Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-22
A Notable Bicentef1mial
Bv Frederic j. Haskin

now dalIies. The Baltimore American,
the philadelphia North American and
the Charleston News and Courier are
the most venerable.
The majority of the century old pub
lications are in the eastern states, of
course, Pennsylvania heading the list
with nineteen, followed by New York
with fifteen. Strangely enough, OHIO
comes next with nine, and then Massa-
chusetts whit seven. The st. Louis
Republic 101 years old, is the only one
west of the Mississippi river. The first
newspaper west of the Alleghenies was
the Kentucke Gazette of Lexington,
founded in 1887, and which still flour
ishes.
The growth of the newspaper busi-
ness was so great that by 1880 the
United States, with 100000 population,
had more newspapers than all Europe,
with 190,000,000 people. The American
record has been maintained and the
United States still has more newspa-
pers than all Europe, and until the rise
of the newspaper in Asia it had more
than all the rest of the world
The New York Herald, founded by
James Gordon Bennett In 1886, was the
first Of the modern school of news
papers. In December of that year a
great fire in New York destroyed
property worth $2O,O0O,0O0. Mr.. Bennett
wrote report of the fire with "hu-
man interest" embellishments. The
people were astounded, and the story
was repeated in the Herald the second
day in response to popular demand.
Before that time newspapers had de-
voted practically all their attention to
politics and political news and to news
from other cities. Local news was
ignored. If a fire occurred 1t was sup
posed that everybody knew about 1t
s,l. ,lrr I,l Gil 20,
print anything about it. That attitude
toward local news is responsible for
the fact that the first voyage of Rob-
ert Fultons "Clermont" was consld-
cred to be WORTH only seven lines in
the New York Evening Post, and not
that until after an advertisement of
the rates of passage to Albany was In
serted. Mr.. Bennett wrote all about
the great fire and made the great dis
covery that the people who see thing
are the very people who most want to
read about 1t. He made another dis
covery at the same time, that "hu-
man interest" is quite as much feat
ure of the news as is importance"
In England the Times became SUI
preme in the journalistic field in the
latter part of the eighteenth century.
In 1907 the Times sent a special eorre-
| spondent to the continent to report
| the Napoleonic wars. Before that time
the newspapers had depended alto
gether upon official sources for news.
Within year the Times demonstrated
the usefulness of the special corre-
spondent by furnishing important news
to the government days in advance of
the official dispatches. From that day
until this the special correspondent
has been an increasingly important
| factor in international affairs, and the
Times has occupied a position of COM
manding influence In political journal
! ism. But the English idea, as exem-
| plified in the Times, had to fall before
| the more catholic American idea, and
the English newspapers OF the largest
| circulation do not fail to realize the
| Importance of human interest"
These beginnings of the newspaper
| business were small and insignificant
compared with the journalism of to-
day. The invention of the locomotive
and the telegraph, each in turn, aided
enormously in the development of the
press. But the civil war in America
was the most potent factor in the evo-
lution of the newspaper of today. Dur
ing that conflict the American news
papers began the use of the telegraph
for gathering news, they illustrated
| their dispatches with drawings and
maps, and they learned how to write
| headlines and turn out extras.
The next great event in the develop
ment of the American press was the
| Spanish-American war. 1t wasn't much
| of war; as we see il now, but II
seemed to be the biggest thing in the
world just then. And the newspapers
did seemingly impossible things every
day, which they have continued to do
every day since. The close of the war
didn't end the war journalism at all.
For the last decade there has been lit
tie change in American newspapers ex-
cept that they have shared in the won
derful growth Of the nation.
If Mr.. Bennett, in 1910, when his
paper was five years old and a pros
porous sheet, with the facilities he
| then possessed, had undertaken to
publish the Sunday Herald as IL ap-
peared last week, his presses would be
running yet and the edition would not
be finished. Things progress rapidly in
these days; in fact, there has been more
progress In the newspaper business i'm
the last twenty years than there was
in the preceding $50 years since the
! birth of the first daily newspaper. What
wonders will be developed In the next
century no man may say. 1t appears
that war has most potent influence
upon journalism. If there shall be
great war in Europe, what then? What
with aeroplanes having wireless ap-
paratus attached, with dirigible bal
looms, with wireless telephones and
with things not now unfolded to the
gaze of man, Ii is q safe wager that
the newspapers would set a new mark
for themselves and fill every long-fet
want.
TOmOrrow--The American Congress:
1.-The Congress Today.