Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/233

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added to the paper. Irregularly at first, these articles on finance proved so popular that they became a regular department. In addition to the comment about the money market, stock quo- tations were given. According to The Herald, it was "the only paper in the city which gives authentic and daily reports of Wall Street operations, stocks, and the money market." Until 1838 the department was conducted entirely by Bennett. In reviewing the history of this department, he said in The Herald of February 20, 1869:

The daily financial report was begun by us when we started The Herald. We made it personally. Getting through that part of our va- ried labors that could be done at an early hour, we went to Wall Street, saw for ourselves what was in progress there, and returned with our report sketched out in fragmentary fly leaves of letters or other handy scraps of paper. We told the truth, for we were in the interest of the public; and the truth of that locality was not complimentary in those days any more than it would be now. War was made upon us right and left by the men whose little games were spoiled whenever the public came to know what they were at; and, strangest of all things for a war originating in that quarter, it was a "moral war." We lived through it, however.

Compelled to delegate our labor in the preparation of a financial report, we have always meant and still mean to keep that report as honest as it was in its origin; to constitute it a legitimate and exact record of what is honestly done in Wall Street, and an exposure a lay- ing bare to the eyes of the public of what is dishonestly done there. We will compound none of the villainies with the fellows who trade on public credulity to abuse public confidence. One journal shall tell what Wall Street really is and what is done there.

Wall Street had some excellent newspaper stories, as Bennett soon found out.

After the fire which destroyed the Ann Street printing-plant, Bennett announced the policy which, carried out in every detail, contributed much to the success of The Herald. That policy was : 11 In every species of news The Herald will be one of the earliest of the early." At the same time Bennett announced this policy he also said: "We mean to procure intelligent correspondents in London, Paris, and Washington, and measures are already adopted for that purpose." When the Sirius and Great Western crossed the Atlantic, with steam as the motive powe