The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-02-22
C0UE FINDS AMERICA
 UNDER DOMINATION OF. NEWSPAPER OPINIONS

Copyright 1923. United States. Great
 Britain and South America by North
 World (Press Publishing Company and
 The Age Herald. All rights reserved.
 Unlicensed reproduction in full or in
 part expressly prohibited.)
 By EMILE CoUE
 America is a nation of newspaper readers. Nowhere else in the world do people display such an unsuitable hunger for news or other matter to be found in the daily journal. I am almost tempted to say newspapers constitute the principal feature of American streets, so much are they in evidence. At every corner one sees a little stall with stacks of them piled high in front of the vender. The sidewalks and roads are filtered with cast away sheets. The building sites, of which there seems to be one to every three blocks in New York, are convenient dumping grounds for papers thrown away by passersby. Fresh editions are put on the streets all day long and are devoured instantaneously by the still news-hungry public. Three per- sens out of four in the subway trains have their noses buried in their pa pers to and from their place of busi- ness. And it is the same in every city. One wonders if the general American public finds time to read anything elso, or if it's chief literary food is not furnished by the papers.
 T. is easy to see what a tremendous Influence the daily papers must have upon the American people. For tunately, their influence, on the whole. appears to be good. morally and intellectually. With the excep- tion of what you call a yellow" tendency in certain but small sec tion of the press, American journals, besides being the most enterprising in the world, endeavor to live up to ideals of surprisingly high order. By their conception of the role as- signed to them as educators and en- of the people, they have accepted big and important share of that task of nation building to which I have referred in previous ar ticles.
 In my hurried tour of American cities I was often surprised to see in local papers articles and sigma tures which I had already seen in New York. Generally, such articles treated of matters connected with literature, art, the theatre, music and science. Inquisitive, I asked why and wherefor; and thus learned all about the system of newspaper syndicating, which, apparently. is practised mo- where outside America, at least, to the same degree. What gigantic machine for the dissemination Of ideas, Superficially, the system may seem to be just another example of American enterprises. It is.
 
 IT csuIt of Natural Laws.
 But to me it has an infinitely deeper significance. Geographical, economic and political conditions have created the ssd for it. America is such a large country, and the na- ticn is still not fully developed. A continuous liaison was indispensable between the political and intellectual centers in order to meet the wish Of the different states, many of them from the capital Chow many Europeans realize that an express train takes five days to cross the com tinent from ocean to ocean?) man. ifesting differing tendencies and de- veloping along separate lines. So to my mind the peculiar business policy of American journalism is the result of natural laws.
 American newspapers are the ve- hicles of thought, or arteries, or nerves. which establish a constant circulation of intellectual energy be- tween the brain eenters and the most distant parts of the country. For 8 growing nation like America, with its mass of imperfectly digested for eign elements, they probably con- stitute the most potent, if not the only means of welding this hetero- genous people into thoroughly nation, both politically and intellectual. It is impossible to overestimate their power in this re- spect Their force of suggestion in the matter of moulding public opin- ion and guiding national development must be colossal. And, as l have said, I believe the newspapers do their work well and conscientiously.
 Just as one illustration among thousands of others. I should like to of an idea by the news papers. In almost every paper I picked up in the. different cities l found an article urging people to build and giving the reasons. l have just seen figures showing building throughout the country has increased by more than 30 per cent within a year.
 O O o
 Impressed by Size.
 Americans are accustomed to their papers, but the foreigner cannot but be impressed and amazed at the size of them and the quality and diversity of their contents, especially of the Sunday editions of the leading or gans. Often running to a hundred pages. they are veritable encyclo- paedias and constitute faithful mirror of the worlds thought and activity in every branch of intel lectual, artistic, scientific, political and economic life. There-is food for thought in them for all. The literary supplement-. for instance, embraces the worlds productions and each ar ticle is written in such way that, when one has read it, he feels as if he had read the book it reviews, in- stead of the usual tiresome plati- tudes poured out in Europe in the guise of criticism"
 There Is q short, brightly-written lesson in American history for the children; story by leading Amer ican author. and articles on every topical phase of home or foreign movement, social, political or intel C. Watson, Mrs. M. c. Malone, Miss Esther Arnold, Miss Ellen Rhodes, Miss Katherine Parker, Miss Mar guerite Alverson, Mrs. G. F. Martin, MT. McVickers and MT. Sloggett.