Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/452

412 seek to ingratiate itself with the childhood of the community with comic pictures whose humor is in inverse proportion to their general "smartaleckness" and downright depravity. Above all, it must not preach the gospel of hate and try to make each half of the community believe the other hah" is the bitter foe of all progress and of their fellow-men. No one can say when we shall see a publicly owned daily newspaper of this kind, but I venture to say that the necessity for such a publicly owned newspaper lies in the very nature of things, and that in the inevitable course of events, it is on its way. The day is coming when it will arrive.

In December, 1904, an interesting journalism experiment was started in Detroit, Michigan. S. P. Hutchinson, who had already attracted notice through trading stamps which bore his name, along with that of his partner, conceived the idea that a newspaper which gave premiums for coupons cut out of the sheet would be very successful. Accordingly he had special presses constructed which could print in the upper right-hand corner of each newspaper a little tri-cornered red coupon and started The United States Daily. These little coupons could be exchanged for premiums which ranged all the way from oak rockers and marble clocks to bicycles and automobiles. In charge of The United States Daily was the well-known journalist, Willis J. Abbot, who had been chairman of the National Democratic Press Bureau. He secured many of the features which had proved successful in New York in attracting circulation. In addition, he surrounded himself with an exceptionally able editorial and art staff and produced a paper which would seemingly compare very favorably with the popular newspapers of the Atlantic Coast. But the venture did not prove successful; even the coupons failed to bring a circulation, and after a spectacular career of sixtyeight days The United States Daily was interred in the journalism graveyard at Detroit on February 22, 1905. Brief as was its career, it aroused the bitter opposition of the other newspapers in Detroit, especially that of The Journal, The Free Press, and The News, and it failed to secure the cooperation of local department stores which had previously taken kindly to the trading stamp idea.