Chapter IX: Continental and American Newspapers

Any review of the continental press is even more difficult than in the case of our own kith and kin. There are added difficulties of race and language and of prejudices, which cannot be excluded. With regard to the French press a certain amount of reverence is due, because in this branch of activity they were the pioneers of Europe. Without going into history we may note the rise and struggles of one or two papers still important. Of these the _Journal des Débats_ was founded, as its name would suggest, with the beginning of popular government in 1789 by Baudouin, and afterwards bought by Bertin, who carried it to a circulation of 32,000 under Napoleon, a surprising figure for those times. But about 1805 Fouché, under orders, began to make its life unhappy and Napoleon left on record his neat and clear cut views as to what he required from newspapers. “No news unfavourable to the government is to be published until it has become too well-known to be worth publishing.” The paper changed its name to the _Journal de l’Empire_ and resumed its old title in 1815. There were other historic journals, which played their part in the last century, such as _La Presse_ founded by Emile de Girardin in the Orleanist interests in 1836; _Le Siècle_ by Dutacq also in 1836, which achieved great popularity; _Le Figaro_ (1854) whose most prominent _entrepreneur_ was Villemessant. The latter introduced into its management for the first time the principle, since well-known under the name of “the squeezed orange,” by which young men of talent were overworked at high salaries, until they were worn out and discarded. Others have followed the same method since, under the mistaken impression that they were original. Villemessant also found the means to finance the celebrated Henri Rochefort in starting _La Lanterne_ in 1878, which was quickly suppressed.

At the present moment there are more daily papers in Paris than perhaps anywhere else except Berlin; unfortunately most of them are too poor to be independent of outside support, so that they tend to belong to private groups of politicians. Curiously enough the “heavy” dailies are evening papers like _Le Temps_ and the _Journal des Débats_, which are moderately Republican. Of the same colour are the five morning papers, the _Figaro_, _Journal_, _Le Siècle_, edited by M. de Lanessan, _Petit Parisien_ and _Petit Journal_. Three news organs are _Le Matin_, _L’Eclair_ and the _Echo de Paris_. There are four Radical Socialist papers, _L’Aurore_, _La Lanterne_, _L’Humanité_ (edited by M. Jaurès) and _Le Bloc_, guided by M. Clémenceau. There are three so-called Nationalist papers, the offspring of Boulangism, _La Patrie_, the organ of M. Millivoye, _La Cocarde_ and _L’Intransigeant_, formerly edited by M. Rochefort, and now by M. L. Bailby. Also three in number are the Conservative papers, _Le Gaulois_, controlled by Arthur Meyer, _Le Soleil_ and _La Croix_, which supports the clericals. Except the _Figaro_, the price of all the morning papers in 1902 was five centimes. There are a few well-established provincial papers, besides a host of small ones. Such are _La Gironde_ of Bordeaux, _La Dépêche_ of Toulouse, _Le Lyon Republicain_, _L’Echo du Nord_, of Lille, and _Le Journal de Rouen_.

In Italy the press suffers very much from poverty and there are very few papers, which can be called independent. The strongest are in Milan, _Il Secolo_ (1866) and _La Corriere della Sera_ (1876) which has made itself independent and a real power. In Rome the chief papers are the _Tribuna_, Liberal, the _Messaggero_, popular and _L’Osservatore Romano_, a clerical or “black” paper.

In Austria there is one paper of European reputation with very intimate relations both with Jewish financial circles and with high diplomacy, the _Neue Freie Presse_. Besides this there are in Vienna the semi-official _Fremdenblatt_, the clerical _Reichspost_, the _Neues Wiener Tageblatt_ and _Die Zeit_, a Liberal paper with large circulation. In Hungary the best known daily paper is the _Pesther Lloyd_.

In Germany there are one or two papers in the provinces which exceed in merit and influence the papers of the capital. For instance the _Frankfurter Zeitung_, _Kölnische Zeitung_ and _Hamburgische Nachrichten_ have wide circulations extending even over the borders of Germany. They give an ample supply of general news, not always up to date. The two former are moderate Liberal papers while the latter is pan-German and decidedly anti-British. In Munich there is the _Münchener Neueste Nachrichten_ and a widely known satirical weekly, called _Simplicissimus_, which directs its shafts chiefly against the clerical party. With all its wit it is sometimes scurrilous and often indecent.

Berlin has a large number of papers of every shade of opinion. The largest circulation belongs to the _Berliner Tageblatt_, a moderate Liberal organ and to the _Lokal Auzeiger_, a neutral business organ with a good connection in advertising. The _Kreuz-Zeitung_ now called the _Neue Preuszische Zeitung_, is Conservative and clerical; _Der Tag_, high-toned and literary; the _Vossische Zeitung_, Liberal with a small circulation and influential business connection; the _Morgen Post_ is a cheap democratic paper with large circulation; the _Vorwärts_ is Socialist; and the _Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_ is a semi-official government organ. The _Berliner Neueste Nachrichten_ is a paper published in the Krupp interests. News is not well handled in the Berlin press and a high value is not placed upon accuracy. They have some curious features, for instance, in using Gothic type for the literary part of the paper and Roman script for the advertisements and commercial news. As the size of the sheet is small they increase their papers by adding numerous supplements, each devoted to some particular subject. The Sunday issue of a Berlin paper is like a miniature library of books on all subjects. I do not know which is the more surprising to an English reader, to purchase one of these weekly encyclopædias in Germany or to get buried in a huge American Sunday paper with stories, news and illustrations all spread hugger-mugger over sixty or seventy gigantic pages with nothing to guide him through the intricacies of either.

The American daily newspapers have certainly more money to spend than any other press in the world, although, owing to the severity of competition among themselves, I doubt whether so much comes back to them in profit. But when it comes to enterprize in procuring news the money any New York paper is prepared to spend is sufficient to take away one’s breath. This was the policy inaugurated by the first William Gordon Bennett on the _New York Herald_ (1835) and subsequently carried even to greater lengths by Joseph Pulitzer in the _New York World_ (1860), when he bought it from Jay Gould. Of all newspaper men probably Pulitzer came nearer to claim the possession of a special genius for the work than any other man. He kept control over both the management and editorial conduct of his paper in every detail through a long life even after he became blind and wherever he might happen to be in his wanderings round the world in his yacht. While at first the conduct of his paper seemed to aim at nothing better than mere success and sensationalism there became clear in him a genuine democratic passion, which redeemed many faults. More than once he was known to take in his paper the unpopular and almost the impossible course, justifying himself ultimately by holding his own. His gift of political prophecy was considered by other newspaper men to be uncanny. When he died he left a large sum of money to found a school of journalism in New York.

The _Herald_ still holds its own as the chief general paper of New York on the Republican side while the _World_ is not far behind as a Democrat paper. Beside them is the sensational _New York American_, which is the New York link in the chain of Hearst papers, which stretches through Philadelphia and Chicago in perhaps ten cities over to the _San Francisco Examiner_ in the West. Hearst is still an unfathomed problem in the newspaper world as no one yet knows what his ultimate aim may be. Equipped originally with millions he has added to them by successful newspaper enterprize. He has political ambitions but whether he will pursue them on ordinary lines or turn aside to revolution it is too soon to say.

Of sedate papers we have the _Tribune_ (1851) Horace Greeley’s old organ during the war, now owned by Mr. Whitelaw Reid; the _Times_ (1851), once celebrated under Gilbert Jones for his successful defeat of Oakey Hall and the City ring, now in the hands of an enterprizing Chattanooga journalist, Ochs; and finally the _Sun_ (1833), the most brilliant of American journals, once very bitter against this country, now settled down to be rather an outspoken friend of ours with reactionary tendencies at home. It was the first cheap paper in America and under Charles A. Dana achieved a great reputation.

One of the bright stars in the firmament of the American press is the old _New York Evening Post_, founded in 1766. Its editors had well-known names--John Bigelow, Carl Schurz, and Horace White. At a time when it was sinking into somnolence after the war it was bought by Henry Villard and placed under the control of E. L. Godkin, who had just triumphantly established the _Nation_. Another successful Irishman, Godkin, became one of the most remarkable men in America. No one exceeded him in the courage with which he attacked knavery and jobbery of all kinds not occasionally and sensationally, but steadily day by day. Before he died he made the _Nation_, afterwards edited by William Lloyd Garrison, one of the chief purely literary papers in the world, and the _Evening Post_ the most powerful foe to corruption and upholder of pure politics and finance in America. The present editor, Mr. Ogden worthily continues these traditions.

The American press outside New York is so vast that only a fragmentary notice of it is possible. In Boston the old-fashioned literary paper is the _Transcript_ (1830); there are also the _Herald_ (1836) and the successful popular and democratic paper started in 1872 by General Taylor the _Globe_. One of the most influential papers in America at one time was the _Springfield Republican_ (1824). In Washington the _Post_ (1877) and in Philadelphia the _Public Ledger_ (1836) and the _Press_ (1857) are the best known. Chicago has a very rich and progressive press of which the following are the best known, the _Tribune_ (1847); the _Examiner_ started by Hearst; the _Inter-Ocean_ and the _Record-Herald_. I would dwell longer on the American press if I had not already rather closely described the organization of a typical American daily in the chapter on newscollecting and reporting.

There is no space remaining for even the briefest review of the vast technical press of America, in some ways her most remarkable achievement. In all commercial respects, artistic production, energetic management, comprehensive information they leave all other countries far behind. To mention only the engineering papers, they have an old established general paper, the _Iron Age_, which is at home in every market in the world, and the only really international organ existing, the _American Machinist_, published every week simultaneously in New York, London and Berlin.