The New York herald., 1922-11-12


important. is not primarily literary. Sup
pose we say that newspapers are the COM
mon people of letters, magazines are the
aristocracy. and books are the nobility In
this period after the Revolution. then. we
have no titled people. but We have a very
active middle and lower class; and with
literature as with nation il is these that
show the vitality of the present and the
promise for the future
These piebeians and aristocrats of lit
erature in that day were alike in one par
ticular. They could be established only by
men who were able to get the money to
do so and could afford to lose it if they
did not succeed; and generally it happened
that their founders did most of the writing
themselves. But these were almost the
only features which the two had in COM
mon- The newspapers wanted to tell the
people what was going on in their world
and how it could go on better; the maga-
zines wanted to appeal to and cultivate a
taste for good literature
Did you ever see a picture of George
Washington without his beautiful powdered
wig, done up in queue behind or tied with
ribbon? But Franklin, even when he
was sitting for his portrait. wore his thin
nish hair brushed straight back from his
forehead-no wig and powder and ribbon
for him, Yet one was not less manly than
the other nor his services less indispensa-
ble There you have the difference be-
tween the plebeian and the aristocrat in
the literature which we are talking about
now. Franklin knew and appreciated lit
erature of the more aesthetic kind. but he
was too busy telling people how-the world
was going on and how it might go better
to try to write it. Even the magazine which
he started in his younger days was called
a historical chronicle 1t was common
sense and comfort hat he tried to add TO
life. The aristOcrat tries to add interest
and beauty also. and it is the contribution
of the aristocratic magazines rather than
the no less noteworthy and important con-
tribution Of the newspapers. which con-
Germs a story of literature
But first we must speak of a very puz-
zling thing. Convinced as Washington and
Franklin and jefferson and all the rest
were. that democracy must depend on
the education of the people and thus on the
printing press. here the new nation had
gone and started post office without max
ing any arrangements to handle printed
matter, The Government refused to trans
port any at all. The individual postmaster
was more accommodating, and was in the
habit of sending the newspaper along with
the mail unoffieially and for nothing. Con
sequently when the bags were full he let
them wait over. This gave rise to as many
complaints from the publishers and sub
scribers as if they had been paying for
the service. Besides. the mail was always
late enough anyway, since the post never
travelled at night. In 1890 there were sew
enty-five post offices in the country. almost
three times as many as there had been
when the Declaration was signed, and five
years later there were 453. This tremendous
increase demanded constant reorganization
of the postal system: and the Government.
seeing that the posti iders were carrying
the newspapers anyway, decided to get
some revenue out of it. Consequently news
papers We're finally admitted officially to
the mails but not until about ten years
after the close of the war.
The newspapers, having had their trans
portation for nothing and merely at the
cost of inexpensive complaints from sub
scribers at the delay under the old system.
naturally protested. They were afraid
their subscribers wouldn't pay the one cent
extra for the sake of getting their papers
a day or so earlier But the new law proved