THE MAKING OF PLUBLIC OPINION (II. NEWS BUREAUS AND NEWS PAPERS)
Kittle, William
The making OF PUBLIC opinion II. NEWS BUREAUS AND NEWSPAPERS How Special Interests Employ Agencies to Fill the Newspapers with Adroit Articles By WILLIAM KITTLE IN LAST week's article on The...
...NEWS BUREAUS AND NEWSPAPERS How Special Interests Employ Agencies to Fill the Newspapers with Adroit Articles By WILLIAM KITTLE IN LAST week's article on The AssociatedPress,reference was made to the secret agreement by which the United Press Association entered into alliance with the Associated Press...
...A daily paper without advertisers would be published at a daily loss...
...It seems to me to be necessary...
...It stated that the annual disbursements greatly exceeded the income of the national government, that President Roosevelt had believed he was right in advocating large appropriations, that if the tariff were lowered a large bond issue would be necessary, that the Standard Oil Company's National City Bank favored such bond issue, that, "Speaker Cannon has stood constantly for more care in spending money and it must be said that he is coming into a meed of approval and appreciation which decidedly contrasts with the public attitude toward him as displayed during the late campaign...
...It serves 368 papers with 37,000 miles of leased telegraph wire and circuits...
...He offered to pay $10 for each "story" of about one-half column in the leading papers of large cities and $2.00 to each local paper...
...These appear in the public press without a suggestion of their real source...
...Early in that month, the mayor, who had declared before his election, that he was in favor of municipal ownership of the various parts of the street railway system when the franchises expired, startled the city by announcing that he had "forced" the company to accept an extension of all its franchises until 1924...
...It bought a half page space in every daily newspaper and every daily except one was either silent or advocated granting the franchise...
...Ray Stannard Baker inspected this office and has described a card case which he saw there called, "The Barometer...
...P. S. Ridsdale of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., wrote to many publishers of newspapers the following: "I wish to have published in as many papers as possible, opinions of prominent business men and bankers of your district favorable to the Aldrich Currency Bill now before the Senate...
...But Sibley not only proposed the systematic and permanent corruption of public opinion, but also the corruption of the Associated Press, the newspapers and magazines...
...Very often, especially in the case of city utility companies, the "interests" deal directly with the newspapers by a liberal purchase of advertising space and thus secure control of the news columns and of the editorial page itself...
...The Publicity Bureau, operated by two men,—Michaelis and Ellsworth,—is employed by a powerful group of gas, light, water and traction companies to prejudice the public against municipal ownership of any of these utilities...
...and this conclusion, nowhere clearly stated, was the sole object of the article...
...Mr...
...Senator Elkins of West Virginia was chairman of the committee...
...We are willing to continue the rubscription of $5,000 to the Southern Farm Magazine for another year, payments to be made the same as they have been this year...
...In December, 1908, a case was before the supreme court of the United States to determine whether newspapers and magazines could legally accept transportation over the railways in return for advertising...
...For this purpose, the bureau has offices in Boston, New York, Washington and Chicago...
...For a single item in 100 newspapers in October, 1905, this company paid between $5,000 and $6,000...
...and from these centers, arguments, half-truths, garbled reports and misrepresentations are sent out to the press and paid for as regular advertising matter although they appear as "news...
...Later, when it was found that the purchase could not be made, the money was returned...
...MAKING PUBLIC OPINION FOR THE INSURANCE COMPANIES WHEN the Armstrong Committee began its investigation of the insurance companies in September, 1905, according to McClure's, the companies at once employed Charles J. Smith to prepare articles which were turned over to the Telegraphic News Bureau, handled by Allan Forman...
...Ap-thorp, an agent of the Standard Oil Company, had furnished him with the printed matter...
...My dear Professor: Responding to your favor, it gives me pleasure to inclose you herewith certificate of deposit to your favor for $5,000 as an additional contribution to that agreed upon and to aid you in your most excellent work...
...or open advocacy of some special interest...
...A second news bureau was also hired to form public opinion favorable to the insurance companies...
...Baker states that a member of the firm told him that for the week ending June 5, 1905, before the bureau began its work, 412 columns of matter opposed to the railroads had appeared in the Nebraska papers, but that three months later, after the bureau had been in operation, 202 columns favorable and only 4 against the railroads were published in that state in one week...
...It reports the news fairly...
...The same week, the Detroit Journal received a letter signed by the Keystone News Bureau of Philadelphia offering an article which read in part as given below...
...There appeared such an article in some of the papers of the northwest in January, 1909...
...Grant of this bureau wrote the following letter marked, "strictly confidential," to the president of the Oconee Telephone Company at Walhalla, S C.: "The Bureau has arranged with the American Press Association to furnish a page of plate matter monthly to such newspapers as may be designated...
...Even for the three great interests named in his letter, representing probably more than half of the total wealth of the United States, he stated, "It will cost money...
...Kittle will discuss how public opinion is formed by the Magazines, the Library and the Theater, and from the Platform...
...The October number was silent as to the record of Senator Dryden...
...Each editor was accurately characterized on a card as to politics, financial condition and peculiarities...
...During the same year, municipal ownership was an issue in Detroit...
...He further stated that a four page advertisement of the Prudential Insurance Company had been sent to the Cosmopolitan and that it, "was not worth while losing four or five thousand dollars just for the sake of printing those few paragraphs...
...On October 25, the same company paid about $11,000 for six articles published as telegraphic news...
...They are not accompanied by any of the marks of advertising matter...
...Gunton's Magazine was ultra-conservative, ever alert to champion special interests: "26 Broadway...
...MAKING PUBLIC OPINION FOR THE RAILWAY COMPANIES IN 1905, when bills for railroad rate regulation were pending in Congress and while President Roosevelt was urging such regulation, the railway companies organized a system of bureaus in New York, Washington, Chicago, St...
...I most earnestly hope that the way will be open for an enlarged scope, as you anticipate...
...No man values public opinion or fears it so much as Roosevelt...
...Ida Tarbell in her History of the Standard Oil Company mentions Boyle as a "picturesque Irishman" in the service of the company...
...Louis and Topeka...
...We do not doubt that the influence of your publication throughout the south is of the most helpful character...
...In the eighth annual report of the Associated Press for 1908, his name appears as a member of the Advisory Board for the Eastern Division, thus showing that he has some influence in that organization...
...Next week Mr...
...Phillips who used it in his article which was to appear in October, 1906...
...The testimony thus taken, filled five volumes of a thousand pages each...
...These two men procured the publication of numerous articles in many newspapers...
...It is understood that this will be set up as news matter, in news type, with a news head, and without advertising marks of any sort...
...George Gunton, 41 Union Square, City...
...In this column and a half of "news" are found an appeal to partisanship and to the popular prejudice against the Standard Oil Company, a plausible argument for economy, a covert attack on President Roosevelt and a laudation of Speaker Cannon...
...When these utility companies give special rates or privileges to the leading business men of the city, and, at a moment's notice, can withdraw their patronage, they become formidable opponents to the newspaper that dares to attack them...
...Colliers' Weekly in March, 1907, gave a long list of religious newspapers which were carrying fraudulent advertisements,— which proved, not the corruption of public opinion by such papers, but which did demonstrate the necessity of advertising matter to give a reasonable profit on the investment...
...Ex-Senator Faulkner from the same state was employed by the companies and during the "investigation" sat just back of Elkins at each session...
...Paul...
...In 1905, the Standard Oil Company sent Patrick C. Boyle and Malcom Jennings to Kansas to make public opinion in favor of the company...
...He ascertained that the articles thus sent to the newspapers, all emanated from the Jennings News Bureau and Advertising Agency at Lancaster, Ohio, lie placed on the witness stand Mr...
...He knew most of the Senators and Representatives and was a tactful, agreeable and able manager...
...Is this Mr...
...When he says it, "will be made self-supporting," does he mean that the outlay for this bureau will be reimbursed to the corporations by legislative grants of further special privileges...
...A writer in The Nation in January, 1903, declared that only one New York paper had editorials on the 'insurance disclosures...
...The old association, which operated in harmony with the Associated Press, was disbanded, and the association which was subsequently formed—the present United Press—is entirely opposed to the trust methods of its powerful rival...
...MAKING PUBLIC OPINION AGAINST TARIFF REVISION ONE of the best known news bureaus is operated in Washington by William Wolff Smith who has his offices in the Mun-sey Building and employs a number of stenographers and so called "reporters...
...We need a new definition of treason...
...Besides, most daily newspapers are run for profit rather than for the public interests...
...Smith is frequently seen at the New Willard Hotel and at the Capitol...
...When municipal ownership was an issue in 1906 at an election in Seattle, all of the daily papers but one opposed it...
...They also had agents in South Dakota and California...
...From this situation, there often results, either silence on the part of the paper when public interests are at stake...
...The Interstate Commerce Commission in its report of February, 1907, states: "The Standard Oil Company buys advertising space in many newspapers, which it fills, not with advertisements, but with reading matter prepared by agents kept for that purpose, and paid for at advertising rates as ordinary news...
...A rule of the common council compelled a referendum to the people...
...MAKING PUBLIC OPINION FOR THE ALDRICH CURRENCY BILL WHEN the Aldrich currency bill was pending before Congress in March, 1908, a Mr...
...Hearst was informed of this but he refrained from discharging his business manager...
...The great benefit accruing from the constant presentation of facts and arguments in favor of private ownership can hardly be overestimated...
...Newspaper men in Philadelphia at the time knew nothing of any such bureau in that city: "Washington, D. C. "There is coming now from a quite unexpected source support of the Aldrich emergency bill which is expected, by those who favor it, to win it many votes in the House...
...Very few of the leading daily papers can afford the expense of a special correspondent in Washington and most of them readily publish as news, letters purporting to come from the direct representative of the paper, but which really emanate from some hired bureau...
...Dryden and the Prudential Insurance Company...
...The manager of the Kansas City Journal testified that his paper received $3,840 for eight such articles...
...Yours very truly, John D. Archvold...
...This is but another way of stating that the existence of a daily paper depends on the sale of a certain amount of advertising space...
...This matter was printed as directed in numerous newspapers throughout the state...
...To Prof...
...to be used in your paper...
...The Chicago office was in the Orchestra Bvilding on Michigan Avenue and employed forty-thrce persons, some of them experienced newspaper men...
...Some weeks before this date, the business manager of the Cosmopolitan, came into the office and said he would "kill" that part relating to Senator Dryden...
...To this office came most of the local papers of the entire northwest...
...Before August, 1906, not a newspaper in the city had openly advocated granting a new franchise to the Detroit United Railway company...
...If an editor was too active against the railroads, a traveling agent went to his town and organized some of the local shippers against him...
...His letter needs to be read with care...
...Numerous railroad men and small shippers attended, all expenses being paid by the companies...
...A New York editor, writing in the Atlantic Monthly for October, 1908, stated that during the last three years, the department stores combined to modify at least three daily papers of that city...
...Mild reproof or criticism of his policy nearly paralyzes him...
...Thomas P. Grasty: Dear Mr...
...Companies desiring to place such matters in the local papers should communicate with the Bureau—under no circumstances taking up the matter with either the American Press Association or the local paper...
...During the next nine months, in collecting material for David Graham Phillips' articles on, "The Treason of the Senate," Meyer investigated the record of Senator J. F. Dryden, the President of the Prudential Insurance Company, and furnished what he found to Mr...
...Reporters were constantly present to give the daily press statistics and arguments in favor of the railway interests...
...The cost of service is $20 per year per paper...
...Samuel Spencer, President of the Southern Railroad Company, had general supervision of these various bureaus, with headquarters at Washington...
...The stockholders demand of their management a reasonable net return on their investment...
...and the betrayal of the American government itself to the special interests...
...The following are the names of some of the best known: Publicity Bureau..............................Boston, Mass...
...Grant, the John H. Grant who is treasurer of the American Press Association...
...The following is this man's letter: "John D. Archbold, Dear Sir: An efficient literary bureau is needed, not for a day or a crisis, but a permanent and healthy control of the Associated Press and kindred avenues...
...but instead, there appeared an article entitled, "An Aid to Modern Business," which was a eulogy on Mr...
...The following letters bear but one plain interpretation...
...These articles soon began to appear as "news" in the daily and weekly newspapers from New York to St...
...The sinister Sibley, member of Congress at the time from the 28th district in Pennsylvania, wrote to John D. Archbold from Washington, D. C, on March 7, 1905, proposing the establishment of a vast literary bureau to form public opinion in favor of the industrial corporations and the traction and railway companies...
...MAKING PUBLIC OPINION FOR LOCAL SPECIAL INTERESTS IT IS a commonplace in the newspaper business that the advertisements instead of the subscriptions form the chief support for the costs of publication...
...Meyer states that in April, 1907, Mr...
...The service of the United Press is now open to all newspapers...
...This agreement was disclosed in 1892...
...It was adroitly and ably written to form public opinion in favor of a high tariff...
...At one time when the Consolidated Gas Company of Boston was in a contest with the Public Franchise League of that city, and while legislation on the subject was being considered, the Gas Company sent out to the newspapers of the state the following letter: "Enclosed you will find copy for a reading-matter ad...
...In 1903, Senator J. B. Foraker received from John D. Arch-bold, the Vice-President of the Standard Oil Company, $50,000 to purchase in part, the Ohio State Journal...
...Governor Hughes once said: "The man that would cor-lupt public opinion is the most dangerous enemy of the state...
...Leading labor union men throughout the country, now that they realize how many workmen are idle and how little prospect of employment there is during the next several months, say that some financial measure is imperative...
...During the last four years, a large number of these news bureaus have been actively engaged in the work of forming public opinion in all parts of the country...
...The street railway company began what it called a "campaign of education...
...The attorney general produced a contract between the agency and a newspaper which provided that the publication of the article in the local paper would be paid for on condition that it would appear as "news" or an editorial...
...The Seattle Times printed in large black-faced type covering the whole upper part of the front page, the following: "Municipal Ownership Spells Wreck and Ruin Wherever It Is Found...
...These publicity bureaus were in operation for several months and cost approximately $100,000...
...Press Service Company.......................New York City The Municipal Ownership Publicity Bureau.....New York City Telegraphic News Bureau.....................New York City Keystone News Bureau......................Philadelphia, Pa...
...This statement is made for the information of readers who may not know that the United Press of today is not the same as the United Press of 1892, and to give recognition to the present United Press for the excellent character of service.—William Kittle...
...It will cost money, but will be the cheapest in the end, and can be made self-supporting...
...It published a monthly magazine "Concerning Municipal Ownership," in which John Kendrick Bangs wrote humorous articles for such private ownership...
...National News Service.....................Washington, D. C. Jennings's Advertising Agency................Lancaster, Ohio MAKING PUBLIC OPINION AGAINST MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP THE Municipal Ownership Publicity Bureau sends out articles and news items adverse to municipal ownership and in favor of private ownership of city utility companies...
...The Mutual paid Forman $1.00 a line inserted in a reputable paper...
...Jennings is the same man who served the company in Ohio...
...He would have such a bureau "efficient" and "permanent...
...Gustavus Meyer, in the Milwaukee Social Democratic Herald of November 7, 1908, makes in substance the following statement: In December, 1905, he was employed on the Cosmopolitan Magazine...
...If such advertisers be city utility companies, department stores or industrial corporations, they are in a position to exert a powerful influence on the policy of the paper...
...Grasty: I have your favor of yesterday and beg to return herewith the telegram of Mr Edmunds to you...
...With other daily papers in the same city, a given paper cannot pursue in its news columns a policy hostile to the interests of its leading advertisers...
...Public opinion was being made for a powerful special interest, by an investigating committee at the expense of the government...
...He has been the editor of the Oil City Derrick and a literary hack of this company for many years...
...MAKING PUBLIC OPINION FOR THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY IN 1898, when Francis S. Monnett, the attorney general of Ohio, was prosecuting the Standard Oil Company for violation of law, he learned that articles were being published in all parts of the state for the purpose of forming public opinion against the prosecution of the company...
...Since successful municipal ownership is found in some form in most of the cities in the United States and in Great Britain, the zeal of the falsehood suggests the 'hire and sale' of the columns...
...Jennings who swore that a Mr...
...The speaker and his followers are determined to do some paring this session, but they have no idea that they can cut expenses enough to overcome the deficit...
...Today he hears only the chorus of a rabble, and he thinks it is public sentiment, I don't know whether the industrial corporations and the transportation companies have enough at stake to justify a union of forces for concerted action...
...The next four years is, more than any previous epoch, to determine the future of the country...
...No better proof of this could be desired than the way in which it handled the news of the recent tariff debates...
...Please send your bill at lowest net cash rates to the undersigned...
...BESIDES the Associated Press as an instrument for forming conservative, or what is called "safe and sane" public opinion, the special interests employ for the same purpose well-organized news bureaus to furnish to the newspapers adroitly prepared articles, interviews, letters and news items...
...The writer should perhaps have included the explanation in this historical summary that the United Press of 1892 is not the United Press of today...
...All arrangements are made through the Bureau in such a way that the company does not appear in the matter at all...
...With good wishes, I am very truly, yours, John D. Archbold...
...Numerous instances can be given of this control of public opinion by special interests...
...It was skillfully contrived to have the reader draw the inevitable conclusion that the tariff must not be reduced...
...The contracts provided that such articles should be published as "news" without advertising marks of any kind...
...This company employs a well-known press agent at its headquarters,—26 Broadway, New York City...
...During April and May, of 1905, a Committee of the United States Senate gave so called "hearings" for six weeks on matters relating to railway legislation...
Vol. 1 • July 1909 • No. 27
