circulation that the newspaper has that fixes its value as an advertising medium. It is more the character and standing of its readers, the appearance of the paper, its news features, its editorial ability and its general standing in the community." That was in 1891, the very moment when the " yellow " press was making its first success. Five years later Mr. Ochs acquired the New York Times, and set about to rebuild it, a task of formidable proportions, for the Times, in spite of an honourable history, was then struggling along with a circulation of hardly more than 10,000. Within 20 years the Times had built up a circulation of 325,000 (1916) and its total annual revenue was in the neigh- bourhood of $5,000,000, two-thirds from advertising.
The encouraging example of the New York Times and a few other newspapers, notably the Chicago Daily News and the Kansas City Star, was coincident with an advance in the theory and practice of advertising which had widespread results. It came to be seen that the effect of an advertisement was influenced to a large degree by the character of the newspaper in which it appeared, and that an incredulous reader of the news columns was likely to be an incredulous reader of the advertisements. Experience also showed that the character of the circulation was quite as vital as its extent.
Thus the influence of advertising, coupled with a natural desire for prestige and authority, served to act as a corrective for some of the worst evils that had been noted in the American press. Towards the end of the decade there was a marked im- provement in the accuracy and impartiality of the news columns.
During the World War, most valuable work, particularly in aiding the Government, was done by the American press. In promoting the draft and Liberty Loans, the newspapers gave notable assistance. Mr. J. M. Lee (American Journalism, 1917) notes that the outbreak of the war temporarily at least revived an interest in the editorial; he adds that " once again American journalism found its;lf divided into two groups, one which was pro- Ally, the other which was pro-German." As a matter of fact, the English-language pro-German press was relatively insignifi- cant and lacking in influence, even at the beginning of the war, and to speak of the other press, the truly American press, as pro-Ally in the same sense that the pro-German newspapers were pro-German is false. The pro-German press put German in- terests above all other interests, American as well as Allied, while it could not be said that the American newspapers, even though largely committed to the Entente cause, ever proposed a sacrifice of American rights and principles. The distinction is important, because it explains why much German propaganda failed. German interests, for example, advanced funds for the purchase of an English-language newspaper in New York, but as soon as the heavy hand of German propaganda was seen in its news and editorial cola Tins it fell into disrepute.
The German-language press, which during the period of neutrality had sorely tried American patience, became after the United States entered the war a positive menace. " The bulk of the German-American press in this country," said the Atlantic Monthly in July 1917, " consists frankly of enemy papers," and there was a very natural de nand for their suppression. Congress, however, preferred to rely on regulation, and various powers to this end were concentrated in the hands of the Postmaster-General by the laws of June 15 1917 (the Espionage Act) and Oct. 6 (the Trading with the Eneny Act). Under these laws seditious matter was made non-mailabb, besides subjecting the publisher to heavy penalties, and the Postmaster-General was given ex- traordinary powers to determine what was mailable and under what circumstances. Foreign-language periodicals, for example, were required to file with the Postmaster-General translations of all articles commenting on the war unless by special licence they were absolved from this obligation. Another agency was also created to deal with questions of war news and opinion. This was the Committee on Public Information, appointed by the President shortly after the United States entered the war, which sought at the outset to impose a " voluntary censorship " on the press. Its activities, however, were chiefly devoted to spreading propaganda for the American cause.
Most of the German-language press avoided suppression or prosecution by adroitly disguising its known sentiments. The Espionage Act was, as a result, invoked mainly in cases such as that of the Milwaukee (Wis.) Leader, an English-language news- paper edited by Victor Berger. The Postmaster- General revoked the permit under which the paper was mailed as second-class matter on the ground that it had frequently violated the Espio- nage Act. In March 1921 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the action of the Postmaster-General, and asserted the doctrine that this official was empowered at any time to deny future mailing rights to any periodical which had in the past contained articles that seemed to him unmailable. There was no question as to the anti-Government tendency of the Leader, but advocates of free speech saw in this and similar decisions a possible menace to the liberty of the press, especially if the same powers were to be exercised by the Postmaster- General in times of peace. The subject was exhaustively treated by Professor Chafee, of the Harvard Law School, in his Freedom of the Press, 1920 (see also Professor Chafee's article in 112 N.Y. Nation 428).
According to the census of 1914, the number of foreign lan- guage publications in the United States was about 1,450, of which the dailies had a combined circulation of 2,600,000 per issue, and the weeklies a circulation of 4,240,000, as against 1,786,000 for the dailies and 2,544,000 for the weeklies in 1909. There were in 1914 160 daily newspapers printed in more than 20 languages and dialects. Of these the German newspapers were rrost nu- merous. At the outbreak of the World War there were 55 Gerrran- language dailies with a circulation per issue of 823.,ooo. Toward the close of the decade there was a marked decrease in the num- ber of foreign-language papers, especially those printed in Ger- man. The total number of German papers declined from 490 in 1918 to 278 in 1920, but this decline was due in part to conditions which affected the entire newspaper industry.
The following table shows the extent of the foreign language press in 1920:
The Foreign-Language Press. ( United States.)
i "
.b ^
tfi
3 ijj^
.<8
<->
0) bo a
3
6
'1
1||
3
OJ JU
111
M
C
a
"rt o
IM
O
- C MJ g O
1*H
o
S MJ On
_]
H
0*
S'ijS
6
i."
^*
/""? ^
(U 3
(-1 u
^
Arabic
7
4
I5,OOO
Armenian
7
2
IO.OOO
3
6,OOO
Bohemian
48
9
I25,OOO
19
150,000
Chinese .
7
4
25,OOO
3
I5,OOO
Croatian .
10
2
3O,OOO
5
5O,OOO
Czechoslovak
5
I
IO.OOO
3
4O,OOO
Finnish
24
6
5O,OOO
6
4O,OOO
French
47
9
5O,OOO
22
75,000
German .
248
26
500,000
166
I ,COO,OOO
Greek
15
2
67,OOO
10
50,000
Hollanrlish
13
ii
40,000
Hungarian
28
3
IO5,OOO
18
90,000
Italian
103
ii
3OO,OOO
80
325,000
Japanese .
H
ii
5(),OOO
I
8,000
Lithuanian
17
4
5O,OOO
8
40,000
Norwegian & Danish
52
2
3O,OOO
36
200,000
Polish .
77
18
4OO,OOO
53
600,000
Portuguese
23
I
4,000
9
25,000
Russian .
9
2
70,000
4
55,ooo
Serbian .
7
2
20,000
5
50,000
Slovak
28
6
75,000
20
225,000
Slovenian
IS
3
26,000
7
45,000
Spanish .
94
6
60,000
47
125,000
Swedish .
55
40
525,000
Swiss
6
3
10,000
Ukrainian
10
4
15,000
Yiddish .
37
13
600,000
22
375.000
Miscellaneous*
21
3
11,500
9
35.ooo
Total .
I.O27
ISO
2,68vsoo
614
4,214,000
- Includes Albanian (3), Bulgarian (i), Esthonian (i), Belgian-
Flemish (2), Lettish (2), Hebrew (4), Ladino (Spanish Jew) (2),
Persian (i), Rumanian (3), Welsh (2).
