States was fighting Spain. The flaring streamer headline is not
in itself open to such hostile criticism as it has received: the
American people, with their hustle and bustle, seem to take
kindly to a paper which gives them the latest news of the hour
in a headline which can be read by those who run to catch trains,
and they do not consider it a piece of extravagance to pay one
cent or more for a newspaper which is prodigal in its use of
space. But when these sensational headlines are absolutely mis-
leading, or feature something that is silly or that has no per-
manent news interest, they are open to just criticism.
NEWSPAPER STRIKE IN NEW YORK
One of the most important newspaper strikes, at least in New York City, was the one that commenced on August 5, 1899, in the plant of The Sun. Until July of that year The Sun had put its news into type by hand composition, chiefly because Dana thought such composition gave a neater typographical appear- ance to the page, but it then determined to adopt machines to do the work. As the old hand compositors, not being familiar with the mechanism of the machines, were unable to set matter by this process, The Sun was forced to employ a number of ex- pert machinists. According to a statement issued by The Sun, the old compositors simply " stood by, looked on, and drew their salaries." The Typographical Union, on the other hand, in- sisted that the strike grew out of an attempt to make The Sun an open shop, and pointed by way of proof to an advertisement inserted in a Philadelphia newspaper asking for compositors to work on a newspaper a short distance from Philadelphia. After the strike had been declared, some of the men hired in Phila- delphia came to New York and worked on The Sun. With the assistance of The Evening Post, The Sun was able to get out its regular issues, but in reduced size. The strike was bitterly fought on both sides. The Sun, under Dana, had passed from a news- paper of the masses to one of the upper classes. For this reason it was better prepared to stand a strike than other morning papers of the city with larger circulation among the laboring people. Pressure was brought to bear upon advertisers to with- draw from the columns and the reading public was asked in vari-
