CONTINENTAL AND AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
Any review of the continental press is even more difficult than in the
case of our own kith and kin. There are added difficulties of race
and language and of prejudices, which cannot be excluded. With regard
to the French press a certain amount of reverence is due, because in
this branch of activity they were the pioneers of Europe. Without
going into history we may note the rise and struggles of one or two
papers still important. Of these the _Journal des Débats_ was founded,
as its name would suggest, with the beginning of popular government
in 1789 by Baudouin, and afterwards bought by Bertin, who carried it
to a circulation of 32,000 under Napoleon, a surprising figure for
those times. But about 1805 Fouché, under orders, began to make its
life unhappy and Napoleon left on record his neat and clear cut views
as to what he required from newspapers. “No news unfavourable to the
government is to be published until it has become too well-known
to be worth publishing.” The paper changed its name to the _Journal
de l’Empire_ and resumed its old title in 1815. There were other
historic journals, which played their part in the last century, such
as _La Presse_ founded by Emile de Girardin in the Orleanist interests
in 1836; _Le Siècle_ by Dutacq also in 1836, which achieved great
popularity; _Le Figaro_ (1854) whose most prominent _entrepreneur_
was Villemessant. The latter introduced into its management for the
first time the principle, since well-known under the name of “the
squeezed orange,” by which young men of talent were overworked at high
salaries, until they were worn out and discarded. Others have followed
the same method since, under the mistaken impression that they were
original. Villemessant also found the means to finance the celebrated
Henri Rochefort in starting _La Lanterne_ in 1878, which was quickly
suppressed.
At the present moment there are more daily papers in Paris than perhaps
anywhere else except Berlin; unfortunately most of them are too poor
to be independent of outside support, so that they tend to belong to
private groups of politicians. Curiously enough the “heavy” dailies are
evening papers like _Le Temps_ and the _Journal des Débats_, which
are moderately Republican. Of the same colour are the five morning
papers, the _Figaro_, _Journal_, _Le Siècle_, edited by M. de Lanessan,
_Petit Parisien_ and _Petit Journal_. Three news organs are _Le Matin_,
_L’Eclair_ and the _Echo de Paris_. There are four Radical Socialist
papers, _L’Aurore_, _La Lanterne_, _L’Humanité_ (edited by M. Jaurès)
and _Le Bloc_, guided by M. Clémenceau. There are three so-called
Nationalist papers, the offspring of Boulangism, _La Patrie_, the
organ of M. Millivoye, _La Cocarde_ and _L’Intransigeant_, formerly
edited by M. Rochefort, and now by M. L. Bailby. Also three in number
are the Conservative papers, _Le Gaulois_, controlled by Arthur Meyer,
_Le Soleil_ and _La Croix_, which supports the clericals. Except
the _Figaro_, the price of all the morning papers in 1902 was five
centimes. There are a few well-established provincial papers, besides
a host of small ones. Such are _La Gironde_ of Bordeaux, _La Dépêche_
of Toulouse, _Le Lyon Republicain_, _L’Echo du Nord_, of Lille, and _Le
Journal de Rouen_.
In Italy the press suffers very much from poverty and there are very
few papers, which can be called independent. The strongest are in
Milan, _Il Secolo_ (1866) and _La Corriere della Sera_ (1876) which
has made itself independent and a real power. In Rome the chief
papers are the _Tribuna_, Liberal, the _Messaggero_, popular and
_L’Osservatore Romano_, a clerical or “black” paper.
In Austria there is one paper of European reputation with very
intimate relations both with Jewish financial circles and with high
diplomacy, the _Neue Freie Presse_. Besides this there are in Vienna
the semi-official _Fremdenblatt_, the clerical _Reichspost_, the
_Neues Wiener Tageblatt_ and _Die Zeit_, a Liberal paper with large
circulation. In Hungary the best known daily paper is the _Pesther
Lloyd_.
In Germany there are one or two papers in the provinces which exceed
in merit and influence the papers of the capital. For instance
the _Frankfurter Zeitung_, _Kölnische Zeitung_ and _Hamburgische
Nachrichten_ have wide circulations extending even over the borders
of Germany. They give an ample supply of general news, not always up
to date. The two former are moderate Liberal papers while the latter
is pan-German and decidedly anti-British. In Munich there is the
_Münchener Neueste Nachrichten_ and a widely known satirical weekly,
called _Simplicissimus_, which directs its shafts chiefly against the
clerical party. With all its wit it is sometimes scurrilous and often
indecent.
Berlin has a large number of papers of every shade of opinion. The
largest circulation belongs to the _Berliner Tageblatt_, a moderate
Liberal organ and to the _Lokal Auzeiger_, a neutral business organ
with a good connection in advertising. The _Kreuz-Zeitung_ now called
the _Neue Preuszische Zeitung_, is Conservative and clerical; _Der
Tag_, high-toned and literary; the _Vossische Zeitung_, Liberal
with a small circulation and influential business connection; the
_Morgen Post_ is a cheap democratic paper with large circulation; the
_Vorwärts_ is Socialist; and the _Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_ is
a semi-official government organ. The _Berliner Neueste Nachrichten_
is a paper published in the Krupp interests. News is not well handled
in the Berlin press and a high value is not placed upon accuracy. They
have some curious features, for instance, in using Gothic type for the
literary part of the paper and Roman script for the advertisements and
commercial news. As the size of the sheet is small they increase their
papers by adding numerous supplements, each devoted to some particular
subject. The Sunday issue of a Berlin paper is like a miniature library
of books on all subjects. I do not know which is the more surprising
to an English reader, to purchase one of these weekly encyclopædias in
Germany or to get buried in a huge American Sunday paper with stories,
news and illustrations all spread hugger-mugger over sixty or seventy
gigantic pages with nothing to guide him through the intricacies of
either.
The American daily newspapers have certainly more money to spend than
any other press in the world, although, owing to the severity of
competition among themselves, I doubt whether so much comes back to
them in profit. But when it comes to enterprize in procuring news the
money any New York paper is prepared to spend is sufficient to take
away one’s breath. This was the policy inaugurated by the first William
Gordon Bennett on the _New York Herald_ (1835) and subsequently carried
even to greater lengths by Joseph Pulitzer in the _New York World_
(1860), when he bought it from Jay Gould. Of all newspaper men probably
Pulitzer came nearer to claim the possession of a special genius for
the work than any other man. He kept control over both the management
and editorial conduct of his paper in every detail through a long life
even after he became blind and wherever he might happen to be in his
wanderings round the world in his yacht. While at first the conduct
of his paper seemed to aim at nothing better than mere success and
sensationalism there became clear in him a genuine democratic passion,
which redeemed many faults. More than once he was known to take in
his paper the unpopular and almost the impossible course, justifying
himself ultimately by holding his own. His gift of political prophecy
was considered by other newspaper men to be uncanny. When he died he
left a large sum of money to found a school of journalism in New York.
The _Herald_ still holds its own as the chief general paper of New
York on the Republican side while the _World_ is not far behind as a
Democrat paper. Beside them is the sensational _New York American_,
which is the New York link in the chain of Hearst papers, which
stretches through Philadelphia and Chicago in perhaps ten cities
over to the _San Francisco Examiner_ in the West. Hearst is still an
unfathomed problem in the newspaper world as no one yet knows what his
ultimate aim may be. Equipped originally with millions he has added to
them by successful newspaper enterprize. He has political ambitions
but whether he will pursue them on ordinary lines or turn aside to
revolution it is too soon to say.
Of sedate papers we have the _Tribune_ (1851) Horace Greeley’s old
organ during the war, now owned by Mr. Whitelaw Reid; the _Times_
(1851), once celebrated under Gilbert Jones for his successful defeat
of Oakey Hall and the City ring, now in the hands of an enterprizing
Chattanooga journalist, Ochs; and finally the _Sun_ (1833), the
most brilliant of American journals, once very bitter against this
country, now settled down to be rather an outspoken friend of ours with
reactionary tendencies at home. It was the first cheap paper in America
and under Charles A. Dana achieved a great reputation.
One of the bright stars in the firmament of the American press is
the old _New York Evening Post_, founded in 1766. Its editors had
well-known names--John Bigelow, Carl Schurz, and Horace White. At a
time when it was sinking into somnolence after the war it was bought
by Henry Villard and placed under the control of E. L. Godkin, who
had just triumphantly established the _Nation_. Another successful
Irishman, Godkin, became one of the most remarkable men in America.
No one exceeded him in the courage with which he attacked knavery and
jobbery of all kinds not occasionally and sensationally, but steadily
day by day. Before he died he made the _Nation_, afterwards edited by
William Lloyd Garrison, one of the chief purely literary papers in the
world, and the _Evening Post_ the most powerful foe to corruption and
upholder of pure politics and finance in America. The present editor,
Mr. Ogden worthily continues these traditions.
The American press outside New York is so vast that only a fragmentary
notice of it is possible. In Boston the old-fashioned literary paper
is the _Transcript_ (1830); there are also the _Herald_ (1836) and the
successful popular and democratic paper started in 1872 by General
Taylor the _Globe_. One of the most influential papers in America
at one time was the _Springfield Republican_ (1824). In Washington
the _Post_ (1877) and in Philadelphia the _Public Ledger_ (1836) and
the _Press_ (1857) are the best known. Chicago has a very rich and
progressive press of which the following are the best known, the
_Tribune_ (1847); the _Examiner_ started by Hearst; the _Inter-Ocean_
and the _Record-Herald_. I would dwell longer on the American press
if I had not already rather closely described the organization of a
typical American daily in the chapter on newscollecting and reporting.
There is no space remaining for even the briefest review of the
vast technical press of America, in some ways her most remarkable
achievement. In all commercial respects, artistic production, energetic
management, comprehensive information they leave all other countries
far behind. To mention only the engineering papers, they have an old
established general paper, the _Iron Age_, which is at home in every
market in the world, and the only really international organ existing,
the _American Machinist_, published every week simultaneously in New
York, London and Berlin.