State paper

“ You know, of course, that our government runs a very extensive printing plant where it uses tons of paper every year. There is no end to the government printing. The Congressional Records must be printed and filed, as must also thousands of reports from various boards and committees. ”

“ The vital fact remains that your newspapers are not free to publish anything they like. Ours are thus free. Every issue of your papers must be submitted to your police, so that your rulers may control what you write and read. Not a paper in America is submitted to any official whatever. ”

“ The Associated Press is in essence the common agent of about 1300 newspapers in the various cities throughout the country for the interchange of ews which each paper collects in its own territory, and for the gathering, editing, and distributing of news which these member papers cannot collect single-handed, and which requires their pooled resources. ”

“ For the political circles, the Courts of Law, Police Offices, Accidents, Offences, &c., others;—and for the two Houses of Parliament, expert and expeditious short-hand writers; all of whom are continually engaged in transmitting their various reports to the office with the most persevering activity, to be there arranged, condensed, and fitted to their respective columns, by the sub-editors and those employed in what is called making up the Paper ”

“ No senator here could have failed to have been acquainted with the fact, that the contents of a most important despatch or document has been discussed, and a most important overture canvassed in the different newspapers, in private and political circles, by individuals; every body, in fact, knows what has taken place, except the congress of the United States. The papers friendly to the administration—indeed, the whole circle of the American press—are in possession of the contents of a paper which this body has not been yet allowed to see ”

“ Not only did many papers establish complaint departments, but a number adopted the policy of submitting, before publication, any item reflecting on a man's character to the man self, that false or incorrect statements might be corrected. It is but justice to The Evening Post, of New York, to say that that paper was among the first thus to safeguard the accuracy of its news of this character. With the movement "Safety First!" in railroading came that of "Accuracy First!" in newspaper-making. ”

“ We should regard the system according to its true and inherent character, and not be deceived by provisions, inevitably temporary in their nature, which the policy or the prudence of its authors may throw around it. The greatest want of this country, at the present period, in its circulating medium, is some convertible paper, which, at every extremity of the union, will command the confidence of the public, and circulate without depreciation. Such a paper will be supplied in the form of these government drafts. ”

“ The people have a right to know the law, and the Legislature should seek that channel of communication which is most accessible. I believe that if a portion of the money now expended in printing was devoted to the publication of the laws in one newspaper in each county in the State, or at least one in each judicial district, the benefit to the community would be far greater than that received by printing them in pamphlet form alone. ”

“ Papers conceived amid intense political feeling and born simply to be bulletin boards for party leaders, continued to increase in number in spite of a high death-rate. At a political meeting it was considered quite proper to pass a resolution calling upon "our party newspapers to attack at once the reputations of all the leading Federalists in the State," or vice versa, for most papers were either Federal or Republican. ”

“ The political reporter is he who begins at the foot of the ladder when he reports the actual facts at a ward meeting. The political correspondent is he who has run the gamut of ward meetings, primaries, Assembly district, Senate district, and Congress district conventions, city conventions, county conventions, State conventions, and national conventions, and who builds his articles to his newspaper on his information of the situation in the State or nation, based upon circumstances and facts arising out of all of the aforesaid conventions. ”

“ VERY few of the great mass of humanity know who makes the beautiful
public document, with its plain, black binding and wealth of statistics. Few stop to think that hidden away from the great work-a-day world, with eyelids heavy and red, and with finger-nails black with antimony, toiling on at his case hour after hour, the public printer, during the sessions of Congress, is setting up the thrilling chapters of the Congressional Record, and between times yanking the Washington press backward and forward, with his suspenders hanging down, as he prints this beautiful sea-side library of song. ”

“ Inclosed is a prospectus for a newspaper to be continued until after the Presidential election. It will be superintended by ourselves, and every Whig in the State must take it. It will be published so low that every one can afford it. You must raise a fund and forward us for extra copies,—every county ought to send—fifty or one hundred dollars,—and the copies will be forwarded to you for distribution among our political opponents. ”

“ The acts of Congress dealing with the press are not numerous, as each state has for the most part its own legislation on the subject, dealing generally with, among other matters, the registration of newspapers, the monopoly of the state printer, and the right of giving the truth in evidence in defence to proceedings for libel. ”

“ Many people want personal notices and trivial articles in the paper; some wish long manuscripts published; others think their league meetings should be more fully reported. The paper must, therefore, be so edited and the letters of the department must be so written as to make every one feel that the Journal is fair to all and that whatever it does is done with no personal animosities, with no biases, and purely for the welfare of the cause and in accordance with the best ideals we have been able to work out. ”

“ From the American Newspaper Publishers' Association, bringing together nearly 1000 of our leading newspapers to meetings of the weeklies of a county, a region in a state, a whole state, sections like New England or the Southern States of particular classes of periodicals, these various organizations are rapidly instituting a machinery, and breathing a spirit whose work is a valid factor in the education of the newspaper man. ”

“ That is to say, the leading papers form an Association and appoint men to send them news from the chief points in America and in Europe. These representatives of the Associated Press are very enterprising, and 18 they do not allow much news of importance to escape them. The salaries of these men, and the cost of the telegraphic dispatches, are divided up among the papers of the Association, so that the expense to each paper is comparatively small. ”

“ The Government agreed to carry papers by weight regardless of distance to all points of the United States for two cents a pound and free of charge to places in the county of publication, save where delivery was made to homes by mail-carriers, for which an extra fee was charged.
A city news association collected the local items in every field of industry. A press association, composed of newspapers scat- tered over the continent, sent in the happenings of national importance. ”

“ Newspaper editors have constantly to be saying to their readers, ‘Look what174 our state legislators are doing;’ they seldom have to urge, ‘Look what Congress is doing.’ It cannot, indeed, be watched easily, or to much advantage. ”

“ The requisition in the present Constitution, to keep a journal, is but an expression, for the sake of greater fullness, of what would otherwise have been implied, and serves only as a more formal introduction to the practical end and substance of the constitutional provision on the subject, and that with which it emphatically concludes, to wit, the publication, from time to time, of the journal. ”

“ We need a paper—an organ that shall keep those who can not mingle actively in our public labors better informed. The Standard has done much; and I find in many other papers a disposition to do justice, to a great extent, to our cause. ”

“ Morbidly conscientious Ministers sometimes keep a supply of their private letter-paper on their office-table and use it for their private correspondence; but the more frankly human sort write all their letters on official paper. On whatever paper written, Ministers' letters go free from the office and the House of Commons ”

“ While it may be considered that the annual reports of all the departments, not only those that have been mentioned, but those of the Post Office Department in dealing with the transmission of intelligence, the Department of Justice in dealing with criminal conditions, so far as it may, and every office of the government in giving facts relative to the transactions of the government, are in themselves contributions to social science, those which have been specifically named are deemed to be emphatically so. ”

“ Who appoints the editors, if not the government?"
"The government does not pay the expense of the papers, nor appoint their editors, nor in any way exert the slightest influence on their policy," replied Dr. ”

“ That the printing presses shall be open and free to every citizen who wishes to examine the proceedings of any branch of government, or the conduct of any public officer, and no law shall ever restrain the right thereof. ”

“ And be it further enacted, That the Congressional
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Printer shall charge himself in a book, to be kept for
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that purpose, with all paper and other articles or material
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received for the public use, and he shall furnish the same to
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the foremen of printing and binding, and to the officers of
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the executive and judicial departments, and of the Senate and
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House of Representatives authorized to receive them, on
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their written requisitions as the public service may require
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them, taking a receipt from each officer for such article, which
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shall be entered to his credit ”

“ A judicious compromise may be usefully made, by inducing some newspaper, which would print a liberal share of the report free of charge, as news, for public information, to put the whole in type and strike off a few hundred copies in sheet form or pages, at a moderate charge. ”

“ If the full set of reports is not wanted, by all means the Abstract should be secured, as it contains the summaries. The series of Bulletins issued by the permanent bureau contains the recent statistics, estimates, and are the source for much of the data found in the annual newspaper almanacs. These publications are supplied free of charge to libraries upon application to the Director of the Census or to members of Congress. The Department of Commerce and Labor has issued a List of Publications ... ”

“ Our Knowledge of Congressional Proceedings.—As citizens in a republican government, it is our duty to keep informed on the problems which our representatives are called upon to solve. Means of gaining information are not wanting. The public galleries of both houses are usually open to visitors. The official record of the proceedings of Congress is made known to the public through the Journal, which is read at the opening of each day's session. ”

“ The peerage of knowledge or abilities, in consequence of its enlargement by the effects of printing, can no longer be collected and controlled in the shape of a noble order or a legislative department. The great body of this peerage must remain scattered throughout every nation, by the enjoyment of the benefit of the press. ”

“ The newspapers are now, in the vast majority of cases in all our leading cities, conducted by men who are familiar with the leading ideas of our time and with the latest advances in science and the art, including the art of government, and who write under the influence of these ideas and these advances, and who have consequently got a standard of efficiency in legislative administration which has not yet made its way into the political class. ”

“ The findings of the District Court, which this court has not modified, criticised, or overruled, establish beyond cavil that, despite the fact that AP was early in the field and has grown to great size, many other reporting agencies have been established, and grown in the United States, two of which, UP and INS, are now comparable to AP 'in size, scope of coverage and efficiency.' Additional agencies which furnish substantial news reporting services in the nation total between twenty and thirty. ”

“ All publications which appear weekly, or at shorter periods, whether stamped or unstamped, which contain general news, such as parliamentary reports, reports of police or law courts, foreign or provincial intelligence, reports of daily occurrences, or notices of bankrupts, to be paid according to the existing Scale for Newspapers ”

“ Under a complete system of state regulation not only are the forms and standards of uniform accounting established, but a staff of expert examiners is created to determine by periodical investigation, whether or not these standards are lived up to. ”

“ There are annual reports on the Excise Department, on the Customs Department, on Salt, on Opium, on License-Tax, on Stamps, on Stationery, on the Shipping Office, and whatever other miscellaneous subject is susceptible of an annual report. Parliamentary Blue Books are light and cheerful reading in comparison with most 136of the Board’s reports, but fortunately they find very few readers. Nevertheless annual reports may be said to represent the circulation of the blood in the whole official community. Every official throughout the country contributes his quota to them. ”