The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-21 00:00:00

TELEGRAPHS IN CHINA.

Eleven foreign consuls residing at Shanghae have made
an unsuccessful application to• the Taotai for permission to
construct a line of telegraph from Shanghae to the Kin-
toan Beacon. The Taotai finds there is no provision in the
treaties for the erection of telegraphs, and believes that it
would be a great offence to the feelings of the people,
wherefore he requests the consuls to inform the merchants
that there is no occasion for a telegraph wire in China.

ADVERTISING INFLUENCE.

(From the Anylo-American Times.)

Among the articles in the last number of the New
York Nation which has reached Europe, is one es-
pecially noticeable on "Financial Advertisements."
Its object is to show that the public should attach
no importance whatever to the commendation of
any newspaper regarding any scheme which asks for
their money ; but, on the contrary, that they should
view the favourable remarks with suspicion if they
see a long advertisement accompanying the recom-
mendation. By way of illustration, we tell our
readers the following little story which occurred to
a man whom his friends considered to be far from
wanting in capacity. He was an officer of the British
Army, and had spent the greater portion of his life
abroad, where, in the unhealthy climates of India
and China, he had saved a little money, which, with
the sale of his commission, he considered ample for his
future support. Before taking the irretrievable step
of retiring he desired to acquaint himself with the
best investments and the interest he might reason-
ably expect from his capital. To aid him in these
researches he took in a weekly London paper de-
voted to the money market and joint-stock enter-
prise, and soon became absorbed in this guide. The
delightful visions of wealth which there flitted be-
fore his eyes quickly removed all doubt ; his diffi-
culty was an embarras de richesses, he was like a boy
in a confectioner's shop. " Scatter," said his Men-
tor, " don't put all your eggs into one basket ; vary
your investment both in country and in character."
The sword of this officer was not only turned into
pruning hooks, but into the implements which cul-
tivate tea, which build ships, into financial enter-
prises, manufacturing, mining, banking, and hav-
ing got his money well spread over the world and
into undertakings about which he could not possibly
know anything beyond what the authority he fol-
lowed had demonstrated, that they all not only had
paid, but would continue to pay admirably, he
awaited the returns with much complacency and
self-congratulation. The result turned out to be a
pretty thing,for he had notmerely purchased worth-
less securities, but heavy liabilities ; not only was
all his means swept away, but huge debts remained
to liquidate in uncalled capital, and to his surprise
the Mentor he had so implicitly followed turned
round to abuse most heartily the very undertakings
it had before so lauded, whose meetings it had so
fully reported, and favourably commented upon in
leading articles. This officer was in the country
during the beginning of 1866, and the City arti-
cles of the Times so alarmed him that he would
have hastened to town to clear out of all the
rubbish he held, which he then began to suspect, but
week after week his fears were allayed by the
soothing assurances of his " weekly." The public
was mad ; men were sacrificing without reason their
property ; now was the time to invest, and this
rubbish was the right thing to buy ; and some in-
fluential dailies in London strengthened this delu-
sion, so the officer held on, and we all know how
that ended. He was ruined, because he was so
blinded as not to see that the editor of the financial
newspaper did not know as much about the invest-
ments he thus lavishly praised as did the officer him-
self ; that the information of the paper was derived
from the very companies it landed, that informa-
tion being accompanied by no small fees in pay-
ment of advertisements and the purchase and dis-
tribution of copies of the paper ; in short, that it
was the mere tool of Joint-Stock Companies, just as
Financial Companies were of contractors—the means
by which they gathered the money of a gullible
public. It would have been much better, for the
officer had he gone direct to the Secretary of any
Company in whose shares he invested, although
that is the next worst source of information.
It is curious reading to look over files of the year
1865 of such financial journals as that to which we
allude, with their unhesitating recommendation of
investments which in less than twelve months ap-
peared in their true characters of iniquitous swin-
dles, and to see these same journals now moralizing
on the rascality, and men still putting faith in what
they say. It would be better for investors to rely
on the published circular of a broker, proving that
the securities he had to sell were the best fur the
public to buy. There was a time when newspapers
were supported by purchasers of the copies ; now the
main support is from advertising, and the change is
by no means beneficial to the press, although the ad.
vantages to persons of small means are considerable.
It was in America that the system of cheap papers
was inaugurated, and it is in America where the
worst influences of the change are felt. The Nation
says that few persons have any idea of the insidious
influence over the press acquired by means of finan-
cial advertising. Certain journals devoted to finan-
cial and business specialities of a low class form the
ground work of the fabric to be reared, and in them
appear the firstadvertisements of the new enterprise.
The publisher agrees with the advertiser for a whole
column of advertising per week, and half a column
of editorial notice, to be furnished by the advertiser.
If what the advertiser states editorially is contra-
dicted by correspondents their letters are not pub-
lished ; if by other journals, their venality and
corruption can be exposed in another editorial. The
advertiser does not expect the glowing accounts to
be read in the obscure journals wherein he com-
mences operations, but they are not published to be
read, but to be quoted. The next step the adver-
tiser takes is to the office of a respectable but strug-
gling daily or weekly, and his bargain there stipu-
lates that the paper will occasionally copy and in-
sert semi-editorial extracts from other papers in
relation to the new company which will be kindly
furnished by the advertiser himself. Thus an out-
rageous puff comes to be inserted from the obscure
journal, the editor soothing his conscience with the
rtflection that every reader must see that the para-
graph is only an extract. But every reader does not
see this, and in the mindsof some it may remain asso-
ciated with the credit due to the paper in which they
sawit. However, theseareonly the first steps designed
to pave the way to the offices of the leading journals
of the great cities. The whole press is now as-
serted to comment favourably on the undertaking,
especially "Such and Such" not over-flourishing
daily and weekly papers. The advertiser's applica-
tion to the great journal is made to the editor thecom-
piler of the money market reports, who is induced to
allude to the advertisement in " anothercolumn," and
the high character and business standing of the firms
having the affair in charge. With the endorsements
of the l'rlzas, as well as with that of the financial
editor of the leading organ, the advertising agent
enters the sanctum of the editor in chief, and pre-
sently the widely-read and trusted guide " comes
out with a gross puff of an enterprise, in itself per-
haps profitable and desirable, but of the real merits
of which the editor is totally incapable of judging."
We strongly recommend the following remark of
the Nation to careful consideration, for it is at least
as true of Europe as of America :

"The ability to judge of the value of any kind of secu-
rity as a permanent investment is by no means com-
mon; the knowledge necessary to form such a judgment
is acquired only by special study ; neither the ability nor
the knowledge comes naturally to the editorial fraternity.
On the contrary, their ability in that particular direction
is, in the very nature of things, apt to be limited; while
the knowledge which they may acquire is almost in every
single instance derived from the very parties in interest,
and is generally accompanied by an advertisement fee,
which inevitably predisposes the most incorruptible of
men in favour of the person or enterprise offering it."
The sort of tyranny exercised in America over the
Press by combinations of classes of advertisers, may
be gathered from the fact that an exposure of one
Life insurance Company has been known to de-
prive a respectable journal of every Life Insurance