Trollope who says that " in France the periodical press of the country is not allowed to guide public opinion .” 70 In Germany where the derogatory ideas of Bismarck in regard to journalists have prevailed and where the government has long regulated the press, anonymity has for the most part prevailed, - the pen has been held by “ the man higher up " and the name of the individual writer has mattered little . The historian must recognize the
habit of signature in the French press , of anonymity in the Eng
lish newspaper press and the early quarterlies and of signature in the later quarterlies and the monthlies, of an extreme tendency towards signature in all American periodicals, and of an incon spicuous anonymity in the German press . In each country , the
place of the press varies and signature or anonymity varies with it .
It is also this question of the place of the press that must deter mine whether the press is an organ or a forum . If it is an organ, anonymity must be the rule ; if it is a forum , signature is essential.
Frederick Harrison in the five hundredth number of the Nine teenth Century emphasizes the value of the principle for which that review has always stood — the signed article , that has per
mitted “ free public discussion by writers invariably signing their own names .” He substantiates his claim that it is a forum by long classified lists of both Englishmen and foreigners distinguished in all fields who have written for it on different and opposing sides.71
The question of the signed article in a periodical that aims to present all sides of disputed subjects is very different from the same question as it is presented to an organ of a particular political faith like the National Review . All of these phases of the subject are inherent in the press and all must be reckoned with .
These irreconcilable differences between writers who, for per sonal reasons, urge the signature of articles , and newspapers that, for the maintenance of authority , prefer anonymity affect mate rially the personality of the press. One element in its personality
70 A . Trollope, “ On Anonymous Literature,” Fortnightly Review , July 1, 1865, 1 : 491- 498.
71'“ The Nineteenth Century, No. D : A Retrospect. The First Fifty Volumes : 1877 - 1901,” Nineteenth Century and After, October, 1918 , 84: 785–
