Ten years later, in October, 1856, the General News Associa-
tion of the City of New York was organized with Gerard Hal-
lock, of The Journal of Commerce, as its president, and Moses S.
Beech, of The New York Sun, as secretary. The other newspapers
which were charter members of the Association were The Ex-
press, The Herald, The Tribune, The Courier and Enquirer, and
The Times. The purpose of this Association was to reduce the
cost in collecting and receiving the news. Hallock remained presi-
dent of the Association until 1861, when he was succeeded by
D. H. Craig, who had already achieved distinction with his
press pigeons first at Baltimore and then at Boston. Designed
at first to gather news for its New York members, the Associa-
tion gradually extended its service to take hi papers in other
cities. It came to be known as the Associated Press of New York,
though it never organized or incorporated under any such title.
EDITORIAL GIANTS
During the decade of 1850-60 the editorial policy reached its highest development hi the matter of influence. True, this period was one of the most pivotal in the history of the American Republic. In it the Democratic Party began to organize. The Whig Party was wiped out, and the Republican Party was born. The newspaper, both in the North and the South, had an opportunity to discuss a question which was destined later al- most to split the Republic into two Governments. In the North especially, the editorial influence was felt where there was almost universal opposition to the spread of slavery. Such a great moral issue naturally brought out editorials of unusual strength. Of these, possibly special mention should be made of those of Greeley in The New York Tribune; those of Webb in The New York Courier and Enquirer; those of Forney in The Philadelphia Press; those of Bowles in The Springfield Republican; those of Medill in The Chicago Tribune; those of Raymond in The New York Times; those of Schouler in The Cincinnati Gazette; those of Bryant in The Evening Post; and those of Weed in The Albany Evening Journal. In this connection a remark of Horace White, while editor of The New York Evening Post, should be quoted on the value of the editorial page: he once asserted that "a news-
