on the subject, “ as developed by the American press during the last half-century have come to be, next to the news itself,
the most important part of our newspapers,” 68 the historian is ven ffor or ttheir h a new in athem actively interested own sake. He finds in them a record of a new and surprising development of successful fforts ttoo catch the reader 's eye, of the ideals and standards of eefforts the press , of newspaper management, of the tastes of newspaper readers , and he is interested in the light they unconsciously
throw on contemporary conditions of thought. The headline is one of the newspaper's own activities, rather than an allied activity , yet as one of the ramifications of language and litera
ture it forms a footnote in the consideration of that part of the subject.
Credit must at least be given to the press for keeping language in a fluid state . The chief agency in the coinage of words is to-day the newspaper , and this is especially seen in the trans formation of proper names into common nouns, adjectives and verbs.
These give records of passing interests of society often
left in no other way and of the permanent impression made on
their own times by men of inventive genius or of pronounced characteristics. Sometimes the words thus coined become a definite contribution to language, while often they pass with the
day's work .69 They are at all times successful in conveying through a single word a meaning otherwise understood only
through a circumlocution .70 The newspaper and the library , both public and private , have
intimate affiliations. The press records the growing interest in the establishment of new libraries, it publishes the accessions of new books, through book reviews it gives information in regard to their contents and value, and it publishes statistics of library circulation ; it publishes annotated bibliographies of important
subjects and it prepares lists of books available for various trades and occupations; it notes the public activities of libraries and 68 W . G . Bleyer, Newspaper, Writing and Editing, p . 271. 69 Marconigram , silhouette, rooseveltism , wilsonize, baedecker, chau
tauqua, boycott, gerrymander .
70 The expansion of an unauthenticated news item gave rise to the pleas antry, “ The result of creeling is something less than a whopper. It is some thing more than a fib . " - New York Tribune, August 18 ,
