The Weinstock Lectures on
The Morals of Trade
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PRIVATE MONOPOLY AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP. ByJohn Graham Brooks.
COMMERCIALISM AND JOURNALISM. ByHamilton Holt.
THE BUSINESS CAREER IN ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS. ByAlbert Shaw.
COMMERCIALISM
AND JOURNALISM
By
HAMILTON HOLT
MANAGING EDITOR OF THE INDEPENDENT
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1909
COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published December 1909
BARBARA WEINSTOCK
LECTURES ON THE MORALS OF TRADE
This series will contain essays by representative scholars and men of affairs dealing with the various phases of the moral law in its bearing on business life under the new economic order, first delivered at the University of California on the Weinstock foundation.
COMMERCIALISM AND JOURNALISM
Inthe United States of America, public opinion prevails. It is an axiom of the old political economy, as well as of the new sociology, that no man, or set of men, may with impunity defy public opinion; no law can be enforced contrary to its behests; and even life itself is scarcely worth living without its approbation. Public opinion is the ultimate force that controls the destiny of our democracy.
By common consent we editors are called the "moulders of public opinion." Writing in our easy chairs or making suave speeches over the walnuts and wine, we take scrupulous care to expatiate on this phase of our function. But the real question is: who "moulds" us? for assuredly the hand that moulds the editor moulds the world.
I propose to discuss this evening the ultimate power in control of our journals. And this as you will see implies such vital questions as: Are we editors free to say what we believe? Do we believe what we say? Do we fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, or only ourselves? Is advertising or circulation—profits or popularity—our secret solicitude? Or do we follow faithfully the stern daughter of the voice of God? In short, is journalism a profession or a business?
There are almost as many answers to these questions as there are people to ask them. There are those of us who jubilantly burst into poetry, singing:—
"Here shall the press the people's rights maintain,"
Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain."
On the other hand there are some of us quite ready to corroborate from our own experience the confessions of one New York journalist who wrote:—
There is no such thing in America as an independent press. I am paid for keeping honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. If I should allow honest opinions to be printed in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation, like Othello's, would be gone. The business of a New York journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the foot of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. We are the tools or vassals of the rich men b