Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/463

Rh and a number of good men find themselves without employment, with winter staring them in the face. Some of the hustlers are willing to go out and create work for themselves in various ways. They will require printing, and may require credit from printing firms. The Scoop suggests to our printer members that in all such cases they apply the golden rule rather than the strict rule of commerce. Look up the record and personal standing of an applicant for credit, and if he be found worthy, extend a helping hand.

After the outbreak of the war the evening papers assumed a position never before held in the history of American journalism. Many of the papers of this class consisted in the past of a few pages which closely resembled in contents a bulletin board, a number of pages of special features which had no more news value than last year's almanac, and an editorial page of the human interest type. The war made a decided change by putting more news into the pages of the evening editions. The difference in time between America and Europe often gave the evening paper almost a monopoly of the war news: the late editions had not yet gone to press when the European armies bivouacked for the night. Consequently there was time—if the censor did not keep union hours—to get a report of the day's activities.

The war also produced a change in the routine handling of news. Previously newspapers had put first in the item either the most important or the most startling fact and had then hidden the source of the information in the middle of the first paragraph. After the war began the press was frequently criticized for printing misleading information. Such charges, however, were usually unfounded, as a careful perusal of the item would show some such assertion as "according to a bulletin issued yesterday." The bulletin may have contained assertions which were not true, but the press told the truth when it asserted that the bulletin contained such and such statements. Because responsibility was placed upon the newspaper rather than upon those who issued the bulletins and statements, the press usually protected itself by emphasizing in the opening sentence its source of information. Military necessity may have demanded the publication of misleading items, but military necessity must be willing to accept the responsibility for such publicity.