Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/553

NEWSPAPER. stock gazette), and the Severnaya (Northern Bee) circulate widely from Saint Petersburg. The oldest Moscow daily is the Moskvskia Vedomosti (Moscow News), dating from 1766. Russian papers, necessarily occupying themselves mainly with scientific and literary subjects, make much of the feuilleton. The weekly Niva (Harvestfield) issues two large monthly supplements.

The newspaper was introduced into Turkey by the French, the first being started in Pera in 1795 by Verninhac, French Ambassador. The Djeridei Havadis, established in 1843 by Alfred Churchill, an Englishman born in Turkey, is now the leading daily of Constantinople. Beirut is the centre of the Arab press of the Empire. There exist dailies in the capital, also in English, French, Italian, Armenian, and Greek. Owing to the repressive policy of the Government, the editorial is impossible. The contents of a Turkish paper include home and foreign news, a Court gazette, official appointments, advertisements, and a feuilleton. Religious weeklies, as the Avedafer in Armenian, have played an important part in mission enterprise.

During the War of Liberation, many papers appeared in Athens, but they disappeared in 1833 on the introduction of caution money, by King Otho. Then followed the period of the official organ. Now the Athenian press is represented by several journals in Greek, French, Italian, and English; the daily Akropolis, Ephemeris, and Nea Ephemeris; and the weekly Journal d'Athènes, and the Messager d'Athènes.

The Peking Gazette has already been described. It contains a court calendar, Imperial decrees, and memorials from officers of the State. The European journal has been brought to China by the English and the French. Shanghai and Hong Kong have several dailies in English and Chinese. The native press of China is the product of the past twenty-five years. The earliest was the Cheng-Pao of Shanghai, begun by an Englishman, Major, aided by Chinese literati, circulation, 1895, 12,000; the Hou-pao (1883); the Che-pao at Tien-tsin; and Kouang-pao at Canton. These have been succeeded by a vernacular press all over the Empire, which has a considerable influence. The Shih Wu-pao of Shanghai is one of several sheets started by a viceroy, in this case Chang Chih-tung, to counteract the vernacular press in private hands, and in August, 1898, the subject of an Imperial rescript.

Japanese journalism owes its initiative impulse and traditions to Fukazawa, who founded and for many years edited the Sizi Shimpo, the leading daily paper in the Empire, published at Tokio. Himself one of the ablest editors of the century, as prolific as Girardin, as full of moral earnestness as Greeley, and as able in directing public policy as Delane, his paper in the early stages of the Miji educated Japan. The first periodical, Manhio, appeared in 1863. The first daily, Mainichi Shimbon, was established in 1871 at Tokio. Among other Japanese papers worthy of mention are: Nichi Nichi Shimbon (1872), Count Ito's organ, Hochi Shimbon, Jisi Shimpo, Nippon, Kohumin Shimbon, Kohumin, and Noromo. The Miro Miro is a comic paper. In 1883 Japan had 113 newspapers and periodicals, of which one had 1900 circulation; in 1888, 550, and in 1900, 745, of which Tokio had 201, Osaka 56, and Kioto 51. The dailies number 150,

of which 17 in 1888 had a combined circulation of 130,200.

The newspaper has an importance in the United States attained nowhere else. A broad area under a common language with a homogeneous population, universal education, easy means of communication, the cheapest mail facilities known, newspaper tolls cheaper in proportion to average distance, though higher for short distances than elsewhere, and a constant interest in political and social affairs, complete freedom from censorship or restriction, except that provided by the libel laws, have given 5 per cent. of the population of the world 40 per cent. of its newspapers. Less accurate than the English newspaper, less well written than the French, less well equipped than the German, the American newspaper occupies a mean position between all three in the extent of its news service, in the freedom of its literary vehicle, and in its habit of treating all subjects from the point of the educator rather than the investigator. Journalism in the United States has shared the conditions due to material circumstances which affect all periodicals. They have already been described for England, where, a dense population occupying a limited area, questions of transportation play a limited part. The journalism of the Revolution, when for newspaper purposes no common communication existed between colonial centres, was limited in influence and circulation to the place and region in which each paper was published, and even the New York Journal, in which the Federalist appeared, had small influence outside of New York City. When the postal service was fully organized after the Revolution, but remained subject to special carriage until the organization of an adequate stage service along the Atlantic Coast in the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century, the rates upon newspapers were so high that their circulation was the luxury of a few, and the small group of newspapers edited at the chief centres by men of a commanding personality, known to the public class of the period, had a most important influence, akin to that of the English journal of the same time, from the general knowledge among men of public affairs of the personality of their editors, and their ability to affect the dominant class of their place and region. The organization of a stage service, in particular between New York and Philadelphia, just prior to the development of railroads, and a reduction in newspaper mail rates gave a wide circulation to weeklies and began the political influence of such newspapers, usually the weekly edition of a daily, which lasted from 1840 to 1875. During this period, as with the New York Tribune, the real influence and weight of its editor rested, not upon its daily edition, which in this case was always out-topped in New York City in circulation by two or more papers, but upon its weekly, which circulated throughout all the North. Political and religions weeklies during this period were the most profitable of newspaper properties, and the most potent of political, religious, and social factors. Ten years after the close of the Civil War competition began in the telegraph service, both by cable and by land; tolls dropped, newspaper postage was reduced to a nominal figure, the price of paper per pound began to decrease, train service was improved, the early delivery of the morning paper became possible,