The age-herald., 1900-12-26
HARMOWORTH ON
 OUR NEWSPAPERS Says That United States is Ahead
 of Great Britain LATTER DAY JOURNALISM The Famous English Newspaper Man Says the Press Has Lost Much
 of It's Power-News is
 Wanted Worst.

New York, December 25.-Alfred Harms worth, editor and proprietor of the London Daily Mail, who is a passenger on the Teu- tonic due in New York tomorrow, has con- tributed to the January number of the North American Review an article on what he calls "The Simultaneous Newspapers of the Twentieth Century," MT. Harmsworth expresses the opinion that in spite of all the progress that has been made in the develop nient of the newspapers hitherto, We are still merely at the fringe of journalistic development Of newspaper illustration he says:
 An occasional newspaper illustration, if it can be properly produced, is no doubt a good thing, and is appreciated as helpful by the reader; but many of the present-day Illustrations are quite unnecessary, and are merely given matter of habit, or be- cause rival journals use them. No daily journal which relies principally upon it's illustrations has been, in any real sense, an overwhelming success"
 MT. Harmsworth takes exception to the hopelessly clumsy shape of the ordinary newspape..
 With the newspapers of the whole civili- izeu world before me, he says, each week l look in vain for any great and impressive stroke of originality or daring. We still cling to the clumsy and awkward shape in which our newspapers are issued By the use of improved machinery 1t would be pos sibe to issue the newspaper of the future in what is obviously its proper form, a smal portable and neatly indexed publication
 According to Mrs. Harmsworth, the news papers that are now making progress, set ting aside the entire lack of commercial morality, are some of the French journals
 Power of the Press.
 The power of the press Is not what it used to be, in MT. Harmsworth's opinion, This, he says, is especially true of Eng land, where the editorial or leader, which was formerly read and quoted by all men Of intelligence, is now scarcely glanced at The great cry is for news.
 MT. Harmsworth pays high tribute to the press of the United States being in one respect far in advance of the British press. "The question: he says what to put before the public and in what manner to place itbefore them, is one that calls for the keenest acumen and the best Judgment on the part of newspaper directors. Here, undoubtedly, the press of the United States is in advance of that of Great Britain Such newspaper leaders as Dana, Bennett, Hearst, Raymond, Jones' Childs, Medill, Lawson Russell, Cummings, Taylor, Hal stead, Patterson, Deoung, Singerly, God
 kin, Greedy, Mckelway Waterson and Will burstorry have but few counterparts with us. The instinct that tells what is news and how the public will best take it, is not given to either writer. There is a greater art in feeling the pulse of the people"
 Predicting what the journals of the twen- tieth century will be, he says
 T feel certain that the newspaper of the twentieth century will be drawn into the vortex of combination and centraliza- ton. In fact, give the man the capital, the organization and the occasion, and there seems to be no reason why one or two newspapers may not presently domi- nate great sections of the United States or almost the whole of Great Britain. In others, where there are now a multitude of papers-good, bad and indifferent-there will then be one or two great journals. The methods by which such journals would be established would be precisely those employed in the formation of an ordinary trust. Possessing it's own cables, wires, dispatch boats and special trains, the si- multaneous newspaper concern would soon have its own paper mills, printing ink fac- tories, machine shops, and the like. Simultaneous Newspapers. '"The simultaneous newspaper would rep resent a standard of excellence which has
 
 vast resources it would be able to carry out on an unprecedented scale enterprises outside of the strict newspaper field. MT Pulitzer's wonderful stroke of jour- nalistic genius in connection with the bond issue, MT. Hearst's successful appeal to the people on the war issue between the United States and Spain and the work of British newspapers in connection with the South African campaign go to show what can be done in the direction of inhuenc- ing public opinion even under existing cir cumstances Imagine then, the influence which would be exerted if an overwhelm- ing majority of the newspapers In the Uui- ted States spoke with the same voice, SUD- ported the same principles and enunciated the same policy.
 Such a state of things would be a ter TOT to evil-doers and 10 the supporters of anything inimical to the commonwealth MT. Harmsworth Is strongly of the opin- ion that the newspaper should not be par tisan in a political sense, but should en deaVOr to represent the will of the peonle