The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-10
FROM THE SANCTUM
A Newspaper Man
Talks on the News
paper Business.
THE POWER OF THE PRESS.
Sporting Columns Are More
Attractive Than the
Religious.

Education by newspapers" proved
to be highly entertaining subject to
members of the Worcester Congrega-
tional Club, at its annual meeting in
Association hall, last evening. The
speaker, Arthur Reed Kfmbal1, Of the
Waterbury American, knew his sub
ject from alpha to omega, and when he
concluded, scores Of eager listeners kept
him busy answering questions regard
ing various phases Of the newspaper
business, not only from a business, but
from ethical and religious standpoints.
The great central point that Mr.. Kim
ball sought to impress upon his hear
ers was that journalism is no longer a
profession. 1t is business, governed
by the laws of business. To this fact
he attributed the evolution of the
newspaper to its present standard.
Before the reading of Mr. KimbalP S
paper there was a social hour, bust
ness meeting and dinner. Members
and guests assembled at the Y. NJ. c.
A. at o'clock, and until $50 there was
a reception. Dinner was served
promptly at $50.
Five new members were voted in.
They were Harrington L. Nichols of
Grafton, proposed by George X. Mich
OILS; Otis r. Parker, Worcester, pro-
posed by Hollis w. Cob; Henry C.
Brown, Worcester, proposed by H. H.
Merriam; Fred H. Daniels, Worcester,
proposed by Samuel r. Haywood; The
odore N. Gates, proposed by Charles A,
Denny.
No vacancies now exist in the mem
bership of the club.
The following were appointed commit
tees to prepare and report resolutions
on the deaths of Rev. A. F.. p. Per-
kins, Rev. George H. Gould and Albert
Curtis:
On Dr. Perkins-Rev. DR.. A. z. Con-
rad, Rev. Dr. willard Scott, Prof. Geo.
On Dr.. Gould-Rev. A. H. Coolidge,
Rev. DR.. Eldridge Mix, DR.. John c.
On Albert curtis-Judge w. T.
Forbes. Rev. Or. John E. Tuttle, e. e.
Thompson.
The annual election of president OF
the club will take place at the De-
cember meeting, and Judge w. T.
Forbes, Amos Armsby, DR.. John c.
Ferry, Rev. A. H. Coolidge and William
Maynard were appointed a COMMITTEES
to bring in list of candidates. The
other officers are to be elected at the
January meeting.
Mr. Jas. Longan introduced Mr.. Kim
ball in a very happy manner. He said he
didn't wish to be put down as talk
ing shop" but he thought it fitting
time to speak on papermaking, as it is
by paper that thought is preserved and
4. finfe In
a permanent form. The cheapening of
the price of paper has been great
factor in the development Of the human
race Mr.. Logan gave some interesting
figures and traced the art of papermak-
ing from crude beginnings to the pre-
sent perfected machinery that turns pa
per out by the mile with amazing ra-
pidity.
Mr.. Kimball, after a few preliminary
remarks, got into the heart Of his sub
ject. If all newspaper readers, he said,
were made up of the class that forms
the membership of current events
clubs" a different STANDARD of journal
ism than the present could be maintain
ed. But such clubs represent only the
few, and as the newspaper business is
a commercial enterprise, it must be run
for the greatest number of readers. Nc
new plants have been established for
years in the big cities, he said The av-
erage returns are so small that capital
is not attracted today to newspaper
Investments. 1t is difficult to make a
newspaper plant pay under the circurn-
stances that exist today For this rea-
son newspapers are not being estab-
lished.
BY way of illustration, to show the
cost of getting important news, Mr.
Kimball cited some figures made by
Whitelaw Reid of the New York Tri-
bune, in the course of an address deliv-
cred in 1879.
During the last year of the civil wal
in the United States it cost the Tribune
900 above the ordinary run of eX-
penses to cover the operations of the
armies in the field. So great was the
development of the newspaper during
the succeeding five years that when the
Franco Prussian war broke out, the
Tribune expended in one year the sum
Of $4,000 to secure the news of the
conflict.
Mr.. Kinball said that he made an eff
fort to ascertain what it cost to secure
the news Of "the little war in Cuba" He
was told that the Associated Press
spent $4,000 in round numbers. OF
this sum $125000 was for cables, SIS. 0OC
for yachts and $50. 900 for special cor
respondents One dispatch covering the
destruction of Cervera's fleet at Santi-
ago, cost $4,000 for cabling alone 1t
was sent by circuitous route, from Ja-
maica to Colon, thence to Galveston,
and from that point distributed
throughout the country.
friend informed him that it cost
the New York Herald about $1,000 a day,
and another we'll posted man who
thought this might be an exaggeration,
said that it cost Mr.. Bennett at least
from $4,000 to $4,000 week If there was
a war extending throughout the year,
the metropolitan papers would have to
nav out vast sums outside of current
expenses,
In speaking OF the standard of news
papers. Mr.. Kimball said the provincial
paper is necessarily patterned after the
metropolitaa journals. 1t has to be in
order to maintain Its lead. This Will
explain, 100, why journalism is a bust
ness and no longer profession.
The strides of me newspaper business
during the last few years were unfore-
seen. it is evident, by even the most
astute and experienced journalists. TIC
prove this Mr. Kimball recalled pre-
diction made by Whitelaw Reid in the
course of his address in 1879.
Mr.. Reid said at that time that he
did not believe that the newspaper OF
1890 would be any bulkier than the pa
per of 1885, Newspaper business, he
said, was not bookmaking or magazine
work. Its special province was the
fCsanti7,,iad nm Pare 2l