St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-31
greensward of Cypress Hills ceme-

L lie iilOSL patHeIie inquire In Journalism
is the man who has grown old in its
service. Through no fault of his own
he finds himself without a vocation
when he most needs it. In any other
business his experience would be Of
value. The accumulated knowledge of
years would command price common
surate with its worth. Here it is value
less, because in the first ten years of bis
journalistic career he has mastered the
art of reporting. of copY-reading, of any
routine departmental work, and eX-
perience shows that celebrity decreases
with age after certain period of years
has been reached. journalism is essen
TALLY business for young men.
They rush into it by hundreds,
they remain in it by. tens.
Ninety per cent of the men who
enter journalism leave it before they
become old. They remain in it only
long enough to make it stepping-StOne
to something else less eXacting, less linn
tied in remuneration. less insecure in
appointment. On the staff of the daily
newspa per with which [ AN connected
there is only one man over fifty years
OF age. and the average age of the ell
plOyeS i'll the editorial department IS
less than thirty-fve. A canvass of
other metropolitan newspaper offices
VIII show but a slight variation from
these figures. There are more Old men
doing messenger service for telegraph
companies than reporting for the daily
newspapers.
Where do these men 90 when they
give up newspaper work? They are to
be found chiefly in politics or the the at
rical business, two pursuits closely al
lied to journalism, although the law
entlces many and strictly commercial
pursuits d few. A vast number die in
the service before they grow old. The
death rate is high among newspaper
workers. This is a business which
knows no Sabbath, no holiday, no day
OF rest. The newspaper must be printed
300 days III the year. and the mental
fatigue. the nervous waste, the physical
exhaustion necessary to accomplish this
feat must be shared in some degree by
every member OF the staff. The result
is that vitality is more quickly destroyed
here than elsewhere and newspaper
workers die young.
Salaries Paid.
1t would seem that a business so al
Turing to beginners should retain a
greater percentage of men entering it.
The first cause to drive them out is the
limit OF money to be earned. | have
already cited the case of the reporter
and nave mentioned $1,000 per annum
as his income. This is a high figure
The average income of reporters work
ing for the New York newspapers is
really less than 81, 600 per annum.
Copy readers average about the same.
The various heads of departments, such
as dramatic, musical, sporting. foreign
and exchange, range FROM $1,000 to s.. 800 !;
editorial writer's from $3.50 to $4,000;
city and Sunday editors from
$1,000 to 5000, and managing editors
from $1,000 to SO, 600. 1t must be borne
in mind, however, that each newspa-
per has but one managing editor
There are probably only two men in
metropolitan journalism, without pro-
prietary interest, who draw salary of
$4,000, two more who draw SO. 600 each.
| and the others have high places but
low Incomes. And yet there are people
who insist on placing journalism on the
same professional plane with law and
Z
income from the practice of law or
medicine to any such figures as these!
II Is this limitation, fixed by the rela-
ton of labor to capital, which makes
| journalism more of a trade than pro-
teSslOn. The newspaper worker is SIM
ply wage Garner, hired man. 1t is
! good trade, a grand ana noble trade i'll
brains; but Ii is a trade, and it Is Il mere
hallucnatiOn 10 call it profession in
the sense that law and medicine are
professions.
DIR. Woods, the Sun Condenser.
Insecurity of employment is kindred
evil. What man does counts for little
against what he does not do. One error
in Judgment, one serious mistake, will
wipe out record of years of faithful,
! conscientious and fruitful toll A
| change in management or the within of
proprietor may annul position won
by a lifetime of earnest eudeavOr and
devotion to duty. One instance will
serve to Illustrate this point. A man
had held tor years the post of city editor
on large New York daily. He
had become famous throughout the
world OF journalism as the
! greatest news condenser of his
time. The newspaper he had served so
long suddenly dropped HIM from the
| place be had held with such credit to it
and Such honor to himself And for
! what? Not that he had made any error,
but that he had grown old. For this
crime he was cast adrift in the stormy
sea of journalism to seek bread else
! whare. No position similar to his old
| one was open to him, and he was forced
in the evening of his life to begin 4 new
! career, to start again as a reporter, to
/ 90 back to che work he had done thirty
wears before. He made the. effort and
! struggled bravely for a time, but the
| keen competition of younger and
| stronger men told against him, and he
/ found himself outruu in the grOYeing
race for n livelihood. One night he was
! sent out on river-frOnt assign ment in
| the cold and wet and darkness of VIM
| ter storm. That night he met his death
| amid the floating ice of the Hudson. 1t
may have been an accident. but what
ever the cause of his death. his heart
! had been broken. This is but one of a
long series OF similar tragedies.
EmpersonalIfy and PrOprietOrsIsip.
Not Il year passes without one or more
''shake-ups," as newspaper men call
them, in the Offices or our large daihes.
! Without apparent cause men are as
| signed 10 new and Illuminating duties or
are thrown oat of employment alto
/ gether. The managing editor of today
may have the choice tomorrow of doing
reporters work or of doing no work at
all The firmly established principle of
American journalism is that the news
paper is everything and the newspaper
man is nothing. Tie newspaper alb
serbs the newspaper man completely
Whatever the Journalist does goes to
the credit of the journal. l will venture
the assertion that 10 person who reads
this article can name the editorial
writer's of any New York newspa-
per. unless he may chance to be
/ on the staff of that newspaper.
! Even the DrOpretOrs of neWSDanprS