nizes, with
out extenuating, these conditions. He finds in them , however, records of conditions that are world -old and that whether of good or evil form part of the warp and woof of his material.
Whether these criticisms of the authoritativeness of the press are justified by fact or not, they can not be ignored and the historian must ask what precautions have been taken by the press itself to minimize them or to prevent their future occurrence.
An important means used by the press itself to insure as far as possible the authoritativeness of its statements is found in the
building up of special libraries in connection with every great newspaper, in the organization of systemsofnewspaper exchanges , in the formation of enormous collections of clippings and illustra
tive material, and in advance preparation of much biographical material to be available in any emergency. More than a hundred years ago Jerdan began the collection of newspapers in connection with his editorship of the Literary Gazette and lists various German , French , and Austrian journals
for which he subscribed, together with some twenty-six German , Belgian, Dutch , French , Spanish, and Portuguese journals that were “ ransacked for intelligence" " so as to furnish a better-culled and far more ample mass of continental intelligence, than had
ever been dreamed of before (or probably since ) for English
readers." 48 History is a safer field than prophecy and Jerdan could not have anticipated the remarkable development that has come in newspaper offices in the collection of this material. The press itself realizes that the distrust with which it is re garded springs largely from its own inaccuracy and carelessness
and that it must itself remedy this condition if it is to have the confidence of its readers . A considerable number of great metro
politan dailies have initiated measures intended to stamp out this inaccuracy as far as it is possible to do so.49 48 Autobiography, II , 370 - 371.
49 The New York World established , July , 1913 , a Bureau of Accuracy and Fair Play . During the first two years of its existence it considered seven hundred and eighty -seven cases involving accuracy or fair play in the
news and editorial columns.
Every complaint received was carefully
inquired into , the complaints sustained numbered four hundred and ninety eight, and the corrections published two hundred ninety -one. In addition there were sixty -eight publications in the interests of fair play where the
World had not been at fault. - I. D . White , Biennial Report of Bureau of Accuracy and Fair Play, 1915 .
