The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-01-04
THE AMERICAN PRESS.
WHAT A SCOTCH OBSERVER SAYS OF
OUR NEWSPAPERS.

!
I'm the Interests OF the PubIic-Deteo-
ton of Crime and Fraud-work OF Re-
porters and Editors.
The American press is the most incom-
preheusible OF American institutions To
STRANGERS. Day after day its columns are
freighted with astounding crimes, with
marvellous adventures, with social scan
dals with political programmes and re-
lgious heresies. One wonders how it is
possible such surprises should be con-
stantly happening, and how their details
should be so eShaustively wrought out.
But the astonishment subsidies when ii is
known that the American press IL organi-
cation, in enterprise, In talent leads the
world; that it deals not with one country,
as in the Old World, but represents whole
continent; that the population it controls
and informs is drawn from every Euro
pean and several Asiatic nations; that
among these are crowds OF dangerous and
lawless emigrants, some of whom have
escaped from European jailS and many
from the European police. And whatever
contempt for law and order the native
American may inherit is deepeued by con-
tact with the frenzied men driven to
American shores by the regimes of Bis
mGrck and Salisbury.
DETECTION OF CRIME.
Il
the American press has accepted func-
lions which no other nations newspapers
have had delegated to them. The fore
most OF these has been tho detection of
crime and the defeat of fraud, and in the
performance of both tasks American press
men have won the admiration of the
American people, and ought to be q source
of pride and surprise to press men every
where. American criminals may tamper
with American judges; they may evade
the police; they may defy the law; they
are never safe from the press. Again and
again have assassins been hung on the
gallows wholly through the astuteness
and amazing ability of American press
reporters. Again and again have scan
dalQus swindles been exploded through
the single handed efforts of press men.
The great Tweed ring was burst up by
the persistency of newspaper mel, The
Preller murder was cleared up through
the acutene5s of press inquiries but illus
trations are endless.
Why such services are seldom at
tempted by the British press is easily ex-
planned. The British press man is a short
hand writer, whose work is mainly to re
produce the speeches of the people who
would hardly be listened to On this side Of
the Atlantic. In America verbatim re-
porting is hardly wanted; it is reckoned
very secondary accomplishment. The
-
nents the British reporter may do with
cut. The American must he a born de-
tecdve, have an intuitive faculty Of fol-
lowing up the course criminals, advent
urers and delinquents pursue in planning
crimes and evading their conviction. He
must have an address which fits all sorts
of people on all sorts of occasions He
must be equally ready to speak on level
terms with q Statesman or confab with a
thief; and it is his business TO get at the
intentions of both. The American D. SIS
man must be an educated man of the
world, who can reprecent his Journal
under any circumstances, and this is st
once apparent to any stranger who has OPP
portunities of coming in contact with the
leading representatives of the New York
journals.
A GREAT CONTRAST.
To any one who has seen the position
old country press men have to bend to the
contrast is great. The American who for
gets that an American press man is an
American gentleman would find himself
rebuked in a way he never would forget
But such rudeness is hardly ever risked.
The high position taken by the staff Of
the American newspapers is too widely
recognized, and men of the proudest posi-
ton are pleased to meet the American
interviewer, treat him graciously and
give him whatever assistance is wanted
To be polite, frank and affable is the
Americans prerogative. The Old World
snob who affects airs meets with supreme
ridicule in the United States. I have
met one or two in the hotels utterly hoTri-
fed at American familiarity; even the
negro walters laugh at their comical pre-
tensions.
There is none # the rivalry and shop
jealousy between the staff of one Ameri-
can paper and the staff CT another So alb
Gurd!y fostered in the cid country. The
American press rnen treat each other as
gentlemen simply because they are So
Bad manners and stupidity 60 together,
and / have not come across any stupid
press men in America. Editors and CITY
editors make no distinction of persons in
their staff, and they have no reason TO do
SC. a clever reporter knows he will Get a
good situation sooner than either editor
or city editor. and, if anything, the re-
porter is master Of the situation. As may
be inferred, talent Of the highest order is
the only passport to position on the
American press. A canny Scotchman
without brains could not keep a berth on
the New York press for twenty-four
hours. With such racking work of brain
and body, it may be suTmised, the strain
is tremendous, and in proof the American
press mans professional life is short
one. Among the many American news
paper men l cannot recoilect seeing one
white haired man. No doubt some of the
more brilliant press men find their way
into congress and into public life, and not
q few fall into other and more lucrative
pursuits. Many of the American million
aires have started life as interviewers and
owe their success to the training so OBJ
tanned. And no other point can better IL
Iustrate the ability so essentially inter
laced with the American press. To grasp
the salient points of a public question, to
whatever enlightenment ut ex-
ponent may throw upon these, requires no
ordinary acumen, and TO placesbefore the
public in attractive form whatever insight
has been obtained calls for subtle and in
cisive faculties. which, displayed in any
line of life, are bound to lead TO success