Charles G. Ross

“ The age of personal journalism in its old sense has passed. In the new era the writer’s personality counts for just as much, or more, but he must use it wholly as an instrument belonging to his newspaper and the public. It is not meant by this that he must work always by rule and line, but that he must refrain from coloring his story with his personal prejudices and opinions. ”

“ I have always cared much for style and have endeavored to improve my own by reading a great deal of the best English and French prose. In writing, as in music, much of the perfection of style is a question of ear, but much also depends on the ideal the writer sets before himself. He ought, I think, to aim at the greatest possible simplicity and accuracy of expression, at vividness and force, at condensation. The last two heads will usually be found to blend; for condensation, when it is not attained at the sacrifice of clearness, is the great secret of force. ”

“ Is the machine to be the servant or the master of the people? This is a question that each nation must answer for itself.
Through a shorter work week without reduced pay, conceivably we in the United States could so diffuse the benefits of the machine among the people that "purchasing power" would be brought back to the production level and the nation set on the way to a new prosperity—a healthier prosperity than that of the vaunted Coolidge era. This, as we have shown, can only be done through the voluntary or enforced renunciation of excessive profits. ”

“ The speed with which stories are put together in the newspaper office, especially when the writer is working to “catch an edition,” is one factor that makes news writing forcible. Working under pressure, the reporter writes with a nervous, hurried energy that makes for short sentences and quick, telling phrases. He has no time for involved construction and prettiness of language. His aim is to “feature” the big facts of the story—to put what he calls a “punch” into the lead. What such a story lacks in elegance it makes up in force. ”

“ Take the story of death in a tenement house fire. There is the outline, the basic fact, of stories without number; yet each story, told with its wealth of human, moving detail, has the power to affect the reader as if the theme itself were absolutely new. A dozen houses in the same block look alike from the outside; yet the life that each conceals is different from the life in all the others. ”

“ The measure by which we have fallen short of this ideal is the measure of the failure of capitalism as now organized. How far short we have fallen, the stark figures testify. The wealth created by the machine has gone, in appalling disproportion, to the owners of the machine. To the millions of manual workers displaced by the machine, it has given not leisure with the means to enjoy it, but the evil twin of leisure, which is idleness. The perversion of the machine from its proper use has brought about our present condition of unemployment. ”

“ A man is able in a work day to create wealth eguivalent to his necessaries for subsistence and something over. The employer gets together a number of laborers and receives all or part of this surplus for himself. His income is in proportion to the number of human labor hours which he controls and out of which he makes his profit. If the employer installs a machine which enables one man to produce in eight hours, let us say, the equivalent of 80 human labor hours, then the employer is in the same position with respect to income as if he had 10 men instead of one working for him. ”

“ If a story is not accurate, it is not news in the best sense.
Accuracy implies more than mere grammatical correctness. It means more even than the stating of every fact with precision. A story may be taken to pieces, fact by fact, and every sentence found to be correct; yet the whole may give a false impression. Accuracy means the spirit as well as the letter of the truth.
OBSERVATION
Truthful, precise writing is the fruit of accurate observation. If one would write news, he must learn first to see news clearly and without prejudice. Therein the trained reporter excels the casual observer. ”

“ For the machine, whatever we may think of it, is with us to stay, and our problem is so to readjust its effects as to minimize its evils and equitably distribute its benefits.
The maldistribution of wealth is the fundamental cause of our economic sickness. If we liken society to a tree, we may say that disease has attacked the roots, causing the tree to give off, instead of the luxuriant foliage of which it is capable, the withered leaves of unemployment. ”

“ In looking for the feature do not descend to the trivial. To return to an illustration just used, don’t write the lead of your fire story on the rescue of the family cat and overlook the fact that human lives were lost. Originality does not consist in straining after a feature at the expense of the vital things in a story. Triviality comes with cynicism. The power to be truly original, to put life into a story based on a commonplace theme, comes with the broad, human sympathy that results from keeping the impression ever fresh. ”

“ In other words, the shrinkage of foreign trade by one and one-half billions amounts to only 2 or 3 per cent of our total productivity. Yet as a result of all the adverse forces our production has been reduced by, roughly, ten or twelve billions. This sharp contrast between a national shrinkage of, say, twelve billions, and a loss of one and one-half billions from export trade is an indication of the disarrangement of our own internal production and consumption entirely apart from that resulting from decreased sales abroad. ”

“ Everything interests the new reporter. As he gains familiarity with the work, there is danger that his viewpoint will become jaded. Especially if he is covering the same run of news day after day must he fight against this tendency to fall into a rut. The newspaper has no use for the man in a rut. The reporter who becomes cynical loses the news writer’s best asset, the power to feel the pathos or the injustice or the humor of the thing he is writing about. If he himself cannot feel his story he is not likely to impress the reader with it. ”

“ Every Congressman wants the Government to save money—but not by separating any of his own constituents from the payroll. Every community is willing that the Government shall spend less money, on the whole, for public buildings, army posts, navy yards and the like—but it flies to arms if the curtailment reaches into its own midst.
What has lately been happening in connection with the President's effort to pare down the budget for the next fiscal year is illustrative of the difficulties in the way of effective economy in Government. ”

“ The general rules that govern all news writing apply with equal or greater force to the telegraph story. So far from taking an unworthy advantage of his comparative freedom from supervision, the correspondent should feel perhaps even more keenly than the local reporter the news writer’s obligation to be absolutely fair and accurate. It goes without saying that he should be concise, because the newspaper pays for every word that he sends over the wire. On the other hand he should never sacrifice clearness to save a few words. ”

“ In our Constitution, grounded as it is in property rights, nothing is said of the right to work; to the contrary, there are the fifth and fourteenth amendments, construed by the Supreme Court to cover a wide area, with their inhibitions against the taking of private property save by "due process of law." The question therefore arises: Can the Government under the Constitution compel private industry, through the five-day week, to reduce its share of the benefits of the machine? ”

“ There is no variation from one day to another in the basic themes of the news, but there is an endless variation in the local color, in the shadings of motive, in all the details that go to make one story different from all others. ”

“ Now the vital difference between the wages of capital and the wares of labor is this: The labor hour once expended is non-existent, but the product of the labor hour turned over to the employer and by him exchanged for capital goes on working forever. That is, the workman's labor hour does its share in supporting his life for a day and then expires. The employer takes his profits and invests them, and thereafter for the rest of his life, and the lives of his heirs and assigns forever, these profits are capable of working and producing more profits for whoever controls them. ”

“ When one considers the difficulties under which news is gathered and the limited time at the newspaper’s command, the wonder is not that errors occasionally creep into the news columns but that the errors are so few. ”

“ No set of rules could be drawn up to cover every case with which the correspondent has to deal. To equip himself to give the best service he should not only learn the general principles of news writing, but should study the columns of the newspaper he represents to find out its particular needs. He should remember, too, that no rule is iron-clad. A story falling under any head of the foregoing classification may possess some extraordinary feature that will make it worth printing. In that case the correspondent should be careful to build his story around the unusual part. ”

“ Economy in government is the easiest thing in the world to preach, because all agree upon it "in principle," and the hardest thing in the world to practice. Undoubtedly, a material saving would be effected by a thorough overhauling and reorganization of the Government departments. As everybody knows, the present set-up is illogical in many respects and is filled with duplication and overlapping of functions.
The root difficulty here is in unregenerate human nature. Every department wants reorganization and economy—but it wants them only for the other departments. ”

“ The story of an aged miser’s death, for example, may be worth only a paragraph if written for its immediate news value alone. But underlying the surface facts there may be a story of intense human interest—the man’s life story. The field of investigation that opens before the news gatherer is fraught with possibilities. It is for him to clothe the skeleton of the story with the flesh and blood of reality. What of the man’s early life? ”

“ When it became evident to the least observant that something, after all, was wrong with industry—when the buying not only of jewelry and furs by the speculators but of shoes and groceries by the rest of the people began to fall off, and men were seen walking the streets in search of work—when these things happened, the tune was changed. It was admitted that depression had come to America, but this unhappy condition, it was said, was due to world-wide forces over which we had no control. That the industrial captains of the United States could be at fault was unthinkable. ”

“ Here, then, is need for originality in the writing of news. If the reporter’s outlook is cynical he is likely to overlook the human side of the story for the lifeless skeleton of commonplace facts. His story may be mechanically correct, but it has no power of appeal. Without distorting a single fact, in plain, everyday words, the news writer may tell a story of human suffering that will rouse his readers to generous response. ”

“ We are consuming less and less of the buncombe engendered in the lush days of our prosperity—and in this fact lies some measure of compensation for the plight into which we have got ourselves.
One need not go into the field of radical writing to find vigorous expression of the view that the capitalistic system is on trial. In growing numbers, highly placed defenders of capitalism, men who have prospered under it and who desire its basic features preserved, are saying that if capitalism is successfully to meet the challenge of other forms of soctal organization, it must clean house. ”

“ But however great a gift, if news instinct as born were turned loose in any newspaper office in New York without the control of sound judgment bred by considerable experience and training, the results would be much more pleasing to the lawyers than to the editor. One of the chief difficulties in journalism now is to keep the news from running rampant over the restraints of accuracy and conscience. ”

“ Reverting to income, as distinguished from accumulated wealth, it is illuminating to note that only one person out of every 50 in the United States has a net income of sufficient size to require him to pay a tax upon it to the Federal Government. About 2,500,000 persons, or 2 per cent of the population, pay all that is collected under the Federal income tax ”

“ Then, too, the greater speed with which the evening paper is turned out makes it imperative that a story be so written that it can be changed with the least possible delay.
Do not get the idea from the foregoing that your story should be a dry-as-dust recital of bare facts. Try to weave your facts together into a coherent story that will hold the reader’s attention at every point. The best news story moves with a swing that carries the reader swiftly and easily along from the lead to the conclusion, and leaves him at the end with a definite and clear idea of what he has read. ”

“ Labels in politics are delusive, but in general it may be said that the fight is between Conservatives and Liberals—between those who believe that the first function of government is to establish prosperity among a privileged class at the top, whence it may diffuse itself at the direction of this class over less fortunate groups, and those who believe that government should concern itself primarily with the welfare of the mass. ”

“ The newspaper man is compelled, as the price of success in his calling, and often through severe experience, to learn that only that which is true is “news.” There is a popular impression that all is grist that comes to the newspaper mill, and that everything brought into the office is published. The fact is that the hardest task of newspaper work is to sift the truth out of the masses of falsehood offered daily.... Daily newspaper workers have neither time nor need to fabricate falsehoods for public deception. ”

“ THE STORY PROPER
There are numbers of people whose ideal paper is one in which the editorials shall be written by an Addison, a Lamb, or a Swift; the art criticism by a Ruskin; while the financial editor shall be an Adam Smith. It is a fairly safe guess that a newspaper with such a staff would have a life about as long as the ministry of all the talents. Imagine Mrs. Battle’s views on whist ... written in an hour at midnight. Good writing really consists of clearness of expression mingled with true literary form. ”

“ Nothing could be farther from the truth. A newspaper that permitted such a condition would be swamped with libel suits within a week. In every newspaper office, certainly in every newspaper office worthy the name, there is an unceasing war against inaccuracy of every kind. The new reporter learns this when he comes in jubilant from an assignment, only to be sent back to get the middle initial of a name. The out-of-town correspondent learns it when he is called from his bed by long-distance telephone to explain a vague statement in a story he had wired earlier in the night. ”

“ We know at a glance what has happened and we get the force of whatever significance the writer has wished to impress, but it is all hurled at our heads in the same wholesale fashion, with the same neglect of “form,” that the genuine American is accustomed to in his quick-lunch resort, and, in his heart, really likes. ... Without intending to be dogmatic about it, we are inclined to say that, if a newspaper’s English makes a fair approach to the level of an educated, intelligent man’s serious conversation, it will be doing about all that can justly be expected. ”

“ Before making a damaging statement about a person, be sure you have legal evidence in which there is no loophole. Hesitate even then—go to the city editor for instruction. If you are a correspondent,20 let your office know the facts—all the facts. Bear in mind that homicide is not necessarily murder. There is grave danger, no matter how convincing the evidence may appear to be, in calling a person a murderer before he has been so branded by the courts. If he is acquitted he has ground for a libel suit against the newspaper that has charged him with crime. ”

“ News writing is objective to the last degree, in the sense that the writer is not allowed to “editorialize.” He must leave himself out of the story. True, he may give it, in his way of telling the facts, a certain individuality and power, but he is not permitted to cross the border line between the strict presentation of news and the editorial. Only writers whose stories are signed are allowed to use the capital I. They are the exceptions in modern newspaper making. The average news writer, however brilliant his work, receives only the commendation of his fellows. ”

“ The fact that a newspaper does not order a story or orders less than the correspondent offers does not necessarily imply that his news judgment is questioned. Stories that ordinarily would be used may be crowded out by a rush of news of greater importance. One story like that of the San Francisco earthquake and fire will cause the omission or rigid condensation of news that usually would be “featured.” Sometimes the correspondent’s story is not ordered because the facts are covered in the reports of a news gathering organization as fully as the newspaper desires. ”

“ The nature of newspaper work makes it impossible to formulate an all-sufficing series of rules by which the news writer shall invariably be guided. But there are certain well-defined principles, largely technical, that set apart the news story as a distinct form of composition, and these the author has tried to put down simply and concisely—after the fashion of the news story itself. Going beyond the common practice, there is wide divergence among newspapers in the details of “office style.” ”

“ The name of the Secretary of the Interior, the latest development in a famous will case, whether a thoroughfare is a street or an avenue, the initials of the county recorder—all such details can be found in the files of the newspaper or in reference books, but the copy reader can save valuable time if he has them filed away in his memory. New words are constantly coming into general use and new ideas are demanding expression. The copy reader must keep abreast of the big movements in science, in politics, in all the fields from which news stories are drawn. ”

“ The news writer is the agent of the paper that employs him. As such, in a wider sense he is the agent of the public, which relies on the newspaper to keep it informed of the day’s happenings. The story is the all-important thing; the reader as a rule cares nothing about who wrote it or what the writer thinks of it. The viewpoint of the news writer18 must be that of the unprejudiced, but alert, observer. He must approach his story with a mind open to the facts and he must record the facts unvarnished by his own preferences and opinions. ”

“ No defense is needed of the style of writing in the well-edited modern newspaper. Free from pedantry and obsolete expressions, the English of the best newspapers fulfills its purpose of telling the news of the day in language that all can understand. ”

“ Its failings are the common failings of humankind. Forewarned thus against himself, it is the duty of the news writer, even while he works with one eye on the clock, to be always vigilant in the battle against inaccuracy—to do his full share, and more, in keeping the columns of his paper free from misstatement of every kind. ”

“ The newspaper as it goes to the reader, though it is the product of many very human persons working37 under pressure, is remarkably accurate. A painstaking effort has been made to give the reader a true picture of the day’s happenings. Copy readers have gone over the reporters’ copy for errors of fact and of style; proofreaders have corrected typographical errors after the matter has been set in type; one or more editors have read the revised proofs with an eye single to detecting faults.
The newspaper, of all modern institutions, is the most human. ”

“ The ‘stories’ of the reporter on a daily paper are written under such trying conditions of hurry and confusion that they seldom have, in the very nature of the case, what is called the ‘literary touch.’ But occasionally a news writer produces a story which has real qualities of vividness, pathos and power. ”

“ Sometimes, of course, a reporter’s assignment is such that he can see the story unfolding before him, as at a fire or a court trial, and he is enabled to write more vividly than if his facts had come to him second-hand. Every reporter dreams of the day when he will have the chance to write a big story that he has seen in the making. It is related that a group of New York newspaper men were discussing the biggest possible story that could “break.” ”