Year: 1879

the address of Whitelsw Reid, editor
Of the Tribune, delivered before the
convention Of the New York Press
Association, June 18th. at Rocbes-
ter:


1t was pleasant .conceit Of Hen
lry watterson's tnst,s eff Shakespeare
were living now, be would be an ed
ilor. The fancy might have fallen
better upon contemporary of Shakes
peare's-the greatest, wiscst, meancst
Of mankind, who anticipated the mod
ern newspaper. in taking all knowl-
edge to be in his province But news
papers are many and perpetual
Shskespeares and Bacons come once
in the centuries Yet Of this we NAV
be sure.


The field for advantages through
enterprise in the mere getting Of
news is about exhausted The great
newspapers can now all command
substantially the same facilities.
Generally speaking, the news one
gets another can get if it wishes. Re
curing then. to Waterson's conceit,
it seems safe to say that in the next
great stage Of journalism the enter
prise that now exhausts itself on cost
ly cable dispatches will go 10 men
who can make great news feature
valuable rather from me storyit tells
than from the money spent in car
ryIng it to you who will buy for you
costly thing rather than challenge
your admiration merely for the mon
ey spent in the costly transportion Of
thing of less moment If il must
send Stanley to Africs-and we
may well hope that feats so brilliant
can be repeated-it will send also a
Mscaulsy to tell bis story for him.


Why should the busy man read
the history of yesterday at greater
disadvantage than the history Of a
hundred years ago? Yet that Of a
hundred years ago has been most
carefully collated, sifted, winnowed,
relieved of surplusage, arranged in
proper perspective. You are not
forced to read the official documents,
to burrow among the dry reports,
to study with minute and psinstaking
care the disjecta membrG You are
not loaded with facts that are useless,
particulars that give no form or color
to the picture All the waste is re-
moved.


Thousands Of pages are searched
to give you one, but on that one is
all you need know. A moderately
industrious man might spend his life-
time reading the authorities on which
Motley constructed the history Of the
Dutch Republic, yet who-speaking
of intelligent people in the mass, not
of individual investigstors-who
cares for the authorities. Who wants
anything but Motley The greatest
of recent narrative successes mas been
Green's "Short History Of the Eng
lish People" Why shall not the
most enterprising journal Of the next
decade be that which shall still en-
ploy colossal capital to gather all the
news, and then crown and fructify
its expenditure by having staff Of
Greens and Froudes to tell it.


This, then, / conceive, to be the
next great revolution in journalism.
We shall not have cheaper newspa-
pers They are the cheapest thing
sold now, considering the cost Of ma
king them We shall not have con-
tinuslly growing supplement upon
supplement Of advertising. Indiyid-
ual wants will seek mediums more
suitable


Only general wants will seek the
wider publicity of great journals, and
these viii be kept, by the increasing
cost, within manageable compass.
We SHALL not have more news. The
world is ransacked for it now. Earth,
sea and air carry it 70 Us from every
capital, from every people, from ev-
cry continent and from every island.
We shall not have bigger newspa-
pers they are bigger now than
busy people can read We shall
have better newspapers the story
better told better brains employed
in the telling briefer papers papers
dealing with the more important Of
current matters il such style and
with such fascination that they will
command the widest interest There
will be more care and ability in se-
lecting. out Of myriads Of things you
might tell, the things that the better
people want to be told. or ought to
be told. There will be greater skill
in putting these things before them
in the most Convenient and attract
i've shape. Judgment in selecting the
news genius in telling it-thst is
the goal for the highest journalistic
effort Of the future.


In making q newspaper the heav-
lest item Of expense used TO be the
white paper Now il is the news.
By and By, let us hope, it will be the
brains.