THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER.

BY MEDILL MCCORMICK.

[Medill McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and the Cleveland Leader; born Chicago, May 16, 1877; educated in English and American schools and graduated from Yale university; successively reporter, editorial writer, staff correspondent in the Philippines, assistant publisher and publisher of the Chicago Tribune; acquired control of the Cleveland Leader 1905, and is now publisher of both newspapers.j

The American newspaper of the present day is a development-one of the greatest-of the generation that is passing away. Seventy five years ago the making of newspapers was a diversion. Later it became a means to an endthe political success of the party to which the editor was an adherent, and the attainment of that party's success in all its efforts. To-day the American newspaper ranks foremost as a universal educator; the making of it has become a business as well as a profession, than which no other demands a more widely extended and diversified knowledge of the arts, science, literature and history.

One hundred years ago, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the newspaper was just beginning in this country. In 1784 the first daily newspaper was attempted and so slow was its development that in 1800 daily papers were being issued in but four or five of the larger cities of the country.

At that time there were 200 newspapers of all sorts published in the country. That meant a newspaper for each 26,450 of the population.

There are now more than 23,000 newspapers published in this country regularly, or one for every 350 of the population. In the state of Illinois there are fifty five newspapers with a circulation of more than 1,000 and in the entire country there are more than 6,000 papers the circulation of each of which is above 1,000, running up in some cases as high as 300,000 for one newspaper. There are seven hundred Sunday newspapers published in the country and an infinite variety

of journals which appeal to particular classes. There are fourteen publications for the deaf, dumb and blind, 6 matrimonial papers, of which four are published in Chicago, and 62 which treat on anarchy, single tax, communism and socialism. And all this when but 100 years ago there were but 4 daily newspapers in the entire country!

In comparison with the conditions at that time it is impressive to glance through the following list of the states and territories of the union with the number of newspapers in each at the beginning of 1908:

The development of the American newspaper in the early part of the last century was almost as slow as the development in the art of printing. After the invention of type by Gutenberg three and one half centuries passed with scarcely any improvement in the art of printing, until, when newspapers were published in this country in 1784 and a few years previous they were the product of almost infinite labor.

Printing presses of those days were primitive in the exThe type was large, poorly formed, the presses were of wood and difficult of operation and the paper itself

treme.

of a grade inferior in many cases to the poorest manufactured at the present day. As all printing was done by hand and several separate and distinct operations were necessary to print every copy taken from the forms the circulation of the publications of those early days was of necessity small.

Those publications of the early days of the nineteenth century, immediately succeeding 1800 and previous, were not newspapers as the word is understood to-day. They were bulletins that contained the dates of sailing of the few seagoing boats, time tables of the stagecoaches, announcements of matters of political importance, in limited number, and advertisements of recently imported shipments. There was no news except for the political announcements and some limited gossip that occasionally found its way into print, credited to "Captain Ellsworth, who has just returned from the interior," or "D. Smith, who has come back from Canada."

There was no attempt made to chronicle the happenings of the day and any foreign news that found its way into the columns came by letter or by word of mouth from the captain of a sailing vessel and was printed as the writer or the captain told it, with all the personal tone preserved.

The type of these papers was set by hand and assembled in a large frame or form without regard to artistic arrangement. The form with its type was placed in the bed of the wooden printing press and an inked roller run over it by hand two or three times. Then the paper, first carefully dampened with water was laid upon the type and the upper face of the press was brought down by a lever. After the printing the paper was laid away to dry, which usually took some time, before being circulated.

This slow process made it impossible to admit of much circulation and two or three hundred copies taken from the press was regarded as an excellent day's work by the editor, who was usually in addition, publisher, typesetter, pressman, and circulator.

But improvement began to come with the succeeding years of the century-and with improvements in the mechanical part of production the development of the newspaper

Vol. 10-24

began by strides that grew from steps and gradually increased.

In 1810 some iron presses were brought into the country from England and seven years later, in 1817, George Clymer, of Philadelphia, invented a lever press that was an improvement over everything that had been brought forward before, reducing the manual labor required and increasing the speed with which papers could be turned out.

Then, in 1822, Daniel Treadwell of Boston, invented the first power press, which was operated by the American Bible society, of Boston, for printing tracts and other literature sent out by the society. The power was furnished by a pair of mules. It was found impracticable to adopt these presses to newspaper work but the idea of a press operated by other than hand power bore fruit and in 1829 and 1830 a Washington hand press was invented and followed rapidly by other inventions, until seventeen years later Richard M. Hoe invented a cylinder power press that more than doubled the capacity of printing establishments. It is to be noted however that these inventions and improvements were made in printing establishments other than newspaper offices, where the same methods of printing-the old fashioned hand pressprevailed for several years after others were using improved machinery. In 1812 stereotyping was introduced from England and the next year the New Testament was printed from plates, but it was not until 1861 that the invention was utilized in newspaper making.

Yet the American newspaper continued to improve despite the refusal of its editors and proprietors to take advantage of the new inventions that were being adopted elsewhere.

At first, as has been said, the newspaper was merely a bulletin that gave a few important facts to its readers with no attempt to furnish them with an account, no matter how meager, of the events of the day in the country or the world. Gradually, however, the personality of the editors began to dominate the publications. Before 1850 the custom of communication between public men by open letters gave the editor the opportunity of addressing himself directly to the people who read his paper and he printed long editorials,

until newspapers began to be regarded, and for reason, as instruments for the expression of opinion by the editor. News traveled in those days by letter, or by word of mouth more rapidly than the newspaper could desseminate it. The newspaper followed with comments upon the events.

During the first half of the century, as the political parties organized and developed their strength, newspapers increased in number rapidly-the editors being men of prominence in their respective parties and usually wealthy, as the publication of the newspaper of that day was not very profitable.

Politicians and men in public life were encouraged to write letters giving their opinions on matters of importance and they were quick to respond. Soon every journal became recognized as the organ of some party, the spokesman of some particular statesman. As new statesmen developed and politicians attained greater prominence new papers were established, the politician himself being the editor often and reaching his constituents through the columns of his own publication. The papers were entirely subservient to their respective parties and liberty of the press was not known nor wished for.

Gradually others began to write letters and the letters were published. From criticising persons and parties and discussing events that had happened writers began to relate occurrences of interest to the community and thus began the publication of news.

But no matter of news was regarded of sufficient importance to displace the letter from some politician or the editorial of the owner of the paper. News was regarded as of importance secondary to these. In the choice between articles of news, foreign news took precedence over information concerning events in this country and domestic affairs frequently of great importance were passed over for a narration of foreign conditions.

There was no system of collecting news during the first forty years of the nineteenth century. The capital invested was not sufficient to permit of any outlay to obtain news in advance of the regular mails. The reports received in the