Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/465

Rh UNITED STATES.] NEWSPAPERS 435 pagandist, and in giving hospitable attention to literature and to novel ideas in social and political economy. Thus it allowed contributors to expound and defend the doctrines of Fourier; it encouraged various efforts at founding associations more or less communistic and educational ; after the failure of the famous Brook Farm experiment, it took the president and three other conspicuous members of that association upon its staff ; it was early in giving serious notice to the so-called manifestations of spiritualism ; it advocated co-operation instead of trades unions and strikes as the best remedy for the wrongs or misfortunes of labour ; and it led in the warfare upon slavery through political agencies. The Tribune made the first great use of the Atlantic cables for transmitting war correspondence, in its voluminous reports of the Franco-Prussian war. Another of its notable feats was the translation of the &quot;cipher dispatches,&quot; revealing the effort by some of Mr Tilden s partisans to purchase electoral votes for him, in the disputed presidential election of 1876. Its circulation in 1851 was 19,000 copies, of which somewhat more than half was sold within the limits of the city. It had gained in 1857 a daily circulation of about 29,000 copies, and in addition issued as a weekly paper 163,000 copies, irrespec tively of certain special issues for California and for Europe. The circulation in both forms is now, in 1883, greatly increased, but there are no quite trustworthy records of the present issues of the New York press. The New York Times was established by Henry J. Raymond in September 1851 ; and, though absent at times in the dis charge of his duties as lieutenant-governor of New York and member of congress, he continued its editor and chief proprietor until his death in June 1869- It was intended to satisfy the wants of those who preferred a journal of the Tribune s general political tendencies and literary character, but with a more moderate and conservative spirit. The Times also began as a cheap paper ; and it was successful almost from the first. Its greatest good fortune came after the death of its founder, in its discovery and vigorous exposure of the frauds and robberies committed by the &quot; Tweed Ring,&quot; in the municipal government of New York, a work for which it received great praise and profit. These are amongst the prizes of New York journalism. How numerous the blanks are may be inferred from the statement that between the years 1820 and 1850 32 daily newspapers were founded and abandoned. The prices of the more important New York papers were advanced to three, and finally, during the war of the Rebellion, to four cents. They all came to make regular issues on Sunday also, when the price was generally five cents. In September 1883 the Times suddenly reduced its price from four to two cents. The Herald did the same ; but the Tribune stopped at three cents, being now the only one of the great morning journals to charge over two cents. There are also several one-cent papers, with considerable circulations. Their inroads upon the larger journals, and that from the World, an eight-page Democratic newspaper sold at two cents, are supposed to have forced the reductions in price above named, which are obviously to make a great change both in the character and prosperity of the press of New York. The expenditures upon the New York newspapers have greatly increased since 1860. Forty columns of news and editorial comment are often given in a single eight-page paper ; extra sheets are frequent, and are always given when advertisements require it. The Herald sometimes prints as many as 32 pages in one issue. Nearly all the news is now received by telegraph, and a large part of it is collected for each paper by its own staff of correspond ents and reporters. Several papers lease telegraphic wires to Washington for their own use. A large staff of reporters is also maintained by each for occurrences in and about the city twenty-five to fifty reporters not being an unusual number for any of the more important journals. The New York Associated Press is the chief news agency of the American continent. It is a partnership between the Herald, Tribune, Times, Sun, World, Journal of Commerce, and Mail and Express for the collection of such news as its members may wish to use in common, and the sale of it to others. This and the Western Associated Press an organization of a large number of the more important newspapers of Chicago, Cincinnati, St Louis, and other cities in the Mississippi valley are now consolidated in a working arrangement, under the man agement of a permanent joint executive committee, who appoint agents, contract with telegraph companies, dis tribute the news to the members of the two associations, and sell it to a great number of individual papers and other associations. They transmit proceedings of Congress and the State legislatures, public documents, market news, the dispatches by ocean cables, and, in general, accounts of all public occurrences of interest. Until the reductions of 1883, the prevailing price for first-class papers, of eight or more pages, was, in New York, four cents ; in Chicago, Cincinnati, St Louis, and elsewhere, five cents. The past ten years, however, had been notable for the growth of another class of journals, of about half the size, generally of only four pages, which aimed at a greater condensation of routine news, and often at giving special prominence to &quot;sensations.&quot; These were sold at two cents, and frequently attained great success. The New York Sun, Boston Herald, Philadelphia Times, Chicago News, and San Francisco Chronicle were good examples. Equally successful, if generally less sensational, were the Philadelphia Ledger, Baltimore Sun, Washington Star, and San Francisco Call. The wide circulation and handsome profits of this class of journals have developed a considerable reaction against large papers, extreme ful ness of news detail, and long editorial comment. Most of the newspapers started or projected now are of this two- cent class. The great distances in the L T nited States, the excellent and cheap telegraphic service, and the facilities afforded by the Associated Press combine to promote the growth of what would be called in England &quot;provincial journals.&quot; Cincinnati, Chicago, and St Louis being each over a day s and a night s journey from New York, Boston, or Phila delphia, are able to build up first-class papers of their own. In Chicago the Tribune, Times, and Inter-Ocean are all strong and enterprising eight-page journals, often sending out double or sixteen-page sheets, maintaining large corps of correspondents, and leasing private wires from New York and Washington. Substantially the same may be said of the Commercial Gazette and the Enquirer of Cincinnati, of the Globe-Democrat and the Republican of St Louis, and of the Times-Democrat of New Orleans. Some of these papers realize net profits of over a hundred thousand dollars in a single prosperous year. Nearly every town of 15,000 inhabitants has its own daily paper. Scarcely a &quot; county seat &quot; in the settled part of the United States is without its weekly paper, even if the population should be below 1000. In the older counties, villages of a few hundred inhabitants in the &quot; out-townships &quot; are also apt to have a weekly. These are often of the class known as &quot;patent outsider, &quot; for which the first and fourth pages, composed of reprint matter and advertisements, are made up and printed in a central office, doing such work by wholesale for hundreds of papers, while the half-printed sheets are then forwarded to the local office, to be filled out with village news and advertisements.