Page:The Newspaper and the Historian.djvu/334

 The rural free delivery brings the city paper to farms and villages, but the city paper does not supersede the country paper. The country editor emphasizes still more the local news, and pushes ever farther back the frontiers of his dominion,—he becomes more and more the man of authority in the community because his opinions tend more and more to be based on knowledge. "Closest to the paper," says Harger, "nearest to their home life, its hopes and its aspirations, the country editor is at the foundation of journalism."

It is inevitable that with the changing characteristics of the editor a change in the editorial should result. This change is manifest in the wider range of subjects chosen for editorial comment, in the greater breadth of treatment, and in the improvement in the method of treatment. The subjects chosen for editorials have infinitely broadened in scope. The Spirit of the Public Journals; or, the Beauties of American Newspapers, For 1805, a collection from "nearly one hundred vehicles of information" published in 1806, shows editorials or articles on "The Seasons," "Winter," "Return of Spring," "Autumnal Reflections," "Affection," "Love," "Hope," "Truth," "Modesty," "Deceit," "The Idler," "Begin in Time," "Fashion," "The Grave." Local topics were largely the subjects of editorials somewhat later in the century. William Leggett was most definite and concrete in his choice of subjects, but he did not wander from Washington, Albany, or New York City. Much of the same type of editorial as regards both choice of local subjects, and style of writing, as is seen in the selected editorials of William Leggett, is found in a contemporary English work entitled: Spirit of the Metropolitan Conservative Press: Being a Selection of the Best Leading Articles from the London Conservative Journals during the year 1839. In sharp contrast to-day are editorials that consider every phase of human thought and activity the world over.

The subject of the editorial has broadened at the same time that its treatment of all subjects has notably improved. The editorial only somewhat recently recorded a tendency towards