St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-31
A NEWSPAPER PAPER.
EHTERTAINlRG REVIEW By A NEW
YORK EDITOR.
JOURNALISM as 4 CAREER. -


cured srevity Of Active Life
ofthe CRY JournaIist-Knowl
edge Of Business and Editorial
Ends Necessary.
The following entertaining article in
the August Forum, entitled Journalism
as Career is from the pen of J. W.
Keller, managing editor of the New
York Recorder and president of the
New York Press club. The subhead-
ngs are supplied by the GLOBE:
journalism as a Career.
journalism in its essential qualifica-
ton is a learned profession; in its eXac-
tons, its limitations to income and its in
security Of employment. it is more
nearly a trade
Thirteen years of constant labor as a
newspaper man have forced me TO this
conclusion, and | am led TO offer il here
not through any dissatisfaction with my
lot in life, but as a fair definition of
what 1 am pleased to cally my "proles-
SION" 1t must be borne in mind, how
ever, that this definition does not apply
TO capital in journalism, but to LABOR.
When the question of capital is cOnsid-
cred, Journalism becomes at once 4 bust
ness, pure and simple. Money is in
vested 20 make money. Tie fundamental
principle of metropolitan Journalism
today IS to buy white paper at cents a
pound and sell itat 10 cents pound.
And in some quarters it does not mat
ter how much the virgin whlteness of
the paper is detiied SO long as the defile-
ment sells the paper. Ii is not the per-
pose Of this article to attack or even de-
scribe the perverted ethics of modern
journalism. except in SO far as it af-
feels the working newspaper man. 1t
Is the material rather than the moral
advantage or disadvantage which claims
attention here-what journalism offers
10 the man who adopts it as a lifelong
vocation.
The New Reporter.
There Is no calling so al!uring 10 the
young and the uninItiated IS mewspa-
per work The variety. the excite
ment, the constantly recurring oppor-
tHnities to visit new scenes, to meet
famous people, to undergo novel expe-
riences, enyelop this WORK in Il seduc-
tive glamour. The fact that behind its
representative always stands the
mighty power of the newspaper itself
nils the novice with Il delightful sensa-
satlon that approXimates iBtoXca-
ton. He assumes that he is q
part Of that vast, Indef mite and mystic
rious pOtcntiality which the public
breads and fears. and sometimes, not
unreasonably, hates. To have men of
years ami wealth and station treat him
with dcferential consideration sWells
him witha sense of his own Importance.
To be paid TO go where other people pay
to go, to take precedence in public
gatherings, to enter portals closed
TO others, to penetrate police
and ire IiEes-in short. to experience
all the advantages which policy rather
than courtesy extends to the newspa-
pers, is constant delight to the new
reporter. Nor is it less gratifying to
him TO realize that he has stepped from
the door of his alma mater into a
new world which furnishes him with a
living while it enttrtains him So roy
ally. His classmate who chose the law
IS still digging in a law school or drudg-
ing In lawyers Office, actually paying
money to learn profession, while he
is paid to learn the newspaper business.
HIS income Tor the first year is from
$500 20 S10c. This is doubled in the see
Ond year In the third year, or even
sooner if he is at all clever. he is per-
mitted TO write for his newspaper ION
Space that IS. at certain stipulated
sum column.
This is a glorious day for him. Still
beardless and but little more than two
years in journalism, he finds himself ON
footing Of equality. so far as oppor-
tunity to make money is concerned, with
men who are twice his are and have
grown gray in the service. lis soul is
filled With eXultati1n; ambition spurs
him to renewed effort, and the knri ION
of his future is bright with the rosy
glow Of hope His income the next year
is $1,000. He works day and nIght, in
fair weather and foul. Like the SOL
der, he stands ready to answer every
call of dnty and performs every task
faithfully and W Ii.
EEe Grows 03d Apace.
But $500 is his income the next year
and the next and the next. until he re-
allies one day that he has grown old.
Young men are entering the business
just as he entered it. and are pushing
him to the wall Just as he pushed others.
Novelty has ceased to attract him. he no
longer feels the spur of ambition. en-
thusiasm is dead, the giamar of journal
ism 5 gone. He tights stubbornly for
living fr himself and his family. But
with all his desperate struggling he sees
his income dWindle Just as it grew. The
best work is given to younger men.
to those who are nimblpr on their
feet and quicker with their pens. I'm
like the soldier, he finds his years of
faithful service count for nothing. He
has grown old in a business which has
no place for ed men, where to grow old
is accounted almost 4 crime. He is not
dismissed, bat he is starved Out-not
Deliberately. but because The work must
be done more quickly than he can do it.
He cannot better his condition with any
other newspaper. because every other
newspaper recognizes that he is of as
little value TO it as he is to the Journal
which Slapped his vitality and dropped
him.
What becomes of him9 If he has
been frugal and thrifty, he may have
saved enough money to insure him
against perjury. With these savings
and fugitive work here and there. he Is
enabled to exc out his existence to the
end If he has saved nothing. and thrift
is not characteristic or privilege of
newspaper men in general, he becomes
one Of those gray ghosts that haunt
Newspaper Row asking for work that is
seldom given, uegging little money
from this friend or that, dying at last so
poor that decent burial is vouchsafed
only through the mtager charity of the
Press oiHb This r,iorurn IL mt attract