their policy with change of owners or of editors, and even the theory of journalism held by an editor may not be the same at
all stages of his career, as was apparently the case with Samuel Bowles.91
This shifting of the importance of the editor has led to a change in the form of writing; " the modern tendency has been ,” says Chisholm , " to make journalism less literary and at the same
time literature more journalistic," - a tendency recorded in the coining of the word " journalese."
One farther change in the newspaper may be considered both an internal and an external change. Its very name implies that its chief, indeed its only interest lies in questions of the hour or said , “ 'Yesterday' has almost ceased to exist for the newspaper
man ." 92 Yet however strong may be its insistence on its obliga
tion to reflect the present through the presentation of " news," the newspaper is more and more anchored in the past. No news paper could live for a week if it omitted from its columns every
thing that went back of the date of publication , - its main strength comes from the strong rope it twists of the news of the past and the news of the day. In news and in editorial, in special correspondence and in advertisement it is the past to which appeal ismade and it is the past that gives stability to the present.
The present can not be understood — the facts concerning it may be learned , but it can not be understood — without the knowledge that only a study of the past can give. It by no means follows that these tendencies make the press of any less value to the historian . It does follow that the center
of gravity changes its position as new elements are added and
tive importance of the press shifts from time to time. The ten dencies of the press differ at different times in different countries and to such an extent that it is impossible to make any state
ment concerning the press that is true at all times, or of all countries, or of any country at any one time. If, at the moment, 91 Review of The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles, by George S .Merriam . The Nation , December 31, 1885, 41: 553- 554.
» W . G . Bleyer, Newspaper Writing and Editing, p. 19.
