Chapter I: Front Matter

_VOCATIONAL SERIES_

EDITED BY
E. HERSHEY SNEATH, PH.D., LL.D., YALE UNIVERSITY

THE YOUNG MAN AND JOURNALISM

_VOCATIONAL SERIES_

EDITED BY
E. HERSHEY SNEATH
PH.D., LL.D., YALE UNIVERSITY

THE YOUNG MAN AND THE LAW. SIMEON E. BALDWIN.
THE YOUNG MAN AND TEACHING. HENRY PARKS WRIGHT.
THE YOUNG MAN AND CIVIL ENGINEERING. GEORGE FILLMORE SWAIN.
THE YOUNG MAN AND JOURNALISM. CHESTER S. LORD.

THE YOUNG MAN AND JOURNALISM

BY
CHESTER S. LORD, M.A., LL.D.

For forty-one years a member of the staff of the New York _Sun_
and for thirty-three years (1880-1913) its managing editor

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1922

_All rights reserved_

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

COPYRIGHT, 1922,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and printed. Published November, 1922.

Press of
J. J. Little & Ives Company
New York, U. S. A.

EDITOR’S PROSPECTUS

One of the most important decisions a young man is called upon to make relates to the determination of his life-work. It is fraught with serious consequence for him. It involves the possibilities of success and failure. The social order is such that he can best realize his ends by the pursuit of a vocation. It unifies his purposes and endeavors--making them count for most in the struggle for existence and for material welfare. It furnishes steady employment at a definite task as against changeable effort and an unstable task. This makes for superior skill and greater efficiency which result in a larger gain to himself and in a more genuine contribution to the economic world.

But a man’s vocation relates to a much wider sphere than the economic. It is intimately associated with the totality of his interests. It is in a very real sense the center of most of his relations in life. His intellectual interests are seriously dependent upon his vocational career. Not only does the attainment of skill and efficiency call for the acquisition of knowledge and development of judgment, but the leisure that is so essential to the pursuit of those intellectual ends which are a necessary part of his general culture is, in turn, dependent, to a considerable extent, upon the skill and efficiency that he acquires in his vocation.

Nor are his social interests less dependent upon his life-work. Men pursuing the same calling constitute in a peculiar sense a great fraternity or brotherhood bound together by common interests and aims. These condition much of his social development. His wider social relationships also are dependent, in a large measure, on the success that he attains in his chosen field of labor.

Even his moral and spiritual interests are vitally centered in his vocation. The development of will, the steadying of purpose, the unfolding of ideals, the cultivation of vocational virtues, such as industry, fidelity, order, honesty, prudence, thrift, patience, persistence, courage, self-reliance, etc.--all of this makes tremendously for his moral and spiritual development. The vocationless man, no matter to what class he belongs, suffers a great moral and spiritual disadvantage. His life lacks idealization and is therefore wanting in unity and high moralization. His changeable task, with its changeable efforts, does not afford so good an opportunity for the development of the economic and social virtues as that afforded the man who pursues a definite life-work. It lacks also that discipline--not only mental, but moral--which the attainment of vocational skill and efficiency involves.

But notwithstanding the important issues involved in a man’s vocational career, little has been done in a practical or systematic way to help our college young men to a wise decision in the determination of their life-work. Commendable efforts are being put forth in our public schools in this direction, but very little, indeed, has been done in this respect in the sphere of higher education. To any one familiar with the struggles of the average college student in his efforts to settle this weighty question for himself, the perplexities, embarrassment, and apparent helplessness are pathetic. This is due largely to his ignorance of the nature of the professions and other vocations which appeal most strongly to the college man. Consequently, he does not know how to estimate his fitness for them. He cannot advise to any extent with his father, because he represents only one vocation. Neither can he advise advantageously with his instructor for he, too, is familiar with the nature of only one profession.

For this reason, a series of books, dealing with the leading vocations, and prepared by men of large ability and experience, capable of giving wise counsel, is a _desideratum_. Such men are competent to explain the nature and divisions of the particular vocations which they represent, the personal and educational qualifications necessary for a successful pursuit of the same, the advantages and disadvantages, the difficulties and temptations, the opportunities and ideals; thus, in an adequate way, enabling the student to estimate his own fitness for them. They are also able to make valuable suggestions relating to the man’s work after he enters upon his vocation.

Fortunately, in the present Series, the Editor has been able to secure the services of some of the most eminent experts in the country to prepare the respective volumes--men of large knowledge and experience, who have attained wide recognition and genuine success in their “callings.” It is a pleasure to be able to place at the command of the many thousands of students in our American colleges the wise counsel of such experienced and distinguished men.

* * * * *

The “Vocational Series” will consist of twelve books written by representatives of different vocations, as follow:

1. The Young Man and the Law
Hon. Simeon E. Baldwin, LL.D., Professor of Law, Emeritus,
Yale University, ex-Governor and ex-Chief Justice of
Connecticut

2. The Young Man and the Ministry
Rev. Charles R. Brown, D.D., LL.D., Dean of the Divinity
School, Yale University

3. The Young Man and Teaching
Professor Henry Parks Wright, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor
Emeritus and formerly Dean of Yale College

4. The Young Man and Medicine
Lewellys F. Barker, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Medicine and
Chief Physician, Johns Hopkins University

5. The Young Man and Journalism
Chester Sanders Lord, M.A., LL.D., formerly Managing Editor,
New York _Sun_

6. The Young Man and Banking
Hon. Frank A. Vanderlip, M.A., LL.D., formerly President
of the City National Bank, New York

7. The Young Man and Business

8. The Young Man and Mechanical Engineering
Lester P. Breckenridge, M.A., Eng.D., Professor of Mechanical
Engineering, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University

9. The Young Man and Electrical Engineering
Charles F. Scott, Sc.D., Eng.D., Professor of Electrical
Engineering, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University

10. The Young Man and Civil Engineering
George F. Swain, LL.D., Professor of Civil Engineering,
Harvard University

11. The Young Man and Farming
L. H. Bailey, M.S., LL.D., formerly Director of College of
Agriculture, Cornell University, and Editor of Cyclopedia of
American Horticulture, Rural Science Series, Garden Craft
Series, Rural Text-Book Series, Cyclopedia of Agriculture,
etc.

12. The Young Man and Government Service
Hon. William Howard Taft, D.C.L., LL.D., ex-President of the
United States, and Chief Justice of the United States Supreme
Court
E. HERSHEY SNEATH.

BY WAY OF EXPLANATION

The sole object of the following chapters is to tell a young man what is likely to happen to him if he goes into the newspaper business.

Many young men think of entering journalism, but journalism is to them a maze of mystery. What does it offer as a profession or a vocation? they ask. What is the nature of the business? What are its rewards? Naturally enough they continue to wonder what kind of preparatory study is desirable. How does a young man make a beginning and how does the beginner make progress? What are the recognized standards of newspaper success? How is news collected and prepared for the public? How is a newspaper conducted? What are the duties of each member of a big newspaper staff? What goes on in a newspaper office, anyway?

The book was begun with the intention of answering some of these queries, but it gradually drifted into talk about various phases and features of the business. The original intention has not been lost sight of, however. The purpose is to indicate what journalism offers to a young man as a means of livelihood. It seeks neither to glorify nor to disparage the newspaper.

The book is elementary: not intended or expected to interest or inform newspaper editors of experience.

C. S. L.
Brooklyn, New York,
Nineteen hundred and twenty two.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. BEGINNING IN NEWSPAPER WORK--THE REPORTER’S FIRST
EXPERIENCES--HIS PROGRESS--UNPLEASANT TASKS 1

II. THE COLLECTION OF NEWS AND ITS PREPARATION FOR PRINT 29

III. NEWSPAPER COMPOSITION--THE ART OF WRITING IN SIMPLE YET
ENTERTAINING FASHION 51

IV. THE FASCINATION OF WRITING FOR THE EDITORIAL PAGE 74

V. WHAT TO PRINT--THE PROBLEM OF HOW TO INTEREST AND
INFORM THE READER 87

VI. THE PLEASING EXPERIENCES OF THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT 106

VII. THE TECHNICAL PRESS 115

VIII. THE VILLAGE NEWSPAPER’S IMPORTANT PLACE IN AMERICAN
JOURNALISM 125

IX. THE DAILY NEWSPAPER IN THE SMALL CITY 138

X. THE REWARDS OF JOURNALISM--THEY ARE FOUND CHIEFLY IN
CONGENIAL EMPLOYMENT 144

XI. NEWSPAPER INFLUENCE--WAYS OF PERSUADING THE
PUBLIC--COMMUNITY SERVICE AND SERVICE TO
THE GOVERNMENT 159

XII. THE STUDY OF A SPECIALTY--GREAT ADVANTAGE FOLLOWS THE
MASTERY OF TWO OR THREE SUBJECTS 179

XIII. THE ACTIVITIES AND PATRIOTIC SERVICE OF NEWSPAPERS IN
TIMES OF WAR 185

XIV. NEWSPAPER HISTORY--THE MODERN NEWSPAPER 197

THE YOUNG MAN AND JOURNALISM