iveness
in all material used by the historian , other considerations must enter in if the periodical press is to be used as historicalmaterial.
Nothing is more persistently urged on the press in season and out
of season than the injunction to " tell the facts,” but the belief that the press can not be used to reconstruct the past because of
its manifold inaccuracies , is not well founded . It is true that the press may claim accuracy for itself, but in the very nature of things it is and must be inaccurate. But it must be remembered
that it is possible to make a fetish of accuracy. Literal accuracy, as has been seen in the case of verbatim official reports, interviews,
and illustrations, may often be misleading and in essence un
truthful; a specious accuracy is perfectly compatible with a genuine fundamental misconception of an existing situation and with ignorance of the real truth . On the other hand , it is perfectly
possible for an inaccurate report to be fundamentally authori
tative. The press does for themost part give the facts faithfully and well, as has been indicated in the numerous direct and in direct guarantees, voluntary and compulsory, given in , by, and for the press. But for the purposes of the historian something more is needed . Edward Dicey points out that if “ a foreigner
were to read the Times,and half a dozen other English newspapers, daily for years , his knowledge of English life and politics would
be extremely incomplete and erroneous, unless he had actually
lived enough in England to have acquired what may be called the key to the English press," and while the “ Hieroglyphics contain the history of Egypt . . . to understand the history, you must be able to read the characters." 1 It is not sufficient" to
tell the facts,” — all the facts may be accurately and truthfully told in regard to any event and yet the account of it may give
little understanding of its real meaning, — the mind of the seer , the poet, the philosopher is needed to interpret these facts, for
without interpretation they are but dry bones. This power of interpretation may come to a periodical through the force of a single dominating character, or it may come through the absolute suppression of all personalities to such an extent that the resulting paper is altogether impersonal, but through what
1 Edward Dicey, “ The American Press,” Six Months in the Federal States, I, 27 - 50 .
