike Crime On the Labor Front, had it been ing for public understanding of a danger­ job of presenting what he knows. published in July, might have had an ous situation, and tangible evidence of An ardent supporter of organized la­ important effect on New York elections great reporting skill combined with end­ bor, Johnson fears that the few corrupt because former Mayor William O'Dwyer's less perseverance and a talent for getting unions will lead to increasingly stringent suppression, when he was district attorney, at hidden facts. legislation against labor and to public dis­ trust of the many honest unions. But The Pace of Reform since corruption begins in the lower eche­ lons of hiring bosses and comes to a focus by Edwin 0. Guthman in the highest ranks of politics and in­ THE AMERICAN AS REFORMER, by effect. The third probes into the rliloted dustry, reforms have been few and difficult. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Harvard Uni­ objections to reform and with the stage Specific indictments are levied in the versity Press, Cambridge, $2.25. 96 pp. thus set, Professor Schlesinger analyzes book against shipowners who have tolerat­ present-day dangers to democratic tra­ ed gangster control of docks and passed Newspapermen, who have wondered ditions under which the would-be re­ higher costs on to consumers; against poli­ whether McCarthyism has had parallels former always has had his day in court ticians who have saved known racketeers in American history, will find thought­ to criticize, protest and advocate unpopular with long prison records from further ful reading in Professor Schlesinger's com­ causes. prosecution; against leaders in govern­ pact study of the stresses and strains of Until very recent times, the United ment, names we usually associate with American reform movements. States nearly always set the pace for the "statesmen," who have contrived, either The material is presented in three es­ Old World in reform. Americans have willingly or unconsciously, to rescue con­ says. The first looks at the historical fac­ avoided excessive measures and have pre­ victed criminals and aid their seizures tors from which American reform derived ferred to achieve reform gradually. This, of labor power. its impulses and enduring vitality. The plus the fact that two World Wars have Long before his present involvements second uses the anti-slavery movement as driven Europe to extreme actions, has giv­ with the law, Gambler Frank Costello, a study of methods which forward-looking en the United States the reputation abroad according to Johnson, worked hand in men and women use to put a reform into of being the last stronghold of conserva- 30 NIEMAN REPORTS tisrq. Professor Schlesinger shows, how­ Merk On th.e Oregon Question ever, that the spirit of reform is as alive as ever here and that Americans will con­ by Malcolm Bauer tinue to make haste slowly until events demonstrate the failure of this method. ALBERT GALLATIN AND THE ORE- the Oregon country would never become a The tactics of smearing, distortion and GON PROBLEM. By Frederick Merk, part of the United States because of its · fear are as old as the United States itself Harvard University Press, Cambridge. distance from the seat of government. and are undoubtedly effective. Professor $2.50. 93 pp. He acted upon his conviction that the Schlesinger's thesis is that they endanger country must be kept free of European This little book is an important event and insult the nation. colonization. -an original consideration of an obscure "No one," he writes, "not even (ex­ It must not be supposed that Gallatin chapter in the history of the West written P_resident) Hoover believes that the basic was an appeaser. Too often these days that by the day's foremost scholar in that field. idea of the welfare state is at stake; but is the epithet directed at any diplomat Professor Merk deals with the nego­ questions of how and when and where suspected of lack of diligence in promot­ tiations which resulted in 1827 in the re­ the concept should be applied are. How ing to the extreme what at the moment newal of the British-American convention fast and far should we go? How much seems to be the national interest. Galla­ for the settlement of the Oregon Coun­ can we afford without draining the finan­ tin's accomplishment in gaining by peace­ try. The book is a continuation of the cial sources of support? At what point ful means what the nation may not have author's detailed examination of the Ore­ will the government's intervention sap in­ been able to gain by war is a reassurance gon problem, earlier phases of which he dividual initiative and independence? ... that the way of peace is the best way. has set forth within recent months in two These are matters that require the most papers: "The Genesis of the Oregon Ques­ Also of interest to 20th century readers searching and objective examination. They tion" and "The Ghost River Caledonia is the reminder that diplomacy of a century cannot be wisely decided by verbal pyro­ in the Oregon Negotiation of 1818." and more ago operated under severe time technics that merely confuse the issue." handicaps. Gallatin referred to his home Because the 1826-27 discussions were Professor Schlesinger decries the cloak­ inconclusive, they have received little, if government an important issue in Decem­ ing of bigotry and suppression under ap­ any, mention in standard texts. And Al­ ber, 1826, and did not receive the reply peals of "Americanism," another old cus­ bert Gallatin is a name too little known, from across the ocean until March, 1827. tom of our land. He writes: The answer was not actually delivered to especially in the West. Professor Merk "To the historian such fevers and fears the British negotiators until May, five evidence a sorry lack of faith in American throws light on both subjects. Gallatin's role was that of conciliator months after the formulation of the ques­ ideals and in the capacity of free insti­ tion. between the extreme and adamant atti­ tutions to command the people's continu­ Currently it is often an inconvenience at ing confidence and allegiance. Commun­ tudes represented in the United States by John Quincy Adams, then president, and Lake Success if a United Nations delegate ism is a world threat. It is a cruel hoax from the other side of the world is obliged which has tricked and coerced millions in Great Britain by George Canning, the foreign minister. It seems clear from to wait overnight for a ruling from his of confused and hungry men into trading government. their hope of liberty for a police tyranny. Professor Merk's conclusions that Galla­ New to many who must rely upon a ... In our detestation of Communism we tin's adroit diplomacy can be thanked for schoolbook knowledge of the Monroe Doc­ musi: not, however, do irreparable harm maintaining the peaceful, if ambiguous, sit­ trine is the revelation of the important to our American heritage of freedom. uation following upon 1827. And in the application of the doctrine in the Oregon Abhorring autheritarianism, we must not next two decades American settlement substitute an authoritarianism of our own, made certain a final solution both peace­ question. Only three years old at the time of the negotiations, Monroe's pronounce­ match repression with repression, and be­ able and favorable to the United States. ment was a fresh and important come like the thing we loathe." Had American extremists pressed their ~eapon The book grew out of a series of lec­ point in 1827, the British may well have in the hands of American diplomacy and, tures which Professor Schlesinger gave felt obliged to take military possession of in these negotiations, recognized as such. last spring at Pomona College, Claremont, what is now the state of Washington, thus Oregon historians will not be surprised Calif., sponsored by the Haynes Founda­ sealing their claim to the rich triangle to read that the difficulty of the passage tion of Los Angeles. Some may wish that that was the only real point of contention. of the bar at the mouth of the Columbia in expanding the lectures for publication, Here Mr. Merk points up a moral of river played an important role in the con­ Professor Schlesinger had presented his current significance: "I have conceived of sideration of the Oregon problem; but material in greater detail. This is the first it (Gallatin's negotiations) as a case study, Columbia river chambers of commerce book dealing expressly with the reform a chapter in the history of the greatest will probably wince at the repeated men­ spirit. Professor Schlesinger has sought to problem facing mankind, the maintenance tion of the obstacle in Mr. Merk's book. stimulate others to gain an understand­ of peace among nations." They can take comfort, however, in the ing of how and why our institutions have Gallatin accomplished his patriotic task fact that improvements have long since changed from generatio.n to generation in spite of, or perhaps because of his removed this discouragement to Columbia and will continue to do so. view-common to many at that time-that river trade. NIEMAN REPORTS 31 sought out Truman for the several pctsts THE TRUMAN STORY he helped him to, not the other way by John Hulteng around. There is much in the record to support THE MAN OF INDEPENDENCE, by Everyone knows, for example, that the the assertion as to Truman's honesty, both Jonathan Daniels; 370 pages; · Lippin­ President once lost his shirt as a Kansas before and after Pendergast. Even the cott; $3.75. City haberdasher. But certainly fewer President's enemies will concede a good were aware that he was a sure-enough Jonathan Daniels made front pages deal on that score. But Mr. Daniels touch­ farm boy in his early years (he could throughout the country with his biography es only fleetingly and unsatisfactorily on "plant the straightest row of corn in the The Man of Independence-and the place­ one feature of Truman's political person­ whole country"); that he once nearly ment was appropriate in more ways than ality that dates from the Pendergast days joined the Ku Klux Klan for political pur­ one. For Mr. Daniels is a newspaperman and persists to this moment. His motiva­ poses;. that he invested (and lost) $7500 himself, and his book is more an exhaus­ tions are often those of the ward leader, in a zinc mine; and that in 1917, just be­ tive reporting job than a portrait in depth. bred in the paternalistic traditions of the fore he went off to war, he and his part­ But of course the front page space on bosses, whose test of loyalty was the de­ ners just missed bringing in a fabulous oil publication day was earned by the collec­ liverance of so many votes on order and strike that would have made them all tion of pungent Truman quotes with whose sense of obligation to their follow­ wealthy-and probably turned them in­ which the latter half of the book is stud. ers was satisfied in terms of scuttles of to Republicans to boot. ded. Most of them had received little if coal and patronage plums. This explains ·Captain Truman's war record IS any publicity up to that time, and they the "cronyism" that infected the earlier known in outline, but Mr. Daniels has stirred up a first-class fuss in Washington years of the Truman administration par­ filled in some details of his rise from and elsewhere-notably South Carolina, ticularly, and accounts for the masterly the ranks of the Missouri National where Jimmy Byrnes reacted with pep­ grasp of grassroots politics that upset all Guard, and some anecdotes that well pery promptness to the news that Truman the pollsters and experts in 1948. reveal the courage no one now denies had· said he "failed miserably as Secretary Harry Truman possesses. of State" and "lost his nerve at Moscow." More than half of Mr. Daniels' book There's the story, for example, of an deals, naturally enough, with the last Though some of these quotes may still evening barrage in the Vosges moun­ decade. There is a great deal of detail be reverberating around the cloakrooms tains. Under combined high explosive about the Truman Senate campaigns, par­ of Washington, most of them have been and gas - shell fire from the Germans, ticularly the nip-and-tuck battle of 1940 forgotten in the press of larger events. It Truman's Battery D of the 129th Field during which the magic Roosevelt ap­ would be unkind to suggest that Mr. Artillery broke and ran in confusion proval seemed to be reserved for Truman's Daniels' book may suffer a similar fate on when an unnamed sergeant hollered: opponent, Governor Stark-though, as the literary scene, but the temptation is "Run, boys, they got a bracket on us!" was often the case with Roosevelt indorse­ there. At that point Harry Truman got to his ments, no one could be quite sure which For Man of Independence is neither a feet in the midst of the barrage and lit candidate he was backing. great nor a definitive biography of Harry into his boys with the bluest streak of There are some fascinating glimpses of S. Truman. The President was not run­ Missouri profanity that had ever rattled the enormously complicated maneuvering ning for office this year; so it could not the leaves of that ancient forest. And that preceded Truman's nomination for be described accurately as a campaign "pretty soon," says a grim but' reminiscent the vice-presidency, bringing out again biography. It resembles one, however, in Truman, "they came sneaking back." that the Missouri senator had not been a its frankly partisan bias and its careful Roosevelt fair-haired boy up to that time, glorification of the Truman life story as The war experience built the friend­ although Truman himself had been think­ the "design for democracy" and its de­ ships upon which Truman's political ca­ ing about the nomination and the shadow piction of the man of Independence (Mo.) reer was founded. One war buddy was of the presidency that everyone on the as a personification of "the American di­ Lt. Jim Pendergast, son of Mike and inside knew lay over the office in those rection through our times." Mr. Truman nephew of old Tom Pendergast himself. days. himself would likely reject such phrases, And it was big Mike, boss of the old Then the terrifying immenisty of that even after five years in the heady atmos­ "Bloody Tenth" ward in Kansas City, who April evening in the White House when phere of the presidency. For Mr. Tru­ rolled into Harry Truman's all-but-bank­ the chief usher solemnly intoned, "Presi­ man is an honest man. rupt haberdashery in 1922 with the query: dent and Mrs. Truman, Mrs. Roosevelt." And it would not have been necessary "How'd you like to be county judge?" Frightened, humble Harry Truman had to build a halo around the Truman story. Mr. Daniels makes no effort to ignore assumed the most powerful office in the It is an interesting and satisfyingly dra­ the facts of Harry Truman's relationship world. matic chronicle on its own-some of its · with the Pendergast machine, but he tries The much-publicized quotes throw new details thoroughly familiar but many of again and again to underscore two points: light on the familiar events of the presi­ them revealed to the national public for Truman was never asked to do anything dential years, as well as on the Truman the first time in the Daniels biography. dishonest; and it was Pendergast who character. The President emerges more 32 Reviews NIEMAN REPORTS and more as a relatively uncomplicated talking about-as presidential assistant to Bowles turned his talents to other direc­ personality, a man deeply bred in the phil­ both Roosevelt and Truman he was on the tions. The author notes that his diverse osophy and loyalties of the politician, and inside at Washington for many years. And enterprises during the Republican's crisis one heavily dependent, but not in a servile his family background (his father, Jo­ years included, "a neon sign company, a sense, on the advisers around him. sephus Daniels, served Cleveland, Wilson trucking . company, a magazine printing Mr. . Daniels has written well, enter­ and FDR) admirably qualifies him to plant, a tack manufacturing company, a taini~gly and informatively, even if he comment on the· direction of Democratic hotel, a chain of restaurants, a local air has not said the last word on Harry Tru­ Party growth during the era covered by line, two railroads and real estate in man. Certainly he must know what he is the Truman life story. Springfield." All this time he held at least veto power when not exercising actual managerial control over the Repub­ The End of a Newspaper lican. On the newspaper side, he turned his first attention to a new one-cent after­ THE f' ASSING OF THE SPRING­ Springfield now has one morning and one noon paper, the Daily News, which he FIELD REPUBLICAN, by John evening paper, like many another city, and J. soon bought and developed in circulation, Scanlon, Amherst College, $2.00, 82 pp. neither surviving paper has the distinction and let the Republican go its own way, of the old Republican. In a day that has seen the passing of so combining only the press work of the two Things w~re not going too well with the many distinguished newspapers, no special papers and offering an optional combina­ Republican when Sherman Bowles re­ obsequies are indicated for the Springfield tion of advertising rate to meet the com­ turned to Springfield in 1915 from a journ­ Republican, now four years dead, even bination of the morning and evening alistic apprenticeship in Philadelphia, though it may have been more missed Springfield Union. When the rival Union aged 25. For all its editorial quality, the than most. This very compact, readable in 1922 opened a price war, coming down old Republican was not keeping up with and practical book traces the grim eco­ to one cent, Bowles fought them to a the changing fashion in newspaper mak­ nomic factors in the decline and demise standstill and ended by buying both. This ing. Its entire front page was still given of the Republican after 120 years. The four-way newspaper monopoly was achiev­ over to small ads. Its price was three cents. fact that these are for the most part cir­ ed in 1926 when such a situation was still It lagged in sports and disdained comics. cumstances that have been multiplied by a novelty. As the paper of least circula­ It was often beaten on local news -;;nd many instances in this period of news­ tion among the four, the Republican may, was losing circulation to its local rivals. paper consolidations and eliminations only from a post-mortem analysis, have been For similar causes other great newspapers makes the study more valuable as a case doomed to extinction from the start. But had fallen upon similar crises, notably the history, and very revealing to the news­ at first it appeared to many, if not perhaps New York Times and the London Times. paper reader. The Republican's case was to Bowles himself, that the arrangement Both these papers had the fortune to find more than ordinarily interesting, quite was insurance for the continuance of the new leadership with vigor to pilot them aside from the exceptional character of Republican. Bowles kept the four papers through their crises to new periods of vigorous independence and sensible, in­ going under their separate editorships and greatness without loss of character. Not formed writing that distinguished it to editorial policies for 20 years. It was very so the Republican. Its editors were the the end. It had been published through generally said that he did this to keep equal in quality and sturdy character to four generations by the same family, which out competition. He exploited the single · the New York Times' Charles Miller or to is still in the newspaper business. This sug­ control to sell a single "package" to adver­ London's Buckle. But it needed a modern gests something more than economics in tisers and later to secure the economies of business man and news manager. Bowles the passing of the Republican. Indeed the a single press operation. himself has said that he found any changes author has to deal with a more enigmatic he suggested at 25 "were not especially At what time Bowles determined to let problem in the inscrutable individuality welcomed by staff, subscribers or adver­ the Republican die is not disclosed. For of Sherman Bowles, the Republican's last tisers." By hindsight, that may be the most more than a decade before its end, key publisher. important commentary now to be made men were not replaced as they died or re­ Mr. Scanlon traces the final three dec­ on the course of the Republican. Whether tired and no apparent effort was made to ades through a price war, a resulting its fate might have been changed had keep its circulation from sliding gradually merger and two disastrous strikes. Sher­ Bowles not been initially rebuffed the · to Bowles' other papers. He appeared to man Bowles was a key figure in all these author does not conjecture. But a reader be merely letting it finish out the span of crucial events. He was 25 when he came is bound to wonder whether Bowles' own the men who were editing it when he came into his heritage on the death of the third marked idiosyncrasies of stubborn indi­ into control. To an enterpreneur of his Samuel Bowles. He later bought and de- . vidualism, had circumstances channeled varied interests, that might have seemed veloped a second paper, then acquired two them to single-minded devotion to sav­ its natural span. The author very fairly more, to gain a monopoly in Springfield. ing the Republican, might not have observes that the readers may be said to He has reduced the number to two and in been the very force needed to sustain its have made the choice that Bowles merely the process of acquisition and extinction own rugged independence. ratified. It is generally to be expected, the paper of his heritage ceased to exist. But as matters stood in 1915, Sherman however, that management will exert such NIEMAN REPORTS 33 influence as it can upon such choices. Had from him in all 20 pages of statements. That Amherst College should publish a the author been a psychologist instead of It is too bad that he didn't publish it all, book on newspaper economics is due to an economist, it might have been profitable for it seems to have been more than any­ the lucky accident that John Scanlon chose' to seek an explanation in the complex body else ever got out of the laconic pub­ this subject for an honors thesis and it was character of Sherman Bowles. He may lisher, including the Federal district court judged the best of 1949 by .the Alumni conceivably have preferred to see the paper in Boston and the National Labor Board, Visiting Committee of the Econonmics of his forebears end its life with its charac­ both of which had him up for violation Department, which provided for .publica­ ter unchanged to making such changes as of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Neither tion. These circumstances give us a more he may have felt inevitable for its sur­ was able to unravel the complex structure strategic study into the vital journalistic vival. Sentiment is not, however, a factor of ownership of the papers and Bowles was issue of our times than any done, so far that anybody would be inclined to push very little help to them. He told the court as I know, by all the Schools of Journalism with Bowles, and the author had at one that ownership of the papers was "a moot since Sherman Bowles began to exercise time worked for him. The only explana­ question" and described to the Board his his fateful custody over the Springfield· tion offered by Bowles for letting the daily own relation to the papers as "just a fel­ Republican in 1915. die in 1946 was that its great editor, low walking around the floor." -Louis M. Lyons W aldQ Cook, then 82, chose that time to retire, "and could not be replaced." Mr. Something Is Lost Scanlon does not accept that explanation Our Reviewers as adequate. The time, significantly, that Much more needs to be done-by the Sylvan Meyer is editor of the Gainesville Mr. Cook chose to retire was at the start newspaper industry itself as well as by (Ga.) Times, now on a Nieman Fellow­ of the second wracking strike that had Congress-to halt the trend toward con­ ship at Harvard. aligned Bowles against his employees in solidation and concentration of ownership the last years of the Republican. Bowles in the American press. A thorough study weathered both. Mr. Scanlon has done of the present situation and the conditions as much as anyone could to trace the facts which created it is essential before any William M. Pinkerton is director of the of these two very complicated and dis­ program of action can be undertaken, Harvard News Office. Former AP writer, turbing strikes that were major disasters either by Congress or by the publishers he was a Nieman Fellow in 1941. to Springfield, one leaving it newsless for themselves. Particularly, there is a need five months. They did not increase the for a study to determine whether concen­ community's satisfaction over Sherman tration and consolidation are "inevitable," Bowles' news monopoly. From each strike as some publishers contend, or whether Malcolm Bauer is city editor of the Port­ he appeared to emerge the only winner. smaller and more diversified newspapers land Oregonian, now a Nieman Fellow. From the 1935 strike he won elimination are economically feasible and socially de­ in his shop of the Typographical union. sirable. There is also a need for a study From the 1946 strike he won elimination to determine what means can be taken to of two of the fou~ newspapers to leave him incur greater . ease of entry into the pub­ Edwin 0. Guthman is on a Nieman Fel­ a single morning and single evening pub­ lishing business. It is possible that tech­ lowship from the Seattle Times, where last lication without competition. A strong at­ nology may point the way toward lower year he won the Pulitzer prize for report­ tempt to start a newspaper to compete investment requirements, cheaper produc­ ing. with Bowles' monopoly was launched dur­ tion costs, and more abundant supplies ing the 1946 strike and it failed for lack of newsprint. of newsprint supply after 17,000 subscrip­ There is ample cause for concern, and tion pledges had been obtained by Roger John L. Hulteng is an editorial writer little reason for complacency, in the pres­ Putnam, a leading industrialist of Spring­ on the Providence Journal, was a Nieman ent situation. In a democratic society, the field. Whether the Bowles monopoly had Fellow last year. widest possible dissemination of informa­ any relation to Putnam's failure to find tion and opinion, from diverse and even a newsprint supply, this study does not antagonistic sources, is essential to the show. But the fact that a rich and able welfare of the public. But consolidation leading citizen was unable to start a com­ is drying up the once-numerous sources of Special Issue peting newspaper with the support of a news, and monopoly is destroying diver­ substantial part of the community that sity. In a very real sense, democracy itself As long as they last, copies of the had been twice put through a news famine, is being weakened in the process. In the Special Iss ue of Nieman Reports for April is a significant fact in a case study of a words of Senator Murray, "with each monopoly. disappearance of a competitive local news­ 1950, on "Reading, Writing and News­ papers," may be ordered at 50 cents a Mr. Scanlon states that he sought Sher­ paper, some vital part of democracy is lost." man Bowles' help on many of the unan­ -John J. Scanlon: The Passing of the copy or at 35 cents each in orders of ten swered questions of this study and got lipringfield Republican. or more. 34 NIEMAN REPORTS

Nieman Fellow in 1940, has expanded his public relations firm, by opening a Nientan Notes Washington office with Jay Richter as its 1939 Washington correspondent of the Louis­ director. Immediately after the tragic death of ville Courier-Journal. Day proposes to 1947 John McLane Clark November 26th, the study the current problems of western de­ Paul L. Evans became director of the municipal swimming pool in Claremont, fense in Europe, including the issue of journalism department at Ohio Wesleyan N. H., which he initiated and promoted re-arming western Germany and the op­ University, Delaware, Ohio, this Fall, re­ through his paper, was named as a mem­ erations of the Marshall Plan. Ogden signing as executive editor of the Mitchell orial to him. His associates are completing Reid, late publisher of the New York (S. D.) Daily Republic. the fund raising for the pool. A contribu­ Herald Tribune, established the fellow­ tion was made by the Nieman Fellows of ships. The first awards were made a Ernest H. Linford, editorial writer on his year. Contributions may be sent to year ago to three newspapermen. the Salt Lake Tribune, and Dwight E. the Claremont Eagle. The staff of the The Courier-Journal moved Edward Ed­ Sargent, editor of the Portland Press Her­ Eagle and John Clark's many friends wel­ strom, a Nieman Fellow in 1945, to Wash­ ald, a Nieman Fellow this year, were both comed the announcement that his widow, ington in Day's absence. elected to the Board of the National Con­ ference of Editorial Writers at its meeting Rhoda Shaw Clark, will carry on the 1944 paper as publisher. in Des Moines, Nov. 15-18. Both par­ Since the merger of the Birmingham Lawrence A. Fernsworth has recovered ticipated in the "clinic" for criticism of Post with the Age-Herald, Osborn Zuber from a very serious illness that hospital­ editorial pages. has been serving the new Post-Herald as ized him in November, and has been re­ cuperating on his farm in Warner, N. H. 1948 political and editorial writer, as he did the Robert M. Shaplen set out December 1 old Post. He reports that his daughter, 1945 on a new assignment to Asia as the Far Jane, who entered the first grade in Cam­ David E. Botter, Jr., became managing Eastern member of a writing team on bridge during his year as a Nieman Fel­ editor of the magazine, Quick, in Novem­ foreign affairs for Collier's. The other two low, is a freshman now at Agnes Scott ber, moving up to New York from the members, both experienced correspondents College, in Decatur, Georgia. Washington bureau of the Dallas News. in Europe, are Seymour Freidin and Wil­ Frank S. Hopkins returned in Decem­ E. P. Dutton & Co. published a history liam Attwood. They are also joining in ber from six weeks in Europe planning of Harvard by Charles A. Wagner in No­ producing a three times a week column training programs for State Department vember: Harvard: Four Centuries and for a group of newspapers that includes personnel. Freedoms. Its review in the New York the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Irving Dilliard, editor of the St. Louis Times is carried in this issue. Wagner had Post, Milwaukee Journal, Arkansas Ga­ Post-Dispatch and Louis M. Lyons had a worked on it over the past two years in zette, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Denver Posf small Nieman reunion in Miami during addition to his newspaper work. He and Philadelphia Bulletin. Jan. 1 is the the convention there of Sigma Delta Chi. dedicated the book to his son Carl, a soph­ starting date of the column. Shaplen served Dilliard is a past president. Lyons was a omore at Harvard. in the Far East during the last war for speaker. William H. Clark withdrew as editor Newsweek and wrote A Corner of the 1940 of Horticulture in November and moved World, a book of short stories, against the Weldon B. James is on active service to Randolph, Vermont, where he is con­ background of that experience. Other with the Marines, on leave from the edi­ tinuing the free-lance writing that has been Nieman Fellows covering the struggle in torial page of the Louisville Courier­ his principal activity for many years. Asia are Robert C. Miller of the United Journal. His address: Information De­ "Three books to do and for once plenty Press, a war correspondent in Korea, Till­ partment, U. S. Marines Headquarters, of time," he writes. man Durdin of the New York Times in Washington 15, D. C. A. B. Guthrie, Jr., author of The Big Indo-China, and Christopher Rand of the Sky and The Way West, spoke on the New York Herald Tribune in Tokyo. 1941 Harvard Law School Forum in Cam­ Rebecca Gross, editor of the Lock Ha­ George Chaplin was made editor of the bridge, Nov. 17 and met the current Nie­ ven (Pa.) Express served as a Pennsyl­ New Orleans Item in November succeed­ man Fellows in a group discussion the vania delegate to the mid-century White ing Clayton Fritchey, who resigned to take 18th. The New York Times led its book House conference on child welfare, by ap­ charge of public information of the De­ review section of Dec. 3 with an article pointme~t of Gov. Duff. partment of Defense. Chaplin moved up by Guthrie on "Fiction-With a Hold on from managing editor. History." 1950 Robert Hoover Stucky was born Oct. 1943 1946 I, to Mr. and Mrs. William McD. Stucky One of the five Reid Foundation Fel­ Arthur W. Hepner has joined the staff in Lexington, Ky., where his father is lowships for 1951 for travel and study . of the Stephen E. Fitzgerald Company, back on the job of executive editor of the abroad, was awarded to John F. Day, 502 Park Ave., New York. Fitzgerald, a Lexington Leader. John McLane Clark Dec. 13, 1910- Nov. 26, 1950 The tragic drowning accident that took water. They recovered after a night in Latin American affairs and he aimed at the life of John McLane Clark on Novem­ the hospital. a career as a newspaper correspondent in ber 26 cost New England journalism one South America. But in the absence of of its finest and ablest young publishers Five hundred people overflowed the newspaper interest in that area, he became and the Nieman Foundation one of its Trinity Episcopal Church in a memorial executive assistant to John Winant in set­ first Fellows and most devoted and valued service on the 29th. These included the ting up the Havana Conference of 1940 friends. He was a member of the Council Governor of New Hampshire whom John for the International Labor Office. He of former Nieman Fellows that served as had served on a State reorganization com­ served with Winant later in Geneva and the editorial board of Nieman Reports and mission, and the President of Dartmouth in South America. When the Office of was a member of the selecting committee College, whom John had helped to set Inter-American Affairs was set up, Nelson that chose the Fellows of 1949-50. He up the "Great Issues" course in 1947, and Rockefeller brought Clark into it as one had published the Claremont (N. H.) many friends from many places, but chief­ of its key men. After the United States Daily Eagle -for the past three years and ly the neighbors and friends of Claremont, got into the war, Clark enlisted in the had won a warm place in Claremont for and the staff of his paper. A more endur­ Army, was taken into the Office of Stra­ his conspicuous devotion to the building ing memorial will be the community tegic Services, won a commission and of a good newspaper and to the interests swimming pool which John Clark had served in Europe. of -his adopted community. It was wel­ promoted and developed to meet a major come news in Claremont and among John • need of the town. It had been nearly With the end of the war, he was de­ Clark's great circle of friends that his completed but some funds remained to be termined to publish a newspaper and wife, Rhoda, is to carry on the publishing raised to which his friends immediately spent many months raising funds and or­ of the paper to which he had devoted his started memorial contributions. ganizing a group that sought to buy the whote strength and fine talent and high Manchester Union from the -estate of principles. She will bring up their five Besides his immediate family, John is Col. Frank Knox. That failing, he sought children in the big rambling old house in survived by his mother, Mrs. John A. other newspaper opportunities and mean­ the center of the town that had already Clark of New Canaan, Conn., and a bro­ time served a year as assistant to his old accepted John Clark as one of its leading ther, Alexander, director of the Harvard Dartmouth classmate, John Sloan Dickey, and most public spirited oitizens. College placement office. Their grandfa­ president of Dartmouth. His principal • ther, John McLane, was a former gov­ activity in his year with Dickey was in the organization of the·new "Great Issues" The Sugar River that curls a quarter ernor of New Hampshire. course to acquaint Dartmouth seniors with mile behind the Clark house had flooded John Clark was 39. Born in Evanston, the contemporary issues which as citizens in the great storm of that week end and Ill., Dec. 13, 1910, he prepared for college they would face. covered the fields and adjacent park right at St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H., and up to their back door. Sunday was a fine was graduated at Dartmouth College in He purchased the Claremont Daily Eagle day after the rains. The Clark children 1932. He was editor of The Dartmouth Dec. 20, 1947, and took charge of it Feb. ~sked to go out in their canoe on the in­ and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and 10, 1948. He brought to it a sure sense viting expanse of the temporary lake. was selected his final year as one of the of sound journalism and a courageous and Their father took the three older children, first group of "senior fellows," the highest progressive editorial ·direction. His stra­ Linda 12, Alexander 10, and Winfield 7. scholastic honor at Dartmouth. tegic place in the city brought him into They had reconnoitered the flooded land Right out of college he began publish­ all its most active civic groups. He found for half an hour when they were caught ing a weekly newspaper in New Canaan, time last year to make more than 40 talks in the swift current of the river and the Conn., but after a year as publisher joined about the State in support of the reorgan­ canoe overturned. John and little Win­ the staff of the Washington Post as an ization plan for the State Government field went down. The older children were editorial writer. He had served there which he had helped to shape as a mem­ able to hold to the canoe, and Linda pulled four years when the Nieman Fellowships ber of a State commission. When former her small brother to it when he came up. were established at Harvard in 1938 under Nieman Fellows formed an alumni organ­ John, evidently stunned by the plunge the bequest of Agnes Wahl Nieman. John ization in 1946, John Clark was elected to into the freezing water, never came up. Clark was one of 309 applicants consid­ the Council as representative of the first His body was recovered two days later. ered by a selecting committee of Walter group of Fellows. He joined in establish­ The children, though carried downstream Lippmann, John Stewart Bryan and El­ ing Nieman Reports and served through­ in the surging current, were able to touch lery Sedgwick, and one of the nine they out on the Council which made its editorial bottom some distance below, and to hold selected as the first group of Nieman Fel­ board. President James B. Conant of Har­ on until picked up by members of the lows for the college year 1938-39. vard appointed him in 1949 to the se­ fire department after half an hour in the His principal study at Harvard was in lecting committee to choose the ~ieman 36 NIEMAN REPORTS Fellows of that year. One of those chosen The tributes from the Washington Post An Editorial was Melvin Wax of the Rudand Herald, and the Claremont Eagle, the two papers who had begun his newspaper work on that he served, say something of what was John M. Clark the Claremont Eagle. At the end of Wax's in the hearts of the Nieman Fellows and fellowship at Harvard, John Clark hired many other friends who were shocked by John McLane Clark, editor and publish­ him as managing editor of the Eagle, the untimely loss of one of the finest of er of the Claremont, N. H., Daily Eagle, where Melvin Wax continues to serve the newspapermen. was one of those young men of spirit and paper under Mrs. Clark. courage who turned to small town news­ paper ownership after the war with the view of bringing to the business a dedi­ John McLane Clark .... A Tribute cation to public service. He had already made his mark in his The tragic mishap which took the life wide. They were concerned also with home state. This newspaper had been of the Daily Eagle's publisher here s.un­ better state government, as witness the watching his career with peculiar interest day afternoon, stunning in its immediate time and effort he gave to sessions of the because, in a sense, he was one of its impact upon his family, came as ~ shock Reorganization Commission and allied ac­ graduates. Coming to the Washington to the entire Twin State Valley. His death tivities. They were concerned with cleaner Post soon after leaving Dartmouth he represents a distinct loss, not only to Clare­ politics. They were concerned with na­ served as a reporter, then as an editorial mont and this area, but to the newspaper tional and international affairs, for which writer. While here he won a Nieman profession as a whole. his background and experience provided authoritative interpretation. Fellowship, and after serving the govern­ John McLane Clark, in his term of l~ss His personal interests ranged from his ment in and out of uniform for several than three years as publisher of the D~dy family circle to outdoor sports and activi­ years, bought an interest in the newspaper Eagle, had made his mark as an editor ties, and from new food recipes to Gilbert at Claremont. He made it a sturdy up­ of strong convictions and the courage to and Sullivan operettas. But his chief holder of good government. His work make them known. He did not hesitate to interest lay in the varied members of the trod on many toes that deserved to be trod­ defend what he believed right, or to at­ human race. He had the rare talent of den upon, and there was an effort to put tack what he believed wrong. Even those making friends everywhere, and of re­ him out of business, but in vain. who might disagree with his viewpoints taining those friendships; his "Journal" had no doubt as to his sincerity. New Hampshire, where newspapering was replete, week after week, with names has lately become unsavory, will miss him. One of his editorial innovations which of acquaintances far and near, and with A tragic mishap cut short his career just proved most popular was his "Conversation messages from those even farther distant. as he was hitting his stride. He was teach­ Piece" discussion of current problems by John McLane Clark will be sadly missed, ing his young children how to manage a the editor and the "man on a park bench." not only by his immediate family, but by boat when the high wind of last week end Another was his "Journal of a Johnny­ these thousands of friends and acquaint­ swept it into a nearby river in full surge. Come-Lately," in which each Saturday ances. And close to the top of the latter The children were miraculously saved but he sketched in diary form his week's activi­ list belong all of us who, for nearly three Mr. Clark was carried away. He will be ties and his reactions to current happen­ years, have worked with him on the Daily remembered by his old colleagues here as ings. Eagle. He was a good boss, a good news­ a man of character and ideals as well as a From his first weeks in Claremont he paperman, a good friend. We miss him, capable and conscientious craftsman. threw himself whole-heartedly into pro­ too. K. D. W. jects for community betterment. Best -Claremont Daily Eagle, Nov. 28. -The Washington Post, Nov. 28. known were his untiring efforts in pro­ moting Claremont's outdoor swimming Mrs. Clark Becomes Publisher of Claremont Daily Eagle pool. To many other worthy causes-the Mrs. John MeL. Clark today announced husband stood for will continue to find dental fluorine program, the community­ that she intends to carry on the publication expression in the columns of the Daily wide chest clinic, the Community Chest, of the Daily Eagle. Her name appears Eagle. I hope that the readers of the news­ the United Church Canvass, solicitation in the masthead of the paper for the first paper will retain their loyalty for it and of new industries, expanded mercantile time today as publisher. that the employes of the paper will 'con­ facilities-he gave editorial support, and Mrs. Clark, in making the announce­ tinue the same high standards they ob­ personal support as well. ment, said, "I will make every effort to served for my husband." But his interests were more than city- see that the policies and principles my -Claremont Daily Eagle, November 30. NIEMAN REPORTS 37 community for a number of things which Nieman ScraP-book seem to have all the room they require, and have demanded over and over again that the light be turned on when every­ Regrets, With Explanation body can see pretty well what's going on as The chief editorial writer of a leading newspaper read this it is. letter to his colleagues at a session of the National Conference of What I am trying to make you see is Editorial Writers. When all demanded copies, he asked only that that I regard myself as belonging to the they leave out names. intellectually unemployed. I feel that I am uselessly and futilely engaged in he had described. The point I make is that In declining your offer, which I feel throwing pebbles into the ocean-and I the preacher should have been an editorial I must do, I am going to state my reasons can't even hear them splash. . . • I feel writer, since it was apparent he knew rather fully .... Not long ago I had to that an editorial writer is in a newspaper nothing of the subject with which he decline an offer to write editorials for backwash. . . . The grind of it has driven was dealing. • • • the Country Gentleman, and in doing so me to writing a novel, just for mental re­ I told Pickett about what I shall tell you. If I was going to have a leg taken off laxation. . . . I've got to get some enjoy­ The American editorial is a dead fish on I should prefer, all things considered, to ment from writing, otherwise I would be • the beach, and when the sun gets a little have it taken off by a surgeon, and if better off driving a laundry wagon. It's higher it will begin to smell. I am almost I was going in for any extended litiga­ a fine open, healthy occupation and they bitter on the subject. I have been writing tion I should like to have a lawyer on iny tell me you meet a lot of women that editorials for seven or eight years (begin­ side. But why, I wonder, don't newspapers way .... ning in a comparative state of innocence) regard it as essential to have writers get and I don't now know what an editorial up their editorials? I mean experts in a Get a young man with lots of endurance, is. But newspaper readers do. They know way-men informed on the subjects on no nervous system and no flights of fancy. it is the dullest piece in the paper and which they write. I really cannot think Get one who never has written editorials the one to skip. Why newspapers insist of more than three or four subjects on -he'll think he's being useful. I don't on them being dull I don't kno~-force which I am qualified to write an editorial. think of anybody I can recommend. of tradition probably.... Today they One of them is boils-1 have had boils. have no more influence than the Presi­ But every day and twice a day I have to dent's message has on Congress .... tell our readers things it is deemed im­ Never To Disturb? A gentleman (in the Ziegfeld Follies) portant they should know. It would be went to sleep and was supposed to sleep awful if it were really important that There are questions in my mind as I for 20 year and when he woke up in 1942 they should, but luckily they take a differ­ look up from this handsome, big Cen­ he wanted to know who was mayor. He ent view of it. When I look back I don't tennial Issue of Harper's, questions which was told Hylan was. Is that so? he says, see how I have gone through with it and apply to the Atlantic too. From 1850 to surprised. Oh yes, they says, he's mayor when I look ahead I don't see how I cal;l 1865 Harper's climbed to a circulation of for life. How's that? he says. Why, they continue to. It wouldn't be so bad if the 110,000 copies; today it averages 150,000. says, it was this way. When he ran in editorial really took a subject and devel­ Has the loyal intelligentsia in America 1922 every paper in New York, except oped it, but it doesn't. There's neither increased so little proportionately? Harp­ one, was against him, so he was elected time nor space for that. It is therefore er's, like the Atlantic, has been consistent­ for four years. But, they says, when he purely perfunctory and tends to the safest ly nonpartisan, and I applaud the inde­ ran the next time every one of the papers generalization. It loves to say what has pendence of its editors. I realize that they was against him, so he was elected for been said a million times before, what has continue to be so in these high-tempered life. 'never been controverted and what offers days at the risk of losing subscribers and From the way the audience laughed I the widest opportunity for obvious and advertising. One hears today of capital could tell that everyone of them sub­ platitudinous comment. It is strong for in search of a publication which will be­ scribed to a newspaper. Christmas, New Years, Washington's speak the conservative view and nothing I didn't tell Pickett that story, but I did birthday, May Day, Decoration Day, the else. Is a magazine then to feed but never tell him another to illustrate a kindred Fourth of July, Labor Day and Armistice disturb the complacency of one's. convic­ point. I have been reading The Way of Day. It is for mother, home and Heaven. tions? Are we as a people beginning to All Flesh and in the book a preacher I would not have you think that an edi­ lose our keenness for the competition of makes a very eloquent sermon in which torial cannot be bold and original when ideas which made this country great? he describes with some feeling the process occasion requires. It can. I have myself With all my heart I hope not. I hope that by which some tree flowers and bears condemned kidnapping in the most un­ Harper's will never lose the strength to fruit. It made a great impression until compromising terms. I have said murder criticize, to be independent, and to be some annoying person got up and informed is murder. I have firmly and insistently loyal to those standards Fred Allen has the preacher that with this particular tree urged people to be vaccinated. I have defined so welL-Edward Weeks, in the the process was just the reverse of what said sternly that there is no room in this Atlantic Monthly for November. 38 NIEMAN ,REP 0 R T S The Philosophy of a Great Newspaper A Canadian Editor Talks of Taste and Standards to His Staff by R. A. Farquharson Managing E:ditor, Toronto Globe and Mail This statement of the "guiding philosophy" of the Globe and Mail of Toronto was made to an editorial department study group by the Managing Editor October 15, 1950.

On the Globe and Mail we pride our­ Globe and Mail could not earn the money I believe we have pioneered in Canada selves that we have only one unbreak­ to turn out the kind of paper we want to in the use of the magazine-type feature able rule, and that rule is that any rule turn out if it were the Canadian facsim­ story which deals with an important can be broken. ile of the New York Times. We do not situation with or without a spot news Rigid rules and good newspaper practice want to be a copy of the New York News angle. Bill French's story of the Jewish do not work together, but every paper, if or the Chicago Tribune-in fact, we do problem in Forest Hill Village schools a it is to be the kind of paper of which the not want to be a copy of anything. We few days ago was an example of how a staff can be proud, must have a guiding want to be ourselves, with our own per­ delicate situational piece can be given ef­ philosophy that is understood by all mem­ sonality that is not modelled or borrowed fective prominence with enhanced pres­ bet;s of the staff. This philosophy must from any other paper anywhere. tige to the paper. be a live, growing philosophy that is con­ So we try for the reliability of the In Toronto our competitors do not at­ stantly evolving but basically changes very Times, the brightness of the London tempt to give day-by-day continuity in little. Daily Express, the extreme competence developments in national and internation­ I like to think of the Globe and Mail of the Chicago Tribune. al .affairs. This has left to us the re­ as a paper published for its readers and While we have no fixed rules, we must sponsibility of carrying news for the rec­ not for any group or party, for any class always consider the laws of good taste, ord from all over the world. or any individual, or even for other news­ and I know from difficult experience that We sometimes forget that for every papers. mistakes of taste are al~ays expensive. newspaper local news is of tremendous When I took over as managing editor We cannot afford to do things whi~h the importance. my only instructions from the Publisher Star and the Telegram do repeatedly. What we have not solved is the prob­ were to print the news, and I know that Many of our own readers will accept from lem of making important news interest­ the Publisher prides himself on the news the evening papers what they protest m ing. There are times when it would be columns reflecting the news of the day the Globe and Mail. a reasonably safe bet that some of the as far as humanly possible, without po­ I do not feel that we can afford to stories we carry with prominent display litical or personal bias. Putting it an­ set our sights on the high altitudes of are almost completelyignored by our own other way, we might say that the policy the Christian Science Monitor, nor do I staff. If some of the stories are so dull o£ the Globe and Mail is NEWS. think we should do so if we could. A that they do not get readership in our This policy has paid rich dividends. paper without crime, without sex, with­ own office, perhaps we should re-examine Our circulation has grown, but we have out violence is a specialized journal which our display policy. not sacrificed class for mass. I think we fails to reflect the news of the day. When are all proud of the compliments we get a newspaper stops reporting what goes on The Nieman Reports, which to my mirid from newspapermen in all parts of the it has ceased to be a newspaper. But it is , generally charts the course we are trying country. We like to hear that the Globe not necessary to record every seduction to steer on the Globe and Mail, takes and Mail is Canada's best newspaper. to let your readers know that sex stan­ newspapers to task for continual reitera­ What kind of newspaper is the Globe dards are changing. We try to avoid the tion of dull facts when nothing new has and Mail? monotony of the cheap, sordid crimes, not developed. Alone in our field, with no morning for moral reasons, but to pi:ovide space We have improved at discarding stories competition, we obviously must appeal for what we believe to be more important which juggle the day before's facts into to all classes of readers. The New York and more interesting news. When an a different pattern but add nothing new. Times could almost photograph the typi­ exceptional crime case comes along, it But we have a long way to go in breaking cal New York Times' reader. The New has been our policy to give it as thor­ from habits of this kind. York News shrewdly estimates the exact ough coverage as any paper in the coun­ We work in a much more casual way range of its appeal. The Christian Science try, and I think we have proved that we than many newspapers. I believe that an Monitor reaches across the continent for can be even franker than our most sensa­ intelligent staff works better with a mini­ its reader who does not like crime or tional competitors without serious pro­ mum of direction. When it is against a violence or sex or comics. Obviously, the test from our readers. newspaper's policy to angle news; a good NIEMAN REPORTS 39 reporter does not need to be instructed takes. We still err oftener in headlines ally different from other large centers. w~at to play and what to write. than we do in stories. At the risk of be­ I think that, if we were getting out the There is a great advantage in a news­ ing dull, I would like to avoid overselling kind of paper we should be capable of paper reflecting different styles of writ­ in headline writing. getting out, and with a good keen Circula­ ing, and I nope never to see the day when In the last few years we ·have proven tion Department, there is no reason why the Globe and Mail develops a pattern of that eight-column lines are not important we should not gradually narrow the gap writing with all the staff trained to fol­ in the sale of our paper. Within the last in the leadership the Star has held in the low that pattern. We want good writing, eight years we have been progressively Toronto field for a number of years. but we want it in the individual styles of reducing the size of our main headings the different writers. and progressively increasing our circula­ In the same way, on the desk we leave tion. Since the price of the Globe and Letters more initiative to individual desk men Mail went up to five cents some four than is the case in London and in New years ago we have added 55,000 more To the Editor: York. This is one of the reasons why readers. Our six months A.B.C., publish­ I am not a Nieman Fellow but I am I .feel so keenly that it is important we er's statement ending last September 30th taking the liberty of enclosing some ma­ should all be working to a definite phil~ was 234,663 against 229,420 a year ago, terial from our paper, the Bulletin, think­ osophy, and all striving to reach the same and our A.B.C. yearly audit will show an ing it may interest you. objectives, even if we do so in different increase of over 10,000 over last year. I have read your articles in the Nieman ways. There have been tendencies sometimes Reports with much interest and feel that I am not dealing with technical prob­ to say that we have reached saturation, you are making a fine contribution to bet­ lems such as clearer writing, the elimina­ but that is far from true. Ontario is grow­ ter journalism. tion of hugger-mugger sentences, adoles­ ing rapidly, and Toronto even more rap­ The Bulletin constantly plugs for better cent enthusiasm in presenting wildly idly than the rest of the province, and government through heavier voting, better exaggerated statements that are patently any time we start to feel smug about sales officials, etc. The enclosed clippings are incorrect, and other matters of the kind going up we should remember the popu­ along this line. The County school super­ which the public sums up in that rather lation increase. intendent called me on the phone shortly nasty phrase "just newspaper talk." There has been a tendency to say that after the enclosed editorial appeared and I believe that accuracy must be the our circulation is exceedingly good for cancelled his subscription. He said he ob­ main goal of this newspaper. It still a morning paper, but in New York, in jected to being ~ailed a "county leech." hurts when a stranger remarks "You Chicago, in Detroit, in England, in Aus­ It's a swell profession. can't believe anything you read in a news­ tralia and in New Zealand the morning Joseph E. Ray paper." papers lead in circulation, and I know of Managing Editor We are reducing the number of mis- no reason why the Toronto field is basic- Blackfoot (Idaho) Daily Bulletin

What the Editor Thinks men who can raise the standards of the office. Are Bingham County Offices These barbershop Americans may be Falling Into Disrepute? right in that Courthouse offices don't pay very much and that some public officials Some men were talking in a Blackfoot If the voting turnout through the years aren't worth what they are paid, but if barber shop the other day shortly after is any indication the answer is yes. these men like the country they live in, the general election and the subject was If public officialdom has fallen into dis­ appreciate the right to snipe at the people public offices. One man described Court­ repute the fault inevitably lies partly with who have to issue licenses, record deeds, house officials as "County leeches" and an­ those who wear the titles and whose jobs arrest the criminals; and want America other said he couldn't understand why any­ are governed by the people. to stay great and free as they have known one would fight to win a public office Someone has to issue the licenses, record her best they not hasten her downfall by when "they don't pay anything to begin the deeds, probate the wills, arrest the this kind of talk. with." criminals and manage the schools. These Better they take the time to visit the are jobs we have created under our form Courthouse now and then to inspect the It was evident none of the participants of government and trivial or not they must public business and the methods of those had any exalted feeling for public offic­ be performed, day in and day out, year who perform it. Any citizen can freely ex­ ials generally, Bingham County, or any in and year out. They are a part of that amine any record in the Courthouse and other, perhaps, including those in Wash­ intricate pattern of self-government and can question the methods used to process ington. if America is to survive the dual temp­ them. Let us exercise this right more of­ Is this feeling shared by many persons ests of foreign isms and deadly complac­ ten and democratic government on every in Bingham County? Do others have a ency by the voters at home we must keep level will be strengthened. similar cynicism toward elected public of­ these little Courthouse jobs solvent. And -Blackfoot (Idaho) Daily Bulletin, ficials and the jobs they do? one way to do it is to elect the kind of Nov. 14. / 40 NIEMAN REPORTS

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 6 His Own Old Paper Charles Griffith Ross

When fate suddenly gave 1he United he always got all the pertinent facts. He "The Country's Plight," an extensive study States a new President in 1945, nothing got them, sifted them, organized them, on the great depression of the '30's, he could have been more' natural than Harry wrote them into readable news copy. The sought to help them. Truman's_ draft of his lifelong friend, result was Washington correspondence This page particularly regrets his pass­ Charles G. Ross, to be White House Press of a high order on politics, personalities ing for he was its editor, 1934-39, in an Secretary. They were schoolmates at Inde­ and economic problems. When he de­ interlude between his periods of service in pendence. As native Missourians they scribed Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., walk­ Washington. In St. Louis he made many grew up together. Missourians they re­ ing spryly to his seat on the Supreme friends as he did in Washington and earli­ mained though they lived much of their bench, the reader sat in a front row in the er as a pioneer journalism teacher at the later years in Washington. They liked court room and saw for himself that University of Missouri and even on a year's and understood each other. Harry Tru­ grand old American, bravely erect after 70 leave in Australia. All who knew Charlie man had work for Charlie Ross and Char­ years of battles at arms as well as law. Ross liked him and in nearly a half cen­ lie Ross had talents and experience that The Ross target was the plain reader and tury of newspaper work that company Harry Truman wanted on the presidential he knew that the way to reach and inform grew to be a large one. staff. him was to be clear, graphic and forceful American journalism has lost a distin­ It was a hard job. Probably it was made -forceful without undue enthusiasm and guished Washington correspondent, the even harder rather than easier by the very without overstatement. He believed that heavily-burdened Missourian in the White fact that the Press Secretary knew the other people wanted to understand the problems House a loyal helper, and the ranks of side so well. For more than 30 years he of the day and so, in such assignments as humankind a charming and genuine mari. was a Washington correspondent himself. In the last years of Wilson and through the Bare-Headed Correspondent administrations of Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, his as­ by James L. Hicks signment was to get and write the news Afro-American War Correspondent of the national capital for the Post-Dis­ patch. Instinctively his heart was with WITH THE TWENTY-FIFTH DI­ I told the gentleman that all that was the reporter who had a lead ·to a White VISION IN SOUTH KOREA-I met a about as clear as the smoke from the ar­ House news story even though time for bare-headed man over here on the battle­ tillery shell that just burst off to the right: its release was not yet ripe. field and he asked me if I knew Fletcher "I'm Bob Miller of_-the United Press," If the pressure may have easj!d somewhat Martin of the Louisville Defender down he explained as we both ducked. "Martin after V-E and V-J days, it soon grew heavy in Kentucky. and I were Niemlj.n Fellows at Harvard again. As international problems weighed I said, yes, I know him well. (Fletcher during 1946-47. I was single then and he down on the White House, so did the load Martin is city Editor of the Defender, now bet me a hat that I would be married by pile up at the desk of the Press Secretary. on vacation.) January of 1950. I'm still single and I When he died in his office of a heart attack, And the man said "Next time you see want my hat." his chief and the Prime Minister of Bri­ him (if you ever get to see him again) We stood up and I shook hands with tain had just concluded their second talk tell him I want my hat." Bob and told him I would gladly pass on on how to avert World War III. He can I didn't like that part what the man the message. be listed as a casualty to Washington. said about "if you ever get to see him To Journalist Fletcher Martin "some­ Had he not gone to the White House again" 'cause I don't like for folks to where in the blue grass of Kentucky," staff, Charles Ross would be remembered mention things like that to me on a battle­ please send one hat, size seven or there­ for his outstanding news work alone. field, but he was in the same boat I was abouts to War Correspondent Robert Mil­ When he was a cub reporter in St. Louis, in so I went along with him. ler, PIO, GHQ, APO 500, care of the his managing editor sent him back to the "Who are you?" I asked, "and what's Postmaster, San Francisco, Calif. scene of an accident to get the exact height Fletch{;( Martin doing with your hat?" And if you have doubts about what of a chimney from which a workman had "Well, he doesn't exactly have my hat," kind of hat to send-make it a steel hel­ fallen. the w an explained, "But .he should have met for he sure can use one over there! The cub learned his lesson. Thereafter one for me by this time." -Louisville Defender, Oct. 13, 1950.