1904.
heightened earning power , tend to steady them . . . . Just be cause a great sum is invested, it can not be imperiled by allowing unscrupulous men to make use of the newspaper property ; for
that way ruin lies, in the end.” 25 The press itself has never been backward in expressing its
strictures on others. In time of war, it is prone to measure all citizens by its own standard of patriotism and to pronounce anathemason allwho do not conform to these particular standards.
In time of peace, it is equally prone to scent evil where no evil exists and in some cases it has relentlessly persecuted innocent persons and driven them into exile. It is ever prone in war and in peace to accuse those whom it opposes of being “ in the pay ” of
some objectionable faction. Carl Schurz was forty years ago accused by the press of being “ in the pay ” of the Prussian gov ernment, ofbeing a spy on the German political refugees in Amer
ica, and of receiving fabulous sums for his political speeches.26 The judgment then meted out to a distinguished citizen of America by political opponents represented on the press has had many counterparts both before and since that time. It has to many seemed a righteous judgment on the press that it has in turn been “ hoist by its own petard ” and that it has so often been charged by its critics with being “ in the pay of” Wall
Street, or of the “ interests,” or of being owned by corporations. Troublesome as is the question of the general authoritative ness of the press under normal conditions and in time of peace , it becomes infinitely complicated in time of war. There exists a rigorous censorship not only of actual war news but of much
that in ordinary times would be published without question . Much news is suppressed lest it bring discouragement alike to
civilians and to the troops. “ When will French Governments understand," writes Henry Labouchere in despair, “ that it is far
more productive of demoralization to allow no official news to be published than to publish the worst? " 27 The opposite habit of 35 Rollo Ogden , “ Some Aspects of Journalism ,” Atlantic Monthly, July , 1906 , 98 : 12 - 20 .
26 Carl Schurz , Reminicences, II, 133, et seq . 27 Diary of the Besieged Resident in Paris, p. 12, September 19, 1870. The Diary is made up of the letters sent by Labouchere from Paris to the London Daily News.
