The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-05-02
NARROW JOURNALISM.

In his dispatch TO the Cincinnati CO1RH1er-
cidl Gazette describing the reception given
by the Union League Club to General Sher-
man on his SEVENTEEN birthday Murat Hal
stead spoke plainly Of the shortcomings of
the New York press. ''Such an affair in
Cincinnati, Chicago, st. Louis, Denver or
San Francisco" Mr.. Halstead says, would
have occupied pages of newspapers. The
New York papers touched it but slightly,
giving from half column to two columns
The New York papers apparently regard
elaborate mention of local events as an evil
dence of provincialism. A comparatively
small city would devote much more atten-
ti0n to an event than would be given the
same event in a metropolis. The number
Of matters of Importance happening in a
great city necessarily limits the space to be
devoted to each. New York would rather
not be regarded at all than to be regarded
as provincial, and it shapes its policy ac-
cOrdingly. The country, however, really
experiences small ih-effects from this habit
of New York newspapers. There is no met
ropolitan press in this country in the sense
in which the term is used in Europe. There
is no New York journal that has a national
circulation. Their circulation is limited to
the ground they can cover with their daily
issues There is no New York paper which
covers the ground so completely as The
CALL covers the ground it can reach in ad-
vance of papers from Eastern cities
Within four hours travel from the news
paper quarter in New York City there are
from eight to ten millions of people. THE
CALL cannot reach one million in the same
or double the same time. And yet there is
probably no New York paper with double
the circulation of The CALL. Journals in
interior cities are in no wise dependent
upon the New York papers, either for news
or opinions. Every paper of considerable
prominence has its own correspondents in
the principal cities, both of this country
and OF Europe. News and comment. there
fore, come direct from all parts Of the
world, and the New York journals do not
have the superior facilities which entitle
them to superior consideration. In respect
to opinion New York is out of the Union.
1t does not in any way lead in forming
American public opinion. 1t has been on
the losing side of most of the leading ques-
ti0ns of the day. Its interests are largely
identical with those of Europe, and it takes
the European view of American issues.
There is hardly journal in New York that
has not for twelve years opposed the re-
moDetization of silver, and yet silver has
gained ground steadily all the time. New
York journalism lacks breadth. Their
principal writer's are college graduates,
whose study Of the country has been con-
fined to the maps. Their mental vision only
takes in the little group Of States in which
the principal colleges are located. Ocea-
sionally one of these representative men
ventures West or South, and in most of
such cases the visitor offends the people he
visits by expressing surprise that they act,
look and dress very much like the people of
the East. People in the leading cities of
the several States do not appreciate the
compliment intended to be expressed by the
admission that, after all, they are not so
hopelessly provincial as they had been rep
resented to be.