THE UNITED STATES. The newspaper has an importance in the United States attained nowhere else. A broad area under a common language with a homogeneous population, universal educa tion, easy means of communication, the cheapest mail facilities known, newspaper tolls cheaper in proportion to average distance, though higher for short distances than elsewhere, and a con stant interest in political and social affairs, complete freedom from censorship or restriction, except that provided by the libel laws, have given 5 per cent. of the population of the world 40 per vent. of its newspapers. Less accurate than the English newspaper, less well written than the French, less well equipped than the German, the American newspaper occupies a mean position between all three in the extent of its news ser vice. in the freedom of its literary vehicle, and in its habit of treating all subjects from the point of the educator rather than the investigator. Journalism in the United States has shared the conditions due to material circumstances which affect all periodicals. They have already been de scribed for England, where, a dense population occupying a limited area, questions of transporta tion play a limited part. The journalism of the Revolution, when for newspaper purposes no com mon communication existed between colonial cen tres, was limited in influence and circulation to the place and region in which each paper was published, and even the New York Journal, in which the Federalist appeared, had small influ ence outside of New York City. When the postal service was fully organized after the Revolution, but remained subject to special carriage until the organization of an adequate stage service along the Atlantic Coast in the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century, the rates upon newspapers were so high that their circu lation was the luxnry of a. few, and the small group of newspapers edited at the chief centres by men of a commanding personality, known to the public class of the period, had a most impor tant influence, akin to that of the English journal of the same time, from the general knowledge among men of public affairs of the personality of their editors, and their ability to affect the dominant class of their place and region. The organization of a stage service, in particular between New York and Philadelphia, just prior to the development of railroads, and a reduction in newspaper mail rates gave a wide circulation to weeklies and began the political influence of such newspapers, usually the weekly edition of a daily, which lasted from 1840 to 1875. During this period, as with the New York Tribune, the real influence and weight of its editor rested, not upon its daily edition, which in this case was always out-topped in Ncw• York City in circula tion by two or more papers, but upon its weekly, which circulated throughout all the North. Po litical and religious weeklies during this period were the most profitable of newspaper properties, and the most potent of political. religious, and social factors. Ten years after the close of the Civil War competition began in the telegraph service, both by cable and by land; tolls dropped, newspaper postage was reduced to a nominal figure. the price of paper per pound began to decrease, train service wain improved, the early delivery of the morning paper became possible, owing to presses palpable of printing a large edition rapidly befcre breakfast within a radius of 200 miles. and during the last quarter of the nineteenth century the daily became ?koninant.
it had for than half a century held an challenged field in all cities of over 100.000 popu lation. The changes just recited extended the newspaper radios of all cities of half a million or Orel'. and dailies which had been important at a remove of MO or 200 miles over a great cen tre. in towns from 50,000 to 100.000, while they suffered no loss in their value as local means of commtnieation and business !properties, lost their weight in the daily newspaper field as organs of political and social importance, now that cireu lation which had been measured by the 10.000
down to 1885 was measured by the 100.000, From 1840, when the power press, the railroad, and the telegraph made the modern daily newspaper pos sible. down to 1875, a eireulation of 50,000 in New York City was remarkable. and nearly all newspapers were well satisfied with half of this. Front 1875 to 188'5 these figures doubled. From 1885 to 1900, with a few exceptions, :1 newspaper could not be considered in any eity of over half a million as of importance unless its daily circulation turned 100,000, and in (Pities still larger 150.000 to twice these figures was not unknown. The elfeet of this enormous growth was to change radically boil: the con dition and character of newspapers seeking a large eirenlntion. Where a regulation subscrip tion had been the general source of support, news stand and street sales became responsible for the great bulk of the edition. Newspapers began sharply to differentiate between the in each city which sought a large but unstable and the newspaper which aimed at a smaller but secure and more select group of readers. Where one newspaper to the home had been the rule,Pit beeame more and more common for the house and olliee to take from two to five. During the last decade of the ninchPenth century, in struggle for circulation and a general com petition, the usual !leo of the daily newspaper in a large city. which was 4 and S cents down to 1880, and from 2 to 3 cents Mil to 181)0. to 1 cent for most of the newspapers halving a large circulation. for all in Philadel phia, for all but three English morning newspapers in New York in the general field, while in Bos ton and Chicago 2 and 3 cents was still main tained. At the same time, a corresponding fall took place in the rate charged for the small 'want.' advertisement, and for the .special adver tising of business firms, a larger and larger share of which was monopolized by 'department stores,' Boston was first in the field with Pubfiek Oc currences (1690), a small quarto sheet, having one page blank. For containing of a very high nature." it was suppressed by the Oovernor of Alassaeltusel I s. Next came the Boston (17114). first conducted by John Campbell, the postmaster. in 1719 it met a hitter rival in the Boston Oa.:eitc; but with its name changed to the liassach Gazette and Bos.ton Lri ler, it grew to he the chief organ of British rule in Ameriea down to the evacuation of Boston. In 1721 James Franklin England vourani. If suspended in 1727: and Iwo years later I ja Ill in Frank lin. Who had been apprenticed to his brother dames, established at Philadelphia the Pennsylrania Gazctic, which he conducted as a weekly till 1765. The Pcnnsylrania Gazette was then merged in the North .1 m crica n. Numerous Vent ants at lion. ton led to the Boston Ercniny Post (1735). which was ably conducted as an independent pinned town to 1775, when it expired. The new BoNtani (lazeite (1755) became the voice of the people against England. To it John Adams contributed the Let !cis of Nora nylus. The JI assach uset Is Spy (1770) was another brilliant paper on the Revolutionary side. On the day of the battle of Lexington, it was removed to Woreester, where. after one short suspension. it has continned till the present under the name of the Spy. ht other colonies the newspaper had already appeared or was appearing. lm 1725 the colonies had two newspapers, one in Boston and one in Philadelphia. At the outbreak of the Revolution the number had increased to 34. The years im mediately following saw. amid many failures and successes, the establishment of two dailies: the Adeertiser of Philadelphia (1784) and the Ad. rerliser of New York (1785).