Yet as no field can be absolutely free from dangerous germs, the may r" ready-print" ly the 8concealed s equaldanger avamatter he adhave Uanndeapparently matter minnocuous , and texterior. vigilancebeneath in cath If “ eternal vigilance is the
price of liberty ” in the state, it is equally the price the historian must pay for truth , and the advertising carried with " ready print" matter may be less innocent than the unwary suspect. Under the caption " A Real Case of Tainted News" an account
is found of the testimony given before a United States Senate Committee by George A . Joslyn, President of the Western
Newspaper Union that supplied “ ready-print" matter. This testimony was to the effect that plate matter was furnished the Union by persons who desired to further a particular cause , paid for by the persons interested , distributed to the news
papers free of charge, printed without marking it “ advertise ment,” and with no means of informing the public that the
matter had been paid for by persons interested in its circulation . The Western Newspaper Union had in this way received from the Canadian Government about $42,000 annually for twelve years to print in American country newspapers glowing descrip
tions of the agricultural resources of Canada, thus promoting
a propaganda under the guise of honest news. There is no way of estimating how large a proportion of the 800 ,000 farmers who had emigrated to Canada had been influenced to do so by
this " ready-print” matter.49
The counterpart of ready-to-print papers is found in the " ready-made” notices of books, the " literary notes," and the
" reading notice” sent out by publishing houses and used every where by newspapers that would scorn the use of ready-to -print matter. “ There is a firm in New York at the present time,” says Bliss Perry, " which agrees to place simultaneously in a
chain of syndicated newspapers both reviews and advertisements
of the books reviewed .” 50 The historian must find criticism atrophied whenever these " ready -made" notices are used .
Closely affiliated with the collection and distribution of news written form while the advertisements were printed in regular type because
it was supplied in plate form by the advertisers. — Literary Digest, Novem ber 1 , 1919, p . 63 : 11.
49 Collier's Weekly, June 6, 1914 . 50 “ The American Reviewer,” Yale Review , October, 19
