The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-01-13

/
We should return
We are the busiest people in the
! world We compress more into a given
space Of time than any other race. Ours
/ is life Of hurry and rush and intensity.
/ We have little leisure Everything. with
/ the exception of our newspapers. is ad-
/ justed to the labor saving idea. 10 thc
! economy of time.
Our daily paper. however. is not at
/ all in keeping with our characteristic
! and modes of life. In it we nave expan-
sion carried to q point unequaled in anv
/ other country. It is not the natural
( product of the American temperament.
Instead Of quantity we should have
quality, Instead of expansion we should
/ have contraction and condensation a
short cut TO the news of the day.
To be in thorough harmony with our
way of doing things in other respects,
we should come down to a thumbnai
journalism, written in stenographic
characters. But this would be swinging
back to the other extreme It would not
be practical or possible.
That the limit is already reached in
point OF bulk there can be little doubt.
Bigger newspapers than those We have
today would be intolerable. We should
simply give up the task of reading them.
without even making a start
As it is now, with our great big me-
tTopolitan journals, rev people get much
beyond headline readfng-busy people, I
mean and we are all busy in this coun-
try
Condensation the Keynote to Good
Journalism.
/ often hear journalists talking about
a newspaper for busy business men, but
as a matter of fact our business men
are no buster than our whole race.
Every minute of our day is mapped out.
and we work on schedule time
This is as true of the women al home
as it IS OF the men at their Offices. II
is as true Of our society women as of
our lawyers, our merchants. or our
dnanciers- All alike. in all classes and
conditions of life, are rushed and hur-
ried from sunrise to sunset and from
sunset 10 midnight.
If the movement toward a more con-
else and rational kind of Journalism has
not already begun. I am willing to haz-
ard the opinion that it will not be much
longer delayed. When il does come. we
shall be a good deal better informed
than ne are today, for our newspapers
viii be small enough to be read and alb
sorbed.
But beyond the advantage to the
reader on the ground OF brevity. there
viii be the greater advantage of a bet
ter written newspaper. This will natu-
rally follow condensation.
Condensation itself means better
writing. and the combined savings in
the quantity of matter used, in white
paper, and in composition, Will be so
large an item that the publisher can
well afford TO pay much higher prices 10
the men who write his newspaper.
But there is an important Development
that IS going 10 play a chief part il
bringing our newspapers down 10 a ra-
tIonaI size and q establishing journal
ism on better aid broader lines than
ever before. It will be the combination
Of many newspapers under single own
ershiD
If I read the signs of the times
Alright, three or four years VIII show
great strides in this respect. IN fact,
IL is my belief that the newspapers. the
magazines. the books. and ali period
Gals of one kind and another will be
published by about three or four con
Germs.
The Grandest of Professions
Journalism is the grandest Of all the
professions It's scope is as wide as the /
world
The lawyer has comparatively few
clients The doctors patients viii not I.
number many more The clergyman s /
voice reaches a thousand ears, while the /
writer talks 10 hundreds OF thousands
often TO millions.
Formerly the orator swayed the pe0-
pie, but this is the day OF the writer.
the medium of the press h.
wieIds an influence so vast that he has
become an unequaled power for good OF
evil
Mr. Carnegie is giving away millions
on top Of millions 10 establish Libraries
all over the world. It is a splendid
philanthropy but in no sense compare
bic with what he might do for the peo-
pie with this same money used in estab-
fishing a chain OF high-grade news
papers
The library reaches but few people
the newspaper all the people. And it is
The daily influence Of the press that Is
most potent. It's teachings, whether for
good or otherwise. are unconsciousIy
absorbed.
With the exception of the common
school. there is no other force that so
mpresses itself upon our national char
lcter-
# you fix upon journalism for your
life work you Will enter upon career I,
hat has no limitations. There is. more
over. no calling, 1 believe, SO fascinat-
ng
The youngster who for the first time
sees something in the newspaper that
no has fashioned from his own vocabu-
AIRY is on the highest peak OF earthIv~