Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/474



Do you mind if we say we feel the condition to which you allude has been represented, we think, in an unfair way?

Unquestionably, the firm was treated unfairly by local papers which suppressed news to which the public was legitimately en- titled. In justice to the firm it must be admitted that there were extenuating circumstances which if the Philadelphia papers had recorded would have put the firm before its patrons in quite a different light for the Bryn Mawr Alumnae knew how to bring pressure upon charge customers.

Another paragraph of the letter from the manager of the store ought to be quoted:

The matter has been settled amiably and completely by the city authorities of Philadelphia and ourselves, as you, doubtless, observed from the reports of the papers.

The present writer did observe those reports, not merely in papers published outside of Philadelphia, but also in those of that city.

Yet Philadelphia, strange as it may seem, furnishes the honest and conscientious editor with positive proof that readers will not stand any interference on the part of the advertiser in an at- tempt to control editorial policies. During the heat of the Presi- dential Campaign of 1912, the page advertisement of a depart- ment store, a rival of the one to which reference has just been made, was withdrawn one Friday night from a Philadelphia newspaper. No intimation had previously reached its editor that such a step was contemplated and the action was unaccompanied either by word or letter to throw light upon the subject. Adver- tising solicitors were instructed to make no inquiry as to the cause of the discontinuance of the advertisement. The editor instructed the staff to make no explanations or comments about the matter. He then left for his old home to visit his mother. He was absent about a week. Upon his return he was notified that the page advertisement would be resumed the following Monday.

The absence of the page for a whole week not only attracted much attention, but caused much comment. Readers of the paper thought that they saw in the absence of the advertise-