Page:The Newspaper and the Historian.djvu/195

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Yet as no field can be absolutely free from dangerous germs, the may r" ready-print" ly the 8concealed s equaldanger avamatter he adhave Uanndeapparently matter minnocuous , and texterior. vigilancebeneath in cath If “ eternal vigilance is the

price of liberty ” in the state, it is equally the price the historian must pay for truth , and the advertising carried with " ready print" matter may be less innocent than the unwary suspect. Under the caption " A Real Case of Tainted News" an account

is found of the testimony given before a United States Senate Committee by George A . Joslyn, President of the Western

Newspaper Union that supplied “ ready-print" matter. This testimony was to the effect that plate matter was furnished the Union by persons who desired to further a particular cause , paid for by the persons interested , distributed to the news

papers free of charge, printed without marking it “ advertise ment,” and with no means of informing the public that the

matter had been paid for by persons interested in its circulation . The Western Newspaper Union had in this way received from the Canadian Government about $42,000 annually for twelve years to print in American country newspapers glowing descrip

tions of the agricultural resources of Canada, thus promoting

a propaganda under the guise of honest news. There is no way of estimating how large a proportion of the 800 ,000 farmers who had emigrated to Canada had been influenced to do so by

this " ready-print” matter.49

The counterpart of ready-to-print papers is found in the " ready-made” notices of books, the " literary notes," and the

" reading notice” sent out by publishing houses and used every where by newspapers that would scorn the use of ready-to -print matter. “ There is a firm in New York at the present time,” says Bliss Perry, " which agrees to place simultaneously in a

chain of syndicated newspapers both reviews and advertisements

of the books reviewed .” 50 The historian must find criticism atrophied whenever these " ready -made" notices are used .

Closely affiliated with the collection and distribution of news written form while the advertisements were printed in regular type because

it was supplied in plate form by the advertisers. — Literary Digest, Novem ber 1 , 1919, p . 63 : 11.

49 Collier's Weekly, June 6, 1914 . 50 “ The American Reviewer,” Yale Review , October, 19