ers of the
world. In addition, a special corps of reporters and correspond- ents at strategic points not only at home, but also abroad, sup- plemented, but did not supplant, the cooperative agencies. The one-man commentator on the news became an editorial staff of several members. Their daily conferences made the editorial "we" a truth and a reality. But they still left a column or two for the letters of "Pro Bono Publico" and " Veritas," and let the cartoon, in a wordless editorial, state the policy of the paper. Pegs were driven in the walls of the sanctum for the hats of the city editor, the sporting editor, the dramatic editor, the literary editor, the Sunday editor, the financial editor, etc.
But this is going too fast with the story. During the war the people demanded the latest news, and in their efforts to supply this demand the newspapers had put forth every energy, regard- less of the cost. After the war the press realized that the reading public which had been accustomed to startling events would be no longer willing to go back to the newspapers of slavery days, and it continued the custom of seeking the news which interested the people. The chief contribution of the War of the States to American journalism, save for the mechanical improvements in production already listed in the preceding paragraphs, was the willingness of newspapers to spend money for news-gathering.
REACTIONS OF THE WAR
The war reacted in another way on the American newspaper: it put the editorial in the background. During the stirring days of 1860-65, readers began to care less for editorial opinions and more for the news. They came to speak no longer of The Herald as Bennett's paper, of The Times as Raymond's paper, or of The Tribune as Greeley's paper. Amid the gigantic struggle for the preservation of the Union they lost much of their interest in personalities. The newspapers, however, especially in the North, continued to have their party affiliations and were seldom free from a biased point of view. In New York, for example, The World continued to print items to show that the South was still disloyal; The Tribune, on the other hand, took quite the opposite point of view from that of its neighbor; midway be- tween the two was The Times, which in its neutral position
