prices of the necessaries of life get into the country and raise wheat and pigs and potatoes. Then they, too, will want high prices for everything that grows out of the soil." (June 6, 1909.) A fourth was general organization of means of distribution yielding excessive profits. A fifth was the general extravagance of living, use of costly food and clothing and luxurious habits. "They say the times are changed, and we can get all these things and must have them. Very well, then; but don't complain about the increased cost of living." (December 20, 1909.) The Editor took such occasions to recall his readers to economical ways of life, telling them simplicity would reduce the high cost of living. "Population has outrun the proportional production of food. Food comes from the land and men and women don't like to work on the farm." (December 2, 1909.)
XVIII ETHICS OF JOURNALISM
Mr. Scott wrote on the ethical and moral side of many activities; nor did he neglect that side of his profession. And in an exposition of his opinions, it may be in keeping to note his cardinal ideas on the work of an editor or newspaper publisher. He called himself editor rather than journalist, for the latter name affected refinements that were alien to his character. His conception of an editor or publisher was one who was free from all alliances, political and commercial, that might trammel his service to the public as purveyor of intelligence. With such alliances, the publisher or editor could not command the public confidence nor exercise the influence on public opinion that a newspaper must have to be a virile force in a community. Independence, he said, is required of a newspaper, by the public, probably more than any other business. In 1909, when Mr. Scott declined the Mexican ambassadorship, tendered by President Taft, he was asked his reasons by a newspaper reporter in an Eastern city. He replied:
"I did not wish to tangle my newspaper with politics. . . . I am convinced that the ownership or editorship of a news-
