Loyola University Maryland - Evergreen / Green and Gray Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

Page 13 text:

THE LOYOLA ANNUAL 7 eminent, has kept pace with our national development. Up to the time of the Mexican War no systematic means of re- porting news had been introduced, and the news obtained was for the most part voluntary contributions, which were often semi-editorial. When the Civil War began the papers were able to gather news much more easily than before. A wonder- ful industrial development had taken place in this country, and great opportunities for advancement had arrived. The conditions were ripe for the rapid development of the news- paper, and the expected happened. American genius and ingenuity answered the call of the American newspaper. Reporters were engaged to collect the daily news, special correspondents and artists were sent to the field of battle that the news might be as prompt and as ac- curate as possible. The telegraph became the common means of communication, and in less than a year the American news- paper had entered upon a new era of marvelous development. From this time invention kept pace with the increased demand for newspapers. To give a record of the development of the newspaper would be to review the unparalleled progress in all science and art. The type is now set by linotype with as much ease as one would run over the keys of a typewriter. The Hoe octuple press is one of the marvels of the age, print- ing, cutting, folding and counting ninety-six thousand four, six or eight page papers and twenty-four thousand sixteen- page papers per hour. But in speaking of the newspapers of to-day, it is impossible to forego mention of one of the most conspicuous phases of journalism in this country — the Yellow Journal. These papers are a source of a great deal of evil in the country, for they tend to lower the reader’s character by presenting to him in print news which is of itself objectionable or which is presented in an objectionable manner. These papers are read.

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6 THE LOYOLA ANNUAL by the politicians and spoke only for that side whom they represented. The fact that so few papers were published in the early his- tory of America was due largely to the many difficulties which were encountered in printing the newspaper. Even in the early part of the nineteenth century newspapers were printed with very crude machinery and involved so much time and hard labor that the production of a large number of copies was out of the question. Later some iron presses were imported from England, and in 1822 the first power press was invented by Daniel Treadwell, of Boston, the power being furnished by a team of mules. None of these presses were well adapted to newspaper work, but in 1847 Richard M. Hoe, one of the great mechanical geniuses of this country, invented a cylinder press by which the mechanical ability of producing papers was almost immediately doubled, and which was in time destined to revolutionize the newspaper of America. Early in the nineteenth century the editor ceased to be the hired servant of the political bodies, and began to express his own views on different subjects. The editor now became the real writer of the paper and spoke to the people directly through the editorial columns of his paper. The newspaper became now a real medium of knowledge and not a mere presentation of news. This was the day of great editors, of which Horace Greely, the editor of the New York Tribune, was worthy of special mention. Their papers were made up for the most part of editorials, the aim of which was to convince and to educate, not to inform the public. The editor at this period was greater than his newspaper, and as a means of educating and elevating the people of the United States this era of newspapers was unparalleled in the history of journalism. The newspaper, as one of the great institutions of our gov-

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8 THE LOYOLA ANNUAL be it said to the credit of the American people, by only the inferior class. The evolution of the American Newspaper is the greatest wonder of the age. In 1800 there were 200 newspapers in the United States, in 1905 there were 22,512. In the place of the wooden press, which was hardly capable of printing 200 copies a day, we have the giant octuple Hoe press, belching forth 1,600 16-page papers a minute, or 26 papers every second. Thousands of correspondents and reporters with headquarters in every quarter of the globe have taken the place of the in- dividual editor, who in the early days was reporter and printer alike. The locomotive, steamship, telegraph, telephone and wireless telegraphy have taken the place of the sailing vessel, stage coach and mail carrier as a means of communicating nev s. Journalism of to-day is a business and the newspaper is the daily history of the world ; it is the educator of the people, and the rostrum of the sage and scientist, the author, the poet and the philosopher. As a profession the newspaper work stands among the highest in the land. The American News- paper represents the perfection of the art of printing, the cul- mination of all progress in science and in art, the embodiment of all advancement and development in the civilization of the world. It is the living monument to the mind of man, and especially to the American Nation, in whose midst it has been reared. V. J. Browr Jr., ’10.