Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/412

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remembered as the founder of the yellow press in America. Yet Mr. Brooks admitted in the same article that Mr. Pulitzer con- ducted one of the most independent and most fearless news- papers in the United States. Now that the hysteria about yellow journalism has passed, Mr. Pulitzer will probably be remembered as the editor of the paper which tried to, and in many respects did, live up to the doctrines he set forth in making his bow as a news- paper publisher in New York. Once forced by competition to adopt questionable methods to secure a circulation, he later saw whither such a course led and ordered a "right about face."

It was to the editorial page that Mr. Pulitzer paid most of his attention. He cared little to be a great merchant of news, and in the words of one of his associates "the details of business management never engaged his attention longer than was neces- sary." He agreed with his editorial predecessor on The World, Manton Marble, that "the journalist has it in trust and steward- ship to be the organ and mould of public opinion, to express and guide it, and to seek, through all conflicting private interests, solely the public general good."

Pulitzer died on board his private yacht in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, after having guided the editorial policies of The World for not quite thirty years. Toward the close of his career he was totally blind, but he never let this affliction interfere with his interest in The World, which he continued to direct through the liberal use of the telegraph and the cable while traveling in the pursuit of health, lost through too constant devotion to his paper.

ENTRANCE OF HEARST

William Randolph Hearst, whose newspaper activities in California have already been noticed, came to New York in 1896, where he purchased The New York Journal, founded by Albert Pulitzer, a brother of Joseph Pulitzer, of The World. Before coming East Hearst is said to have added together the circulation of all the New York dailies and, after comparing the total with the population of the city, declared that there was room for a daily which met the needs of those who were not sub- scribing for any newspaper. According to the gossip of Park