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A  Journal  of  Media  History 


Winter  1999 
Volume  16,  Number  1 


J  American    -j _• 
ournalism 

"Truth  Is  Our  Ultimate  Goal":  A  Mid-1 9th 

Century  Concern  for  Journalism  Ethics X7 

Stephen  A.  Banning 

From  Populist  to  Patrician:  Edward  H. 
Butler's  Buffalo  News  and  the  Crisis  of 

Labor,  1877-1892 41 

Michael  J.  Dillon 

Power  of  the  Press:  How  Newspapers  in  Four 
Communities  Erased  Thousands  of  Chinese 

From  Oregon  History 5y 

Herman  B.  Chiu 

Common  Forms  for  Uncommon  Actions: 
The  Search  for  Political  Organization  in 

California's  Dust  Bowl '7 

James  Hamilton 

1998  Presidential  Address:  The 
Historiographical  Tradition  in  20th 

Century  America 1Q5 

James  D.  Startt 

Great  Ideas:  E.  W.  Scripps  Papers  Provide 
An  Important  Journalistic  Window  for 

Scholars 133 

Gerald  J.  Baldasty 

Book  Reviews. 143 


A  Journal  of  Media  History 


American 


Winter  1999 
Volume  16,  Number  1 


ournalism 


Editor Shirley  Biagi 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Book  Review  Editor David  Spencer 

University  of 
Western  Ontario 

Assistant  Editor Timi  Ross  Poeppelman 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Design GwenAmos 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Former  Editors William  David  Sloan 

University  of  Alabama 

Gary  Whitby 

East  Texas  State 

John  Pauly 

Saint  Louis  University 

Wallace  B.  Eberhard 

University  of  Georgia 


1999  American  Journalism 

Historians  Association  Officers 

President Eugenia  Palmegiano 

Saint  Peter's  College 

1st  Vice  President William  David  Sloan 

University  of  Alabama 

2nd  Vice  President David  Copeland 

Emory  Henry  College 

Administrative Carol  Sue  Humphrey 

Oklahoma  Baptist 
University 

Treasurer Dick  Scheidenhelm 

Colorado  State 
University 

Historian Alf  Pratte 

Brigham  Young 
University 

Board  of  Directors David  Abrahamson 

John  Coward 
David  Davies 
Wallace  Eberhard 
Kathleen  Endres 
John  Ferre 
Tracy  Gottlieb 
Pat  Washburn 
Julie  Williams 


Definition  of  History 


For  purposes  of  written  research  papers  and  publications,  the  term  history 
shall  be  seen  as  a  continuous  and  connected  process  emphasizing  but  not 
necessarily  confined  to  subjects  of  American  mass  communications.  History 
should  be  viewed  not  in  the  context  of  perception  of  the  current  decade,  but  as 
part  of  a  significant  and  time-conditioned  human  past. 


Editorial  Purpose. 


American  Journalism  publishes  articles,  book  reviews  and  correspondence 
dealing  with  the  history  of  journalism.  Contributions  may  focus  on  social, 
economic,  intellectual,  political  or  legal  issues.  American  Journalism  also  welcomes 
articles  that  treat  the  history  of  communication  in  general;  the  history  of 
broadcasting,  advertising  and  public  relations;  the  history  of  media  outside  the 
United  States;  theoretical  issues  in  the  literature  or  methods  of  media  history;  and 
new  ideas  and  methods  for  the  teaching  of  media  history.  Papers  will  be  evaluated 
in  terms  of  the  authors  systematic,  critical,  qualitative  and  quantitative  investiga- 
tion of  all  relevant,  available  sources  with  a  focus  on  written,  primary  documents 
but  not  excluding  current  literature  and  interviews. 


Copyright 


©  American  Journalism  Historians  Association  1999.  Articles  in  the  journal 
may  be  photocopied  for  use  m  teaching,  research,  criticism  and  news  reporting, 
in  accordance  with  Sections  107  and  108  of  the  U.  S.  Copyright  Law.  For  all 
other  purposes,  including  electronic  reproduction  and/or  distribution,  users  must 
obtain  written  permission  from  the  editor. 

Submission  Guidelines 


Authors  submitting  research  manuscripts  for  publication  as  articles  should 
send  five  manuscript  copies  (including  an  abstract  with  each).  Manuscripts 
should  follow  the  Chicago  Manual  of  Style,  14th  Edition,  and  should  not  exceed 
the  recommended  maximum  length  of  20  pages.  Research  manuscripts  are  blind 
refereed. 

Great  Ideas  is  designed  to  showcase  new  approaches  and  information  about 
the  teaching  of  media  history.  Great  Ideas  are  typically  three  to  six  manuscript 
pages.  Authors  of  Great  Ideas  should  first  query  the  editor. 

American  Journalism  is  produced  on  Macintosh  computers  using  Microsoft 
Word  6.0.1.  Authors  whose  manuscripts  are  accepted  for  publication  are  asked  to 
submit  their  work  on  PC  or  Macintosh  disk,  formatted  in  Microsoft  Word  5-0 
or  6.0.1. 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism 


Send  Submissions  to 


Book  Reviews 


Professor  Shirley  Biagi 
American  Journalism 
Communication 
Studies  Department 
6000  J  Street 
Mendocino  5014 
Sacramento,  CA 
95819-6070 
Telephone:  (916)  278-5323 
E-mail:  ajha@csus.edu 

.  To  review  or  propose  a 
book  review  contact: 
Professor  David  Spencer 
Graduate  School  of 
Journalism 
University  of  Western 
Ontario 

London,  Ontario 
Canada  N6A  5B7 
E-mail: 
dspencer@j  ulian .  uwo.  ca 


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A  Journal  of  Media  History  Winter  1999 

Volume  16,  Number  1 


xAmerican 


J  American    \  • 
ournalism 


Editor's  Note 9 

"Truth  is  Our  Ultimate  Goal"  :  A  Mid- 19th  Century  Concern  for 

Journalism  Ethics 17 

Stephen  A.  Banning 

The  author  explores  the  beginnings  of  the  first  professional  journalism 
organization,  established  in  the  mid-1 9th  century. 

Edward  H.  Butler's  Buffalo  News  and  the  Crisis  of  Labor,  1877-1892: 

From  Populist  to  Patrician 41 

Michael  J.  Dillon 

This  article  chronicles  the  response  of  Edward  H.  Butler,  who  founded 
the  Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News  in  1873,  to  two  great  labor  conflicts:  the 
rail  strike  of  1877  and  the  Great  Strike  of 1892. 

Power  of  the  Press:  How  Newspapers  in  Four  Communities  Erased 

Thousands  of  Chinese  from  Oregon  History 59 

Herman  B.  Chiu 

By  examining  four  early  Oregon  newspapers,  the  author  concludes  that 
immigrant  Chinese  were  repeatedly  misrepresented  and  unrepresented  in  the 
1800s. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  5 


Common  Forms  for  Uncommon  Actions:  The  Search  for  Political 

Organization  in  Dust  Bowl  California 79 

James  Hamilton 

The  author  examines  mimeographed  newspapers  published  in  the  late 
1930s  and  early  1940s  in  a  California  migrant  labor  camp,  in  an  effort  to 
explain  the  attempt  of  migrant  workers  to  organize  for  political  action. 

1998  Presidential  Address:  The  Historiographical  Tradition  in  20th 

Century  America 105 

James  D.  Startt 

The  American  journalism  Historians  Association  Past  President  examines 
the  evolution  of  historical  narratives  and  concludes  that  history  was  alive  and 
well  in  the  20th  Century. 

Great  Ideas:  E.W.  Scripps  Papers  Provide  An  Important  Journalistic 

Window  for  Scholars 133 

Gerald  J.  Baldasty 

The  author  walks  us  through  the  enormous  manuscript  collection  ofE.  W. 
Scripps,  housed  at  Ohio  University,  and  offers  research  suggestions. 

Book  Review  Editor  s  Note 143 

Book  Reviews 1 43 

Editor's  Choice:  The  Black  Press:  Soldiers  without  Swords 

(Video) 143 

by  California  Newsreel 
Reviewed  by  David  R.  Spencer 

Joint  Operating  Agreements:  The  Newspaper  Preservation  Act  and 

Its  Application. 145 

By  John  C.  Busterna  and  Robert  G.  Picard 
Review  by  Jim  Mueller 

Media  and  Public  Life 147 

By  Everette  E.  Dennis  &  Robert  W.  Snyder  (Eds.) 
Reviewed  by  Michael  Ante  col 

6  Table  of  Contents  •  Winter  1 999 


Museum  of  Broadcast  Communications  Encyclopedia  of 

Television,  3  Vols 149 

By  Horace  Newcomb  (Ed.)  Cary  O'Dell  (Photo  Editor)  &  Noelle 
Watson  (Commissioning  Editor) 
Reviewed  by  Frances  Wilhoit 

PR!  A  Social  History  of  Spin 151 

By  Stuart  Ewen 
Reviewed  by  John  P.  Ferre 

Pragmatic  Fundraising  for  College  Administrators  and 

Development  Officers 153 

By  Ralph  Lowenstein 
Reviewed  by  Ted  Garrard 

Studies  In  Newspaper  and  Periodical  History:  1995  Annual  .  .  154 
By  Michael  Harris  and  Tom  O'Malley  (Eds.) 
Reviewed  by  Kathy  English 

Wireless:  Strategically  Liberalizing  The  Telecommunicaitons 

Market. 156 

By  Brian  J.  W.  Regli 
Reviewed  by  James  Hamilton 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2010  with  funding  from 
Brigham  Young  University 


http://www.archive.org/details/americanjournali16amer 


Editor  s  Note 


Historians,  like  journalists,  often  reflect  the  political  and 
social  agendas  of  the  times  in  which  they  live.  Today's 
professional  standards  and  news  values — good  and  bad — 
are  the  direct  result  of  the  daily  decisions  that  publishers  and  journalists 
made  in  the  late  19th  and  early  20th  centuries,  according  to  the  authors 
writing  in  this  issue  of  American  Journalism. 

The  evolution  of  press  ethics — the  standards  by  which  the  media 
police  themselves — is  the  subject  of  "'Truth  Is  Our  Ultimate  Goal':  A 
Mid- 19th  Century  Concern  for  Journalism  Ethics"  by  Stephen  A.  Ban- 
ning. Most  media  scholars  claim  that  the  first  professional  press  codes  in 
America  emerged  in  the  early  20th  century,  but  Banning  has  uncovered  at 
least  one  press  association  that  developed  serious  concerns  about  journal- 
ism ethics  in  the  mid- 19th  century. 

In  "From  Populist  to  Patrician:   Edward  H.  Butler's  Buffalo  News 
and  the  Crisis  of  Labor,  1877  -  1892,"  Michael  J.  Dillon  explores  the 
classic  ethical  dilemma  faced  by  all  American  publishers.  Can  newspapers 
maintain  their  crusading  spirit  once  they  start  making  money?    Dillon 
explains  that  New  York's  Edward  H.  Butler,  like  many  publishers,  seemed 
to  abandon  his  affinity  for  the  cause  of  labor  once  his  newspaper  grew 
successful. 

Publishers  also  can  select  which  people  in  a  community  deserve 
coverage.   In  the  1800s,  mainstream  Oregon  newspapers  ignored  the  news 
from  Chinese  communities,  says  Herman  Chiu,  in  "Power  of  the  Press: 
How  Newspapers  in  Four  Communities  Erased  Thousands  of  Chinese 
from  Oregon  History."  Chinese  immigrants  comprised  half  the  popula- 
tion in  some  Oregon  cities,  says  Chiu,  yet  news  about  the  Chinese 
population's  activities  in  these  cities  is  virtually  invisible  in  the  local 
newspapers. 

James  Hamilton's  discussion  of  news  values  extends  to  1930s 
California  in  his  article,  "Common  Forms  for  Uncommon  Actions:  The 
Search  for  Political  Organization  in  California's  Dust  Bowl."  Hamilton 
examined  mimeographed  newspapers  published  by  Dust  Bowl  migrants 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism 


to  express  their  outrage  at  unhealthy  working  conditions  and  poor  wages. 
The  workers,  says  Hamilton,  tried  to  organize  to  improve  their  lives,  but 
never  found  a  successful  outlet  to  promote  their  point  of  view. 

Just  as  newspapers  can  reflect  competing  news  values  for  the  times 
in  which  they  are  published,  scholarly  approaches  to  history  often  reflect 
the  societies  in  which  historians  work.  James  Startt  explains  the  evolution 
of  scholars'  historical  methods  in  his  1998  Presidential  Address,  reprinted 
in  this  issue  from  his  presentation  at  the  Annual  Conference  of  the 
American  Journalism  Historians  Association  in  October  1998  in  Louis- 
ville, Kentucky. 

Historians  can  uncover  the  personality  of  one  of  the  nation's  great 
turn-of-the-century  press  lords  by  sifting  through  the  vast  E.  W.  Scripps 
Manuscript  Collection,  now  available  to  scholars  at  Ohio  University  in 
Athens,  Ohio.    In  Great  Ideas,  Gerald  J.  Baldasty  describes  the  depth  of 
the  collection  of  200,000  documents  and  letters,  covering  the  late  19th 
and  early  20th  centuries. 

For  the  first  time  ever,  David  Spencer  ranks  a  video  as  his  Editor's 
Choice  in  the  Book  Review  section.  And  don't  forget  to  check  the  list  of 
available  back  copies  on  page  1 1  so  you  can  complete  your  collection  of 
American  Journalism,  which  begins  its  16th  volume  with  this  issue. 

Shirley  Biagi 
Editor 


1 0  Editor's  Note  •  Winter  1 999 


American  Journalism 

Back  Issues 

The  following  back  issues  of  American  Journalism 

are  available  at  the  < 

:ost  of  $3  per  issue  ($6  per 

combined  issue): 

Volume  7 

(1990) 

Nos.  1 ,  2,  and  4 

Volume  8 

(1991) 

Nos.  1,  2-3  (com- 
bined issue),  and  4 

Volume  9 

(1992) 

Nos.  1-2,  3-4 

(both  combined  issues) 

Volume  10 

(1993) 

Nos.  1-2  (combined  issue) 

Volume  11 

(1994) 

Nos.  2,  3,  and  4 

Volume  12 

(1995) 

Nos.  1,  2,  3,  and  4 

Volume  13 

(1996) 

Nos.  1,  2,  3,  and  4 

Volume  14 

(1997) 

Nos.  1,  2,  3-4  (com- 
bined issue) 

Some  of  these  issues  are  in  short  supply  (Vol.  7, 

Nos.  2  and  4;  Vol.  12, 

Nos.l  and  3) 

Add$l  per 

issue  for  postage  and  send  check  made 

payable  to  AJHA  to: 

Richard  Sch 

eidenhelm 

AJHA  Treasurer 
4185  Corriente  PL 
Boulder,  CO  80301 
(303)  443-7542 

Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism 


11 


American  Journalism  Reviewers 


David  Abrahamson 
Northwestern  University 

June  Adamson 
University  of  Tennessee 

Donna  Allen 

Women's  Institute  for  Freedom  of  the  Press 

Perry  Ashley 

University  of  South  Carolina 

Donald  Avery 

Penn  State  University 

Gerald  Baldasty 
University  of  Washington 

Warren  "Sandy"  Barnard 
Indiana  State  University 

Sharon  Bass 
University  of  Kansas 

Maurine  Beasley 
University  of  Maryland 

Tom  Beell 

Iowa  State  University 

Louise  Benjamin 
University  of  Georgia 

Sherilyn  Cox  Bennion 
Humboldt  State  University 

Douglas  Birkhead 
University  of  Utah 

Roy  Blackwood 
Bemidji  State  University 

Margaret  Blanchard 
University  of  North  Carolina 

Fred  Blevens 

Southwest  Texas  State  University 

Patricia  Bradley 
Temple  University 

Bonnie  Brennen 

Virginia  Commonwealth  University 

Joshua  Brown 

American  Social  History  Project 


Pam  Brown 
Rider  University 

Judith  Buddenbaum 
Colorado  State  University 

Elizabeth  Burt 
University  of  Hartford 

Flora  Caldwell 
University  of  Mississippi 

James  Carey 
Columbia  University 

Jean  Chance 
University  of  Florida 

Ann  Colbert 
Indiana-Purdue  University 

Tom  Connery 
University  of  St.  Thomas 

John  Coward 
University  of  Tulsa 

David  Copeland 
Emory  &  Henry  College 

Ed  Cray 

University  of  Southern  California 

David  Davies 

University  of  Southern  Mississippi 

John  DeMott 

University  of  Missouri,  Kansas  City 

Donna  Dickerson 
University  of  South  Florida 

Pat  Dooley 
University  of  Maine 

Carolyn  Dyer 
University  of  Iowa 

Kathleen  Endres 
University  of  Akron 

Ferrell  Ervin 

Southeast  Missouri  State  University 

Bruce  Evenson 
DePaul  University 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism 


13 


Fred  Fedler 

University  of  Central  Florida 

Tony  Fellow 

California  State  University,  Fullerton 

John  Ferre 

University  of  Louisville 

Jean  Folkerts 

George  Washington  University 

Robert  Former 
Calvin  College 

Jim  Foust 

Bowling  Green  University 

Ralph  Frasca 
Hofstra  University 

Brooks  Garner 
Oklahoma  State  University 

Dennis  Gildea 
Springfield  College 

Don  Godfrey 

Arizona  State  University 

Vicki  Goff 

University  of  Wisconsin,  Green  Bay 

Tracy  Gottleib 
Seton  Hall  University 

Karla  Gower 

University  of  North  Carolina,  Chapel  Hill 

Paul  Grosswiler 
University  of  Maine 

Dennie  Hall 

University  of  Central  Oklahoma 

Susan  Henry 

California  State  University,  Northridge 

Louise  Hermanson 
University  of  South  Alabama 

Tom  Heuterman 
Washington  State  University 

Glenn  Himebaugh 

Middle  Tennessee  State  University 

Nathaniel  Hong 
University  of  Washington 

Brad  Howard 

Mount  St.  Clare  College 


Herberr  Howard 
University  of  Tennessee 

Carol  Sue  Humphrey 
Oklahoma  Baptist  University 

Bill  Huntzicker 
University  of  Minnesota 

Frankie  Hutton 
Lehigh  University 

Terry  Hynes 
University  of  Florida 

Dolores  Jenkins 
University  of  Florida 

Jay  Jernigan 

Eastern  Michigan  University 

Phil  Jeter 

Florida  A  &  M  University 

Sammye  Johnson 
Trinity  University 

Tom  Johnson 

Southern  Illinois  University 

Paula  Kassell 

New  Directions  for  Women 

Arthur  Kaul 

University  of  Southern  Mississippi 

Beverly  Deepe  Keever 
University  of  Hawaii 

Elliott  King 
Loyola  College 

Bill  Knowles 
University  of  Montana 

Ed  Lambeth 
University  of  Missouri 

Linda  Lawson 
Indiana  University 

Richard  Lentz 

Arizona  State  University 

Lawrence  Lichty 
Northwestern  University 

Larry  Lorenz 
Loyola  University 

Charles  Marler 

Abilene  Christian  University 


14 


American  Journalism  Reviewers  •  Winter  1999 


John  Marrs 

Everett  Community  College 

Maclyn  McClary 
Humboldt  State  University 

Sheila  Mclntyre 
Harvard  University 

Floyd  McKay 

Western  Washington  University 

Joe  McKerns 

Ohio  State  University 

James  McPherson 
Washington  State  University 

Beverly  Merrick 

New  Mexico  State  University 

Karen  Miller 
University  of  Georgia 

David  Mindich 

Saint  Michael's  College 

Catherine  Mitchell 
University  of  North  Carolina 

James  Mooney 

East  Tennessee  State  University 

Meg  Moritz 
University  of  Colorado 

Michael  Murray 

University  of  Missouri,  St.  Louis 

Orayb  Najjar 

Northern  Illinois  University 

Jack  Nelson 

Brigham  Young  University 

Richard  Nelson 
Louisiana  State  University 

Mark  Neuzil 
University  of  St.  Thomas 

Doug  Newsom 

Texas  Christian  University 

Ron  Ostman 
Cornell  University 

Laurie  Ouellette 
Rutgers  University 

Anna  Paddon 

Southern  Illinois  University 


Oscar  Patterson 
Pembroke  State  University 

Carol  Polsgrove 
Indiana  University 

Steve  Ponder 
University  of  Otegon 

Alf  Pratte 

Brigham  Young  University 

Chuck  Rankin 

Montana  Historical  Society 

Barbara  Reed 
Rutgers  University 

Ford  Risley 

Pennsylvania  State  University 

Nancy  Roberts 
University  of  Minnesota 

S.  Kittrell  Rushing 

University  of  Tennessee,  Chattanooga 

Joe  Scanlon 
Carleton  University 

Dick  Scheidenhelm 
Colorado  State  University 

Michael  Schudson 

University  of  California,  San  Diego 

Susan  Siler 
University  of  Tennessee 

Roger  Simpson 
University  of  Washington 

Norm  Sims 

University  of  Massachusetts 

David  Sloan 
University  of  Alabama 

C.  Zoe  Smith 
University  of  Missouri 

F.  Leslie  Smith 
University  of  Florida 

Ted  Smyrhe 

California  State  University,  Fullerton 

David  Spencer 

University  of  Western  Ontario 

K.  Sriramesh 
Purdue  University 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism 


15 


Jim  Startt 
Valparaiso  University 

Andris  Straumanis 
University  of  Minnesota 

Rodger  Streitmatter 
American  University 

Victoria  Sturgeon 
Tennessee  State  University 

Leonard  Teel 

Georgia  State  University 

Clarence  Thomas 

Virginia  Commonwealth  University 

Bernell  Tripp 
University  of  Florida 


Tom  Volek 
University  of  Kansas 

Pat  Washburn 
Ohio  University 

Susan  Weill 

University  of  Mississippi 

Mary  Weston 
Northwestern  University 

Jan  Whitt 

University  of  Colorado 

Julie  Williams 
Samford  University 

Betty  Winfield 
University  of  Missouri 


16 


American  Journalism  Reviewers  •  Winter  1999 


"Truth  is  Our  Ultimate  Goal":  A 
Mid- 19th  Century  Concern  for 
Journalism  Ethics 

By  Stephen  A.  Banning 

This  research  examines  a  mid-1 9th  century  Missouri  press  association 
and  presents  evidence  that,  contrary  to  Frederic  Hudson's  contention  that  all 
press  associations  at  the  time  were  insignificant  social  organizations,  at  least 
one  press  assocaition  had  serious  concerns  about  journalistic  ethics  and  the 
future  of  journalism.  In  fact,  themes  in  the  Sigma  Delta  Chi  and  American 
Society  of  Newspaper  Editors'  codes  of  ethics  mirror  some  early  press  association 
discussions,  indicating  that  concern  for  ethics  in  the  mid- 19th  century  may 
have  been  aprecurser  to  the  first  codes  of  ethics  that  emerged  in  the  20th 
century. 

The  development  of  codes  of  ethics  in  journalism  has  a 
special  significance,  as  many  journalism  history  and  ethics 
writers  have  viewed  codes  of  ethics  as  a  benchmark  of 
journalistic  professionalization.  Sociologists  include  codes  of  ethics  as  a 
major  characteristic  of  a  profession,  along  with  professional  associations 
and  university  education.1  Thus,  finding  early  association  discussions  of 
ethics  helps  establish  the  time  period  when  interest  in  journalistic 
professionalization  began,2  as  well  as  provides  insights  into  the  motiva- 
tions of  journalists  in  the  19th  century. 


Stephen  A.  Banning  is  Assistant  Professor  of  Agricultural  Journalism  in  the  Department  of 
Journalism  at  Texas  A&M  University. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  17 


To  examine  journalistic  credibility  jn  the  mid- 19th  century  means 
searching  beyond  the  editorials  of  the  major  editors.  Historians  have 
done  and  redone  studies  of  the  leading  journalistic  figures  of  the  19th 
century  The  rationale  has  been  that  only  individuals  influence  the  course 
of  journalistic  history. 

Organizations,  however,  also  can  have  a  profound  effect  on  history. 
Alexis  de  Tocqueville  noted  that  associations  were  having  a  great  impact 
on  the  United  States  during  the  mid-  and  later  19th  century.3  Some 
sociologists  see  the  organization,  not  the  individual,  as  the  primary 
catalyst  for  professionalization.  Sociologist  W.J.  Reader  notes,   "An 
occupation's  rise  to  professional  standing  can  be  pretty  accurately  charted 
by  reference  to  the  progress  of  its  professional  institute  or  association."4 
Thus,  studying  early  journalistic  associations  is  vital  to  an  understanding 
of  professionalism  in  general  and  press  codes  specifically. 

Evidence  has  recently  been  presented  which  indicates  that  the 
Missouri  Press  Association  (MPA)  was  a  professional  association  in  the 
19th  century5  and  advocated  university  education.6  This  paper  will  look 
at  primary  sources  from  the  MPA  to  see  if  the  sources  reveal  some  early 
professional  discussions  of  journalistic  ethics.  The  writer  also  will  com- 
pare MPA  oration  topics  in  the  mid-1 9th  century  with  the  American 
Society  of  Newspaper  Editors  (ASNE)  and  the  Sigma  Delta  Chi  (SDX) 
professional  ethics  codes  of  the  20th  century  for  possible  parallels. 

This  research  does  not  seek  to  determine  whether  the  MPA  was  the 
first  press  association  to  entertain  discussions  on  professional  aspects  of 
journalism.   Rather,  this  research  seeks  support  for  the  hypothesis  that 
state  press  associations  in  the  mid- 19th  century  were  concerned  about 
journalism  ethics.    A  positive  indication  that  the  MPA  discussed  ethical 
concerns  parallel  to  those  eventually  codified  by  the  ASNE  and  SDX 
would  support  this  hypothesis.7 

Early  Roots  of  Professionalization 

It  is  important  to  note  that  this  research  does  not  relate  to  the  scope 
of  state  press  association  activity  during  the  mid- 19th  century.  Even  if 
there  is  evidence  that  the  MPA  was  involved  with  ethical  discussion  at  this 
time,  this  study  does  not  claim  that  the  MPA  was  the  only,  or  first,  press 
association  to  do  so.  Still,  a  positive  indication  that  the  MPA  was  in- 
volved with  professional  activity  is  significant  because  it  pushes  back  the 
roots  of  journalistic  interest  in  professionalization.  If  further  research  into 
primary  sources  reveals  many  press  associations  discussed  these  same 


Banning*  Winter  1999 


ethical  principles,  journalism  historians  may  need  to  consider  ascribing 
more  importance  to  the  role  of  state  press  associations  in  journalism 
history. 

If  we  are  to  take  Frederic  Hudson's  word  in  1876,  many  press 
associations  were  not  interested  in  serious  matters.8  This  prompts  further 
questions  of  what  patterns  may  exist  which  characterize  the  state  press 
associations  during  this  period,  and  how  they  may  have  contributed  to 
journalism  history. 

It  should  also  be  noted  that  the  MPA  was  not  the  first  press  associa- 
tion. In  1876,  Frederic  Hudson  described  the  first  press  club  as  begin- 
ning in  1851.   However,  Hudson  describes  that  club,  and  state  press 
associations  in  general,  as  being  more  in  the  order  of  drinking  clubs.9 
Thus,  the  concept  that  press  clubs  were  engaged  in  serious  discussion,  a 
concept  central  to  this  research,  is  in  complete  disagreement  with 
Hudson's  assessment  of  press  clubs  at  the  time.  The  researcher  will  use 
primary  sources  (MPA  press  association  minutes)  to  investigate  Hudson's 
charge. 

Contradicting  20th  Century  Beginnings 

The  concept  of  journalistic  professionalization  beginning  in  the 
19th  century  is  a  new  concept,10  as  most  journalism  history  accounts 
indicate  the  drive  for  journalistic  professionalization  began  during  the  first 
part  of  the  20th  century.  For  instance,  in  a  1986  article  in  Journal  of  Mass 
Media  Ethics,  John  Merrill  states  journalists  did  not  begin  to  call  them- 
selves professionals  until  after  World  War  II,  stating: 

Journalism  has  gone  a  long  way  toward  becoming  a  profes- 
sion....Whereas  in  the  pre- World  War  II  days,  journalism 
was  known  as  a  "craft"  or  a  "trade" — or  simply  not  given  a 
label  at  all — it  is  now  quite  common  to  hear  it  referred  to 
as  a  profession." 

Other  accounts  differ.  Mary  Cronin  and  James  McPherson,  who 
researched  state  press  association  codes  of  ethics,  claim  journalists  com- 
monly referred  to  themselves  as  professionals  as  early  as  the  start  of  the 
20th  century,  commenting: 

The  professionalism  movement  sweeping  journalism  at  the 
start  of  this  century  also  provided  some  of  the  motivation 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 9 


to  create  the  codes.   Buoyed  by  the  press'  increasing 
predominance  in  daily  life,  many  journalists  began  calling 
their  work  a  profession  rather  than  an  occupation  or  trade.12 

Cronin  and  McPherson  also  present  a  lengthy  list  of  references  where 
journalists  at  the  start  of  this  century  and  thereafter  referred  to  themselves 
as  professionals.13  In  Journalistic  Standards  in  19th  Century  America, 
Hazel  Dicken-Garcia  notes  professionalism  was  encouraged  in  the  mid- 
19205.14  Marion  Marzolf  in  Civilizing  Voices  saw  journalistic  profes- 
sionalization  as  a  20th  century  phenomenon.15   Marzolf  remarks: 

Efforts  to  reform  journalism  in  the  pre- World  War  I  era 
were  strengthened  by  the  formation  of  the  first  journalism 
departments  and  schools  and  by  the  start  of  professional  or- 
ganizations to  promote  common  ideals  and  values.16 

Other  scholars  who  have  shared  the  view  that  professionalization  is  a 
20th  century  phenomenon  include  Sidney  Kobre,17  Douglas  Birkhead18 
and  William  May.19 

The  Historic  Tie  Between  Codes  of  Ethics  and  Professionalization 

Past  journalism  historians  such  as  Bert  Bostrom  have  seen  the 
proliferation  of  press  codes  in  the  1920s  as  further  evidence  of  a  20th 
century  journalistic  professionalization  trend.20  In  James  Melvin  Lee's 
1923  book  History  of  American  Journalism,  Lee  called  the  first  few  years  of 
the  20th  century  a  period  where  the  nation  became  aware  of  the  need  for 
ethics  and  ethics  codes.21   Lee  referred  to  the  journalists'  interest  in  ethics 
as  a  reflection  of  the  national  "trend  of  the  times."22  He  credited  the 
moral  influence  of  President  Woodrow  Wilson,  writing: 

Practically  every  newspaper  before  1 900  had  been,  as 
Mr.  Watterson  [editor  of  The  Louisville  Courier-] ournal\ 
asserted,  a  law  unto  itself,  without  standards  of  either 
work  or  duty:   its  code  of  ethics,  not  yet  codified  like 
those  of  medicine  or  of  law,  had  been,  like  its  stylebook, 
individualistic  in  character.23 

Despite  the  historical  emphasis  on  the  proliferation  of  press  codes  in 
the  20th  century,  however,  press  codes  did  exist  prior  to  the  20th  century. 
George  Payne  in  his  1 940  book  History  of  Journalism  in  the  United  States 

20  Banning*  Winter  1999 


commented  that  a  literary  magazine  Public  Ledger  did  have  a  loose  set  of 
rules  as  early  as  1864,  although  Payne  did  not  specify  what  they  were.24 
Hazel  Dicken-Garcia  pointed  out  the  presentation  of  six  ethical  principles 
at  the  Minnesota  Editorial  Association  in  1888.25  However,  these  anoma- 
lies were  not  the  norm  of  19th  century  journalistic  behavior. 

The  first  professional  journalistic  press  code  came  into  existence  in 
1911,  according  to  journalism  historian  Hazel  Dicken-Garcia,26  or  1910, 
according  to  journalism  historian  Leon  Flint.27  Sigma  Delta  Chi  (SDX) 
was  one  of  the  first  national  professional  press  organizations  and  their 
code  was  adopted  in  1926.28  According  to  Clifford  Christians,  the  SDX 
code  was  an  imitation  of  the  ASNE  code  adopted  three  years  earlier,  but 
became  the  most  nationally  recognized  code.29    While  the  codes  them- 
selves may  have  been  initially  promoted  by  individual  editors,30  they  were 
championed  by  professional  journalism  groups.31  Thus,  the  historical 
foundation  points  to  professional  journalistic  codes  of  ethics  originating 
in  the  20th  century. 

Unearthing  Clues  from  the  MPA  Minutes 

J.W.  Barrett,  a  founding  member  of  the  MPA,32  its  president  in 
198733  and  186834  and  the  publisher  of  the  Canton  Press,  recorded  and 
compiled  the  MPA  minutes  for  10  years.35  The  MPA  commissioned 
Barrett  to  keep  a  historical  record  of  the  MPA's  proceedings,  which 
included  an  agenda  of  events  of  each  meeting,  a  narrative  of  the  conven- 
tion's highlights,  along  with  the  complete  versions  of  the  many  lengthy 
original  poems,  and  the  full  texts  of  the  annual  "orations."36  Thus, 
Barrett's  minutes  consist  of  outlines  of  the  meetings'  agendas  along  with 
an  almost  complete  record  of  the  highlights,  even  the  poems  and  ora- 
tions.37 

After  the  MPA's  tenth  convention  in  1876,  the  MPA  officials  paid 
Barrett  to  print  300  copies  of  the  full  minutes  for  the  MPA  members. 
Barrett  printed  and  bound  the  MPA  minutes  in  volumes  136  pages  long. 
Historian  William  Taft  used  the  minutes  in  writing  Missouri  Newspapers58 
three  decades  ago,  but  other  than  that  the  minutes  have  been  largely 
forgotten.  Within  the  MPA  minutes,  discussion  of  ethics  is  very  evident. 
The  first  10  years  of  MPA  minutes  are  filled  with  lectures  on  ethics,  and  a 
chronological  sampling  of  these  speeches  illustrates  the  MPA  members' 
passion  for  ethics. 

For  instance,  in  1868  MPA  member  C.B.  Wilkinson39  talks  at 
length  about  current  standards  of  journalism  in  an  oration  at  the  MPA 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  21 


annual  meeting.  He  recognizes  a  higher  standard  of  journalism  than  in 
times  past  by  comparing  MPA  members  to  journalists  during  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution.  Wilkinson  states,  "How  far  they  fell  short  of  our  measure 
of  public  journalism."40  Wilkinson  believes  the  early  journalists  merely 
recorded  news  instead  of  seeking  a  deeper  analysis  of  the  facts.  This 
indicates  the  presence  of  a  set  of  standards  or,  in  Wilkinsons  words,  a 
"measure"  of  journalism.  Later,  Wilkinson  re-emphasizes  the  importance 
of  ethics  in  stating: 

In  all  matters  of  principle  the  voice  of  the  editors  should  be 
the  voice  which  truth  and  right  send  up  from  his  inmost 
soul. ...He  cannot  move  counter  to  his  own  convictions 
of  duty41 

The  Need  for  Principled  Journalism 

The  annual  address  the  following  year  contains  a  similar  reference  to 
specific  "measures."    MPA  member  Norman  J.  Colman  discusses  the 
importance  of  principled  journalism  and  stresses  the  need  for  editors  to  be 
open  to  measures  which  would  lead  to  principled  journalism.  Colman42 
states: 

The  Press  either  elevates  the  tone  of  the  public  mind  or 
debases  it — depending  upon  the  manner  in  which  it  is 
conducted.  If  conducted  upon  high  and  honorable 
principles,  the  public  mind  is  elevated  in  a  corresponding 
degree.. ..In  all  matters  affecting  the  people,  they  should 
be  found  willing  and  eloquent  advocates  of  all  measures 
having  the  good  of  the  people  in  view.43 

Later  Colman  advises,  "It  is  always  better  to  deal  with  facts  and  prin- 
ciples."44 

An  address  in  1873  contains  a  more  direct  reference  to  an  unwritten 
code  of  ethics.  MPA  member  John  Marmaduke45  says  the  "moral  stan- 
dard" of  the  press,  while  already  existing,  should  be  higher.   He  elaborates 
by  scorning  sensationalism  and,  after  outlining  press  scandals  regarding 
Horace  Greeley  and  Lord  Byron,  he  comments: 

The  moral  standard  of  the  Press  is  not  compatible  with  the 
magnitude  of  its  power  nor  the  measure  of  its  responsibility. 
It  is  too  ready  to  accommodate  itself  to  a  perverted  public 


22  Banning -Winter  1999 


taste.  It  has  the  ability,  and  ought  to  create  and  lead,  and 
not  follow  and  pander  to  public  sentiment.46 

Marmaduke  concludes  his  speech  by  enunciating  a  mission  state- 
ment for  journalists  in  which  he  lists  a  number  of  specific  ethical  stan- 
dards.  In  enumerating  ethical  standards,  Marmaduke  states: 

Lastly,  we  conceive  the  mission  of  the  Press  to  be  to  elevate, 
not  debase;  to  enlighten,  not  darken;  to  instruct,  not  deceive; 
to  inform,  not  mislead;  to  disseminate  good,  not  evil;  to 
propagate  truth,  not  error, — in  general,  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  our  race  and  bear  us  on  to  a  higher  destiny.47 

Marmaduke  assumed  he  was  speaking  for  the  entire  MPA  with  the  plural 
pronoun  "we."  He  indicates  an  MPA  mission  statement. 

The  following  year  Milo  Blair48  was  also  concerned  about  sullied 
journalism  and  saw  good  conduct  as  vital  if  journalism  were  to  maintain  a 
good  reputation.    In  1874,  Blair  warns  against  sensationalism: 

How  careful  we  should  be  with  the  manner  in  which  we 
conduct  our  papers. ...To  unsullied  journalism  shall  our 
land  look,  and  to  its  trumpet  tones,  march  with  the  noble 
and  free,  in  the  van  of  civilization.49 

In  1875  Mark  DeMotte50  stresses  ethical  journalism,  the  "one  true 
foundation,"51  when  he  comments: 

Give  the  conduct  of  such  a  paper  to  an  educated  man  of 
good  mind  and  morals — strong  in  his  convictions  of  right, 
and  fearless  in  the  expression  of  those  convictions,  and  there 
is  no  end  to  the  good  he  may  accomplish.52 

MPA  Creates  Rules  of  Conduct 

The  specific  MPA  rules  of  conduct  were  announced  the  following 
year.  At  the  June  6,  1876  MPA  convention  in  Macon  City,  William 
Switzler53  enumerated  four  rules  which  MPA  members  were  to  follow: 

First:  Allow  no  temptation  to  secure  your  consent  to  the 
publication  of  articles  long  or  short,  in  prose  or  poetry, 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  23 


original  or  selected,  which  are  demoralizing  in  their 
character.... 

Second:   ....Give  the  substance.  Omit  the  useless  details.... 

Third:   ....As  preliminary  to  profitable  writing,  and  as  a 
preparation  for  it,  much  reading  and  study  is  essential. 
Much  brain-work,  and  often  exhaustive  research  and  more 
exhaustive  thought,  all  unknown  and  quite  frequently 
unappreciated  by  those  who  read  newspapers.... 

Fourth,  and  lastly:  We  are  just  entering  upon  the  Centennial 
Presidential  campaign.... Great  and  singular  perils  and  strong 
temptations  to  bitter  words  and  partisan  excesses,  will  environ 
the  press.   Let  us  illustrate  a  royal  virtue  by  resisting  them.... 
while  we  are  sometimes  partisans  we  are  always  patriots — 
above  all,  that  we  are  not  only  editors — but  gentlemen.^ 

There  is  no  record  that  the  rules  were  formally  adopted  by  a  vote, 
but  the  fact  that  the  MPA  enumerated  proposed  rules  of  conduct  does 
indicate  advanced  thinking  along  the  lines  of  associational  conduct. 

The  ethical  considerations  enumerated  above  of  1)  no  demoralizing 
articles,  2)  substantive  articles,  3)  intelligent  articles  and  4)  no  bitter 
partisan  articles  were  not  the  only  items  of  ethical  concern.   In  fact,  a 
number  of  ethical  themes  reoccur  throughout  the  MPA  minutes.  These 
ethical  themes,  reiterated  time  and  time  again  by  MPA  orators,  closely 
parallel  the  themes  in  the  so-called  "professional"  ethics  codes  of  the 
1920s.55 

Parallels  Between  Early  MPA  Ethics  and  Professional  Press  Codes 

A  point-by-point  comparison  between  the  SDX  and  ASNE  press 
codes,  and  the  MPA  code  reveals  strong  similarities.  This  is  relevant  to 
the  MPAs  efforts  to  professionalize  because  the  SDX  manual  states  that 
the  purpose  of  SDX  is  to  promote  professionalism. 

Sigma  Delta  Chi,  Professional  Journalistic  Fraternity,  is  a 
professional  society  for  men  engaged  in  journalism, 
dedicated  to  the  highest  ideals  in  journalism,  and  is 
comparable  to  those  professional  organizations  serving 
the  professions  of  medicine  and  the  law.  In  this  unique 
role,  Sigma  Delta  Chi  constantly  endeavors  to  raise  the 


24  Banning  •Winter  1999 


standards  of  competence  of  its  members,  to  recognize 
outstanding  achievement  by  journalists  and  to  promote 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  journalism  is  a  true  profession.56 

While  a  group  of  students  founded  SDX  at  DePauw  University  in 
1909  with  the  purpose  of  benefiting  "the  noblest  profession  of  them  all,"57 
the  ethics  code  wasn't  adopted  until  1926.  The  SDX  press  code  lists  eight 
items  relating  to  accuracy  and  objectivity.  They  are: 

1 .  Truth  is  our  ultimate  goal. 

2.  Objectivity  in  reporting  the  news  is  another  goal,  which 
serves  as  the  mark  of  an  experienced  professional.   It  is  a 
standard  of  performance  toward  which  we  strive.  We  honor 
those  who  achieve  it. 

3.  There  is  no  excuse  for  inaccuracies  or  lack  of  thoroughness. 

4.  Newspaper  headlines  should  be  fully  warranted  by  the 
contents  of  the  articles  they  accompany.   Photographs  and 
telecasts  should  give  an  accurate  picture  of  an  event  and 
not  highlight  a  minor  incident  out  of  context. 

5.  Sound  practice  makes  clear  distinction  between  news 
reports  and  expressions  of  opinion.  News  reports  should  be 
free  of  opinion  or  bias  and  represent  all  sides  of  an  issue. 

6.  Partisanship  in  editorial  comment  which  knowingly  departs 
from  the  truth  violates  the  spirit  of  American  Journalism. 

7.  Journalists  recognize  their  responsibility  for  offering 
informed  analysis,  comment  and  editorial  opinion  on  public 
events  and  issues.  They  accept  the  obligation  to  present  such 
material  by  individuals  whose  competence,  experience  and 
judgement  qualify  them  for  it. 

8.  Special  articles  or  presentations  devoted  to  advocacy  or 
the  writer's  own  conclusions  and  interpretations  should 
be  labeled  as  such.58 

The  ASNE's  "Canons  of  Journalism"  are  similar.  The  Canons  of 
Journalism  are  a  list  of  six  articles  including  "Responsibility,"  "Freedom  of 
the  Press,"  "Independence,"  "Sincerity,  Truthfulness,  and  Accuracy," 
"Impartiality,"  and  "Fair  Play  and  Decency."59 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  25 


Truthfulness  Can  Scatter  Prejudice 

The  first  item  of  the  Sigma  Delta  Chi  press  code  listed  above, 
"Truth  is  our  ultimate  goal,"  or  as  the  ASNE's  Article  IV  puts  it:  "Sincer- 
ity, Truthfulness,  and  Accuracy"  was  directly  referred  to  in  almost  every 
MPA  address  and  is  evident  in  a  chronological  look  at  references  to  truth 
through  the  first  10  years  of  the  MPA.    In  1868,  in  an  oration,  C.B. 
Wilkinson  explicitly  advocates  truthfulness  in  one  form  or  another  four 
times.    He  hints  at  the  concept  when  he  remarks,  "A  well  conducted 
newspaper  being  a  record  of  humanity,  a  faithful  mirror  of  the  pre- 
sent...."60 He  elaborates  later  in  the  address,  "Men  who  live  after  us  will 
have  the  full  and  truthful  history  of  our  times.  To  be  interesting  and 
valuable,  the  newspaper  must  be  truthful."61   He  devotes  a  full  page  to 
discussing  the  importance  of  having  a  "full  and  most  reliable  report  of  all 
news  of  the  day  up  to  the  hour  and  moment  of  their  publication,"62  and 
then  wraps  up  the  section  on  truthfulness  with  this  admonition  for 
totality  of  coverage: 

This  is  undeniably  true;  and  this  compels  the  editor  of  a 
daily  journal  to  live  nearer  than  any  other  living  man  to 
the  great  throbbing  heart  of  the  world.  He  must  catch 
its  every  pulsation,  note  its  every  tremor,  and  faithfully 
report  its  every  spasm.  Not  a  ripple  on  the  stream  of  time 
must  escape  his  watchful  pen;  no  voyager  launch  thereon  his 
trembling  craft  without  his  notice,  and  no  bark  go  down  in 
its  angry  foam,  without  his  making  the  proper  entry  in  his 
diurnal  log.63 

While  Wilkinson  discusses  other  issues,  he  returns  to  the  topic  of  truth- 
fulness as  an  instrument  to  scatter  prejudice.  In  his  conclusion,  he  says: 

In  all  matters  of  principle  the  voice  of  the  editor  should  be 
the  voice  which  truth  and  right  send  up  from  his  soul.... 
The  newspaper  scatters  the  mists  of  ignorance  and  prejudice 
by  flooding  the  pathway  of  man  with  the  sunlight  of  truth.64 

Thus,  Wilkinson  stresses  the  need  for  truth  to  be  a  guide  for  conduct 
involving  "all  matters  of  principle." 

The  May  19,  1869  annual  address  in  St.  Louis  contains  more  direct 
references  to  the  need  for  truth  as  a  foundational  principle.  Norman  J. 
Colman  instructs  the  MPA  members  to  avoid  vindictive  personal  attacks 


26  Banning*  Winter  1999 


which  undermine  the  truth,65  expounds  on  the  importance  of  truth  to  the 
progress  of  civilization  and  reveals  his  belief  that  truth  is  the  foundation 
for  the  elevation  of  mankind.66  He  also  sees  truth  as  a  basis  of  credibility, 
remarking: 

But  if  untruthful,  reckless  statements  and  assertions  are 
published  as  truthful  the  tone  of  the  public  mind  is  gradually- 
debased,  [and]  becomes  as  familiar  with  falsehood  as  with  truth, 
and  pays  but  little  credence  to  anything  that  is  published.... If 
these  lines  are  true,  what  a  fearful  responsibility  rests  upon  the 
Editorial  profession!  How  guarded  should  they  be  as  to  what 
appears  in  their  respective  journals.67 

At  the  same  convention,  MPA  member  Thomas  Garrett  (unmen- 
tioned  in  the  MPA  minutes  except  as  the  author  of  one  poem)68  of  the  St. 
Louis  Republican  echoes  Colman's  sentiments  in  a  poem  called  "The 
Giants,"  which  refers  to  the  journalist's  stature  in  society.   Garrett  claims: 

Her  [journalism's]  purpose  pure  is  hedged  by  vestal  vow, 
And  Truth's  auroras  dawn  upon  her  brow.69 

Another  poem  written  by  P.G.  "Jenks"  Ferguson  of  the  Missouri 
Democrat,  and  presented  to  the  1 870  MPA  convention,  broaches  the 
importance  of  truthful  journalism  as  a  basis  for  progress: 

Let  truth  and  justice  still  your  motto  be, 
Firm  in  your  cause  and  fearless  to  its  foes; 
Ranging  the  world  of  thought  in  fancy  free, 
Kind  to  the  weak,  and  tender  of  man's  woes.70 

In  1871,  J.C.  Moore71  discusses  the  importance  of  truth  as  a  foun- 
dation for  progress  and  vital  to  the  advancement  of  journalism.  In 
emphasizing  totality  of  coverage  he  states: 

There  is  no  limit  to  the  capabilities  of  the  ideal  journal  of  the 
future.... While  it  reflects  with  absolute  truthfulness  the  most 
minute  circumstances  of  the  every  day  life  transpiring  around 
it.. ..It  will  follow  the  merchants'  ships  around  the  world.72 

At  the  May  22,  1 872  MPA  convention  in  Sedalia,  truth  was  also  a 
component  of  a  poem  by  MPA  member  J.  N.  Edwards  of  the  Kansas  City 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  27 


Times?1  In  his  1872  oration  Edwards  paints  a  bleak  ethical  picture  of  the 
then  current  state  of  journalism,  writing: 

There  was  Chastity  faint  with  the  fight, 

Her  virtue  unaided  had  won; 

There  was  Merit,  too,  pale  in  the  light, 

Lest  Justice  left  duties  undone; 

Faith  kneeling  by  altars  thrown  down; 

And  Purity  gaudily  dressed; 

On  Charity's  face  was  mirrored  a  frown, 

Truth's  azure  brow  had  never  a  crown, 

Nor  courage  a  star  on  his  breast.74 

The  following  year  John  S.  Marmaduke's  oration  also  stresses  truth 
as  one  of  the  principles  which  constituted  the  mission  of  the  press  as  a 
basis  for  societal  progress.  Marmaduke  says: 

Lastly,  we  conceive  the  mission  of  the  Press  to  be... to 
propagate  truth,  not  error,  in  general,  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  our  race  and  bear  us  on  to  a  higher  destiny75 

Another  direct  reference  to  truth  takes  place  in  1 875  in  an  oration 
by  Milo  Blair  on  the  importance  of  independent  journalism.76  In  1876, 
William  Switzler  admonishes  MPA  members  to  seek  a  high  standard  of 
truth,  saying:   "Accuracy  of  statement,  not  simply  general  truthfulness, 
entire  reliability  of  detail  is  an  object  worthy  of  special  attention."77  Thus, 
truthfulness,  an  important  element  in  the  ASNE  and  SDX  journalism 
ethics  codes  of  the  1920s,  has  been  found  to  be  an  important  element  in 
the  ethical  framework  of  the  MPA  in  the  1 870s  as  well. 

The  Root  of  the  Objectivity  Standard 

The  next  ethical  issue  enumerated  in  the  SDX  press  code  is  that  of 
objectivity;  this  corresponds  to  the  ASNE's  Article  V:   "Impartiality." 
While  this  element  was  not  a  concern  among  MPA  members  as  an  issue 
by  itself,  the  MPA  minutes  do  stress  the  importance  of  gaining  the  whole 
truth  and  obtaining  accurate  reports.  Thus,  the  concern  of  objectivity  is 
addressed  in  the  coverage  of  the  issues  of  truth  and  accuracy. 

Additionally,  Switzler's  call  for  MPA  members  to  adhere  to  patrio- 
tism over  partisanism  in  1 876  shows  a  concern  for  the  notion  of  overcom- 


28  Banning*  Winter  1999 


ing  prejudice  to  achieve  a  true  perspective.78  There  is  no  direct  correlation 
for  this  in  the  SDX  code,  but  this  seems  to  correspond  with  the  ASNE's 
Article  III,  which  calls  for  independence.  This  stance  was  not  unusual 
among  newspapers,  as  partisanship  was  dying  nationwide  at  this  time.79 

Prescriptions  for  Accuracy  and  Completeness 

The  elements  of  accuracy  and  completeness,  the  third  item  in  the 
SDX  press  code,  and  reflected  in  the  ASNE's  Article  VI,  calling  for  "Fair 
Play,"  are  prescribed  numerous  times  throughout  the  MPA  minutes.  C.B. 
Wilkinson  delivers  the  first  such  admonition  in  1 868,  stressing  the 
importance  of  accurate  reports  four  different  times.  In  a  quote  used 
earlier  in  this  paper  in  discussing  truthfulness,  Wilkinson  emphasizes:  "A 
well  conducted  newspaper  being  a  record  of  humanity,  a  faithful  mirror  of 
the  present,  a  panorama  of  the  active  scenes  we  daily  engage  in...."80 

Wilkinson  stresses  the  importance  of  accuracy  in  calling  the  news- 
paper a  "faithful  mirror,"  and  emphasizes  completeness  in  referring  to  the 
newspaper's  coverage  of  the  "panorama,"  or  landscape,  of  humanity's 
activities.  Wilkinson  also  describes  the  breadth  of  activities  a  newspaper 
covered  as  examples  of  how  a  newspaper  is  a  "faithful  record"  of 
humanity's  activities.81  Wilkinson  repeats  this  theme  of  completeness  and 
accuracy  again  in  an  extended  discussion  of  the  subject  two  pages  later, 
stating: 

Men  who  live  after  us  will  learn  the  full  and  truthful 
history  of  our  stirring  times,  by  perusing  the  columns  of 
our  daily  newspapers.... Men  make  equally  as  serious 
blunders,  and  shock  the  good  sense  of  all  intelligent  observers 
quite  as  much  when  they  publish  in  the  newspapers  grossly 
exaggerated  accounts  of  every-day  transactions,  or  false 
statements  affecting  the  character  and  true  standard  of 
men  who  contemporaneously  move  on  the  stage  of  life.82 

J.C.  Moore  also  speaks  of  the  value  of  completeness  and  accuracy  in 
1870.  From  the  content  of  his  words  it  is  clear  Moore  was  promoting 
completeness  and  accuracy  as  two  ways  to  achieve  truth.  Moore  says:  "It 
[the  newspaper]  reflects  with  absolute  truthfulness  the  most  minute 
circumstances  of  the  busy  every  day  life  transpiring  around  it."83  In  1874, 
MPA  member  Milo  Blair  bluntly  demands  accuracy  with  this  admoni- 
tion:  "Let  all  reports  be  as  full  as  the  occasion  may  require  and  as  accurate 
as  you  can  get  them."84 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  29 


In  1875,  MPA  member  Mark  DeMotte  gave  the  subject  of  accuracy 
a  thorough  treatment  in  his  annual  address  to  the  convention  in  a  discus- 
sion covering  six  pages.   He  warns: 

That  a  paper  is  needed  in  a  community  is  no  assurance  that 
a  poor  article  will  be  accepted.  We  can  no  more  palm  off 
upon  the  people  a  spurious  article,  than  can  a  merchant 
or  manufacturer.85 

DeMotte  goes  on  to  emphasize  the  importance  of  accuracy  from  an 
ethical  and  practical  standpoint,86  and  concludes  by  explaining  that  the 
press'  responsibility  to  be  accurate  is  based  on  the  public's  "right  to 
know."87 

In  1876,  MPA  member  William  F.  Switzler  not  only  discusses  the 
accuracy  and  completeness  theme  at  length,  but  he  also  advocates  it, 
describes  it,  and  advocates  it  again.  Switzler  advises: 

Above  all  they  [correspondents]  should  be  specially  instructed 
to  be  scrupulously  correct,  even  in  the  smallest  details,  in  all 
their  reports;  to  guess  at  nothing  because  people  who  pay 
for  and  read  newspapers  desire  them  to  be  reliable.88 

Here  Switzler  uses  three  descriptive  phrases  to  define  the  term 
"scrupulously  correct"  so  that  there  is  no  confusion  as  to  its  meaning. 
Also,  the  word  "reliable"  comes  into  use  again  as  it  did  in  earlier  references 
to  accuracy  by  Mark  DeMotte.89 

Due  to  developments  in  technology,  not  every  specific  concern  of 
the  SDX  code  in  1 926  can  be  expected  to  square  with  the  ethical  concerns 
of  the  MPA  during  the  time  period  of  the  decade  following  1867.  For 
instance,  the  SDX  code  deals  with  the  accurate  use  of  photographs  and 
telecasts.  Not  surprisingly,  there  is  no  specific  reference  in  the  MPA 
minutes  to  any  of  these  topics  due  to  the  fact  that  those  technologies  did 
not  exist,  or,  in  the  case  of  photography,  had  not  been  adequately  devel- 
oped for  use  by  newspapers. 

The  SDX  press  code  also  calls  for  news  reports  to  be  untainted  by 
bias;  this  corresponds  to  the  ASNE's  Articles  V  and  VI  regarding  "impar- 
tiality" and  "fair  play."  This  is  a  concept  that  has  no  direct  parallel  in  the 
MPA  minutes,  although  Switzler  might  have  hinted  at  it  in  the  previously 
mentioned  admonition  calling  for,  "entire  reliability  of  detail."90  How- 
ever, the  lack  of  a  direct  reference  indicates  this  was  a  concept  that  did  not 
greatly  concern  the  MPA. 


30  Banning*  Winter  1999 


The  SDX  press  code  also  calls  for  an  end  to  untruthful  partisanship, 
a  point  which  coincides  with  the  MPA's  stand  on  this  issue  as  well.  Many 
of  the  references  in  the  MPA  minutes  which  deal  with  this  issue  have 
already  been  covered  in  the  discussion  of  the  MPA's  concern  for  truth, 
accuracy  and  objectivity.  William  Switzler's  advice  that  journalists  were 
expected  to  be  patriots,  not  partisans,  is  one  example.91  This  disillusion- 
ment with  partisan  reporting  was  not  unusual  in  Missouri  at  the  time.92 

Responsibility — The  Obligation  to  Educate 

The  SDX  code  also  contains  an  expectation  of  the  journalist's 
responsibility  to  present  information  and  editorials  to  the  public  regarding 
public  issues;  this  corresponds  to  the  ASNE's  Article  I,  calling  for  journal- 
istic "Responsibility."  This  obligation  of  the  press  to  educate  the  public 
and  elevate  their  understanding  of  public  events  and  issues  was  a  major 
topic  in  the  MPA  meetings  and  speeches. 

From  the  first  address  of  C.B.  Wilkinson  in  1868,  it  is  evident  that 
the  MPA  saw  the  newspaper  as  vital  to  society,  and  the  publisher's  role  as 
one  of  great  responsibility.  Wilkinson  says,  "The  newspaper.. .must  be 
consulted  on  all  occasions.  The  humanity  of  this  day  cannot  exist 
without  it.  It  is  a  prime  necessity,  and  it  should  be  our  duty  to  keep  it 
so."93  The  following  year  Norman  J.  Colman  reiterates  Wilkinson's 
concern  with  the  newspaper's  responsibility  to  inform  the  public.94 

J.C.  Moore  also  repeats  this  theme  in  his  address  to  the  convention 
of  1870.  Moore  places  the  journalist's  obligation  to  inform  above  all 
other  responsibilities,  claiming:  "The  education  and  elevation  of  the 
masses  in  every  department  of  knowledge  will  be  its  [the  journalist's] 
special  purpose  and  mission."95  Later  Moore  suggests  that,  "The  Press 
will  have  become  the  first  of  the  mental  agencies,  having  every  re- 
source...through  which  to  reach  and  influence  them  [the  public]."96 

In  1873  John  Marmaduke  also  emphasizes  the  press'  obligation  to 
disseminate  information  to  the  public.  Marmaduke  sees  the  press  as  not 
only  uniquely  qualified  to  do  the  job  but  also  extremely  effective  in  its 
efforts.  Marmaduke  boasts,  "It  [the  press]  is  doing  more  to  disseminate 
knowledge  and  to  educate  people  up  to  a  certain  standard  and  at  less 
expense  than  all  other  instrumentalities  of  the  age."97  Marmaduke  also 
refers  to  the  press'  watchdog  role  in  remarking,  "By  its  [the  press']  vig- 
ilance and  omnipresence  Tyranny  is  anticipated  and  its  purpose  de- 
feated."98 

The  following  year  Milo  Blair  delivers  the  annual  address  and  also 
refers  to  the  pervasiveness  of  the  newspaper's  ability  to  inform.   Blair 
comments: 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  31 


Journalism  has  a  high  and  immortal  mission  to  perform. 
Like  a  wand  of  a  magician,  its  wing  sweeps  nearly  every 
land,  and  shall  yet  penetrate  the  wildest  haunts  of  the  world, 
where  the  shadow  and  superstition  of  ignorance  falls  heavily 
over  the  people." 

One  year  later  Mark  DeMotte  refers  to  it  in  more  detail.  DeMotte 
discusses  the  power  of  the  press  and  its  corresponding  responsibility  to 
inform  the  public  in  stating:   "The  vast  power  of  the  press — how  it 
moulds  public  sentiment — how  it  makes  and  unmakes  presidents  and 
administrations — how  rolling  of  its  cylinders  shakes  the  world  and  almost 
rules  it."100  Later  in  his  speech  DeMotte  explains,  "[A  newspaper  ought 
to  be]  the  guardian  of  the  welfare  of  the  community,  and  the  zealous 
advocate  of  its  rights  and  interests."101   In  1876  the  press'  obligation  to 
inform  the  public  was  the  subject  of  a  resolution  voted  on  by  the  entire 
MPA.102 

That  same  year  the  obligation  to  inform  was  also  a  topic  of  William 
F.  Switzler's  1876  address  covering  the  press'  power  in  its  ability  to  inform. 
Switzler  explained:  "How  it  [the  Press]  has  rendered  invaluable  aid  to  the 
cause  of  liberty,  religion  and  literature  throughout  the  world."103  Switzler 
discusses  at  length  the  importance  of  the  watchdog  function  of  the  press 
by  commenting: 

[The  Press  is]  a  reflex  of  the  opinions  and  an  exponent  and 
defender  of  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  people  among 
whom  it  is  specially  circulated.  It  is  theoretically  and  ought 
to  be  practically,  an  honest  and  sleepless  sentinel  of  the 
watchtower  of  their  liberties,  and  a  guardian  of  their  special 
interests,  industries  and  activities  whatever  they  may  be.104 

Switzler  sees  this  watchdog  aspect  of  the  obligation  to  inform  as  a 
cornerstone  of  democracy,  remarking:  "I  am,  therefore,  firmly  persuaded 
that  the  perpetuity  of  our  free  institutions. ..depends  in  no  small  degree 
upon  the  vigorous  existence  and  fidelity  of  the  country  press."105 

Advocacy  As  Puffery 

The  final  item  in  the  SDX  press  code  calls  for  presentations  devoted 
to  advocacy  to  be  labeled  as  such;  this  concept  is  also  indicated  in  the 
ASNE's  Article  I  where  the  journalist  is  warned  against  using  power  for 
"selfish"  motives.  The  MPA  minutes  address  this  topic  at  length  as  well. 


32  Banning*  Winter  1999 


The  MPA's  discussion  of  this  focuses  on  the  then  common  practice  of 
puffery,  the  insertion  of  promotional  pieces  for  people,  politicians,  or 
products  into  editorials  which  purported  to  be  the  opinion  of  the  editor. 

References  to  puffery  appear  1 1  times  in  the  MPA  minutes.  In  a 
poem  read  at  the  May  10,  1870  MPA  convention  in  Kansas  City,  P.G. 
Ferguson  of  the  Missouri  Democrat  describes  the  then  current  newspaper 
as  one  where  puffery  was  common.  Ferguson  writes: 

Puffs,  lectures,  meetings,  local  news  complete, 
With  now  and  then  a  dish  of  book  reviews.... 
Puffs  of  new  books,  old  cuts  of  foreign  scenes — 
Such  is  the  magazine  of  modern  fashion.106 

Later  in  the  poem  Ferguson  compares  those  who  propagated  puffery 
with  Judas  Iscariot.  He  writes: 

This  journal  stooped,  and  like  a  mousing  owl, 
Sold  its  opinions  with  unblushing  face 
And  smeared  its  sacred  robes  with  offal  foul. 
Judas,  who  sold  his  Master,  we  despise, 
Yet  poverty,  perchance,  was  his  excuse; 
But  who  can  view,  with  charitable  eyes, 
This  venal  slayer  of  the  golden  goose!107 

The  next  discussion  of  puffery  occurs  in  another  poem.  This  one 
was  written  by  C.B.  Wilkinson  and  was  delivered  in  1871.  In  the  poem 
called  "The  Editor,"  Wilkinson  pokes  fun  at  the  typical  editor  who 
engages  in  puffery.  Wilkinson  writes: 

Who  puffs  lean  men  to  swelling  notoriety, 
And  blows  up  many  an  office-holding  "flat."108 

In  1874  MPA  member  Milo  Blair  challenges  the  puffery  issue  head 
on  in  his  address  to  the  convention.   Blair  warns: 

I  am  satisfied  that  the  custom  of  wholesale  puffing,  as  generally 
practiced  by  the  press,  is  doing  journalism  no  little  injury.  So  much 
of  it  is  done  on  worthless  persons  especially,  we  hardly  know  where 
or  when  to  look  for  true  merit.109 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  33 


Blair  also  specifically  addresses  political  puffs  in  a  manner  parallel  to 
that  of  the  SDX  press  code  and  ASNE  Canons.   Blair  advises: 

It  [a  politician's  ad]  must  appear  as  an  advertisement  paid  for  by 
him  and  not  as  our  judgement  and  opinion.   Our  readers  have  a 
right  to  know  whether  what  we  say  of  the  fitness  of  a  man  for  party 
nomination  is  our  own  belief  or  the  drivel  of  a  hired  brain.110 

The  following  year,  in  1875,  Mark  DeMotte  discusses  the  impor- 
tance of  abandoning  the  use  of  puffs.  DeMotte  states: 

I  express  the  opinion  of  every  practical  newspaper  man  in 
this  house,  when  I  say  that  to  print  paid  personal  puffs,  as 
our  own  editorial  or  local  opinion,  is  a  prostitution  of  our 
paper  wholly  inexcusable;  and  if  indulged  in  to  any  great 
extent,  will  bring  the  just  contempt  of  the  public  upon  us.111 

From  the  previous  references  it  is  clear  the  MPA  advocated  doing  away 
with  the  practice  of  puffery.  The  speeches  showed  the  MPA's  contempt  in 
that  there  were  comparisons  of  editors  who  engaged  in  the  practice  of 
puffery  to  traitors  and  prostitutes. 

An  Early  Standard  for  Excellence 

The  evidence  seems  to  indicate  that  this  state  press  association  was 
involved  in  discussing  serious  aspects  of  journalism.  This  appears  to 
contradict  Frederic  Hudson's  previously  mentioned  characterization  that 
press  associations  were  not  of  a  serious  nature.   Further  research  could  be 
directed  at  examining  the  minutes  and  other  primary  records  of  press 
associations  in  the  1 9th  century  for  patterns  of  interest  in  professional 
development. 

It  may  be  that  Hudson's  characterization,  while  not  universally 
inaccurate,  did  apply  to  some  press  associations.  The  reasons  for  differ- 
ences in  early  press  association  characterization  could  reveal  how  journal- 
ists in  different  geographic  areas  perceived  themselves  and  their  relation- 
ship to  journalism.  Perhaps  frontier  journalists  were  more  or  less  likely  to 
feel  a  need  to  professionalize. 

Perhaps  the  predominance  of  certain  political  forces  influenced 
editors.  A  search  for  patterns  among  press  association  minutes  could 
begin  to  fill  in  pieces  of  the  puzzle  regarding  the  influence  of  19th  century 
state  press  associations  on  journalism  history. 


34  Bannning*  Winter  1999 


Endnotes 

'Marianne  AJlison,  "A  Literature  Review  of  the  Approaches  to  the  Professionalization  of  Journal- 
ists," Journal  of  Mass  Media  Ethics  1,  no.  2  (spring/summer  1986):  6;  A.M.  Carr-Saunders,  "Profes- 
sions: Their  Organization  and  Place  in  Society,"  (Oxford:  Clarendon  Press,  1928),  3;  Robert 
Dingwal  and  Philip  Lewis,  The  Sociology  of  the  Professions:  Lawyers,  Doctors  and  Others  (New  York:   St. 
Martin's  Press,  1983),  8;  Abraham  Flexner,  "Is  Social  Work  a  Profession?"  School  and  Society  1  (1915): 
901-1 1;   Ernest  Greenwood,  "Attributes  of  a  Profession,"  Social  Work  3  (July  1957):  44;  Everett 
Cherrington  Hughes,  Men  and  Their  Work  (Glencoe:  The  Free  Press,  1958),  134;  Wilbert  E.  Moore, 
The  Professions:  Roles  and  Rules  (New  York:   Russel  Sage  Foundation,  1970),  123;  Talcott  Parsons, 
"Professions,"  International  Encyclopedia  of  the  Social  Sciences,  ed.  David  Sills,  12  (New  York:  1968): 
545. 

Sociologist  Wilbert  Moore  defines  stages  of  professionalization.  These  include  a  groups 
attainment  as  (1)  an  occupation,  (2)  a  calling,  (3)  a  formalized  organization,  (4)  an  organization 
requiring  education,  (5)  an  organization  with  a  service  orientation,  and  (6)  an  organization  enjoying 
autonomy.  Wilbert  E.  Moore,  The  Professions:  Roles  and  Rules  (New  York:  Russell  Sage  Foundation, 
1970),  4.  An  overview  of  the  problems  of  defining  journalistic  professionalization  can  be  found  in  a 
dissertation  by  Patricia  Louise  Dooley,  Development  of  American  Journalistic  Work  in  the 
Eighteenth  and  Nineteenth  Centuries:  Journalists,  Politicians,  Political  Communication,  and 
Occupational  Boundaries,  Ph.D.  dissertation,  University  of  Minnesota,  1994,  13-29. 

3Alexis  de  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America  (New  York:  Vintage  Books,  1945),  138;  Richard 
Taub,  American  Society  in  Tocqueville's  Time  and  Today  (Chicago:   Rand  McNally  College  Pub. 
Company,  1974),  90. 

4W.J.  Reader,  Professional  Men  (London:  Weidenfeld  and  Nicolson,  1966),  161. 

5Mid-19th  century  sources  indicate  MPA  members  understood  professionalization  and  saw  the 
MPA  as  a  professional  association.  Sources  indicate  other  press  clubs  at  the  time  were  bohemian  in 
nature  and  resembled  drinking  clubs.  Stephen  Banning,  "The  Missouri  Press  Association:  A  Study  of' 
the  Beginning  Motivations,  1867  -  1876"  (paper  presented  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  annual 
American  Journalism  Historian's  Association  Conference,  Lawrence,  Kansas,  Oct.  1992),  1-21; 
William  Switzler,  "Publisher's  Convention,"  Missouri  Statesman,  May  10,  1867,  2;  William  Switzler, 
"Lawyers  Arrested,"  Missouri  Statesman,  May  1867,  4;  William  Switzler,  "Missouri  Editor's  and 
Publisher's  Association,"  Missouri  Statesman,  May  15,  1867,  2;  John  Weeks  Moore,  Historical  Notes  on 
Printers  and  Printing  1420  To  1886  (Concord:  Republican  Press  Association,  1886),  25 1-69; 
Augustus  Maverick,  Henry  J.  Raymond  and  the  New  York  Press  for  Thirty  Years:  Progress  of  American 
Journalism  From  1840  To  1870  (Hartford:  A.S.  Hale  and  Company,  1870),  328-29;  Frederic 
Hudson,  Journalism  in  the  United  States  From  1690  -1872  (New  York:   Harper  and  Brothers 
Publishers,  1873).  665;  Alfred  McClung  Lee,  The  Daily  Newspaper  in  America  (New  York:  The 
Macmillan  Company,  1937),  123-24;  "Among  the  Associations,"  Newspaperdom  1,  no.  7  New  York: 
Chas  S.  Patteson  (November-December  1892):  16;  Gerald  Baldesty,  The  Commercialization  of  News  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century  (Madison:  University  of  Wisconsin  Press,  1992),  101;  Sidney  Kobre, 
Development  of  American  Journalism  (Dubuque:  Wim.  C.  Brown  Company  Publishers,  1969),  725. 

Stephen  Banning,  "Unearthing  the  Origin  of  Journalistic  Education"  (paper  presented  at  the 
Association  of  Educators  in  Journalism  and  Mass  Communication  Midwest  Journalism  History 
Conference,  April  1994),  1-13. 

7The  Sigma  Delta  Chi  was  founded  in  1909;  the  American  Society  of  Newspaper  Editors  was 
founded  in  1922.  The  ASNE,  however,  was  the  first  to  adopt  a  formal  code  of  ethics  in  1923.  The 
Sigma  Delta  Chi  code  was  adopted  a  few  years  later  and  paralled  the  ASNE  code.  According  to 
Clifford  Christians,  the  Sigma  Delta  Chi  code  became  the  most  recognized  press  code.   Clifford 
Christians,  "Enforcing  Media  Codes, "  Journal  of  Mass  Media  Ethics  1,  no.  1  (fall/winter  1985-86):  14. 

8Frederic  Hudson,  Journalism  in  the  United  States  From  1690-1872  (New  York:   Harper  and 
Brothers  Publishers,  1873).  666. 

'Hudson,  666. 

'"Stephen  Banning,  "Unearthing  the  Origin  of  Journalistic  Professionalization  in  the  Mid- 
Nineteenth  Century,"  MA  thesis,  University  of  Missouri,  1993,  100. 

"John  C.  Merrill,  "Professionalization:  Danger  to  Press  Freedom  and  Pluralism,"  Journal  of  Mass 
Media  Ethics  1,  no.  2  (spring/summer,  1986):  56;  Merrill  expresses  a  similar  viewpoint  in  Imperative  of 
Freedom:  A  Philosophy  of  Journalistic  Autonomy  (New  York:   Hastings  House,  Publishers,  1976),  123- 
42. 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  35 


12Mary  Cronin  and  James  McPherson,  "Reaching  for  Professionalism  and  Respectability:  The 
Development  of  Ethics  Codes  in  the  1920s,"  (paper  presented  at  the  annual  American  Journalism 
Historian's  Association  Conference,  Lawrence,  Kansas,  Oct.  1992),  4. 

13Ibid.,  20. 

MHazel  Dicken-Garcia,/oKr7M/zVftV  Standards  in  Nineteenth  Century  America  (Madison:   University 
of  Wisconsin  Press,  1989),  233. 

I5Marion  Turtle  Marzolf,  Civilizing  Voices:  American  Press  Criticism  1880-1950  (New  York: 
Longman  Publishing  Group,  1991),  14. 

,6Ibid.,  50. 

l7Kobre,  Development  of  American  Journalism,  733-36. 

,sDouglas  Birlchead,  "The  Power  in  the  Image:  Professionalism  and  the  Communications 
Revolution,"  American  Journalism  1,  no.  2  (winter  1984):  3;  Douglas  Birlchead,  "News  Media  Ethics 
and  the  Management  of  Professionals,"  Journal  of  Mass  Media  Ethics  1,  no.  2  (spring/summer  1986): 
37. 

"William  E  May  "Professional  Ethics,  The  University  and  the  Journalist,"  Journal  of  Mass  Media 
Ethics  1,  no.  2  (spring/summer,  1986):  20. 

20Bert  Bostrom,  Talent,  Truth  and  Energy:  Society  of  Professional  Journalists  Sigma  Delta  Chi 
(Chicago:  Society  of  Professional  Journalists,  1984),  18. 

2,James  Melvin  Lee,  History  of  American  Journalism  (New  York:   Garden  City  Publishing  Co.,  Inc., 
1923),  388. 

22Ibid. 

23Ibid. 

24George  Payne,  History  of  Journalism  in  the  United  States  (New  York:   D.  Appleton-Century 
Company,  Incorporated,  1940),  25 1  - 

25Garcia,  Journalistic  Standards  in  Nineteenth  Century  America,  257. 

"Ibid.,  8. 

27Leon  Nelson  Flint,  The  Conscience  of  the  Newspaper  (New  York:   D.  Appleton  and  Company, 
1925),  429. 

"Clifford  Christians,  "Enforcing  Media  Codes,"  Journal  of  Mass  Media  Ethics  1,  no.  1  (fall/winter 
1985-86):  14. 

2>Ibid. 

30Cronin  and  McPherson,  "Reaching  for  Professionalism  and  Respectability,"  1. 
31Christians,  "Enforcing  Media  Codes,"  14. 

32J.W  Barrett,  comp.,  History  and  Transactions  of  the  Editors  and  Publishers  Association  of  Missouri 
(Canton:  Canton  Press  Print,  1876),  1. 

33Ibid.,  2. 

34Ibid.,  7. 

35Barrett,  an  interesting  historical  figure  himself,  began  the  Canton  Press  in  1862  with  reconstructed 
equipment  from  a  paper  destroyed  by  Union  soldiers  and,  along  with  MPA  colleague  Norman  J. 
Colman,  became  a  University  of  Missouri  curator  in  1870.   Floyd  Calvin  Shoemaker,  Missouri  and 
Missourians:  Land  of  Contrast  and  People  of  Achievement  (Chicago:   Lewis  Publishing  Company, 
1943),  Vol.  1,  1005;  Floyd  Calvin  Shoemaker,  "History  of  the  First  Fifty  Years  of  the  Missouri  Press 
Association,"  1917,  Unpublished  Manuscript,  State  Historical  Sociery  of  Missouri  Library,  161. 

36Barrett,  History  and  Transactions,  Preface. 

37The  one  exception  to  this  is  the  oration  given  during  the  convention  of  1872,  held  in  Sedalia, 
Missouri.  Barrett  could  not  find  a  copy  of  this  oration  and  notes  in  the  Minutes  preface  that  the  text 
of  this  oration  had  to  be  omitted.  There  is  also  no  oration  for  the  1870  convention  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  delegated  orator  Stilson  Hutchins,  editor  of  the  St.  Louis  Times  and  eventual  founder  of  the 
Washington  Post,  did  not  show  up  at  the  convention,  and  the  MPA  officials  dispensed  with  the  annual 
oration  for  that  year.   Geo.  P.  Rowel  1,  American  Newspaper  Directory:   1 871  (New  York:   Geo.  P. 
Rowell  &  Co.,  1871),  84;  Edward  J.  Gallagher,  Founder  of  the  Washington  Post:  A  Biography  of  Stilson 
Hutchins  1838-1912  (Laconia:  Citizen  Publishing  Company,  1965),  7. 


36  Bannning  •  Winter  1 999 


'"William  H.  Taft,  Missouri  Newspapers  (Columbia:   University  of  Missouri  Press,  1964). 

39C.B.  Wilkinson  published  a  daily  Republican  newspaper  called  the  Herald  And  became  MPA 
president  in  1871.   He  later  moved  to  Colorado,  published  the  Denver  Republican  and  became  a 
prominent  member  of  the  Colorado  Press  Association.  Moore,  Historical  Notes  on  Printers  and 
Printing  1420  To  1886,  255;  Barrett,  History  and  Transactions,  4,  43;  Rowell,  American  Newspaper 
Directory:   1871,  83. 

40C.B.  Wilkinson,  "May  24,  1868  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  16. 

4lIbid. 

42Colman  was  experienced  in  the  traditional  professions.   In  addition  to  being  licensed  to  teach  and 
practice  law,  he  had  also  attended  a  seminary.   He  published  Colman's  Rural  World,  was  a  University  of 
Missouri  curator,  and  ran  for  lieutenant  governor  in  1868.   He  would  eventually  become  the  first 
United  States  Secretary  of  Agriculture.  His  journal  is  still  published  today  under  the  title  The  Missouri 
Ruralist.   Barrett,  History  and  Transactions,  17,  7;  Jonas  Viles,  The  University  of  Missouri:  A  Centennial 
History  1839-1939  (E.W  Stephens  Company:   Columbia,  1939),  164;  Frank  F.  Stephens,  The  History 
of  the  University  of  Missouri  (University  of  Missouri  Press:   Columbia,  1962),  262,  267-68;  Shoe- 
maker, Missouri  and  Missourians,  991;  Walter  Bickford  Davis  and  Daniel  Durrie,  An  Illustrated  History 
of  Missouri  Comprising  Its  Early  Record,  and  Civil,  Political  and  Military  History  (St.  Louis:  A.J.  Hall 
and  Company  1876),  490-91. 

43Norman  J.  Colman,  "May  19,  1869  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  23.  Historians  spell  Colman's  name  "Colman"  at  times.  In  fact,  it  is  spelled  both  ways 
in  various  parts  of  the  MPA  minutes.  It  is  possible  that  Colman  preferred  the  shorter  version  for  his 
newspaper  Colman's  Rural  World. 

"Ibid.,  22. 

'''Marmaduke  studied  in  Europe,  at  Harvard  and  Yale,  and  was  known  as  a  scholar.  His  father  was 
a  governor  of  Missouri  and  his  father-in-law  a  doctor.  Marmaduke  himself  became  governor  in  1885. 
W.L.  Webb,  Battles  and  Biographies  of  Missourians  Or  The  Civil  War  Period  of  Our  State  (Kansas  City: 
Hudson-Kimberly  Publishing  Company,  1903),  311;  Shoemaker,  Missouri  and  Missourians,  Vol.  2: 
96,  106. 

■"John  Marmaduke,  "May  27,  1872  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  73- 

47Ibid. 

48Milo  Blair  ran  a  small  newspaper  with  a  circulation  of  960.  Geo.  P.  Rowell,  American  Newspaper 
Directory:  1873  (New  york:   Geo.  P.  Rowell  &  Co.,  1873),  120,  126. 

49Milo  Blair,  "May  20,  1874  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transac- 
tions, 86-87. 

50Mark  DeMotte  ran  a  small  newspaper  with  a  circulation  of  about  1,000.   Rowell,  American 
Newspaper  Directory:   1873,  123. 

51Mark  DeMotte,  "May  26,  1875  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  99. 

52Ibid. 

"William  Switzler  was  active  both  in  the  MPA  and  in  politics.  His  newspaper  was  known  as  a 
major  Whig  voice  in  the  state.  John  Vollmer  Mering,  The  Whig  Party  in  Missouri  (Columbia: 
University  of  Missouri  Press,  1967),  103;  Shoemaker,  Missouri  and  Missourians,  Vol.  1,990-91; 
Barrett,  History  and  Transactions,  1 9,  65,  90. 

"William  Switzler,  "June  6,  1876  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  131-33- 

"Banning,  "Unearthing  the  Origin  of  Journalistic  Professionalization  in  the  Mid-Nineteenth 
Century,"  76-99. 

"Victor  E.  Bluedorn,  Sigma  Delta  Chi  Manual  (no  publisher  or  publication  location  listed,  1959), 

7. 

57William  Meharry  Glenn,  The  Sigma  Delta  Chi  Story:  1909-1949  (Coral  Gables:  Glade  House, 
1949),  22. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  37 


58Bert  Bostrom,  Talent,  Truth  and  Energy:  Society  of  Professional  Journalists  Sigma  Delta  Chi 
(Chicago:   Society  of  Professional  Journalists,  1984),  177. 

"Paul  Alfred  Pratce,  Gods  Within  the  Machine:  A  History  of  the  American  Society  of  Newspaper 
Editors,  1923-1993  (Connecticut:  Praeger,  1995),  205-7;  Alice  Fox  Pins,  Read  All  About  It:  50  Years 
ofASNE,  (American  Society  of  Newspaper  Editors,  1974),  359-61. 

60Wilkinson,  "May  24,  1868  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  13- 

"Ibid. 

"Ibid. 

"Ibid. 

"Ibid. 

s5Colman,  "May  19,  1869  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions, 
22. 

66This  concept  of  progress  through  truth  was  popularized  in  the  mid-nl9th  century  by  John  Stuart 
Mill's  essay  On  Liberty  (1859).  Mill  wrote  that  public  criticism  was  vital  and  restraining  the  press  was 
tyranny,  as  he  saw  truth  as  a  necessary  condition  in  a  democracy.   G.L.  Williams,  John  Stuart  Mill  on 
Politics  and  Society  (New  York:   International  Publications  Service,  1976),  35-41;  R.J.  Halliday,  John 
Stuart  Mill  (New  York:  Barnes  &  Noble,  1 976)  ,117. 

S7Colman,  "May  19,  1869  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions, 
23. 

68Barrett,  History  and  Transactions,  7;  Thomas  E.  Garrett,  "The  Giants,"  in  History  and  Transactions, 
30. 

"Garrett,  "The  Giants,"  in  History  and  Transactions,  30. 

70P.G.  Ferguson,  "The  Press,"  in  History  and  Transactions,  59. 

71J.C.  Moore  had  a  diverse  career,  serving  in  the  Confederate  Army  as  a  Colonel  under  fellow  MPA 
member  Major  -General  John  Marmaduke.  By  the  time  Moore  joined  the  MPA,  he  had  been 
licensed  to  practice  law,  had  served  in  the  Colorado  legislature,  was  the  first  mayor  of  Denver,  had 
worked  at  the  St.  Louis  Times  and  had  co-founded  the  Kansas  City  Times.  Webb,  Battles  and 
Biographies  of  Missourians,  362;  Gallagher,  The  Founder  of  the  Washington  Post,  6 1 . 

72J.C.  Moore,  "May  24,  1871  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  48. 

73Edwards  was  coeditor  of  the  Kansas  City  Times  along  with  fellow  MPA  member  J. C.  Moore 
(Moore  and  Charles  Dougherty  had  started  the  Times  four  years  earlier).   Edwards  was  active  in  the 
MPA,  attending  the  MPA  charter  formation  in  1868,  as  part  of  a  nominating  committee  in  1869  and 
as  MPA  Secretary  in  1870.   He  would  become  known  as  one  of  Missouri's  outstanding  authors.  Geo 
P.  Rowell,  The  Men  Who  Advertise  (New  York:  Nelson  Chesman,  1 870),  68 1 ;  Webb,  Battles  and 
Biographies  of  Missourians,  363;  Rowell,  American  Newspaper  Directory:  1871,  81;  Barrett,  History  and 
Transactions,  18,  42;  Walter  Williams,  The  State  of  Missouri  (Columbia:   E.W.  Stephens  Press,  1904), 
220. 

74J.N.  Edwards,  "The  Press,"  in  History  and  Transactions,  63. 

75John  S.  Marmaduke,  "May  27,  1873  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  73. 

76Blair,  "May  20,  1875  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions,  99. 

^Switzler,  "June  6,  1876  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions, 
128. 

78Ibid.,  133. 

7,Dicken-Garcia,  Journalistic  Standards  in  Nineteenth  Century  America,  175;  Michael  Schudson, 
Discovering  the  News:  A  Social  History  of  American  Newspapers  (New  York:   Basic  Books  Inc, 
Publishers,  1978),  65- 

80Wilkinson,  "M;>y24,  1868  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  8. 

81Ibid.,  10. 

82Ibid.,  13-14. 


38  Banning  •  Winter  1999 


"Moore,  "May  24,  1871  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions, 
48. 

84Blair,  "May  20,  1874  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions,  85- 

85DeMotte,  "May  26,  1875  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transac- 
tions, 101. 

"'Ibid. 

87Ibid. 

88Swirzler,  "June  6,  1876  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions, 
126. 

8,DeMotte,  "May  26,  1875  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transac- 
tions, 101. 

'°Ibid.,  128. 

"Ibid.,  133. 

"H.C.  McDougal,  "A  Decade  In  Missouri  Politics  1860  To  1870,"  8  March  1904,  Manuscript, 
The  State  Historical  Society  of  Missouri,  13. 

"Wilkinson,  "May  24,  1868  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  9. 

,4Colman,  "May  19,  1869  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions, 
21. 

95Moore,  "May  24,  1871  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions, 
48. 

"Ibid.,  50. 

57Marmaduke,  "May  27,  1873  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  71. 

98Ibid.,  72. 

"Blair,  "May  20,  1 874  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions,  86. 

l00DeMotte,  "May  26,  1875  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transac- 
tions," 93- 
""Ibid.,  99. 

,02F.A.  Jones,  "June  6,  1876  Missouri  Press  Association  Miscellaneous  Business,"  in  History  and 
Transactions,  116. 

l03Switzler,  "June  6,  1 876  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions, 
123. 

""Ibid.,  125. 

,05Ibid. 

l06Ferguson,  "The  Press,"  in  History  and  Transactions,  56-57. 

107Ibid.,  58. 

,08Wilkinson,  "The  Editor,"  in  History  and  Transactions,  50. 

,09Blair,  "May  20,  1874  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transactions, 
85. 

1,0Ibid.,  104. 

'"DeMotte,  "May  26,  1875  Annual  Missouri  Press  Association  Address,"  in  History  and  Transac- 
tions, 102. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  39 


40 


Winter  1999 


From  Populist  to  Patrician:  Edward 
H.  Butler  s  Buffalo  News  and  the 
Crisis  of  Labor,  1877-1892 

By  Michael  J.  Dillon 

Edward  H.  Butler  founded  the  Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News  in 
1873  for  two  reasons:  To  fight  the  entrenched  interests  that  controlled  the  city's 

politics,  economics  and  journalism,  and  to  fulfill  his  dream  of  becoming  a 
respected  and  wealthy  newspaper  publisher.  He  succeeded  at  both.  In  time, 
however,  the  twin  forces  that  converged  to  shape  his  identity  and  fuel  his  rise  to 

fame  and  influence — civic  idealism  and  hardheaded  entrepreneurship  — 
diverged. 

Butler  brought  a  new  journalism  to  Buffalo — independent,  populist, 
defiant,  modern.  But  the  success  that  journalism  wrought  served  to  make  his 
life  and  interests  remote  from  the  very  people  he  championed.  Within  two 
decades,  Butler  was  transformed  from  friend  ofworkingmen  to  foe  of  labor  and 
labor  unions.  This  paper  explores  the  responses  of  Butlers  Buffalo  News  to  the 
great  labor  disturbances  of  1877  and  1892  and  shows  how  the  passionate 
reformist  editor  who  championed  labor  during  the  first  strike  grew  into  a 
wealthy  and  established  member  of  the  elite  who  denounced  labor  and  called 
for  its  defeat  by  arms  during  the  second. 


T 


he  "new  journalism"  of  the  post-Civil  War  period  left  two 
important  legacies.  With  its  crusading  fervor,  political 
independence,  and  fact-based  (if  sensational)  style  of  inquiry 


Michael  J.  Dillon  is  an  Assistant  Professor  at  Duquesne  University  in  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania. 
Winter  1999  "  American  Journalism  41 


into  human  affairs,  the  new  journalism  established  an  unprecedented 
social  influence  for  journalism.  Its  very  success  as  a  force  of  social  change 
and  advocacy,  however,  also  launched  it  towards  unprecedented  profits 
and  economic  influence.  At  some  point,  it  was  inevitable  that  crusading 
journalists  would  cease  to  crusade  against  a  system  that  benefited  them  so 
handsomely. ' 

The  period  of  new  journalism  left  the  institution  of  journalism  with 
a  conundrum:  Is  journalism  primarily  an  engine  of  democracy  or  of 
commerce?  For  the  historian,  the  question  is  more  complex:  Why  did  the 
economic  legacy  of  the  newspaper  press  grow  so  powerful  while  its 
crusading  legacy  dimmed  as  the  20th  century  dawned? 

Edward  H.  Butler,  who  founded  the  Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News 
in  1873  and  took  it  daily  in  1880,  was  one  of  a  generation  of  mavericks 
who  created  the  new  journalism.  In  the  years  after  the  Civil  War,  men  like 
Butler,  Joseph  Pulitzer,  Melville  Stone,  and  E.W  Scripps  melded  the 
idealistic  spirit  of  earlier  papers  like  Horace  Greeley's  New  York  Tribune 
and  the  sensational  methods  of  the  ante  bellum  penny  press  to  carve  out  a 
vital  new  role  in  civic  life  for  newspapers. 

Cheap,  broad  and  accessible,  the  new  journalism  was  predicated  on 
political  independence  and  civic  leadership.  By  bringing  readers  up-to- 
date  news  heretofore  neglected  by  the  party  press,  and  by  advocating  on 
behalf  of  those  on  the  margins  of  power,  the  new  journalists  built  huge 
and  loyal  readerships — and  accumulated  substantial  political  and  eco- 
nomic capital. 

Rejecting  partisan  support,  the  commercially-driven  new  journalism 
found  far  wealthier  sponsors  in  free-spending  advertisers  who  wished  to 
reach  the  papers'  vast  audiences.  Independent,  commercial  newspapers 
like  the  New  York  World  and  the  Buffalo  News  became  formidable  enter- 
prises in  their  cities.2 

The  conflict  between  the  democratic  impulses  and  the  economic 
bounty  inherent  in  the  new  journalism  was  played  out  dramatically  in  the 
career  of  Butler,  whose  evolution  as  a  journalist  and  entrepreneur  offers  a 
troubling  case  study  of  how  the  wealth  and  power  the  new  journalism 
created  eventually  undermined  new  democratic  possibilities  for  journalism. 

This  article  examines  a  facet  of  Butler's  career  that  illuminates  the 
social  and  economic  conflicts  embedded  in  the  age  of  new  journalism: 
Butler's  relationship  with  Buffalo's  workers,  which  changed  drastically  as 
his  newspaper  brought  him  ever  greater  success  and  wealth. 

Specifically,  the  article  explores  the  response  of  Butler  and  his  News 
to  two  of  the  great  labor  conflicts  of  the  Gilded  Age — the  rail  strike  of 


42  Dillon -Winter  1999 


1877  during  which  Butler  vociferously  defended  laborers  and  encouraged 
them  to  exercise  their  political  will  against  capitalists  and  the  state;  and 
the  Great  Strike  of  1892,  during  which  Butler  denounced  newly  orga- 
nized workers  and  called  for  the  state  to  break  the  strike.3 

Newspapers  Promoted  Partisanship 

When  Butler  established  the  Sunday  Morning  News  in  1873,  he 
found  a  newspaper  field  crowded  with  political  and  commercial  journals 
that  catered  to  a  small  elite.  Papers  like  the  Democratic  Courier  and  its 
partisan  rival  The  Republic  narrowly  defined  news  as  the  official  acts  of 
politicians  and  the  political  opinions  of  editors.4 

Because  of  their  narrow  focus  and  limited  appeal  to  those  outside 
the  partisan  loop,  the  combined  circulation  of  the  city's  commercial  and 
partisan  papers  in  1875  barely  exceeded  10,000  in  a  city  of  131,000 
people.5  Butler  aimed  his  new  sheet  at  those  ignored  by  partisan  politics. 
Within  two  years,  he  had  1 2,000  readers — more  than  all  his  rivals 
combined.6 

The  News  grew  by  attacking  political  and  economic  elites  on  behalf 
of  Buffalo's  ordinary  citizens — shopkeepers,  fledgling  entrepreneurs,  and 
workingmen.  In  his  first  editorials,  Butler  denounced  the  political 
"rings" — as  he  and  other  reformers  referred  to  the  parties — and  the 
newspapers  that  supported  them. 

The  paper  boasted  it  was  "The  Firm  Friend  and  Acknowledged 
Organ  of  the  People"7  that  "Dares  Call  a  Liar  a  Liar  and  a  Villain  a 
Villain."8  It  described  its  principles  thus:  "We  desire  to  see  ring  rule 
destroyed,  we  desire  to  see  honest  men  elected  by  the  people,  and  held 
responsible  to  them  and  not  to  a  party  or  clique  of  men."9  The  paper  was 
also  cheap.  The  Sunday  Morning  News  cost  5  cents,  but  did  not  require  a 
subscription,  and  the  daily  sheet,  which  debuted  in  1880,  cost  but  a 
penny;  both  were  hawked  aggressively  in  the  street. 

The  News  condemned  its  partisan  rivals  as  "low  scums"  who  cared 
only  for  personal  or  political  gain  and  who  "pandered  to  obsolete  ideas."10 
The  News  warned  that  "until  new  ideas  are  infused,  until  a  more  progres- 
sive race  springs  up  from  the  ashes  of  old  fogeyism,  Buffalo  must  be  far 
behind  many  of  its  sister  cities."11 

Creates  a  Political  Constituency 

To  that  end,  the  News  exposed  and  denounced  municipal  graft.  In 
1875,  it  successfully  stitched  together  a  bi-partisan  "People's  Ticket"  that 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  43 


prevented  either  political  party  from  dominating  civic  affairs.  The  cam- 
paign blended  the  papers'  economic  and  political  power  as  the  News  recast 
its  10,000  paying  readers  as  "10,000  honest  voters."12  News  readers  were 
not  a  mere  audience  but  a  constituency. 

From  the  its  earliest  days,  a  progressive  social  agenda  guided  the 
paper.  In  1874  the  paper  crusaded  against  the  sale  of  diseased  meat.13  In 
1876,  it  exposed  patent  medicine  frauds.14  In  September  of  1878  alone  it 
exposed  the  abysmal  working  conditions  and  wages  of  contract  sewing 
girls  and  crusaded  for  laws  to  protect  Buffalo's  citizens  from  adulterated 
milk  being  sold  in  the  city.15  In  1881  it  mounted  a  crusade  on  behalf  of 
impoverished  Polish  immigrants  that  rivaled  in  intensity  and  literary  merit 
the  crusades  Joseph  Pulitzer  would  become  famous  for  with  the  New  York 
World,  which  he  bought  in  1883.16 

As  it  built  circulation  and  influence,  the  News  courted,  and  advo- 
cated for,  workingmen.  One  of  the  paper's  first  regular  features  debuted  in 
1874.  In  the  Labor  Column,  Butler  implored  workers  "to  come  to  the 
front  and  show  your  power  and  independence."17 

Butler  used  the  Labor  Column  to  guide  workers  in  the  acquisition 
of  political  and  economic  power  and  frequently  gave  it  over  to  labor 
leaders.  The  inaugural  Labor  Column  announced  that,  "The  workingmen 
have  long  needed  an  independent  channel  for  their  thoughts — one  in 
which  all  have  an  equal  right  to  give  expression  to  their  views  and  one 
which  is  perfectly  unbiased."18 

Butler's  affinity  for  workingmen  was  not  merely  political;  in  many 
respects  he  was  one  of  them.  The  son  of  an  itinerant  preacher,  as  a  boy 
Butler  was  apprenticed  as  a  printer's  devil  at  the  newspaper  in  rural 
LeRoy,  New  York.  Later,  he  was  a  reporter  and  editor  on  a  series  of 
partisan  newspapers  in  Pennsylvania's  hardscrabble  anthracite  coal  region. 
As  a  fledgling  publisher,  Butler  not  only  supplied  most  of  the  News 
content,  but  shepherded  the  paper  through  the  press  and  then  personally 
delivered  it  to  Buffalo's  suburbs. 

Butler  found  both  news  and  an  eager  audience  among  the  ranks  of 
the  workingmen.  His  transformation  from  populist  to  patrician  can  be 
traced  to  his  relationship  with  these  workers  over  the  course  of  20  years — 
from  his  days  as  a  struggling  entrepreneur  to  his  ascendance  to  wealthy 
master  of  capital  and  labor. 

By  1 892,  when  the  New  York  Publishers  Association  convened  its 
annual  meeting  in  Buffalo,  Butler  was  the  dean  of  the  city's  publishers  and 
one  of  its  wealthiest  citizens.  By  the  mid- 1890s  the  News  was  recording 
monthly  revenues  of  almost  $50,000  and  Butler  was  paying  himself  a 
quarterly  salary  of  more  than  $1 2,000. 19 


44  Dillon  •Winter  1999 


Butler  had  originally  boasted  of  his  "manly  independence"20  in 
politics  but  two  decades  after  founding  his  newspaper  in  opposition  to 
partisan  politics  and  journalism  he  was  not  only  personally  convinced  of 
the  soundness  of  Republican  policies,  but  a  figure  of  power  within  the 
parry  and  served  as  a  delegate  to  many  conventions.21 

So  much  had  changed.  Butler  had  come  to  Buffalo  to  challenge  its 
political  rings  and  offer  a  new  style  of  journalism  as  a  moral  beacon  for 
the  community.  In  his  keynote  address  to  colleagues  from  around  the 
state,  however,  Publishers  Association  President  Edward  H.  Butler  would 
offer  a  new  and  very  different  vision  for  his  profession. 

Publishing  Newspapers  for  Profit 

At  the  dais,  Butler  mocked  those  who  wasted  time  talking  of  the 
"loftier  mission"  of  the  press — namely  moral,  political  and  social  leader- 
ship.22 He  congratulated  his  peers  for  coming  "to  the  understanding  that 
the  publishing  of  a  newspaper  is  a  business  as  well  as  conducting  a  dry 
goods  store,  a  grocery  or  a  railroad,  and  like  those  enterprises  a  business 
conducted  mainly  for  profit."23 

When  Butler  had  declared  independence  from  partisanship  nearly  20 
years  earlier,  he  did  so  because  he  envisioned  a  nobler  mission  for  the  press: 

The  press  of  the  land,  the  mouthpiece  of  the  nation,  should 
be  untrammeled  by  party  subserviency;  it  should  be  free  to 
denounce  corruption,  to  expose  dishonest  schemes,  and  warn 
the  people  at  the  first  tocsin  of  alarm.  If  it  does  so,  it 
accomplishes  its  mission,  failing  to  do  so  it  is  a  timeserver, 
and  its  mission  is  one  of  evil  instead  of  good  to  the  masses.24 

Now,  however,  the  pursuit  of  profit — and  the  maintenance  of  a 
civic  order  designed  to  protect  it —  appeared  to  be  Butler's  guiding,  and 
perhaps  only,  principle.  He  told  the  assembled: 

I  don't  wish  our  members  to  regard  this  address  as  all  on 
the  money  side  of  it,  but  when  you  come  right  down  to  the 
foundation,  it  is  pretty  nearly  what  you  are  publishing 
newspapers  for.  'Money,'  said  the  elder  Bennett,  'is  the  root 
of  all  evil,  but  give  me  the  root.'25 

As  Edward  H.  Butler's  social  and  economic  status  had  changed,  his 
relationships  with  Buffalo's  constituencies  also  naturally  changed  and 

Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  45 


none  underwent  a  more  radical  change  than  his  relationship  with  the 
workingmen  he  had  originally  championed.  Uncomfortably  for  Butler, 
that  relationship  reached  a  crisis  at  the  very  moment  he  entertained  his 
peers  and  touted  the  virtues  of  Buffalo. 

The  publishers  who  visited  Buffalo  that  summer  were  treated  to 
concerts,  tours  of  the  city  and  a  visit  to  Niagara  Falls.  In  a  daily  box 
headlined  "A  Few  Cold  Facts  About  Buffalo,"  the  News  boasted  about  the 
33  rail  lines  that  entered  the  city,  its  booming  population,  which  was 
approaching  300,000,  and  its  2,500  factories.  Spread  out  along  the 
Niagara  River  and  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie,  the  city  was  a  center  for  lake 
and  rail  traffic.26  Things  could  not  have  looked  brighter. 

But  everywhere  that  summer,  labor  warfare  threatened  the  social 
order  that  made  such  industrial  growth  possible.  Each  day  of  the  conven- 
tion, stories  that  detailed  the  publishers'  doings  ran  side  by  side  with 
ominous  reports  of  violent  clashes  between  capital  and  labor  in  Home- 
stead, Cleveland,  Detroit,  Spokane,  and  Coeur  d'Alene,  Idaho. 

The  labor  trouble  that  haunted  Buffalo  that  summer  was  hardly  the 
work  of  radicals.  The  unrest  originated  at  the  Homestead  Steel  Plant 
outside  of  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania.  In  an  attempt  to  destroy  the  nascent 
American  Labor  Federation,  Henry  Frick,  general  manager  of  the  Carnegie 
Steel  Company,  had  summarily  announced  that  wages  at  the  plant  would 
be  cut,  and  that  the  company  would  begin  to  hire  non-union  men.  These 
moves  were  deliberately  provocative,  designed  to  force  a  fight  with  the 
union  before  it  got  any  stronger.  "Frick  had  patiently  tried  to  force  the 
workmen  into  opposition  and  he  had  succeeded."27  Even  before  his 
announcement,  Frick  had  Pinkerton  guards  at  the  ready  to  put  down  the 
protest  he  was  hoping  to  provoke.28 

Frick's  scheme  was  ill-considered.  The  Homestead  workers  initially 
routed  the  Pinkertons  at  Homestead  in  one  of  the  bloodiest  labor  clashes 
in  US  history,  prompting  Pennsylvania's  governor  to  send  in  the  National 
Guard  and  igniting  strikes  that  spread  along  the  rail  lines  that  connected 
these  plants  in  a  vast  industrial  grid. 

Butler  Opposed  Labor  in  1892 

Butler  feared  that  the  strikes  roaring  through  other  cities  would 
soon  reach  Buffalo.  When  they  did,  he  wanted  the  city's  business  and 
political  leaders  to  be  prepared. 

On  July  13,  1892,  in  the  midst  of  the  Homestead  Steel  clash,  a 
Buffalo  News  editorial  applauded  the  decision  of  Pennsylvania  Governor 


AG  Dillon 'Winter  1999 


William  Pattison  to  call  in  the  state  militia  to  break  the  strike.29  The  News 
warned  that  Buffalo's  leaders  should  not  hesitate  to  demand  similar 
military  protection: 

The  business  men  of  Buffalo  who  have  property  to  lose 
know  how  to  appreciate  the  respect  in  which  the  National 
Guard  is  held  in  this  and  other  States.  They  know  what 
inspires  that  respect ...  It  is  because  our  State  regiments  are 
composed  of  manly,  courageous,  well-disciplined  men  that 
they  inspire  respect  when  they  are  called  out  to  prevent 
disorder  as  well  as  quell  it.30 

While  the  editorial  held  out  hope  that  the  violence  would  not  engulf 
Buffalo,  it  asserted  that  should  it  come,  "the  National  Guardsmen  are  our 
best  protection  against  riot  and  destruction  of  property."31 

Butler  looked  to  the  past  for  assurances  that  Buffalo's  future,  and  the 
hegemony  of  its  leaders,  would  not  be  harmed  by  rebellious  workers. 
"Not  a  great  many  years  ago — only  1 5,"  the  editorial  said,  "Buffalo  had  to 
be  protected  by  the  National  Guard  during  the  great  railroad  strikes,  and 
the  soldiers  did  their  work  gallantly  and  well.  Their  presence  at  the  point 
of  disturbance  prevented  a  serious  outbreak,  and  prevention  is  always 
better  in  such  cases  than  cure."32 

Butler's  history  lesson  was  nothing  short  of  astonishing.  Fifteen  years 
earlier,  he  had  offered  a  far  different  vision  of  the  place  of  workingmen  in 
the  city,  and  his  newspaper  had  told  a  far  different  story  of  the  militia's 
role  in  quelling  the  strike.  The  difference  between  the  views  of  the  young, 
struggling  Edward  H.  Butler  who  was  scorned  in  the  1870s  by  his 
partisan  rivals  for  his  populist  sympathies,  and  the  older,  prosperous 
Butler  who  was  being  honored  as  a  leader  of  the  state  and  city  press  in 
1892,  reveals  much  about  the  evolution  of  the  man,  his  newspapers,  and 
the  city. 

The  militia  had  become  embroiled  in  the  great  strike  of  1 877,  that 
much  was  true.  But  little  else  of  the  lesson  Butler  drew  from  the  strike 
corresponded  with  stories  and  editorials  he  had  published  then.  The  1877 
strike  had  also  begun  in  the  Southern  Alleghenies,  in  West  Virginia,  where 
rail  crews  abandoned  their  trains  over  a  wage  decrease  and  refused  to  let 
trains  manned  by  replacement  workers  leave  the  yards.33  The  strike 
quickly  spread  up  the  Erie  Road,  reaching  Buffalo  in  early  June.  Butler's 
Sunday  Morning  News  declared,  "Never  before  in  the  history  of  the  city 
did  a  public  demonstration  assume  so  suddenly  such  formidable  propor- 
tions, and  so  many  ugly  features."34 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  47 


Butler  Supported  Strikers  in  1 877 

When  the  firemen  and  brakemen  of  the  Buffalo  and  Erie  Railroad 
stopped  working  and  began  to  halt  all  rail  traffic  into  and  out  of  the  city, 
state  officials  rushed  to  defeat  them  with  force.  Many  city  newspapers 
applauded  the  decision  to  send  the  state  militia  to  Buffalo,  and  urged 
soldiers  to  deal  with  strikers  decisively  and  brutally,  to  "shoot  these  men 
down  like  beasts."35 

The  News,  in  contrast,  defended  the  workers  and  condemned 
military  intervention.  The  paper  asserted  that  the  rail  workers  had  every 
right  to  strike  in  the  face  of  an  unfair  wage  reduction,  and  castigated  the 
governor  for  allowing  railroad  management  "to  call  upon  the  military  to 
settle  a  business  question."36 

The  News  charged  that  rather  than  considering  the  particulars  of  the 
Buffalo  situation,  the  governor  had  acted  out  of  panic  and  fear  because  of 
a  violent  rail  strike  in  Baltimore  that  preceded,  and  likely  helped  spark, 
the  Buffalo  strike: 

Were  it  not  for  the  strike  following  so  immediately  in  the 
wake  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  horrors,  it  would  have 
occasioned  but  little  excitement,  and  the  local  public  would 
have  remained  little  more  than  mere  spectators  of  a  struggle  be- 
tween a  railroad  company  and  its  employees.37 

Worse  than  the  decision  to  call  in  the  troops  was  their  conduct  once  they 
arrived  in  the  city.  The  soldiers,  the  newspaper  reported,  were  ill-trained, 
undisciplined  and  poorly  commanded. 

Indeed,  the  Sunday  Morning  News  laid  the  blame  for  the  violence  on 
the  military: 

The  military,  in  fact,  created  the  mobs  which  the  Buffalo 
police  and  specials  had  to  step  in  and  disperse.  In  every 
collision  of  the  military  with  the  mobs,  the  former  were 
beaten  .  .  .  even  the  worst  rioters  seemed  to  respect  the 
police,while  the  soldiers  were  looked  upon  as  men  of  blood 
and  war  [and]  made  the  mobs  more  active  and  violent. 
Twenty  policemen  armed  with  clubs  and  civil  authority  were 
more  effective  in  every  conflict  than  a  hundred  soldiers  armed 
with  loaded  muskets  and  bayonets.39 


48  Dillon -Winter  1999 


The  News  coverage  of  the  strike  overwhelmingly  favored  the 
workers.  Even  when  the  paper  found  proof  of  violence  against  the  police, 
the  military,  or  the  city  itself,  it  ascribed  such  violence  to  "not  a  few 
roughs  and  tramps"  who  took  advantage  of  a  peaceful  strike  to  cause 
trouble  and  settle  scores.  The  newspaper  concluded: 

The  Erie  men  were  temperate  and  not  to  be  found  among 
the  gangs  marauding  about  the  city;  and  yet  with  all  this 
expression  of  sentiment  favorable  to  the  strike,  not  one 
official  act  was  performed  to  acknowledge  the  distinction 
between  the  rioters  and  the  strikers.39 

In  an  editorial  that  accompanied  the  news  stories  about  the  1877  strike, 
Butler  strongly  supported  the  workers'  right  to  strike,  but  urged  them  to 
refrain  from  violence: 

Even  the  most  impracticable  idealist — and  the  ranks  of  the 
insurgents  are  full  of  such — must  acknowledge  that  there  is 
small  chance  of  improvement  in  the  condition  of  unemploy- 
ment growing  out  of  the  destruction  of  the  employer.  It  is  hardly 
probable  that  a  mill  owner  will  be  induced  to  add  to  the  wages 
of  his  employers  simply  from  the  fact  that  the  latter  have 
burned  his  mill.40 

Labor  Column  Moves  to  Page  One 

While  Butler  chastised  workers  as  a  friend  might,  he  had  nothing 
but  harsh  words  for  the  railroad  companies — and  for  government  officials 
and  newspapers  that  aided  in  their  subjugation  of  workers.  His  comments 
ranged  far  beyond  the  particulars  of  the  strike  itself;  instead,  he  articulated 
his  core  principles  on  the  issues  of  capital,  labor  and  the  role  of  the  state 
in  disputes  between  the  two — these  were  the  principles  that  Butler  would 
so  vehemently  reject  15  years  later. 

In  the  same  editorial,  which  appeared  on  July  29,  1877,  Butler 
pointed  out  that  the  coverage  of  the  strike  in  Buffalo's  other  newspapers 
had  been  grossly  biased  and  incomplete,  merely  trumpeting  and  applaud- 
ing the  pronouncements  of  political  and  industrial  leaders  out  to  rout  the 
strikers.  The  News  scolded  that,  "There  is  another  side  to  this  question 
that  has  been  completely  ignored  in  the  press,  which  is  this:  Is  the  Balti- 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  49 


more  and  Ohio  Railroad  corporation  entirely  blameless?  Is  it  not  equally 
to  blame  for  bringing  this  terrible  condition  of  affairs?"41 

In  fact,  the  editorial  concluded,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad 
bore  most  of  the  blame.  Butler  documented  its  enormous  expansion  and 
profits  and  showed  how  it  was  taking  advantage  of  a  stagnant  labor 
market  to  exploit  workers  with  "starve  to  death  wages."42  Worse,  the 
B&O  was  "evading  moral  responsibility"  for  its  actions.43 

And,  on  top  of  tremendous  economic  advantages  over  its  rag-tag 
labor  force,  the  B&O  was  backed  up  by  the  political  and  military  re- 
sources of  the  state:  ".  .  .  the  way  seems  hedged  up  so  that  the  one  side 
cannot  even  get  a  hearing  so  powerful  has  the  other  side  become  through 
unprincipled  legislators,  and  so  oppressive  are  its  inclinations."44  Under 
the  circumstances,  the  Sunday  Morning  News  concluded,  workers  were 
almost  being  forced  to  seek  justice  through  violent  means. 

If  anything  good  might  come  of  the  strike,  the  News  concluded,  it 
was  that,  "when  a  strike  or  movement  to  maintain  or  secure  wages  occurs 
in  the  future,  the  Railroad  companies  will  feel  more  disposed  to  compro- 
mise the  difficulties  than  ever  before."45 

In  the  aftermath  of  the  1877  strike,  Butler  expanded  the  Labor 
Column  and  moved  it  temporarily  to  the  front  page.  Butler  proposed  to 
workingmen  that  they  "might  hold  the  balance  of  power"  nationally  and 
in  Buffalo.46  In  an  elegant  and  passionate  summation  of  the  workingmans 
plight,  the  News  declared: 

The  workingmen  of  today  are  men  who  think.  They  have 
cause  to  think.  They  are  out  of  work  and  they  wonder  why 
it  is.  They  cannot  get  bread  for  themselves  and  their  families 
and  wonder  why  that  is.  They  helped  elect  men  to  office  who 
promised  to  legislate  better  times  and  they  wonder  why  better 
times  do  not  come.  Their  little  property  has  been  eaten  up  by 
living  and  taxes,  they  themselves  are  on  the  verge  of  starvation 
and  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  wonder  why  it  is  so.47 

Butler  applauded  the  men  for  striking,  but  cautioned  that  seeking 
short-term  pay  increases  without  a  larger  agenda  would  not  advance 
their  cause.  They  should  also  "strike  at  the  ballot  box,"  and  "shake  both 
parties."48  Only  when  they  ran  candidates  and  held  power  for  them- 
selves would  workingmen  have  the  necessary  leverage  to  fight  the  big 
corporations. 


50  Dillon -Winter  1999 


Butler  Adopts  Patrician  Habits 

Unsettled  disputes  between  workers  and  the  steel  and  rail  oligopolies 
lingered.  And  when,  15  years  later,  in  1892,  another  outbreak  of  fierce 
strikes  brought  strife  and  violence  to  Buffalo,  the  workers  found  no 
champion  in  Edward  H.  Butler.  Unlike  the  young  publisher  who  had 
broken  bread  with  his  pressmen  and  helped  deliver  bundles  of  the  freshly- 
printed  news  to  distant  precincts,  the  older  Butler  had  very  little  in 
common  with  workingmen.  By  1892,  he  was  a  man  of  substantial 
property.  A  palatial  new  building  for  the  News  (complete  with  a  private 
Swedish  bath  for  its  owner)  was  in  the  works. 

An  admiring  correspondent  for  the  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer  who 
visited  Butler  in  1886  marveled  at  the  publisher's  style: 

Just  think  of  an  editor  with  a  telephone  ready  at  hand,  with 
electric  bells  and  speaking  tubes  at  his  desk,  connecting  with 
every  department  of  his  flourishing  business  and  then,  not  as 
a  romance  do  we  write,  coming  to  his  office  in  a  coupe  and 
wearing  a  sealskin  coat.49 

In  addition  to  publishing  Buffalo's  wealthiest  newspaper,  Butler  had 
also  become  a  director  of  the  American  Savings  Bank  and  a  member  of 
the  Buffalo  Club,  Ellicott  Park  Club  and  Country  Club  in  the  city,  as  well 
as  a  member  of  the  Marchmont  Club  of  New  York,  the  Clover  Club  of 
Philadelphia  and  the  Capital  City  Club  in  Atlanta.50 

The  fate  of  his  business  was  now  inextricably  tied,  through  politics, 
commerce  and  society,  to  the  vested  interests  he  had  once  decried.51  And 
so,  when  labor  conflict  descended  upon  Buffalo  in  1892  Butler  was  in  no 
position  economically,  politically,  or  temperamentally  to  rally  to  the 
workers.  In  the  intervening  years  since  the  "Great  Upheaval"  of  1 877, 
however,  the  power  and  wealth  of  organized  labor  had  also  grown.  Union 
members  could  now  be  found  in  great  numbers  in  trades  throughout  the 
city — including  the  mechanical  departments  of  the  News. 

The  labor  unrest  that  had  been  smoldering  all  summer  burst  into 
flame  on  August  14  when  striking  switchmen — according  to  the  News52 — 
set  more  than  50  freight  cars  ablaze  just  outside  the  city  limits.53  While 
the  switchmen  appealed  to  other  rail  workers  to  strike  in  sympathy,  the 
Lehigh  and  Erie  and  Buffalo  Creek  railroads  began  transporting  replace- 
ment workers  to  the  city.  The  News  devoted  little  coverage  to  the  strikers' 
demand  for  a  10  hour  day,  a  demand  the  rail  company  had  earlier  acceded 
to  and  then  reneged  on;  instead,  the  newspaper  denounced  the  strikers. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  51 


An  editorial  on  August  16,  1892  declared,  "Every  man  in  this 
country  has  a  right  to  work  for  whom  he  pleases.  He  has  a  right  to  quit 
when  the  work  or  the  pay  is  unsatisfactory.  He  has  no  right  to  seize  his 
employer's  property,  nor  has  a  body  of  men  more  right  than  one."54 

At  the  same  time,  under  the  huge  headline  "RIOTING,"  the 
newspaper  expressed  sympathy  for  the  rail  companies,  the  replacement 
workers  and  displaced  passengers.  It  condemned  the  strikers  as  "lawless."55 
The  strike,  it  reported,  had  "grown  from  a  mere  formal  demand  for 
increased  pay  and  shorter  hours  into  a  reign  of  terror  and  perpetration  of 
acts  and  unbounded  lawlessness  and  incendiarism."56  An  accompanying 
editorial  called  the  strike  a  "Bad  Business,"  and  demanded  that  strikers  be 
punished.57 

There  can  be  but  one  judgement  on  the  events  of  yesterday  and 
Saturday  night  in  the  Lehigh  Yards  at  East  Buffalo.  The  burning  of 
railroad  property,  the  derailing  of  trains,  the  assaults  on  workmen 
are  a  CRIME.58 

The  editorial  called  upon  union  officials  to  prevent  damage  at  the 
railyards.  If  they  did  not,  it  warned,  "There  is  sufficient  force  in  Buffalo  to 
deal  with  it  effectively."59 

By  far  the  most  dramatic  illustration  of  Butler's  turnaround  came  on 
August  16  when  the  News  called  for  the  state  militia  to  be  sent  to  Buffalo. 
The  militia  was  soon  dispatched,  and  as  troop  trains  speeded  towards 
Buffalo,60  Butler  published  an  editorial  entitled  "For  Workingmen  to 
Think  Of."61  Unlike  his  fiery  defense  of  downtrodden  workers  in  1877, 
this  message  to  laboring  men  was  stern  and  unsympathetic.  "Do  the 
workmen  of  this  country  realize  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  killing  the 
goose  that  lays  the  golden  egg?"  he  asked.  Speaking  from  experience,  he 
explained  that,  "It  is  much  easier  to  pull  down  than  build  up  business 
prosperity."62 

Rather  than  blame  the  railroads  for  their  economic  plight  and  poor 
working  conditions  at  the  yards,  the  editorial  explained  lamely  that  the 
men  should  resign  themselves  to  "business  cycles"  of  boom  and  bust  that 
governed  economic  events.  Another  editorial  condemned  sympathy 
strikes,  arguing  that  workers  not  involved  in  the  strike  should  show 
devotion  to  their  own  employers,  not  their  fellow  workers.63 

By  Thursday,  August  1 7,  the  strike  had  spread  to  other  rail  yards. 
While  a  headline  declared  that  "ANARCHY!"  reigned  in  Tennessee,64  the 
entire  New  York  National  Guard — 13,000  strong — arrived  in  Buffalo  to 


52  Dillon 'Winter  1999 


break  the  strike.65  As  the  strike  wore  on,  the  News'  headlines  grew  bigger 
and  more  shrill.  News  reporters  encamped  with  soldiers  and  traveled  to 
points  of  conflict  on  a  chartered  rail  car  provided  to  the  press  by  the 
railroad.66 

Butler  Supports  Use  of  Force 

Soon  it  was  revealed  that  James  Doyle,  the  National  Guard  general 
in  charge  of  the  troops,  was  also  a  high  official  of  the  Lehigh  Valley-Erie 
Railroad.67  Butler,  who  1 5  years  earlier  had  decried  the  fact  that  the  power 
of  the  state  unfairly  backed  the  railroads,  weakly  explained  that  the 
general's  status  as  an  officer  of  the  railroad  was  not  a  conflict  of  interest. 

In  response  to  scathing  condemnations  of  Doyle  and  the  railroad  by 
the  New  York  Sun,  the  New  York  Herald,  and  the  New  York  Telegram,  Butler 
editorialized  that  such  criticism  was  "ill-considered.  The  Telegram  seems  to 
forget  that  so  far  as  the  public  are  concerned  there  is  but  one  side  in  this 
battle.  The  soldiers  are  fighting  disturbers  of  peace  and  property,  that  is  all. 
The  contestant'  whose  orders  General  Doyle  is  obeying  is  the  state  of  New 
York,"68  and  not  the  railroad.  The  editorial  noted  that,  "the  newspapers  are 
cooperating  with  the  National  Guard  in  repressing  disorder."69 

The  strike  sputtered  on,  but  the  appearance  of  the  soldiers  got  trains 
moving  again,  ensured  protection  for  replacement  workers  and  effectively 
disarmed  the  union,  which  then  unsuccessfully  tried  to  make  a  deal  with 
the  railroads.  On  August  25,  Grandmaster  Frank  Sweeney  declared  the 
strike  over.70  In  an  editorial,  the  News  crowed  that,  "all  in  all  it  was  a  good 
day  for  news,  and  a  good  day  for  readers  of  the  News."71 

In  fact,  the  strike  was  doomed  when  other  unions  refused  Sweeney's 
pleas  to  walk  out.72  Eugene  Debs  drew  this  lesson  from  the  Buffalo  strike: 
"Bayonets  and  bullets,  scabs  and  capitalists  won  a  victory,  rode  roughshod 
over  a  principle  [labor  unity]  which  must  eventually  triumph  or  labor's 
emancipation  will  never  come."  Ironically,  Debs'  words  echoed  Butler's 
judgment  on  the  1877  strike. 

Butler  had  written  in  1 877  that  the  lesson  of  the  Great  Strike  was 
that  workingmen  oppressed  by  huge  corporations  and  legislative  toadies 
had  a  right  to  strike  and  should  join  together  to  seize  political  power.  He 
drew  for  his  readers  a  far  different  lesson  from  the  1 892  strike: 

Some  hasty  observers  of  the  trouble  at  East  Buffalo  have 
jumped  at  the  conclusion,  because  it  is  a  big  thing,  that  it 
is  the  beginning  of  a  life  and  death  struggle  between  capital 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  53 


and  labor.  It  is  not  a  struggle  between  capital  and  labor  at  all, 
but  between  anarchy  and  law.73 

"Here  is  the  lesson  of  the  strike,"  the  News  concluded.  "The  militia  is  the 
one  and  sole  dependence  of  our  citizens  for  protection  from  riot  and 
destruction  to  property."74 

The  strikes  of  1877  and  1892  shared  many  similarities — especially 
as  they  played  out  in  Buffalo.  Buffalo  was  not  the  epicenter  of  either 
strike;  compared  to  many  other  cities  it  escaped  serious  damage  or 
violence.  A  logical  question  one  might  pose  regarding  Butler's  reaction  to 
the  two  strikes  is:  Did  he  side  against  workers  in  1 892  because  that 
strike's  impact  on  Buffalo  was  greater,  its  violence  more  widespread,  the 
strikers  more  "lawless";  or  because  he  had  become  a  member  of  the  elite 
with  corporate,  personal  and  ideological  interests  at  stake? 

By  most  criteria,  the  1 877  strike  had  a  greater  impact  on  Buffalo  than 
the  1892  strike  and  therefore  posed  a  greater  threat  to  order.  The  1877 
conflict,  "The  Great  Upheaval,"  was  more  strident  in  its  challenge  to  the 
power  of  capital  by  virtue  of  coming  first  and  was  viewed  by  many  as 
"violent  rebellion."75  In  fact,  the  armories  that  were  at  the  National  Guard's 
disposal  in  1892  had  been  built  precisely  because  of  the  strike  of  1877.76 

Challenge  to  the  Moneyed  Class 

According  to  labor  historian  Joseph  Rayback,  "The  railway  strike 
thoroughly  shocked  a  large  portion  of  the  public.  Not  since  slaveholders 
had  ceased  to  be  haunted  by  dreams  of  a  slave  uprising  had  propertied 
elements  been  so  terrified."77 

The  impact  of  the  strike  of  1 877  was  also  more  far-reaching  in 
Buffalo  and  other  cities  because  what  began  as  a  railroad  strike  quickly 
became  a  general  strike.  In  Buffalo,  workers  walked  off  the  job  at  planing 
mills,  tanneries,  bolt  and  nut  factories,  hogyards  and  the  canal  works.78 
Although  the  workers  did  not  gain  all  they  wanted,  they  did  show  they 
had  the  power  to  paralyze  the  city's  industries. 

The  strike  of  1 892  had  a  narrower  focus  than  the  strike  of  1 877. 
Rail  workers  failed  to  convince  their  brethren  in  other  industries  to  walk 
off  jobs;  each  union  had  its  own  agenda  and  they  did  not  work  together 
in  common  cause.  A  leader  of  the  Switchmen's  Union  complained  bitterly 
in  the  wake  of  the  strike  that  "the  brakemen  and  firemen  played  us 
false."79 


54  Dillon 'Winter  1999 


The  contradictions  that  ultimately  broke  Butler's  bond  with  working 
people  arose  from  his  growing  wealth  and  influence.  As  his  success  as  a 
businessman  and  publisher  transformed  him  into  the  head  of  a  vast 
enterprise,  the  city's  and  the  nation's  laborers  were  gaining  voice  and  power. 

Butler  Became  What  He  Despised 

The  workingmen  whom  Butler  had  championed  in  1877  were 
unorganized  and,  to  Butler's  mind,  directionless.  He  had  hoped  to 
channel  the  formidable  power  and  talent  among  labor's  ranks  towards 
goals  he  deemed  worthy  by  giving  labor  a  forum  in  his  newspaper  and 
educating  the  workingmen  on  how  to  use  it.  But  ultimately,  the  strike  of 
1 877  had  given  workingmen  a  sense  of  their  power  to  set  their  own 
agenda;  in  Rayback's  words,  the  strike  gave  workers  "a  class  consciousness 
on  a  national  scale."80 

By  1 892,  the  labor  movement,  while  still  at  a  huge  disadvantage, 
had  progressed.  The  American  Federation  of  Labor  was  formed  in  1886 
and  the  Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron,  Steel,  and  Tin  Workers,  which 
represented  the  ill-fated  Homestead  workers,  had  formed  soon  after  that.81 
These  well-organized  unions  had  strong  leaders  and  big  war  chests. 

The  paradox  that  shaped  Butler's  destiny — fighting  the  powerful 
while  aspiring  to  be  one  of  them — illustrates  the  inherent  contradictions 
that  shaped  modern  journalism  as  it  passed  from  partisan  mouthpiece  to 
corporate  institution.  The  very  financial  and  political  success  of  Butler's 
populist  philosophy  inexorably  pulled  Butler  into  the  city's  elite. 

As  his  wealth  increased,  his  passion  for  attacking  a  system  in  which 
he  was  rapidly  ascending  diminished.  By  the  1890s,  Butler  had  forsaken 
reform  and  political  independence  and  embraced  wealth  and  influence. 
He  became  what  he  had  originally  despised — a  conservative  patrician 
whose  interests  were  unambiguously  allied  with  those  of  Buffalo's  elite. 
That  shift  was  most  dramatically  manifest  in  his  relationship  with  the 
workingmen  he  had  once  championed. 


Endnotes 

'Between  1870  and  1880,  the  number  of  newspapers  in  the  United  States  nearly  doubled,  while 
revenue  increased  nearly  four-fold.  In  1879,  newspapers  also  reached  their  zenith  in  terms  of  earnings 
relative  to  the  earnings  of  all  American  industries.  Jeffrey  Rutenbeck,  "Newspaper  trends  in  the  1870s: 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  55 


Proliferation,  popularization,  and  political  independence,"  Journalism  and  Mass  Communication 
Quarterly,  Summer,  1995,  p.  362-69- 

2  Newspapers,  which  were  started  for  as  little  as  $500  in  capital  before  the  Civil  War,  might  require 
close  to  $  1  million  in  start-up  capital  by  the  1 880s.  Gerald  Baldasty,  The  Commercialization  of  the 
News  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  (Madison:  University  of  Wisconsin,  1992)  p.  5 

3Butler  was  not  alone  in  undergoing  this  transformation.  The  newspapers  of  the  Scripps  brothers, 
who  were  also  key  innovators  of  the  "new  journalism"  -  and  whose  Buffalo  Telegraph  was  vanquished 
by  Butler  in  1885  -  also  de-  emphasized  crusading  as  their  circulations  grew.  Penny  papers  like  the 
Buffalo  News  and  Scripps'  Detroit  Evening  News  built  their  circulations  by  appealing  to  the  working 
classes.  But  as  profits  grew  and  competition  declined,  the  content  of  these  papers  catered  less  to  the 
working  class  and  adopted  a  more  neutral  stance  towards  politics  and  social  issues  -  a  reflection  of  the 
fact  that  their  readerships  had  become  more  diverse.  Richard  Kaplan,  "The  Economics  of  Popular 
Journalism  in  the  Gilded  Age:  The  Detroit  Evening  News  in  1873  and  1888,"  Journalism  History, 
Summer  1995,  pp.  65-74. 

4By  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  partisan  affiliation  would  be  out  of  fashion  at  many 
American  newspapers,  but  in  1873,  when  Butler  founded  the  News,  this  trend  away  from  partisan 
journalism  was  just  beginning;  thus,  in  Buffalo  and  elsewhere,  partisan  papers  were  in  the  majority. 
For  figures  on  partisan  and  independent  papers  in  New  York  at  century's  end,  see  Baldasty  and  Jeffrey 
B.  Rutenbeck,  "Money,  Politics  and  Newspapers:  The  Business  Environment  of  Press  Partisanship  in 
the  Late  19th  Century,"  Journalism  History,  Summer/Autumn,  1988,  pp.  60-69. 

'Circulation  figures  are  from  a  survey  done  by  George  P.  Rowell  and  Company  which  was 
commissioned  by  and  published  in  the  Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  13  June  1875. 

6In  addition  to  the  Rowell  &  Co.  survey,  the  News  submitted  an  affidavit  signed  by  Butler  attesting 
the  paper  had  an  average  circulation  of  10,000  by  August,  1874,  a  mere  eight  months  after  its  start- 
up. Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  2  August  1874,  p.  2. 

'Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  2  October  1875,  p.  I. 

"Ibid. 

'Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  3  October  1874,  p.  1. 

'"Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  10  January  1875,  p.l.   October  1874,  p.l. 

"Ibid. 

12Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  2 

13"Sale  of  Tainted  Meat,"  Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  25  January  1874,  p.  1. 

"After  1880,  advertisements  for  "Burdick's  Blood  Bitters"  became  endemic  in  the  News,  but  in 
1876  "Dr."  Andrews,  who  sold  a  potent  —  and  probably  alcohol-based  —  remedy  for  dyspepsia,  was 
exposed  and  hounded  from  the  city.  "'Dr.'  Andrews  flees,"  Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  8 
September  1876,  p.  1. 

""Peddlers  of  Bad  Milk,"  Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  8  September  1876,  p.l.;  "The  Poor 
Sewing  Girls,"  12  September  1876,  p.l. 

16"Anatomy  of  a  Crusade:  The  Buffalo  News'  Pioneering  Fight  for  the  Polish  Immigrants,  1881." 
Unpublished  manuscript. 

"Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  1  October  1874,  p.  1. 

''Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  10  May  1874,  p. 2. 

"Financial  records  from  the  News  before  1895  are  sketchy  and  incomplete;  the  salary  figure  comes 
from  a  1895  trial  balance.  According  to  a  1909  trial  balance,  Butler's  recorded  salary  was  $130,000 
annually. 

20Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  7  December  1873,  p.l. 

21Butler  served  the  party  twice  as  a  member  of  the  Electoral  College;  in  1900  he  was  named  the 
chairman  of  the  board  of  electors.  Information  about  Butler's  political  activities  can  be  found  in 
numerous  papers  and  letters,  as  well  as  his  obituary,  "Edward  Butler  dies  following  operation," 
Buffalo  News,  10  March  1914. 

22Butler  speech  to  New  York  Publisher's  Association,  13  July  1892,  Butler  papers  at  SUCB. 

"Ibid. 

""Our  Mammoth  Sheet"  (editorial),  Buffalo  Sunday  Morning  News,  10  March  1874,  p. 2. 


56  Dillon  •Winter  1999 


"Butler  Speech  to  New  York  Publishers  Association,  13  July  1892. 

26"A  Few  Cold  Facts  About  Buffalo,"  Evening  News,  19  August  1 892,  p.  2  (and  many  subsequent 
editions). 

27Samuel  Yellen,  American  Labor  Struggles  (New  York:  S.A.  Russel)  p.  81. 

28Ibid. 

""An  Argument  That  Comes  Home,"  Evening  News,  13  July  1892,  p.  2. 

30Ibid. 

"Ibid. 

32Ibid. 

"Jeremy  Brecker,  Strike!  (Boston:  South  End  Press,  1972)  p.  1. 

34"The  Great  Strike,"  Sunday  Morning  News,  29  July  1877,  p.  1. 

35"Murderous  Purposes,"  Sunday  Morning  News,  29  July  1877,  p.  1. 

36"A  Review  of  the  Strike,"  Sunday  Morning  News,  29  July  1877,  p.  1.  (editorial) 

37Ibid. 

3!"Buffalo  Policemen,"  Sunday  Morning  News,  29  July  1877,  p.  1. 

3,Ibid. 

40"A  Review  of  the  Strike,"  Sunday  Morning  News,  29  July  1877,  p  1. 

4lIbid. 

"Ibid. 

43Ibid. 

"Ibid. 

45Ibid. 

46"  Workingmen:  The  Class  that  Might  Hold  the  Balance  of  Power,"  Sunday  Morning  News,  2 
September  1877,  p.  1. 

47Ibid. 

48Ibid. 

4,"E.H.  Butler  of  the  Buffalo  News,"  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer,  6  March  1886.  p.3. 

50"E.H.  Butler  Dies  After  Operation  .  .  ."  Buffalo  Courier,  10  March  1914,  p.  1. 

"In  addition  to  political  or  editorial  posts,  Butler  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  the  Grosvenor 
Library,  originator  and  president  of  group  charged  with  erecting  a  monument  to  slain  president 
William  McKinley,  a  director  of  the  American  Savings  Bank,  and  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of 
the  State  Normal  School  at  Buffalo.  Municipality  of  Buffalo,  p.  332. 

52Unlike  in  the  1 877  strike,  when  Butler  scolded  other  newspapers  for  not  investigating  who 
actually  instigated  violence  and  blaming  every  incident  on  strikers,  the  News  in  1892  was  content  to 
assume  that  any  incidents  must  be  the  work  of  strikers. 

53"More  Fires!"  Evening  News,  15  August  1892,  p.  1. 

54"For  Workingmen  to  Think  Of,"  Buffalo  Evening  News,  16  August  1892,  p.2. 

55"RIOTING!  The  Switchman's  Strike  Becomes  Serious,"  Evening  News,  15  August  1892,  p.  1. 

56Ibid. 

57"Bad  Business,"  Evening  News,  15  August  1892,  p.  2. 

58Ibid. 

"Ibid. 

60"Bad  Business,"  15  August  1892,  p.  2. 

61"For  Workingmen  to  Think  Of,"  Evening  News,  16  August  1892,  p.  2. 

"Ibid. 

"Ibid. 

""ANARCHY!  Troops  Surrender  to  the  Mob  at  Oliver  Springs,  Tenn.,"  Evening  News,  17  August 
1892,  p.  1. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  57 


""STRIKE  SPREADING:  All  Troops  in  the  State  Sent,"  Evening  News,  18  August  1892,  p.  1 . 

""UNDERARMS!"  Evening  News,  16  August  1892,  p.  1. 

67When  Militia  General  Doyle's  blatant  conflict  of  interest  was  pointed  out  by  strikers  and  their 
supporters,  the  News  supported  his  right  to  fill  both  roles.  "PERSECUTED:  General  Doyle  Says 
They're  After  Him  and  He  Doesn't  Like  It,"  Evening  News,  1 9  August  p.  1 . 

""Attacking  General  Doyle,"  (editorial)  Evening  News,  19  August  p.  2. 

"Ibid. 

70"The  Strike  is  Ended,"  Buffalo  News,  25  August  p.  1. 

7l"The  First,  As  Usual,"  Buffalo  News,  25  August  p. 2. 

72This  was  a  position  heartily  endorsed  by  the  News,  which  lectured  potential  sympathy  strikers  in 
an  editorial  that  other  rail  workers  should  rally  to  the  aid  of  their  "natural  partners,"  —  their 
employers  at  the  railroad.  "Friends  and  Enemies,"  Buffalo  News,  23  August,  p.  2. 

73"One  Lesson  of  the  "Strike,"  (editorial)  Evening  News,  26  August  1892,  p.  1. 

74Ibid. 

75Brecker,  Strike,  p.  1 . 

76Eric  Foner,  History  of  American  Labor,  v.7,  N.Y.:  International  Publishers,  1955)  p.  253- 

^Joseph  Rayback,  A  History  of  American  Labor,  (New  York:  The  Free  Press,  1966)  p.  136. 

78Brecker,  Strike!  p.  6 

79The  union  council  member  was  identified  only  by  his  last  name,  Barrett,  in  the  story  containing 
his  remarks.  "The  Strike  is  Ended,"  Buffalo  News,  p.l. 

80Rayback,p.l36. 

81Ibid,  p.  159. 


58  Dillon' Winter  1999 


Power  of  the  Press:  How  Newspapers 
in  Four  Communities  Erased 
Thousands  of  Chinese  from  Oregon 
History 

By  Herman  B.  Chiu 

This  article  examines  four  Oregon  newspapers'  treatment  of  Chinese 
workers  during  the  1870s  and  1880s.  The  papers  were  in  Jacksonville,  John 
Day,  Baker  City  and  Astoria  which,  according  to  census  reports,  had  the  states 
largest  Chinese  populations.  Results  show  the  Chinese,  who  arrived  as  gold 
miners  and  railroad  workers  and  comprised  as  much  as  half  the  population  of 
some  towns,  were  virtually  excluded  from  the  press.  When  they  did  make  it 
into  the  papers  they  were  rarely  named,  portrayed  as  sub-human,  and  vilified. 
Pronouns  such  as  "yellow  vermin" and  "filthy  rats"  were  not  uncommon. 

The  papers  that  were  examined  shared  one  attribute — they  shunned  the 
Chinese.  Racism,  inability  to  communicate,  strange  appearance,  clannishness, 
"strategic  silence,  "professional  standards  that  were  not  well-developed,  and 
lack  of  newsroom  diversification  were  some  of  the  factors  that  could  have 
caused  the  appalling  coverage — or  lack  of  coverage — of  this  immigrant  group. 

\  C  ~\   yT"ellow  vermin,"  filthy  rats,"  "moon-eyed  nuisances"  — 
Y      these  were  just  a  few  of  the  names  newspapers  in 
JL     Oregon  hurled  at  the  Chinese  during  the  19th  century. 
But  that  was  only  when  the  papers  bothered  to  acknowledge  their 
existence  at  all.  Most  of  the  time,  the  Chinese  were  ignored  even  though 


Herman  B.  Chiu  is  the  Lee  Hills  Doctoral  Fellow  at  the  University  of  Missouri,  Columbia, 
School  of  Journalism. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  59 


they  comprised  nearly  half  of  the  population  of  some  Oregon  cities 
during  the  1870s  and  1880s. 

The  Chinese  came  to  the  state  seeking  the  fortunes  that  had  attracted 
countless  others  before  them.  These  new  pioneers  faced  many  of  the  same 
hardships  as  earlier  settlers.  There  were  crime  and  illness;  there  were  cold 
winters  and  occasional  Indian  attacks.  In  better  days  there  were  banquets, 
social  club  meetings,  days  spent  kite  flying,  New  Year's  activities.  But 
unlike  those  who  crossed  the  continent  along  the  Oregon  Trail,  the  trials 
and  tribulations  of  the  Chinese  were  almost  never  recorded  so  that  today, 
few  records  remain  of  who  these  immigrants  were  and  what  their  lives 
were  like. 

Chinese  Exclusion  from  Written  Records 

The  exclusion  of  the  Chinese  from  written  records  reflected  their 
exclusion  from  society,  and  was  especially  evident  in  newspapers.  In  those 
days  one  of  the  functions  of  these  four-page  publications,  mostly  weeklies, 
was  to  serve  as  a  social  adhesive  to  keep  readers  informed  about  people 
and  events  in  their  communities.  Even  a  cursory  review  of  early  Oregon 
papers  would  reveal  hundreds  of  items  about  things  such  as  the  size  of  a 
local  farmer's  strawberries  or  the  latest  citizen  to  visit  the  East  Coast. 

But  the  Chinese  were  virtually  absent  from  the  press.  This  was  the 
case  in  Astoria,  a  city  in  which  they  made  up  47.2  percent  of  the  popula- 
tion; in  Grant  County,  where  they  made  up  41.6  percent  of  the  popula- 
tion; in  Baker  City,  where  they  were  24.2  percent;  and  in  Jacksonville, 
where  they  were  18.5  percent.  Perhaps  most  importantly,  an  entire  group 
was  shut  out  of  what  contemporary  journalists  call  the  "marketplace  of 
ideas." 

This  article  examines  the  roots  of  Chinese  immigrants  in  four  19th 
century  communities  and  how  they  were  covered  by  newspapers  of  the 
time.  Sample  periods  for  each  community  were  purposive  and  were 
during  years  when  census  reports  showed  the  largest  Chinese  popula- 
tions. Approximately  100  issues  of  each  paper  were  examined.  Chinese 
surnames  were  used  because  they  are  easily  distinguishable  and  seldom 
"Americanized."1 

The  Chinese  Lured  by  Gold 

Gold,  historians  agree,  was  what  brought  the  first  Chinese  to 
Oregon,  just  as  it  had  lured  them  to  the  now-fabled  California  "gum  san," 


60  Chiu- Winter  1999 


or  gold  mountain  in  1848.  According  to  Robert  Edward  Wynne's  history 
of  Chinese  in  the  Pacific  Northwest,  the  first  Chinese  arrived  from 
California  shortly  after  gold  was  discovered  in  Southern  Oregon's  Rogue 
and  Umpqua  valleys  in  1852.2  Along  with  the  Chinese  miners  came  the 
discrimination  that  was  to  plague  them  for  generations. 

"It  is  not  surprising,"  writes  Wynne,  "that  the  latter  should  have 
experienced  the  hostility  of  white  miners  in  Oregon  Territory.  There  were 
many  settlers  from  the  southern  states  who  brought  with  them  feelings  of 
dislike  for  a  colored  man  be  he  Negro  or  Chinese."3 Then,  relates  Wynne, 
other  ways  were  found  to  discourage  the  Chinese.  In  1857,  a  $2  per 
month  mining  tax  was  levied  on  them.  The  tax  was  doubled  in  1858, 
along  with  the  imposition  of  a  $4  per  month  tax  on  Chinese  merchants. 
Jackson  and  Josephine  counties  also  required  Chinese  trading  among 
themselves  to  purchase  a  $50  per  year  license. 

However,  these  measures  did  not  dampen  the  lure  of  the  gold 
mountain.  According  to  Wynne,  by  1858  there  were  more  than  1,000 
Chinese  in  Josephine  County.4  Laws  restricting  the  Chinese  differed  with 
the  locality,  according  to  Wynne.  For  example,  they  were  permitted  to 
purchase  mining  claims  at  Wolf  Creek.  Likewise,  Jackass  Creek  was  what 
author  V.  Blue  in  1922  dubbed  a  "cosmopolitan  area  with  many  French 
and  Chinese  miners."5  But  at  Humbug  Creek,  Chinese  were  prohibited 
from  buying— or  even  working— mining  claims.  Curiously,  writes  Wynne, 
after  Oregon  became  a  state  in  1859  its  legislature  levied  a  $5  poll  tax  on 
the  Chinese  even  though  they  were  prohibited  from  voting. 

Chinese  miners  also  suffered  at  the  hands  —  and  boots  —  of  their 
white  counterparts.  According  to  Wynne,  "An  Army  captain  who  traveled 
through  Oregon's  mining  regions  in  1862  observed  that  the  valleys 
showed  Chinese  miners  '  .  .  .  moving  from  one  mining  locality  to  the 
next,  fleeing  from  the  kicks  of  one  to  the  cuffs  of  another,  with  no  abiding 
place.'"6 

The  curtain  of  discrimination  lifted  partially  in  1864  when  the 
legislature  repealed  the  anti-Chinese  laws.  But  it  immediately  imposed  a 
$4  per  quarter  mining  tax  on  the  Chinese  and  banned  them  from  giving 
evidence  or  taking  legal  action  against  Caucasians.  Wynne  writes  that  the 
pressure  on  the  Chinese,  at  least  in  Southern  Oregon,  eased  somewhat 
after  the  late  1850s  because  much  richer  gold  strikes  were  made  on  the 
upper  stretches  of  the  Columbia  River  in  Washington  Territory  and  on 
the  Fraser  River  in  Canada. 

In  1861  and  1862  strikes  were  also  made  in  Baker  and  Grant 
counties  in  Northeast  Oregon.  Chinese  miners,  like  whites,  became 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  61 


afflicted  with  the  fever  for  a  bigger  pot  of  gold  and  headed  north  along 
with  droves  of  other  fortune  seekers.  Many  must  have  decided  to  stay  in 
Northeast  Oregon. 

The  Tenth  Census  of  the  United  States  shows  that  in  1 870  a  total  of 
940  Chinese  lived  in  Grant  County,  mostly  in  the  John  Day  -  Canyon 
City  area,  even  though  some  probably  prospected  in  outlying  camps  such 
as  Granite.  In  Baker  County  the  population  centered  around  Baker  City. 
A  story  from  the  Bedrock  Democrat,  the  town's  weekly  paper  at  the  time, 
indicates  a  substantial  number  of  Chinese  also  mined  in  Sumpter,  now 
mostly  abandoned. 

John  Day  and  Baker  City  also  hosted  "Chinatowns."  In  John  Day 
this  was  a  block-long  section  that  included  a  store  and  worshiping  temple. 
Today,  these  are  memorialized  as  the  Kam  Wah  Chung  State  Historical 
Park. 

Few  Traces  Remain  of  the  Chinese  Population 

Not  much  other  evidence  remains  of  the  Chinese  who  played  so 
large  a  part  in  the  economy  of  early  Eastern  Oregon.  Most  of  them  left: 
with  the  depletion  of  the  mines  and  the  torrent  of  anti-Chinese  feeling 
that  inundated  the  West  in  the  mid- 1880s.  Some  may  have  moved  to 
other  states  —  rich  strikes  also  had  been  made  in  Idaho  and  Washington. 
Others  may  have  made  their  way  to  Portland,  which  for  two  decades  had 
served  as  a  transit  point  for  Chinese  entering  or  leaving  Oregon. 

In  just  one  month  in  1868,  for  example,  six  ships  arrived  with  1,995 
Chinese  immigrants.7  There  was  protection  in  numbers,  and  later,  with 
the  depletion  of  the  mines,  there  were  also  alternative  opportunities  such 
as  railroad  building.  The  Portland  spur  of  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  was 
completed  almost  exclusively  with  Chinese  labor,  which  caused  the 
Chinese  population  of  The  Dalles,  Oregon,  to  soar  to  almost  1,200 
briefly  in  the  early  1880s.  Chinese  also  helped  lay  tracks  for  the  Oregon  - 
California  line.  Although  the  Portland  area's  Chinese  population  grew,  it 
never  reached  the  proportions  seen  in  Clatsop  County  (47.2  percent  in 
1880);  Grant  County  (41.6  percent  in   1870);  or  Baker  County  (24.2 
percent  in  1870). 

Other  Chinese,  having  made  a  small  fortune-at  least  by  1 870s 
standards-may  have  returned  home.  Census  statistics  show  that  between 
1882  and  1890  a  total  of  1 17,286  Chinese  left  the  United  States.  In  those 
years  80,106  Chinese  arrived,  for  a  net  decrease  of  37, 180. 8 


62  Chiu*  Winter  1999 


Those  who  congregated  in  Portland  may  have  found  their  way  into 
the  salmon-canning  industry,  which  reached  its  economic  high-tide  the 
same  time  that  mining  began  to  decline.  Most  of  the  canneries  used 
contract  laborers  directly  from  San  Francisco  or  Hong  Kong.  Port  listings 
in  The  Daily  Astorian  newspaper  in  1876  and  1877  reveal  arrivals  from 
Hong  Kong  or  Shanghai,  China,  almost  weekly,  with  some  ships  carrying 
hundreds  of  Chinese.  However,  some  contractors  also  recruited  in 
Portland. 

In  Oregon  the  largest  salmon-processing  city  was  Astoria,  which 
boasted  of  14  canneries  by  1880.9  Smaller  concentrations  of  plants  were 
located  at  Westport,  Portland,  Rooster  Rock,  The  Dalles  and  Florence. 
Most  of  the  1,639  Chinese  in  Astoria's  canneries  lived  in  bunkhouses 
behind  waterfront  processing  plants.  The  town  itself  also  supported 
numerous  Chinese  entrepreneurs.  These  Chinese  merchants  included 
restaurateurs,  tailors,  pawnbrokers,  barbers,  clothiers,  gardeners  and 
laundrymen,  according  to  Chris  Fridays  account  of  Asians  in  Astoria's 
canneries.10  Later,  a  second  group  of  plants,  also  with  Chinese  workers, 
opened  a  mile  inland. 

Hours  at  the  canneries  were  long,  rewards  meager.  Friday  writes  that 
pay  for  the  Chinese-even  those  who  had  worked  their  way  up  to  the  most 
important  positions  of  butchering  and  can  testing— was  lower  than  the 
$36  a  month  railroad  workers  earned.  Meals  were  served  in  a  common 
mess  hall,  but  contractors  who  did  the  hiring  were  responsible  for  supply- 
ing provisions  and  hiring  cooks.  Protein  frequently  consisted  only  of 
scraps  from  the  production  lines.  To  supplement  their  diets,  it  wasn't 
uncommon  for  workers  to  cultivate  vegetable  gardens  and  catch  shellfish 
in  their  spare  time.  Often  the  gardens  were  operated  by  the  contractor  for 
a  profit. 

A  Wall  of  Racial  Bias 

Life  in  Astoria  was  undoubtedly  better  than  at  rural  plants,  where 
conditions  were  more  primitive.  In  Astoria,  as  in  the  rest  of  Oregon  and 
indeed,  the  nation,  nearly  100  percent  of  the  Chinese  were  male."  Many 
of  those  who  arrived  during  the  initial  wave  had  planned  to  make  a  quick 
fortune  and  return  home  to  marry.  Others,  who  already  had  families,  came 
to  the  United  States  in  an  attempt  to  better  support  them.  All  Chinese 
were  prohibited  from  entering  the  United  States  by  the  1882  Exclusion 
Act,  so  for  those  not  already  attached,  life  could  be  quite  lonely. 

The  result  was  a  Chinese  population  that,  unable  to  regenerate, 
plummeted  until,  by  1930,  only  164  remained  in  Clatsop  County,  and 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  63 


only  11  in  Grant  County.  In  Multnomah  County,  only  1,471  remained 
out  of  a  total  population  of  338,241. 

The  biggest  restrictions  on  the  Chinese,  however,  were  not  cultural. 
For  wherever  they  worked,  whether  in  rural  plants  or  in  city  canneries, 
they  faced  a  wall  of  racial  bias.  "The  prejudice  of  European  American 
residents,  added  to  the  canners'  placement  of  bunkhouses,"  writes  Friday, 
"severely  restricted  Chinese  settlement  patterns."  Indeed,  the  editor  of  the 
Weekly  Astorian  newspaper  on  May  23,  1879,  wrote  that  "...  we  cannot 
possibly  colonize  the  Chinese  in  any  one  place  in  the  city,  but  it  should  be 
done  if  possible  .  .  .  .  "12 

Friday  and  newspapers  of  the  period  agree  that  anti-Chinese  fervor 
in  Astoria  and  other  Oregon  communities  was  more  muted  than  in  the 
Northwest  in  general.  There  was  an  Anti  -  Chinese  Society  in  Astoria  to 
which  many  leading  citizens  belonged.  But  there  was  a  marked  absence  of 
violence.  This  may  have  been  because  even  the  most  ardent  chinophobes 
realized  that  the  town's  canneries  could  not  operate  without  the  Chinese. 
Thus,  the  Chinese  in  Astoria,  as  in  other  parts  of  the  state,  were  viewed  as 
not  much  more  than  a  necessary  evil. 

Hostility  to  the  North  and  South 

Sentiments  were  not  so  muffled  among  Oregon's  neighbors,  how- 
ever. According  to  historian  Elmer  Clarence  Sandmeyer,  in  California  the 
Chinese  were  prohibited  from  working,  banned  from  living  in  incorpo- 
rated cities  and  denied  the  rights  to  own  land  or  vote  along  with  "idiots, 
insane  persons  and  persons  convicted  of  infamous  crimes  or  of  the 
embezzlement  of  public  money."13Then,  about  the  same  time  as  the 
September  1885  attack  in  Rock  Springs,  Wyoming,  where  "more  than  a 
score"  of  Chinese  were  killed,  anti-Chinese  riots  took  place  in  more  than  a 
dozen  California  towns. 14 

About  150  miles  north  of  Astoria,  opponents  of  the  Chinese  staged 
riots  in  Tacoma,  Squak  Valley  (now  Issaquah),  Black  Diamond,  Seattle 
and  a  handful  of  other  locales.  The  most  extreme  measures  were  seen 
during  1885  and  1886  in  Tacoma  and  Seattle,  where  the  Chinese  were 
evicted  from  their  homes  and  forced  onto  trains  or  ships  out  of  the  city. 
In  both  cities,  local  newspapers  printed  a  series  of  vitriolic  anti  -  Chinese 
editorials.15 

It  is  against  this  backdrop  that  the  stage  is  set  for  an  examination  of 
the  coverage  four  early  Oregon  newspapers  gave  to  their  local  Chinese 
populations.  Findings  show  that  the  community  papers  in  Grant  County, 


64  Chiu-  Winter  1999 


Baker  City,  Astoria  and  Jacksonville  reflected  the  biases  of  white  popula- 
tions.  On  a  few  occasions,  they  even  choreographed  anti  -  Chinese 
sentiment  and  activities. 

Immigrants  Were  Anonymous 

Newspaper  coverage  of  the  Chinese  in  frontier  Oregon  was  skimpy,  at 
best.  When  it  did  occur  these  immigrants  were  anonymous,  faceless,  and 
portrayed  as  sub-human,  at  least  as  far  as  the  press  was  concerned.  With  a 
few  exceptions  newspapers  of  the  period  did  not  refer  to  them  by  name. 
They  were  simply  "Chinamen,"  "John  Chinaman"  or  "celestials."16 

In  some  cases  more  derogatory  terms  such  as  "pigtails"  or  "celestial 
brutes"  were  employed.  The  Morning  Oregonian  in  1865  had  referred  to 
Oregon's  newly  arrived  Chinese  as  "filthy  and  abominable,"  and  a  year 
later  called  them  "long-tailed,  moon-eyed  nuisances"  and  "filthy  rats."17 

According  to  Wynne,  the  paper  with  Harvey  Scott  at  its  helm  was 
ardently  Chinophobic  until  1 867.  Wynne  writes  that  when  Californians 
began  a  "fierce  anti  -  Chinese  campaign  the  Morning  Oregonian  realized 
that  the  employers  of  Chinese  belonged  to  both  political  parties;  the 
Democrats  insisted  that  only  Republicans  did  such  wicked  things.  Next, 
the  editor  discovered  that  white  labor  was  not  available  for  domestic 
service  or  for  railroad  construction,  the  latter  problem  occupying  the 
minds  of  Oregonians  very  much  just  then. 

"Slowly,"  Wynne  writes,  "the  great  newspaper  began  to  look  at  the 
Chinese  less  contemptuously  and  defended  the  proposed  use  of  Chinese 
labor  by  the  Oswego  Iron  Company  a  few  miles  up  the  Willamette  River. 
The  editor  now  explained  that  the  company  had  to  compete  with  Eastern 
firms  that  used  pauper  labor  which,  presumably,  was  only  a  step  removed 
from  coolie  labor."18 

Despite  its  venomous  language,  the  Morning  Oregonian  probably 
played  a  smaller  role  in  the  history  of  the  Chinese  in  Oregon  than  other 
papers  because  Portland's  Chinese  population  was  more  transitory,  and 
comprised  a  much  smaller  percentage  than  in  towns  such  as  Astoria.  But 
the  degree  of  invective  in  the  Portland  paper  was  a  good  example  of  the 
extent  of  anti  -  Chinese  fervor  during  the  period. 

Headlines  in  the  1870s  and  1880s  were  usually  nothing  more  than 
upper-case  letters  on  the  first  line  of  a  story,  and  frequently  were  used  to 
editorialize.  In  one  blatant  example  the  words  "Good  Chinamen"  were 
used  for  two  April  26,  1882  Baker  City  stories  about  incidents  in  which 
two  Chinese  were  killed  and  one  injured. 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  65 


Similarly,  opinion  and  fact  were  often  blended  in  copy.  When 
Chinese  miners  were  involved  in  an  accident,  for  example,  it  was  not 
uncommon  to  find  comments  such  as  "It's  a  pity  they  were  only  injured." 

Chinese  Conspicious  by  Their  Absence 

Previous  literature  has  shown  that  historians  disagree  on  the  reasons 
the  Chinese  were  so  poorly  treated,  and  that  none  apparently  explored 
whether  this  vilification  was  intentional.  Reasons  and  intent,  however, 
seem  less  important  than  the  fact  that  omission  of  the  Chinese  erased  an 
important  part  of  Oregon's  history.  It  was  not  until  well  after  World  War 
II  that  a  new  group  of  Chinese  students  was  able  to  parlay  educational 
advances  into  improved  coverage.  Even  then,  coverage  and  amount  of  bias 
were  uneven.  As  late  as  1963,  for  example,  The  Oregonian  used  the  word 
"celestial"  in  a  banner  headline. 

But  whatever  else  can  be  said,  during  the  19th  century  the  papers  in 
Canyon  City,  Baker  City,  Astoria  and  Jacksonville  shared  one  attribute — 
they  shunned  the  Chinese.  Degree  of  anti  -  Chinese  sentiment,  rather 
than  difference,  was  what  separated  their  coverage  when  indeed  it  did 
occur. 

The  Oregon  Sentinel  Covers  "Celestials" 

The  Oregon  Sentinel  in  Jacksonville,  a  weekly,  provided  only  sparse 
coverage  of  the  Chinese  who  immigrated  to  Southern  Oregon  in  the 
1 860s  even  though  they  comprised  as  much  as  1 8  percent  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Josephine  and  Jackson  counties.19  Only  14  stories  concerning  the 
Chinese  population  appeared  in  the  paper  during  1866-70.  But  the 
Sentinel  would  finish  No.  1  if  vehemence  of  anti-Chinese  rhetoric  rather 
than  volume  of  coverage  were  measured. 

Some  items  demonstrated  the  paper's  strong  anti  -  Chinese  stance  by 
mocking  their  subjects.  For  example,  a  Feb.  24,  1866  story  reported  that 
a  "near  relation  of  the  Sun  and  Moon,"  after  experiencing  language 
difficulties  at  the  telegraph  office,  left  with  a  poor  impression  of  the 
"Mellican."  Stories  employed  such  a  tone  even  when  the  subject  was 
serious.  On  April  7  of  that  year,  the  lead-in  "Damaged  Celestial"  was  used 
to  introduce  a  story  describing  a  Chinese  who  drank  camphor  after  being 
jailed  for  tax  evasion.  Yet  a  third  example  occurred  February  29,  1868. 
That  report  told  of  how  a  Chinese  called  at  a  local  household  asking  if  a 
"cookee"  were  needed.  The  answer  was  "No,"  but  the  inquirer  apparently 
stole  $80  before  departing. 


66  Chiu- Winter  1999 


The  most  blatant  example  of  the  paper's  and  -  Chinese  sentiments 
occurred  on  May  23,  1868  in  a  local  editorial.  The  paper  agreed  with  the 
Democrats'  opposition  to  the  Chinese,  and  declared  that,  "Nothing  could 
so  much  damage  and  degrade  the  labor  interests  of  Oregon  as  the  intro- 
duction of  those  yellow  vermin." 

Other  stories  on  February  8,  1868  and  February  22,  1868  reported 
on  Chinese  involved  in  a  robbery  and  an  assault.  In  an  item  involving  the 
latter,  a  Chinese  convicted  of  burglary  was  reported  to  have  carefully 
sculpted  a  handle  into  a  heavy  piece  of  wood,  which  he  used  to  club  a 
cellmate  on  the  head.  In  addition,  an  item  on  March  3,  1866,  in  which 
the  editor  admitted  forgetting  to  report  three  Chinese  had  drowned  in 
Cow  Creek  "three  weeks  ago"  suggested  that  the  Chinese  weren't  consid- 
ered part  of  the  community. 

Three  stories  of  the  14  in  the  sample  were  relatively  "neutral."  In 
other  words,  Chinese  were  portrayed  doing  things  other  people  would 
normally  do.  The  first  example  occurred  on  Jan.  27,  1 866,  when  readers 
were  informed  that  area  Chinese  had  converged  on  the  town  for  a  cere- 
mony that  was  "mysterious  and  unintelligible  enough  to  the  unini-  tiated 
to  belong  to  the  mysteries  of  the  ancient  Greek."  However,  in  an  apparent 
contradiction,  the  story  concluded  by  reporting  that  the  ceremony  "very 
much  resembled  an  auction  sale."  One  could  assume  from  the  date  that 
this  event  marked  the  Chinese  New  Year.  But  the  story  didn't  say. 

Then,  on  February  8  of  that  year,  a  matter-of-factly  written  item 
indicated  a  local  Chinese  had  a  broken  leg  set  by  a  Dr.  Greenman.  It's 
unknown  whether  it  would  have  been  unusual  for  a  Chinese  resident  to 
visit  a  Caucasian  doctor  in  Jacksonville  in  1866.  However,  the  story  seems 
to  indicate  that  at  the  time  the  Chinese  were  still  a  curiosity.  The  paper 
did  not,  for  example,  report  the  setting  of  Caucasian  patients'  broken  legs. 
Finally,  on  Feb.  27,  1 870,  the  paper  noted  that  area  Chinese  often  flew 
kites  in  their  leisure  time,  and  were  highly  skilled  at  the  practice. 

Grant  County  Papers  Rarely  Mention  the  Chinese 

Grant  County  hosted  three  weekly  papers— the  Grant  County  Express, 
Grant  County  Times  and  Grant  County  News.  The  first  two  were  short- 
lived. The  Express  published  for  two  weeks,  March  18  and  25,  1876,  and 
the  Times  only  on  March  26,  1877,  after  which  the  News  took  over. 

The  first  two  papers'  brief  lives  were  not  surprising.  Frontier  editors, 
like  prospectors,  went  wherever  the  "gold"  was.  And  if  the  gold  became 
more  plentiful  elsewhere,  the  editors  left  along  with  their  presses. 

What  was  surprising  was  that  between  1876  and  1884,  the  years 
during  which  the  county's  papers  were  studied,  there  were  only  five 

Winter  1999  "  American  Journalism  67 


stories  about  the  Chinese  in  Eastern  Oregon.  The  1 870  census  showed 
940  of  Grant  County's  population  of  2,251,  or  41.6  percent,  were 
Chinese.  In  1880,  the  numbers  were  905  out  of  3,384,  or  26.6  percent.  It 
would  have  been  expected  that  a  far  larger  number  of  the  names  in  the 
three  papers  would  have  been  Chinese.  Instead,  the  Chinese  were  rarely 
mentioned. 

Perhaps  the  invisibility  of  Grant  County's  Chinese  could  account  for 
the  unusually  low  number.  Many  mined  in  outlying  towns  such  as 
Granite  or  prospected  in  rural  areas.  In  addition,  the  county's  papers  did 
not  publish  continuously,  resulting  in  fewer  stories.  But  even  in  view  of 
this,  five  in  eight  years  would  be  an  amazingly  low  number. 

When  the  Chinese  did  make  it  into  Grant  County's  papers  they 
were  cast  in  a  negative  light  and  remained  unnamed.  For  example,  the 
Grant  County  Express  on  March   18,  1876,  published  a  story  with  the 
lead-in,  "Gold  Watch  Found."  It  became  clear  that  Mr.  E.  E.  Turk,  a  local 
resident,  lost  a  "valuable  gold  watch  three  years  ago."  The  watch  was 
found,  according  to  the  story,  in  the  possession  of  a  "Chinaman"  who  was 
"slow  to  part  with  it."  But  in  the  end,  it  was  recovered  through  some 
unspecified  means.     In  another  flagrant  case  of  anti-Chinese  editorializ- 
ing, the  lead-in  "Well-Planted"  was  chosen  for  a  May  26,  1 877  Grant 
County  Times  story  about  a  Chinese  miner  buried  alive  in  a  cave-in  at 
Sumpter. 

The  tone  of  the  stories  sometimes  varied  with  the  paper.  The  March 
25,  1876  Grant  County  Express,  for  example,  reported  two  Chinese 
renting  a  mine  from  a  white,  and  on  March  6,  1884,  the  Grant  County 
Times  matter-of-factly  reported  the  funeral  of  a  Chinese  resident  of  John 
Day.  The  one-paragraph  obituary  provided  few  details  and  did  not 
identify  the  deceased. 

In  perhaps  the  most  absurd  example,  a  story  in  the  April  24,  1884 
Grant  County  Times  reported  that  a  Chinese  laundry  had  burned  to  the 
ground  in  Canyon  City.  The  story  focused  on  the  fire  department's  quick 
work  but  said  nothing  else  about  the  laundry.  Who  was  the  owner?  Was 
he  injured?  What  was  the  amount  of  property  loss?  The  story  gave  no 
clues  to  the  answers  to  these  questions.  Curiously,  the  fire  department  was 
enthusiastically  congratulated  for  its  efficiency. 

Bedrock  Democrat  Gives  More  Coverage  to  the  Chinese 

Baker  City's  four-page  weekly,  the  Bedrock  Democrat,  provided 
generally  negative  coverage  of  the  Chinese  just  as  its  Grant  County 
counterparts  did.  However,  it  also  contained  the  largest  number  of 


68  Chiu«  Winter  1999 


"positive"  or  "neutral"  stories  of  the  four  papers  in  the  study.  But  the 
number  probably  remains  insignificant  if  the  length  of  the  sample  period 
and  Baker  City's  Chinese  population  (680  out  of  2,804,  or  24.2  percent 
in  1870  and  787  out  of  3,817,  or  20.5  percent  in  1880)  are  taken  into 
account. 

In  seven  four-month  periods  from  1873-1882,  the  Democrat 
contained  23  stories  about  local  Chinese,  six  of  which  were  "neutral"  or 
even  slightly  "positive."  On  January  28,  1874,  for  example,  a  story 
matter-of-factly  reported  that  a  Chinese  store  at  Mormon  Basin  had  been 
robbed.  However,  it  also  indicated  that  opium  was  taken.  This  was 
followed  on  April  8,  1874  by  another  matter-of-factly  written  story  that 
reported  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Connor  Creek  by  Chinese  prospectors, 
and  by  two  other  mining  stories  in  1878. 

The  first  story,  on  February  13,  1878,  reported  that  the  Griffin's 
Gulch  mine  eight  miles  west  of  Baker  City  was  now  owned  by  Chinese, 
and  yielded  $5  per  day.  Griffin's  Gulch  was  where  gold  was  discovered  in 
Baker  County  in  1861.  The  second  story,  two  weeks  later  on  February 
27,  1878,  was  a  summary  of  county  mining  activity  that  mentioned 
Chinese  ownership. 

Four  years  later,  on  February  22,  1882,  an  item  in  the  "Bedrock 
Nuggets,"  the  papers  local  -  briefs  column,  indicated  that  Chinese  in  the 
town  had  begun  to  celebrate  Chinese  New  Year.  A  second  story  reported 
that  the  Chinese  ushered  in  the  new  year  with  "the  firing  of  fire  crackers, 
offerings  to  the  spirits,  lancantations,  prayers  etc.  A  Chinaman  informed  us 
that  their  festivities  continued  as  long  as  their  money  lasted."  Though  the 
stories  did  not  openly  attack  the  Chinese,  reference  to  the  "spirits"  and 
celebrating  until  funds  were  exhausted  made  them  appear  mysterious  and 
foolish. 

The  only  story  in  which  the  name  of  a  Chinese  was  used  was  on 
April  24,  1874,  when  the  Bedrock  Democrat  reported  that  Gee  Sing,  a 
local  merchant,  had  died  and  left  what  was  in  those  days  a  princely  sum  of 
$2,000  to  his  wife.    The  Bedrock  Democrat  did,  however,  print  its  share  of 
stories  which,  whether  by  design  or  not,  reinforced  a  negative  image  of 
the  Chinese.  One  such  example,  on  January  14,  1880,  told  of  two 
Chinese  who  snuck  into  a  hotel  room  without  paying.  In  a  similar  vein, 
the  paper  reported  on  March  10,  1880  that  the  marshal  was  "making  it 
red  hot"  for  Chinese  evading  the  city's  laundry  tax  by  throwing  them  in 
jail. 

Another  story  in  the  March  31,  1880  paper  told  of  a  La  Grande 
resident's  Chinese  servant.  But  a  bold  headline  above  the  story  read,  "Mac 
and  His  Pet  Chinaman,"  which  made  the  Chinese  sound  like  a  dog  or 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  69 


other  household  animal.  That  was  followed  on  April  28,  1880  by  a  report 
of  a  new  gambling  game  in  Baker  City's  Chinatown  that  attracted  the 
"heathens." 

Like  the  papers  in  Jacksonville  and  Grant  County,  the  Bedrock 
Democrat  also  launched  direct  assaults  on  the  Chinese.  On  March  17, 
1880,  it  included  in  its  news  section  an  editorial  stating  that  "It  is  a  pity 
that  low  fares  to  the  East  could  not  have  been  kept  a  little  longer  so  that 
the  Mongolians  could  have  a  chance  to  exit."  Stronger  language  was  used 
on  April  5,  1876  to  report  a  shooting  incident  at  Auburn  between  two 
Chinese,  neither  of  whom  was  injured.  The  story  concluded:  "Unfortu- 
nately, they  both  escaped  with  their  lives." 

The  Daily  Astorian  Highlights  Chinese  Criminals 

Demographics  would  seem  to  indicate  that  Astoria's  daily  paper,  one 
of  the  state's  first,  should  have  taken  the  lead  in  covering  the  town's 
Chinese.  After  all,  in  1880  a  total  of  2,317— or  47.2  percent— of  Clatsop 
County's  residents  were  Chinese.  And  unlike  Grant,  Baker  and  Jackson 
counties,  where  the  Chinese  population  was  scattered,  Clatsop  County's 
Chinese  were  concentrated  in  Astoria. 

So  a  substantial  number  of  names  in  the  paper  should  have  been 
Chinese.  But  the  108  issues  sampled  between  1876  and  1877  contained 
only  22  stories  about  local  Chinese.  In  addition,  not  once  was  a  Chinese 
resident  named  except  on  August  14,  1877,  in  the  Circuit  Court  docket 
published  in  the  paper  and  on  August  29,  1877,  when  judgments  in  two 
lawsuits  and  verdicts  in  three  criminal  cases  were  listed. 

In  Hop  Chung  v.  Chung  Hing,  the  lawsuit  was  dismissed,  with  the 
defendant  paying  court  costs.  Wong  Sam  v.  Chin  Ah  Ung,  on  the  other 
hand,  resulted  in  a  judgment  for  the  defendants  with  costs  being  paid  by 
the  plaintiff.  In  the  criminal  case  State  v.  Chung  Sing  and  nine  others 
charged  with  assault  with  a  deadly  weapon,  Sing  You  was  found  guilty 
and  fined  $50  and  costs.  There  was  no  mention  of  the  fate  of  the  other 
defendants,  however.  State  v.  Chung  Ah  Yem  was  dismissed  on  motion  of 
the  prosecutor,  and  State  v.  Chin  Wot  resulted  in  a  hung  jury.   One  other 
listing,  Louis  Park  v.  Chung  Hong,  deserves  mention  because  the  parties 
were  ordered  to  give  testimony  to  O.  E  Bell  who,  according  to  the  June  9, 
1 876  paper,  had  been  elected  vice  president  of  the  city's  Anti  -  Chinese 
Society.20 

For  the  most  part,  The  Daily  Astorian,  a  six-day- a-week  paper  that 
published  Tuesday  through  Sunday,  treated  the  town's  Chinese  as  if  they 
didn't  exist.  Though  they  were  an  integral  part  of  the  town's  economy, 


70  Chiu- Winter  1999 


they  were  frequently  blamed  for  all  of  Astoria's  economic  ills.  Indeed,  on 
May  3,  1876,  an  editorial  declared  that  the  Chinese  ".  .  .  pauperize  white 
people  wherever  they  go." 

More  frequently,  the  paper  made  efforts  to  make  them  seem  unintel- 
ligent or  dishonest,  or  mock  them.  On  May  8,  1876,  for  example,  a  story 
reported  that  a  new  machine  at  Booth's  Cannery  could  attach  labels  at  a 
rate  of  1,000  per  hour.  The  last  sentence  of  the  story  read,  "Apropos  the 
imitative  genius  of  the  Chinaman,  it  was  curious  to  note  how  readily  a 
heathen  mastered  the  intricacies  of  this  really  complicated  machine."  The 
implication  was  that  the  Chinese  could  imitate,  but  not  think.  Just  short 
of  two  weeks  later,  on  May  20,  1876,  the  paper  reported  that,  "Two 
heathenish  celestial  brutes  had  been  jailed  for  a  shameful  and  intolerable 
nuisance  in  open  day  time."  However,  it  did  not  describe  what  this 
"nuisance"  was.  In  another  story  that  focused  on  illegal  activity,  the  town 
deputy  marshal  was  reported  on  June  22,  1 877  to  have  escorted  two 
Chinese  to  Portland,  presumably  to  jail,  for  selling  whisky  without  a 
license. 

Stories  about  how  to  deal  with  Chinese  were  also  frequently  seen. 
On  May  16,   1876,  for  example,  residents  were  advised  to  use  "red  hot 
pokers,  cayenne  pepper  and  clubs"  if  Chinese  workers  went  on  strike.  But 
just  a  month  later,  on  June  14,  the  paper  issued  an  apparently  contradic- 
tory editorial  when  it  cautioned  Astorians  to  restrict  themselves  to  non- 
violent methods  when  expelling  Chinese,  "lest  men  of  clear  minds  with 
pure  purposes  are  made  to  appear  in  a  role  not  at  all  suited  to  their  cause." 
Chinese  also  were  reported  to  be  inept  at  simple  tasks  such  as  transporting 
wood  (August  2,  1877);  and  a  Chinese  with  a  cut  was  reported  to  have 
been  treated  by  a  doctor  using  a  "garden  hose"  (August  10,  1877). 

Most  of  the  other  stories  concerned  incidents  such  as  strikes  or 
accidents.  For  example,  the  May  4,  1 876  paper  reported  that  Chinese  at 
the  Booth's  and  Badollett  canneries  had  refused  to  work  without  a  $2  a 
month  increase,  but  abandoned  their  strike  after  just  a  few  hours.  And  a 
Chinese  at  Kinney's  was  reported  on  June  22,  1 977  to  have  lost  "one  or 
two  fingers"  to  a  tin-cutting  machine.  Thus,  it  seemed  odd  that  on  July 
17,  1877,  The  Daily  Astorian  reported  that  J.  N.  Armstrong,  a  prominent 
resident,  invited  the  town's  elite  to  admire  a  collection  of  Oriental  art  he 
had  just  brought  back  from  Peking. 

Two  of  the  only  mildly  "neutral"  stories  were  on  June  12,  1876  and 
July  6,  1 877  about  the  opening  of  a  Chinese  lodge  and  takeover  by 
Chinese  of  a  slaughterhouse.  But  some  bias  was  apparent  even  in  these. 
The  lodge  item  referred  to  the  founder  as  a  "white-haired  descendant  of 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  71 


Confucius."  The  other  story  reported  that  a  "gang"  of  Chinese  was 
operating  what  once  was  the  Bergman  and  Berry  facility,  but  that  they 
made  "a  great  deal  more  stink." 

The  paper  contained  dozens  of  stories  about  meetings  of  other 
fraternal  organizations.  These  usually  included  details  of  the  business 
transacted  and  the  members  who  attended. 

Chinese  Invisibility 

Aside  from  coverage  of  routine  news,  two  events  occurred  that  were 
sufficiently  cataclysmic  and  close  enough  to  the  Astoria  and  Baker  City  - 
Canyon  City  areas  that  they  should  have  received  major  coverage  from 
papers  in  those  cities.21  These  were  the  exclusion  of  Chinese  from  Tacoma 
and  Seattle  in  1885  and  1886  and  the  Snake  River  massacre  on  the 
Oregon  -  Idaho  border  in  June  1887.  As  many  as  3,000  Puget  Sound  - 
area  Chinese  had  sought  refuge  in  Astoria  starting  in  October  1885-22 
That  would  have  meant  about  5,300  Chinese  in  Clatsop  County,  mainly 
in  Astoria,  to  about  2,500  whites,  a  frightful  scenario  for  a  county  that 
blamed  the  Chinese  for  all  of  its  economic  ills. 

Yet  between  September  1,  1885  and  February  20,  1886  The  Daily 
Astorian  printed  only  one  paragraph,  on  October  1 6,  about  the  flood  of 
refugees,  while  at  the  same  time  using  20  stories  about  region-wide  anti- 
Chinese  meetings  and  firing  of  Chinese,  and  departures  of  Chinese  on 
Pacific  steamers.  It  would  be  difficult  to  believe  the  paper  didn't  know 
Chinese  were  streaming  into  the  city.  It  seems  more  likely,  at  least  in  this 
case,  that  the  omission  was  intentional.  Perhaps  the  paper  hoped  that,  if 
ignored,  this  "problem"  would  go  away. 

In  the  second  event,  seven  whites  attacked  a  camp  at  Log  Cabin  Bar 
on  the  Snake  River,  murdered  1 0  Chinese  miners,  and  stole  about 
$10,000  in  gold  dust.  Four  of  the  seven  were  ultimately  arrested;  one  died 
in  jail.  The  three  who  remained  in  custody  were  tried  beginning  May  1 5, 
1888,  and  found  not  guilty  on  September  1.  The  trial  took  place  in  Baker 
City.    It  would  have  been  expected  that  because  of  the  depth  of  anti- 
Chinese  feeling,  the  relevance  of  mining  to  the  Canyon  City  area,  and  its 
proximity  to  the  trial  site,  the  Grant  County  News  would  have  at  least 
mentioned  the  start  of  the  proceedings  or  their  result,  but  between  May 
15  and  July  26,  1888  it  uttered  not  a  word  on  the  topic. 

Distance  apparently  could  not  have  been  a  reason  for  the  omission. 
In  the  10  weeks  after  the  start  of  the  trial,  pages  of  the  News  contained, 
among  others,  stories  about  a  circus  in  Baker  City;  a  man  convicted  in 


72  Chiu- Winter  1999 


Pendleton  for  biting  off  another's  nose  in  a  bar  room  brawl;  and  a  man 
who  was  hanged  in  Portland  for  murdering  and  dismembering  his 
stepdaughter. 

And  during  the  month  following  the  acquittal  the  paper  printed 
several  stories  from  Baker  City  and  other  distant  parts  of  the  state. 
Subjects  included  the  return  of  the  Grant  County  clerk  from  Baker  City; 
a  "disastrous  fire"  there  the  week  of  Sept.  6;  and  the  beginning  of  the 
rebuilding  process.  There  was  also  an  item  indicating  that  500  patients 
now  resided  at  the  state  mental  hospital  in  Salem.  Perhaps  the  most  telling 
evidence  occurred  on  July  12,  1888,  when  the  paper  reported  the  gunshot 
killing  of  a  white  miner  on  the  Snake  River.  Apparently,  the  killing  of  a 
white  miner  was  more  important  "news"  than  the  trial  of  suspects  in  the 
robbery  and  killing  of  10  Chinese  miners. 

Issues  of  the  Bedrock  Democrat  were  not  available  for  the  months 
following  the  murders  or  the  trial.  However,  another  paper,  the  Baker 
County  Reveille,  was  available  for  the  six  weeks  after  the  murders.  The 
Reveille  reported  the  incident  on  June  29,  which  would  not  be  considered 
an  unreasonable  delay  considering  the  fact  that  Baker  City  is  75  miles 
from  the  Oregon  -  Idaho  border.  But  the  initial  report  appeared  as  part  of 
a  story  that  a  team  of  Chinese  investigators  had  been  dispatched  from  San 
Francisco  to  track  down  the  killers. 

This  indirect  dissemination  of  news  would  seem  to  suggest  that  the 
murders  were  common  knowledge  in  Baker  City,  but  for  various  reasons, 
did  not  make  it  into  the  papers  of  the  period. 

Economic  Decline  Fueled  Distrust 

The  most  striking  common  characteristic  of  these  four  papers' 
coverage  of  local  Chinese  was  its  absence.  In  addition  to  the  extremely  low 
number  of  stories  when  population  is  taken  into  consideration,  none  of 
the  papers  included  Chinese  in  listings  of  births,  marriages,  deaths,  or 
society  news.23 

Frontier  papers  served  as  a  social  archive,  providing  a  record  of  the 
culture  and  history  of  a  town.  If  a  town  had  no  paper,  or  one  that  ignored 
a  segment  of  the  population,  it  would  be  more  difficult  to  reconstruct 
part  of  that  segment's  heritage.  The  June  12,  1876  Daily  Astorian  lodge- 
opening  story,  for  example,  did  not  describe  what  kind  of  organization 
was  started,  who  could  join,  where  the  group  met,  or  even  the  name  of 
the  "white-haired  descendant  of  Confucius." 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  73 


Similarly,  ads  for  the  Chinese  physician  Ah  Moo  appeared  weekly  in 
the  Bedrock  Democrat  from  January  1880  to  March  1882,  along  with  reports 
that  the  doctor  had  cured  Caucasian  patients  of  blood  poisoning  and 
diphtheria.  Little  else  is  known  about  Ah  Moo  except  that  he  was  in  Baker 
City  about  two  years  and  cured  at  least  two  patients.  But  what  was  his 
position  in  the  community?  That  information  is  lost  forever.  Also  lost  is  the 
heritage  of  one-fourth  of  the  population  of  1870s  and  1880s  Baker  County. 

It  seems  unlikely,  despite  the  anti  -  Chinese  hysteria  of  the  1870s 
and  1880s,  that  editors  made  a  conscious  effort  to  exclude  the  Chinese 
from  their  newspapers  and  cities.  However,  a  number  of  factors  could 
account  for  the  way  these  early  newspapers  treated  the  Chinese. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  reason  is  racial  bias.  Bias  was  undoubt- 
edly present  because  in  the  late  19th  century,  society  itself  was  racist. 
Evidence  of  anti  -  Chinese  bias  was  seen  in  the  press  and  in  society  in 
the  form  of  discriminatory  laws.  Historian  Robert  Edward  Wynne,  for 
example,  mentioned  bias  in  Jackson  County  mining  laws.  More  re- 
cently, Portland  State  University  professor  Charles  A.  Tracy  took  a  look 
at  discriminatory  laws  and  selective  enforcement  in  Portland,  Oregon, 
that  resulted  in  the  arrests  of  a  disproportionately  large  number  of 
Chinese,24  but  this  alone  would  not  explain  why  early  papers  shunned 
the  Chinese.  As  Wynne  wrote,  at  least  some  editors  initially  welcomed 
the  new  immigrants.25 

Far  more  likely  is  that  the  papers  turned  on  the  Chinese  because  of  a 
combination  of  reasons,  as  Wynne  and  authors  Stuart  Creighton  Miller, 
Ronald  Takaki,  Shih-Shan  Henry  Tsai  and  Sucheng  Chan  suggested.26 
They  seem  to  agree  that  the  economic  declines  of  the  1880s,  exacerbated 
by  racism  and  strange  appearance  and  customs,  turned  the  white  popula- 
tion against  the  Chinese. 

Five  More  Important  Contributing  Factors 

In  addition,  there  are  five  factors  they  did  not  touch  on  but  which 
would  be  integral  to  a  study  of  the  relationship  between  newspapers  and 
immigrants. 

The  first  and  most  important  is  that,  as  Gaye  Tuchman  and  later 
Richard  Lentz  wrote,  editors  (and  for  that  matter  non-editors)  tend  to 
move  in  social  circles  in  which  they  feel  most  comfortable.27  In  frontier 
Oregon,  newspaper  editors  and  publishers  were  usually  among  a  town's 
most  prominent  citizens.  Bedrock  Democrat  publisher  J.  M.  Shepherd,  for 
example,  was  a  Baker  City  lawyer  who  served  as  a  delegate  to  state  politi- 


74  Chiu*  Winter  1999 


cal  conventions.  It  would  appear  that  because  editors  and  publishers  in 
Jacksonville,  Canyon  City,  Baker  City  and  Astoria  were  among  their 
towns'  "movers  and  shakers,"  they  felt  more  comfortable  associating  with, 
and  reporting  the  affairs  of  other  movers  and  shakers. 

On  the  other  hand,  Chinese  miners  or  cannery  workers  also  may 
have  felt  more  at  ease  with  other  Chinese.  They  came  to  the  United  States 
as  sojourners,  hoping  to  make  a  small  fortune  and  in  a  few  years  return 
home  wealthy  by  Chinese,  if  not  American  standards.  As  such,  they  may 
not  have  cared  that  newspapers  of  the  period  ignored  them.  In  addition, 
their  inability  to  speak  English  and  thus,  communicate,  and  their  differ- 
ent appearance  were  undoubtedly  factors  in  the  sparse  attention  they 
received. 

Second,  as  Barbara  Cloud  wrote,  frontier  newspapers  were  fre- 
quently one-man  operations  in  which  the  printer  was  also  editor,  and 
professional  standards  as  we  know  them  today  did  not  exist.  Conse- 
quently, the  editor's  political  leanings  also  became  the  paper's.  This 
apparently  was  true  in  Oregon  as  well  as  in  other  parts  of  the  West.28 

Third,  the  finding  that  the  Chinese  were  rarely  mentioned,  even 
though  surprising,  was  not  inconsistent  with  what  Chilton  R.  Bush  and 
R.K.  Bullock  found  in  1952.  Their  study  of  two  San  Francisco-area  daily 
papers  revealed  that  the  names  of  people  in  different  occupations  do  not 
appear  in  the  news  in  the  same  proportion  as  their  distribution  in  the 
population.29  Thus,  politicians  were  much  more  likely  to  make  it  into 
news  columns  than  plumbers.  The  Chinese  in  early  Oregon,  it  should  be 
remembered,  were  almost  all  laborers  and  servants. 

Fourth,  the  problem  of  focusing  on  whether  silence  is  intentional, 
and  thus  "strategic,"  Lentz  writes,  is  that  doing  so  may  "...  miss  the 
larger  point  cited  by  Monica  B.  Morris  when  discussing  the  lack  of 
coverage  of  the  women's  liberation  movement  during  its  early  days.  The 
absence  of  stories  could  not,  she  said,  "lightly  be  construed  as  a  deliberate 
and  calculated  strategy  of  social  control....  Nonetheless,  ...  the  result  of 
lack  of  coverage  would  be  much  the  same  as  if  it  were  a  deliberate 
strategy:  the  movement  would  remain  unknown  to  the  general  public;  it 
would  be  prevented  from  becoming  news."30 

And  finally,  "Chinese  bashing"  seems  to  have  been  popular  in  the 
late  1 9th  century.  The  movement  toward  fairness— if  not  objectivity— in 
journalism  did  not  begin  until  decades  later,  and  there  certainly  wasn't 
pressure  to  diversify  newsrooms  and  along  with  them  coverage,  in  the 
1870s  and  1880s. 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  75 


Endnotes 

'Chinese  surnames  are,  with  two  exceptions,  always  monosyllabic.  The  exceptions  are  Soohoo  and 
Owyang.  (sometimes  spelled  Ouyang).  Common  examples  of  Chinese  surnames  are  Chiu,  Chen  and 
Wong.  Japanese  surnames,  on  the  other  hand,  are  always  multisyllabic.  Examples  of  Japanese 
surnames  are  Kawasaki,  Yamamoto,  Musashi  and  Honda. 

2Robert  Edward  Wynne,  Reaction  to  the  Chinese  in  the  Pacific  Northwest  and  British  Columbia 
1850-1910  (New  York:  Arno  Press,  1978),  43. 

3Wynne,  43. 

4Wynne,  44.  However,  the  mines  in  Josephine  County  were  depleted  quickly,  and  the  Chinese 
population  there  was  transitory.  The  Ninth  Census  of  the  United  States  shows  that  634  Chinese  lived 
in  Jackson  County,  but  only  223  remained  in  Josephine  County  in  1870. 

5V.  Blue,  "The  Mining  Laws  of  Jackson  County,"  Oregon  Historical  Quarterly,  23,   (1922). 

'Wynne,  45. 

7Port  listings  show  that  in  August  1868  the  Jeanne  Alice  arrived  from  Hong  Kong  with  430 
Chinese.  She  was  followed  shortly  by  the  Edward  James  with  380,  the  Garibaldi  with  210,  the  Alden 
Besse  with  180,  the  Forward  with  330  and  the  Manila  with  425-  The  passengers  on  these  ships 
probably  did  not  remain  in  Portland  for  very  long.  The  Ninth  Census  of  the  United  States  in  1870 
showed  only  508  Chinese  in  the  city.  The  situation  changed  along  with  conditions  in  other  parts  of 
the  state,  however.  The  Eleventh  Census  of  the  United  States  in  1890  showed  that  the  Chinese 
population  of  Portland  had  snowballed  to  5,184,  whereas  the  number  of  Chinese  in  Eastern  Oregon 
dropped  precipitously.  Only  326  remained  in  Grant  County,  and  only  398  in  Baker  County.  In 
Jackson  County,  there  were  only  224  Chinese  in  1 890. 

8Shih-Shan  Henry  Tsai,  The  Chinese  Experience  in  America  (Bloomington,  Ind.:  Indiana  University 
Press,  1986),  194,  from  the  Bureau  of  Census. 

'Chris  Friday,  Organizing  Asian-American  Labor:  The  Pacific  Coast  Canned-Salmon  Industry,  1870- 
1942  (Philadelphia,  Pa.:  Temple  University  Press,  1994),  56. 

'"Friday,  57. 

"Fewer  than  9,000  Chinese  females  entered  the  U.S.  mainland  berween  1852  and  the  enactment 
of  the  1882  Chinese  Exclusion  Law,  according  to  Sucheng  Chan,  Asian  Americans:  An  Interpretive 
History  (Boston:  Twayne  Publishers,  1991),  104.  Chan  estimates  that  during  that  30-  year  period 
there  were  never  more  than  5,000  Chinese  women  in  what  are  now  the  48  contiguous  states  at  any 
one  time. 

"Friday,  57;  from  23  May  1879,  Weekly  Astorian. 

13Elmer  Clarence  Sandmeyer,  The  Anti-Chinese  Movement  in  California  (Urbana,  111.:  University  of 
Illinois  Press,  1939),  57-77. 

,4Other  sources  indicate  the  number  killed  Rock  Springs  was  28.  According  to  Tsai,  China  and  the 
Overseas  Chinese  in  the  United  States,  1868-191 1,  72,  a  total  of  15  were  also  injured  and  $147,000  of 
property  destroyed  in  the  Wyoming  Territory  town  on  2  September  1885-  The  California  towns  were 
Los  Angeles,  San  Francisco,  Red  Bluff,  Yuba  City,  Redding  and  Chico. 

15Jules  Alexander  Karlin,  "Ami  -  Chinese  Outbreak  in  Tacoma,  1885,"  Pacific  Historical  Review,  23 
(1954)271. 

,6The  term  "celestial"  apparently  came  into  use  because  the  Emperor  of  China  was  said  by  the 
Chinese  to  be  the  "Son  of  Heaven."  It  is  now  considered  to  be  derogatory. 

17Wynne,  66;  and  Morning  Oregonian,  17  February  1865,  and  10  July  1 865- 

l8Wynne,  67;  and  Morning  Oregonian,  6  March  1867,  and  10  April  1867. 

"The  Ninth  Census  of  the  United  States,  3,  indicated  that  in  1870  a  total  of  18.1  percent  of  the 
population  of  Josephine  County  and  13  percent  of  the  population  of  Jackson  County  was  Chinese. 

20The  Daily  Astorian,  9  June  1876. 

2  According  to  Richard  Lentz,  "The  Search  for  Strategic  Silence,"  American  Journalism  (Winter 
1991),  13,  "Locating  instances  of  strategic  silence  may  be  accomplished  by  reasoning  from  the 
visibility  of  the  actors;  the  nature  or  circumstances  of  the  event;  the  availability  of  knowledge  to  the 
writer  or  editor;  deviations  from  journalistic  practices;  and  the  characteristics  of  medium,  genre,  or 
particular  media  organization."  An  example  of  this  silence,  he  writes,  was  Newsweek  neglecting  to 


76  Chm«  Winter  1999 


mention  that  Dr.  Martin  Luther  King  Jr.  was  present  when  President  Johnson  signed  the  1965  Voting 
Rights  Act. 

22According  to  Friday,  58,  Astoria  became  a  safe-haven  because  anti-Chinese  feeling  there  never 
turned  violent,  as  it  did  in  numerous  other  cities  in  the  West.  He  quotes  the  Weekly  Astorian  as 
reporting  on  13  February  1886,  that  the  town  became  "a  sort  of  jumping  off  place  .  .  .  and  they 
congregate  here  in  the  same  fashion  and  for  about  the  same  reason  that  they  cluster  in  San   Francisco 
-  because  they  are  driven  off  elsewhere  and  have  no  place  else  to  go."  Further,  many  Astorians 
probably  refrained  from  anti-Chinese  activities  because  they  feared  the  laborers  might  abandon  the 
canneries,  causing  the  local  economy  to  collapse. 

"Exclusion  laws  and  the  "sojourner"  status  of  early  Chinese  immigrants  meant  that  most  of  frontier 
Oregon's  Chinese  were  single  males.  However,  that  would  not  explain  their  almost  total  absence  from 
news  of  record  and  society  columns. 

"Charles  A.  Tracy,  "Race,  Crime  and  Social  Policy:  The  Chinese  in  Oregon,  1871-  1885,"  Crime 
and  Social  Justice,  (Winter  1980),  11.  Tracy  found  that  as  a  result  of  these  laws,  arrests  of  Chinese  for 
"victimless"  crimes  such  as  prostitution,  opium  smoking  and  too  many  people  in  not  enough  space 
were  as  much  as  10  times  higher  than  for  whites.  It  is  unclear  whether  this  adversely  affected  the 
image  of  the  Chinese  because  they  were  excluded  from  newspapers.  Thus,  the  arrests  did  not  become 
public  knowledge. 

25Wynne,  iv. 

2'Stuart  Creighton  Miller,  The  Unwelcome  Immigrant:  The  American  Image  of  the  Chinese,  1785- 
1882  (Berkeley,  Calif.:  University  of  California  Press,  1969);  Ronald  Takaki,  Strangers  from  a  Different 
Shore:  A  History  of  Asian  Americans  (Boston:  Little,  Brown  and  Co.,    1989);  Sucheng  Chan,  Asian 
Americans:  An  Interpretive  History  (Boston:  Twayne  Publishers,    1991);  Shih-Shan  Henry  Tsai,  The 
Chinese  Experience  in  America  (Bloomington,  Ind.:  Indiana  University  Press,  1986). 

27Gaye  Tuchman  wrote  in  Making  News:  A  Study  in  the  Construction  of  Reality  (New  York:  Free 
Press,  1978),  138,  that  news  events  must  "resonate"  with  a  reporter's  experiences.  More  recently, 
Lentz  in  "The  Search  for  Strategic  Silence,"  American  Journalism,  (1991)  10,  wrote  that  "The  version 
of  reality  .  .  .  relies  upon  the  production  of  meanings  based  not  only  upon  published  content  but 
upon  ways  in  which  some  things  are  not  'seen,'  or  if  seen,  not  recorded  .  .  .  ."  He  continued, 
"Intention  may  not  always  explain  the  reason  for  editorial  silence  ....  Silence  may  reflect  not  the 
journal's  (or  reporter's)  intention  so  much  as  the  power  of  ideology,  customs,  traditions,  and  mores  in 
force  at  a  given  time." 

2SBarbara  Cloud,  The  Business  of  Newspapers  on  the  Western  Frontier,  (Reno,  Nev.:  University  of 
Nevada  Press,  1992). 

2,Chilton  R.  Bush,  R.K.  Bullock,  "Names  in  the  News:  a  study  of  two  dailies,"  Journalism  Quarterly, 
29  (Spring  1952)  150,  151. 

30Lentz,  12;  and  Monica  B.  Morris,  "Newspapers  and  the  New  Feminists:  Black  Out  as  Social 
Control?"  Journalism  Quarterly,  50  (Spring  1973)  42. 


Winter  1 999  "  American  Journalism  77 


78  Winter  1999 


Common  Forms  for  Uncommon 
Actions:  The  Search  for  Political 
Organization  in  Dust  Bowl 
California 


By  James  Hamilton 

This  study  addresses  the  forms  of  social  criticism  penned  by  migrant 
farmworkers  who  worked  the  California  fields  in  the  late  1930s  and  early 
1940s  through  the  examination  of  mimeographed  newspapers  published  in  a 
California  migrant  labor  camp.  It  concludes  that  the  inability  of  migrants  to 
organize  for  effective  political  action  was  due  not  only  to  lack  of  resources  or 
the  strength  of  the  status  quo  (which  was  sizable),  but  also  to  a  failure  to  find 
a  cultural  means  by  which  migrants  could  collectively  see  their  situation, 
organize,  and  work  to  change  it. 

From  1935  until  the  beginning  of  WW  II,  the  Dust  Bowl 
migration  was  widely  regarded  as  evidence  of  the  failure  of 
the  United  States'  market  economy  to  generate  decent  jobs 
and  decent  lives  for  all  its  citizens.1  By  the  late  1930s,  more  than  500,000 
people  had  left  the  south  central  states  of  Oklahoma,  Arkansas,  Texas,  and 
Missouri,  with  more  than  300,000  making  their  way  to  California,  only 
to  find  infrequent,  low-paying  work  amidst  widespread  persecution  and 
inescapable  poverty.2 

Neither  the  presence  of  migrant  farmworkers  nor  the  living  condi- 
tions they  endured  were  new  to  Californian  farms  or  to  the  1930s.  To  the 


James  Hamilton  is  an  Assistant  Professor  in  the  Grady  College  of  Journalism  and  Mass 
Communication  at  the  University  of  Georgia. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  79 


contrary,  they  had  been  long-standing  features  of  state  as  well  as  national 
agriculture.3  Yet  what  was  new  was  the  comparative  legitimacy  of  alterna- 
tive political  movements  and  their  organizational  strength.  Therefore, 
chances  for  widespread  improvements  in  the  migrant  farmworkers' 
situation  rested  largely  on  their  ability  to  join  with  these  political  move- 
ments and  apply  enough  pressure  to  the  rigid  and  reactionary  agricultural 
industry  and  state  political  elite  to  bring  about  significant  change. 

The  present  study  grapples  with  the  complexities  of  producing  an 
effective  political  movement,  both  in  this  case  and  in  general,  and  the  role 
of  journalism  and  communication  in  this  process.  It  is  a  contribution  to 
recent  work  about  alternative  journalism,  alternative  political  movements, 
and  the  alternative  cultural  forms  they  use.4  Upon  examining  the  cultural 
forms  used  by  a  selection  of  Anglo  migrant  farmworkers  who  worked  the 
California  fields  in  the  late  1930s  and  early  1940s,  the  study  addresses  the 
usefulness  of  these  forms  for  making  sense  of  the  situation  in  which  Anglo 
migrant  farmworkers  found  themselves,  then  to  assess  to  what  degree  such 
cultural  forms  aided  or  inhibited  their  ability  to  organize  politically.5 
Although  this  is  a  story  of  a  proto-movement  that  never  coalesced,  much 
can  be  learned  about  strategies  of  alternative  politics  and  the  role  of 
communication  and  culture  by  investigating  failures  as  well  as  successes.6 

Tension  Between  Individualism  &  Collectivism 

The  creation  of  an  effective  political  alliance  between  labor  and 
migrants  depended  on  reconciling  two  distinctive  and  in  many  ways 
opposed  traditions  of  labor  activity.  As  Hyman  Berman  notes  about  the 
history  of  radical  labor  movements  in  the  United  States,  the  tension 
between  individualism  and  collectivism  constitutes  the  core  of  a  "major 
problem  [:]...  whether  it  was  [ever]  possible  for  a  Leninist  [-style] 
movement  with  its  centralized  authority  and  its  quasi-military  discipline 
to  coexist  in  a  region  [such  as  the  American  West]  where  the  [labor] 
traditions  are  individualistic  and  even  anarchistic." 

In  an  investigation  of  such  issues  in  the  early  20th  Century,  Berman 
concludes  that  no  synthesis  was  possible  between  "the  individualist, 
iconoclastic  spirit  which  characterized  the  frontier  radical  tradition"  and 
"the  building  of  a  truly  American  working  class  revolutionary  movement."7 
This  major  problem  in  radical  organization  was  at  the  center  of  the  difficul- 
ties between  migrants  and  labor  organizations.  Overcoming  this  difference 
was  a  Herculean  challenge  for  labor  organizers  and  migrant  activists — one 
that,  in  this  case,  was  not  met  and  that  continues  to  this  day.8 


80  Hamilton  •  Winter  1999 


What  makes  such  an  examination  possible  is  the  survival  of  mimeo- 
graphed newspapers  that  were  published  in  migrant  labor  camps  in  the 
1930s  and  1940s.  For  purposes  of  this  essay,  the  Weed  Patch  Cultivator, 
later  named  the  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  provides  the  material  on  which  one  case 
can  be  documented.9  The  newspaper  appeared  from  1938  to  1942  in  the 
federally  run  Arvin  Migratory  Labor  Camp  near  Bakersfield,  California.10 
Although  the  scattered  issues  and  haphazardly  preserved  archival  material 
that  have  survived  do  not  allow  one  to  make  definitive  statements  about 
such  matters  as  editorial  practice  and  newspaper/management  day-to-day 
relations,  they  begin  to  reveal  a  complex  situation  that  speaks  directly  to 
the  issues. 

Although  many  government  camps  also  published  newspapers 
during  this  time,  this  particular  camp  newspaper  deserves  attention  for 
two  reasons.  First,  it  was  conceived  and  produced  in  the  inaugural  federal 
government  camp,  which  served  as  the  blueprint  for  all  federal  camps  to 
follow.11  By  1941,  the  federal  Farm  Security  Administration  (FSA)  ran  53 
camps  in  1 1  states  from  California  to  Florida,  Washington  State  to  Texas, 
and  many  camps  came  to  publish  newspapers  at  a  later  date,  likely  relying 
on  the  Camp  Arvin  newspaper  as  the  basic  template  as  much  as  they  did 
for  other  camp  matters.12 

Second,  the  camp  in  which  this  newspaper  appeared  was  located  in 
Kern  County  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley — an  area  of  high  labor  activity 
and  a  time  during  some  of  the  largest  agricultural  strikes  in  the  country.13 
Kern  County  constituted  what  Devra  Weber  calls  "a  relatively  hospitable 
atmosphere  for  Anglo  organizing."  Remnants  of  earlier  labor,  populist, 
and  socialist  movements  persisted,  as  did  the  Communist  Party,  which 
"found  enough  members  there  to  become  the  strongest  branch  in  the  [San 
Joaquin]  Valley,"  and  the  Socialist  Party.14  In  autumn  1938,  the  largest 
strike  in  the  state  was  staged  by  cotton  pickers  in  Kern  County,  where 
some  3,000  workers  stayed  out  of  the  cotton  fields  for  two  weeks.  During 
1939,  although  there  were  fewer  strikes,  those  that  did  take  place  were 
larger  than  in  the  previous  year,  with  the  largest  one  involving  the  entire 
San  Joaquin  Valley,  the  conflict  again  over  pay  for  work  in  the  cotton 
fields.15  Hence,  efforts  to  fashion  an  alliance  between  migrant 
farmworkers  and  the  labor  movement  had  a  great  chance  of  occurring 
here,  with  the  residue  of  such  efforts  more  likely  available  for  study 
today.16 

The  issue  of  how  to  examine  such  a  process  remains  a  topic  of 
debate  among  journalism  historians.  Whatever  position  taken,  these 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism 


debates  suggest  that  journalism  historians  are  not  immune  to  siding  with 
a  particular  theoretical  perspective  concerning  the  nature  of  communica- 
tion and  its  role  in  social  life.17  Accordingly,  this  study  also  seeks  to 
demonstrate  the  usefulness  of  a  cultural  perspective  vis-a-vis  other, 
mainstream  perspectives.18 

Instead  of  seeing  newspaper  items  as  means  of  persuasion  or  propa- 
ganda, as  mechanically  integrating  individuals  into  social  systems,  or  as 
individual  expressions  of  unique  views  competing  in  a  free  and  open 
marketplace  of  ideas,  a  cultural  perspective  seeks  to  detect  and  understand 
commonly  held  world  views  that  made  such  items  intelligible  and  mean- 
ingful in  the  first  place,  and  how  they  may  become  a  common  basis  of 
legitimacy  and  action.19 

Creating  a  "Meaningful  Cultural  World" 

Carey  characterizes  communication  in  this  sense  as  "the  construc- 
tion and  maintenance  of  an  ordered,  meaningful  cultural  world  that  can 
serve  as  a  control  and  container  for  human  action."20  It  is  the  production 
of  this  "meaningful  cultural  world"  and  the  shape  of  its  primary  contours 
that  are  of  interest  here.21  Correspondingly,  the  purpose  of  analysis  is  not 
to  investigate  whether  attitudes  were  changed  as  a  result  of  reading  the 
newspaper,  whether  a  supposedly  singular  migrant  culture  became 
integrated  with  an  equally  singular  labor  movement,  nor  to  attempt  to 
simply  document  what  various  people  at  that  time  and  place  ostensibly 
thought.  Rather,  it  is  to  suggest  in  what  ways  previously  unseen  and 
unrecognized  conditions  of  subjugation  were  made  visible,  palpable,  and 
important  enough  perhaps  to  be  recognized  and  acted  upon  collectively. 

To  do  this,  one  studies  forms  in  the  historical  context  of  their 
production  and  reception  in  order  to  understand  how  they  provided  the 
cultural  basis  for  collective  action.  Cultural  forms  in  this  sense,  writes 
Raymond  Williams,  are  regarded  as  "common  property,  to  be  sure  with 
differences  of  degree,  of  writers  and  audiences  or  readers,  before  any 
communicative  composition  can  occur."22 

Thus,  forms  constitute  a  social  relationship  (the  requirement  for 
collective  action)  in  at  least  two  ways.  The  first  is  that  any  form  makes  use 
of  established  social  conventions  if  it  is  to  be  understood.  Even  the  most 
avant-garde  work  depends  on  (an)  already  established  set(s)  of  conven- 
tions in  order  for  viewers  or  readers  to  judge  its  avant-gardism.  Forms  in 
this  sense  renew  mutual  assumptions,  expectations,  obligations,  and 
understandings.23  A  second  sense  in  which  forms  constitute  a  social 


82  Hamilton 'Winter  1999 


relationship  is  in  terms  of  what  they  accomplish:  the  evoking,  positing  or 
proposition  of  a  relationship,  and,  also,  the  evoking,  positing  or  proposi- 
tion of,  in  the  words  of  Williams,  "an  active  relationship  to  the  experience 
being  expressed."24 

Therefore,  when  understood  as  a  social  relation,  form  is  the  means 
by  which  the  making  and  understanding  of  social  relations  is  attempted 
and  always  variably  achieved.  By  implication,  journalism  and  language  use 
in  general  must  be  seen  ultimately  and  fully  as,  again  in  Williams'  words, 
"a  special  kind  of  material  practice:  that  of  human  sociality."25  Such  a 
position  suggests  that,  far  from  camp  newspapers'  being  simply  an  inert 
"record  of  the  process"  of  "subcultural  construction"  (as  one  historian  of 
this  situation  puts  it),  they  themselves  were  a  major  cultural  mode  of  the 
production  of  social  relations.26 

Attention  to  form  is  of  particular  usefulness  when  addressing 
alternative  media.  As  David  Spencer  points  out,  cultural  forms  such  as 
songs,  verse,  stories,  and  fables  generally  have  received  little  attention 
from  labor  historians  in  comparison  to  the  more  "serious"  forms  of  essays, 
tracts,  and  speeches.  However,  cultural  forms  used  by  the  rank  and  file  are 
of  immense  importance  in  assessing  social  movements,  because  they  are 
vernacular  expressions  of  non-elite  world  views,  thereby  suggesting  more 
defensibly  popular  instead  of  elite  experience.27 

The  forms  that  migrant  criticism  of  living  and  working  conditions 
took  in  the  newspaper  included  blustery  personal  statements  and  turgid, 
simplistic  essays  composed  of  labor  union  cliches.  However,  forms  such  as 
verse,  personal  commentary,  and  jokes  had  their  basis  in  everyday  migrant 
experience.  Because  they  emerged  from  migrants'  experience,  if  used  to 
give  shape  and  meaning  to  working  and  living  conditions  in  which  all 
labored,  such  forms  had  a  greater  potential  of  compellingly  dramatizing 
exploitative  conditions  and  therefore  more  of  a  chance  of  achieving 
widespread  collective  awareness  and  action.28  What  potential  existed  in 
forms  used — and  what  did  not — are  the  topics  discussed  in  this  article. 

The  Inescapable  Reality  of  Beans  &  Dust 

Living  and  working  conditions  of  migrant  farmworkers  in  Califor- 
nia during  the  1930s  were  generally  acknowledged  as  desperate  and 
unconscionable,  but  they  were  as  inescapably  a  part  of  day-to-day  reality 
as  beans  and  dust.  Despite  these  persistent  conditions,  little  had  been 
done  to  change  them.29  Although  migrant  laborers  had  worked  California 
fields  since  the  later  1 800s,  attempts  to  organize  them  had  failed  largely 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  83 


because  of  the  difficulty  of  organizing  such  a  scattered  and  mobile 
workforce.  As  a  result,  radical  activity  earlier  in  the  century  had  been 
limited  to  areas  of  high  concentration  of  workers,  such  as  timber  camps 
and  anarchistic  activities  of  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World 
(IWW).30 

By  the  1930s,  with  the  renewed  legitimacy  of  labor,  organizing 
activity  among  farmworkers  picked  up,  beginning  with  the  efforts  of  the 
Cannery  and  Agricultural  Workers  Industrial  Union  (CAWIU).  Few  long- 
term  gains  were  made,  however,  before  organizational  difficulties  and 
wave  after  wave  of  vigilante  repression  beat  the  union  down  to  the  point 
where,  by  the  mid-1950s,  it  disbanded.31  What  made  organizing  so 
difficult  was  the  federal  government's  and  labor's  shunning  of  migrant 
farmworkers  and  their  plight. 

The  American  Federation  of  Labor  (AFL)  strongly  resisted  any 
attempt  to  create  an  affiliated  farmworkers'  union  because  it  emphasized 
its  heritage  of  supporting  skilled  craftsmen,  not  manual  laborers.  Also, 
non-farmworker  members  were  much  more  desirable  for  union-building 
activities  because,  as  Cletus  Daniel  notes,  they  were  "overwhelmingly 
nonmigratory,  able  to  afford  modest  union  dues,  and  eligible  to  claim  the 
rights  and  protections  afforded  by  the  National  Labor  Relations  Act,"  the 
last  reason  a  particularly  damning  one  for  farmworkers,  the  only  labor 
group  excluded  from  the  protection  of  federal  legislation.32 

Agricultural  Industry  Growth  Spurs  Union  Activity 

However,  the  industrial-scale  growth  of  California  agriculture 
created  a  similarly  industrial-scale  work  force  in  size  and  concentration, 
thereby  making  organization  more  possible  than  it  had  been.  During  the 
late  1 9th  and  early  20th  centuries,  few  areas  of  the  economy  had  been 
more  affected  by  the  growing  efficiency  of  industrial  capital  than  agricul- 
ture.33 Furthermore,  such  industrialization  had  become  the  dominant 
practice  in  California,  where  concentrations  of  mobile  workers  were 
needed  in  increasingly  large  numbers  to  service  the  state's  labor-intensive 
cash  crops.34  The  concentration  of  wage  workers,  combined  with  increas- 
ingly desperate  living  and  working  conditions,  led  to  an  explosive  situa- 
tion, which  organized  labor  saw  as  an  opportunity  and  that  those  who  ran 
the  state's  agricultural  industry  saw  as  a  substantial  threat.35 

Both  government  and  labor  became  involved  in  this  emerging 
situation.  Franklin  Roosevelt's  New  Deal  government  attempted  to 


84  Hamilton  •Winter  1999 


address  it  through  the  Resettlement  Administration,  later  becoming  the 
Farm  Security  Administration  (FSA).36  Organized  labor  in  the  form  of 
the  Congress  of  Industrial  Organization  (CIO),  under  the  leadership  of 
John  L.  Lewis  and  his  seeming  tolerance  of  Communist  Party  of  the 
United  States  of  America  (CPUS A)  members  and  activities,  also  commit- 
ted resources  to  organizing  migrant  farmworkers.37  In  particular,  the 
political  potential  of  tens  of  thousands  of  alienated  farmworkers  con- 
vinced some  in  the  CIO  to  try  to  merge  migrants  into  a  larger  national 
organization.  Therefore,  the  increasing  industrialization  of  the  California 
agricultural  industry,  combined  with  the  reformist  stance  of  the  federal 
government  and  the  emergence  of  the  CIO  and  its  initial  willingness  to 
work  on  behalf  of  migrant  farmworkers,  helped  provide  an  institutional 
basis  for  the  agrarian  radicalism  in  California  of  the  late  1 930s. 

While  the  federal  government  started  its  migrant  labor  camp 
program,  union  organizers  for  the  CIO-affiliated  United  Cannery, 
Agricultural,  Packing  and  Allied  Workers  of  America  (UCAPAWA)  set  out 
to  organize  migrant  workers  into  a  potent  national  political  force  aligned 
with  the  goals  of  labor.  As  noted  earlier,  initial  results — large  strikes  in 
1938  and  1939,  with  the  epicenter  being  the  San  Joaquin  Valley — were 
important.38  Migrants  lived  and  worked,  and  the  camp  newspaper  was 
initially  written,  produced,  distributed,  and  read  in  this  explosive  context, 
with  the  federal  camp  project  and  labor  unions  aligned  against  the 
agricultural  industry  and  state  government  supporters. 

Camp  Newspapers  Emerge 

The  government-funded  camp  newspaper  was  but  a  recent  example 
of  the  long-standing  government  practice  of  self-promotion,  to  which 
substantial  financial  resources  had  long  been  channeled  and  that  were  at  a 
high  level  in  the  1930s.39  Organized  labor's  involvement  in  the  camp 
newspaper  continued  a  long-standing  tradition  of  using  newspapers  to  aid 
the  organization  of  its  activities,  and  was  linked  to  similar  uses  as  the  labor 
press  and  the  radical  press.40  Yet,  due  to  institutional  requirements,  each 
was  limited  to  working  through  the  migrant  social  formation  instead  of 
controlling  content  directly. 

Far  from  being  an  indigenous  response  by  migrant  farmworkers,  the 
newspaper  was  established,  supported,  and  encouraged  by  the  Farm 
Security  Administration  (FSA)  for  two  reasons.  The  first  is  that  it  played  a 
part  in  the  official  FSA  goal  of  "rehabilitating"  migrants  from  "rootless 
wanderers"  to  responsible,  wage-earning  citizen-consumers.41  The  other 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  85 


side  of  this  seemingly  altruistic  goal  was  the  political  need  for  incorporat- 
ing an  increasingly  desperate,  disenfranchised  portion  of  the  populace  that 
had  nothing  to  lose  and  everything  to  gain  from  radical,  if  not  revolution- 
ary, activism.42  An  important  component  of  this  rehabilitation  was  the 
camp  newspaper,  which  migrants  were  supposed  to  read  and  produce  in 
order  to  learn  the  role  of  news  in  a  liberal  democracy  and  the  boundaries 
within  which  such  activity  "properly"  occurred.43 

The  second  reason  the  FSA  established  and  supported  the  camp 
newspaper  was  for  institutional  survival.  In  addition  to  playing  a  role  in 
the  rehabilitation  program,  the  newspaper  was  intended  to  provide 
evidence  to  a  skeptical  Congress  of  migrant  "rehabilitation"  and,  there- 
fore, that  money  appropriated  by  Congress  was  being  well-spent.  From 
the  beginning  of  the  program  in  1935,  congressional  opponents  of  New 
Deal  policies  found  the  FSA  a  highly  visible  example  of  a  government 
program  run  amok.  FSA  directors  therefore  spent  a  good  deal  of  resources 
to  document  activities  and  to  build  public  approval  and  political  support 
for  the  camp  program  as  humanitarian  aid.44  Camp  newspapers  were 
important  to  these  efforts,  as  well. 

However,  there  were  problems  with  having  the  FSA  support  and 
promote  camp  newspapers.  The  Associated  Farmers  and  other  opponents 
to  organized  agricultural  labor  felt  that,  should  migrants  organize,  it  could 
threaten  their  control  of  the  industry.  Government  migrant  labor  camps 
already  gave  laborers  a  chance  to  live  with  and  get  to  know  each  other, 
thereby  creating  more  of  an  opportunity  to  organize.45  If  camps  became  a 
base  of  labor  activity  (newspapers  being  one  important  means  of  organiza- 
tion), growers  would  have  to  apply  political  pressure  to  undercut  the  FSA 
camp  program,  thereby  eliminating  this  protective  environment  for  union 
activities.46  The  camp  education  program  therefore  contained  fundamen- 
tal contradictions.  It  helped  the  FSA  meet  its  pedagogical  goals  by 
supposedly  helping  to  build  a  self-governing  democratic  community.  But 
the  more  successful  the  program  was,  the  more  it  threatened  growers' 
control  of  the  agricultural  industry,  thereby  antagonizing  a  powerful 
coalition  of  interests  that  had  the  power  statewide  and  nationally  to 
reduce  or  end  the  FSA's  funding.4' 

Camp  newspapers  therefore  came  to  occupy  a  very  important 
ideological  role  that  had  potential  effects  far  beyond  the  boundaries  of 
Camp  Arvin.  Opposition  to  the  camp  program  could  be  minimized  if  the 
newspaper  successfully  transformed  rootless  migrants  into  rooted,  wage- 
earning  middle-class  citizens,  but  opposition  would  certainly  increase  if 
the  newspaper  helped  build  a  serious  labor  movement.  Because  of  these 


86  Hamilton 'Winter  1999 


high  stakes,  the  FSA  not  only  helped  establish  camp  newspapers,  but  the 
institutional  imperative  was  to  shape  them  in  very  particular  ways. 
Certain  roles  had  to  be  promoted  and  others  excluded  if  the 
(re) educational  program  was  to  succeed  and  the  FSA  survive. 

Although  explicit  controls  on  content  could  not  be  legally  insti- 
tuted, Camp  Arvin  management  still  attempted  to  control  the  paper 
indirectly  from  the  very  first  issue  through  the  (re)educational  program 
and  related  regulations.  Despite  the  reported  Camp  Committee  decision 
to  start  the  paper,  its  editorial  policy  stated  in  the  first  issue  suggests 
substantial  management  involvement.48  In  addition  to  emphasizing  the 
democratic  function  of  using  the  paper  to  "discuss  ideas"  (thereby  indicat- 
ing its  kinship  with  the  education  program  already  in  place),  the  use  of 
"your"  and  "them"  (instead  of  "our"  and  "us")  makes  clear  the  distinctness 
of  the  writer  from  the  migrant  population: 

[The  newspaper]  should  serve  the  people  of  Camp  in  these 
ways:  (1)  to  inform  them  of  working  conditions  in  general 
and  in  this  district;  (2)  to  make  it  possible  for  them  to  discuss 
ideas  or  events  which  are  important  to  them;  (3)  to  let  the 
campers  know  what  is  going  on  in  Camp,  and  above  all  feel 
that  it  is  your  paper;  and  lets  have  your  ideas,  jokes,  poetry 
etc.  Any  contributions  should  be  left  with  Earl  Stone  [the 
camp  secretary].49 

Another  passage  further  in  this  statement  directly  addressed  the  kind 
of  stories  to  be  allowed:  "Any  camper  with  something  to  say,  as  long  as  it 
has  interest  for  the  Campers  in  general,  entertaining  or  serious,  may  have 
space"50  [emphasis  added] .  Who  is  doing  the  deciding  is  never  made 
explicit,  but,  as  the  newspaper  is  being  produced  in  government  offices 
and  by  government-hired  workers,  and  based  on  how  the  educational 
program  was  managed,  it  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  camp  manager 
would  be  called  in  to  decide. 

Camp  Manager  Controls  Content 

The  camp  manager  had  many  ways  of  controlling  the  newspaper, 
thereby  keeping  it  within  the  limitations  dictated  by  the  FSA  goals  of 
maximizing  its  educational  value  and  minimizing  its  threat  to  California 
growers.  Methods  included  appointing  the  editor;  supplying  all  materials, 
including  paper,  a  typewriter,  and  access  to  a  mimeograph  machine;  and 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  87 


making  available  the  camp  secretary  to  transcribe  migrant-donated  items, 
and  to  type  and  produce  the  newspaper.51  Material  aid  included  allowing 
the  newspapers  to  be  sent  through  the  mail  free  of  charge. 

Camp  newspapers  were  routinely  sent  to  other  migrant  camps  as 
well  as  to  area  libraries  and  to  the  FSA  home  office,  which  used  stories 
from  them  for  its  own  public  relations  materials.52  Of  course,  this  support 
served  as  a  control  because  it  could  be  withdrawn  at  any  time,  thus 
silencing  the  paper.  Although  the  campers'  fund  (generated  by  a  1 0  cent 
per  site  per  day  fee)  soon  paid  for  the  paper  on  which  the  newspaper  was 
printed,  the  government  continued  to  provide  production  support.53  The 
FSA  regarded  the  overall  value  of  the  newspaper  highly  enough  that, 
when  migrant  interest  was  low,  management  kept  it  going.  As  September 
and  October  were  peak  work  times  of  the  year,  few  migrants  had  the 
energy  or  interest  to  carry  on  the  newspaper  during  these  months,  and  so 
the  duty  to  keep  the  paper  going  was  assumed  and  exercised  by  manage- 
ment.54 

Despite  these  efforts  to  shape  and  control  the  newspaper,  the 
relationships  between  labor,  the  migrants,  and  the  FSA  were  such  that 
complete  FSA  control  of  the  newspaper  was,  at  least,  impractical  and,  at 
most,  impossible.  If  the  extent  to  which  its  officers  directed  efforts  toward 
the  FSA  camps  is  any  indication,  the  UCAPAWA  felt  that  the  government 
camps  were  of  great  strategic  value.  At  least  five  FSA  camps  (Arvin, 
Gridley,  Marysville,  Shafter,  and  Visalia)  had  active  locals  of  the 
UCAPAWA,  the  Worker's  Alliance  of  America  (a  national  pressure  group 
aligned  with  the  UCAPAWA),  or  both,  and  during  strikes  the  UCAPAWA 
used  several  FSA  camps  as  strike  headquarters  without  interference  from 
government  employees.55 

In  addition,  labor  activity  in  the  government  camps  was  possible 
largely  because  of  the  sympathy  most  FSA  personnel — especially  those  in 
the  field — had  for  the  goals  of  organized  labor.  Many  FSA  workers, 
including  the  camp  managers  (mostly  liberals,  some  socialists),  personally 
supported  efforts  by  the  migrants  to  organize.56  However,  no  federal 
worker  could  publicly  take  such  a  stance  for  fear  of  antagonizing  the  FSA's 
powerful  political  opponents. 

Publicly,  the  official  FSA  position  toward  the  camp  newspaper  and 
toward  the  struggle  between  unions  and  growers  was  neutral.  Whenever 
the  newspapers  and  their  control  were  mentioned,  public  relations  officer 
Frederick  Soule  stressed  that  the  papers  were  "community  institutions 
over  which  the  Farm  Security  Administration  has  no  control."57  However, 
in  practice,  the  two  qualities  most  characteristic  of  the  FSA  camp  manag- 


88  Hamilton 'Winter  1999 


ers — sympathy  toward  the  workers'  struggle  for  bargaining  power,  and  the 
goal  of  teaching  migrants  the  ways  of  democratic  self-reliance — allowed 
the  newspaper  to  work  toward  a  far  greater  than  intended  range  of  goals. 

Labor  presence  in  the  camp  paper  was  sporadic,  but  it  peaked 
during  the  1939  strike,  assisted  by  Sam  Birkhimer,  the  editor  of  the 
newspaper  by  October  1939,  and  a  UCAPAWA  organizer.58  In  addition 
to  explanatory  essays  about  the  purposes  of  the  UCAPAWA  and  the 
WA  of  A,  he  penned  and  printed  accounts  of  how  the  organizing  in  the 
fields  was  conducted  as  well  as  pep  talks  to  try  to  maintain  likely  flagging 
interest  and  support  near  its  end.59 

Developing  Migrant  Cultures 

The  newspaper  therefore  took  shape  within  these  sets  of  conditions. 
It  consisted  of  a  single  sheet,  8  inches  wide  and  15  inches  deep.  The 
masthead  was  hand-drawn,  and  stories  consisted  of  typed  columns,  with 
copies  produced  by  mimeograph. 

Although  conditions  and  the  institutional  support  existed  for  the 
formation  of  a  migrant  farmworker  union  and  an  alliance  with  the  CIO, 
the  complexity  of  those  labeled  "Dust  Bowl  migrants"  worked  against 
such  formulaic  responses.  Historian  James  Gregory  describes  them  as 
"Southwestern  'plain-folk',"  whose  culture  and  outlook  was  linked  to  a 
long-standing  heritage  of  anti-monopoly  and  citizen-producer  ideas, 
agrarian  and  working  class  radicalism,  and  nationalist  and  sometimes 
racist  attempts  to  preserve  the  country's  white  male  Protestant  dominance. 
As  Gregory  notes,  catechisms  in  this  heritage  typically  stressed  "the 
dignity  of  hard  work  and  plain  living  and  promised  deliverance  from  the 
forces  of  power,  privilege,  and  moral  pollution,  near  and  far."60  Thus, 
nationalism,  populism,  racism,  and  an  often  evangelical  religiousness  were 
complexly  blended.61 

While  sympathetic  to  critiques  of  industrialists  and  others  in 
authority,  migrants  also  shared  a  belief  in  a  white  Protestant  and  an  often 
intensely  patriotic  nationalism,  and,  in  this  way,  held  deeply  and  simulta- 
neously radical  and  conservative  views.62  One  can  make  sense  of  these 
contradictions  by  understanding  them  in  terms  of  individualism  and 
collectivism.  By  doing  so,  their  social  implications  become  clearer. 

Intensely  individualistic,  their  approach  toward  living  stressed 
individual  strength  and  persistence  —  fitting  the  saying  "God  helps  those 
who  help  themselves."  Individualism  spawned  such  diverse  responses  to 
often  desperate  living  conditions  as  stoic  fatalism  and  resignation,  reluc- 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  89 


tance  or  heated  resistance  to  pressure  to  join  a  group,  or  the  favoring  of 
disorganization  rather  than  taking  the  chance  of  worsening  one's  lot 
through  aligning  with  the  wrong  people  or  the  wrong  cause. 

Yet  many  also  shared  a  collectivism  in  terms  of  a  sentimental, 
homespun  regard  for  one's  family,  hometown,  people,  state,  region  and 
nation.  Where  individualism  typically  underwrote  inaction  or  resistance, 
collectivism  helped  constitute  a  source  of  pride  while  it  underwrote 
voluntaristic  activity.  It  legitimized  taking  pride  in  being  American,  an 
"Okie"  or  "Arkie"  (a  term  of  derision  turned  into  a  term  of  pride  when 
used  by  a  migrant),  a  member  of  a  union,  or  as  a  farmer. 

Individualism  Versus  Collectivism 

Such  a  dynamic  was  the  basis  for  contradictory  responses  to  a 
sociologist's  interviews  during  the  late  1 930s  and  early  1 940s  with 
migrants  who  lived  in  Kern  County — some  of  whom  lived  for  a  time  at 
Camp  Arvin,  the  camp  at  which  the  newspaper  analyzed  for  this  study 
was  produced.63  Even  while  professing  pride  as  Americans,  migrants  still 
advocated  the  kinds  of  ideas  promoted  by  politically  radical  labor  organiz- 
ers to  correct  the  injustices  suffered  in  a  failing  American  society. 

If  they  cut  that  relief  off  in  California  they  will  have  a 
revolution  in  California.  They'll  [migrants  will]  fight  fer 
it,  they  always  have  ....  And  by-god  I  ain't  no  Communist, 
but  I  may  sound  like  one  though.64 

It  also  was  the  basis  for  conflict  between  generations.  In  1936,  a 
supporter  of  organizing  migrant  labor  noted  this  disagreement  within  one 
family.  Oklahoman  Jim  Killen,  reported  the  writer,  "believed  in  organiza- 
tion as  the  devout  believe  in  religion,"  although  he  was  not  entirely 
committed  to  labor.  However,  there  was  substantial  disagreement  within 
his  family  about  the  best  attitude  and  action  to  take,  indicating  differing 
generational,  gender  and  political  alignments  in  terms  of  individualism 
and  collectivism. 

His  brother  talks  violence;  his  father  industrial  democracy; 
his  mother  mumbles. 

His  father:  "There  kaint  be  any  recovery  until  the  workingman 
gets  paid  enough  so  he  can  buy  what  there  is  to  sell." 

His  mother:  "It's  been  worser  than  this  in  Oklahoma.  There's 


90  Hamilton  •Winter  1999 


been  times  when  we'd  been  glad  to  work  for  10  cents  a  day." 
His  brother:  "Blast  their  God  damn  fields  with  dynamite."65 

In  the  same  way  that  they  could  be  patriots  while  finding  severe 
faults  with  the  American  system,  migrants  could  champion  the  cause  of 
labor  while  at  the  same  time  denouncing  it.  Many  were  skeptical  of  the 
CIO  because  of  its  (as  they  put  it)  Communism,  disorganization,  lazy 
members  who  joined  only  to  avoid  working,  and  high-rolling  union 
leaders'  exploitation  ot  the  rank-and-file.  However,  many  also  found  value 
in  collective  action  as  part  of  the  union,  which  they  saw  as  the  only  way  to 
bring  about  better  pay,  prevent  starvation  and  help  those  on  relief  get 
their  fair  share.66 

Thus,  collectivism  -  individualism  as  articulated  within  populist  and 
radical  labor  traditions  comprised  the  cultural  context  of  migrants' 
activity.  Migrants  were  not  of  a  single  mind,  but  instead  rallied  and 
fragmented  in  contradictory  ways,  sharing  with  the  FSA  a  patriotism  and 
the  belief  that  migrants'  problems  in  America  were  due  to  the  corruption 
of  a  sound,  egalitarian  political  system  rather  than  to  defects  inherent  in 
that  system.  The  migrants  shared  with  the  UCAPAWA  an  anger  at 
migrants'  economic  subjugation.  Their  goal  was  to  achieve,  in  Oklaho- 
man,  folk-singer  and  migrant-  and  labor-spokesman  Woody  Guthrie's 
words,  "a  good  job  at  honest  pay,"  which  would  require  widespread 
changes  in  the  status  quo.67 

What  made  this  situation  particularly  complex  was  the  fact  that 
points  of  agreement  were  also  polarizing  differences.  Migrants  often 
chafed  within  the  authoritarian,  patriarchal  FSA  educational  program, 
which  addressed  symptoms  rather  than  causes  of  the  migrants'  plight,  and 
this  individualism  complicated  efforts  by  the  portion  of  migrants  who 
were  union-minded  to  build  a  collective  consciousness  that  might  become 
the  basis  for  collective  political  action.68  Also,  despite  the  Popular  Front 
strategy  of  the  Communist  Party  of  America  (CPUSA)  which  called  for 
collaboration  with  trade  unions  rather  than  revolution,  the  UCAPAWAs 
revolutionary  rhetoric  offended  many  migrants'  deep-seated  faith  in  the 
United  States  and  confirmed  their  equally  deep  fear  of  "creeping" 
communism.69 

"Don't  Be  What  You  Ain't" 

Although  the  FSA  placed  official  notices  of  various  kinds  in  the 
newspaper  (a  perk  from  its  role  of  providing  support),  most  items  came 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  91 


from  migrant  farmworkers  who  lived  in  the  camp.  These  contributions 
took  many  forms,  ranging  from  letters  to  the  editor,  anonymous  gossip 
columns,  and  one-liner  jokes  to  lengthy  essays  about  the  labor  situation. 
By  seeing  these  items  in  social  terms,  how  they  did  or  didn't  fit  with  the 
aim  of  organizing  into  a  self-aware  political  force  becomes  clearer. 

The  individualism  of  migrant  culture  was  expressed  in  a  variety  of 
items,  but,  most  evocatively,  in  verse  which  expressed  a  rugged,  good- 
natured  self-sufficiency  and  unpretentiousness: 

Don't  be  what  you  ain't 

Jes'  be  what  you  is 

If  you  is  not  what  you  am 

Then  you  is  not  what  you  is 

If  you're  just  a  little  tadpole 

Don't  try  to  be  a  frog 

If  you're  just  a  tail 

Don't  try  to  wag  the  dog. 

You  can  always  pass  the  plate 

If  you  can't  exhort  and  preach 

If  you're  just  a  little  pebble 

Don't  try  to  be  the  beach. 

Don't  be  what  you  ain't 

Jes'  be  what  you  is, 

For  the  man  who  plays  it  square 

Is  a-goin'  to  get  "his." 

—  Juanita  Davis.70 

This  often  became  a  fatalism,  underscored  by  religious  resignation, 
such  as  in  a  poem  that  concluded:  "It  is  not  for  us  to  understand  /  Just 
leave  it  all  in  jessus  (sic)  hand."71 

Individualistic  items  also  addressed  the  specific  situation  of  farm 
laborers  in  California,  but  they  often  took  the  form  of  personal  statements 
that  justified  only  individual  actions.  Reluctance  to  appear  "uppity"  by 
telling  others  what  to  do  undercut  their  collective  potential,  such  as  in  a 
personal  statement  by  a  farmworker  with  a  family  who,  during  the  1 938 
strike,  mentioned  the  inequity  of  some  people  staying  out  only  for  a  few 
days,  then  returning  to  work  in  the  fields  before  the  strike  achieved  its 
goals.  As  he  explains,  "I  don't  know  whether  to  call  them  scabs  or  not," 
because  they  had  to  work  to  get  food  to  eat.  He  concludes  that  his  family 
has  enough  food  to  hold  out  longer,  and  that  "my  family  has  no  intention 


92  Hamilton 'Winter  1999 


of  going  back  to  the  cotton  fields  until  this  strike  is  over,"  thereby  explain- 
ing his  reasoning  only  for  himself  and  his  family,  which  others  could  take 
or  leave.72  Such  reluctance  to  tell  others  what  to  think  and  what  to  do — 
and  regarding  such  people  as  bossy  and  know-it-alls — ran  deeply  in  many 
items,  such  as  a  poem  that  poked  fun  at  "grumblers,"  who  complained 
about  everything.  The  advice  given  to  people  who  were  confronted  with 
grumblers  was  to  "turn  a  deaf  ear,  and  pretend  you  can't  hear."73 

Calls  for  Collectivism  Failed 

However,  as  organized  action  can  only  take  place  and  be  represented 
in  collective  terms,  cultural  forms  that  presented  the  common  situation 
and  case  were  essential  for  this  mobilization  to  have  a  chance.  The  editor 
of  August  1939  appealed  to  migrants  for  more  contributions  to  the 
newspaper,  and  her  explanation  suggests  the  general  awareness  of  the 
ability  of  newspaper  items  to  evoke  common  experience. 

If  you've  been  moved,  either  to  laugh  or  cry  by  something 
that's  happened  to  you  or  around  you,  it's  pretty  certain 
that  some  of  your  neighbors  would  be  moved  in  the  same 
way  if  they  saw  the  story  in  print.74 

With  some  exceptions,  the  potential  of  working  collectively  for 
change  was  never  realized.  Although  collectivist  appeals  were  often  made, 
such  expressions  either  did  not  address  the  immediate,  concrete  situation; 
were  simplified  (and  therefore  easily  discounted  as  empty  slogans  or  pie- 
in-the-sky  wishes);  or  were  too  abstract,  therefore  not  linking  effectively 
the  day-to-day  working  reality  of  individual  migrants  with  the  structural 
conditions  of  subjugation. 

Collective  calls  that  did  not  address  the  specific  situation  attempted 
to  organize  migrants  socially,  but  not  in  the  service  of  labor  activism. 
Many  migrants  saw  no  necessary  role  for  a  radical  critique  of  the  United 
States'  political  and  economic  system,  and  items  in  the  newspaper  that 
expressed  this  version  of  collectivism,  such  as  the  poem  that  follows,  did 
so  in  uncritical  terms. 

Makes  no  difference  where  you  wander, 
Makes  no  difference  where  you  roam. 
You  don't  have  to  stop  and  ponder, 
For  a  place  to  call  your  home. 

Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  93 


When  they  ask  you  where  you  were  born  lad, 
Speak  right  up  -  be  proud  to  say, 
That  your  home's  the  land  of  Uncle  Sam, 
The  good  old  U.S.A. 

—  A  Camper.75 

A  collective-minded  religious  confession  in  verse  also  countered 
individualism,  but  in  a  way  that  made  the  current,  earthly  situation 
irrelevant  when  compared  to  greater  goals. 

Lord  help  me  live  from  day  to  day, 
In  such  a  self  and  helpful  way, 
That  when  I  kneel  to  pray, 
my  prayers  may  help  others. 
Help  me  Lord  in  all  the  works  I  do, 
To  ever  be  sincere  and  true, 
And  know  that  all  I  do  for  you, 
must  need  be  done  for  others. 

—  Mrs.  Shatwell.76 

Appeals  that  simplified  the  situation  did  not  address  the  depth  of 
the  problem  or  the  difficulty  of  the  solution.  For  example,  after  a  writer 
notes  the  inequity  of  cotton  growers  getting  $14  per  hundredweight 
while  those  who  pick  it  get  75  cents,  he  concludes  that  the  industry  sets 
the  price  and  that,  only  if  workers  were  organized,  "your  trouble  would  be 
over."77  Another  item  on  the  same  page  concludes  "you  people  who  are 
picking  this  80  cent  cotton  surely  can't  expect  a  lot  of  favors  from  the 
good  people  of  California."  The  solution  was  simply  to  "wake  up  and  git 
in  line  don't  sleep  all  your  life."78 

Poems  and  song  lyrics  urged  migrant  laborers  to  "get  off  the  row" 
and  join  the  CIO.79  Reprinted  lyrics  to  songs  sung  on  the  picket  lines  as 
well  as  those  penned  by  Woody  Guthrie  appeared  often.80  Some  of  these 
songs  parodied  or  appropriated  others,  such  as  in  "Associated  Farmer  Has 
a  Farm."81  Hand-drawn  pictures  were  used  as  well,  such  as  one  example 
that  consisted  of  the  head  and  shoulders  of  Woody  Guthrie,  with  a 
caption:  "The  Dust  Bowl  Kid  says:  Prices  is  High  wages  Low  I  A  man  that 
would  pick  /  80  cents  cotton  is  a  slave  /  and  nothing  more!  —  Woody."82 
But,  whatever  value  they  may  have  had  in  terms  of  momentary  morale, 
none  served  as  a  deeper  critique  which  might  have  sparked  sustained 
resistance. 

94  Hamilton 'Winter  1999 


Examples  of  simplified  and  abstract  appeals  include  a  series  of  self- 
described  "weekly  letters  from  the  editor"  which  were  penned  by  a  recent 
arrival  to  Camp  Arvin  from  another  camp  nearby  and  appeared  during 
the  1939  strike.  His  aim  was  to  "explain  what  different  organized  groups 
are  and  what  they  stand  for,"  beginning  with  the  Workers  Alliance  of 
America  and  continuing  with  the  UCAPAWA.  Overall  goals  of  the 
WA  of  A  were  to  "bring  about  real  economic  recovery,  to  assure  useful 
work  at  decent  wages  for  all  willing  workers,  to  promote  greater  purchas- 
ing power  among  the  people  and  to  provide  real  social  security  for  all"  — 
laudable,  yet  entirely  future,  abstract  goals  that  spoke  little  to  farmworkers 
concerned  with  where  to  find  food  immediately.83 

Later  the  same  month,  the  editor  attempted  to  explain  how  unions 
work  by  using  examples  such  as  how  a  team  of  horses  can  accomplish 
more  by  working  together  and  how  a  car  runs  well  when  all  parts  are 
working.  Such  appeals  still  did  not  explain  why  it  continued  to  be  so 
difficult  to  organize,  instead  simply  proposing  "wouldn't  it  be  wonderful  if 
we  were  all  joined  together  in  one  or  more  organizations  and  cooperated 
with  each  other  in  times  like  we  are  not  having."84 

The  key  to  producing  a  collective  consciousness  was  not  in  ignoring 
individualism  or  in  simply  asserting  an  automatic,  abstract  collectivism, 
but  in  overcoming  the  polarization  altogether  by  recognizing  migrants' 
situation  as,  paradoxically,  a  collective  experience  of  alienation.  Wander- 
ing and  working  as  a  purposeless,  isolated  individual  was  a  typical  theme 
of  individualistic  items,  yet  some  items  were  able  to  dramatize  alienation 
as  a  collective  experience  encouraged  by  specific  conditions. 

One  of  the  few  examples  of  this  is  a  remarkable  verse  titled  "Cotton 
Fever"  which  depicted  the  alienating  experience  of  toiling  as  an  individual 
in  the  cotton  fields.  Its  form  is  a  square  dance  call.  The  square  dance  was 
the  primary  cultural  form  of  popular  (as  opposed  to  authoritarian) 
gatherings.  Weekly  square  dances  that  attracted  workers  from  camps  miles 
around  were  staples  of  camp  life.  In  this  way,  its  use  relied  upon  the 
intimate  knowledge  of  all  farmworkers.  However,  this  square  dance  was 
not  for  enjoyment.  The  caller  was  not  a  person,  but  cotton  bolls,  setting 
the  cadence  and  dictating  pickers'  every  move.  The  poem  ends  with  the 
cotton  bolls  still  calling,  reminding  the  pickers  that  this  life  was  hard,  but 
that  this  work  was  better  than  dying  as  a  pauper,  which  would  put  one's 
surviving  relatives  into  debt.  Farm  labor  in  current  conditions  was  the 
only  choice  allowed. 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  95 


COTTON  FEVER 

Along  the  road  on  either  side 
Cotton  green  and  two  miles  wide. 
Fields  fan  out  in  rows  string-straight, 
And  a  boll  flings  out  his  wadded  bait 
And  grins  at  me  and  seems  to  say: 
"You'll  be  a  grabbin'  at  me  one  day 
At  six  bits  a  hundred  weight." 

Then  the  bolls  started  rustling, 

Shouting  in  the  air 

Just  like  as  if  they  was  callin' 

Off  a  square: 

"Chase  that  possum,  chase  that  coon, 

Chase  that  cotton  boll  around  the  moon. 

Crawl  down  a  row  and  stand  up  straight 

On  a  six-bit  whirl  for  a  hundred  weight 

Hunker  on  along  and  grab  'er  all  around. 

Lint's  heaped  up  an'  a  record  yield; 

Gin's  chuck  full  so  gin  'er  in  the  field. 

You  can  live  on  the  land  till  the 

Day  you  die, — 

Jus'  as  long  as  you  leave  when  the 

Crops  laid  by. 

So  pick  'er  on  down  to  the  end  in  the  gloam, 

Then  swing  up  your  sack  and  promenade  home. 

Meet  your  baby,  pat  him  on  the  head 

Feed  him  white  beans  an'  a  piece  of  corn  bread. 

No  need  to  worry,  he'll  go  freight  — 

At  jus'  six  bit  a  hundered  weight." 

And  so  I  mosey  down  the  hill 
Cotton  bolls  a-callin'  still: 

"At  Long  Row's  End  the  Boss  Man  wait, 
Nail  you  up  in  a  wooden  crate. 
At  six  bits  a  hundered  livin's  hard, 
But  dyin's  dear  in  the  County  Yard  — 
At  twenty-five  bucks  a  hundered  weight!" 
— A  Camper.85 


%  Hamilton*  Winter  1999 


Migrants  earned  money  in  the  cotton  fields,  but  precious  little  of  it 
and  at  the  price  of  dehumanization.  They  best  fit  this  system  when  they 
didn't  think,  but  just  listened  to  the  call  of  the  bolls  and  worked  as 
isolated  individuals.  It  was  a  "fever,"  a  sign  of  sickness,  not  of  well-being. 

No  other  item  worked  culturally  in  the  same  way  as  this  verse. 
Similar  poems  about  working  in  the  fields  neglected  to  talk  about  the 
relationship  between  workers  and  conditions,  emphasizing  instead 
individual  reactions  to  it.86  Others  criticized  corrupt  institutions,  such  as 
"the  kept  press,"  but  neglect  to  link  migrants'  everyday  experience  to  the 
case.  The  issue  of  why  a  corrupt,  commercial  press  matters  to  migrant 
farmworkers  who  are  wholly  concerned  with  simply  feeding  their  families 
from  day  to  day  was  never  broached.87  Although  a  cultural  solution  to  the 
problem  of  organization  momentarily  surfaced,  it  was  far  too  little  and  far 
too  late. 

Keys  to  Cultural  Change 

Upon  the  end  of  the  1939  growing  season  and  the  onset  of  WW  II, 
the  institutional  milieu  changed  substantially.  Many  conditions  and 
developments  caused  the  UCAPAWA's  provisional  presence  to  wane.  The 
continual  problem  of  organizing  migrant  farmworkers  was  never  solved, 
and  CIO  head  John  Lewis'  disinterest  in  it  made  finding  a  solution  even 
more  difficult.88  CPUSA  moral  credibility  was  seriously  impaired  by  the 
signing  of  the  non-aggression  pact  between  the  Soviets  and  the  Nazis. 
Combined  with  the  wartime  improvement  in  the  nation's  economy 
(which  meant  large  numbers  of  new  war-related  jobs  for  unskilled  workers 
in  southern  California),  and  increased  nationalism  which  undercut 
oppositional  positions,  labor's  appeal  and  effect  in  the  California  fields 
was  generally  neutralized.89  After  the  high  season  of  1939,  labor  activity 
quickly  dissipated. 

The  FSA  stepped  into  the  void  left  by  the  collapsed  labor  move- 
ment. Under  constant  threat  of  congressionally  mandated  disbandment, 
the  FSA  opportunistically  settled  on  a  new,  unassailably  patriotic  goal  of 
aiding  wartime  food  production.90  Consequently,  the  FSA  became  far  less 
tolerant  of  migrant  uses  of  the  newspaper  that  were  contrary  to  this  new 
purpose.  With  organized  labor  virtually  gone  from  the  institutional  scene 
and  disinterest  in  aiding  the  new  FSA  goal  tantamount  to  being  labeled  a 
traitor,  the  FSA  soon  exercised  its  authority  unopposed.  From  the  end  of 
1939  to  the  end  of  the  camp  newspaper  in  1942,  with  the  collapse  of  the 
influence  of  organized  labor  and  the  radical  left,  hegemonic  identification 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  97 


of  migrants  with  the  FSA  and  the  existing  American  political  system  was 
largely  achieved. 

The  fashioning  of  a  cultural  means  of  bridging  the  contradiction 
between  individualism  and  collectivism  and  rallying  it  for  political 
organization  constituted  a  need  that,  with  only  a  few  exceptions,  was  not 
met.  Migrant  resistance  was  at  most  unorganized,  with  union  organizers 
more  often  scrambling  after  wildcat  strikes  than  planning  them.91  The 
case  described  in  this  study  suggests  that  such  failures  were  not  due  only 
to  lack  of  resources  (although  money  to  support  strikes  was  always  in 
short  supply),  living  and  working  conditions  that  weren't  as  bad  as  many 
portray  them  to  be  (they  were  often  far  worse),  or  the  strength  of  the 
status  quo  (which  was  sizable),  but  in  a  failure  of  a  means  by  which 
migrants  could  embody  the  situation  culturally,  organize,  and  work  to 
change  it. 


Endnotes 

'Widely  read  and  cited  examinations/polemics  include  Carey  McWilliams,  Factories  in  the  Field; 
The  Story  of  Migratory  Farm  Labor  in  California  (Boston:  Little,  Brown,  1939);  John  Steinbeck,  The 
Grapes  ofWrath  (New  York:  The  Viking  Press,  1939);  and  the  tremendous  volume  of  photographs 
generated  by  Roy  Stryker,  Dorothea  Lange,  and  others  photographers  of  the  Farm  Security 
Administration,  which  appeared  in  popular  magazines  and  newspapers  across  the  country.  See  Carl 
Fleischhauer  and  Beverly  W.  Brannan,  (eds.),  Documenting  America,  1935-1943  (Berkeley:  University 
of  California  Press,  1988). 

2Mc  Williams,  Factories;  James  Gregory,  American  Exodus;  The  Dust  Bowl  Migration  and  Okie 
Culture  in  California  (New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  1989),  3-35;  U.S.,  Congress,  Senate, 
Committee  on  Education  and  Labor,  Violations  of  Free  Speech  and  Rights  of  Labor,  reprint  ed.  (New 
York:  Arno  Press,  1975);  Walter  J.  Stein,  "A  New  Deal  Experiment  with  Guided  Democracy:  The  FSA 
Migrant  Camps  in  California,"  Canadian  Historical  Papers  1970,  132-146;  James  Hamilton, 
"Educating  Patriots,  Recruiting  Radicals:  The  Migrant  Camp  Newspaper  at  Arvin,  California," 
Communication  13  (1993),  255-275. 

'More  moved  in  the  1920s  than  in  the  1930s,  but  circumstances  had  changed  drastically. 
McWilliams,  Factories,  7-8,  293;  S.  Rexford  Black,  Report  on  the  California  State  Labor  Camps  (San 
Francisco:  California  State  Unemployment  Commission,  1932),  9;  Don  Mitchell,  The  Lie  of  the  Land; 
Migrant  Workers  and  the  California  Landscape  (Minneapolis:  University  of  Minnesota  Press,  1996). 

4See,  for  example,  David  Ralph  Spencer,  "Rhymes  and  Reasons:  Canadian  Victorian  Labor 
Journalism  and  the  Oral  Tradition,"  Journal  of  Communication  Inquiry  16  (Winter  1992):  72-90;  and 
various  essays  in  Hanno  Hardt  and  Bonnie  Brenncn.  eds  .  Ntutuvrken,  Toward  a  History  of  the  Rank 
and  File  (Minneapolis:  University  of  Minnesota  Press.  1995) 

5For  greater  depth,  see  James  Hamilton,  "(Re)Wrmng  Communities    Dust-Bow!  Migrant  Identities 
and  the  Farm  Security  Administration  Camp  Newspaper  at  Arvin,  California,  1938-1942,"  (Ph.D. 
diss.,  University  of  Iowa,  1993)- 

6With  a  similar  intention,  Todd  Gitlin  investigates  the  ft  agmrntation  of  left  politics  in  the  last  25 
years,  with  the  hope  of  identifying  resources  for  its  renewal   See  The  Twilight  of  Common  Dreams 
(New  York:  Metropolitan  Books,  1995).  See  also  David  Trend,  "Rethinking  Media  Activism:  Why  the 
Left  is  Losing  the  Culture  War,"  Socialist  Review  23:2  (1993):  5-33. 

7Hyman  Berman,  "Communism  and  the  Frontier  Tradition,"  European  Contributions  to  American 


98  Hamilton  •  Winter  1999 


Studies  16  (1989):  139,  148.  See  also  Eric  Foner,  "Why  is  There  No  Socialism  in  the  United  States?," 
History  Workshop  Journal  17  (1984):  57-80.  Agricultural  radicals  often  aligned  with  various  forms  of 
anarchism,  while  industrial  activists  were  more  often  aligned  with  collective  action,  and  this  difference 
has  a  long  heritage.  For  an  analysis  of  this  conflict  during  the  late  19th  Century,  see  Theodore 
Saloutos,  "Radicalism  and  the  Agrarian  Tradition,"  in  Failure  of  a  Dream?  Essays  in  the  History  of 
American  Socialism,  rev.  ed.,  John  H.M.  Laslett  and  Seymour  Martin  Lipsett,  eds.  (Berkeley: 
University  of  California  Press,  1984),  52-81. 

8Evidence  of  the  continued  problems  includes  Gregory,  Exodus,  102-20;  Susan  Ferriss  and  Ricardo 
Sandoval,  The  Fight  In  The  Fields:  Caesar  Chavez  And  The  Farmworkers  Movement  (New  York  : 
Harcourt  Brace,  1997);  Richard  Griswold  del  Castillo  and  Richard  A.  Garcia,  Caesar  Chavez:  A 
Triumph  Of  Spirit  (Norman:  University  of  Oklahoma  Press,  1995);  and  Ronald  B.  Taylor,  Chavezand 
the  Farm  Workers  (Boston:  Beacon  Press  1975).  An  early  bibliography  of  the  movement  is  Beverly 
Fodell,  Caesar  Chavez  and  the  United  Farm  Workers;  A  Selective  Bibliography  (Detroit:  Wayne  State 
University  Press,  1974). 

The  run  of  the  Arvin  camp  newspaper  is  in  places  very  sparse,  due  to  uneven  publication  and 
somewhat  haphazard  preservation.  Largely  complimentary  holdings  of  surviving  issues  are  held  at  the 
National  Archives-Pacific  Sierra  Region  in  San  Bruno,  California  and  at  the  University  of  California 
at  Berkeley. 

l0No  end-date  for  the  newspaper  is  listed  in  The  National  Union  Catalog  Pre- 1956 Imprints,  v.  617 
(Chicago:  American  Library  Association,  1979),  661.  The  most  recent  issue  that  can  be  located  is 
dated  5  February  1942. 

"Camp  Arvin  was  a  continuation  of  an  existing  State  of  California  camp.  See  State  Relief 
Administration  of  California,  Division  of  Special  Surveys  and  Studies,  Migratory  Labor  in  California 
(San  Francisco:  State  Relief  Administration  of  California,  1936);  Albert  Crouch,  Housing  Migratory 
Agricultural  Workers  in  California,  1919-1948  (Ph.D.  diss.,  University  of  California,  1948;  reprint  San 
Francisco:  Rand  E  Associates,  1975). 

12Camp  newspapers  were  circulated  among  the  various  camps.  U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture, 
Farm  Security  Administration,  Report  of  the  Farm  Security  Administration,  1941  (Washington,  D.C.: 
U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  Farm  Security  Administration,  1941),  38;  Jerome  Wilcox, 
correspondence  with  Frederick  Soule,  9  April  and  12  April  1940;  File  163-01,  "Genl  (Jan.  to  June 
1940]  [1]";  General  Correspondence,  1940-42;  Farm  Security  Administration,  San  Francisco/ 
Berkeley;  Records  of  the  Farm  Security  Administration,  Record  Group  96;  National  Archives — Pacific 
Sierra  Region,  San  Bruno,  California  [hereafter  referred  to  as  General  Correspondence,  FSA]; 
Katherine  Deitz,  "Community  and  Family  Services  Activities  Described  in  Narrative  Reports  from 
Regions  VI  and  XII,  1941";  File  934,  "Jan  1935-1939  Dec.  inclusive  [1]";  General  Correspondence, 
FSA.  In  an  August  1936  report  to  FSA  Region  IX  director  Jonathon  Garst,  sociologist  EricThomsen 
emphasized  the  importance  of  the  pioneering  efforts  of  Thomas  Collins,  the  initial  manager  of  Camp 
Arvin,  in  conceiving  of  and  putting  together  not  only  the  Camp  Arvin  educational  program,  but  the 
value  such  efforts  have  for  camps  to  follow:  "I  can't  help  [but]  think  of  Collins'  work  as  absolutely 
standard-forming;  I  can  think  of  no  possibility  of  setting  up  a  desirable  camp  program  for  migratory 
workers  anywhere  which  ignores  the  basic  principles  that  govern  Collins'  work. . ."  See  Eric  Thomsen, 
"Preliminary  Report  on  Arvin  Migratory  Camp,"  3  August  1936;  File  RF-CF-16-918,  "Arvin,  reports 
prior  7-1-40";  Coded  Administration  Camp  Files,  1933-45 — Arvin;  Farm  Security  Administration, 
San  Francisco/Berkeley,  Record  Group  96,  Records  of  the  Farm  Security  Administration,  National 
Archives — Pacific  Sierra  Region,  San  Bruno,  California  [hereafter  cited  as  Arvin  Camp  Records].  For 
more  on  the  educational  program  and  its  development,  see  Stein,  "New  Deal  Experiment";  and 
Hamilton,  "Educating  Patriots." 

,3Devra  Weber,  Dark  Sweat,  White  Gold;  California  Farm  Workers,  Cotton,  and  the  New  Deal 
(Berkeley:  University  of  California  Press,  1994),  165,  181. 
"Weber,  Dark  Sweat,  153-161. 

15Weber,  Dark  Sweat,  1 83;  Linda  C.  Majka  and  Theo  J.  Majka,  Farmworkers,  Agribusiness,  and  the 
State  (Philadelphia:  Temple  University  Press,  1982),  128-129. 

"United  States,  Department  of  Labor,  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Labor  Unionism  in  American 
Agriculture,  by  Stuart  Jamieson,  Bulletin  No.  836  (Washington:  GPO,  1945;  reprint  New  York:  Arno 
Press,  1975);  Cletus  E.  Daniel,  Bitter  Harvest;  A  History  of  California  Farmworkers,  1870-1941 
(Ithaca:  Cornell  University  Press,  1981);  and  Majka  and  Majka,  Farmworkers. 

l7For  example,  James  D.  Starrt  and  William  David  Sloan  argue  that  interpretations  should  arise 
from  the  material  rather  than  be  imposed  upon  it  {Historical Methods  in  Mass  Communication 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  99 


(Hillsdale:  Lawrence  Erlbaum,  1989),  19-39).  However,  although  this  advice  is  in  a  more  basic  sense 
to  not  use  a  theory  rigidly,  the  situation  is  more  complex  than  these  and  other  commentators  make  it 
out  to  be.  How  they  decide  which  facts  are  more  relevant  than  others  is  by  relying  on  a  theoretical 
perspective  to  sift  the  relevant  from  the  non-relevant,  however  implicit  that  perspective  may  be.  That 
all  historical  writing  is  from  a  theoretical  perspective  is  persuasively  argued  in  James  A.  Henretta, 
"Social  History  as  Lived  and  Written,"  American  Historical  Review  84  (December  1979):  1293-1323; 
Hanno  Hardt  and  Bonnie  Brennen,  "Introduction:  Communication  and  the  Question  of  History," 
Communication  Theory  3  (May  1993),  130-136;  and  Hanno  Hardt,  "Without  the  Rank  and  File: 
Journalism  History,  Media  Workers,  and  Problems  of  Representation,"  in  Hardt  and  Brennen,  eds., 
Newsworkers,  1-29- 

18Examples  of  traditional  perspectives  used  in  similar  topics  include  John  Stevens,  "From  Behind 
Barbed  Wire:  Freedom  of  the  Press  in  World  War  II  Japanese  Center,"  Journalism  Quarterly  48 
(Summer  1971):  279-287;  Jay  Friedlander,  "Journalism  Behind  Barbed  Wire,  1941-1942:  An 
Arkansas  Relocation  Camp  Newspaper,"  Journalism  Quarterly  62:2  (1985):  243-246,  271;  and  Lauren 
Kessler,  "Fettered  Freedoms:  The  Journalism  of  World  War  II  Japanese  Internment  Camps," 
Journalism  History  15:2/3  (1988):  70-79. 

"Of  course,  there  are  many  cultural  perspectives,  and  quite  a  number  of  disagreements  between 
them.  Among  the  many  discussions,  see  Paul  Duncum,  "Approaches  to  Cultural  Analysis,"  Journal  of 
American  Culture  10:2  (1987):  1-15;  Stuart  Hall,  "The  Rediscovery  of 'Ideology':  Return  of  the 
Repressed  in  Media  Studies,"  in  Culture,  Society  and  the  Media,  reprint  ed.  (New  York  and  London: 
Routledge,  1988),  56-90;  and  Raymond  Williams,  "The  Uses  of  Cultural  Theory,"  New  Left  Review 
158  Ouly/August  1986):  19-31. 

20James  Carey,  "A  Cultural  Approach  to  Communication,"  in  Communication  and  Culture  (Boston: 
Unwin  Hyman,  1989),  18-19. 

2lAlthough  a  variety  of  cultural  approaches  are  gaining  currency,  most  studies  in  journalism  history 
work  from  behaviorist,  functionalist,  or  idealist  perspectives,  explicitly  or  not.  See  Hanno  Hardt, 
"Newsworkers,  Technology,  and  Journalism  History,"  Critical  Studies  in  Mass  Communication  7 
(1990):  346-365.  Of  relevance  to  this  study  is  the  work  of  Raymond  Williams  —  in  particular 
Marxism  and  Literature  (Oxford:  Oxford  University  Press,  1977)  —  and  of  the  Bakhtin  Circle  and 
commentaries  upon  it,  especially  Mikhail  Bakhtin,  The  Dialogic  Imagination:  Four  Essays,  ed.  Michael 
Holquist,  transl.  Caryl  Emerson  and  Michael  Holquist  (Austin:  University  of  Texas  Press,  1981),  V.N. 
Voloshinov,  Marxism  and  the  Philosophy  of  Language,  transl.  Ladislav  Matejka  and  I.R.  Titunik 
(Cambridge:  Harvard  University  Press,  1986),  and  Michael  Gardiner,  The  Dialogics  of  Critique;  M.M. 
Bakhtin  and  the  Theory  of  Ideology  (London:  Routledge,  1992). 

"Williams,  Marxism  and  Literature,  187-188. 

"Ibid.,  166. 

"Ibid. 

25Ibid.,  165. 

"Consistent  with  the  notion  that  communication  simply  reflects  reality,  Gregory  cites  traditional 
structural-functional,  Parsonian  sources  for  his  conceptions  of  culture  and  ethnicity.  See  Gregory, 
American  Exodus,  304,  fn  30. 

27Most  edited  collections  are  a  result  of  this  preference.  An  example  is  "Yours  for  the  Revolution"; 
The  Appeal  to  Reason,  1895-1922  (Lincoln:  University  of  Nebraska  Press,  1990),  which  is  a  valuable 
collection  of  essays,  but  not  of  alternative  forms.  Of  course,  collections  of  labor  songs  of  the  1930s 
exist,  such  as  Alan  Lomax,  ed.,  Hard-Hitting  Songs  for  Hard-Hit  People  (New  York:  Oak  Publications, 
1967),  but  they  await  their  Eric  Foner  and  their  version  of  Foner's  work  American  Labor  Songs  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century  (Urbana:  University  of  Illinois  Press,  1975),  and  they  are  generally  not  addressed 
as  part  of  a  scholarly  exploration  into  working-class  consciousness.  A  landmark  study  that  takes  this 
view  is  E.P.  Thompson,  The  Making  of  the  English  Working  Class  (New  York:  Vintage,  1966). 

28odd  Gitlin  makes  a  similar  point  when  addressing  the  cultural  role  of  rock-and-roll  music  in  the 
student  movements  of  the  1960s.  See  Gitlin,  The  Sixties;  Years  of  Hope,  Days  of  Rage  (New  York: 
Bantam,  1987),  esp.  195-221. 

"Gabriel  Kolko,  Main  Currents  in  Modern  American  History  (New  York:  Harper  and  Row,  1976; 
reprint,  New  York:  Pantheon  Books,  1984),  147. 

3CStandard  works  include  David  Brundage,  The  Making  of  Western  Labor  Radicalism:  Denver's 
Organized  Workers,  1878-1905  (Urbana:  University  of  Illinois  Press,  1994);  Melvyn  Dubofsky,  We 
Shall  Be  All;  A  History  of  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  (Chicago:  Quadrangle  Books,  1969);  and 


1 00  Hamilton  •  Winter  1999 


Philip  Foner,  The  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World,  1905-1917  (New  York:  International  Publishers, 
1965)-  Cultural  investigations  include  Stewart  Bird,  Dan  Georgakas,  and  Deborah  Shaffer,  Solidarity 
Forever:  An  Oral  History  of  the  IWW  (Chicago:  Lake  View  Press,  1985),  and  Salvatore  Salerno,  Red 
November,  Black  November:  Culture  and  Community  in  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  (Albany: 
State  University  of  New  York  Press,  1989).  Of  particular  relevance  to  the  topic  of  this  study  are  such 
sources  as  Songs  of  the  Workers:  On  the  Road  in  the  Jungles  and  in  the  Shops  (Spokane:  The  Industrial 
Worker,  [191-?])  and  The  Complete  Joe  Hill  Song  Book  (Stockholm:  Prisma/FIBs  Lyrikklubb,  1969). 

3lMajka  and  Majka,  Farm  Workers,  74,  85;  and  Vicki  L.  Ruiz,  Cannery  Women,  Cannery  Lives; 
Mexican  Women,  Unionization,  and  the  California  Food  Processing  Industry,  1930-1950  (Albuquerque: 
University  of  New  Mexico  Press,  1987). 

32 Bitter  Harvest;  258-261,  273-281. 

33Mc Williams,  Factories;  Paul  S.  Taylor  and  Tom  Vasey,  "Historical  Background  of  California  Farm 
Labor,"  Rural  Sociology  1  (June  1936),  281-295;  Paul  S.  Taylor  and  Tom  Vasey,  "Contemporary 
Background  of  California  Farm  Labor,"  Rural  Sociology  1  (December  1936),  401,  404;  Alan  L. 
Olmstead  and  Paul  Rhode,  "An  Overview  of  California  Agricultural  Mechanization,  1870-1930," 
Agricultural  History  62  (Summer  1988),  86-1 12. 

34McWilliams,  Factories. 

35Jamieson,  Labor  Unionism,  Daniel,  Bitter  Harvest,  Majka  and  Majka,  Farm  Workers. 

3'Sidney  Baldwin,  Poverty  and  Politics;  The  Rise  and  Decline  of  the  Farm  Security  Administration 
(Chapel  Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina  Press,  1968). 

37Klehr  points  out  that,  despite  the  important  alliance  of  Comintern  with  the  CIO  during  the 
1930s,  its  role  could  hardly  be  described  as  dominant  or  even  unproblematic.  See  Harvey  Klehr,  The 
Heyday  of  American  Communism;  The  Depression  Decade  (New  York:  Basic  Books,  1984),  136-146, 
223-251-  See  also  Harvey  A.  Levenstein,  Communism,  Anti-Communism,  and  the  CIO  (Westport: 
Greenwood,  1981.) 

38Majka  and  Majka,  Farmworkers,  128-129. 

3,James  L.  McCamy,  Government  Publicity;  Its  Practice  in  Federal  Administration  (Chicago: 
University  of  Chicago  Press,  1939). 

40Elliott  Shore,  Talkin  Socialism:  J.A.  Wayland  and  the  Role  of  the  Press  in  American  Radicalism, 
1890-1912  (Lawrence:  University  Press  of  Kansas,  1988),  94-1 14. 

41  Hamilton,  "Educating  Patriots";  Stein,  "New  Deal  Experiment." 

42EricThomsen,  "Why  Plan  Security  for  the  Migratory  Laborer?"  (paper  presented  to  the 
California  Conference  of  Social  Work,  San  Jose,  12  May  1937),  National  Agricultural  Library, 
Bethesda,  Maryland.  The  global  case  is  summarized  in  Eric  Hobsbawm,  The  Age  of  Extremes  (New 
York:  Pantheon,  1994),  85-108. 

43Stein,  "New  Deal  Experiment";  Hamilton,  "Educating  Patriots." 

"Baldwin,  Poverty  and  Politics. 

45Stein,  "New  Deal  Experiment,"  133;  Mc Williams,  Factories,  294-300. 

46The  overall  situation  (from  a  reformer's  point  of  view)  is  described  in  McWilliams,  Factories,  152- 
211. 

47By  1938,  the  economy  was  sluggishly  recovering  from  a  recession,  and  by  1939  Congress  was 
moving  aggressively  to  dismantle  the  New  Deal.  See  William  E.  Leuchtenberg,  Franklin  D.  Roosevelt 
and  the  New  Deal  1932-1940  (New  York:  Harper  and  Row,  1963),  265-272. 

46"Camp  to  Have  a  Weekly  Paper"  Weedpatch  Cultivator,  2  September  1938,  1.  "Weed  Patch"  was 
the  name  of  the  camp  when  it  was  under  state  management. 

^Weedpatch  Cultivator,  2  September  1938,  1.  Direct  quotations  from  the  newspaper  are  quoted  or 
referred  to  insofar  as  they  exemplify  the  use  of  specific  forms.  They  are  reproduced  verbatim,  except  in 
cases  were  minimal  clarification  in  punctuation  or  spelling  is  needed. 

50Ibid. 

51Ibid.;  Katherine  Dietz,  "Some  Worthwhile  Things  a  Council  Can  Do,"  File  934,  "[Jan.  1940-May 
1940]";  General  Correspondence,  FSA. 

"Jerome  Wilcox  to  Frederick  Soule,  12  April  1940,  file  163-01,  "Genl  [Jan.  to  June  1940]  [1]," 
General  Correspondence,  FSA. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  101 


"Charles  Todd,  "The  'Okies"  Search  for  a  Lost  Frontier,"  The  New  York  Times  Magazine,  27  August 
1939:  10-1 1,  17;  Frederick  Soule  to  John  Fischer,  2  August  1939,  File  160,  "Public  Relations, 
General,  Jan.  1939-Dec.  1939,"  General  Correspondence,  FSA. 

54R.L.  Adams,  "Agricultural  Labor  Requirements  and  Supply,  Kern  County,"  (Berkeley:  Giannini 
Foundation  of  Agricultural  Economics,  1940),  6;  Irving  Bernstein,  Turbulent  Years:  A  History  of  the 
American  Worker,  1933-1941  (Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin,  1969)  144;  Frederick  Soule  to  Jerome 
Wilcox,  19  October  1939,  file  RF-CF-25-160,  "Arvin;  Public  relations,"  Arvin  Camp  Records;  Fred 
W.  Ross  to  Frederick  Soule,  29  September  1939,  file  RF-CF-25-160,  "Arvin;  Public  relations,"  Arvin 
Camp  Records. 

"Majka  and  Majka,  Farm  Workers,  111,  127-129;  Weber,  Dark  Sweat,  164-165- 
5<;Ibid.  Examples  of  privately  held  sentiments  suppressed  publicly  include  Collins'  refusal  to  review 
Mc Williams'  book  Factories  in  the  Field.  See  Thomas  Collins  to  L.W  Harvison,  15  September  1939, 
file  160,  "Public  Relations,  General,  Jan.  1939-Dec.  1939,"  General  Correspondence.  Unofficially, 
however,  Factories  in  the  Field and  The  Grapes  ofWrath  were  highly  regarded  by  the  FSA.  See  Frederick 
Soule  to  John  Fischer,  2  August  1939;  and  John  Fischer  to  Frederick  Soule,  1  June  1939,  8  August 
1939,  and  8  September  1939,  File  160,  "Public  Relations,  General,  Jan.  1939-Dec.  1939,"  General 
Correspondence. 

57Frederick  Soule  to  Jerome  Wilcox,  4  December  1939,  File  163-01,  "Newspapers  and  magazines, 
article  and  press  releases,  Jan.  1939-Dec.  1939,"  General  Correspondence. 

58Walter  Stein,  California  and  the  Dust  Bowl  Migration  (Wesport:  Greenwood  Press,  1973),  252. 
Birkhimer  and  his  family  had  been  in  California  for  three  years,  and  he  had  started  a  chapter  of  the 
Workers'  Alliance  at  Camp  Indio  in  1938.  "Wage  Hearing  is  Held,"  untitled  letter,  Towsack  Tattler,  29 
September  1939,  4;  "This  and  That,"  Towsack  Tattler,  6  October  1939,  9. 

"Sam  Birkhimer,  "Our  Strike,"  Towsack  Tattler,  28  October  1939,  4-5;  Birkhimer,  "Our  Strike,"  17 
November  1939,  5- 

'"Gregory,  American  Exodus,  1 4 1  - 1 42 . 
"Weber,  Dark  Sweat,  137-151. 
"Ibid.,  150-154. 

63James  Bright  Wilson,  "Social  Attitudes  of  Certain  Migratory  Agricultural  Workers  in  Kern 
County,  California"  (MA.  thesis,  University  of  Southern  California,  1942). 

"Ibid.,  277. 

65"Shafter- Wasco  potatoe  [sic]  district,  Kern  Co.  5-6/36";  folder  "History  of  AFL  Agricultural 
Unions";  carton  6,  "FSA";  Simon  J.  Lubin  Society  Papers,  Bancroft  Library,  University  of  California, 
Berkeley. 

"Wilson,  "Social  Attitudes,"  322-343. 

67Guthrie  uttered  this  phrase  often.  One  place  it  appeared  in  the  camp  paper  was  in  untitled,  Tow- 
Sack  Tattler,  28  October  1939,  3. 

68Majka  and  Majka,  Farm  Workers,  130-132;  Sheila  Goldring  Manes,  "Depression  Pioneers:  The 
Conclusion  of  an  American  Odyssey;  Oklahoma  to  California,  1930-1950,  A  Reinterpretation," 
(Ph.D.  dissertation,  University  of  California,  Los  Angeles,  1982),  3;  and  Wilson,  "Social  Attitudes." 

65Wilson,  "Social  Attitudes,"  332-333;  John  Diggins,  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  American  Left  (New 
York:  Norton,  1992),  173-174;  Levenstein,  Communism,  36. 

70"Be  What  You  Is,"  Weed  Patch  Cultivator,  1 1  November  1938,  1.  This  poem  appeared  widely  in 
other  migrant  labor  camp  newspapers.  See  Gregory,  American  Exodus,  1 52. 

7,"Leave  It  In  Jesus's  Hand,"  Weed  Patch  Cultivator,  12  May  1939,  2.  Early  in  the  camp's  existence, 
manager  Tom  Collins  also  commented  in  a  weekly  report  on  the  religious  core  of  migrant  fatalism: 
"The  campers  'Trust  in  the  Lord.'  That  is  good  of  course,  [.  .  .]  However  we  cannot  encourage  them 
to  become  dependent  with  the  hope  that  the  ravens  will  feed  them  or  that  Jonah  will  come  along  with 
his  whale  and  swallow  all  their  troubles."  See  Thomas  Collins,  "Kern  Migratory  Labor  Camp,  Report 
for  week  ending  March  7,  1936,"  7;  file  RF  CF  26  918-01,  "Arvin  [Report]  [March  1936]";  Arvin 
Camp  Records. 

72"To  Them  This  May  Concern,"  Weed  Patch  Cultivator,  21  October  1938,  1. 

73"'A  Grumbler',"  Weed  Patch  Cultivator,  1 1  November  1938,  2. 

74"Prize  for  Best  Poem  or  Idea,"  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  24  August  1939,  1. 


1 02  Hamilton  •  Winter  1 999 


""'Wandering',"  Weed  Patch  Cultivator,  21  October  1938,  2. 

7<sUntitled,  Weed  Patch  Cultivator,  21  October  1938,  2.  Another  example  is  "What  Do  They  Say!," 
Weed  Patch  Cultivator,  25  November  1938,  2.  The  religious  nature  of  migrant  culture  is  noted  in 
depth  by  Wilson,  "Social  Attitudes,"  359-375,  and  summarily  by  Gregory,  American  Exodus,  150. 
Such  items  appeared  most  often  during  major  Christian  holidays.  For  examples,  see  "'Bible  Reading'," 
Weed  Patch  Cultivator,  30  December  1938,  2;  "Bible  reading  for  the  week:-  Acts-20-19  to  21,"  Weed 
Patch  Cultivator,  27  January  1939,  3;  and  "Bible  Reading  of  the  Week,"  Weed  Patch  Cultivator,  3 
February  1939,  3. 

^"Here  Goes  don't  Git  in  a  Hurry  and  Stracks  Back,"  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  6  October  1939,  4. 

78Untitled,  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  6  October  1939,  4. 

''Untitled,  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  20  October  1939,  3-  Woody  Guthrie,  who  noted  that  he  had  "made 
the  Arvin  Camp  lots  of  times  with  the  old  trusty  guitar,  and  listened  to  the  Campers  sing  in  their 
churches  and  at  their  dances,  and  pie  suppers  and  speakins,"  later  set  this  verse  to  music.  In  a 
published  collection  of  songs  in  which  it  was  included,  Guthrie  mentioned  hearing  "a  little  fourteen 
year  old  boy's  poem  called  'I'd  Ruther  To  Die  on  My  Feet  than  Live  on  My  Knees  .  .  .'  Can  you  beat 
that?  No,  you  can't.  It  leapt  out  of  this  boy's  mind  like  a  young  mountain  lion,  and  the  road  was  lined 
with  cops  in  their  big  black  sedans,  laughing,  grunting,  and  talking,  and  a  listening  to  jazz  music  on 
their  radios."  The  14-year-old  boy  —  George  Tapp  —  also  authored  the  cited  poem.  See  Lomax, 
Hard  Hitting  Songs,  225- 

80"Join  the  Union,"  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  28  October  1939,  16;  "'Greenback  Dollar'  (streamlined)," 
Tow-Sack  Tattler,  11  November  1939,  4. 

81It  was  signed  "composed  by  Bill  Kindle,  Omah  Colo  and  Ruby  Rains."  See  "Associated  Farmer 
Has  a  Farm,"  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  17  November  1939,  7.  It  was  Guthrie's  tactic  as  well  to  "take  old  folk 
songs  or  tunes  and  write  new  words  to  them  and  to  rework  the  melody  when  necessary."  See  Guy 
Logsdon,  introduction  to  Woody  Sez,  by  Woody  Guthrie  (New  York:  Grosset  and  Dunlap,  1975),  xiv. 

"Untitled,  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  1 1  November  1939,  10.  As  Guthrie  was  an  accomplished  illustrator  in 
the  homey  style  of  this  illustration,  it  is  likely  that  Guthrie  drew  it  and  signed  it.  At  least  one  notice 
appeared  of  an  impending  visit  of  Guthrie  and  Hollywood  actor  Will  Geer  to  the  Arvin  Camp.  See 
"Woody  and  Gear  [sic]  to  Entertain,"  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  22  September  1939,  2. 

83" Weekly  Letter  from  the  Editor,"  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  6  October  1939,  2;  "Weekly  Letter  from  the 
Editor,"  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  13  October  1939,  4. 

""Editor's  Weekly  Letter,"  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  20  October  1939,  2. 

85"Cotton  Fever,"  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  24  August  1939,  5-  Cotton  was  weighed  and  pickers  were  paid 
by  "hundredweight"  —  100  pounds  of  picked  cotton.  The  common  price  for  a  hundredweight  was 
75  cents,  hence  the  "six  bits."  The  "tow-sack"  of  the  newspaper's  title  is  the  fabric  bag  dragged  by  the 
picker  in  which  picked  cotton  was  placed  prior  to  dumping  it  out  to  get  paid. 

86For  example,  see  "Pea  Picking  Blues,"  8  September  1939,  1;  and  "Just  Around  the  Corner,"  Tow- 
Sack  Tattler,  29  September  1939,  3. 

87"Only  the  Kept  Press,"  Tow-Sack  Tattler,  8  September  1939,  3- 

88Levenstein,  Communism  (68)  notes  that  Lewis  lent  little  support  to  the  UCAPAWA.  In  January 
1938,  he  stopped  CIO  aid. 

8'Bert  Cochran,  Labor  and  Communism;  The  Conflict  that  Shaped  American  Unions  (Princeton: 
Princeton  University  Press,  1977),  143-144.  An  able  overview  is  Anthony  J.  Badger,  The  New  Deal; 
The  Depression  Years,  1933-1940  (New  York:  Noonday,  1989),  286-290;  Ruiz,  Cannery  Women,  55; 
Daniel,  Bitter  Harvest,  281. 

'"Baldwin,  Poverty  and  Politics,  325-33 1 .  The  FSA's  stance  toward  its  programs  can  be  labeled  one 
of  "careful  liberalism"  —  meaning  advocating  change,  but  without  antagonizing  and  putting  into 
danger  its  increasingly  scarce  Congressional  support.  The  source  of  the  phrase  (and  a  brief  overview  of 
the  administrative  milieu  of  the  FSA)  is  Nicholas  Alfred  Natanson,  "Politics,  Culture  and  the  FSA 
Black  Image"  (Ph.D.  diss.,  University  of  Iowa,  1988),  100. 

"Jamieson,  Labor  Unionism. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  103 


104  Winter  1999 


1998  Presidential  Address 

The  Historiographical  Tradition 
in  20th  Century  America 

By  James  D.  Startt 

Editor's  Note:  This  President's  Address  was  delivered  on  October  22,  1 998  at  the  annual 
convention  of  the  American  Journalism  Historians  Association  in  Louisville,  Kentucky. 


Reports  of  the  death  of  history,  to  paraphrase  Mark  Twain 
are  greatly  exaggerated.1  Evidence  to  the  contrary  is  over- 
whelming. Consider  the  public  reaction  to  the  Smith- 
sonian's exhibit  on  the  Enola  Gay  and  the  end  of  World  War  II,  or  to  the 
recent  report  of  the  National  Council  for  History  Standards.2    In  fact, 
we  encounter  proof  that  history  lives  every  day.  The  Constitution  says 
this,  or  our  Founding  Fathers  believed  that,  or  moving  farther  back  in 
time,  Rome  fell  because  of  this.   How  often  have  we  heard  such  state- 
ments? Or  how  often  have  we  heard  Mr.  Everyman  say,  "History  proves 
that.   .   .   ."  As  Gerda  Lerner  comments:  "All  human  beings  are  practic- 
ing historians."3 

There  is,  of  course,  no  reason  to  think  that  ordinary  references  to 
history  are  always  wrong  nor  that  references  by  scholars  are  always 
correct.  Nevertheless,  myths  about  the  past  and  history,  invented  for 
purposes  either  innocent  or  ill,  seem  to  acquire  a  reality  of  their  own. 
Misconceptions  about  the  past  abound,  and  knowledge  about  it  is  far 
from  complete.   Considering  the  vastness  of  human  experience,  it  could 
not  be  otherwise,  but  that  is  no  reason  to  think  that  one  version  of 
history  is  as  good  as  another.  The  state  of  present  knowledge  about  the 
past  and  adherence  to  the  standards  that  assure  each  generation  the 
opportunity  of  knowing  it  make  the  difference.  Historiography,  used 
here  to  mean  the  practice  and  principles  of  history,  is  about  making  that 
difference.4 


James  D.  Startt,  Past  President  of  the  American  Journalism  Historians  Association,  is  Senior 
Research  Professor  of  History  at  Valparaiso  University. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  105 


What  Constitutes  the  Practice  of  History? 

As  historians  we  think  seriously  about  history  more  than  most 
people  do,  but  not  more  than  we  should.  The  same  is  true  of  historiogra- 
phy, for  few  people  pause  to  consider  all  that  constitutes  the  practice  of 
history.  That  alone  is  an  involved  topic,  but  by  restricting  it  to  mean  the 
practice  and  principles  associated  with  the  practice  of  history,  we  reduce  it 
to  manageable  dimensions.   Moreover,  that  limited  meaning  makes  it 
difficult  to  refute  the  claim  that  historians  are  "almost  always  historiogra- 
phers."5   Of  course  we  are,  since  we  are  aware  of  how  we  function  in  our 
work. 

In  fact,  we  work  at  the  current  edge  of  an  old  historiographical 
tradition  with  modern  roots  in  this  country  going  back  to  the  late  19th 
century  and  perhaps  earlier.  Since  it  influences  our  conscious  effort  to 
engage  our  subject,  consideration  of  that  tradition  is  always  pertinent  for 
historians.  Where  to  start?  Colonial  Americans  wrote  a  number  of 
histories,  but  they  were  mostly  of  the  "saintly"  or  promotional  variety. 
The  idea  of  mission  that  flourished  in  those  histories  would  not  be  lost  on 
a  later  generation  of  American  writers.  Nevertheless,  the  modern  historio- 
graphical tradition  had  its  origin  elsewhere. 

Historiography's  Roots  in  Greece 

It  has  roots  traceable  to  ancient  Greece.  They  reach  back  to 
Herodotus  and  his  famous  history,  The  Persian  Wars,  which  he  wrote  to 
preserve  "the  remembrance  of  what  men  have  done."6    In  modern  times, 
Renaissance  and  Enlightenment  scholars  broke  the  hold  religion  had 
gained  over  history  in  subsequent  centuries  and  put  into  place  elements 
that  would  endure  in  its  modern  shape.  We  find,  for  instance,  an  En- 
lightenment historian  like  David  Hume  beginning  his  famous  History  of 
England  with  the  promise  that  he  would  disregard  "fables"  and  concen- 
trate on  those  parts  of  history  that  can  be  "well  ascertained."7    Hume's 
great  contemporary,  Edward  Gibbon,  concurred  with  that  sentiment  and 
declared  in  his  Autobiography  that  "Truth — naked,  unblushing  truth" 
must  be  "the  first  virtue  of .   .   .  serious  history."8    Gibbon's  monumental 
Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  one  of  the  greatest  historical  works 
in  the  English  language,  took  him  20  years  to  research  and  write,  and  it 
proves  that  the  Age  of  Reason,  which  he  personified,  was  also  an  age  of 
elegant  style.  His  great  work  explored  how  institutions  change  over  time, 
included  multiple  causation,  and  offered  interpretation.9    Consequently, 


1 06  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


by  the  19th  century,  an  historic-graphical  tradition  began  to  acquire  some 
of  the  elements  of  shape  familiar  to  us — focus  on  the  object,  the  separa- 
tion of  history  from  philosophy,  religion  and  fable,  the  search  for  truth 
about  the  past,  the  presentation  of  history  as  a  time  conditioned  inquiry, 
and  history  as  an  interpretative  but  documented  subject. 

The  European  influence  on  the  writing  of  American  history  has 
continued  to  this  day,  and  it  was  present  in  the  19th  century,  "The 
Golden  Age  of  History."10    American  history  flourished  during  the 
"Golden  Age,"  and  while  not  discounting  the  European  influence,  it 
manifested  a  genius  of  its  own.  Historians  like  George  Bancroft  and 
Francis  Parkman  elevated  history  in  this  country  to  unprecedented  levels. 
These  romantic-nationalist,  patrician  historians  allowed  current  concepts 
about  nation  and  national  mission  to  frame  their  historical  consciousness, 
and  their  works  had  powerful  appeal.  They  reflected  rigorous  research 
and  skilled  literary  artistry  and  have  lasting  appeal,  but  were  they  objec- 
tive? Toward  the  end  of  the  century,  a  new  group  of  historians  gained 
ascendancy  and  answered  that  question  with  a  resounding  "No." 

Introducing  Scientific  History 

These  historians  rejected  the  specious,  dramatic  history  of  their 
patrician  predecessors  in  favor  of  a  more  scientific  explanation  of  the  past. 
Writing  at  a  time  when  industry  and  urbanization  were  transforming  the 
nation  and  when  the  country  was  rising  as  a  young  power  in  the  commu- 
nity of  states,  these  scholars  sought  to  make  history  one  of  the  growing 
number  of  professionalizing  inquiries.   Moreover,  the  great  expansion  of 
education  at  that  time,  especially  in  colleges  and  graduate  schools, 
afforded  them  the  opportunity  to  do  so.  Like  so  much  else  at  the  time, 
education  acquired  the  prefix  "new,"  and  "new"  meant  scientific.  To  be 
modern  was  to  be  scientific,  and  in  education  this  impulse  extended  into 
non  scientific  areas. 

The  new,  "professional"  or  scientific  historians,  in  contrast  to  the 
"amateurs"  of  previous  generations,  found  in  the  expanding  graduate 
schools  an  opportunity  to  devote  themselves  to  full-time  teaching  and 
writing,  and  under  the  banner  of  science  they  guided  history  into  a  more 
narrow,  in-depth,  record  and  archive  based  enterprise.  They  introduced 
the  graduate  seminar  in  history;  in  1884  they  inaugurated  the  American 
Historical  Association;  in  1895,  the  American  Historical  Review.11    Influ- 
enced by  a  number  of  European  historians  such  as  Henry  Thomas  Buckle, 
Jacob  Burckhardt,  and  mainly  Leopold  von  Ranke,  they  became  preoccu- 
pied with  objectivity,  preferred  dealing  with  institutions  rather  than 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  107 


individuals,  and  chose  to  write  specific  monographs  rather  than  the 
sweeping  historical  narratives  of  the  Parkman  type. 

The  scientific  historians  thought  of  their  work  in  contrast  to  that  of 
the  older  (or  "old-fashioned")  writers.  Now  historians  examined  a  wide 
variety  of  original  sources  in  which  they  attempted  to  separate  truthful 
from  questionable  evidence.  They  claimed  to  march  in  step  with  the 
"scientific  and  realistic  spirit  of  the  age  in  which"  they  lived.12    In  their 
works,  a  progressive  national  theme  can  be  detected,  and  with  the  passing 
of  years  their  scope  became  somewhat  wider  than  later  critics  would 
acknowledge.13    It  should  also  be  noted  that  some  of  the  historians  who 
wrote  major  works  at  the  end  of  the  century  (e.  g.,  James  Ford  Rhodes 
and  Theodore  Roosevelt)  cannot  be  considered  members  of  the  profes- 
sional guild.  It  is,  indeed,  easy  to  exaggerate  when  discussing  any  school 
of  historians  and  the  history  written  at  the  time  it  flourished.  The  same 
can  be  said  of  Ranke,  whom  the  early  scientific  historians  so  admired. 
Latter  day  historians  have  often  portrayed  him  in  too  narrow  terms.  His 
greatest  works  were  much  broader  than  they  allowed. 

Regardless,  having  established  history  as  an  autonomous  academic 
field,  the  scientific  historians  discovered  that  they  could  not  agree  about 
the  identity  that  history  should  have.  Some  preferred  to  identify  them- 
selves as  social  scientists  and  to  pursue  a  focused  and  presentist  study  of 
"the  State  at  rest"  and  "the  State  in  action."14    They  formed  the  American 
Political  Science  Association  in  1904.  Others,  though  a  minority,  resisted 
departure  but  considered  themselves  social  scientists  within  history's  ranks 
with  a  mission  to  ally  history  to  the  social  sciences.15    James  Harvey 
Robinson  was  their  vanguard.  In  1912,  he  published  The  New  History  in 
which  he  argued  that  historians  should  approach  the  past  in  a  selective 
way  that  would  allow  it  to  serve  the  present,  that  rather  than  concentrat- 
ing on  political  events  they  should  broaden  the  scope  of  their  inquiries, 
and  that  they  should  "utilize  the  tools  and  concepts  of  the  social  scien- 
tists."16   Like  their  more  conservative  associates,  they  did  not  question  the 
scientific  base  of  history,  nor  did  they  think  that  the  incompleteness  and 
relativity  of  the  historical  record  made  history  less  than  scientific.  In  fact, 
it  had  only  been  scientific  if  the  word  "science"  was  softened. 

Scientific  history  was  more  of  a  common  sense,  realistic  approach  to 
the  past,  and  at  a  time  when  libraries  and  archives  were  growing,  it  was 
based  on  comprehensively  gathered  and  examined  material.  As  one  of  its 
founders  put  it,  history  was  "truth  about  Conditions  and  Causes  under 
which  and  because  of  any  person,  institution,  custom,  or  what-you-please 
originated,  developed,  attained  maturity,  decayed.   .   .   ."17    Once  the 


1 08  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


New  Historians  tried  to  depart  from  the  quasi-scientific  persuasions  of 
their  elders,  they  were  in  trouble.   Searching  for  specific  laws,  for  scientific 
uniformities,  in  history,  they  pushed  the  claims  of  scientific  history  too 
far.   Moreover,  the  contradiction  between  probing  for  history's  regularities 
while  subordinating  the  pail  to  the  present  confused  their  cause.18 

The  New  History  Stresses  Relativism 

Their  plight  worsened  as  the  relativist  persuasion  of  Carl  Becker 
gained  credence.  Already  in  1910  he  began  to  turn  his  skepticism  on  the 
foundation  of  scientific  history  and  later  made  it  the  subject  of  his  well- 
known  1931  Presidential  Address  to  the  American  Historical  Association 
(AHA),  "Everyman  His  Own  Historian."19    The  cultural  disillusionment 
following  World  War  I,  confusions  emanating  from  the  Great  Depression, 
and  the  misuse  of  science  practiced  in  Nazi  Germany,  called  into  question 
confidence  in  scientific  approaches  to  history,  and  stimulated  interest  in  a 
more  relativist  probing  of  the  past. 

Even  the  powerful  spokesman  of  progressive  history,  Charles  Beard, 
came  to  bemoan  the  cause  of  the  scientific  history  he  had  once  champi- 
oned. Now  he  insisted  that  the  Rankean  historical  method  was  bankrupt. 
"Slowly  it  dawns"  upon  the  practitioners  of  that  method,  he  said,  that 
"the  human  mind  and  the  method  employed  were  not  competent  to  the 
appointed  task  .   .   .  that  if  all  human  affairs  were  reduced  to  law  ...  a 
chief  end  of  the  quest,  that  is,  human  control  over  human  occurrences 
and  actions,  would  itself  become  meaningless.   Should  mankind  discover 
the  law  of  its  total  historical  unfolding,  then  it  would  be  imprisoned  in  its 
own  fate  .  .  ."20 

Nevertheless,  the  New  History,  with  its  stress  on  relativism,  present- 
mindedness,  and  on  discovering  the  deeper  forces  that  caused  political 
and  social  change,  did  enliven  the  debate  about  the  shape  of  history.  It 
also  distorted  that  debate.  Objectivity  versus  subjectivity,  the  real  past 
versus  the  presentist  past,  and  other  such  parings  of  opposites  exaggerate 
positions.  All  such  terms  rest  on  definition;  few  of  the  historians  Beard 
attacked  had  the  positivist  views  of  history  that  he  suggested. 

Controversy  May  Be  Overstated 

In  retrospect,  it  is  easy  to  overstate  the  place  of  controversies  about 
the  methodology  of  the  New  History  in  shaping  the  practice  of  history  in 
this  country  during  the  first  half  of  the  20th  century.  First  of  all,  there  is 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  109 


the  term  the  New  History  to  question.  Its  origins  can  be  found  among 
historians  writing  before  Robinson,  and  it  might  be  more  accurate  to  label 
most  of  his  renowned  contemporaries  "progressive  historians."  Among 
them  were  scholars  like  Frederick  Jackson  Turner,  Charles  A.  Beard,  and 
Vernon  Louis  Parrington  who  did  for  the  historiographical  tradition,  as 
Richard  Hofstadter  argued,  what  the  muckrakers  did  for  journalism.2'    In 
the  case  of  history,  however,  their  progressive  spirit  remained  predomi- 
nant. The  retreat  from  idealism  and  the  widespread  materialism  of  the 
1 920s  and  the  great  economic  travail  of  the  1 930s  encouraged  the 
reformist  bent  of  their  writing  until  the  eve  of  World  War  II. 

Ironically,  at  the  very  time  that  the  progressives'  fondness  for 
stressing  economic  and  political  conflict  in  history  became  increasingly 
unrealistic,  it  was  Beard  who  demonstrated  the  limits  of  relativism  by  his 
intemperate  attacks  on  the  Roosevelt  administration,  his  failure  to 
understand  that  Hitlerian  aggression  in  Europe  was  a  concern  of  the 
United  States,  and  by  his  severe  defense  of  isolationism.  Thus,  the  New 
History  and  progressive  history,  if  a  separation  of  terms  is  preferred, 
ground  to  a  halt  with  the  return  of  world  war.     Some  historians,  more- 
over, never  did  fit  well  into  either  category.  Allan  Nevins,  for  example, 
the  classic  case  of  a  journalist  becoming  an  historian,  emerged  as  a  leading 
figure  among  historians  in  the  1930s  and  wrote  about  business  and 
political  leaders  in  an  appreciative  way  uncommon  to  the  progressive 
writers. 

There  are  other  historiographical  developments  of  this  half  century 
that  deserve  recognition.  There  is  the  obvious  expanding  of  the  scope  of 
American  history  to  acknowledge.  During  this  50  year  period,  for 
instance,  political,  diplomatic,  and  economic  history  flourished  and 
gained  broader  definition  while  fields  like  intellectual,  social,  and  labor 
history  experienced  significant  growth.  Important  work  contributed  to 
the  growing  maturity  of  black  history  and  women's  history.  Biographies 
were  numerous  and  popular.  New  scholarship  stimulated  interest  in  fields 
like  journalism  history.22    Did  the  work  of  the  great  systematizers  of 
history  like  Oswald  Spengler  and  Arnold  Toynbee,  which  gained  influence 
in  Europe  after  World  War  I,  have  a  transatlantic  impact?  No.  They  may 
have  attracted  interest,  but  most  American  historians  resisted  the  deter- 
minism and  reductionism  implicit  in  those  grand  theories. 

The  case  of  the  influence  of  Marxism  was  different  due  to  economic 
conditions  that  begged  for  explanation  and  to  the  progressive  historians' 
fondness  for  economic  and  conflict  interpretations.  Marxism  did  have 
some  influence,  mostly  indirect  and  not  in  its  complete  form.  Some 


110  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


American  scholars  used  parts  of  his  theories  in  their  interpretations  and 
responded  to  his  emphasis  on  economics.   But  they  shied  away  from  his 
dialectic  materialism  and  the  timeless,  universal,  and  revolutionary 
contentions  of  full-blown  Marxism.  As  Carl  Becker  put  it,  "I  have  no 
faith  in  the  infallibility  of  any  man,  or  any  group  of  men,  or  of  the 
doctrines  or  dogmas  of  any  man  or  group  of  men,  except  in  so  far  as  they 
can  stand  the  test  of  free  criticism  and  analysis."23    Even  Charles  Beard, 
renowned  for  his  Economic  Interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  denied  that 
his  work  was  based  on  Marx.24    The  great  portion  of  the  expanding 
American  history  occurred  with  the  help  of  orthodox  methodology. 

Journalists  Expand  the  Public  Appeal  of  History 

Another  development  apparent  by  1950  deserving  of  attention  was 
the  fate  of  the  historical  narrative.  Although  the  great  narrative  historians 
wrote  until  the  end  of  the  19th  century,  their  style  of  writing  failed  to  last 
in  the  20th.  The  early  scientific  historians,  moreover,  had  a  dulling  effect 
on  history  as  literature.  Already  in  1912,  Theodore  Roosevelt  addressed 
this  trend  in  his  1912  AHA  Presidential  Address.  He  deplored  the  way 
science  was  deadening  history  and  stated  that  the  great  appeal  of  a  work 
of  history  was  "as  a  masterpiece  of  literature."25    While  it  is  fair  to  say  that 
a  pedantic  trend  had  appeared  and  would  continue  in  historical  writing, 
some  of  the  leaders  of  the  discipline  resisted  it.  Without  trying  to  emu- 
late the  Bancrofts  and  Parkmans,  they  insisted  that  good  literary  quality 
be  a  standard  of  historical  literature.  Thomas  A.  Bailey,  Samuel  Eliot 
Morison,  Allan  Nevins,  the  young  Arthur  M.  Schlesinger,  Jr.,  Walter 
Prescott  Webb,  and  C.  Vann  Woodward  were  among  the  historians 
writing  at  this  time  who  exemplified  that  idea. 

Moreover,  after  World  War  I,  a  new  audience  of  "middlebrow" 
readers  who  appreciated  nonfiction  emerged.  This  afforded  historians  a 
wonderful  opportunity  to  widen  their  outreach.  Some  did,  but  it  was 
journalists  who  led  in  responding  to  this  opportunity.  Their  production 
of  history  and  biography  in  the  decades  after  World  War  I  was  remark- 
able. The  name  Carl  Sandburg,  of  course,  comes  to  mind,  for  his  biogra- 
phy of  Lincoln  is  a  modern  classic.  Among  others  were:  Frederick  Lewis 
Allen,  Claude  Bowers,  Wilbur  J.  Cash,  Douglas  Southall  Freeman, 
Marquis  James,  Walter  Millis,  George  Fort  Milton,  and  Henry  Pringle. 
They  all  wrote  outstanding  history  or  biography  while  holding  respon- 
sible positions  in  journalism — a  tribute  to  their  industry  and  to  their 
passion  for  history.26 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 1 


It  is  apparent  that  by  mid-century  history  had  acquired  its  modern 
20th  century  shape.  Having  assumed  a  secure  place  in  academe,  it  also 
appealed  to  a  wide  public  audience.  World  War  I  may  have  been  the 
formative  event  of  the  century  and  did  stimulate  interest  in  history,  but 
World  War  II  popularized  it  far  more.  Curiosity  about  that  war  and  its 
causes,  the  country's  assumption  of  greater  international  responsibilities, 
and  the  opening  of  the  cold  war  helped  history  to  resonate  among  the 
informed  public.  As  college  enrollments  surged  thanks  to  postwar 
prosperity  and  the  GI  Bill,  the  size  and  number  of  history  classes 
mounted.  Their  place  in  college  curricula  reflected  their  acquired  shape. 
Except  as  a  matter  of  convenience,  they  were  listed  neither  as  humanities 
nor  social  sciences. 

Practice  proved  that  history  was  more  method  than  science,  more 
interpretative  than  theory,  more  inductive  than  deductive  in  its  reasoning, 
and  more  factual  than  creative  in  its  narration — though  it  enjoyed  kinship 
with  all  of  these  opposites.27    If  historians  now  questioned  the  belief  in 
progress  of  their  1 9th  century  predecessors,  they  remained  optimistic  in 
their  writing.  And,  in  the  spirit  of  Edward  Gibbon,  they  still  believed  in 
truth  as  a  guide  and  object  of  history.   "No  person  without  an  inherent 
loyalty  to  truth,  a  high  degree  of  intellectual  honesty,  and  a  sense  of 
balance,  can  be  a  great  or  even  a  good  historian.  Truth  about  the  past  is 
the  essence  of  history  and  historical  biography.  .  .  ,"  Samuel  Eliot 
Morison  told  the  American  Historical  Association  in  1950.28 

Consensus  History  Emerges 

All  considered,  history's  place  in  American  society  and  culture 
appeared  settled  and  secure  in  the  postwar  years.  Its  content,  moreover, 
seemed  to  reflect  the  current  mood  of  the  country  as  its  prewar  progres- 
sive spirit  waned.  The  belief  grew  among  historians  that  progressive 
history  with  its  prevailing  theme  of  internal  conflict  had  ill-prepared  the 
nation  to  grasp  the  significance  of  the  totalitarian  movements  of  the 
1920s  and  1930s.  The  belief  that  the  present  needed  a  different  historical 
grounding  led  Samuel  Eliot  Morison  to  declare:  "The  age  of 'debunking' 
has  passed,  ...  a  new  generation  both  here  and  in  Europe  is  sounding 
and  elucidating  national  and  sectional  traditions.   But  much  harm  was 
done,  and  little  good."29    Although  a  liberal  historian  himself,  Morison 
claimed  that  balance  should  be  a  hallmark  of  history,  that  the  liberal 
interpretation  had  too  long  guided  history,  and  that  the  country  now 
needed  a  "sanely  conservative"  but  not  "nostalgic"  writing  of  history.30 


112  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


Perhaps  ideas  do  have  a  history  of  their  own  and  pass  out  of  fashion; 
perhaps  the  prewar  progressives'  association  with  isolationism  discredited 
their  cause;  perhaps  the  idea  of  national  unity  needed  to  be  stressed  as  the 
cold  war  continued;  perhaps  after  all  they  had  experienced  in  the  last  20 
years,  Americans  needed  to  rediscover  past  traditions  suggesting  unity, 
continuity,  and  consensus  rather  than  discord.  Thus  there  occurred  an 
historiographical  turn  toward  a  more  positive  view  of  the  past,  personified 
by  historians  like  Daniel  Boorstin  and  Clinton  Rossiter.  It  had  been 
prefigured  earlier.31    Of  course,  no  single  idea  represents  historical 
thought  of  any  time  no  more  than  a  single  idea  expresses  the  thought  of 
any  decade  or  generation,  but  a  conservative  or  "consensus"  view  of 
history  ascended  to  redirect  its  basic  shape.  That  ascendancy  would  be 
challenged. 

Consensus  history  fit  the  first  period  of  postwar  American  life,  from 
1945  into  the  early  1950s,  but  it  encountered  stormy  times  during  the 
ensuing  years.  Between  the  mid  1950s  and  the  mid  1970s,  new  forces 
emerged  to  challenge  and  divide  the  national  mood  that  consensus  history 
reflected.32    A  spirit  of  reform  with  a  rebellious  edge  grew  and  became 
more  radical  as  the  1960s  proceeded.  If  the  cold  war  was  the  central 
international  event  for  Americans  at  that  time,  the  civil  rights  movement 
was  its  domestic  equivalent.  It  occupied  a  pivotal  position  in  the  nation's 
thought  and  action,  and  as  it  struck  against  segregation,  it  vitalized  or 
revitalized  other  reform  movements.  By  the  end  of  the  1 960s  a  strong 
women's  liberation  movement  appeared  that  would  soon  produce  dra- 
matic social  changes.  Peace,  poverty  and  the  environment  all  became 
targets  of  reform  and  often  inspired  protest  demonstrations.  As  the 
Vietnam  conflict  escalated,  politics  became  more  confrontational  and  a 
"counterculture"  youth  movement  that  attacked  many  traditional  values 
gathered  momentum. 

New  Left  Historians  Emphasize  Conflict 

Much  of  the  temperament  of  the  '60s  appeared  in  the  practice  of 
history  as  it  did  in  other  disciplines.   Between  the  early  years  of  the 
century  when  the  New  History  appeared  with  its  progressive  thrust  until 
World  War  II,  discord  and  insurgency  had  been  a  major  part  of  the 
nation's  history,  but  the  post  World  War  II  consensus  historians 
deemphasized  it.  Now  a  group  of  New  Left  historians  emerged  who 
wanted  to  restore  themes  of  conflict,  struggle,  and  exploitation  to  Ameri- 
can history.  These  historians,  William  Appleman  Williams,  Walter  La 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  1 13 


Feber,  Staughton  Lynd  and  others,  probed  into  diplomatic  as  well  as 
domestic  history,  and  in  some  cases  they  searched  for  a  usable,  radical  past 
to  serve  as  a  political  weapon  against  present  maladjustments  of  society. 

Never  a  homogeneous  group,  the  New  Left  declined  as  a  group  in 
time,  but  their  passion  and  spirit  can  be  detected  in  later  causes  historians 
championed.  Unlike  historians  who  promoted  other  causes,  most  of  the 
New  Left  historians  remained  traditional  in  terms  of  methodology. 
Historians  involved  in  black  history  and  especially  women's  history  were 
more  willing  to  experiment  with  new  techniques  and  approaches  to 
history.  While  the  expanding  social  interests  associated  with  the  '60s 
broadened  the  scope  of  history,  the  sequence  of  new  approaches  emerging 
threatened  to  change  its  character. 

Judging  from  the  number  of  fields  of  history  that  acquired  the 
adjective  "new"  to  their  name,  a  wave  of  newness  appeared  to  be  sweeping 
through  the  contours  of  the  inquiry.  In  part,  this  can  be  explained  by  the 
nature  of  the  generational  feeling  widespread  among  the  youth  of  that 
time,  and  in  part  it  can  be  seen  as  a  response  to  recent  historical  events. 
Already  in  1953,  Hannah  Arendt  went  so  far  as  to  pronounce  that  history 
was  unable  to  provide  understanding  of  the  then  present  evil  of  totalitari- 
anism since  it  was  a  world  movement  without  precedent  that  exposed  to 
ruin  traditional  "categories  of  thought  and  standards  of  judgment."33 
Although  extreme,  her  statement  captured  the  turn  of  mind  a  number  of 
historians  were  experiencing.34 

Examining  the  "Precariousness  of  Human  Effort" 

In  pursuit  of  new  problems  in  history  or  new  answers  to  old  ones, 
many  historians  were  attracted  to  new  methodologies  and  approaches 
being  advanced  by  other  disciplines.  Acceptance  of  these  practices, 
however,  was  far  from  complete  and  would  occasion  debates  among 
historians  for  the  next  several  decades.  Specifically,  the  debate  turned  on 
three  sequential  but  overlapping  developments:    1)  certain  practices 
gaining  currency  in  the  social  sciences;  2)  the  expansion  of  the  new  social 
history;  and  3)  a  composite  development  that  I  shall  refer  to,  for  lack  of  a 
better  term,  as  "postmodernism." 

Regarding  the  first  item  in  the  sequence,  it  should  be  pointed  out 
that  the  question  was  not  the  old  one  regarding  whether  or  not  history 
was  a  social  science.  Long  before  it  had  been  resolved  by  most  historians 
that  history  was  not  a  social  science  as  such  but  rather  a  study  that  could 


114  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


have  much  in  common  with  social  sciences.35    The  new  social  history 
might  call  that  assumption  into  question,  but  at  the  start  of  the  renewed 
debate  regarding  the  social  sciences  attention  was  focused  on  particular 
practices.  For  example,  as  social  scientists  applied  their  techniques  to 
human  behavior  and  sought  to  perfect  their  understanding  of  specialized 
and  often  small  units  of  research,  they  seemed  to  part  company  with 
historians,  who,  however  specified  their  research  might  be,  were  expected 
to  relate  it  to  larger  categories  of  knowledge.   Consequently,  the  generali- 
zations they  reached  were  not  as  sharply  defined  as  those  of  the  social 
scientists. 

Richard  Hofstadter  explained  the  difference  in  this  way.  As  the 
historian  moves  beyond  the  small  units  of  his  research  to  engage  the  larger 
questions  of  the  past,  he  "confronts  the  precariousness  of  human  effort, 
sees  the  passing  not  only  of  great  states  and  powerful  institutions  but  of 
militant  faiths  and,  most  pertinent  for  him,  of  the  very  historical  perspec- 
tives that  were  identified  with  them.  At  this  point  he  is  persuaded  to 
accept  the  imaginative  as  well  as  the  cognitive  side  of  his  own  work  .   .   . 
and  he  realizes  more  fully  than  before  how  much  history  is  akin  to 
literature."36    Many  other  historians  continued  to  consider  narrative  a 
defining  characteristic  of  history.37 

In  fact,  orthodox  historians  questioned  that  a  number  of  social 
science  techniques,  which  had  gained  currency  since  World  War  II,  had 
great  applicability  to  history — "model  building"  for  one,  quantification 
for  another.  Moreover,  devotees  of  these  methods  sometimes  angered 
historians  by  referring  to  history  as  only  a  descriptive  and  impressionistic 
exercise.  At  times  historians  responded  with  little  tact  to  such  inferences. 
It  was,  for  instance,  the  president  of  the  AHA,  Carl  Bridenbaugh,  who 
countered,  "The  finest  historians  will  not  be  those  who  succumb  to  the 
dehumanizing  methods  of  social  sciences,  whatever  their  uses  and  values, 
which  I  hasten  to  acknowledge.  Nor  will  the  historian  worship  at  the 
shrine  of  the  Bitchgoddess,  quantification.  History  offers  radically 
different  values  and  methods."38 

While  other  historians  criticized  claiming  too  much  for  quantifica- 
tion, they  admitted  that  when  carefully  used  it  had  a  place  in  history.39 
After  all,  historians  had  counted  for  ages.  Arthur  Schlesinger,  Jr.  probably 
struck  the  proper  balance  when  he  summed  up  the  case  of  quantification 
in  history  in  this  manner.   "As  an  humanist,  I  am  bound  to  reply  that 
almost  all  important  questions  are  important  precisely  because  they  are 
not  susceptible  to  quantitative  answers.  The  humanist .   .   .  does  not  deny 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 5 


the  value  of  the  quantitative  method.  What  he  denies  is  that  it  can  handle 
everything  which  the  humanist  must  take  into  account;  what  he  con- 
demns is  the  assumption  that  things  which  quantitative  methods  can't 
handle  don't  matter."40 

The  Use  of  "Collective  Mentalities" 

The  case  of  using  psychological  methods  as  tools  of  history  requires 
more  explanation.  Already  in  1958  William  Langer  in  his  AHA  Presiden- 
tial Address  urged  historians  to  use  the  concepts  of  modern  psychology  to 
perceive  "collective  mentalities"  related  to  historical  inquiries.  He  used 
the  psychological  effects  of  a  traumatic  event,  the  Black  Death,  to  make 
his  point.41    Langer,  like  Preserved  Smith  long  before,  also  expressed  an 
interest  in  psychoanalytical  biography42    That  interest,  in  fact,  had  been 
growing  for  sometime,  not  surprising  given  the  impact  that  Sigmund 
Freud  has  had  on  the  thought  of  this  century.  When  handled  with  care 
and  kept  within  reasonable  boundaries,  it  appeared  to  have  much  to 
offer.43    Erik  Erikson's  contributions  to  the  field  stimulated  even  more 
interest  in  it.  However,  his  Young  Man  Luther  attracted  some  sharp 
criticism  by  historians  as  did  a  popular  study  of  Woodrow  Wilson  by 
Sigmund  Freud  and  William  Bullitt.44 

The  skeptics  worried  that  the  psychoanalyzing  of  historical  figures 
produced  claims  that  could  not  be  proven  since  these  people  were  no 
longer  alive  and  the  possible  cure  that  would  prove  the  analysis  was  no 
longer  possible.  Some  complained  that  appropriate  evidence  for  such 
conclusions  was  missing,  or  that  such  evidence  when  found  was  not  time 
conditioned.  Others,  like  Jacques  Barzun  wondered  if  the  process  placed 
too  much  emphasis  on  "fixations,"  "deep  attachments,"  and  on  character- 
istics of  adulthood  dredged  up  from  speculations,  or  even  facts  about 
one's  youth.  Or,  it  might  encourage  an  old  historical  error,  allowing  an 
event  to  define  cause.   "Chainsmoking,"  he  reasoned,  "may  well  express  a 
regressive  desire  to  suck  the  breast,  but  sucking  the  breast  does  not  lead  to 
lung  cancer,  and  our  hero's  death  has  to  be  explained  by  chain-smok- 
ing."45   More  recently,  as  they  discover  more  about  the  biological  makeup 
of  the  brain  and  the  relationship  between  a  person's  genetic  history  and 
human  behavior,  scientists  are  questioning  the  emphasis  Freud  placed  on 
the  irrational  processes  of  individual  thought.46 

As  for  the  broader,  cultural  implications  of  Freud's  theories,  they  too 
occasioned  skepticism  among  historians.  Freud's  claim,  for  instance,  that 
private  religion  was  obsessional  neurosis  and  that  religion  itself  was  mass 
obsessional  neurosis,  was  bound  to  disturb  historians.  It  was  as  reduction- 

116  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


istic  as  Marxism.  If  Marx  traced  human  behavior  to  economic  forces  and 
considered  the  "personal"  or  "private"  factor  only  as  a  manifestation  of 
those  forces,  Freud  traced  it  to  psychological  roots.  In  both  cases,  histori- 
ans had  reason  to  question  the  devaluation  of  culture,  politics,  and  various 
social  realities  in  such  grand  schemes.47 

For  a  variety  of  reasons,  then,  orthodox  historians  were  uneasy  about 
the  viability  of  certain  social  science  methodologies  for  history  unless  they 
were  properly  qualified.  Nevertheless,  by  the  1960s  the  old  tension 
between  history  and  the  social  sciences  appeared  to  be  waning.  Orthodox 
historians  often  acknowledge  that  advances  in  the  social  sciences  must  be 
considered  for  their  possible  enhancement  of  historical  accuracy  and  for 
their  use  in  probing  into  undeveloped  areas  of  the  historical  past.48    The 
social  sciences,  moreover,  were  acquiring  a  renewed  appreciation  of 
historical  perspective.  The  rapprochement  had  been  long  in  coming  but 
would  prove  illusory.  A  new  challenge  to  historical  orthodoxy  was  already 
mounting.  Although  quite  diverse,  the  challenge  can  be  appreciated  by 
observing  the  rise  of  the  new  social  history. 

The  Rise  of  the  New  Social  History 

As  in  the  case  of  so  many  of  the  "new"  histories  that  appeared  in  the 
1960s  and  1970s,  the  new  social  history  had  significant  antecedents.49 
Major  historians  in  the  19th  and  early  20th  centuries  had  advanced  the 
cause — especially  J.  R.  Green  and  G.  M.  Trevelyan,  two  English  historians 
who  influenced  their  American  counterparts,  and  John  Back  McMaster 
and  Arthur  Schlesinger,  Sr.  in  this  country.   It  was  Trevelyan  who  de- 
scribed this  brand  of  history  as  "the  history  of  a  people  with  politics  left 
out."50 

Moreover,  the  New  History  that  James  Harvey  Robinson  and 
Charles  A  Beard  championed  two  generations  before  had  a  social  compo- 
nent. Social  history,  however,  only  became  a  separate  field  in  the  1950s.51 
The  rising  interest  of  historians  in  quantification  and  other  current  social 
science  methodologies  provided  the  tools  that,  in  many  cases,  would  be 
needed  to  explore  various  subjects  of  this  "new"  inquiry.  It  is  also  worth 
remembering  that  it  was  cast  against  the  backdrop  of  one  of  the  momen- 
tous transformations  of  modern  centuries,  the  decolonization  of  Africa 
and  Asia,  the  corresponding  successful  national  movements  in  those  areas, 
and  the  relative  reduction  of  Western  Europe's  political  world  position. 

An  even  more  immediate  context  for  this  new  history  can  be  found 
in  the  temper  of  the  '60s  noted  previously  in  relation  to  the  growth  of  the 
New  Left.  The  spirit  of  tension  and  rebelliousness  associated  with  that 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  1 17 


decade  and  its  attachment  to  anti-institutional  causes  reverberated  among 
groups  of  other  historians  who,  as  a  result  both  of  their  frustration  and 
idealism,  became  dissatisfied  with  many  aspects  of  the  social  and  intellec- 
tual order,  including  consensus  history.  They  rejected  its  portrayal  of 
unity  in  history  when  so  many  people  were  omitted  from  consideration. 
They  questioned  the  habit  of  understanding  politics  through  the  study  of 
political  elites  when  grassroots  movements  like  the  civil  rights  movement, 
the  feminist  movement,  and  the  antiwar  protest  of  their  time  were  prov- 
ing the  contrary. 

Transatlantic  influences  also  inspired  the  new  social  history.  A 
renewed  interest  in  Marxism  was  part  of  this  inspiration  as  was  the  work 
of  some  distinguished  British  and  French  contemporary  historians. 
Among  the  British  were  several  scholars  who  had  been  attracted  to 
Marxism  (e.  g.,  Christopher  Hill,  Eric  Hobsbawn,  and  E.  P.  Thompson), 
whose  reputation  among  American  intellectuals  was  great. 

The  influence  of  the  Annates  school  of  historians  in  France  may  have 
been  even  greater.52    According  to  Fernand  Braudel,  whose  efforts  to 
spread  the  influence  of  the  school  far  beyond  France  cannot  be  overstated, 
Annates  historians  rejected  specialized  history  and  sought  a  "science  of 
history"  that  would  keep  the  entire  social  spectrum  and  all  levels  of 
consciousness  within  its  domain."53    No  wonder  its  influence  was  inspir- 
ing. Furthermore,  in  the  hands  of  a  Braudel,  with  his  interest  in  geogra- 
phy, demography,  and  economics,  the  new  history  could  even  be  an 
expansive  exploration  of  entire  societies,  empires,  and  civilizations.  It  was 
exciting.  However,  he  had  few  imitators  among  American  historians. 

The  new  social  history  again  illustrates  the  risks  involved  in  efforts 
to  define  historical  schools  or  labels.  In  some  respects,  however,  references 
to  it  as  "history  from  below"  and  as  "populist  history"  are  helpful,  because 
they  make  the  distinction  between  this  history  and  "history  from  above" 
or  "elitist"  history.  Whereas  orthodox  history  stressed  political,  diplo- 
matic, and  military  studies,  focused  on  events,  and  was  narrative  in  style, 
the  "new"  history  moved  away  from  the  political  to  embrace  every  field  of 
human  activity  and  contended  that  reality  was  a  social  and  cultural 
phenomenon.  Instead  of  great  ideas,  it  explored  collective  mentalities, 
and  in  terms  of  style  tended  towards  the  analytical  rather  than  the  narra- 
tive.54 

The  new  social  historians  studied  topics  usually  absent  in  main- 
stream historical  writing — topics  such  as:  illiteracy,  ethnicity,  gender, 
criminality,  sexuality,  overlooked  protest  movements,  and  the  family. 
They  insisted  that  the  historical  experience  of  women  be  taken  seriously, 


118  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1999 


that  previously  overlooked  people  who  were  "disinherited  from  American 
heritage"  be  accorded  their  due  place  in  history,  that  ethnic  groups  be 
recognized  in  the  American  past,  and  that  the  lives  of  ordinary  people  be 
brought  into  the  fabric  of  history.55    Historians  writing  black  history  and 
the  history  of  women,  fields  that  were  rapidly  changing  at  the  time,  were 
drawn  to  the  openness  as  well  as  to  the  current  social  science  techniques 
of  the  new  social  history.56    "Without  the  growing  sophistication  of 
contemporary  social  history,"  one  of  the  new  women  historians  explained, 
"the  history  of  the  New  Women's  History  could  not  be  written."57 

The  achievement  of  the  new  social  history  in  its  heyday  was  consid- 
erable. It  helped  to  democratize  history,  to  explore  hitherto  overlooked 
private  sectors  of  the  past,  to  explore  social  conflicts,  and  more.   Some  of 
our  foremost  contemporary  historians  (e.  g.,  David  Hackett  Fischer  and 
Eugene  Genovese)  produced  major  works  writing  in  this  genre.  Yet,  while 
it  still  retains  a  position  in  historiography  and  has  its  devotees,  uncertainty 
can  be  detected  in  its  ranks  and  its  sometimes  implied  or  even  expressed 
intent  to  replace  orthodox  history  has  given  way  to  a  search  for  more  ways 
to  interact  with  the  mainstream  of  history.58    There  are  several  explana- 
tions for  its  present  status. 

Devaluing  "Traditional"  History 

First  of  all,  at  the  peak  of  the  field's  popularity  in  the  1970s,  some  of 
its  practitioners  made  excessive  claims  about  its  potential  and  displayed 
irritating,  short-sighted  arrogance  in  the  manner  in  which  they  advanced 
their  cause.  Social  history  was  superior  history,  the  only  really  meaningful 
history,  the  only  one  that  dealt  with  "deeper  realities"  and  could,  there- 
fore, be  comprehensive.  Older  history  was  devalued  as  "archaic,"  "narra- 
tive" (implying  a  lack  of  analysis),  or  "failed  sociology,"  or  as  "tradi- 
tional."59   The  last  term  is  a  curious  code  word  to  use  in  a  disparaging 
way  in  reference  to  historians!  Such  charges  appeared  ill-fitted  to  reality 
since  they  were  made  at  a  time  when  Hitler's  Germany  and  Stalin's  Soviet 
Union  were  fresh  in  memory  and  when  China  was  reeling  under  the 
direction  of  Chairman  Mao.  It  could  be  argued  that  World  War  II,  an 
historical-military  event,  shaped  attitudes  alive  in  the  then  present  cold 
war.  Moreover,  despite  the  enthusiasm  associated  with  the  new  social 
history,  political  history  persisted — even  in  France,  the  home  of  the 
Annates  school.  That  school,  in  fact,  has  experienced  fragmentation  and 
introspective  doubts.60    The  same  can  be  said  of  the  "new"  history  in  this 
country. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  1 19 


Indeed,  as  numerous  historians  have  commented,  fragmentation 
became  a  basic  problem  for  the  new  social  history.  Given  the  prolifera- 
tion of  its  subfields  and  their  bent  towards  over-specialized  focus,  their  use 
of  narrow  quantification  analysis,  their  propensity  for  theorizing,  and 
their  use  of  problem  solving  techniques  of  the  social  sciences,  fragmenta- 
tion was  unavoidable.  "Most  of  the  new  social  historians,"  Alice  Kessler- 
Harris  observes,  "have  chosen  to  elaborate  the  microcosm  [of  particular 
aspects  of  history]  in  the  hope  that  their  own  tiny  contribution  to  the 
jigsaw  puzzle  will  ultimately  help  to  construct  a  new  interpretation  of  our 
past."61    A  fine  hope,  but  it  has  not  been  realized  except  in  particular 
cases.  There  were  too  many  pieces  with  edges  that  did  not  match,  and 
some  pieces  were  not  entirely  part  of  the  puzzle. 

It  can  be  argued,  for  instance,  that  while  women's  history  has 
expanded  social  history,  that  many  new  social  historians  have  ignored 
questions  germane  to  women's  history.62    Unlike  numerous  other  sub- 
fields  of  social  history,  women's  history  intercepts  with  general  history  at 
so  many  points  that  it  might  well  qualify  as  a  field  of  its  own  rather  than 
as  a  subfield  of  social  history.  Moreover,  compared  to  the  abundance  of 
quantitative  sources  available  for  the  related  subfield  of  family  history, 
those  available  for  the  study  of  women's  history  are  inadequate.  Practitio- 
ners of  women's  history,  therefore,  turned  to  and  found  literary  evidence 
to  inform  their  research.63    In  many  respects,  the  same  can  be  said  of 
black  history.  A  rich  array  of  traditional  historical  sources  beyond  statis- 
tics exist  for  it.  Should  subfields  such  as  these  really  be  subfields  or, 
contrary  to  the  centrifical  drift  of  some  of  the  other  categories  of  social 
history,  do  they  have  a  natural  connection  with  the  historical  mainstream 
in  terms  of  both  content  and  methodology? 

Equally  troublesome  for  the  subfields  of  the  rubric  was  their  deliber- 
ate disassociation  with  the  political  content  characteristic  of  orthodox 
historiography.  Thus  the  subfields  tended  toward  a  particularism  that 
resisted  assimilation  with  larger  historical  patterns,  not  only  with  their 
universalist  norm  that,  notwithstanding  its  shortcomings,  had  shaped 
American  history  but  also  with  their  encompassing  interpretations  of 
political  persuasion,  polity,  and  power.  In  the  spirited  language  of  Eugene 
Genovese  and  Elizabeth  Fox-Genovese,  writing  already  in  1976,  "as 
admirable  as  much  of  the  recent  social  history  has  been  and  as  valuable  as 
much  of  the  description  of  the  life  of  the  lower  classes  may  eventually 
prove,  the  subject  as  a  whole  is  steadily  sinking  into  a  neoantiquarian 
swamp.   .   .  ."64    Writing  from  a  Marxist  perception,  they  were  lamenting 
the  lack  of  class  confrontation  in  current  social  history,  but  their  com- 
ment addresses  a  central  problem  of  the  rubric. 


1 20  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


Looking  for  a  National  Narrative 

It  might  even  be  acknowledged  that  in  their  sometimes  overemo- 
tional  reaction  to  the  new  history  that  its  public  critics  made  some  viable 
arguments.  They  protested  that  the  new  history  neglected  important, 
especially  political,  aspects  of  the  American  past.   Where  was  the  national 
narrative?  Was  proper  attention  given  to  "the  individual"  or  to  the 
progressive  force  (or  hope)  that   previously  had  been  a  part  of  our  his- 
tory?65   The  new  social  history  had,  in  fact,  placed  the  "group"  over  the 
individual  and  did  not  manifest  much  of  the  old  progressive  spirit.   By 
stressing  "history  from  the  bottom  up"  it  appeared  to  overlook  the  salient 
fact,  that  much  of  history  and  indeed  much  of  life  in  its  social-political 
setting,  is  influenced  from  the  top  down.  As  Leon  Trotsky  once  said, 
"While  you  may  not  be  interested  in  the  State,  the  State  is  interested  in 
you."66 

The  fragmentation  and  inwardness  found  in  the  new  social  history 
are  clues  that  take  us  to  the  edge  of  the  third  source  of  debate  among 
contemporary  historians — that  associated  with  the  ill-defined  term, 
"postmodernism."  As  various  historians  point  out,  postmodernism  is  "a 
notoriously  slippery  label."67    Indeed  it  is.  Is  it  synonymous  with  struc- 
turalism (if  structuralism  is  taken  to  mean  semiology),  with  post- 
structuralism,  or  with  deconstruction?  Is  it  the  same  as  "the  new  histori- 
cism"  or  "the  new  cultural  history?"  Is  it  postmodernity  (e.  g.,  modern 
life)  or  post-modernism  (e.g.,  a  movement  in  the  arts  and  architecture)? 
Some  authorities  on  postmodernism  claim  it  defies  precise  definition.  It 
appears  at  least  as  a  case  of  what  Winston  Churchill  once  referred  to  as 
"terminological  inexactitude.  "68 

Nevertheless,  postmodernism  represents  a  critique  of  the  historio- 
graphical  tradition,  one  that  has  occasioned  emphatic  responses  from 
historians.  The  roots  of  this  critique  reach  back  at  least  to  the  1 9th 
century  philosopher  Friedrich  Nietzsche  and  have  grown  amid  those  20th 
century  forces  manifesting  cultural  disillusionment  alluded  to  earlier.69 
Once  again  the  influence  of  transatlantic  thought  was  of  major  conse- 
quence, most  notably  that  of  Michel  Foucault  and  Jacques  Derrida.  Their 
reputation  in  this  country  spread  after  the  Vietnam  War,  with  the  waning 
of  the  cold  war,  and  with  the  rise  of  the  multicultural  questioning  of  the 
norms  of  national  identity,  which  at  times  became  associated  with  politi- 
cal action.70 

Notwithstanding  the  complexity  of  their  theories,  certain  elements 
in  them  are  striking.  Foucault  saw  discontinuity  rather  than  continuity  in 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  121 


history,  rejected  the  idea  that  knowledge  grew  through  time,  and  targeted 
submerged  communities  and  marginalized  groups  rather  than  larger  ones 
like  the  state  to  study.  He  was  concerned  with  the  heterogeneity  of  life 
and  with  the  techniques  of  power  that  he  detected  in  it.  Contrary  to  the 
humanist  idea  of  the  individual  as  a  rational  being,  he  claimed  that  the 
mind  was  not  free,  that  it  was  controlled  by  the  structure  of  language. 
Regarding  Derrida,  he  advanced  a  "deconstructionist"  approach  to 
language  in  which  a  "text"  has  endless  meanings,  none  of  which  explains 
what  the  author  meant.71    As  a  form  of  literary  criticism,  deconstruction 
overturned  the  traditional  value  attached  to  literature,  but  its  influence 
extended  to  other  studies  as  well.  In  history  it  represented  a  "linguistic 
turn"  that  was  hardly  what  the  orthodox  champions  of  historical  narrative 
expected. 

Postmodernist  theories  strike  at  the  core  of  history.  Its  extreme 
cultural  relativism  negates  history's  pursuit  of  objective  truth,  the  validity 
of  historical  evidence,  and  the  idea  of  discovering  reality  beyond  dis- 
course. They  deny  that  the  historical  narrative  describes  an  actual  past.72 
Hayden  White,  an  advocate  of  these  theories,  claims  that  historical 
narratives  are  as  much  " invented zs  found,"  that  they  are  "verbal  fic- 
tions."73   Although  much  is  left  unsaid  in  this  brief  introduction  of 
postmodernism  as  it  relates  to  history,  and  while  it  is  only  fair  to  mention 
that  postmodernists  are  not  all  of  one  mind,  the  challenge  the  movement 
poses  for  history  is  unmistakable.  With  its  extreme  references  to  the 
presentist  meaning  of  texts  and  with  its  dismissal  of  historical  truth,  as 
well  as  historical  causation,  context,  and  continuity,  it  appears  to  be 
incompatible  with  the  historiographical  tradition.74 

Is  Elvis  Dead? 

While  some  social  and  some  feminist  historians  have  found 
postmodernist  theories  congenial  to  their  inquiries,  the  bulk  of  practicing 
historians  reject  them,  indeed,  with  greater  vigor  than  they  used  in 
references  to  other  departures  from  orthodoxy.  Joyce  Appleby,  G.  R. 
Elton,  and  Lawrence  Stone  are  among  the  better  known  historians  whose 
criticism  could  be  cited.75    One  example,  offered  by  the  preeminent  Eric 
Hobsbawn,  will  have  to  suffice.   He  argues  that  historians  are  duty-bound 
to  oppose  "the  rise  of 'postmodernist'  intellectual  fashions  .   .   .  which 
imply  that  all  'facts'  claiming  objective  existence  are  simply  intellectual 
constructions — in  short,  that  there  is  no  clear  difference  between  fact  and 
fiction.  .  .  .  There  is  .   .  .  for  instance,  even  for  the  most  militantly 
anti-positivist  ones  among  us,  the  ability  to  distinguish  between  the  two. 


1 22  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


.   .   .  We  cannot  invent  our  facts.  Either  Elvis  Presley  is  dead  or  he 
isn't."76 

That  the  postmodernist  thrust  challenges  the  historiographical 
tradition  at  its  core,  is  hard  to  deny.   Unlike  other  challenges  covered  in 
these  comments,  if  its  extreme  claims  are  taken  seriously,  they  would 
repudiate  history  as  it  is  known.77    With  some  exception,  its  influence, 
which  was  never  widespread  among  most  practicing  historians,  appears  to 
be  waning.78    This  does  not  mean  that  the  historiographical  tradition  can 
expect  to  proceed  unfettered  in  the  future.  As  we  have  seen,  at  every  turn 
in  the  unfolding  of  the  tradition,  problems  appeared,  and  no  doubt  that 
will  continue  to  be  the  case. 

Since  the  1950s,  there  has  been  the  problem  of  "sprawl"  of  content, 
and  the  practices  of  historians  since  then  have  intensified  it.  Until  the 
1960s,  there  was  a  coherence  or  a  unity  (sometimes  referred  to  as  grand 
narrative)  in  American  history.  That  has  passed  and  historians  are  at 
present  discussing  the  impact  this  has  on  the  perceived  significance  of 
history.79    The  recent  popularity  of  "microhistory"  only  worsens  the 
problem.  Regardless,  the  search  for  some  type  of  new  larger  framework 
proceeds.  It  is  worth  noting  that  throughout  the  century  the  narrative 
element  never  disappeared  from  the  historiographical  tradition;  in  fact,  it 
remained  quite  alive  and  retains  the  potential  for  broadening  the  scope  of 
that  tradition.   How  far,  no  one  can  say  at  this  time. 

Historians  Reflect  Their  "Climate  of  Opinion" 

As  it  stands,  however,  the  historiographical  tradition  reveals  a  great 
deal  about  historians  and  the  study  of  history.  Historians,  for  instance,  do 
reflect  what  Carl  Becker  labeled  "the  climate  of  opinion"  of  their  time  in 
their  writing.  They  have  demonstrated  a  willingness  to  experiment  with 
new  methodologies  and  principles  in  their  work,  and  the  substance  of 
history  has  benefited  from  that  experimentation.  With  their  emphasis  on 
the  scientific  pursuit  of  history,  however  qualified  that  term  needs  to  be, 
the  late  19th  century  historians  made  history  a  major  subject  in  American 
education,  saved  it  from  romantic  flights  from  reality,  and  provided 
incentive  for  historians  to  exploit  the  great  expansion  of  the  sources, 
particularly  the  archival  sources,  of  knowledge  of  their  time. 

The  progressive  historians  broadened  the  inquiry  and  restored  spirit 
and  vision  to  it.  Consensus  historians  distanced  history  from  the  crusad- 
ing impulses  of  the  1930s  and  sought  to  address  the  needs  of  a  generation 
seeking,  in  the  words  of  J.  Rogers  Hollingsworth,  to  understand  "the 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  123 


uniqueness  and  essence"  of  America.80    For  all  of  their  radicalism,  New 
Left  historians  redirected  historical  inquiry  to  the  quite  real  conflict  in  the 
American  past  that  consensus  historians  had  deemphasized.  New  social 
historians  and  historians  working  in  the  fields  of  black  history  and 
women's  history  have  corrected  many  older  ideas  about  race,  gender,  age, 
and  much  more.  As  a  result  of  their  efforts,  we  are  considerably  more 
aware  of  cultural  diversity  in  our  past.  Even  in  the  case  of  postmodernist 
historians,  it  can  be  argued  that  they  will  sharpen  the  practices  of  verifica- 
tion and  credibility  in  historical  criticism  and  will  lead  historians  toward  a 
deeper  examination  of  their  rhetoric  and  their  interaction  with  their 
subject.   Consequently,  it  is  apparent  that  in  their  practice  of  history,  20th 
century  historians  have  enriched  the  historiographical  tradition. 

They  also  shaped  that  tradition  by  their  resistance  to  various 
approaches  to  history.   For  instance,  they  have  treated  applying  theory  to 
history  with  caution.  I  find  it  interesting  that  Herbert  Butterfield,  whose 
The  Whig  Interpretation  of  History  has  influenced  historians  to  this  day, 
liked  to  compare  his  preferred  historical  methodology  to  the  methods  that 
Sherlock  Holmes  employed.81    How  often  we  discover  Holmes  telling  the 
good  Dr.  Watson,  "It  is  a  capital  mistake  to  theorize  before  you  have  all 
the  evidence.   It  biases  the  judgment."82    More  than  to  theory,  however, 
historians  have  been  adverse  to  reductionism  and  determinism,  notwith- 
standing the  presence  of  some  notable  Marxists  in  their  ranks.  They  have 
also  been  cautious  in  their  association  with  the  social  sciences.  Although 
some  historians  prefer  that  label,  most  do  not.  History's  relationship  with 
the  social  sciences,  in  the  main,  has  been  of  an  almost-but-not-quite  type 
and  can  be  described  best  as  symbiotic.  It  appears,  moreover,  to  proceed 
through  time  in  a  cyclical  fashion. 

Providing  An  "Index  to  the  Mind" 

At  its  core,  the  historiographical  tradition  is  a  moderate  and  open 
one  that  resists  extreme  positions  in  terms  of  either  content  or  methodol- 
ogy. If  the  goal  of  complete  objectivity  that  historians  once  pursued  now 
seems  unreachable,  that  of  plausibility  does  not.   Belief  in  it,  in  fact,  leads 
historians  to  reject  the  idea  that  texts  have  no  relation  to  reality  in  favor  of 
the  idea  that  through  a  critical  examination  of  source  materials,  historical 
reality  can  be  reconstructed.   It  is  moderate,  too,  in  the  manner  in  which 
it  establishes  causal  relationships,  in  the  inferences  it  draws  from  evidence, 
and  in  the  restraints  it  places  on  presentist  persuasions.  Its  broadening  of 
content  shows  it  is  far  from  being  iconoclastic  while  the  appeal  it  has  to  a 


1 24  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


great  variety  of  scholars  illustrates  its  openness.  At  universities  today, 
scholars  practicing  history  can  be  found  in  various  academic  departments. 
Furthermore,  it  is  only  necessary  to  recall  Barbara  Tuchman's  many 
excellent  books  to  know  that  independent  historians  continue  to  produce 
outstanding  works.  That  fact  not  only  attests  to  the  great  appeal  of 
history  as  an  exploration  of  the  human  past  but  also  to  the  viability  of  the 
narrative  component  of  the  historiographical  tradition. 

Finally,  it  can  be  seen  that  the  historiographical  tradition  is  capable 
of  engaging  us  in  a  personal  way.  What  is  there  in  the  practice  and 
principles  of  history  that  fascinate  you  the  most?  Perhaps  it  is  the  sense  of 
discovery;  perhaps,  the  satisfaction  of  carefully  exploring  a  human  prob- 
lem. Perhaps  it  is,  as  John  Hope  Franklin  believes,  knowing  that  history 
pursued  honestly  can  provide  people  the  basis  for  making  sound  judg- 
ments.83   Perhaps  its  fascination  is  due  to  Gerda  Lerner's  simple  observa- 
tion, "history  matters"  in  "life  and  thought."84    The  question  is  worth  our 
best  attention,  and  it  is  one  that  elicits  an  individual  response. 

In  my  own  case,  the  narrative  element  in  history  has  particular 
appeal.  Veronica  Wedgwood  once  reflected  that  the  style  of  narration  is 
"an  index  to  the  mind."85    Quite  right.  In  expressing  history,  we  give 
form  and  structure  to  our  particular  subjects.  The  art  of  narration  tests 
our  capacity  to  be  honest  in  dealing  with  the  men  and  women  who  enter 
our  stories,  and  it  forces  us,  as  much  as  possible,  to  discern  the  difference 
between  objectivity  and  subjectivity,  between  opinion  and  bias.  In 
constructing  narrative,  we  know  that  history  must  argue  from  evidence, 
but  we  know,  too,  that  such  evidence  must  be,  to  our  best  knowledge, 
truthful.  Composing  an  historical  narrative  vitalizes  self-awareness;  it 
leads  us  to  look  into  and  beyond  ourselves.   It  forces  considerations  of  the 
full  range  of  conditions  that  shaped  past  life.  In  short,  creating  historical 
narrative  encourages  the  search  for  truth — past  and  present. 


Endnotes 

'The  idea  of  a  dead  past  was  popularized  by  the  British  historian,  J.  L.  Plumb  who  actually  wrote 
about  the  past  as  it  was  conceived  for  centuries  before  our  time.  See  his  The  Death  of  the  Past  (1969; 
reprint,  Harmondsworth,  Eng:  Macmillan  &  Co.,  Penguin  Books)  1969.  Also,  in  1989  Francis 
Fukuyama's  article  announcing  history's  end  received  widespread  attention.  With  the  end  of  the  cold 
war,  he  argued,  "we  may  be  witnessing  .   .   .  the  end  of  history  as  such:  that  is,  the  end  point  of 
mankind's  ideological  evolution  and  the  universalization  of  Western  liberal  democracy  as  the  final 
form  of  human  government."  What  would  replace  it?  He  found  it  plausible  to  reason  "that  there  is 
some  larger  process  at  work,  a  process  that  gives  coherence  and  order  to  the  daily  headlines,  "The 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  125 


End  of  History?"   In  A  Look  at  "The  End  of  History?"  e&.  Kenneth  M.  Jensen  (Washington,  D.  C: 
United  States  Institute  of  Peace,  1990):  1-2.   First  published  in  National  Interest  9  (summer  1989):  3- 
18.   Fukuyama's  thesis,  through  which  runs  a  suggestive  if  democratized  Hegelian  dialectical 
reasoning,  appears  to  be  disproven  by  events  in  the  1990s.  See  also  Georg  G.  Iggers,  "The  'Linguistic 
Turn':  The  End  of  History  as  a  Scholarly  Discipline,"  in  Historiography  in  the  Twentieth  Century:  From 
Scientific  Objectivity  to  the  Postmodern  Challenge  (Hanover,  N.  H.:  Wesleyan  University  Press,  1993), 
118-33. 

2Gary  B.  Nash,  Charlotte  Crabtree,  and  Ross  E.  Dunn,  History  on  Trial:  Culture  Wars  and  the 
Teaching  of  the  Past  (New  York:  Alfred  A.  Knopf,  1997),  188-258. 

3Gerda  Lerner,  Why  History  Matters:  Life  and  Thought  (New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  1997), 
199. 

4Historiography  can  also  mean  the  writing  of  history,  topical  interpretation  in  history,  philosophical 
approaches  to  history,  or  the  whole  body  of  historical  literature. 

'Bert  James  Lowenberg,  American  History  in  American  Thought:  Christopher  Columbus  to  Henry 
Adams  (New  York:  Simon  and  Schuster,  1972),  11. 

'Herodotus,  The  Persian  Wars,  The  Modern  Library  (1942),  3-  Although  it  is  sometimes  claimed 
that  the  origins  of  history  should  be  located  either  with  the  ancient  Hebrews  or  perhaps  with  the  even 
more  ancient  Sumarians,  I  believe  it  should  be  placed  with  the  Greeks.  The  modern  historical 
tradition  includes  critical  thought  not  just  thought  about  the  past.  Hebrew  history  (i.  e.,  the  Old 
Testament)  contains  too  much  uncriticized  content,  too  many  things  like  the  creation  story  for  which 
no  evidence  is  provided,  and  repeatedly  refers  to  God  or  God's  will  as  explanation  for  cause  or 
motivation.  This  is  not  to  say  that  verifiable  data  cannot  be  found  in  the  Old  Testament  nor  that  it 
failed  to  offer  vision  that  many  future  historians  would  adopt.  The  point  is  discussed  in  Peter  Gay 
and  Gerald  J.  Cavanaugh,  eds.,  Historians  at  Work,  4  vols.  (New  York:  Harper  &  Row  Publishers, 
1972-75),  1:  XV.  As  for  the  Sumerians,  they  wrote  no  history  as  we  think  of  it  in  its  modern  form, 
but  they  did  begin  the  gathering  of  historical  materials  and  the  production  of  records  to  be  kept — 
mainly  for  religious  or  political  purposes.  (Samuel  Noah  Kramer,  The  Sumerians:  Their  History, 
Culture  and  Character  [Chicago:  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1963],  33-39). 

7David  Hume,  The  History  of  England,  vol.  1  (1754;  reprint,  Philadelphia:  Porter  &  Coates,  1776), 
25-6. 

8 'The  Autobiography  of  Edward  Gibbon,  ed.  Dero  A.  Saunders  (1794;  reprint,  New  York:  Meridian 
Books,  1967),  27. 

'Peter  Gay  and  Victor  G.  Wexler,  eds.  Historians  at  Work,  4  vols.  (New  York:  Harper  &  Row,  1972), 
2:  353. 

,0In  the  course  of  this  essay,  the  influence  of  European  historians  on  American  scholars  will  be 
apparent.  This  influence  was  never  more  obvious  than  in  the  nineteenth  century  when  German 
philosophers  and  historians  (e.  g.,  Johann  G.  Fichte,  Arnold  Heeren,  G.  W.  F.  Hegel,  Johann  G. 
Herder,  and  Immanuel  Kant)  affected  American  romantic  and  national  historians  like  John  L.  Motley, 
Francis  Parkman  and  especially  George  Bancroft.  Later  in  the  century,  Leopold  von  Ranke's  influence 
on  historical  scholarship  in  this  country  would  become  legend.  Meanwhile,  English  historians  like 
Thomas  Babington  Macaulay,  Thomas  Carlyle,  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  and  J.  R.  Green  and  French 
historians  like  Jules  Michelet  and  Alex  de  Tocqueville  exerted  a  transatlantic  influence.  Though  a 
nineteenth  century  figure,  Karl  Marx's  influence  was  mainly  of  consequence  after  the  turn  of  the 
century.   He  did,  however,  have  an  impact  on  a  few  nineteenth  century  American  historians  like 
Henry  Adams. 

"Herbert  Baxter  Adams  was  the  real  founder  or  the  American  Historical  Association  and  was  its 
secretary  for  its  first  16  years.  As  director  of  historical  studies  at  Johns  Hopkins,  his  Seminary  in 
Historical  and  Political  Science  introduced  German  seminary  practices  of  fact-finding  in  original 
sources  and  rigorous  textual  analysis.  One  of  his  assistants  was  John  Franklin  Jameson,  who  would 
become  an  outstanding  early  "professional"  historian,  and  among  his  early  students  were  Woodrow 
Wilson  and  Albert  Shaw,  the  future  editor  of  the  American  Review  of  Reviews  from  1 89 1  - 1 937.  The 
term  "amateurs"  refers  to  the  well-educated  but  nonprofessional  historians  who  wrote  in  the  early  and 
mid  nineteenth  century  and  who  worked  at  some  other  professions  or  livelihood  (e.  g.,  as  clergymen, 
lawyers,  physicians,  journalists).  The  term  "professional  historians"  is  not  entirely  satisfactory  since  it 
implies  that  those  historians  who  were  not  in  their  academic  ranks  were  a  lesser  breed  of  historians.  It 
is,  however,  a  commonly  used  designation  for  this  group.  Also,  I  have  chosen  not  to  use  the  term 
"historicism"  in  reference  to  this  group.  Although  it  is  sometimes  used  to  identify  them,  it  has 
acquired  too  many  meanings  and  has  lost  whatever  precision  it  may  have  had. 


1 26  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


l2John  Fiske,  Essays  Historical  and  Literary,  2  vols.  (1902;  reprint,  New  York:  Macmillan  Company, 
1925),  2:  6  and  16. 

l3Consider,  for  instance,  Albert  Bushnell  Hart's  American  Nation  Series,  published  in  26 
individually  authored  volumes  between  1904  and  1906.  The  volumes  were  divided  into  five  groups: 
Group  I,  "Foundations  of  the  Nation;"  Group  II,  "Transformation  Into  a  Nation;"  Group  III, 
"Development  of  the  Nation;"  Group  IV,  "Trial  of  Nationality;"  and  Group  V,  "National  Expansion." 
In  the  first  volume  this  definition  of  history  appears.   "The  purpose  of  the  historian  is  to  tell  what  has 
been  done  and,  quite  as  much,  what  has  been  purposed  by  thinking,  working,  and  producing  people 
who  make  public  opinion.  .   .   .  This  is  not  intended  to  be  simply  a  political  or  constitutional  history: 
it  must  include  their  social  life,  and  their  schools.  It  must  include  their  economic  life,  occupations, 
labor  systems,  and  organizations  of  capital.   .   .   ."  True  history,  Hart  continued,  must  include 
"dramatic  episodes"  that  "inspired  the  imagination  of  contemporaries,  and  stir  the  blood  of  their 
descendants."  And,  regarding  the  "condensed"  citations,  they  represented  a  "constant  reference  to 
authorities,  a  salutary  check  on  the  writer;  and  a  safeguard  to  the  reader."  The  Scientific  school  was 
pushing  out  its  borders:  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  ed.,  Edward  Potts  Cheyney,  European  Background  of 
American  History:  1300-1600  (New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers  Publishers,  1904),  XVII-XVIII. 

MFrank  J.  Goodnow,  "The  Work  of  the  American  Political  Science  Association,"  Proceedings  of  the 
American  Political  Science  Association   1  (1905):  37.   See  also,  Albert  Shaw,  "Presidential  Address,"  The 
American  Political  Science  Review  1  (Feb.  1907):  184. 

15John  Higham,  Leonard  Krieger,  and  Felix  Gilbert,  History  (Englewood  Cliffs,  N.  J:  1965),  1 10- 
113. 

"James  Harvey  Robinson,  The  New  History  (1912;  reprint,  New  York:  The  Free  Press,  1965),  XV. 

l7Quoted  in  Dorothy  Ross,  "On  the  Misunderstanding  of  Ranke  and  the  Origins  of  the  Historical 
Profession  in  America,"  Syracuse  Scholar  9  (1988):  38. 

18Higham,  Krieger,  and  Gilbert,  History,  111  and  116. 

"Carl  Becker,  "Everyman  his  own  Historian,"  American  Historical  Review  37  (Jan.  1932):  221-36. 

20Quoted  in  Henry  Steele  Commager,  The  American  Mind:  An  Interpretation  of  American  Thought 
and  Character  Since  the  1880s  (New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1950),  308. 

2 'Richard  Hofstadter,  The  Progressive  Historians:  Turner,  Beard,  Parrington  (New  York:  Alfred  A. 
Knopf,  1968),  XII. 

"Exemplifying  the  rich  variety  in  historical  writing  in  these  years  was  the  work  of  Howard  K.  Beale 
(Political  history) ,  Thomas  A  Bailey  (diplomatic  history),  Charles  Beard  (economic  history),  Perry 
Miller  and  Vernon  Louis  Parrington  (intellectual  history),  John  R.  Commons  (labor  history),  W.  E.  B. 
Dubois  and  Carter  Woodson  (black  history),  Mary  Beard  (women's  history),  and  Lucy  Salmon  and 
William  Bleyer  (journalism  history). 

"Quoted  in  Harvey  Wish,  The  American  Historian:  A  Social-Intellectual  History  of  the  Writing  of  the 
American  Past  (New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  I960),  313- 

"Charles  A.  Beard,  "That  Noble  Dream,"  American  Historical Review  41  (1935):  85-  Regarding 
Marx's  limited  influences  on  American  historians  at  this  time,  see  Oscar  Handlin,  Truth  in  History 
(Cambridge:  Belknap  Press  of  Harvard  University  Press,  1979),  70  and  73- 

25Higham,  Krieger,  and  Gilbert,  History,  104-5. 

26Ibid.,  73-77. 

27The  elements  of  the  practice  of  history  are  apparent  in  the  standard  works  on  historical  method  in 
use  at  that  time.   See,  for  example,  Louis  Gottschalk,  Understanding  History:  A  Primer  on  Historical 
Method  (New  York:  Alfred  A.  Knopf,  1950),  and  Joseph  R.  Strayer,  ed.,  The  Interpretation  of  History 
(1943;  reprint,  New  York:  Peter  Smith,  1950). 

28Harvey  Wish,  ed.,  American  Historians:  A  Selection  (New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  1962), 
380. 

25Ibid.,391. 

30Ibid.,  393. 

31See,  for  example,  Henry  Osborn  Taylor,  "Continuities  In  History,"  American  Historical  Review  44 
(Oct.  1938):  1-19. 

"William  H.  Chafe,  "America  Since  1945,"  in  The  New  American  History,  ed.  Eric  Foner 
(Philadelphia:  Temple  University  Press,  1990),  144-46. 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  127 


33Hannah  Arendt,  "Understanding  and  Politics,"  Partisan  Review  20  (July-Aug.  1953):  388  and 
380-94.  Considering  the  rich  historical  accounts  about  the  background  and  rise  of  Nazism  published 
since  she  made  this  statement,  it  appears  she  was  mistaken. 

34See,  for  example,  C,  Vann  Woodward,  "The  Age  of  Reinterpretation,"  American  Historical  Review 
AG  (Oct.  I960):  1-2,  and  H.  Stuart  Hughes,  "The  Historian  and  the  Social  Scientist,"  in  Generaliza- 
tions in  Historical  Writing,  eds.  Alexander  V.  Riasanovsky  and  Barnes  Riznik  (Philadelphia:  University 
of  Pennsylvania  Press,  1963),  20-21. 

35See,  for  example,  representative  historiographic  studies  such  as  Gottschalk,  Understanding  History, 
33-37,  Allan  Nevins,  The  Gateway  to  History,  rev.  ed.  (Garden  City, 

N.  Y:  Doubleday  &  Company,  Anchor  Books,  1962),  332-35;  and  Page  Smith,  The  Historian  and 
History  (1960;  reprint,  New  York:  Random  House,  Vintage  Books,  1966),  136-37. 

36Richard  Hofstadter,  "History  and  Social  Science,"  in  The  Varieties  of  History:  From  Voltaire  to  the 
Present,  ed.  Fritz  Stern  (Cleveland:  World  Publishing  Company,  Meridian  Books,  1956),  371. 

37See,  for  example,  Catherine  Drinker  Bowen,  "Biography,  History,  and  the  Writing  of  Books,"  and 
Allan  Nevins  "The  Old  History  and  the  New,"  The  Art  of  History  (Washington:  The  Library  of 
Congress,  1967),  15-19,  and  29;  Gabriel  Jackson,  Historian's  Quest  (New  York:  Alfred  A.  Knopf, 
1969),  25;  and  Louis  O.  Mink,  "Narrative  Form  as  a  Cognitive  Instrument,"  in  The  Writing  of 
History:  Literary  Form  and  Historical  Understanding,  eds.  Robert  H.  Canary  and  Henry  Kozicki 
(Madison:  University  of  Wisconsin  Press,  1978),  129-49. 

38Carl  Bridenbaugh,  "The  Great  Mutation,"  American  Historical  Review  68  (Jan.  1963),  326. 
Bridenbaugh  was  criticized  for  the  anti-Jewish  implications  of  some  of  his  other  comments  in  this 
address.   See,  Peter  Novick,  That  Noble  Dream:  The  'Objectivity  Question  and  the  American  Historical 
Profession  (1988;  reprint,  New  York:  Cambridge  University  Press,  1989),  339-  For  a  critique  of 
quantification  see,  Eugene  Genovese  and  Elizabeth  Fox-Genovese,  "The  Political  Crisis  of  Social 
History:  A  Marxian  Perspective,"  Journal  of  Social  History  10  (Winter  1976):  210-1 1.   In  this  article 
the  authors  speak  of  the  "disastrously  short-lived  cliometric  revolution."  Indeed,  by  1976,  the  rush  to 
quantification  had  passed  its  peak. 

"See,  for  example,  Handlin,  Truth  in  History,  223-26;  Paul  K.  Conkin  and  Roland  N.  Stromberg, 
The  Heritage  and  Challenge  of  History  (New  York:  Dodd,  Mead  &  Company,  1971),  111-12;  Hughes, 
"The  Historian  and  the  Social  Scientist,"  42;  and  Jerome  M.  Clubb  and  Howard  Allen,  "Computers 
and  Historical  Statics"  Journal  of  American  History  54  (Dec.  1967):  599-607. 

40Arthur  Schlesinger,  Jr.,  "The  Humanist  Looks  at  Empirical  Social  Research,"  American  Sociological 
Review  27  (Dec.  1962):  770. 

""William  L.  Langer,  "The  Next  Assignment,"  American  Historical  Review  63  (Jan.  1958):  290-95. 

42In  1913  Preserved  Smith  published  an  article,  "Luther's  Early  Development,"  in  which  he 
attempted  a  psychoanalytical  study  of  Martin  Luther,  whom  he  considered  a  "highly  neurotic 
personality.  Jacques  Barzun,  Clio  and  the  Doctors:  Psycho-History,  Quanto-History  and  History 
(Chicago:  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1974),  7. 

43Higham,  Krieger,  and  Gilbert,  History,  228-32. 

""Erik  H.  Erikson,  YoungMan  Luther:  A  Study  in  Psychoanalysis  and  History  (New  York:  W  W. 
Norton,  1958),  and  Sigmund  Freud  and  William  Bullitt,  Thomas  Woodrow  Wilson:  Twenty-Eighth 
President  of  the  United  States,  A  Psychological  Study  (Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin,  1967).  Both  of  these 
books  are  seriously  flawed,  and  both  received  abundant  response  from  historians.   See,  for  example, 
Roland  Bainton,  "Psychiatry  and  History:  An  Examination  of  Erikson's  YoungMan  Luther,"  in 
Psychohistory  and  Religion:  The  Case  of  "YoungMan  Luther"  ed.  Roger  A.  Johnson  (Philadelphia: 
Fortress  Press,  1977),  19-56;  and  Barbara  Tuchman,  "Can  History  Use  Freud?  The  Case  of  Woodrow 
Wilson,"  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  February  1967,  pp.  39-44. 

45Barzun,  Clio  and  the  Doctor.  72-73- 

"Edward  O.  Wilson,  Consilience:  The  Unity  of  Knowledge  (New  York:  Alfred  A.  Knopf,  1998),  254- 
297. 

47Philp  Rieff,  "Psychoanalysis,"  in  American  History  and  the  Social  Sciences,  ed.  Edward  N.  Saveth 
(New  York:  The  Free  Press  of  Glencoe,  1964),  112  and  118-19. 

48Higham,  Krieger,  and  Gilbert,  History,  139.  See  also,  Edward  N.  Saveth,  "The  Conceptualization 
of  American  History,"  in  American  History  and  the  Social  Sciences,  3-24;  Thomas  C.  Cochran,  "The 
Social  Sciences  and  the  Problem  of  Historical  Synthesis,"  in  Pendleton  Herring,  ed.,  The  Social 


1 28  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


Sciences  in  Historical  Study,  Bulletin  64  (New  York:  Social  Science,  Research  Council,  1954,  157-71; 
and  Hughes,  "The  Historian  and  the  Social  Scientist,"  18-59- 

4?I  decided  to  pursue  the  new  social  history  rather  than  any  of  the  other  "new"  histories  because  it 
was  the  most  comprehensive  of  the  lot,  and  because  it  was  trying  to  replace  political  history  as  the 
mainstream  of  history.  For  the  same  reason,  I  chose  to  pursue  it  rather  than  black  history  or  the 
history  of  women. 

50Gertrude  Himmelfarb,  The  New  History  and  the  Old:  Critical  Essays  and  Reappraisals  (Cambridge: 
Harvard  University  Press,  The  Belknap  Press,  1982),  15. 

5lTwo  of  the  landmark  books  in  the  new  social  history,  Peter  Laslett's,  The  World  We  Have  Lost  and 
Lawrence  Stone's  The  Crisis  in  Aristocracy  were  published  in  1965.  Also,  Peter  N.  Stearns  began 
publication  of the  Journal  of  Social  History  in  1967.  There  was  an  unmistakable  attitude  among  social 
historians  at  this  time  that  their  history  was  different  from  social  history  as  it  was  previously  written. 
Sometimes  they  referred  to  the  latter,  rather  unfairly,  as  "pots  and  pans"  history  or  in  some  other 
belittling  way.  They  did,  of  course,  recognize  the  individual  prestigious  historians  like  Marc  Block 
who  preceded  them. 

52The  Annates  school  is  the  historical  writing  associated  with  the  publication  of  the  journal,  Les 
Annales:  Economics,  societe's,  civilisations.   Marc  Block  and  Lucien  Febvre  founded  the  journal  with  a 
slightly  different  title  in  1929.  The  editors  dropped  the  reference  to  economics  in  the  title  in  the 
1950s  and  focused  exclusively  on  the  social  element.  The  Annales  approach  rejected  the  centrality  of 
politics  in  history  as  it  did  narrative  history  and  progress  in  history  These  historians  were  interested 
in  structuralism  and  drew  from  Karl  Marx's  study  of  economic  forces  in  history  and  from  Emile 
Durkheim's  work  on  collective  behavior.   Fernand  Braudel,  the  editor  of  the  journal  from  1956-1972, 
claimed  the  real  founder  of  the  school  was  Henri  Barr,  a  French  intellectual  whose  work  can  be  traced 
back  to  1890.  See,  Fernand  Braudel,  "Personal  Testimony,"  Journal  of  Modern  History  44  (June 
1972):  454-5. 

53Ibid.,  462,  and  Fernand  Braudel,  The  Mediterranean  and  the  Mediterranean  World  in  the  Age  of 
Philip  II,  2  vols.,  3d  ed.,  trans.  Siin  Reynolds  (1946;  reprint,  New  York:  Harper  &C  Row,  1972).  In 
his  monumental  study,  Braudel  covers  geography,  economics,  empires,  societies,  war,  and  events, 
politics  and  people — in  that  order.   It  is  interesting  to  note,  that  in  Part  Three,  when  he  turns  to 
discussing  events,  politics  and  people,  he  opens  with  this  observation:  "It  [this  section]  has  strong 
affinities  with  frankly  traditional  historiography   Leopold  von  Ranke,  if  he  were  alive  today,  would 
find  much  that  was  familiar,  both  in  subject  matter  and  treatment,  in  the  following  pages."  (Vol.  2: 
901). 

^Himmelfarb,  New  History  and  the  Old,  1 4. 

55Joyce  Appleby,  Lynn  Hunt,  and  Margaret  Jacob,  Telling  the  Truth  about  History  (New  York:  W.  W. 
Norton  &  Company,  1994),  154-55. 

56John  Hope  Franklin,  "The  New  Negro  History,"  The  Journal  of  Negro  History  42  (April  1957):  89, 
and  Carroll  Smith-Rosenberg,  "The  New  Woman  and  the  New  History,"  Feminist  Studies  3  (Fall 
1975):  185. 

S7Ibid.,  188. 

58Alice  Kessler-Harris,  "Social  History,"  in  Foner,  The  New  American  History,  178-9.  John  Higham 
observes,  "The  new  social  history  produced  a  mighty  outpouring  of  social  description  and  analysis; 
but  the  gain  in  concreteness  did  not  yield  a  greater  coherence.  An  enormous  fragmentation  ensued.   . 
.   .   Each  network  developed  its  own  scholarly  journal,  its  own  energizing  question,  its  own  agenda.   . 
.   .   Often  these  groups  were  entirely  out  of  touch  with  one  another;  concepts  that  interested  one  set 
of  scholars  were  rarely  articulated  with  the  problems  that  interested  other  sets.   .   .   .  Somehow  social 
historians  would  have  to  find  a  subject .   .   .  large  enough  to  embrace  .   .  .  the  confusing  multiplicity 
of  groups  and  identities  standing  before  us.   .   .   ."  Higham,  "From  Process  to  Structure:  Formula- 
tions of  American  Immigration  History,"  in  American  Immigrants  and  Their  Generations:  Studies  and 
Commentaries  on  the  Hansen  Thesis  after  Fifty  Years,  eds.  Peter  Kivisto  and  Dag  Blanck  (Urbana: 
University  of  Illinois  Press,  1990),  13-  Peter  Burke  was  even  more  explicit.  ".   .   .  There  are  some 
encouraging  signs  of  Rapprochement,  if  not  of  synthesis.  .   .   .  It  is  now  possible  to  observe  a  .   .   . 
search  for  the  centre.  .   .   .  Most  important  of  all,  perhaps,  the  long-standing  opposition  between 
political  and  non-political  historians  is  finally  dissolving."  Burke,  "Overture:  the  New  History,"  in 
New  Perspectives  on  Historical  Writing,"  ed.  Burke  (University  Park,  Pa.:  Pennsylvania  State  University 
Press,  1992),  19.   In  1996,  Peter  Stearns,  one  of  the  pioneers  in  the  field  wrote  of  the  need  for 
reconciliation  with  other  branches  of  history.   "Clio,  a  muse  of  balance  and  perspective,  deserves  the 
broader  vision,"  he  stated.   "A  Cease-fire  for  History?"    The  History  Teacher  30  (Nov.  1996):  81. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  129 


"Social  historians'  disparaging  comments  about  orthodox  history  were,  in  fact,  quite  common,  as  I 
recall.  See  also,  Himmelfarb,  The  New  History  and  the  Old,  27;  Joyce  Appleby,  "The  Power  of 
History,"  American  Historical  Review  103  (Feb.  1998):  6;  Charles  Tilly,  As  Sociology  Meets  History 
(New  York:  Academic  Press,  1981),  5-6;  and  Lawrence  Stone,  The  Past  and  the  Present  (Boston: 
Routledge  &  Kegan  Paul,  1981),  30. 

'°Lynn  Hunt,  "French  History  in  the  Last  Twenty  Years:  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Annales 
Paradigm,"  Journal  of  Contemporary  History  21  (1986):  213-14,  and  Theodore  Zeldin,  "Social  History 
and  Total  History,"  Journal  of  Social  History  10  (Winter  1976):  240. 

61Alice  Kessler-Harris,  "Social  History,"  in  Foner,  New  American  History,  178. 

"Carroll  Smith-Rosenberg  points  out  that  "despite  its  [contemporary  social  history]  emphasis  on 
institutions  and  events  of  greatest  concern  to  women,  the  New  Social  Historians,  with  few  exceptions, 
have  ignored  women.  .   .  .  contemporary  social  historians  have  also  ignored  one  of  the  most  basic 
forms  of  human  interaction — that  between  sexes."  "The  New  Woman  and  the  New  History,"  189. 

63Carl  N.  Degler,  "Women  and  the  Family,"  in  The  Past  Before  Us:  Contemporary  Historical  Writing 
in  the  United  States,  ed.  Michael  Kammen  (Ithaca:  Cornell  University  Press,  1980),  310. 

"Eugene  Genovese  and  Elizabeth  Fox-Genovese,  "The  Political  Crisis  of  Social  History,"  214. 
Among  the  other  one-time  enthusiasts  of  the  new  social  history  who  later  lamented  its  failures  are  two 
of  its  founders,  Lawrence  Stone  and  Peter  Stearns.  See  Stone's  oft  cited  comments  in  The  Past  and  the 
Present,  30-44,  and  Stearns  "A  Cease-fire  for  History?"  73-81. 

65Nash,  et  al.,  History  on  Trial,  5,  16,  26,  76,  82. 

"Quoted  in,  William  E.  Leuchtenburg,  "The  Pertinence  of  Political  History:  Reflections  on  the 
Significance  of  the  State  in  America,"  Journal  of  American  History,  73  (Dec.  1986):  600. 

67Appleby,  Hunt,  and  Jacob,  Telling  the  Truth  about  History,  200. 

68Churchill  invented  the  term  in  1906  when  he  rose  in  parliament  to  say  that  his  own  Liberal 
party's  reference  to  "Chinese  Slavery"  (a  reference  to  Chinese  labor  in  South  Africa)  had  been 
overstated.  The  term  "slavery,"  he  said,  could  apply  to  Unionist  policy  in  South  Africa  only  at  the  risk 
of  "terminological  inexactitude." 

"Friedrich  Nietzsche,  On  the  Advantage  and  Disadvantage  of  History  for  Life,  trans.  Peter  Preuss 
(1874;  reprint,  Indianapolis:  Hackett  Publishing  Company,  1980),  21  and  35. 

70Richard  Rorty,  "Deconstruction,"  in  The  Cambridge  History  of  Literary  Criticism,  vol.  8,  From 
Formalism  to  Poststructuralism,  ed.  Raman  Selden  (New  York:  Cambridge  University  Press,  1995), 
193-96. 

7,Ibid.,  166-74;  Christopher  Falzon,  Foucault  and  Dialogue:  Beyond  Fragmentation  (London: 
Routledge,  1998),  36-46;  Sidney  Monas,  "Introduction:  Contemporary  Historiography:  Some  Kicks 
in  the  Old  Coffin,"  3  and  5;  and  Georg  G.  Iggers,  "Rationality  and  History,"  35,  in  Developments  in 
Modern  Historiography,  ed.  Henry  Kozicki  (New  York:  St.  Martin's  Press,  1993);  and  John  M.  Ellis, 
Against  Deconstruction  (Princeton,  N.  J.:  Princeton  University  Press,  1989),  52,  65-66,  and  113-21. 

72Appleby,  Hunt  and  Jacob,  Telling  the  Truth  about  History,  204,  and  Georg  G.  Iggers,  Historiogra- 
phy in  the  Twentieth  Century,  118. 

73Hayden  White,  Tropics  of  Discourse:  Essays  in  Cultural  Criticism  (Baltimore:  The  Johns  Hopkins 
University  Press,  1978),  82. 

74Gerald  N.  Izenberg,  "Text,  Context,  and  Psychology  in  Intellectual  History,"  in  Kozicki, 
Developments  in  Modern  Historiography,  4 1 . 

75Appleby,  Hunt,  Jacob,  Telling  the  Truth  About  History,  \97-237;  G.  R.  Elton,  Return  to  Essentials: 
Some  Reflections  on  the  Present  State  of  Historical  Study  (New  York:  Cambridge  University  Press,  1991), 
27-49;  and  Lawrence  Stone,"  History  and  Post-Modernism,"  Past  and  Present  (Aug.  1991):  217-18. 
See  also,  Keith  Windschuttle,  The  Killing  of  History:  How  Literary  Critics  and  Social  Theorists  Are 
Murdering  Our  Past  (New  York:  The  Free  Press,  1996),  132-54. 

76Eric  Hobsbawn,  On  History  (New  York:  The  New  Press,  1997),  6. 

^Ibid.  195;  Appleby,  Hunt,  and  Jacob,  Telling  the  Truth  About  History,  227  and  233;  and  Iggers, 
Historiography  in  the  Twentieth  Century,  100. 

78Elton,  Return  to  Essentials,  13,  and  Richard  Rorty,  "Deconstruction,"  167,  n.  2,  and  Bryan  Palmer, 
"The  Condition  of  the  Poststructuralist  Challenge  to  Political  Meaning,"  The  Maryland  Historian  24 
(Spring/Summer  1993):  67. 


1 30  1998  Presidential  Address  •  Winter  1 999 


7Thomas  Bender,  "Wholes  and  Parts:  The  Need  for  Synthesis  in  American  History,"  American 
Historical  Review  73  Gune  1986):  120-36;  John  Higham,  "The  Future  of  American  History,"  Journal 
of 'American  History  81  (March  1994):  1286-1307;  Leuchtenburg,  ibid.,  73  (Dec.  1986):  585-600; 
and  Georg  G.  Iggers,  Historiography  in  the  Twentieth  Century,  141-44. 

80J.  Rogers  Hollingsworth,  "Commentary  on  'Consensus  and  Continuity'  in  Post-War  Historical 
Interpretation,"  in  The  Historian  and  the  Climate  of  Opinion,  ed.  Robert  Allen  Skotheim  (Reading, 
Mass.:  Addison-Wesley  Publishing  Company,  1969),  95. 

8,Adam  Watson,  ed.,  Herbert  Butterfield:  The  Origins  of  History  (New  York:  Basic  Books,  1981),  8. 

82Sir  Arthur  Conan  Doyle,  A  Study  in  Scarlet  in  The  Complete  Sherlock  Holmes,  ed.  Christopher 
Morley  (Garden  City,  N.  Y.:  Doubleday  &  Company,  1930),  27.  Many  such  references  can  be  found 
in  the  Sherlock  Holmes  stories. 

s3John  Hope  Franklin,  "The  Historian  and  Public  Policy,"  in  The  Vital  Past:  Writings  on  the  Uses  of 
History,  ed.  Stephen  Vaughn  (Athens,  GA.:  University  of  Georgia  Press,  1985),  359. 

84Gerda  Lerner,  Why  History  Matters,  title  page. 

85C.  V.  Wedgwood,  The  Sense  of  the  Past:  Thirteen  Studies  in  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  History  (New 
York:  Macmillan  Company,  Collier  Books,  1967),  81. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  131 


132 


Winter  1999 


Great  Ideas 

E.  W.  Scripps  Papers  Provide  An 
Important  Journalistic  Window 
for  Scholars 

By  Gerald  J.  Baldasty 

The  E.W.  Scripps  Papers  at  Ohio  University  in  Athens,  Ohio, 
provide  an  unusually  detailed  view  of  American  journalism 
in  the  late  19th  and  early  20th  centuries.  The  manuscript 
letters  in  this  collection  cover  key  journalistic,  business  and  political 
concerns  in  the  first  national  newspaper  chain,  provide  extensive  informa- 
tion on  day-to-day  operations  of  newspapers  and  provide  a  window  into 
the  personality  of  one  of  the  country's  great  press  lords,  E.W.  Scripps 
(1854-1926). 

This  manuscript  collection  is  extensive,  constituting  approximately 
200,000  letters  and  documents  (70  cubic  feet  in  187  boxes).  Charles  E. 
Scripps,  grandson  of  E.W.  Scripps,  donated  the  papers  to  Ohio 
University's  Alden  Library  in  August  1988.  After  extensive  processing, 
the  collection  was  opened  to  the  public  in  March  1990. 

Scripps'  career  spanned  a  golden  age  of  American  journalism.  In  the 
40  years  straddling  the  turn  of  the  century,  the  number  of  daily  newspa- 
pers nearly  trebled,  and  newspapers  reached  virtually  every  home  in  the 
country.  Scripps  pioneered  the  model  of  modern  newspaper  organization 
—  the  newspaper  chain  —  demonstrating  that  a  group  of  newspapers 
could  operate  more  efficiently  than  individual  newspapers. 

During  his  career,  Scripps  established  or  purchased  more  than  40 
newspapers,  created  a  telegraph  news  service  (United  Press  Associations),  a 
news  features  syndicate  (Newspaper  Enterprise  Association)  and  Science 
News  Service.   By  the  early  1900s,  Scripps  commanded  the  nation's 


Gerald  J.  Baldasty,  Professor  of  Communications  at  the  University  of  Washington,  is  the 
author  of  E.  W.  Scripps  and  the  Business  of  Newspapers. 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  133 


Nackie  Holsinger  Scripps  with  her  saddlehorse  at  Miramar,  1907  -  1910.  [Miramar  was  the  Scripps' 
home  in  San  Diego  County,  California.]  E.  W.  Scripps  Papers,  Ohio  University 

largest  media  company.  He  ranks  with  William  Randolph  Hearst  and 
Joseph  Pulitzer  as  one  of  the  great  press  lords  of  the  late  19th  and  early 
20th  centuries. 

The  Scripps  papers  at  Ohio  University  provide  an  unusually  detailed 
view  of  newspaper  operations  from  Scripps'  era.  Scripps  was  an  avid  letter 
writer,  so  his  thoughts  and  actions  are  well  detailed.   Moreover,  he  spent 
much  of  the  1 890s  and  the  early  1900s  —  key  years  for  his  chain  —  at  his 


134 


Great  Ideas  •  Winter  1999 


California  estate  near  San  Diego.   Because  he  was  physically  distant  from 
his  newspapers,  letters  to  and  from  him  dealt  with  virtually  all  aspects  of 
newspaper  operations.  The  reliance  on  letters  was  further  underscored  by 
his  refusal  to  do  business  by  telephone  and  his  extreme  reluctance  to  use 
telegrams.   Most  of  Scripps'  outgoing  correspondence  was  saved  in 
letterbooks;  carbon  copies  were  also  made  for  distribution  to  the  chain's 
Central  Office  (in  Cincinnati)  and  to  middle  managers.  Scripps'  chief 
lieutenants  and  the  chain's  middle  managers  also  circulated  carbons  of 
their  letters  to  one  another,  thus  improving  the  chance  that  key  letters 
have  been  saved. 

The  Scripps  papers  are  organized  into  four  key  categories: 

•  Letters  written  to  E.W.  Scripps  (Series  1,  subseries  1.1).  There 
are  40  boxes  in  this  section  of  the  correspondence;  letters  cover 
the  period  1876  to  1926  but  are  heavily  weighted  to  1889- 
1917. 

•  Letters  written  by  E.W.  Scripps  (Series  1,  subseries  1.2  and 
Series  2).  There  are  74  boxes  in  this  section  of  the  correspon- 
dence; the  material  draws  primarily  on  the  period  from  1888 
to  1917. 

•  Letters  between  other  Scripps  employees  (Series  3,  subseries  3-1, 
and  3.2).  There  are  36  boxes  in  this  section  of  the  correspon- 
dence; letters  cover  primarily  the  period  from  1889  to  1919. 

•  Scripps'  various  writings,  including  his  autobiography  and  his 
Disquisitions  —  which  are  a  series  of  essays  on  journalism  and  a 
host  of  other  subjects  (Series  4).  There  are  12  boxes  in  this 
section  of  the  correspondence. 

The  first  three  sections  provide  the  most  detailed  information  for 
journalism  historians,  providing  information  on  each  of  Scripps'  newspa- 
pers, his  telegraph  news  service,  his  news  features  service  (Newspaper 
Enterprise  Association)  and  the  Science  News  Service. 

Letters  to  E.W.  Scripps 

This  portion  of  the  Scripps  papers  includes  letters  from  a  wide  range 
of  employees  in  the  Scripps  newspaper  chain — from  Scripps'  chief 
lieutenants  to  individual  editors  and  reporters.  Among  those  writing  to 
Scripps  are  the  chain's  treasurer  (Lemuel  T  Atwood);  his  letters  often 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  135 


E.  W.  Scripps  takes  time  out  for  lunch  on  1907  Grand  Canyon  trip.  [Other  photos  state  the  trip  was 
made  during  September  &  October.]  E.  W  Scripps  Papers,  Ohio  University 


provide  extensive  financial  information  about  the  various  papers  in  the 
chain.  Other  correspondents  include  Robert  F.  Paine,  the  chain's  editor- 
in-chief,  and  various  regional  managers  (such  as  E.H.  Wells  and  E.F. 
Chase  in  the  Pacific  Northwest,  W.H.  Porterfield  in  California  and  A.O. 
Andersson  in  Texas). 

For  journalism  historians,  these  letters  provide  an  excellent  source 
on  newspaper  operations:  costs  for  starting  and  running  newspapers, 
circulation  strategies  and  battles,  general  competition  for  news,  relations 
(and  problems)  with  advertisers,  personnel  issues,  and  so  on.  Scripps 
required  monthly  financial  statements  from  his  papers  and  some  of  these 


136 


Great  Ideas  •  Winter  1 999 


are  included  in  this  part  of  the  correspondence.   His  employees  regularly 
informed  him  of  other  key  developments  at  individual  newspapers  or  in 
chain-wide  institutions  (such  as  the  telegraph  news  services  or  the  news 
features  service). 

For  example,  one  letter — from  the  editor  of  Scripps'  Seattle  Star  to 
Scripps — describes  that  paper's  reliance  on  NEA  and  provides  informa- 
tion about  staff  sizes  for  Seattle  papers: 

Here  in  Seattle,  it  [NEA]  is  the  greatest  possible  help  in 
holding  up  and  making  progress.  Without  this  exclusive 
service  we  would  have  to  largely  increase  our  editorial 
expenses,  something  that  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  do. 
Our  contemporary  the  Times  employs  a  very  large  force  of  compe- 
tent men,  including  13  of  the  best  reporters  that 
can  be  found,  and  spends  money  like  water  to  get  news  near 
and  far.  Against  this  effort,  we  can  put  half  as  many  reporters 
and  the  NEA.  And  we  can  win  out  with  the  NEA.1 

Another  letter  to  Scripps  contained  the  mission  statement  of  the 
Tacoma  Timer.  "It  shall  be  the  first  principle  of  this  publication  to  be  the 
organ,  the  mouthpiece,  the  apologist,  the  defender  and  the  advocate  of 
the  working  class."2 

Scripps  received  letters  from  a  host  of  others,  too,  including  family 
members,  political  figures  (such  as  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Robert  LaFollette, 
Amos  Pinchot,  Woodrow  Wilson  and  William  Jennings  Bryan),  journalists 
(Lincoln  Steffens)  and  scientists  (William  J.  Ritter).  Scripps  gave  strong 
and  steady  support  to  the  Progressive  movement  and  particularly  to 
LaFollette  and  Wilson.  Ritter  developed  the  Scripps  Marine  Biology 
Institute  (later  called  the  Scripps  Oceanographic  Institute). 

Letters  from  E.W.  Scripps 

Scripps  was  autocratic  in  personality,  an  advocate  of  "one  man 
power"  in  running  his  chain.  Consequently,  letters  from  him  are  plain 
spoken  and  unequivocal;  he  demanded  that  his  papers  serve  the  working 
class  and  that  they  be  profitable.  He  created  strategies  for  building  a 
newspaper  chain  and  held  forth  on  the  state  of  the  newspaper  industry. 

Business  concerns — expansion  of  the  chain,  creation  of  the  tele- 
graph news  services,  cost  controls,  the  role  of  advertising,  etc., — dominate 
his  outgoing  letters  through  1908  (although  political  issues  receive  some 
attention).  Scripps  began  his  first  retirement  in  1908. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  137 


In  1904,  Scripps  outlined  his  view  of  journalism  to  the  editor  of  his 
San  Francisco  Daily  News:  "Hook  yourself  tight  and  close  the  heart  of  the 
common  people.  Be  always  with  them  and  of  them."3  Another  letter 
reveals  the  business  rationale  behind  Scripps'  close  attention  to  working 
class  readers:   "The  wage  earning  class  is  by  far  the  largest  purchasing  class 
of  Los  Angeles  and  however  much  the  advertisers  may  respect  the  carriage 
trade  and  desire  it,  they  are  absolutely  dependent  upon  the  basket  trade 
and  dinner  pail  brigade  for  their  prosperity."4    On  another  occasion, 
Scripps  outlined  his  bare-bones  approach  to  newspaper  operations  to  the 
business  manager  of  one  of  his  newspapers: 

The  first  thing  you,  as  a  young  business  manager,  have  to 
learn  is  how  to  save  money.  Demonstrate  to  the  company 
that  you  have  got  that  capacity  first.  Never  buy  anything 
today  that  you  can  put  off  until  tomorrow  or  next  year. 
Never  add  any  expense  for  anything  until  you  shall  have 
felt  the  supreme  necessity  of  such  an  expenditure  for  at 
least  three  months.  Be  a  skin-flint  in  every  other  matter  but 
circulation.5 

Another  letter  outlines  one  of  Scripps'  chief  rules — that  newspapers 
demonstrate  a  15  per  cent  cash  profit.  In  1899,  he  wrote  to  his  partner 
Milton  McRae,  "You  only  had  to  do  one  thing,  and  that  was  to  cut  down 
your  expenses  to  a  point  where  they  would  reach  85  cents  on  a  dollar 
received."6   When  one  of  his  papers  failed  to  make  the  required  15  per 
cent  profit,  Scripps  wrote: 

It  is  useless  to  send  me  detailed  figures  showing  why  your 
expenses  were  increased  or  reduced.  In  a  former  letter,  I 
have  indicated  to  you  my  intention  of  requiring  nothing 
much  more  of  the  Star  management  than  to  do  decent, 
gentlemenly,  business  and  make  a  reasonable  profit.  So 
long  as  you  show  a  profit  and  have  a  clean  paper,  there  will 
be  mighty  few  kicks  coming.7 

After  1908,  Scripps'  letters  deal  more  than  before  with  political 
issues.  His  newspapers  were  heavily  involved  in  promoting  reform 
politicians  in  California  (Hiram  Johnson,  Francis  Heney)  and  in  Wash- 
ington state  (Miles  Poindexter)  as  well  as  on  the  national  level  (LaFollette 
and  Wilson). 


1 38  Great  Ideas  •  Winter  1 999 


Letters  Among  Scripps  Employees 

Letters  among  the  Scripps  employees  provide  an  excellent  overview 
of  upper  and  middle  management  as  well  as  other  aspects  of  day-to-day 
operations  of  the  Scripps  newspaper  chain.  Scripps'  chief  lieutenants 
provided  extensive  advice  to  the  editors  and  business  managers  who  ran 
the  individual  newspapers  in  the  chain;  in  turn,  those  editors  and  manag- 
ers reported  extensively  on  their  problems  and  successes  to  those  above 
them  in  the  corporate  organization. 

Minutes  of  the  Editorial  Advisory  Board  of  the  Scripps  -  McRae 
League  in  the  1890s  provide  extensive  information  on  meetings  of  the 
Midwest  Scripps  papers'  editors,  plans  on  coverage  of  political  conven- 
tions (in  1892,  1896)  and  news  coverage  in  general.  8    Lemuel  T.  Atwood, 
the  chain's  treasurer,  sent  a  compilation  of  financial  records  from  Scripps' 
key  Midwest  papers  (in  Cleveland,  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis)  to  the 
chain's  attorney  in  1901;  the  letter  listed  profits  (or  losses)  for  each  paper 
since  the  early  1880s.9     In  another  letter,  the  editor  of  Scripps'  Tacoma 
Times  outlined  a  newspaper  crusade  he  was  about  to  start: 


City/copy  desk  of  the  Cincinnati  Post  in  1910.  O.  O.  Mclntyre  (seated  at  the  one  o'clock  position) 
was  city  editor  and  a  famous  New  York  columnist.  E.  W.  Scripps  Papers,  Ohio  University 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism 


139 


I  expect  to  take  up  a  "gas  fight"  here  within  a  few  days.  The 
conditions  are  favorable — high  priced  gas.  It  was  with  a  "gas  fight" 
in  Seattle  that  I  first  gained  circulation  for  the  Star.  I  believe 
our  gains  there,  traceable  to  the  gas  campaign,  which  was 
successful,  netted  us  some  4,000  additional  circulation.10 

The  chain's  attorney,  Jacob  Harper,  advised  one  editor  that  libel  suits 
could  be  very  beneficial:  "A  libel  suit,  and  particularly  when  it  affects 
public  affairs,  is  often  the  greatest  opportunity  presented  to  a  newspaper. 
The  Cincinnati  Penny  Paper  was  dragging  along  almost  unknown  in 
Cincinnati  until  criminal  libel  proceedings  against  its  Editors  were  begun. 
A  great  jump  in  circulation  followed  those  proceedings."" 

Scripps'  Autobiography  and  Disquisitions 

The  fourth  section  of  the  Scripps  papers  includes  his  Autobiography 
and  Disquisitions.  The  Autobiography  is  a  particularly  strong  source  on 
the  early  years  of  his  career,  when  he  was  working  with  family  members  in 
Detroit  (at  the  Evening  News)  and  as  he  moved  on  to  the  Cleveland  Press 
and  the  St.  Louis  Chronicle.  The  Disquisitions  (for  which  an  index  exists) 
reflect  Scripps'  thoughts  on  a  wide  variety  of  topics  —  from  journalism  to 
socialism  and  reform.   [Oliver  Knight's  I  Protest:  Selected  Disquisitions  of 
E.  W.  Scripps  (Madison:  University  of  Wisconsin  Press,  1966)  provides  an 
excellent  introduction  to  the  Disquisitions.] 

In  his  Autobiography,  Scripps  recalled  the  impact  of  the  Detroit 
Evening  News,  which  had  been  established  by  his  older  brother,  James. 
This  "formula"  for  news  would  provide  the  foundation  for  the  Scripps 
newspaper  chain: 

Rich  rascals,  rich  men  who  were  affected  by  petty  meanness, 
so  called  respectable  men  in  political  offices  who  were  doing 
wrong  things,  clergymen  who  had  faults  that  unfitted  them 
for  church  service  or  even  decent  society,  professional  men — 
doctors,  lawyers  and  even  judges  on  the  bench — who  had 
depended  upon  the  cloak  of  their  respectability,  or  position, 
to  cover  a  misdeed,  and  many  other  citizens,  soon  found 
that,  as  far  as  the  reporters  of  the  Evening  News  were  con- 
cerned, they  were  living  in  glass  houses  and  that  they  had 
no  means  of  protecting  themselves  from  public  exposure.12 


1 40  Great  Ideas  •  Winter  1 999 


The  Ohio  University  Archives  and  Special  Collections 
Department  has  begun  to  scan  part  of  the  Scripps  Papers; 
on-line  viewing  of  the  correspondence  will  eventually  be 
available.  At  least  part  of  the  collection  will  be  searchable  (key 
words,  subject  headings,  date,  collaborators,  geographical  area,) 
through  OhioLINKs  new  multimedia  database  linked  to  the 
Ohio  University  Archives/E.W.  Scripps  website  address 
<http:www.library.ohiou.edu/libinfo/depts/archives/mss/ 
mssl  17.htm>;  Ohio  University's  website  <http:/ 
www.ohiou.edu>;  and  Ohio  University's  on-line  library  catalog. 
The  OhioLINK  <http://ohiolink.edu/>  central  catalog  is  open  to 
users  everywhere  through  the  Internet. 

Check  with  Dr.  George  Bain,  Head  Archivist  at  Ohio 
University,  for  the  status  of  this  project  or  for  any  questions 
about  the  Scripps  papers:  Dr.  George  Bain,  504  Alden  Library, 
Ohio  University,  Athens,  OH.  45701-2978.  Telephone:  (740) 
593-2710.  FAX:  (740)  593-0138.  E-mail:  gbainl@ohiou.edu. 

A  finding  aid  is  available  at  the  Ohio  University  Archives. 


Endnotes 

'  E.H.  Wells  to  E.W.  Scripps,  1  February  1906,  series  1,  subseries  1.1,  box  26,  folder  6. 
2E.H.  Wells  to  E.W.  Scripps,  1  July  1903,  series  1,  subseries  1.1,  box  21,  folder  4. 

3  E.W.  Scripps  to  W.D.  Wasson,  23  January  1904,  series  1,  subseries  1.2,  box  5,  folder  3. 

4  E.W.  Scripps  to  J.C.  Lee,  30  July  1902,  series  1,  subseries  1.2,  box  5,  folder  1. 

5  E.W.  Scripps  to  Hyacinth  Ford,  7  November  1906,  series  1,  subseries  1.2,  box  8,  folder  8. 

6  E.W.  Scripps  to  Milton  McRae,  13  March  1899,  series  1,  subseries  1.2,  box  3,  folder  11. 

7  E.W.  Scripps  to  E.F.  Chase,  12  January  1901,  series  2,  box  5,  letterbook  7,  66. 

'Minutes  of  the  Editorial  Advisory  Board,  Scripps  McRae  League,  30  July  1896,  series  3,  subseries 
3.2,  box  3,  folder  3. 

'L.T.  Atwood  to  Jacob  C.  Harper,  22  April  1901,  series  3,  subseries  3.2,  box  4,  folder  9. 
10  E.H.  Wells  to  L.T.  Atwood,  22  December  1904,  series  3,  subseries  3-1,  box  17,  folder  7. 
"J.C.  Harper  W.D.  Wasson,  10  January  1907,  series  3,  subseries  3.1,  box  23,  folder  5. 
12  E.W.  Scripps  Autobiography,  series  4,  box  11,  177. 


Winter  1 999  •  American  Journalism  141 


142  Winter  1999 


Book  Reviews 


As  we  open  Volume  16  ^American  Journalism,  we  find  ourselves  with 
a  mixed  bag  of  literature.  If  there  is  a  common  theme  to  these  books  (and 
sometimes  we  have  to  stretch  to  find  it)  there  is  an  emphasis  on  the  work  of 
modernity.  I  point  to  Ted  Garrard's  review  of  one  of  the  masters  of  the  fund- 
raising  business,  a  position  that  is  taking  on  increasing  importance  and 
assuming  increasing  controversy  in  our  universities  and  colleges  today.  The 
emergence  of  cash  crises  not  only  affect  higher  education,  as  James  Mueller's 
review  notes,  but  newspapers  have  been  forced  to  combine  some  functions  in 
common  communities  in  order  to  survive. 

And  of  course,  one  cannot  speak  of  modern  situations  and  at  the  same 
time  ignore  the  impact  of  telecommunications  policy,  which  we  note  in  this  set 
of  reviews.  Lest  one  think,  of  course,  that  we  are  deviating  from  our  historical 
mission,  we  have  included  a  number  of  interesting  volumes  beginning  with 
Kathy  English's  look  at  Harris  and  O'Malley's  collection  of  reporting  master- 
pieces. Frances  Wilhoit  reviews  one  of  the  newest  in  a  collection  of  television 
encyclopedias.  We  are  also  taking  a  look  at  the  social  history  of  public  relations 
and  finally,  the  media  in  public  life  in  a  review  by  Michael  Antecol. 


/  Editor  s  Choice 


The  Black  Press:  Soldiers  Without  Swords  (Video) 

California  Newsreel,  San  Francisco,  California,  1998. 

It  has  not  been  our  habit  in  the  past  to  review  video  productions  for 
the  simple  reason  that  very  few  of  them  deal  with  aspects  of  journalism 
history.  The  ones  that  do  regularly  find  their  way  to  the  Public  Broadcast- 
ing System  receiving  exposure  that  is  far  more  universal  than  a  scholarly 
journal  can  deliver.  However,  in  this  issue,  the  editor's  choice  is  a  recently 
released  video  by  California  Newsreel  on  the  history  of  America's  black 
press.  And  of  course,  before  it  arrived  on  my  desk,  it  received  a  first 
viewing  on  PBS.  Nonetheless,  prior  exposure  does  not  invalidate  com- 
ments in  a  journal  devoted  to  scholarly  publishing. 

This  hour-and-a-half  study  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  America's  black 
press  should  be  required  viewing  in  classrooms  across  the  nation.  We  can 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  143 


thank  the  rise  of  social  history  and  those  who  practice  it  for  revealing  the 
long  kept  secrets  of  those  struggling  journalists  who  were  out  of  step  with 
the  dominant  ideological  forces  of  their  times.  Had  these  people  not 
taken  it  upon  themselves  to  study  the  impact  of  the  African  American 
press,  the  labor  journals,  the  monetary  reform  papers  and  the  gay  and 
lesbian  press  to  name  just  a  few,  students  today  would  grow  up  "secure  in 
the  knowledge,  deprived  as  it  may  be,  that  press  barons  such  as  Pulitzer, 
Hearst,  Bennett  and  their  ilk  were  the  true  journalistic  heroes  of  a  time 
gone  by.  Soldiers  Without  Swords  gives  us  a  brilliant,  artistic  and  somewhat 
provocative  look  at  a  press  that  helped  make  America  a  different  place  for 
minority  participation  in  the  past  century. 

In  many  ways,  the  format  of  the  program  is  predictable.  It  has  been 
constructed  in  true  Ken  Burns  style,  thankfully  without  the  dramatic 
cheerleading  that  infects  Some  of  Burns'  better  works.  It  is  a  combination 
of  vintage  film,  artistic  re-creations  and  interviews  with  media  historians 
such  as  AJHA  members  Jane  Rhodes  and  Patrick  Washburn.  The  story 
has  style  and  a  keen  sense  of  drama.  When  I  showed  it  to  a  class  here  at 
the  University  of  Western  Ontario  who  are  not  at  all  familiar  with 
American  media  history,  let  alone  African  American  history,  the  85 
minutes  and  54  seconds  passed  without  a  murmur  or  whisper  or  a  rattling 
of  paper  in  the  classroom.  When  one  considers  that  we  now  live  in  a  day 
and  age  when  maintaining  concentration  through  a  1 5  second  commer- 
cial is  a  challenge,  this  is  an  accomplishment  indeed.  Yet  during  the  entire 
film,  subject  matter  is  dealt  with  in  depth;  information  is  never  sacrificed 
to  style. 

The  main  thesis  of  the  program  is  that  the  African  American  press 
rose  as  part  and  parcel  of  a  community  attempting  to  legitimize  its  place 
in  American  society.  Before  the  Civil  War,  the  press  concentrated  on 
abolitionist  issues.  Following  the  war  and  throughout  the  period  of 
Reconstruction  and  the  reaction  to  it,  the  press  continued  the  demand  for 
full  citizenship  for  its  constituency.  And,  of  course,  in  the  20th  century, 
the  question  of  civil  rights  began  to  dominate  the  front  pages  of  the  press 
known  as  Soldiers  Without  Swords. 

The  program  closes  with  a  sense  of  nostalgia  bordering  on  sadness. 
The  producers  conclude  that  the  black  press  began  to  wither  and  die 
because  it  was  no  longer  living  in  a  day  and  age  when  African  Americans 
could  be  defined  by  their  communities  in  a  world  of  separateness.  More 
and  more  African  Americans  were  joining  the  media  corporations,  giving 
a  second  expression  beyond  that  of  the  exclusiveness  of  the  black  press. 
One  could  certainly  argue  with  this  contention,  while  noting  that  large 

144  Book  Reviews  •  Winter  1 999 


black  newspapers  such  as  New  York's  Amsterdam  News  continue  to  publish 
because  they  do  have  a  defined  black  community  in  America's  largest  city 
which  extends  beyond  cultural  issues  to  ones  of  geographical  definition. 
Harlem  may  not  be  a  legally  defined  community,  but  it  is  real  in  terms  of 
its  culture  and  its  geography. 

My  only  regret  is  that  the  program  did  not  include  journalist  cum 
lawyer  Mary  Ann  Shadd  Cary.  Considering  that  Professor  Rhodes,  who 
appeared  on  the  program,  has  just  written  a  substantial  and  qualitative 
study  of  this  abolitionist  who  moved  to  Canada  prior  to  the  Civil  War  to 
establish  the  Provincial  Freeman,  it  is  an  interesting  omission.  But  perhaps 
I  am  assuming  too  much.  Soldiers  Without  Swords  is  a  project  with 
considerable  merit.  It  manages  to  bring  together  the  many  and  diverse 
studies  now  lining  library  shelves  which  deal  with  the  integration  of  the 
press  and  minorities  striving  to  find  a  place  in  an  often  hostile  and  rigid 
environment.  This  film  has  made  a  major  contribution  to  our  under- 
standing of  this  process.  Let  us  hope  the  producers  do  not  stop  making 
such  fine  films. 

>David  R.  Spencer,  University  of  Western  Ontario 


Joint  Operating  Agreements:  The  Newspaper  Preserva- 
tion Act  and  Its  Application 

John  C.  Busterna  and  Robert  G.  Picard,  Norwood,  New  Jersey:  Ablex 
Publishing  Corporation,  1993.  171  pp. 

The  authors  of  this  book  did  not  set  out  to  write  a  history  of  joint 
operating  agreements,  but  their  historical  analysis  of  that  facet  of  the 
newspaper  industry  may  well  be  the  true  worth  of  the  book.  The  authors, 
however,  state  in  the  preface  to  Joint  Operating  Agreements:  The  Newspaper 
Preservation  Act  and  its  Application  that  the  book's  "greatest  practical 
value"  may  be  in  informing  owners  of  competing  newspapers  that  there  is 
an  alternative  to  the  NPA.  Busterna  and  Picard  suggest  that  competing 
newspapers  would  be  better  off  combining  some  operations  before  one  of 
them  qualifies  as  "failing"  under  the  NPA.  This  solution  is  an  interesting 
idea,  yet  it  is  really  too  late  because  there  are  so  few  competing  daily 
newspapers. 

The  true  worth  of  the  book  is  in  the  authors'  excellent  historical 
critique  of  the  Newspaper  Preservation  Act  as  an  example  of  "public 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  145 


policy  gone  awry."  The  book,  which  is  readable  despite  dealing  with  a 
rather  dry  topic,  includes  a  history  of  newspaper  joint  operations,  a 
thorough  analysis  of  the  Citizen  Publishing  case  that  provided  the  genesis 
of  the  NPA  and  a  review  of  the  literature  and  theory  on  the  topic.  The 
book  demonstrates  that  the  NPA  has  not  been  effective  in  saving  dying 
newspapers  or  saving  weak  newspapers  that  were  in  joint  operating 
agreements  before  the  act  was  passed.  That  previous  sentence  might  seem 
confusing,  but  the  authors'  history  of  joint  operations  clears  up  a  miscon- 
ception that  there  were  no  joint  operations  before  the  NPA  was  passed  in 
1970.  The  book  points  out  that  joint  newspaper  operations  go  back  to  the 
1930s,  and  that  most  cost-sharing  measures  that  joint  operating  newspa- 
pers use  were  legal  under  US  antitrust  laws  before  the  NPA  was  adopted. 
The  authors  argue  that  even  some  activities  like  price  fixing  and  profit 
pooling  would  have  been  permitted  in  a  limited  fashion  before  the  NPA 
was  approved. 

The  authors'  exhaustive  analysis  of  the  1 965  US  Department  of 
Justice  suit  against  the  joint  operating  newspapers  in  Tucson,  Arizona, 
(the  Citizen  Publishing  case)  and  the  subsequent  development  of  the  NPA 
show  the  newspaper  industry  and  the  country  missed  a  great  opportunity 
to  have  alternatives  other  than  the  present  law.  Without  going  into  detail 
here,  the  authors  convincingly  argue  that  the  alternatives  may  well  have 
been  better.  Busterna  and  Picard  point  out  that  the  failing  newspaper 
requirement  is  one  of  the  main  problems  with  the  NPA  because  a  newspa- 
per that  is  already  failing  through  poor  circulation  is  almost  impossible  to 
save.  They  argue  that  it  would  be  better  to  allow  competing  newspapers  to 
enter  cost-sharing  and  limited  cartel  arrangements  before  one  of  them  is 
truly  failing. 

But  reading  the  authors'  review  of  literature  on  the  effect  of  compe- 
tition on  editorial  content  makes  one  question  whether  preserving 
newspapers  will  do  much  to  preserve  diversity.  The  authors  argue  that 
research  shows  there  is  little  diversity  in  editorial  content  even  between 
competing  newspapers  because  newspapers  seek  to  appeal  to  the  mass  in 
the  middle  and  will  not  want  to  upset  the  "narrow  band  extending 
between  liberal  Democrats  and  conservative  Republicans." 

St.  Louisans  might  take  issue  with  that  assertion.  For  example,  the 
conservative  Globe-Democrat  trumpeted  the  invasion  of  Grenada  as  a 
justified  rollback  of  Communism,  while  the  liberal  Post-Dispatch  con- 
demned it  as  the  worst  sort  of  gunboat  diplomacy.  That  difference  of 
opinion  hardly  seems  a  "narrow  band"  and  yet  was  typical  of  the  way  the 


1 46  Book  Reviews  •  Winter  1 999 


papers  reacted  to  the  major  and  minor  issues  of  the  day.  They  provided  a 
clear  choice  of  views  in  St.  Louis  until  the  Globe's  death  in  1986.  Such 
distinct  viewpoints  were  published  in  competing  newspapers  in  a  number 
of  other  cities,  including  Shreveport,  which  continues  to  have  editorial 
diversity  under  a  unique  agreement  whereby  the  surviving  newspaper  is 
publishing  a  second  editorial  page  produced  by  the  publisher  of  the  failed 
newspaper.  Busterna  and  I'icard  only  lightly  touch  upon  the  Shreveport 
model  which,  like  the  authors'  suggestion  for  a  modified  NPA,  may  well 
be  too  late  to  provide  much  editorial  diversity  in  the  American  press. 

The  next  few  years  are  likely  to  see  more  newspaper  closings  and 
the  terminations  of  JOAs  rather  than  attempts  to  form  new  ones.  The  El 
Paso  Herald-Post,  which  was  in  a  JOA  with  the  El  Paso  Times,  was  closed 
while  this  book  review  was  being  written.  El  Paso  was  the  last  major  city 
in  Texas  to  have  competing  dailies;  such  competition  ended  in  Dallas  in 
1991,  San  Antonio  in  1993  and  Houston  in  1995.  The  situation  in  Texas 
reflects  that  in  the  rest  of  the  country.  The  trend  is  clear,  and  it  seems  the 
best  bet  for  editorial  diversity  may  be  the  establishment  of  new  online 
newspapers.  Nevertheless,  Joint  Operating  Agreements  is  well-written,  well- 
researched,  and  is  quite  valuable  for  anyone  interested  in  the  history  and 
economics  of  the  newspaper  industry. 

>Jim  Mueller, University  of  Texas  at  Austin 


Media  And  Public  Life 

Everette  E.  Dennis  &  Robert  W.  Snyder  (eds.),  New  Brunswick,  New 
Jersey:  Transaction  Publishers,  1997.  190  pp. 

This  compilation  represents  the  best  articles  from  a  decade's  worth 
of  the  Freedom  Forum's  Media  Studies  Journal.   It  contains  over  20  pieces 
that  may  be  characterized  simply  as  short  in  length  but  large  in  stature. 
This  is  true  both  in  terms  of  the  contributors  themselves  and  the  thoughts 
evoked  by  their  articles.  Included  in  this  volume  are  such  wide-ranging 
topics  as  television  in  public  life,  the  history  of  newspapers,  gender  and 
race  equality  in  the  media,  the  relationship  between  news  and  public 
relations  as  well  the  future  of  both  the  media  in  general  and  the  news 
media  in  particular.  The  authors,  drawn  from  academic,  governmental 
and  professional  domains,  include  Newton  Minnow,  Christopher  Lasch, 
Herbert  Gans,  Maureen  Dowd,  Robert  MacNeil  and  Leo  Bogart. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  147 


Reading  this  book  brought  me  back  to  my  first  semester  as  a  Ph.D. 
student.  As  part  of  my  course  load  for  that  semester  I  was  required  to  take 
an  introductory  seminar  in  mass  communications.  Despite  the  course  title 
and  despite  the  fact  that  we  read  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  pages  from  a 
variety  of  sources,  the  course  rather  simplistically  dealt  with  only  two 
complementary  issues:  what  was  thought  to  ail  the  news  media  and  what 
could  be  done  to  remedy  the  supposed  ailments.  The  major  ills  of  the 
news  industry  were  summarized  simply  as  the  corporate  ownership 
structures  (in  the  Altshull  vein)  and  the  growing  distance  between  news 
consumers  and  news  providers.  Civic  journalism  was  offered  to  the  class 
as  a  quick  and  simple  remedy  to  those  ills. 

Although  studies  of  the  news  media,  and  indeed  the  media  in 
general,  can  be  easily  dichotomized  in  such  a  context-less  problem/ 
solution-type  fashion,  what  the  chapters  in  Media  And  Public  Life  make 
clear  is  that  whatever  problems  in  the  news  media  system  one  chooses  to 
focus  on,  those  problems  are  neither  so  simple  or  so  easily  rectified. 
Rather,  the  news  media  must  be  seen  in  the  context  of  the  larger  media 
systems  from  which  they  draw  their  existence.  Accordingly,  the  successes 
and  failures  of  the  news  media  can  be  seen  as  interpolations  of  the  overall 
media  system.  Likewise,  any  media  system  can  only  be  seen  as  part  of  the 
society  in  which  it  resides.  Thus,  the  issue  of  racial  equality  in  the  news- 
room is  similarly  an  issue  of  equality  in  the  overall  media  system  and  of 
equality  in  general  society. 

Despite  the  fact  that  it  is  often  done,  then  to  partition  the  media  in 
general  or  the  news  media  in  particular  from  the  rest  of  society  is  to 
commit  a  serious  error.  In  the  language  of  the  social  sciences,  such  a 
partitioning  would  lack  both  internal  and  external  validity.  Whether  one 
agrees  or  disagrees  with  any  specific  idea  put  forward  in  the  book,  the 
strength  of  Media  And  Public  Life  as  a  whole  is  that  it  does  not  undertake 
such  a  partitioning.  In  doing  so  it  paints  a  more  representative  picture  of 
the  role  the  media  can  and  do  play  in  the  lives  of  American  citizens. 

One  may,  of  course,  ask  why  it  is  necessary  to  purchase  a  book  that 
represents  only  a  compilation  of  previously  released  work.  There  is  some 
validity  in  that  question.  But,  in  response,  I  would  argue  that  nowhere  has 
such  an  interesting  and  thought-provoking  body  of  work  by  such  a 
diverse  group  of  authors  been  brought  together  in  one  easily  accessible 
place.  These  articles  contain  many  of  the  enduring  questions  that  con- 
tinue to  haunt  media  practitioners,  those  of  us  who  study  the  media,  and 
indeed  many  in  the  general  public.  It  represents  a  focused  attempt  to 


1 48  Book  Reviews  •  Winter  1 999 


direct  attention  to  those  issues  and  as  such  should  be  required  reading  for 
all  those  beginning  their  work  with  the  media  and  recommended  to  all 
those,  both  private  or  professional,  who  express  an  interest  in  this 
vast  topic. 

>Michael  Antecol,  University  of  Missouri,Columbia 


Museum  of  Broadcast  Communications  Encyclopedia  of 
Television,  3  vols. 

Horace  Newcomb  (ed.)>  Cary  O'Dell  (Photo  Editor),  Noelle  Watson 
(Commissioning  Editor),  Chicago  and  London:   Fitzroy  Dearborn 
Publishers,  1997.  1,948  pp. 

(Volume  1:  encyclopedia  entries  A-F;  Volume  2:  encyclopedia  entries 
G-P;  Vol.  3:  encyclopedia  entries  QjZ,  notes  on  contributors,  index.) 

A  project  of  Chicago's  Museum  of  Broadcast  Communications,  this 
extraordinary  encyclopedia  was  edited  by  Dr.  Horace  Newcomb,  the 
Heyne  Professor  of  Communication  at  the  University  of  Texas  at  Austin, 
who  consulted  with  an  advisory  board  of  14  scholars  to  define  the  project. 
They  reduced  the  possible  topics  to  about  1 ,000  entries  focused  on  the 
work  on  "major  English-speaking,  television  producing  countries,  and  for 
that  reason  the  bulk  of  the  material  presented  here  deals  with  television 
programs,  people,  and  topics  drawn  from  the  United  States,  Britain, 
Canada,  and  Australia." 

The  encyclopedia,  a  project  requiring  three  years  of  preparation  and 
contributions  from  more  than  300  authors,  has  produced  a  carefully 
edited  and  beautifully  created  historical  presentation  and  interpretation  of 
television  as  produced  in  the  United  States,  Britain,  Canada,  and  Austra- 
lia. The  Museum  of  Broadcast,  founded  in  1987  under  the  direction  of 
Bruce  DuMont,  has  a  collection  of  radio  and  television  artifacts  and  offers 
a  series  of  public  forums  and  interactive  programs  about  the  social  effects 
of  television  programs,  and  the  development  of  the  technology  underpin- 
ning the  medium.  The  museum's  resources  also  include  the  A.C.  Nielsen, 
Jr.,  Research  Center,  "a  collection  comprising  thousands  of  hours  of 
programming,  commercials,  newscasts,  and  special  events."  These 
materials  are  available  to  anyone  who  wishes  to  listen  to,  or  view  the  past 
of,  broadcast  communication  at  the  museum. 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  149 


Though  most  of  the  entries  in  the  encyclopedia  are  for  programs, 
persons,  and  corporations,  there  are  included  wonderfully  descriptive 
entries  about  developments  in  the  industry,  such  as  "Color  Television," 
"Fairness  Doctrine,"  "Educational  Television,"  and  "Cable  Television." 
The  encyclopedia  has  been  carefully  and  beautifully  created.  The  subject 
matter  is  riveting.  The  entries  are  interesting,  descriptive,  factual,  schol- 
arly, and  illustrated  with  black  and  white  photographs  and  corporate 
logos.  The  entries  include  a  broad  range  topics,  persons,  television 
productions,  products,  and  developments.  The  entry  for  "I  Love  Lucy" 
illustrates  the  detail  and  quality  of  information  provided  in  the  encyclope- 
dia.  "I  Love  Lucy,"  U.S.  Situation  Comedy,  is  followed  by  a  lengthy, 
descriptive  and  insightful  essay  discussing  the  themes,  successes,  the 
cultural  setting  of  the  program,  and  the  detail  of  the  series,  persons  and 
institutions  involved  in  its  production. 

As  in  all  the  entries  about  television  programs,  the  information 
includes  a  list  of  the  cast  and  characters,  the  producers,  the  programming 
history  in  number  of  episodes,  the  network,  a  chronology  of  the  broad- 
casts by  month  and  year,  and  a  bibliography  for  further  reading.  Refer- 
ences to  related  entries  are  given,  such  as,  "See  also  Arnaz,  Desi;  Ball, 
Lucille;  Comedy;  domestic  Settings;  Family  on  Television."  The  entries 
for  television  actors  describe  their  styles  and  careers,  and  present  a  full 
listing  of  performances  in  broadcasting,  detailing  the  years  of  the  various 
television  series,  mini-series,  and  made-for-television  movies. 

The  entry  for  "  'I  Love  Lucy'  describes  the  details  of  the  creation  and 
success  of  the  show.  For  example,  "  'I  Love  Lucy'  debuted  on  CBS  in  Octo- 
ber 1951  and  was  an  immediate  sensation.  It  spent  four  of  its  six  prime-time 
seasons  as  the  highest-rated  series  on  television  and  never  finished  lower  than 
third  place."  The  success  of  "I  Love  Lucy"  is  described  and  analyzed  in  detail 
and  illustrated  with  photographs.  The  encyclopedia's  entries  describe  corpora- 
tions involved  in  the  television  industry.  The  "Cable  Networks"  entry,  for 
example,  defines  cable  networks  by  describing  the  services,  illustrating  the 
entry  with  network  logos,  and  summarizing  the  complex  environment  in 
which  the  networks  competed  and  developed. 

The  encyclopedia  includes  many  entries  about  the  companies 
involved  in  television  produced  and  broadcast  in  the  English-speaking 
countries.  The  entry  entitled  "Cable  Networks"  is  an  example  of  the 
encyclopedia's  holistic  approach  to  the  subject  of  television.  A  definition 
and  description  of  the  cable  network  system  introduces  the  entry.  The 
channels  (25)on  most  cable  systems  are  listed.  The  list  begins  with  Arts 
and  Entertainment  (A  &  E),continues  with  Black  Entertainment  Televi- 
sion (BET),  and  Home  Shopping  Network,  and  Nickelodeon  ("children's 


1 50  Book  Reviews  •  Winter  1 999 


and  family  programming,")  and  ends  with  The  Weather  Channel,  ("24 
hours  a  day  of  weather  information").  The  entry  describes  how  the  cable 
networks  operate.  Pay  networks,  pay-per-view  networks,  regional  net- 
works, and  a  history  of  networks  are  included  in  this  entry.  The  history 
begins  with  the  first  cable  network,  Home  Box  Office.  The  cable  logos 
provide  the  topic's  illustrations  and,  as  with  all  entries,  a  bibliography  for 
further  reading  is  included. 

>  Frances  Wilhoit,  Indiana  University 


PR!  A  Social  History  of  Spin 

Stuart  Ewen,  New  York:  Basic  Books,  1996.  480  pp. 

Just  how  slippery  is  the  definition  of  PR  is  clear  to  anyone  who  tries 
to  identify  the  PR  activities  at,  say,  the  White  House  or  the  Pentagon — or 
the  Vatican  or  the  Sears  Tower  for  that  matter.   Every  message  and  every 
activity  takes  on  aspects  of  PR.  To  avoid  drawing  the  unhelpful  conclu- 
sion that  public  relations  is  in  fact  the  whole  wide  world,  one  will  be 
forced  to  create  categories  that,  however  reasonable,  will  bear  his  or  her 
stamp.   By  the  end  of  this  exercise,  we're  likely  to  learn  as  much  about  the 
person  examining  PR  as  about  PR  itself. 

That  has  certainly  been  true  for  PR  historians.  Textbooks  for 
courses  in  public  relations  use  an  onward-and-upward  model  as  they 
describe  PR  beginning  with  press  agentry  and  the  ballyhoo  of  P.  T. 
Barnum,  gaining  a  measure  of  respect  at  the  hands  of  Ivy  Lee  and  Edward 
Bernays,  and  evolving  into  the  professionalism  apparent  in  the  Public 
Relations  Society  of  America  and  the  International  Association  of  Busi- 
ness Communicators.  In  Corporate  Public  Relations,  free  marketeer  Marvin 
Olasky  documented  a  century  of  big  business/government  collaboration. 

And  in  The  Unseen  Power,  PR  education  pioneer  Scott  Cutlip 
focused  on  the  careers  of  more  than  a  dozen  pioneering  practitioners, 
many  whom  he  knew.  So  it  is  not  surprising  that  in  PR!  Hunter  College 
social  historian  Stuart  Ewen  sees  public  relations  largely  as  an  anti- 
democratic enterprise. 

This  enterprise  began,  according  to  Ewen,  with  the  populism  of  the 
Progressive  era,  when  muckraking  journalists  exposed  the  myriad  oppres- 
sions of  big  business.  Progressives  viewed  the  public  as  rational,  and  they 
believed  that  social  conditions  would  improve  if  the  public  was  presented 
with  reasonable  arguments  based  on  fact.  Corporations  responded  with 


Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  151 


information  campaigns  of  their  own.  During  those  trust-busting  times 
AT&T  successfully  "educated  the  public"  into  approving  its  monopoly 
status. 

Faith  in  a  rational  public  eroded  in  the  1920s  as  the  social  psychol- 
ogy of  Gustave  Le  Bon  gained  the  acceptance  of  opinion  shapers  like 
Walter  Lippmann  and  Edward  Bernays.  In  The  Crowd,  Le  Bon  had 
proclaimed,  "To  know  the  art  of  impressing  the  imagination  of  crowds  is 
to  know  at  the  same  time  the  art  of  governing  them."  Embracing  this 
insight,  corporate  public  relations  learned  to  use  market  surveys  and 
opinion  polls  to  forge  a  conceptual  link  between  public  welfare  and  free 
enterprise. 

Democratic  impulses  revived  after  this  link  broke  in  October  1929. 
Big  business  grew  increasingly  alarmed  as  FDR  used  his  public  relations 
savvy  to  align  the  middle  and  working  classes  with  the  federal  govern- 
ment. So  big  business  fought  back.  Campaigns  of  the  National  Associa- 
tion of  Manufacturers  used  radio,  films,  and  billboards — even  the  New 
York  World's  Fair  in  1939 — for  one  overarching  purpose:  to  co-opt  the 
democratic  expectations  that  grew  with  the  New  Deal. 

Ewen's  history  of  spin  in  the  20th  century  shows  democratic  move- 
ments thwarted  by  massive  corporate  propaganda,  populism  corrupted 
into  acquiescence.  But  despite  corporate  capitalism's  resources  and  skills, 
Ewen  believes  that  democracy  can  re-awaken  if  the  isolating  spell  of 
demography  can  be  broken  and  the  work  of  imagination,  organization, 
and  education  can  unite  a  people  for  the  causes  of  freedom  and  equality. 

To  say  that  PR!  is  the  most  compelling  history  of  public  relations 
that  has  been  written  is  to  damn  it  with  faint  praise.  Books  about  PR, 
historical  or  not,  tend  either  to  support  the  practice  of  public  relations 
uncritically  or  to  condemn  it  unmercifully.  Ewen's  book  deserves  superla- 
tives because  it  is  more  measured  and  historically  nuanced.  If  a  person 
were  to  read  only  one  history  of  public  relations  in  America,  Ewen's  would 
be  the  best  choice. 

Not  that  the  book  is  without  flaws.  It  begins  with  breezy  first- 
person  accounts  of  getting  publicity  in  the  New  York  /Wand  of  inter- 
viewing Bernays.  But  these  accounts  give  way  to  a  denser,  third-person 
history  after  a  few  dozen  pages  in  a  remarkably  abrupt  shift  in  tone  and 
direction.  Moreover,  Ewen's  focus  on  the  grand  narrative  of  capitalist  PR 
ignores  the  workaday  world  of  most  business  public  relations,  not  to 
mention  that  of  nonprofit  and  charitable  concerns.  It  is  important  to 
remember  that  the  first  book  published  about  public  relations,  Herbert 
Heebner  Smith's  Publicity  and  Progress,  dealt  not  with  business  but  with 


1 52  Book  Reviews  •  Winter  1 999 


religion,  education,  and  social  work.  Nevertheless,  Ewen  has  written  a 
provocative  history,  one  that  deserves  to  be  widely  discussed. 

>John  P.  Ferre,  University  of  Louisville 


Pragmatic  Fundraising  For  College  Administrators 
And  Development  Officers 

Ralph  Lowenstein,  Gainesville:  University  Press  of  Florida,  1997.  132  pp. 

Ralph  Lowenstein  won  a  reputation  as  a  highly  successful  fund 
raising  dean  during  his  18  years  as  Dean  of  the  College  of  Journalism  at 
the  University  of  Florida.  By  the  time  he  left  his  post  in  1994,  Lowen- 
stein's  efforts  resulted  in  68  different  endowment  funds  valued  at  more 
than  $20  million. 

Pragmatic  Fundraising  is  part  memoir  and  part  self-help  guide  in 
which  Lowenstein  shares  with  readers  strategies  and  techniques  for 
successful  fundraising,  for  example:  how  to  recognize  and  approach  a 
potential  donor,  how  to  organize  a  fundraising  committee,  how  to 
approach  foundations,  and  how  to  write  compelling  proposals.  The  book 
also  contains  more  than  20  exhibits  ranging  from  letters  of  invitation,  to 
proposal  cover  letters,  and  even  a  letter  of  condolence. 

From  a  professional  fundraiser's  perspective,  what  is  refreshing  about 
Pragmatic  Fundraising  is  Lowensteins  understanding  that  college  adminis- 
trators must  increasingly  play  a  highly  active  role  in  fund  development 
activities.  Lowenstein,  as  it  turned  out,  not  only  liked  fundraising  but 
ended  up  spending  half  his  time  involved  in  fundraising  activities.  What 
makes  Lowenstein  a  good  fundraiser  is  his  ability  to  form  relationships 
with  potential  donors,  cultivate  their  interest,  respond  to  their  needs  and, 
most  importantly,  know  when  to  ask  for  the  order.  Indeed,  Pragmatic 
Fundraising  is  full  of  helpful  examples  and  anecdotes  of  this  "high-touch" 
form  of  fundraising,  which  obviously  has  been  so  successful  for 
Lowenstein. 

However,  fundraising  today  goes  beyond  "high  touch"  and  has 
become  very  "high  tech,"  something  to  which  Lowenstein  pays  little 
attention  and  which  is  a  major  shortcoming  of  the  book.  Fundraisers 
today  require  a  high  degree  of  knowledge  in  the  areas  of  data  manage- 
ment, market  segmentation,  and  tax  and  legal  areas.  Unfortunately,  little 
attention  is  given  in  the  book  to  these  matters  or  to  highly  used  fund- 
raising  vehicles  such  as  telemarketing,  direct  mail  or  planned  gifts, 

Winter  1999  "  American  Journalism  153 


including  annuities,  bequests  or  charitable  uni-trusts.  These  are  important 
elements  of  fundraising  that  every  development  officer  or  administrator 
must  come  to  understand  to  be  successful. 

In  conclusion,  Pragmatic  Fundraising  is  a  useful  introduction  to  the 
do's  and  dont's  of  fundraising.  However,  in  reading  the  book,  college 
administrators  and  fundraising  wanabees  must  themselves  be  pragmatic  in 
understanding  its  limitations. 

>Ted  Garrard,  The  University  of  Western  Ontario 


Studies  in  Newspaper  and  Periodical  History:  1995 
Annual 

Michael  Harris  and  Tom  O'Malley  (eds.),  Westport,  CT:  Greenwood 
Press,  1997.  264  pp. 

The  range  of  scholarship  collected  in  Studies  in  Newspaper  and 
Periodical  History:  1995  Annual  is  vast  indeed.  Spanning  the  period  from 
1 700  through  the  1 970s,  with  articles  covering  the  United  States,  En- 
gland, Wales,  Germany  and  Australia,  this  book  addresses  the  very  role  of 
serial  publication  within  the  wider  sphere  of  cultural  history.  In  its 
examinations  of  serials  ranging  from  the  18th  century's  Tatler  through  to 
the  emergence  of  the  late  20th  century's  Rolling  Stone,  this  collection  seeks 
to  establish  the  serial  as  a  core  element  in  the  historical  study  of  print. 

The  work  is  edited  by  Michael  Harris,  a  Lecturer  in  History  at  the 
University  of  London  and  founder  of the  Journal  of  Newspaper  and 
Periodical  History  from  which  this  work  is  culled,  and  Tom  O'Malley, 
Senior  Lecturer  in  Media  Studies  at  the  University  of  Glanmorgan,  Wales. 
Both  scholars  contribute  articles  to  this  book,  with  Harris'  opening  essay 
Locating  the  Serial  providing  the  raison  d'etre  for  the  entire  collection. 
Harris'  piece  raises  questions  about  the  manner  in  which  serial  publica- 
tion has  been  historically  studied,  suggesting  a  need  for  wider  debates 
about  the  role  of  the  serial  in  print  culture.  He  argues  that  a  "worn-out 
form  of  cultural  elitiara"  has  placed  the  central  components  or  serial 
publication — the  newspaper  and  magazine — secondary  to  book  publica- 
tion as  a  source  of  study.  Happily  though,  he  argues,  "like  a  long-unused 
engine,  the  18th  century  printed  serial  is  spluttering  into  life." 

Following  that  introductory  essay,  much  of  the  rest  of  this  book 
seeks  to  prove  the  importance  of  serial  publication  in  establishing  shared 
concerns  over  social  issues.  This  covers  a  wide  range  of  specific  issues  of 


1 54  Book  Reviews  •  Winter  1 999 


various  eras  and  locales.  New  York  University's  Amy  Beth  Aronson 
discusses  the  role  at  "Lacelles"  magazines  and  women's  self-representation 
in  the  early  years  of  American  democracy,  effectively  arguing  that  the 
American  women's  magazine  promised  revolutionary  possibilities  in 
providing  redress  for  women's  enforced  silence  in  the  public  sphere.  In 
another  piece,  Tom  O'Malley  and  his  Wales'  colleagues  Stuart  Allan  and 
Andrew  Thompson  explore  the  relationship  between  the  newspaper  press 
in  Wales  and  issues  of  national  identity,  pointing  out  a  need  to  recognize 
the  way  in  which  the  press  reflected  conflict  within  Welsh  society  over  the 
meaning  of  Welsh  identity.  Twentieth  century,  post- World  War  II  Ger- 
many is  discussed  in  Jessica  Gienow-Hochfs  fascinating  study  of  the 
influence  of  the  American  newspaper  Neue  Zeitung's  coverage  of  the 
Nuremberg  Nazi  war  criminal  trials  in  the  establishment  of  a  collective 
German  guilt  for  the  crimes  of  Adolph  Hitler. 

Researchers  of  a  certain  dominant  demographic  will  most  certainly 
enjoy  reading  Cleveland  State  University  David  Atkins'  analysis  of  Rolling 
Stones  coverage  of  the  American  New  Left  during  the  late  1960s.  Atkins 
discusses  the  role  of  the  underground  press  in  general  in  the  turbulent  late 
'60s  and  the  myth  of  Rolling  Stone  in  particular.  He  documents  the 
publication's  evolution  from  its  genesis  as  an  "underground"  alternative 
voice  that  espoused  both  political  and  cultural  change  through  to  its  later- 
day  mainstream  commercial  popularity  when  it  sought  to  distance  itself 
from  radical  politics.  Ultimately,  he  concludes  that  the  goal  of  incisive, 
partisan  reporting  is  incompatible  with  a  serial's  economic  success;  in 
essence  telling  us,  Rolling  Stone  sold  out. 

This  book  concludes  with  an  engaging  essay  by  Acadia  University's 
Glenn  Wilkinson  on  the  use  of  the  newspaper  as  a  serious  source  for 
historians.  Wilkinson  discusses  the  mental  and  physical  problems  of 
newspaper  research,  including  the  researcher's  tendency  to  get  side  tracked 
within  the  spiraling  spools  of  microfilm  by  tales  of  gruesome  murders  or 
the  score  in  the  Cup  final.  He  offers  practical  advice  for  the  historian  new 
to  the  newspaper  as  a  source:  take  a  sweater  (microfilm  rooms  are  always 
cold);  don't  read  at  lunch  (your  eyes  need  a  rest).  Wilkinson  is  clearly  an 
advocate  of  mining  the  newspaper  for  research  gems.  Indeed  he  states  that 
exploring  the  newspaper  can  provide  great  value  to  "those  willing  to  get 
their  historical  hands  dirty." 

Wise  words  indeed  for  those  of  us  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  under- 
standing the  role  of  serial  publications  through  history. 

>Kathy  English,  Ryerson  Polytechnical  University 

Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  155 


Wireless:  Strategically  Liberalizing  the  Telecommuni- 
cations Market 

Brian  J.W.  Regli,   Mahwah:  Lawrence  Erlbaum,  1997.  296  pp. 

In  these  times,  when  market  forces  are  close  to  automatically 
championed  as  a  panacea  for  society's  ills,  it's  notable  to  come  across  a 
mainstream  work  of  telecommunications  policy  that  doesn't  mindlessly 
jump  on  the  same  bandwagon — and  that  also  attempts  to  ground  its 
analysis  and  recommendations  in  historical  and  comparative  terms. 
Author  Brian  J.W.  Regli  (most  recently  employed  at  a  management  and 
communications  consultancy  that  serves  such  clients  as  NYNEX,  Bell 
Atlantic,  and  BellSouth)  attempts  to  move  the  telecommunications  policy 
debate  past  the  dichotomizing  choices  of  market  regulation  versus  state 
regulation.  Neither  a  mob  of  companies  scrambling  to  do  each  other  in 
nor  a  lumbering  state  monopoly  has  in  his  view  achieved  the  sustainable 
growth  of  telecommunications  services  nor  the  goal  of  broad  access 
worldwide 

The  absence  of  large  infrastructural  investments  of  the  kind  needed 
by  telephony  and  other  cabled  services  makes  the  wireless  systems  of  the 
book's  title  (such  as  cellular  telephone,  paging  systems,  and  their  variants) 
uniquely  positioned  to  finally  deliver  the  promises  of  access,  accessibility, 
and  increased  democracy,  provided  that  governments  and  corporations 
make  the  proper  decisions  today.  His  policy  proposal  is  what  he  labels 
"strategic  liberalization" — a  broad-based  regulatory  framework  shared  and 
put  into  practice  by  government  and  industry  to  promote  wireless  and  its 
role  in  economic  development.  Regli  argues  for  "a  more  pro-active  role  for 
government  institutions  and  regulatory  bodies  worldwide,"  not  in  terms 
of  limiting  activities  of  telecommunications  developers,  but  "to  further 
liberalize  and  develop" certain  areas  of  the  economy — such  as  wireless 
telecommunications — that  are  seen  to  benefit  entire  societies.  In  this  way, 
he  attempts  to  set  himself  apart  from  the  free  market  radicals  as  well  as 
from  what  he  calls  leftist  protectionists. 

Of  primary  relevance  for  communication  historians  are  his  policy 
analyses  of  telecommunications  laws  and  regulation  in  four  countries 
from  generally  the  1960s  through  the  mid-1990s.  While  recent  develop- 
ments in  the  US,  Britain,  Russia,  and  Brazil  illustrate  the  problems 
associated  with  swinging  too  far  toward  state  or  corporate  control,  Regli 
sees  opportunities  in  all  these  countries  to  beneficially  moderate  these 
extreme  responses.  His  overview  of  relevant  acts,  policies,  and  their  legal 
milieus  is  useful  for  anyone  with  interests  in  the  recent  history  of  telecom- 
munications policy.  However,  some  features  of  the  book  limit  its  useful- 


1 56  Book  Reviews  •  Winter  1 999 


ness  for  communication  historians,  not  the  least  of  which  is  its  constant 
use  of  cute  "green'analogies  which,  in  this  case,  tend  to  trivialize  the 
matter — for  example,  equating  telecommunications  markets  to  different 
ecologies  and  describing  their  growth  and  development  as  needing  the 
nutrients  of  capital,  customers,  and  the  like,  or  concluding  the  book  with 
a  call  for  "telecommunications  bio-diversity." 

More  seriously,  a  conspicuous  absence  in  a  book  on  global  regula- 
tion and  economics  is  an  analysis  of  the  imperatives  of  capitalism  as  they 
shape  this  process  and  its  priorities.  Telecommunications  companies, 
governments,  and  other  constituencies  are  presented  here  as  autonomous 
players  in  a  giant  game  of  "Let's  Make  a  Deal,"  instead  of  as  positioned 
and  working  within  the  global  capitalist  system  and  its  drive  toward 
increasing  concentration  of  power  and  resources.  Corporations,  technolo- 
gies, and  their  needs  are  therefore  presented  as  natural,  autonomous,  or  as 
self-evident  instead  of  as  produced  and  pressured  by  goals  of  profit- 
maximization  and  expansion.  More  engagement  with  the  vast  literature  of 
political  economy  and  communications  (recent  representatives  include 
Mosco,  Garnham,  Murdock,  Wasko,  McChesney,  and  Golding)  would 
deepen  the  analysis  made  and  the  conclusions  reached. 

A  second  shortcoming  is  the  book's  reliance  on  two  theoretical 
perspectives  which  mesh  nicely  with  the  absence  of  remarks  about 
capitalism:  technological  determinism  and  modernization  theory.  The 
notion  that  communication  technology  is  the  source  of  social  change 
makes  it  easier  to  promote  technology  alone  (in  this  case,  wireless  tele- 
communications) as  the  means  of  achieving  economic  development.  To 
find  such  a  perspective  in  this  work  is  not  surprising.  Regli  intends  this 
book  as  a  combination  of  academic  study,  policy  analysis,  and  corporate 
strategy  (in  practice,  it  is  more  of  the  latter  two).  For  its  intended  audi- 
ence of  mainstream  North  American  telecommunications  scholars, 
think-tank  members,  and  CEOs  worried  about  the  bottom  line,  this  mix 
is  (all  too  often)  suitable. 

In  sum,  the  book  is  useful  for  its  description  of  different  policy 
orientations  regarding  telecommunications  and  its  account  of  recent 
developments  in  telecommunication  regulation  and  policy  in  a  handful  of 
countries.  However,  for  conclusions  more  complex  and  troubling  than  we 
simply  need  to  get  together  to  make  the  best  decisions,  one  should  go  to 
work  that  is  grounded  more  clearly  in  the  historical  dynamics  of 
corporatization,  capitalism,  and  the  intricate  realities  they  seek  more 
successfully  to  understand. 

>James  Hamilton,  SUNY  Geneseo 
Winter  1999  •  American  Journalism  157 


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A  Journal  of  Media  History  Spring  1999 

Volume  16,  Number  2 


American   *. 

lournalism 


Editor Shirley  Biagi 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Book  Review  Editor David  Spencer 

University  of 
Western  Ontario 

Assistant  Editor Timi  Ross  Poeppelman 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Design Gwen  Amos 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Former  Editors William  David  Sloan 

University  of  Alabama 

Gary  Whitby 

East  Texas  State 

John  Pauly 

Saint  Louis  University 

Wallace  B.  Eberhard 

University  of  Georgia 


1999  American  Journalism 
Historians  Association  Officers. 


President Eugenia  Palmegiano 

Saint  Peter's  College 

1st  Vice  President William  David  Sloan 

University  of  Alabama 

2nd  Vice  President David  Copeland 

Emory  Henry  College 

Administrative  Secretary. Carol  Sue  Humphrey 

Oklahoma  Baptist 
University 

Treasurer Dick  Scheidenhelm 

Colorado  State 
University 

Historian Alf  Pratte 

Brigham  Young 
University 

Board  of  Directors .David  Abrahamson 

John  Coward 
David  Davies 
Wallace  Eberhard 
Kathleen  Endres 
John  Ferre 
Tracy  Gottlieb 
Pat  Washburn 
Julie  Williams 


Definition  of  History 


For  purposes  of  written  research  papers  and  publications,  the  term  history 
shall  be  seen  as  a  continuous  and  connected  process  emphasizing  but  not 
necessarily  confined  to  subjects  of  American  mass  communications.  History 
should  be  viewed  not  in  the  context  of  perception  of  the  current  decade,  but  as 
part  of  a  significant  and  time-conditioned  human  past. 


Editorial  Purpose 


American  Journalism  publishes  articles,  book  reviews  and  correspondence 
dealing  with  the  history  of  journalism.  Contributions  may  focus  on  social, 
economic,  intellectual,  political  or  legal  issues.  American  Journalism  also  welcomes 
articles  that  treat  the  history  of  communication  in  general;  the  history  of 
broadcasting,  advertising  and  public  relations;  the  history  of  media  outside  the 
United  States;  theoretical  issues  in  the  literature  or  methods  of  media  history;  and 
new  ideas  and  methods  for  the  teaching  of  media  history.  Papers  will  be  evaluated 
in  terms  of  the  authors  systematic,  critical,  qualitative  and  quantitative  investiga- 
tion of  all  relevant,  available  sources  with  a  focus  on  written,  primary  documents 
but  not  excluding  current  literature  and  interviews. 

Copyright 

©American  Journalism  Historians  Association  1999.  Articles  in  the  journal 
may  be  photocopied  for  use  in  teaching,  research,  criticism  and  news  reporting, 
in  accordance  with  Sections  107  and  108  of  the  U.  S.  Copyright  Law.  For  all 
other  purposes,  including  electronic  reproduction  and/or  distribution,  users  must 
obtain  written  permission  from  the  editor. 


Submission  Guidelines 


Authors  submitting  research  manuscripts  for  publication  as  articles  should 
send  five  manuscript  copies  (including  an  abstract  with  each).  Manuscripts 
should  follow  the  Chicago  Manual  of  Style,  14th  Edition,  and  should  not  exceed 
the  recommended  maximum  length  of  20  pages.  Research  manuscripts  are  blind 
refereed. 

Great  Ideas  is  designed  to  showcase  new  approaches  and  information  about 
the  teaching  of  media  history.  Great  Ideas  are  typically  three  to  six  manuscript 
pages.  Authors  of  Great  Ideas  should  first  query  the  editor. 

American  Journalism  is  produced  on  Macintosh  computers  using  Microsoft 
Word  6.0.1.  Authors  whose  manuscripts  are  accepted  for  publication  are  asked  to 
submit  their  work  on  PC  or  Macintosh  disk,  formatted  in  Microsoft  Word  5.0 
or  6.0.1. 


Send  Submissions  to Professor  Shirley  Biagi 

American  Journalism 
Communication 
Studies  Department 
6000  J  Street 
Mendocino  5014 
Sacramento,  CA 
95819-6070 
Telephone:  (916)  278-5323 
E-mail:  ajha@csus.edu 

Book  Reviews To  review  or  propose  a 

book  review  contact: 
Professor  David  Spencer 
Graduate  School  of 
Journalism 
University  of  Western 
Ontario 

London,  Ontario 
Canada  N6A  5B7 
E-mail: 
dspencer@julian.uwo.ca 

Advertising  Rates Contact  the  Editor 

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Send  AJHA  membership  and  subscription 

dues  and  single  copy  orders  to Dick  Scheidenhelm 

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80301-1626 


A  Journal  of  Media  History  Spring  1999 

Volume  16,  Number  2 

J  American   <  . 
ournalism 


Editor's  Note 9 

"Those  Who  Toil  and  Spin ":  Female  Textile  Operatives'  Publications  in 
New  England  and  the  Response  to  Working  Conditions,  1840-1850  .  .  17 
Mary  M.  Cronin 

The  author  explores  the  nations  first  factory  publications  which  were 
predominantly  written  and  edited  by  women. 

Dissent  and  Control  in  a  Woman  Suffrage  Periodical:  30  Years  of  the 

Wisconsin  Citizen 39 

Elizabeth  V.  Burt 

Through  her  study  of  the  Wisconsin  Citizen,  the  author  observes  that 
the  role  of  reform  publications  had  a  positive  as  well  as  negative  impact  on  the 
women's  movement. 


Flying  Around  the  World  in  1889 — In  Search  of  the  Archetypal 

Wanderer 63 

Paulette  D.  Kilmer 

This  article  attempts  to  illuminate  how  and  why  Nellie  Bly,  and  not 
Elisabeth  Bisland,  became  a  cultural  icon  as  the  archetypal  wanderer. 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  5 


"There  is  Nothing  in  This  Profession  .  .  .  That  a  Woman  Cannot  Do"  : 

Doris  E.  Fleischman  and  the  Beginnings  of  Public  Relations 85 

Susan  Henry 

This  article  focuses  on  pioneer  Doris  E.  Fleischman's  role  during  the 
early  days  of  public  relations. 

Great  Ideas:  Rethinking  Objectivity  in  Journalism  and  History:  What 

Can  We  Learn  from  Feminist  Theory  and  Practice? 113 

Carolyn  Kitch 

The  author  suggests  viewing  journalists  and  the  practice  of  historical 
research  through  the  lens  of  feminist  theory. 

Book  Review  Editor's  Note 121 

Book  Reviews 121 

Editor's  Choice:  Big  Trouble 121 

By  J.  Anthony  Lukas 
Reviewed  by  David  R.  Spencer 

Dispatches  From  The  Revolution:  Russia  1916-1918 124 

By  Morgan  Phillips 
Reviewed  by  Roy  E.  Blackwood 

Fleet  Street  Around  The  Clock 126 

By  Gordon  Allan  London 
Reviewed  by  J.  O.  Bay  Ian 

French  Newspapers'  Opinion  on  the  American  Civil  War  ....  129 
By  George  M.  Blackburn 
Revieiued  by  Andrew  C  Holman 

Rampant  Women  Suffragists  and  the  Right  of  Assembly  ....  130 
By  Linda  Lumsden 
Reviewed  by  Tamara  Baldwin 


Table  of  Contents  •  Spring  1 999 


Robert  Worth  Bingham  and  the  Southern  Mystique: 

From  the  Old  South  to  the  New  South  and  Beyond 132 

By  William  E.  Ellis 
Reviewed  by  John  P.  Ferre 

The  World  According  to  Hollywood:  1918  to  1939 134 

By  Ruth  Vasey 
Reviewed  by  G.  Tom  Poe 

Tombstone's  Epitaph 136 

By  Douglas  D.  Martin 
Reviewed  by  Joseph  A.  Russomanno 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism 


Spring  1999 


Editor  s  Note 


'omen — more  than  100  years  of  their  role  in  the  history  of 
''American  mass  media — is  the  single  focus  of  the  articles  in 
this  issue  of  American  Journalism.  Traditional  histories  of  mass  media  in 
America  still  overlook  the  important  role  that  many  women  played  in 
journalism's  formation.  The  articles  in  this  issue  add  substantial  scholar- 
ship on  the  subject,  spanning  two  centuries — from  the  publication  of 
activist  labor  periodicals  of  the  1800s  to  the  development  of  public 
relations  strategies  in  the  1900s. 

"Those  Who  Toil  and  Spin"  is  the  subject  of  Mary  Cronin's  exami- 
nation of  textile  factory  workers'  publications,  which  writers  used  to  rally 
women  to  change  working  conditions  in  the  textile  industry.   Lamonica 
says  these  New  England  periodicals,  including  The  Lowell  Offering  and 
The  Voice  of  Industry,  may  have  been  the  first  labor  publications  for 
women. 

Activists  in  the  women's  suffrage  movement  are  chronicled  by 
Elizabeth  Burt  in  her  article,  "Dissent  and  Control  in  a  Woman  Suffrage 
Periodical:  30  Years  of  the  Wisconsin  Citizen."  The  women  who  published 
the  Citizen  chose  to  downplay  disagreements  among  their  members,  Burt 
says,  rather  than  become  an  outlet  for  conflicting  constituencies. 

A  comparison  of  the  lives  of  two  early  female  pioneers  is  the  focus 
of  Paulette  Kilmer's  "Flying  Around  the  World  in  1889 — In  Search  of  the 
Archetypal  Wanderer."  Kilmer  examines  the  portrayal  of  two  pioneering 
adventurers — Nellie  Bly  (Elizabeth  Cochrane)  and  Elizabeth  Bisland — to 
explain  why  Bly  attracted  so  much  media  attention  and  Bisland  was  left 
largely  unnoticed. 

The  early  career  of  Doris  E.  Fleischman,  a  woman  who  is  central  in 
the  history  of  public  relations,  is  the  focus  of  Susan  Henry's  study,  "There 
Is  Nothing  in  This  Profession. ..That  A  Woman  Cannot  Do."  Henry  has 
published  extensively  on  the  lives  of  Fleischman  and  her  husband, 
Edward  L.  Bernays,  but  here  Henry  gives  specific  attention  to 
Fleischman's  early  working  years  to  capture  the  working  collaboration 
Fleischman  and  Bernays  and  the  impact  of  that  relationship  on  the 
development  of  the  public  relations  profession.   Included  with  this  article, 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism 


courtesy  of  Henry,  are  two  stunning  photographs  of  Fleischman, 
published  here  for  the  first  time. 

This  issue's  Great  Ideas,  written  by  Carolyn  Kitch,  is  a  description 
of  her  personal  journey,  using  feminist  theory  as  a  different  lens  to  help 
focus  her  study  and  teaching  of  journalism  history.   Kitch  asks,  "What 
Can  We  Learn  from  Feminist  Theory  and  Practice?" 

David  Spencer  presents  another  interesting  collection  of  book 
reviews,  beginning  on  page  107.  His  Editor's  Choice,  Big  Trouble  by  J. 
Anthony  Lukas,  offers  unusual  insight  into  media  in  the  Gilded  Age. 
Other  reviews  cover  books  about  the  suffragist  movement,  overseas  media, 
stories  about  the  history  of  some  significant  US  newspapers,  and  a 
chronicle  of  the  early  years  of  Hollywood. 

This  is  the  sixth  issue  of  American  Journalism  published  at  Califor- 
nia State  University,  Sacramento,  and  the  initial  flood  of  Great  Ideas  that 
I  received  at  the  beginning  of  my  tenure  as  Editor  has  dimished  to  a 
trickle.   I  know  that  many  of  you  have  Great  Ideas  to  share  with  our 
readers,  so  this  is  a  plea  to  you  to  sit  down  and  write  them  out  and  send 
them  to  me — six  pages  double-spaced  of  your  best  teaching,  learning  or 
research  hints  for  those  of  us  who  care  about  media  history.  Great  Ideas 
are  always  welcome  at  American  Journalism. 

Shirley  Biagi 
Editor 


10  Editor's  Note  •  Spring  1999 


American  Journalism 

Back  Issues 

The  following  back  issues  of  American  Journalism 

are  available  at  the 

cost  of  $3  per  issue  ($6  per 

combined  issue): 

Volume  7 

(1990) 

Nos.  1  and  2 

Volume  8 

(1991) 

Nos.  1,  2-3  (com- 
bined issue),  and  4 

Volume  9 

(1992) 

Nos.  1-2,  3-4 

(both  combined  issues) 

Volume  10 

(1993) 

Nos.  1-2  (combined  issue) 

Volume  1 1 

(1994) 

Nos.  2,  3,  and  4 

Volume  12 

(1995) 

Nos.  2  and  4 

Volume  13 

(1996) 

Nos.  1,  2,  3,  and  4 

Volume  14 

(1997) 

Nos.  1,  2,  3-4  (com- 
bined issue) 

Some  of  these  issues  are  in  short  supply  (Vol.  7, 

No.  4;  Vol. 

12,  Nos.l 

and  3) 

Add$l  per 

issue  for  postage  and  send  check  made 

payable  to  AJHA  to: 

Richard  Scheidenhelm 

AJHA  Treasurer 
4l85CorrientePl. 
Boulder,  CO  80301 

(303)  443-7542 

Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism 


11 


12 


Spring  1999 


American  Journalism  Reviewers 


David  Abrahamson 
Northwestern  University 

June  Adamson 
University  of  Tennessee 

Donna  Allen 

Women's  Institute  for  Freedom  of  the  Press 

Perry  Ashley 

University  of  South  Carolina 

Donald  Avery 

Penn  State  University 

Gerald  Baldasty 
University  of  Washington 

Warren  "Sandy"  Barnard 
Indiana  State  University 

Sharon  Bass 
University  of  Kansas 

Maurine  Beasley 
University  of  Maryland 

Tom  Beell 

Iowa  State  University 

Louise  Benjamin 
University  of  Georgia 

Sherilyn  Cox  Bennion 
Humboldt  State  University 

Douglas  Birkhead 
University  of  Utah 

Roy  Blackwood 
Bemidji  State  University 

Margaret  Blanchard 
University  of  North  Carolina 

Fred  Blevens 

Southwest  Texas  State  University 

Patticia  Bradley 
Temple  University 

Bonnie  Brennen 

Virginia  Commonwealth  University 

Joshua  Brown 

American  Social  History  Project 

Pam  Brown 
Rider  University 


Judith  Buddenbaum 
Colorado  State  University 

Elizabeth  Burt 
University  of  Hartford 

Flora  Caldwell 
University  of  Mississippi 

James  Carey 
Columbia  University 

Jean  Chance 
University  of  Florida 

Ann  Colbert 
Indiana-Purdue  University 

Tom  Connery 
University  of  St.  Thomas 

John  Coward 
University  of  Tulsa 

David  Copeland 
Emory  &  Henry  College 

Ed  Cray 

University  of  Southern  California 

David  Davies 

University  of  Southern  Mississippi 

John  DeMott 

University  of  Missouri,  Kansas  City 

Donna  Dickerson 
University  of  South  Florida 

Pat  Dooley 
University  of  Maine 

Carolyn  Dyer 
University  of  Iowa 

Willy  Eberhard 
University  or  Georgia 

Kathleen  Endres 
University  of  Akron 

Ferrell  Ervin 

Southeast  Missouri  State  University 

Bruce  Evenson 
DePaul  University 

Fred  Fedler 

University  of  Central  Florida 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism 


13 


Tony  Fellow 

California  State  University,  Fullerton 

John  Ferre 

University  or  Louisville 

Jean  Folkerts 

George  Washington  University 

Robert  Former 
Calvin  College 

Jim  Foust 

Bowling  Green  University 

Ralph  Frasca 
Hofstra  University 

Brooks  Garner 
Oklahoma  State  University 

Dennis  Gildea 
Springfield  College 

Don  Godfrey 

Arizona  State  University 

Doug  Gomery 
University  of  Maryland 

Tracy  Gottleib 
Seton  Hall  University 

Karla  Gower 

University  of  North  Carolina,  Chapel  Hill 

Paul  Grosswiler 
University  of  Maine 

Dennie  Hall 

University  of  Central  Oklahoma 

Margot  Hardenbergh 
Marist  College 

Susan  Henry 

California  State  University,  Northridge 

Louise  Hermanson 
University  of  South  Alabama 

Tom  Heuterman 
Washington  State  University 

Glenn  Himebaugh 

Middle  Tennessee  State  University 

Nathaniel  Hong 
University  of  Washington 

Brad  Howard 

Mount  St.  Clare  College 

Herbert  Howard 
University  of  Tennessee 


Carol  Sue  Humphrey 
Oklahoma  Baptist  University 

Bill  Huntzicker 
University  of  Minnesota 

Frankie  Hutton 
Lehigh  University 

Terry  Hynes 
University  of  Florida 

Dolores  Jenkins 
University  of  Florida 

Jay  Jernigan 

Eastern  Michigan  University 

Phil  Jeter 

Florida  A  &  M  University 

Sammye  Johnson 
Trinity  University 

Tom  Johnson 

Southern  Illinois  University 

Paula  Kassell 

New  Directions  for  Women 

Arthur  Kaul 

University  of  Southern  Mississippi 

Beverly  Keever 
University  of  Hawaii 

Elliott  King 
Loyola  College 

Judith  Knelman 
Middlesex  College 

Bill  Knowles 
University  of  Montana 

Ed  Lambeth 
University  of  Missouri 

Linda  Lawson 
Indiana  University 

Richard  Lentz 

Arizona  State  University 

Lawrence  Lichty 
Northwestern  University 

Larry  Lorenz 
Loyola  University 

Charles  Mailer 

Abilene  Christian  University 

John  Marrs 

Everett  Community  College 


14 


American  Journalism  Reviewers  •  Spring  1999 


Maclyn  McClary 
Humboldt  State  University 

Sheila  Mclntyre 
Harvard  University 

Floyd  McKay 

Western  Washington  University 

Joe  McKerns 

Ohio  State  University 

Craig  McKie 
Carleton  University 

James  McPherson 
Washington  State  University 

Beverly  Merrick 

New  Mexico  State  University 

Karen  Miller 
University  of  Georgia 

David  Mindich 

Saint  Michael's  College 

Catherine  Mitchell 
University  of  North  Carolina 

James  Mooney 

East  Tennessee  State  University 

Meg  Moritz 
University  of  Colorado 

Michael  Murray 

University  of  Missouri,  St.  Louis 

Orayb  Najjar 

Northern  Illinois  University 

Jack  Nelson 

Brigham  Young  University 

Richard  Nelson 
Louisiana  State  University 

Maureen  Nemecek 
Oklahoma  State  University 

Mark  Neuzil 
University  of  St.  Thomas 

Doug  Newsom 

Texas  Christian  University 

Ron  Ostman 
Cornell  University 

Laurie  Ouellette 
Rutgers  University 

Anna  Paddon 

Southern  Illinois  University 


Oscar  Patterson 
Pembroke  State  University 

Carol  Polsgrove 
Indiana  University 

Steve  Ponder 
University  of  Oregon 

AlfPratte 

Brigham  Young  University 

Chuck  Rankin 

Montana  Historical  Society 

Barbara  Reed 
Rutgers  University 

Ford  Risley 

Pennsylvania  State  University 

Nancy  Roberts 
University  of  Minnesota 

Kitt  Rushing 

University  of  Tennessee,  Chattanooga 

Joe  Scanlon 
Carleton  University 

Dick  Scheidenhelm 
Colorado  State  University 

Michael  Schudson 
UC  San  Diego 

Susan  Siler 

University  of  Tennessee 

Roger  Simpson 
University  of  Washington 

Norm  Sims 

University  of  Massachusetts 

David  Sloan 
University  of  Alabama 

C.  Zoe  Smith 
University  of  Missouri 

F.  Leslie  Smith 
University  of  Florida 

Ted  Smythe 

California  State  University  Fullerton 

David  Spencer 

University  of  Western  Ontario 

K.  Sriramesh 
Purdue  University 

Jim  Startt 
Valparaiso  University 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism 


15 


Ronald  Stotyn 

Georgia  Southern  University 

Andris  Straumanis 
University  of  Minnesota 

Rodger  Streitmatter 
American  University 

Victoria  Sturgeon 
Tennessee  State  Universit)' 

Leonard  Teel 

Georgia  State  University 

Clarence  Thomas 

Virginia  Commonwealth  University 

Bernell  Tripp 
University  of  Florida 


Tom  Volek 
University  of  Kansas 

Pat  Washburn 
Ohio  University 

Susan  Weill 

University  of  Mississippi 

Mary  Weston 
Northwestern  University 

Jan  Whitt 

University  of  Colorado 

Julie  Williams 
Samford  University 

Betty  Winfield 
University  of  Missouri 


16 


American  Journalism  •  Spring  1999 


'Those  Who  Toil  and  Spin": 
Female  Textile  Operatives' 
Publications  in  New  England  and 
the  Response  to  Working 
Conditions,  1840-  1850 

By  Mary  M.  Cronin 

This  article  examines  the  publications  produced  by  antebellum 
female  textile  operatives  in  New  England  and,  specifically,  their  responses 
to  working  conditions.  The  article  examines  arguments  for  the  10-hour 
day,  concerns  about  wages,  work  speedups,  the  dignity  of  labor  and, 
related,  discontent  over  class  distinctions  and  middle  class  hegemony.  The 
research  highlights  how  the  unique,  gendered  nature  of  these  publications 
influenced  the  topics  of  discussion  and  the  rhetoric  used. 

In  May  1846,  a  writer  for  the  Lowell,  Massachusetts-based  Voice 
Of  Industry  admonished  the  Massachusetts  legislature  after  it 
failed  to  approved  a  10-hour  day  for  laborers.  Factory  workers, 
many  of  whom  toiled  12  to  14  hours  a  day  in  poorly  ventilated  cotton 
mills  with  only  brief  meal  breaks,  had  lobbied  the  legislature  on  several 
prior  occasions  without  success.  Despite  this,  workers  redoubled  their 
efforts  and  sent  a  15,000-signature  petition  to  lawmakers.  It,  too,  failed  to 


Mary  M.  (Cronin)  Lamonica  is  an  Associate  Professor  of  Communication  at  Stonehill 
College  in  Easton,  Massachusetts. 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 J 


spur  legislation,  and  caused  a  Voice  Of  Industry  writer,  (known  only  as 
E.R.)  to  state: 

The  legislative  Committee  have  recently  told  1 5,000  of  us,  we  are 
fools — that  the  evils  we  have  petitioned  them  to  remove,  do  not 
exist,  notwithstanding  we  have  worked  day  after  day  and  experi- 
enced all  these  evils — that  their  valuable  time  is  of  too  much 
importance  to  waste  in  the  manner,  and  in  fact,  if  some  evils  do 
exist,  they  are  so  very  few  that  they  area  of  not  much  consequence, 
and  are  just  what  we  must  expect;  and  further,  the  generous  corpo- 
rations will  look  after  these  things,  so  there  is  no  fear  but  we  shall 
have  our  just  dues  and  they  might  have  added  (as  they  no  doubt 
thought)  that  we  were  poor  and  consequently  beneath  notice.1 

The  article  demonstrated  that  factory  workers  understood  that 
important  changes  in  social,  political,  and  economic  relationships  had 
occurred  in  antebellum  society.  The  pre-industrial  society  of  their  parents' 
and  grandparents'  generations  had  disappeared,  and  in  its  place  a  class- 
based  society  emerged,  many  of  whose  members  equated  money  with 
power. 

These  first  generations  of  factory  workers  recognized  that,  like 
artisans  and  mechanics  before  them,  newspapers  were  a  necessary  vehicle 
to  lobby  for  social,  political  and  economic  goals."  Such  journals  allowed 
workers  to  regularly  publicize  their  agenda  to  broader  audiences  than 
lectures  or  broadsides  could  reach. 

First  Labor  Publications  for  Women 

The  majority  of  the  nation's  first  factory  publications  were  estab- 
lished by  those  operatives  who  had  the  least  power  in  society — women. 
These  journals — which  emerged  only  in  New  England's  large,  planned 
textile  cities  in  which  female  labor  predominated — also  appear  to  have 
been  the  first  labor  publications  for  women.3  Labor  publications  for  male 
artisans  and  mechanics  first  appeared  in  the  late  1820s,  the  products 
primarily  of  unions  and  political  parties.4 

Despite  having  only  two  to  three  free  hours  a  day,  New  England's 
female  textile  operatives  produced  many  literary  and  labor  publications. 
The  first  and  most  widely  known  was  The  Lowell  Offering  ( 1 840- 1 845). 
Four  other  publications  subsequently  emerged  in  Lowell:  The  Operatives' 
Magazine  ( 1 84 1  - 1 842) ,  The  Operative  ( 1 843-45) ,  The  Voice  of  Industry 


Cronin  •  Spring  1999 


(1845  -  1848),  and  The  New  England  Offering  (1847  -  1850);  in 
Cabotville  (Chicopee),  Massachusetts,  The  Olive  Leaf  and  Tactory  Girls' 
Repository  (1 843);  in  Fall  River,  Massachusetts,  The  Wampanoag and 
Operatives'  Journal  (1 842);  and  another,  The  Tactory  Girl's  Advocate 
( 1 845) ,  possibly  was  published  in  Boston.  Five  other  journals  were 
published  in  New  Hampshire:  The  Tactory  Girl  { 184 1-43);  The  Tactory 
Girl  and  Ladies'  Garland  ( 1 842);  The  Tactory  Girl's  Garland  ( 1 844);  The 
Tactory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives'  Advocate  (1846);  and  The  Tactory 
Girls'  Album  and  Mechanics'  Offering  (1846-47),  all  based  in  Exeter.5 

The  Lowell  Offering  gained  acclaim  when  author  Charles  Dickens 
visited  Lowell  and  was  surprised  to  find  the  operatives  both  literate  and 
literary.  He  praised  The  Lowell  Offering,  stating  "It  will  compare  advanta- 
geously with  a  great  many  English  annuals."6  Since  then,  contemporary 
historians  studying  the  industrial  revolution,  women's  issues,  and  labor 
history  frequently  have  cited  the  publication.  The  other  factory  publica- 
tions have  rarely  been  examined,  however,  leaving  them  largely  unknown 
to  both  scholars  and  the  general  public.7 

This  research  examines  female  operatives'  responses  to  working 
conditions  in  both  the  labor  and  the  genteel  publications.  More  specifi- 
cally, the  article  examines  arguments  for  the  10-hour  day,  concerns  about 
wages,  work  speedups,  the  dignity  of  labor  and,  relatedly,  discontent 
about  growing  class  distinctions  and  middle  class  hegemony.  The  author 
sought  to  examine  how  the  unique,  gendered  nature  of  these  publications 
influenced  the  topics  of  discussion  or  the  rhetoric  used.  The  author  also 
sought  studies  of  the  predominantly-male  labor  press  of  the  time  to 
examine  those  publications'  concerns  and  rhetoric. 

Unfortunately,  few  studies  which  focus  specifically  on  the  artisans' 
and  mechanics'  press  prior  to  1850  exist.  Two  studies  (which  examined 
several  of  the  publications)  have  shown  that  the  topics  which  concerned 
the  early  labor  publications  for  mechanics  and  artisans  included  attempts 
"to  unify  the  working  classes  in  their  struggle  to  become  part  of  middle 
America";  free,  tax-supported  public  schools;  suffrage  for  all  free  men;  free 
trade;  abolishment  of  the  armed  forces;  direct  taxation;  fully  equipped 
militias;  an  end  to  capital  punishment;  government  protection  of  the 
working  classes;  repeal  of  chartered  monopolies;  and  changes  in  lending 
and  borrowing  laws.8 

The  author  examined  the  entire  content  of  every  existing  issue  of 
five  of  the  publications  which  emerged  in  antebellum  New  England 
factory  communities.  Those  five  journals  include  three  that  were  labor- 
oriented —  The  Voice  of  Industry,  The  Tactory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives' 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  19 


Advocate,  the  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Mechanics'  Offering,  and  two 
genteel  litetary  magazines,  The  Lowell  Offering  and  The  New  England 
Offering.  These  were  chosen  because  all  had  lengthy  publication  runs  and 
most  of  the  issues  are  still  available  for  study.  Some  publications,  such  as 
The  Factory  Girl  and  The  Wampanoag  and  Operatives'  Journal,  are  barely 
extant;  only  scattered  or  single  copies  are  available.  Others,  such  as  The 
Factory  Girl's  Advocate,  are  no  longer  extant. 

Women  and  the  Industrial  Revolution 

Although  the  nation's  earliest  textile  mills  established  by  Samuel 
Slater  in  Rhode  Island  in  1790  relied  on  whole  families  for  their  labor 
force,  Slater's  model  wasn't  followed  by  the  larger  industrial  concerns 
which  emerged  in  the  next  two  decades.9  The  leading  textile  corporation 
in  antebellum  America  in  the  1820s,  the  Boston  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, purposely  recruited  single  farm  women  for  the  majority  of  its 
workforce.  The  Boston  Associates,  as  the  group  became  known,  revolu- 
tionized textile  production  and  urban  industrialization  in  America 
through  its  creation  of  planned  factory  communities  and  textile  opera- 
tions which  housed  every  step  in  cloth  production,  from  the  raw  materials 
to  the  finished,  printed  cloth,  in  one  building.10  The  Boston  Associates 
furnished  the  capital,  planned  the  communities,  built  the  factories, 
recruited  the  labor  pool,  and  marketed  their  finished  goods." 

The  Associated  planned  every  aspect  of  their  industrial  communities 
in  the  hopes  of  avoiding  the  grinding  poverty,  filth,  and  disease  that  were 
prevalent  in  Britain's  textile  cities.  As  such,  the  Associates'  textile  opera- 
tions were  located  in  rural  areas  near  rivers  to  take  advantage  of  the  clean 
water  power.  The  workforce  was  planned  with  particular  care.  Cognizant 
of  the  shortage  of  male  labor,  and  wanting  to  avoid  potential  union 
activity,  management  recruited  women.  Single  farm  women,  in  particular, 
were  sought  by  factory  owners  because  they  were  available  in  large 
numbers,  were  used  to  working  long  hours,  had  some  experience  helping 
their  mothers  produce  cloth  via  spinning  and  weaving  at  home,  were 
literate,  seen  as  highly  virtuous  and  most  importantly,  were  viewed  as 
deferential  to  patriarchal  authority.12  Women  were  readily  available  and 
they  needed  the  work,  since  the  goods  they  once  produced  at  home — 
clothing  and  household  items — were  now  being  made  more  inexpensively 
and  faster  by  industry. 

Despite  these  facts,  other  emerging  industries  had  largely  ignored 
women.  Textile  managers  recruited  the  women  by  initially  offering 


20  Cronin  •  Spring  1 999 


relatively  high  wages  and  clean,  well-run  boarding  houses  with  female 
matrons  and  strict  codes  of  conduct  for  occupants.  City  planners  also 
built  educational,  cultural  and  religious  facilities  for  the  workers.  Their 
efforts  paid  off.  The  emerging  mill  cities,  such  as  Lowell,  had  largely 
homogenous  workforces  that  were  almost  80  percent  female,  under  30 
years  of  age,  and  from  rural  origins.13 

This  group  assumed  that  if  they  created  a  model  city — one  with 
clean,  well-supervised  housing,  schools,  lecture  halls,  cultural  activities, 
churches,  and  a  benevolently  paternal  system  of  overseers — a  harmonious 
atmosphere  would  prevail.'4  Initially  it  did.  The  first  wave  of  female 
operatives  to  live  in  the  planned  community  of  Lowell,  Massachusetts, 
starting  in  1823,  appeared  to  have  few  grievances  against  the  factory 
system.  But  as  the  1830s  and  1840s  progressed,  operatives  complained 
about  work  speedups,  wage  cuts,  and  increased  boarding  house  charges 
and  conditions,  as  well  as  the  hours  of  labor.15 

The  very  fact  that  Lowell  was  largely  a  female  city  allowed  operatives 
to  develop  a  sense  of  labor  and  gender  solidarity  relatively  easily.  Given 
what  the  Boston  Associates  thought  was  careful  planning,  Lowell's  factory 
managers  were  taken  by  surprise  in  February  1834  when  one-sixth  of  their 
female  employees  struck  to  protest  wage  cuts  brought  on  by  overproduc- 
tion and  a  slow  market.16  Rumors  of  the  impending  salary  reductions 
were  enough  to  cause  the  women  to  hold  meetings,  circulate  petitions 
and,  in  some  factories,  completely  stop  work.  Rallies  and  pledges  by  the 
women  that  they  wouldn't  return  to  work  until  the  pay  cut  was  rescinded 
were  short-lived.  The  strike  collapsed  within  a  week  after  the  strikers 
found  themselves  financially  drained  and  evicted  from  their  boarding- 
houses.17  Most  of  the  women  returned  to  work,  while  others  returned 
home.18 

A  financial  panic  in  1837  ended  this  first  organizing  effort.  A  more 
systematic  effort  wouldn't  appear  until  1845,  led  by  Sarah  Bagley,  who 
later  served  as  editor  of  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  with  the  formation  of  the 
Female  Labor  Reform  Association.  Although  the  group's  concerns  in- 
cluded health  and  safety  issues,  increasing  wages,  and  boarding  house 
conditions,  the  group's  primary  goal  was  achieving  a  10-hour  day.  By  the 
1840s,  however,  much  of  the  labor  agitation  had  shifted  from  street 
corners  and  meeting  houses  and  into  the  pages  of  the  press. 

Voices  of  Reform 

The  publications  emerged  as  the  textile  cities  fell  into  an  economic 
decline,  the  victims  of  their  own  industrial  success.  Rapid  over-expansion 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  2 1 


in  less  than  two  decades  flooded  the  marketplace  with  cheap  textiles, 
forcing  drastic  cost-cutting.  Operatives  denounced  the  long  hours  of 
labor,  low  pay,  and  subsequent  health  and  educational  concerns  in  their 
journals.  They  also  used  their  journals  to  address  their  disenchantment 
with  class  divisions. 

Labor  historian  Philip  Foner  has  noted  that  the  publications' 
importance  "cannot  be  overemphasized.  Workers  smuggled  them  into  the 
mills  and  they  were  eagerly  read  and  passed  along.  These  magazines 
stimulated  and  helped  build  the  Female  Labor  Reform  Associations  of  the 
forties  [1840s]."19 

The  publications  were  largely  helmed  by  men,  despite  the  fact  that 
numerous  women  wrote  for,  and  served  as  co-editors  of,  the  publications. 
Initially,  The  Lowell  Offering,  The  Operatives'  Magazine,  and  The  Voice  of 
Industry  were  supervised  by  male  editors,  although  women  later  ran  the 
publications.  The  Voice  Of  Industry  only  devoted  substantial  space  to 
women  operatives'  issues  during  the  year  of  1846-47  when  textile  worker 
Sarah  Bagley  assumed  the  editorship.  The  Factory  Girl  and  Ladies'  Garland 
and  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives'  Advocate  also  were  established 
and  run  by  a  man,  Charles  Dearborn.  Despite  Dearborn's  overall  supervi- 
sion, an  early  editorial  in  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives  Advocate 
stated  that  it  was: 

edited  by  an  association  of  females  who  are  operatives  in  factories, 
and  consequently  are  well  qualified  to  judge  the  wants  of  those 
whose  cause  they  will  advocate;  and  having  borne  in  common  with 
them  their  burdens  and  afflictions,  are  proper  judges  to  administer 
an  antidote  that  will  alleviate  their  wrongs,  and  prevent  a  relapse  of 
those  abuses  which  have  so  long  been  heaped  upon  them.20 

Dearborn  changed  the  publication's  name  in  May  1847  to  The  Factory 
Girl's  Album  and  Mechanics'  Offering  in  an  attempt  to  broaden  its  appeal 
and  readership.  The  new  publication  billed  itself  as  the  "devoted  cham- 
pion, not  only  to  the  operative  of  the  mills,  but  to  the  laboring  classes 
generally." 

Circulation  figures  for  most  of  the  publications  are  largely  un- 
known. Most  had  subscription  agents  throughout  New  England  and 
some,  such  as  The  Lowell  Offering,  claimed  subscribers  in  most  states  and 
in  several  countries  overseas.21  Who  those  subscribers  were — other 
operatives,  artisans  and  mechanics,  early  supporters  of  labor  or  women's 
rights,  or  simply  the  curious — remains  unknown,  as  the  publications 
never  addressed  the  issue  and  no  records  exist.  Similarly,  most  of  the 


22  Cronin  •  Spring  1999 


publications  never  listed  their  circulations.  Of  the  two  that  did,  The  Olive 
Leaf  and  Factory  Girl's  Repository  claimed  a  circulation  of  nearly  1,000 
copies  in  1843."  In  1846,  The  Voice  of  Industry  claimed  a  weekly  circula- 
tion of  2,000  copies.23 

Magazines  Never  Opposed  Hard  Labor 

Literature  and  poetry  on  non-labor  topics  predominated  in  the 
genteel  magazines,  although  some  editorials,  stories  and  poetry  occasion- 
ally dealt  with  labor  topics.  The  female  labor  reform  journals  stood  in 
contrast  to  these  literary  publications  by  devoting  virtually  all  of  their 
space  to  labor  issues  and  concerns.  Like  their  genteel  counterparts,  the 
labor  publications  also  offered  readers  serialized  novels,  short  stories  and 
poetry,  yet  virtually  all  of  the  copy  focused  on  the  plight  of  factory 
operatives,  especially  females. 

It  should  be  pointed  out  that  even  the  pro-labor  publications' 
editors  never  opposed  hard  labor.  Rather,  they  denounced  what  many 
considered  to  be  the  unhealthy  conditions  and  poor  treatment  which 
resulted  from  such  labor.  Most  of  the  operatives  (writers  and  editors 
included)  had  worked  from  an  early  age  on  their  parents'  farms  and  were 
willing  to  do  the  same  textile  work  (i.e.,  spinning  and  weaving)  that  their 
mothers  had  done  at  home.24  Then,  too,  they  did  not  oppose  the  estab- 
lishment of  factories  and  subsequent  mechanization  of  the  nation.  As 
historian  Walter  Licht  notes,  unlike  Europeans,  antebellum  Americans 
welcomed  machines  with  great  enthusiasm.  "Machines  replaced  few 
workers;  with  an  expanding  agricultural  base  and  with  labor  therefore 
lured  to  the  land,  machines  filled  a  vacuum.  The  machine  did  not  emerge 
as  a  phantom  in  the  midst  of  the  new  American  republic,  as  a  threat 
necessarily  either  to  livelihoods  or  social  order."25 

Like  the  editors  of  the  artisans'  and  mechanics'  press,  the  greatest 
concern  of  many  of  the  editors  at  the  operatives'  journals  (particularly  the 
pro-labor  publications)  was  achieving  a  10-hour  day.26  Labor  agitation  for 
the  10-hour  day  dated  to  1791  when  a  group  of  Philadelphia  carpenters 
struck,  demanding  a  shorter  day.27  The  demands  did  not  become  regular 
for  three  decades,  however,  until  President  Martin  Van  Buren  approved  a 
10-hour  day  in  1840  for  federal  workers,  thus  giving  hope  to  other 
workers,  who  increased  their  lobbying  efforts.28 

As  labor  historians  Philip  Foner  and  David  Roediger  have  noted, 
reducing  work  hours  "constituted  the  prime  demand  in  the  class  conflicts 
that  spawned  America's  first  industrial  strike,  its  first  citywide  trade  union 


Spring  1999  •American Journalism  23 


councils,  its  first  general  strikes,  its  first  organization  uniting  skilled  and 
unskilled  workers,  its  first  strike  by  females,  and  its  first  attempts  at 
regional  and  national  labor  organization."  The  issue  unified  "workers 
across  the  lines  of  craft,  race,  sex,  skill,  age,  and  ethnicity."29 

Both  the  labor  and  the  genteel  literary  publications  were  uniform  in 
their  reasons  why  a  10-hour  day  was  necessary — workers'  health  would 
improve  and  the  extra  time  would  allow  operatives  to  better  themselves 
educationally.  The  Voice  of  Industry  used  both  arguments  in  its  quest  to 
obtain  the  10-hour  day.  The  newspaper  was  the  joint  product  of  the  New 
England  Workingman's  Association  and  the  Female  Labor  Reform 
League.  Virtually  every  issue,  both  under  its  male  editor,  William  Young 
(1845-46),  and  later  its  female  editor,  Sarah  Bagley  (1846-47),  contained 
editorials,  articles,  and  letters  to  the  editor  supporting  the  10-hour  day. 
The  newspaper  never  minced  words  about  labor  conditions  or  its  disen- 
chantment with  middle  class  hegemony,  living  up  to  its  slogan  "Hearken 
to  me,  I  also  will  show  mine  opinion." 

A  December  26,  1845  editorial,  for  example,  stated  factory  opera- 
tives labored  longer  than  other  members  of  the  working  classes,  yet  also 
played  to  a  commonly-held  belief  that  women  were  more  fragile  than 
men.30  "Day  laborers  in  the  fresh  air  only  work  10  hours  the  longest  day 
in  the  year  ....  But  here  are  poor,  tender  girls,  in  a  confined  atmosphere, 
drawing  into  their  lungs  the  floating  fibers  of  materials,  forced  to  labor  13 
hours  in  a  day — rise  in  the  dark  and  go  home  amidst  snow  and  sleet — 
and  some  of  them  children."31 

Later  articles  in  The  Voice  of  Industry  were  even  more  pointed  about 
health  concerns.  One  said,  "The  human  frame  with  its  delicate  machinery 
is  more  worn  and  broken  by  too  many  hours'  labor,  than  by  hard  labor 
itself ....  It  is  the  long  hours  of  weary  standing  or  sitting  in  the  bad  air  of 
the  factories  which  destroy  and  slowly  undermine  the  human  condition, 
and  produce  premature  debility  and  finally  death."32  Another  stated, 
"Children  and  young  persons  require  considerable  recreation  in  the  open 
air  in  order  to  produce  a  proper  development  of  the  physical  structure. 
Variety  of  motion  is  one  of  the  principal  agents  in  the  establishment  of 
good  corporal  health."  The  article  added  that  "extreme  toil .  .  .  has  also  a 
debilitating  effect  upon  the  mind."33 

The  Voice  of  Industry  s  editors  also  made  clear  that  reduced  hours  of 
labor  would  allow  operatives  to  devote  themselves  to  educational  im- 
provement, thus  elevating  the  working  classes  and  society  as  a  whole. 
Artisans'  and  mechanics'  publications  made  similar  arguments,  stating 
that  education  would  allow  the  working  classes  to  enter  the  ranks  of  the 


24  Cronin  •  Spring  1999 


middle  classes.34  Voice  of  Industry  writer  Huldah  J.  Stone  said  the  10-hour 
day  would  let  operatives  "cultivate  all  our  faculties  in  that  way  and 
manner  which  shall  most  increase  our  own  usefulness — add  to  the  good 
of  our  fellow  creatures  and  honor  the  great  Creator."35 

The  newspaper's  editors  and  writers  were  highly  critical  of  operatives 
who  sped  back  to  the  factory  gates  before  meal  breaks  were  over  rather 
than  spending  their  free  minutes  reading.  One  article  stated,  "Have  they 
been  so  long  accustomed  to  watching  machinery  that  they  have  actually 
become  dwarfs  in  intellect — and  lost  to  all  sense  of  their  own  God — like 
powers  of  mind — yea,  more,  have  they  any  minds  more  than  the  beasts 
that  perisheth?  If  so,  why  are  they  not  in  their  rooms  storing  their  minds 
with  useful  practical  knowledge  which  shall  fit  them  high  and  noble 
stations  in  the  moral  and  intellectual  world?"36  The  issue  was  a  personal 
one  for  Editor  Sarah  Bagley,  who  was  angered  that  long  work  hours  made 
her  unable  to  improve  her  education.37  Bagley,  like  many  of  the  opera- 
tives, initially  found  the  mill  cities  attractive  because  they  offered  culture, 
something  her  rural  town  of  Laconia,  New  Hampshire,  could  not. 
Libraries,  evening  classes,  lyceum  lectures,  and  literary  circles  flourished  in 
many  industrial  cities.38 

Argued  for  Health  and  Education 

The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives'  Advocate  also  used  health 
and  education  arguments  in  supporting  the  10-hour  day.  A  February 
1 846  article  noted: 

Look  at  the  mere  child  not  1 1  years  of  age,  that  is  .  .  . 
compelled  to  labor  from  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  till 
seven  at  night,  making  14  hours  for  a  day's  work.  And 
I  would  ask  what  opportunity  a  person  thus  situated  has  of 
improving,  and  cultivating  her  intellectual  faculties.  While 
on  the  other  hand,  had  they  but  10  hours  to  labor,  they  could 
secure  for  themselves  a  comfortable  maintenance,  without 
impairing  their  health,  and  a  privilege  of  obtaining  a  good 
education,  whereby  they  might  become  useful  and  respectable 
members  of  society.39 

The  publication  noted  that  it  "has  heretofore  been  the  unflinching 
advocate  of  the  T  0-hour  system,'  and  of  all  other  measures  of  reform, 
which  we  have  thought  would  tend  to  the  alleviation  of  the  present 
wrongs  of  factory  operatives."40 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  25 


The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives'  Advocate  often  used  class 
rhetoric  in  its  lobbying  efforts  for  the  10-hour  day.  For  example,  a 
September  1846  article  stated: 

Our  cause  is  a  just  one  ....  The  10  hour  system  is  already  in  success- 
ful operation  in  some  parts  of  New  England,  and  the  day  is  not  far 
distant  when  the  corporations  in  New  Hampshire  will  have  to  adopt 
it.  This  enlightened  age  will  not  admit  of  so  much  servility  as  now 
exits,  and  has  existed  for  ages;  and  unless  the  tyrants  speedily  forsake 
many  of  their  wicked  ways,  they  will  be  left  alone  in  their  wickedness; 
and  their  shops  of  brick  and  stone  will  become  desolate.41 

The  Factory  Girl's  Album  continued  to  use  working  class  rhetoric, 
but  also  drew  upon  the  image  of  the  frail  female  to  lobby  for  shortened 
hours.  For  example,  in  an  article  titled  "The  Evils  of  the  Factory  System," 
the  author  criticized  the  factory  owners'  policy  of  14-  and  1 5-hour  days: 
"The  movers  of  our  factory  system,  are  without  doubt,  an  enterprising 
class  of  men,  and  as  such  ought  to  be  commended."  Yet,  the  writer  added, 
"Shame  on  you  ye  devotees  to  gold,  ye  pretended  lords  of  creation.  Hang 
your  heads,  and  blush  with  shame  and  confusion,  when  you  reflect  upon 
your  wicked  tyranny  and  oppression;  and  that  oppression  exercised  upon 
poor  and  helpless  females."42 

Although  the  pro-labor  papers  lobbied  regularly  for  a  shortened 
work  day,  New  England's  factory  operatives  were  far  from  being  the 
leaders  in  the  10-hour  movement,  however,  and  would  not  see  their  goal 
achieved  until  the  1850s — after  their  publications  had  all  ceased.  Female 
operatives  faced  great  difficulty  in  convincing  the  public,  particularly  the 
upper  classes,  that  workers  were  both  deserving  of  a  10-hour  day  and  that 
they  would  make  good  use  of  their  free  time. 

A  Voice  of  Industry  article  noted  in  1846  that  the  middle  and  upper 
classes  believed  that  reducing  hours  of  labor  and  providing  more  leisure 
time  would  allow  operatives  to  "give  themselves  over  to  all  manner  of 
wickedness  and  degradation."  The  journal's  staff  disagreed  firmly  and 
proclaimed  factory  workers  to  be  virtuous  and  "free  from  vicious  hab- 
its."43 After  15  minutes  were  added  to  meal  breaks  in  1847,  another 
article  made  clear  most  workers  used  the  time  to  better  themselves:  "And 
what  horrible  things  do  you  suppose  they  were  doing?  Most  of  them  were 
reading  books  or  newspapers,  others  were  chatting  with  their  friends  or 
greeting  new  comers  .  .  .  ."44 


26  Cronin  •  Spring  1999 


The  middle  and  upper  classes  firmly  opposed  shorter  work  hours, 
however,  and  refused  to  support  the  petitions  and  calls  for  the  shorter 
workday,  particularly  when  mill  owners  claimed  that  free  time  would 
increase  "crime,  suffering,  wickedness,  and  pauperism."45  The  Voice  of 
Industry  issued  calls  for  operatives  to  unite  and  remain  united  to  achieve 
the  resolution  of  their  labor  grievances: 

Some  say  that  'capital  will  take  good  care  of  labor,'  but  don't  believe 
it;  don't  trust  them.  Is  it  not  plain,  that  they  are  trying  to  deceive  the 
public,  by  telling  them  that  your  task  is  easy  and  pleasant,  and  that 
there  is  no  need  of  reform?  Too  many  are  destitute  of  feeling  and 
sympathy,  and  it  is  a  great  pity,  that  they  were  not  obliged  to  toil  one 
year,  and  then  they  would  be  glad  to  see  the  '10-hour  Petition' 
brought  before  the  legislature.  This  is  plain,  but  true  language.46 

Despite  factory  women's  lack  of  franchise,  New  England's  textile 
operatives  used  legislative  petitions  as  their  main  tool  to  gain  the  10-hour 
day.  The  Voice  of  Industry's  editors  took  the  lead  in  publicizing  petition 
efforts.47  Petition  drives  in  1843,  1844,  1845  and  1846  sent  thousands  of 
signatures  to  the  Massachusetts  legislature  but  failed  to  motivate  the 
politicians,  particularly  the  1846  drive,  because  a  large  number  of  the 
signers  were  women.48  Operatives  persevered,  however. 

The  Voice  of  Industry  editor,  Sarah  Bagley,  who  also  was  a  leader  of 
the  Lowell  Female  Labor  Reform  Association  which  sponsored  the 
petition  drive  in  1845,  and  six  other  women  defied  the  then-social  taboo 
of  public  speaking  and  testified  before  a  Massachusetts  legislative  commit- 
tee investigating  labor  conditions.49  No  legislative  actions  resulted,  despite 
Bagley  s  testimony  on  the  effects  of  long  workday  hours  on  operatives' 
health.  The  committee  to  whom  Bagley  spoke  acknowledged  that  the 
legislature  could  regulate  hours  of  labor,  but  insisted  that  "It  could  not 
deprive  the  citizen  of  [the  right  to  make  his  own]  contract.  ",0  Operatives 
were  outraged.  A  Voice  Of  Industry  article  accused  the  legislature  of  being 
unable  "to  break  the  chain  of  corporation  influence,  that  now  binds 
them."51 

Operatives  in  New  Hampshire  had  somewhat  greater  success. 
Similar  petition  drives  were  staged,  led  by  Mehitabel  Eastman,  president 
of  the  Manchester  Female  Labor  Reform  Association  and  co-editor  of  The 
Voice  Of  Industry.  New  Hampshire's  legislature  passed  the  first  10-hour 
law  in  New  England  in  1847.  Despite  being  hailed  by  the  operatives' 
publications,  textile  workers  quickly  discovered  the  law  had  so  many 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  27 


loopholes  that  their  hours  of  labor  did  not  significantly  decrease.52  An  11- 
hour  day  eventually  was  adopted  by  most  of  New  England's  textile  mills, 
but  not  until  the  1850s.53 

The  genteel  publications'  editors,  by  contrast,  took  a  passive  ap- 
proach to  the  issue,  claiming  they  had  no  power  to  bring  about  change 
and  told  operatives  they  should  rely  instead  on  patriarchal  beneficence  to 
change  the  system.  A  November  1842  editorial  in  The  Lowell  Offering 
said,  "With  wages,  board,  etc.,  we  have  nothing  to  do — these  depend  on 
circumstances  over  which  we  have  no  control."54  The  New  England 
Offering's  editor,  Harriet  Farley,  echoed  Whig  support  of  factory  owners 
over  operatives  on  the  10-hour  day  issue.  "I  have  no  doubt  that  in  their 
own  good  time,  they  will  introduce  the  10-hour  system;  and  will  not  this 
be  a  noble  deed?"  Farley  said.  The  article  added  that  it  was  not  "inherent 
corruptions  of  the  factory  system"  that  caused  workers'  ill  health.  Instead, 
Farley  blamed  the  workers  themselves,  claiming  that  directly  or  indirectly, 
they  neglected  themselves.55 

Rather  than  lobby  for  worker's  rights,  both  the  editors  of  The  Lowell 
Offering  and  The  New  England  Offering  instead  devoted  most  of  their 
publications'  space  to  essays,  poems,  stories,  and  serialized  novels.  Neither 
magazine's  policy  was  anything  but  literary.  The  Lowell  Offerings  sole 
purpose,  according  to  its  editors,  was  to  demonstrate  to  the  upper  classes 
that  factory  operatives  were  educated,  intelligent,  literate,  and  refined.56 
The  periodical's  editors  could  not  afford  to  be  critical,  since  a  major 
source  of  the  journal's  funding  came  from  Lowell  textile  magnate  Amos 
Lawrence.  As  a  result,  The  Lowell  Offerings  editors  rarely  lobbied  for 
changes  in  operatives'  working  or  living  conditions. 

The  journal's  editors  also  chose  to  say  little  about  labor  conditions 
because  they  were  convinced  that  factory  conditions  were  no  worse  than 
those  at  any  other  job.  The  Lowell  Offerings  editors  conceded  that  "there 
are  causes  existing  here  unfavorable  to  constant  and  perfect  health,"  then 
cited  the  long  workdays,  the  lack  of  ventilation,  and  the  brief  meal  breaks 
in  cold  rooms.  However,  the  editorial  stated  that  textile  workers  were  no 
less  healthy  than  other  workers  throughout  New  England,  "because  those 
physical  laws  which  are  violated  in  the  mills,  are  almost  equally  violated 
throughout  New  England."57  The  Offering  stressed  that  factory  work  was 
actually  better  than  other  jobs  available  to  women  because  operatives  were 
paid  regularly.58 

The  few  editorials  which  commented  on  working  conditions  that 
appeared  in  the  Offering  did  just  that — comment — not  criticize.  For 
example,  the  final  editorial  written  by  the  Offerings  editor,  the  Reverend 


28  Cronin- Spring  1999 


Charles  Thomas,  did  call  for  changes,  including  shorter  work  hours, 
better  ventilation  in  boarding  houses,  and  the  creation  of  mill  libraries.59 
The  article  laid  no  blame,  however,  and  was  not  accusatory. 

Promotes  the  Image  of  "The  True  Woman" 

Both  publications  promoted  the  rights  of  women  to  work,  yet  did  so 
genteelly.  The  magazines  attempted  to  work  largely  within  the  confines  of 
the  middle  class  image  of  the  "true  woman,"  and  thus  portrayed  opera- 
tives as  pious,  pure,  submissive,  domestic,  and  imbued  with  a  sense  of 
duty  to  family.60  Women  were  regularly  portrayed  in  both  fiction  and 
essays  as  working  primarily  to  support  parents  and  other  family  members 
back  home.  A  Lowell  Offering  article  said  that  "another  great  source  of 
pleasure"  for  operatives  was  to  send  money  home  to  their  parents.61 
Similarly,  an  1848  editorial  in  The  New  England  Offering  told  the  story  of 
a  mill  operative  from  Ireland  whose  starting  pay  was  much  less  than  the 
more  experienced  operatives.  Yet,  in  only  a  10-month  period  she  managed 
to  save  $50  which  she  dutifully  sent  home  to  her  parents.62 

Neither  journal  supported  labor  agitation  to  improve  conditions, 
however.  The  Lowell  Offerings  editor,  Harriet  Farley,  believed  that  factory 
rules  and  hours  were  not  too  demanding:  "Neither  have  I  ever  discovered 
that  any  restraints  were  imposed  upon  us,  but  those  which  were  necessary 
for  the  peace  and  comfort  of  the  whole,  and  for  the  promotion  of  the 
designs  for  which  we  are  collected,  namely,  to  get  money,  as  much  of  it 
and  as  fast  as  we  can."63  Similarly,  The  New  England  Offering  told  opera- 
tives eight  years  later  that  they  could  leave  the  mill  and  become  teachers 
or  undertake  "less  influential  positions"  if  they  sought  to  improve  their 
conditions.64 

The  pro-labor  journals  were  angered  at  the  passive  nature  of  the 
genteel  publications.  The  Voice  ofLndustrys  editors  were  severely  critical  of 
The  Lowell  Offering. 

This  unfortunate  publication  roves  over  the  country,  even 
to  other  lands,  bearing  on  its  deceptive  bosom  a  continual 
repetition  of  notes,  less  valuable  to  the  reader  than  to  the 
writer,  but  destructive  to  both;  leaving  behind  the  abuses 
and  downward  progress  of  the  operatives,  the  very  part 
which  becomes  their  life,  liberty,  and  greatness  to  give  to 
the  world,  even  if  they  were  compelled  to  write  the  record 
with  blood  from  their  own  veins.65 


Spring  1999  •American Journalism  29 


Creating  a  Permanent  Female  Working  Class 

For  many  operatives,  labor  reform  publications  provided  a  more 
accurate  view  of  factory  conditions  and  workers'  economic  realities.  The 
labor  journals  viewed  operatives  as  a  distinct  working  class,  whereas  the 
genteel  journals'  editors  viewed  such  labor  as  temporary.  The  Lowell 
Offerings  editors  frequently  stated  that  factory  work  was  a  means  to  an 
end  (such  as  to  earn  money  for  an  education)  for  most  women,  rather 
than  an  end  in  and  of  itself.66 

The  distinction  was  important  for  many  operatives,  since  changes  in 
agriculture,  particularly  the  transition  from  subsistence  to  market-economy 
farming,  had  increased  the  number  of  women  and  men  during  the  1840s 
who  considered  themselves  members  of  the  permanent  laboring  class. 
Although  some  women  entered  the  factories  to  gain  financial  indepen- 
dence, other  women  had  little  choice  but  to  take  permanent  positions  in 
the  mills.  Conditions  were  different  before  the  1840s.  Many  female 
operatives  in  that  era  worked  only  part  of  the  year,  or  for  just  a  few  years 
in  the  factories.  Others  returned  home  for  a  few  months  of  the  year  to 
help  with  harvests  or  berry  picking.67 

Female  operatives  also  used  their  publications  to  react  to  the  grow- 
ing class  distinctions,  particularly  the  middle  class  attempts  to  dominate 
socially,  culturally,  politically  and  economically.  Mechanics  and  artisans 
also  criticized  middle-class  hegemony  in  their  publications,  using  Jackso- 
nian  language  to  denounce  "the  aristocracy  of  wealth"  and  exclusive 
privileges  for  the  rich.68 

The  factory  women  of  the  1830s  and  1840s,  only  a  few  generations 
removed  from  their  revolutionary  War  ancestors,  stated  that  they  were 
"proud  daughters  of  freemen"  who  viewed  themselves  as  equals  to  all 
other  members  of  society.69  Thus  they  were  critical  of  members  of  the 
middle  class  who  had  cast  aside  the  Puritan  work  ethic  (with  which  the 
operatives  were  raised)  and  believed  instead  that  proper  women  should 
embrace  idleness  and  the  sanctity  of  the  home.70 

The  editor  of  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  arid  Mechanics  Offering 
promoted  the  dignity  of  labor  and  the  nobility  of  the  working  class.  A 
slogan  in  the  journal's  masthead  said:  "Honor  and  Shame  from  no 
condition  rise — Act  well  your  part — there  all  honor  lies."  Similarly,  an 
article  in  the  first  issue  of  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives'  Advo- 
cate denounced  both  class-based  distinctions  and  the  middle  class'  feelings 
of  superiority.  "There  is  far  too  much  of  an  aristocratic  feeling  existing 
among  our  people,"  said  Sarah,  the  article's  author.  She  added  that  there  is 


30  Cronin  •  Spring  1999 


"groundless  prejudice"  against  factory  girls,  whom  she  commended  as 
industrious.  She  called  class  distinctions  a  grievous  wrong.  "That  is  the 
difference  in  caste  which  the  employers  create  between  their  sons  and 
daughters  and  the  sons  and  daughters  whom  they  employ  to  increase  their 
wealth.  We  are  opposed  to  this  distinction.  It  is  wrong;  it  is  unjust  to  give 
the  latter  a  supremacy  in  society  over  the  former."71 

Later  articles  in  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives'  Advocate 
were  more  pointed,  denouncing  both  class  distinctions  and  the  unequal 
distribution  of  wealth  among  classes.  A  March  1846  article  noted: 

The  laborer  has  occupied  [a]  too  low  and  unworthy  position  in 
society  ....  Those  whose  gains  have  generally  been  the  least,  have 
been  compelled  to  toil  the  hardest  and  longest,  while  others,  who 
live  in  ease  and  affluence,  have  upon  labors,  amassed  their  immense 
wealth.  Nature  designs  no  such  unjust,  unequal  distribution  of  her 
blessings,  and  she  has  fearfully  placed  the  seal  of  her  disapprobation 
thereon.72 

Although  they  lacked  the  class  rhetoric,  editors  of  both  The  Lowell 
Offering  and  The  New  England  Offering  also  voiced  support  for  the  dignity 
of  labor  and  women's  right  to  work.  The  Lowell  Offering,  for  example, 
defended  women's  fight  to  work  in  factories  after  Orestes  A.  Brownson, 
editor  of  Boston  Quarterly  Review,  claimed  factory  girls  had  been 
"damn[ed]  to  infamy."  The  Offering  framed  its  support  of  factory  women 
by  drawing  on  operatives'  Puritan  heritage  and  describing  operatives  as 
"girls  who  generally  come  from  quiet  country  homes,  where  their  minds 
and  manners  have  been  formed  under  the  eyes  of  the  worthy  sons  of  the 
Pilgrims,  and  their  virtuous  partners  .  .  .  .73 

The  New  England  Offerings  editor  also  claimed  that  labor  was 
dignified  and  did  not  make  operatives  any  less  feminine.  Yet,  the 
Offerings  editor  pointed  out  that  her  support  for  labor  was  less  out  of  a 
sense  of  feminism  and  more  for  religious  reasons.  Work,  said  Harriet 
Farley,  was  "one  of  our  great  preparations  for  another  state  of  being  .... 
Work  we  all  must,  if  we  mean  to  bring  out  and  perfect  our  natures."74 

Workers  Protest  Production  Speed-ups 

As  textile  mills  overproduced  and  the  economy  suffered  downturns 
in  the  1840s,  operatives  also  used  their  publications  to  denounce  work 
speed-ups,  increases  in  the  hours  of  labor,  and  pay  cuts.75  Increases  in  the 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  3 1 


work  day  were  one  of  the  biggest  grievances.  Between  1829  to  1841,  15 
minutes  were  added  to  the  working  day.  Operatives  viewed  the  increase 
not  as  an  increase  in  the  workday,  but  as  a  decrease  in  leisure  time.  More 
importantly,  as  operatives  had  to  tend  more  than  one  loom,  the  faster 
pace  changed  working  conditions  by  decreasing  operatives'  autonomy. 
Articles  in  the  publications  noted  that  women  had  less  time  to  converse, 
and  that  factory  mangers  banned  both  the  books  operatives  once  brought 
in  to  read  during  free  moments  and  the  potted  flowers  that  once  adorned 
the  factories'  windows.76 

Speed-ups  continued  throughout  the  1840s.  Operatives  who  once 
tended  two  looms  at  a  time  were  expected  to  tend  four  by  the  mid  1840s. 
Articles  responding  to  the  changes  in  The  Voice  of  Industry  pointed  out 
that  far  from  losing  money,  the  Boston  Associates  were  increasing  rev- 
enues at  the  expense  of  the  operatives.  The  newspaper  printed  statistics  on 
women's  wages,  factory  dividends,  yards  of  cloth  produced,  number  of 
employees,  and  numbers  of  spindles  in  operation  in  1844  and  1845. 

A  Voice  of  Industry  article  claimed  corporate  dividends  in  the  Lowell 
mills  increased  almost  200  percent  between  the  two  years,  then  stated, 
"This  is  the  natural  result  of  the  state  of  things  in  New  England.  — The 
more  wealth  becomes  concentrated  in  a  few  hands,  the  poorer  the  great 
mass  becomes."77  Mill  records  supported  the  newspaper's  claim.  Between 
1840  and  1843,  Lowell's  mills  had  indeed  suffered  a  downturn  in  profits, 
recording  between  2.3  to  7.9  percent  decreases  in  profits.  The  factories 
rebounded  between  1844-46.  Profits  rose  substantially,  ranging  from  17.1 
and  19.1  percent,  during  those  years.78 

Not  surprisingly,  then,  the  two  wage  decreases  which  occurred 
between  1841  and  1845  angered  workers.  An  operative  named  Sarah  who 
wrote  about  operatives'  wages  in  the  first  issue  of  The  Factory  Girl's  Album 
and  Operatives'  Advocate  echoed  the  working  class'  concern  that  employers 
were  profiting  at  the  expense  of  workers: 

Her  industry  is  to  be  commended — she  toils  from  morning 
until  night  at  the  loom,  or  on  some  portion  of  the  work  which 
goes  to  make  up  the  whole.  But  does  she  receive  an  adequate 
pay  for  her  services?  Not  so.  Her  pay  is  too  little  in  comparison 
to  the  profits  derived  from  the  work;  and  when  it  is  taken  into 
consideration  that  oftentimes  the  health  is  destroyed  by  over 
work,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  employer  receives  too 
much,  the  operative  too  little.79 


32  Cronin  •  Spring  1999 


The  journal's  editors  and  writers  regularly  spoke  out  about  wages, 
often  providing  facts  and  figures  for  its  readers.  A  June  1846  article  stated, 
for  example:  "Think  of  girls  being  obliged  to  labor  13  hours  each  working 
day,  for  a  net  compensation  of  two  cents  per  hour,  which  is  above  the 
average  net  wages,  being  $1 .56  per  week.  Two  cents  per  hour  for  severe 
labor!"80 

Even  the  normally  silent  Lowell  Offering  found  its  voice  on  the  wage 
issue.  An  October  1843  editorial  noted,  ".  .  .  it  is  much  easier  to  instill  a 
feeling  of  self-respect,  of  desire  for  excellence,  among  a  well-paid,  than  an 
ill-paid  class  of  operatives.  There  is  a  feeling  of  independence,  a  desire  to 
form  and  retain  a  good  character,  a  wish  to  do  something  for  others."81 
The  staff  of  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives  Advocate  went 
further,  lobbying  for  equal  pay  for  women.  "The  labor  of  one  person 
ought  to  command  the  same  price  as  the  labor  of  another  person,  pro- 
vided it  be  done  as  well  and  in  the  same  time,  whether  the  laborer  be  man 
or  woman."82 

The  publications  also  occasionally  commented  on  differences 
between  factory  and  farm  labor.  For  the  first  time  in  their  lives,  these 
formerly  rural  women  had  their  lives  governed  by  the  clock.  Many  chafed 
at  the  system  of  factory  bells  which  woke  them,  freed  them  for  meal 
breaks,  and  sent  them  home  at  night.  Even  the  editors  of  The  Lowell 
Offering,  who  rarely  commented  on  labor  conditions,  published  an  article 
titled  "The  Spirit  of  Discontent"  in  1841,  by  an  operative  who  stated, 
"Up  before  day,  at  the  clang  of  the  bell — and  out  of  the  mill  by  clang  of 
the  bell — into  the  mill,  and  at  work  in  obedience  to  that  ding-dong  of  a 
bell — just  as  though  we  were  so  many  living  machines."83 

Similarly,  The  Factory  Girl's  Garland  reprinted  a  resolution  from 
Peterboro,  New  Hampshire,  workers  who  called  for  factory  managers  to 
end  the  practice  of  requiring  workers  to  arrive  at  their  stations  before 
dawn  and  continue  until  after  dusk:  "Resolved,  That  although  the  evening 
and  morning  is  spoken  of  in  Scripture  ...  no  mention  is  made  of  an 
evening  in  the  morning.  We  therefore  conclude  that  the  practice  of 
lighting  up  in  the  morning  and  thereby  making  two  evenings  in  every  24 
hours  is  not  only  oppressive  but  unscriptural."  An  article  in  The  Factory 
Girl's  Garland  stated  "We  trust  the  girls  .  .  .  will  rise  up  against  this 
outrageous  custom."84  Behind  the  workers'  concerns  also  was  the  reality 
that  oil  lamps  polluted  the  air,  increasing  both  the  temperature  in  the 
mills  and  the  fire  risk.83 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  33 


Textile  Publications  Rallied  the  Working  Class 

The  journals  disappeared  in  the  early  1850s  as  the  mill  town  went 
into  protracted  declines  spurred  by  overproduction,  causing  native  New 
Englanders  to  leave  the  mills  in  large  numbers.  Their  Irish  replacements 
did  not  continue  the  publications  or  start  their  own.86 

Although  these  publication  only  lasted  for  a  decade,  their  impor- 
tance to  labor  history,  women's  history,  and  communication  should  not  be 
trivialized.  These  periodicals  were  not  only  the  nation's  first  factory 
publications,  but  they  were  written  and  edited  predominantly  by  women. 
The  journals  provided  vehicles  for  women's  literary  aspirations  and  also 
allowed  them  to  voice  their  discontent  at  industry  conditions.  Behind 
their  concerns  was  a  growing  awareness  that  class  distinctions  had 
emerged  permanently  in  society  and  furthermore,  that  the  working  classes 
were  governed  for  the  first  time  by  a  system  of  wage  labor  based  on  supply 
and  demand.87 

Like  their  counterparts,  the  artisans'  and  mechanics'  press,  the  labor- 
oriented  operatives'  publications  tried  to  rally  the  working  classes  into  a 
unified  whole  on  issues  such  as  wages,  hours  of  labor,  and  working 
conditions.  Editors  also  sought  solidarity  to  unite  workers  against  middle- 
class  hegemony.  Both  the  genteel  and  the  labor  publications  told  readers 
that  the  key  to  middle  class  acceptance  was  education  for  the  working 
class  as  a  whole. 

Although  the  pro-labor  operatives'  publications  denounced  the 
emerging  class  distinctions  as  in  opposition  to  the  nation's  perceived 
egalitarian  origins,  many  operatives  viewed  themselves  as  a  separate, 
distinct  class.  Female  factory  operatives  responded  to  their  changing 
social,  economic,  and  political  environment  with  a  mix  of  both  rural  and 
urban  philosophies.  While  welcoming  the  machine  age  and  hoping  to  fit 
into  the  emerging  urban  industrial  society,  the  factory  girls  clung  firmly  to 
their  Puritan  values  and  the  Revolutionary  War  rhetoric  of  their  fathers 
and  grandfathers.  They  blended  their  rural  beliefs  with  the  realities  of 
urban  industrial  life  to  argue  that  women  who  worked  should  be  allowed 
entry  into  middle  class.  Rather  than  viewing  middle  class  entrance  in 
financial  terms,  these  operatives  judged  individuals  based  on  character 
and  ability.  The  pro-labor  journal's  image  of  the  acceptable  woman — one 
who  was  employed,  intelligent,  physically  fit,  self-sufficient,  and  finan- 
cially self-reliant — was  largely  in  opposition  to  the  middle-class  vision  of 
true  womanhood. 


34  Cronin  •  Spring  1999 


Hopefully  more  scholars  will  discover  these  early  female  voices.  A 
comprehensive  study  of  all  antebellum  labor  publications — produced  by 
both  males  and  females — is  necessary  to  properly  assess  the  role  these 
early  women's  publications  had  in  establishing  and  promoting  19th 
century  labor  issues  and  rhetoric. 


Endnotes 

'E.  R.,  "10  Hour  System,"  The  Voice  of  Industry,  15  May  1846,  4. 

:C.  K.  McFarland  and  Robert  L.  Thistlethwaite,  "20  Years  of  a  Sucessful  Labor  Paper:  The  Working 
Man's  Advocate,  1829-48,  "Journalism  Quarterly,  vol.  60  (1)  (Spring  1983):  35. 

'Hundreds  of  small  mills  existed  in  New  England,  however,  the  publications  emerged  inthe  towns 
where  the  Boston  Manufacturing  Company,  and  other  corporations  which  mirrored  the  Boston 
Associates'  practices,  established  planned  factory  communities  where  women  employees  predomi- 
nated. For  more  on  the  smaller  factories,  see:  Jonathan  Prude,  "The  Social  System  of  Early  New 
England  Textile  Mills:  A  Case  Study,  1812-40,"  in  Herbert  G.  Gutman  and  Donald  H.  Bell,  eds.,  The 
New  England  Working  Class  and  the  New  Labor  History  (Urbana:  University  of  Illinois  Press,  1987). 

"•John  R.  Commons,  et  al.,  History  of  Labour  inthe  United  States  4  vols.  (New  York:  The  MacMillan 
Company,  1926),  1:181. 

sThe  Operatives'  Magazine  was  jointly  published  in  1845  in  both  Lowell  and  Manchester,  N.  H. 
Similarly,  The  Factory  G»/was  jointly  published  in  New  Market  and  Exeter,  N.H.  The  Voice  of 
Industry  began  again  breifly  in  June  1848  under  the  m\e,Neiv  Era  of  Industry.  Its  exact  publishing 
histiry  is  uncertain.  Lobor  historian  Philip  Foner,  in  his  work  Women  and  the  American  Lobor 
Movement,  also  makes  reference  to  a  factory  girl  publication  call  the  Factory  Girl's  Voice.  No  record  of 
it  could  be  found  inany  library  or  research  institute  despite  extensive  searching. 

Unfortunately,  little  is  known  of  the  women  who  wrote  for  the  magazines,  with  the  exception  of 
those  who  wrote  iorThe  Lowell  Offering.  Offering  writer  Harriet  Robinson's  biography,  Loom  and 
Spindle,  discusses  those  women — approximately  70 — in  some  length,  particularly  those  who  went 
onto  literary  careers  after  leaving  the  mills.  The  rest  of  the  mill  girl  writers — even  an  actual  count  of 
numbers — remain  unknown.  Fearful  of  losing  their  jobs,  many  wished  to  remain  anonymous  and 
signed  their  articles  only  by  their  initials  or  first  names. 

f'Charles  Dickens,  American  Notes  And  Pictures  From  Italy  (New  York:  E.  P.  Dutton  and  Co.,  1871), 
vol.2,  67.  Similarly,  another  prominent  British  visitor,  the  Reverend  William  Scoresby,  vicar  of 
Bradford,  Yorkshire,  marvelled  that  female  operatives  would  produce  such  a  magazine,  calling  it  "an 
incident  so  curious  and  novel."  See:  William  Scoresby,  American  Factories  And  Their  Female 
Operatives;  With  An  Appeal  On  Behalf  Of  The  British  Factory  Population,  And  Suggestions  For  The 
Improvement  Of  Their  Condiiton,  (London;  Longman,  Broan,  Green,  Longmans,  1845;  reprint,  New 
York;  Burt  Franklin,  1968),  69  (page  reference  is  to  reprint  edition). 

7Only  a  few  historians  have  examined  the  other  factory  publications.  See:  Bertha  Monica  Stearns, 
"New  England  Magazines  for  Ladies,"  New  England  Quarterly,  3  (October  1930):  627-659.  Philip  S. 
Foner,  ed.,  The  Factory  Girls  (Urbana:  University  of  Illinois  Press,  1977). 

"McFarland  and  Thistlethwaite,  "The  Working  Man's  Advocate:"  39-40;  C.K.  McFarland  and 
Robert  L.  Thistlethwaite,  "Labor  Press  Demands  Equal  Education  In  the  Age  of  Jackson,  "Journalism 
Quarterly,  vol.  65  (3)  (Fall  1988):  600-608. 

''Barbara  M.Tucker,  Samuel  Slater  and  the  Origins  of  the  American  Textile  Industry,  1790-1860 
(Ithaca:  Cornell  University  Press,  1984). 

"Thomas  Bender,  Toward  An  Urban  Vision:  Ideas  and  Institutions  in  1 9th  Century  America 
(Baltimore:  John  Hopkins  University  Press,  1975),  32.  Twenty  two  mills  existed  in  Lowell  by  1835. 
That  number  increased  to  502  by  1855.  Approximately  8,800  women  and  4,400  men  helped  produce 
2.25  million  yards  of  cloth  each  week  in  Lowell,  alone.  See:  Walter  Licht,  Industrializing  America 
(Baltimore:  John  Hopkins  University  Press,  1987). 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  35 


"For  a  history  of  the  Boston  Associates,  see:  Robert  F.  Dalzell,  Jr.  Enterprising  Elite:  The  Boston 
Associates  and  the  World  They  Made  (Cambridge:  Harvard  University  Press,  1987). 

15  Bender,  Toward  An  Urban  Vision,  35. 

l3Licht,  Industrializing  America,  58.  For  a  contemporary  account  of  operatives'  desire  to  earn 
money,  see:  "Factory  Girls,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  December  1840,  17. 

l4Dalzell,  Enterprising  Elite,  26-74. 

I5A  number  of  the  journals  addressed  boarding  house  issues.  For  one  of  the  lengthier  articles,  see: 
"Factory  Boatding  Houses,"  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  25  Septembet  1845,  2. 

"Ticht,  Industrializing  America,  58. 

l7Philip  S.  Foner,  Women  and  the  American  Labor  Movement  (New  York:  International  Publishers, 
1979),  35. 

l8Licht,  Industrializing  America,  58 

19  Philip  S.  Foner,  History  Of  The  Labor  Movement  in  the  United  States,  vol.  1  (New  York: 
International  Publishers,  1975),  196. 

2"No  Headline,  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives  Advocate,  14  February  1846,  2. 

2 '"Editorial,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  vol.  Ill  (1843),  282. 

22No  headline,  The  Olive  Leaf  And  Factory  Girl's  Repository,  25  April  1843,  14. 

23  "Our  Financial  Affairs,"   The  Voice  Of  Industry,  20  November  1846,  2. 

24Edith  Abbott,  Women  In  Industry:  A  Study  in  American  Economic  History  (New  York:  D. 
Appleton,  1910),  112-113. 

25Licht,  Industrializing  America,  47. 

2f,McFarland  and  Thistlethwaite,  "20  Years  of  a  Sucessful  Labor  Paper,"  37. 

27David  R.  Roediger  and  Philip  S.  Foner,  Our  Own  Time:  A  History  of  American  Labor  and  the 
Working  Day  (New  York:  Verso,  1989),  7. 

2sRoediger  and  Foner,  Our  Own  Time,  44. 

2vRoediger  and  Foner,  Our  Own  Time,  vii. 

3"A  commonly-held  belief  at  the  time — the  ideal  of  "true  womanhood"  — held  that  women  were 
more  tender  and  delicate  than  men.  See:  Frances  B.  Cogan,  Ail-American  Girl:  The  Ideal  of  Real 
Womanhood  in  Mid-I9th  Century  America  (Athens,  GA:  The  University  of  Georgia  Press,  1989), 3. 

31  "Lowell  Factories,"  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  26  December  1845,  2.  See  also:  "Evils  of  The  Factory 
System,"  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Mechanic's  Offering,  2. 

32  "Hours  Of  Labor  In  England  And  The  United  States,"  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  19  February  1847,  4. 
,3  "-pQ-p^g  pe0ple  Of  the  United  States,"  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  19  February  1847,  4. 
34McFarland  and  Thistlewaite,  "Labor  Press  Demands  Equal  Education,"  601. 

35H.J.  Stone,  "Our  Real  Necessities,"  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  18  September  1845,  3. 

36  "Lowell  Girls — Standing  At  The  Gate,"  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  7  May  1847,  2. 

37  Elfrieda  B.  McCauley,  "The  New  England  Mill  Girls:  Feminine  Influence  In  The  Development 
Of  Public  Libraries  In  New  England,  1820-1860"  (Ph.D.  diss.,  Columbia  University,  1971),  282. 

38Abbott,  Women  In  Industry,  117. 

39  "The  10-hour  System,"  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives' Advocate,  28  Febraury  1846,  3. 

411  "Another  Change,"  The  Factory  Girl's  A/bum  and  Mechanics'  Offering,  5  December  1846. 

41  "10-hour  System  Again,"  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Mechanics'  Offering,  19  Septembet  1846,  2. 

42  "Evils  OfThe  Factory  System,"  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Mechanic's  Offering,    17  October 
1846,  2.  Compare  this  rhetoric  to  that  of  the  genteel  publications.  See,  for  example,  "Duties  and 
Rights  of  Mill  Girls,"  The  New  England  Offering,  May  1848,  48. 

43No  headline,  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  13  November  1846,  3. 

44  "How  Will  The  Operatives  Employ  Their  Time?"  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  18  June  1847,  3. 

45  Licht,  Industrializing  America,  74;  Foner,  Women  and  the  American  Labor  Movement,  75. 
46No  headline,  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  24  April  1846,  3. 

47"10  hours,  10  Hours!!"  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  26  December  1845,  3. 


36  Cronin  •  Spring  1 999 


48  Roediger  and  Foner,  Our  Own  Time,  55. 

■•"Walter  Licht  notes  the  1845  petition  had  more  than  5,000  signatures.  See:  Industrializing  America,  60. 

''"Foner,  Women  and  the  American  Labor  Movement,  78. 

s'"10-hour  System,"  4. 

52  "All  Hail  New  Hampshire,"  The  Voice  of  Industry,  9  July  1847,  2. 

"Roediger  and  Foner,  Our  Own  Time,  78. 

54  "Editorial,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  November  1842,  48. 

55  "Duties  and  Rights  of  Mill  Girls,"  3. 

56  "Editorial:  The  Aim  of  the  Offering,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  vol.  V  (1845),  22-23.  Also  see: 
"Editorial,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  August  1843,284. 

57  "Editorial,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  May  1845,  191. 

58  "Editorial,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  September  1844,  262. 

s''  "Editor's  Valedictory,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  December  1842,  380. 

""Barbara  Welter,  "The  Cult  of  True  Womanhood:  1820-1860,"  American  Quarterly,  vol.  18 
(Summer  1966):  151-174;  Nancy  F.  Cott,  The  Bonds  of  Womanhood:  'Woman's  Sphere  in  New  England, 
1780-1835  (New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1977). 

61  "Editorial  Corner:  Plants  and  Flowers  In  the  Mills,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  October  1840,  32. 

f'2  "Editor's  Table,"  The  New  England  Offering,  June  1848,  71 . 

63  "Factory  Girls,"  The  Loiuell  Offering,  December  1840,  17. 

"  "Editor  s  Table,"  The  New  England  Offering,  July  1848,  95. 

'''Quoted  in  Helen  L.  Summer,  History  of  Women  in  Industry  in  the  United  States  (New  York:  Arno 
Press,  1974),  90. 

M>The  Voice  of  Industry  regularly  referred  to  operatives  as  a  working  class.  See,  for  example,  "The 
Editor  of  the  Voice,  and  Ourself,"  15  May  1846,  2.  Compare  this  to  "Editorial,"  The  Lowell.  Offering, 
September  1844,  262. 

'"Foner,  History  of  the  Labor  Movement,  193. 

''"McFarland  and  Thistlewaite,  "20  Years  of  a  Sucessful  labor  Paper,"  36-37. 

<w  "To  Our  Friends  And  Readers,"  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  7  November  1845,  2. 

7"Welter,  "The  Cult  of  True  Womanhood,"  151-153. 

7lSarah,  "Aristocracy,"  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives'  Advocate,  14  February  1846,  2. 

72N.  L.,  "The  10-Hour  System,"  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives'  Advocate,  28  March  1846,  2. 

3  "Factory  Girls,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  December  1840,  17. 

74  "Duties  and  Rights  of  Mill  Girls,"  102-103. 

75  "High  Wages,"  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives'  Advocate,  6  June  1846,  2;  "Ventilation," 
The  Voice  of  Industry,  27  August  1847,  4. 

7,,Roediger  and  Foner,  Our  Own  Time,  5 1 . 

77  "The  Factory  System,"  The  Voice  Of  Industry,  19  June  1845,  4. 

"TJalzell,  Enterprising  Elite,  52. 

7''Sarah,  "Aristocracy,"  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives 'Advocate,  14  Febraury  1846,  2. 

"  "The  Operatives'  Life,"  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives'  Advocate,  20  June  1846,  2. 

81  "Editorial,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  October  1843,  48. 

S2  "Female  Labor,"  The  Factory  Girl's  Album  and  Operatives'  Advocate,  25  April  1846,  2. 

"AJmira,  "The  Spirit  of  Discontent,"  The  Lowell  Offering,  vol.  1  (1841),  114. 

''''Roediger  and  Foner,  Our  Own  Time,  5 1 . 

8SRoediger  and  Foner,  Our  Own  Time,  5 1 . 

86H.  M.  Gitelman,  "The  Waltham  System  And  The  Coming  Of  The  Irish,"  Labor  History,  vol.  8  (3) 
(Fall  1967):  227-253. 

s7Bender,  Toward  An  Urban  Vision,  64. 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  37 


Spring  1999 


38 


Dissent  and  Control  in  a  Woman 
Suffrage  Periodical:  30  Years  of  the 
Wisconsin  Citizen 


By  Elizabeth  V.  Burt 

This  article  finds  that,  contrary  to  the  expectation  that  reform  publica- 
tions provide  a  place  in  the  "marketplace  of  ideas" for  reformers  excluded  from 
the  mainstream  press,  the  Wisconsin  Citizen  often  suppressed  debate  among 
its  constituents  in  the  interest  of  maintaining  an  appearance  of  unity  within 
the  movement  and  the  dominance  of  movement  leaders. 

Ignored,  excluded  and  ridiculed  by  the  mainstream  press,  reform 
organizations  and  social  movements  often  establish  their  own 
publications  in  the  attempt  to  reach  the  public  with  their 
message.1  Scholars  analyzing  these  publications  have  found  they  typically 
seek  to  inform  the  general  public  of  the  goals  and  developments  within  a 
reform  or  social  movement  and  also  serve  as  vital  channels  of  information 
for  members  of  the  movement  who  are  often  geographically  separated.  In 
this  role,  reform  and  social  movement  publications  act  as  community 
bulletin  boards  for  their  constituencies.  They  announce  upcoming 
activities,  call  for  action  and  activism,  report  progress  or  setbacks,  and 
record  structural  changes  within  the  social  movement  organization.2  As 
historian  Lauren  Kessler  notes  in  regard  to  feminist  periodicals,  they  serve 
as  "organizational  tools,  morale  boosters,  consciousness-raisers,  philo- 
sophical and  political  forums,  and  propaganda  organs.  "3  One  of  their 


Elizabeth  V.  Burt  is  an  Associate  Professor  in  the  School  of  Communication  at  the  University 
of  Hartford. 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  39 


major  functions,  according  to  historian  Jean  Folkerts,  is  to  form  "the  core 
of  a  communications  network"  that  helps  members  of  the  movement 
develop  a  sense  of  community.4 

As  noted  by  social  movement  scholars,  various  constituencies  within 
a  social  movement  often  differ  as  to  basic  ideologies  as  well  as  tactics  and 
strategies  for  achieving  the  movement's  goals.  Unless  resolved,  these 
differences  can  splinter  the  movement  into  separate  factions,  which  can 
lead  to  duplication  of  effort  at  best  and  disempowerment  and 
delegitimization  at  the  worst.5  These  divisions  can  sometimes  be  dis- 
cerned in  the  various  publications  issued  by  different  groups  or  factions 
within  a  social  movement.  The  split  within  the  anti-slavery  movement 
over  Constitutional  or  extra-Constitutional  reform,  for  example,  can  be 
found  in  the  opposing  positions  taken  by  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and 
Frederick  Douglass  in  the  pages  of  their  respective  publications,  the 
Liberator  and  the  North  Star.6  In  the  case  of  the  suffrage  movement,  the 
more  than  two  dozen  suffrage  periodicals  published  over  the  years  by  a 
variety  of  state  and  national  organizations  presented  varying  and  some- 
times conflicting  concepts  of  womanhood  and  woman's  role  as  a  citizen.7 

Another  important  role  of  social  movement  publications,  therefore, 
is  often  that  of  mediator  among  factions.  They  may  attempt  to  resolve 
discord  by  publishing  the  actual  debate  between  conflicting  constituen- 
cies, thus  airing  the  debate  and  publicly  seeking  participation  and  even- 
tual resolution.  This  could  be  facilitated  by  the  sheer  number  or  variety  of 
publications  within  a  social  movement,  each  adding  its  voice  to  the 
debate.  It  also  could  be  facilitated  by  individual  publications  willing  to  air 
diverse  views.  The  Genius  of  Liberty,  the  feminist  journal  published  by 
Elizabeth  A.  Aldrich  from  1851  to  1853,  for  example,  welcomed  diverse 
positions,  including  those  opposing  Aldrich's.  This  policy  was  announced 
to  readers,  in  fact,  in  Aldrich's  promise:  "[Genius  of  Liberty]  is  not  one's 
but  belongs  to  ALL;  every  one  will  be  heard  in  her  own  style,  principle 
and  want..."8 

Dissenting  Views  May  Be  Suppressed 

Not  all  social  movement  publications  are  so  magnanimous,  however. 
Because  they  are  often  dominated  by  one  or  more  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment, in  fact,  their  views  often  reflect  those  of  these  leaders.9  Especially  in 
cases  where  the  prevailing  views  of  the  movement's  leaders  are  being 
challenged  within  the  movement,  those  dissenting  views  may  be  sup- 
pressed. In  these  cases,  those  aware  of  the  conflict  may  find  evidence  of 


40  Burt 'Spring  1999 


dissent  in  its  exclusion  from  rather  than  its  inclusion  in  the  social  move- 
ment publication.  As  textual  scholars  point  out,  what  is  missing  in  the 
record  is  sometimes  as  important  as  what  is  included.™ 

This  article  examines  the  Wisconsin  Citizen,  which  from  1887  to 
1917  served  as  the  official  organ  of  the  Wisconsin  Woman  Suffrage 
Association  and  for  much  of  that  time  succeeded  in  managing  the  various 
conflicts  within  the  movement.  First  the  article  provides  a  brief  review  of 
the  long  campaign  for  woman  suffrage  in  Wisconsin  and  the  founding  of 
the  Wisconsin  Citizen.  Next,  the  article  examines  how  the  editors  of  the 
publication  attempted  to  control  the  various  controversies  within  the 
movement  and  then  how  those  controversies  were  reflected  (or  not)  in  its 
pages.  In  conclusion,  the  author  discusses  the  role  of  dissent  within  a 
social  movement  and  considers  whether  the  free  expression  of  such  dissent 
serves  as  a  positive  or  negative  factor  in  the  health  of  the  movement. 

Women  Organize  in  Wisconsin 

Woman  suffrage  was  first  considered  and  rejected  in  Wisconsin  at 
the  territory's  first  and  second  constitutional  conventions  in  1846  and 
1848."  It  was  not  until  1867  that  suffragists  began  to  organize,  and  in 
the  next  year  women  suffragists  created  the  Wisconsin  Woman  Suffrage 
Association  (WWSA)  with  physician  Laura  Ross  as  its  first  president.  Like 
suffrage  associations  formed  in  other  states  and  territories,  the  association 
had  a  sporadic  existence  during  its  early  years.  Chapters  in  a  dozen 
communities  scattered  across  the  sparsely  settled  state  met  irregularly, 
rallying  briefly  to  descend  on  the  state  capitol  to  lobby  for  suffrage 
legislation.  They  had  no  official  organ  during  these  years,  relying  instead 
on  the  pro-suffrage  Wisconsin  Chief,  a  temperance  sheet  published  in  Fort 
Atkinson  from  1856  to  1889  by  Emma  Brown,  and  the  Boston-based 
Woman's  Journal,  established  by  the  American  Woman  Suffrage  Associa- 
tion in  1870.12 

The  WWSA  was  energized  in  1884  when  the  Reverend  Olympia 
Brown  assumed  the  presidency.13  A  veteran  organizer,  the  49-year-old 
Brown  immediately  launched  a  campaign  for  a  woman  suffrage  amend- 
ment to  the  state  constitution.  A  suffrage  bill  was  eventually  passed  by 
both  the  state  legislature  and  the  required  popular  referendum,  but  when 
women  attempted  to  vote  in  the  elections  of  1 887,  they  were  told  they 
could  only  vote  in  elections  on  school  issues. .'4 

Brown  brought  the  case  to  court,  and  between  hearings  toured  the 
state  to  gather  popular  support.  It  was  during  this  period,  in  1887,  that 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  41 


she  established  the  Wisconsin  Citizen  to  counter  "newspaper  sensational- 
ism and  idle  or  malicious  gossip"  being  provided  by  the  general  circula- 
tion press.  Despite  her  attempts,  the  case  was  lost.15 

Brown  remained  the  president  of  the  WWSA  until  1913  and  saw  to 
it  that  the  Wisconsin  Citizen  continued  publication.  Under  her  leadership, 
the  WWSA  proposed  suffrage  legislation  in  the  state  capital  during  nearly 
every  session,  but  it  was  not  until  1911  that  a  bill  for  full  suffrage  was 
passed  in  both  houses.  The  bill,  however,  also  needed  to  pass  a  popular 
referendum,  to  be  held  November  1912.  During  the  ensuing  19-month 
campaign,  a  group  of  younger  suffragists  challenged  Brown's  leadership  of 
the  Wisconsin  movement.  They  established  a  second  suffrage  organiza- 
tion, the  Political  Equality  League,  frequently  referred  to  as  the  PEL.16 

Despite  a  vigorous  and  highly  publicized  campaign,  the  1912 
referendum  was  defeated.  Recognizing  the  need  for  unity,  the  WWSA  and 
PEL  resolved  their  differences,  reunited  under  a  reorganized  WWSA,  and 
replaced  their  leadership.  The  78-year-old  Brown  grudgingly  yielded  the 
presidency;  her  place  was  eventually  taken  by  journalist  Theodora  Winton 
Youmans,  the  former  press  organizer  for  the  PEL.  In  1914  Youmans 
became  editor  of  the  Wisconsin  Citizen.17 

Under  Youmans'  leadership  and  national  directives  from  the  Na- 
tional American  Woman  Suffrage  Association  (NAWSA),  the  WWSA 
gradually  shifted  its  focus  toward  campaigning  for  a  national  rather  than  a 
state  suffrage  amendment.18  Despite  this  concentration  of  effort  else- 
where, the  WWSA  routinely  introduced  suffrage  bills  to  the  Wisconsin 
legislature  and  in  1919  a  bill  for  presidential  suffrage  was  approved  by 
both  the  legislature  and  the  governor.  In  the  same  year,  before  that  state 
law  could  take  effect,  the  federal  suffrage  amendment  was  passed  by 
Congress,  and  Wisconsin  was  the  first  state  to  ratify.  Thus,  in  1920, 
Wisconsin  women  were  able  to  vote  for  the  first  time  in  all  elections.19 

Wisconsin  Citizen  Provides  a  Voice 

Like  many  reform  and  social  movement  publications,  the 
Wisconsin  Citizen  was  established  to  provide  a  voice  for  the  ideas  of  a 
minority  social  or  political  reform  at  a  time  when  those  ideas  were  often 
silenced  or  ridiculed  in  the  general  circulation  press.20  "Modest  in  appear- 
ance but  brave  in  its  [intentions],"  an  article  proclaimed  in  the  first  issue, 
"this  little  sheet  comes  before  the  public  for  the  purpose  of  setting  forth 
some  of  the  work,  industrial  and  reformatory,  in  which  the  unrecognized 
citizens  of  this  State  are  engaged."21 


42  Burt  "Spring  1999 


\ 


THE  WISCONSIN  CITIZEN. 


"in  unhin  i  111:111:  is  si  iti:Nn  i  n  " 
KACINIC,    WISCONSIN,   MAT,    iSKy. 


DIRECTORY 


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Omelol  Souls 


OFFICERS; 


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The  front  page  of  The  Wisconsin  Citizen  as  it  appeared  in  May  1889. 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism 


43 


From  that  moment  in  1 887  until  its  last  issue  was  published  in 
1917,  the  Wisconsin  Citizen  served  as  the  official  voice  of  the  Wisconsin 
woman  suffrage  movement.  The  paper  was  between  four  and  eight  pages 
in  length,  was  available  for  a  subscription  price  of  25  cents  a  year,  and  was 
published  first  as  a  monthly,  occasionally  as  a  bimonthly,  and  finally  as  a 
quarterly.22  Its  circulation  varied  over  the  years,  sinking  to  as  low  as  70  in 
1902  to  perhaps  as  high  as  250  in  1914.23  For  its  first  26  years  the  Citizen 
was  published  under  a  series  of  editors  chosen  by  Olympia  Brown  and, 
indeed,  was  often  referred  to  as  "Mrs.  Brown's  paper."  In  its  last  four  years 
it  was  published  under  the  editorship  of  WWSA  president  Theodora 
Winton  Youmans.24  An  accomplished  journalist,  Youmans  was  an 
assistant  editor  of  her  husband's  weekly  newspaper,  the  Waukesha  Freeman, 
where  she  also  wrote  a  weekly  suffrage  column.  Publication  of  the  Citizen 
was  discontinued  in  January  1917,  at  which  time  it  was  replaced  with  a 
typed  bulletin  mailed  to  more  than  100  newspapers  throughout  the  state 
until  1920.25 

The  Wisconsin  Citizen  kept  suffragists  up  to  date  on  the  latest 
suffrage  developments  in  Wisconsin  as  well  as  in  other  states,  reported 
news  concerning  state  and  national  suffragists,  and  commented  on  press 
coverage  of  the  movement.  It  chronicled  the  advance  of  woman  suffrage, 
praised  its  champions,  and  lashed  out  against  its  opponents.  It  heralded 
the  advances  and  successes  of  women,  argued  for  more  access  to  education 
and  the  professions,  and  in  general  supported  the  broad  platform  of 
women's  rights.  It  attempted,  in  its  own  words,  to  serve  as  a  "text  book  for 
the  instruction  of  women  in  the  methods  and  principles  of...  govern- 
ment."26 

For  most  of  its  years  of  publication,  the  Citizen  focused  on  suffrage 
in  Wisconsin,  but  it  occasionally  addressed  other  issues  affecting  women 
such  as  labor  and  divorce  laws,  white  slavery,  and  child  labor.  Debates  on 
specific  topics  ran  from  issue  to  issue,  frequently  using  members'  letters 
and  references  to  articles  that  had  appeared  in  the  general  press.  Poems 
and  the  verses  of  suffrage  songs  were  printed  and  even  an  occasional 
cartoon  appeared.27 

Like  other  reform  publications,  the  Wisconsin  Citizen  did  not  always 
present  a  seamless  account  of  a  well-organized  and  unified  movement;  it 
also  served  as  a  window  to  some  of  the  controversies  that  raged  within  the 
suffrage  movement.  The  window,  however,  was  opaque.  Although  the 
Citizen  allowed  some  of  the  debate  over  these  controversies  to  appear  on 
its  pages,  more  often  than  not  this  debate  was  suppressed  to  create  an 
appearance  of  unity.  Only  a  close  examination  of  the  publication  reveals 


44  Burt 'Spring  1999 


evidence  of  these  controversies,  often  revealed  by  innuendo  or  omission. 
Examination  of  organizational  correspondence  and  contemporary  ac- 
counts, on  the  other  hand,  reveal  that  three  major  areas  of  contention 
existed  over  the  years.  These  were  the  nature  of  campaign  strategies  and 
tactics,  leadership  of  the  organization,  and  support  of  a  national  rather 
than  state  suffrage  amendment.28 

Dissent  over  Campaign  Strategies  and  Leadership 

Debate  over  campaign  strategies  often  led  to  conflict  within  the 
Wisconsin  woman  suffrage  movement,  and  this  debate  was  closely  linked 
to  the  nature  of  the  movement's  leadership.  When  Brown  became  presi- 
dent in  1884,  she  pumped  new  energy  into  the  organization.  Trained  as  a 
minister,  Brown  was  not  only  a  superb  speaker,  but  also  was  an  activist 
who  was  not  afraid  to  get  out  among  the  general  population  to  promote 
her  ideas.29  After  the  disappointing  court  decision  in  1889,  however, 
Brown  failed  to  maintain  this  energy.  In  the  years  between  1889  and 
1902,  county  chapters  died  off,  meetings  were  held  rarely,  and  annual 
conventions  were  attended  only  by  a  loyal  cadre.  In  some  years,  in  fact, 
the  Wisconsin  Citizen  was  the  only  evidence  of  a  surviving  suffrage 
sentiment  among  Wisconsin  women.30 

In  these  years,  Brown  contented  herself  with  periodic  appearances 
before  state  legislators,  trips  to  Washington,  and  regular  columns  in  the 
Citizen.  In  late  1910,  however,  her  routine  was  shattered  when  a  group  of 
younger  women  within  the  WWSA  challenged  her  low-key  campaign 
tactics  which,  they  charged,  had  brought  "meager  results."31  In  an  effort 
to  pacify  this  group,  Brown  reluctantly  accepted  an  offer  by  Mary  Swain 
Wagner,  an  ambitious  suffragist  from  New  York,  to  hold  meetings 
throughout  the  state  and  to  organize  a  lecture  bureau  at  her  own  expense. 
Little  of  Brown's  reluctance  was  initially  reflected  in  the  Citizen.  In  its 
October  1910  report  of  the  organization's  annual  meeting,  the  publication 
simply  recorded  that  Wagner's  proposal  had  been  "favorably  discussed," 
that  the  board  had  authorized  it,  and  that  Brown  was  "pleased"  with  the 
plan  for  additional  suffrage  meetings.32 

Wagner  Plots  to  Oust  Brown 

Within  just  a  few  months,  however,  Wagner  was  plotting  with 
younger  members  of  the  WWSA  to  oust  Brown  from  the  presidency.33 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  45 


She  challenged  Brown  openly  in  suffrage  meetings  and  made  the  contro- 
versy even  more  public  by  giving  interviews  to  the  press  in  which  she 
called  Brown  and  her  contemporaries  within  the  WWSA  "doddering 
females."34  At  first  the  Citizen  addressed  the  challenge  indirectly.  In  the 
March  1 1  issue,  in  a  signed  column  entitled  "An  Explanation,"  Brown 
defended  her  campaign  tactics  without  being  too  specific  or  mentioning 
Wagner: 

The  writer  understands  that  the  Wisconsin  Woman's  Suffrage 
Association  has  been  criticized  on  the  ground  that  so  few 
of  its  officers  have  been  in  Madison  this  season  interviewing 
legislators.  Now  it  is  most  desirable  that  we  show  the  legislators 
that  we  desire  the  ballot  and  that  we  are  watching  the  attitude 
of  every  member  on  this  subject  and  that  we  give  them  all 
information  possible.  But  we  can  overdo  this  sort  of  work.  It 
is  not  agreeable  to  men,  nor  does  it  conduce  to  the  advance- 
ment of  our  cause  to  be  always  nagging  and  buttonholing 
members  in  regard  to  it....  We  have  never  neglected  our 
legislature  but  have  always  sent  literature.  The  chairman  of 
our  legislative  committee...  has  had  opportunities  of  speaking 
to  members  in  a  quiet  and  unobtrusive  way...  The  president 
of  the  society  has  been  in  constant  communication  with... 
members  of  the  legislature....  On  the  whole  the  legislature 
has  had  plenty  of  attention  and  the  criticism  of  our  officers 
is  very  unjust.35 

In  a  brief  article  in  the  same  issue,  the  Citizen  reported  somewhat 
hopefully  that  Wagner  had  completed  her  work  in  Wisconsin  and  would 
"probably  go  to  some  other  state."36  Wagner  did  not  leave  Wisconsin, 
however,  and  unable  to  either  remove  her  from  the  state  campaign  or 
silence  her  challenges,  Brown  complained  bitterly  to  suffrage  workers  in 
personal  correspondence.37  In  April  she  reported  Wagner's  demands  in  the 
Citizen.  "[Wagner]  wrote  several  letters  demanding  that  the  President  of 
the  association  should  at  once  send  her  resignation  to  her  (not  a  member 
of  the  association,  and  a  recent  comer  to  the  state)  as  she  intended  to 
reorganize  the  association  or  to  organize  an  opposition  to  it,"  Brown  told 
Citizen  readers.  "She  accompanied  her  demand  by  threats  and  denuncia- 
tions which  applied  to  nearly  all  the  officers  of  the  association."38 


46  Burr  'Spring  1999 


Dissenters  Form  a  Second  Organization 

Brown  succeeded  in  maintaining  the  loyalty  of  the  majority  of  the 
members  and  retained  the  presidency.  She  failed,  however,  to  quell  the 
rebellion.  In  April  1911  the  dissenters  formed  a  second  suffrage  organiza- 
tion, the  Political  Equality  League,  with  former  WWSA  vice-president-at- 
large  Ada  James  at  its  head.39  The  Citizen  acknowledged  the  split  only 
obliquely.  In  June  1911,  for  example,  in  a  long  article  rallying  support  and 
contributions  for  the  WWSA,  Brown  reported  that  there  were  in  the  state 
"a  number  of  societies,"  "clubs,"  or  "leagues"  endorsing  and  even  working 
for  woman  suffrage.  These  put  some  other  subject  with  or  even  before 
suffrage,  she  warned,  and  only  the  WWSA  had  for  many  years  alone  stood 
for  woman  suffrage.  "The  ballot  first,  other  things  afterwards,"  she  wrote. 
"We  do  not  aspire  to  political  equality.'  We  only  ask  for  the  ballot.  Then 
political  equality  will  come."40  On  the  few  occasions  that  the  Citizen 
referred  to  the  Political  Equality  League,  it  identified  the  organization  as  an 
opponent  rather  than  an  ally  in  the  suffrage  cause.41 

The  Citizen  refused  to  acknowledge  the  Political  Equality  League  for 
the  duration  of  the  campaign.  Although  the  organization's  campaign 
activities  were  highly  visible  and  attracted  public  attention,  they  received 
no  notice  in  the  paper.  Thus  excluded  from  the  Citizen,  the  PEL  began  to 
publish  its  own  newsletter,  the  Press  Bulletin,  edited  by  Waukesha  journalist 
and  suffragist  Theodora  Winton  Youmans.  The  Bulletin  went  out  to  some 
500  state  and  regional  newspapers  and  succeeded  in  getting  stories  in  the 
state  general  circulation  press  and  the  national  suffrage  press.42 

Throughout  the  19-month  campaign  for  the  1912  referendum, 
campaign  strategies  remained  a  major  point  of  contention  between  the  two 
suffrage  organizations.  Brown  continued  to  insist  on  waging  a  low-profile 
campaign  that  would  not  arouse  opposition,  and  waited  until  shortly 
before  the  November  referendum  before  launching  a  more  visible  and 
active  campaign.43  The  PEL,  instead,  organized  motor  tours,  street  rallies, 
and  highly  publicized  debates — all  activities  that  received  coverage  in  the 
Press  Bulletin  and  the  general  circulation  press,  but  scant  mention  in  the 
Citizen.44 

Brown  stubbornly  held  on  to  the  WWSA  presidency  throughout  the 
campaign,  always  attributing  her  position  to  the  will  of  the  membership. 
After  the  defeat  of  the  1912  referendum,  however,  old  allies  urged  her  to 
step  aside  so  that  the  WWSA  could  reorganize  under  new  leaders  un- 
tainted by  the  recent  rivalry.  Brown  reluctantly  resigned  her  position  as 
president.45  Although  it  is  clear  from  her  private  correspondence  that  she 
yielded  unwillingly  to  pressure,  the  report  that  appeared  in  the  Citizen 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  47 


made  it  sound  as  if  Brown  had  resigned  voluntarily  and  for  the  noblest 
reasons: 

Rev.  Olympia  Brown  declined  election  to  the  office  of  state 
President,  which  she  has  held  for  more  than  20  years.  It  was 
not  because  she  is  old...  Certainly  it  was  not  because  of 
feebleness...  But  in  absolutely  refusing  to  be  re-elected  she  was 
joined  by  all  the  old  officers...  to  leave  the  way  open  for  future 
coalition  between  the  old  state  society  and  the  political  equality 
league  which  was  formed  at  the  opening  of  the  recent  campaign.46 

WWSA  and  PEL  Reach  a  Compromise 

With  Brown's  resignation,  the  WWSA  and  the  PEL  were  able  to 
reach  a  compromise  and  agreed  upon  a  revised  constitution.  After  two 
false  starts,  the  membership  elected  Youmans  president.  A  journalist  by 
profession,  Youmans  believed  the  Citizen  should  play  a  key  role  in  the 
reorganization  by  easing  the  transition,  healing  the  breach,  and  informing 
the  membership  of  the  changes.  She  began  to  publish  a  monthly 
"President's  Letter,"  first  signing  these  columns  with  her  full  name, 
"Theodora  Winton  Youmans,"  later  simply  with  her  initials,  "T.W.Y" 
With  these  letters,  she  was  able  to  subtly  but  constantly  remind  the 
membership  of  the  change  in  the  WWSA  and  her  own  role  as  president 
while  at  the  same  time  analyzing  the  latest  developments  affecting  the 
movement.47 

But  while  Brown  might  have  stepped  down  from  the  presidency,  she 
still  exerted  indirect  control  over  the  Citizen  through  its  editor  Lena 
Newman,  a  loyal  member  of  the  old  guard  who  had  held  the  position 
since  1899.  It  soon  became  clear  that  with  Newman  as  editor,  Youmans' 
impact  could  be  restrained  through  editorial  decisions;  although  Youmans 
might  express  her  ideas  through  her  "President's  Letter,"  she  had  no 
control  over  where  the  column  would  be  placed  in  relation  to  other 
material,  or  what  else  might  appear  in  the  same  edition.  Brown  continued 
to  write  signed  columns  for  each  issue  and  these  often  appeared  on  the 
front  page,  while  Youmans'  articles,  even  her  "President's  Letter,"  often 
appeared  on  the  second  or  third. 

Youmans  Takes  Control 

Youmans  succeeded  in  removing  the  last  traces  of  Brown's  control  of 
the  WWSA  and  the  Citizen  when  Newman's  contract  with  the  WWSA 


48  Burr -Spring  1999 


came  up  for  renewal  in  late  1913.  Pleading  economic  necessity  and  the 
need  to  make  the  Citizen  more  efficient,  Youmans  suggested  its  place  of 
publication  be  moved  from  Brodhead,  where  Newman  lived,  to 
Waukesha,  where  it  could  be  printed  at  the  Waukesha  Freeman.  Since 
Youmans  already  worked  at  the  Freeman  as  assistant  editor,  it  would  make 
perfect  sense  for  her  to  become  the  Citizens  editor.  This  was  proposed  as 
both  a  practical  and  financial  improvement  of  the  papers  production.  At 
the  same  time,  Youmans  also  proposed  that  the  Citizens  format  and 
purpose  be  changed.  The  paper  could  either  be  reduced  to  an  official 
bulletin  for  board  members  and  county  organization  officials  only,  or  it 
could  be  altered  to  serve  as  a  source  of  news  for  the  general  press,  much  as 
the  PEL's  Press  Bulletin  had  done  during  the  1911-1912  campaign.48 

Brown  did  not  willingly  relinquish  her  control  of  the  Citizen  and, 
backed  by  her  remaining  supporters,  vehemently  opposed  the  changes. 
Despite  her  opposition,  the  board  agreed  to  move  the  publication  to 
Waukesha  and  appoint  Youmans  editor.  It  did  not,  however,  approve  the 
changes  in  format.49  In  the  next  issue  of  the  Citizen,  Youmans  smoothly 
explained  the  change  as  part  of  the  board's  "general  policy  of  concentrat- 
ing the  administrative  work  of  the  state  association"  and  the  desire  to 
bring  the  various  offices  of  the  association  "under  one  roof."  She  ex- 
plained what  was  to  become  Newman's  effective  removal  from  the  power 
structure  as  a  voluntary  step: 

Old  friends  of  the  Wisconsin  Citizen  will  be  pleased  to  learn 
that  Miss  Lena  V.  Newman,  so  long  its  faithful  and  efficient 
editor,  has  recently  inherited  land  in  North  Dakota  and  expects 
to  spend  part  of  her  time  in  that  state.  She  retires  from  the 
editorship  of  this  paper  with  a  record  of  good  work  done  and 
with  the  warm  personal  esteem  of  all  Wisconsin  suffragists.50 

The  uneasy  transition  from  the  old  guard  to  the  new  was  thus 
complete.  Although  Brown  continued  to  publish  occasional  columns  in 
the  Citizen  as  honorary  president,  it  was  clear  that  her  days  of  influence  in 
the  WWSA  were  over  and  her  presence  in  the  Citizen  gradually  faded.51 
As  for  the  Citizen,  it  survived  under  Youmans  until  1917  when,  citing 
financial  and  organizational  hardship,  she  reduced  it  to  a  single-page 
newsletter  to  be  sent  to  the  general  circulation  press. 

National  Versus  State  Suffrage 

The  debate  over  whether  suffrage  could  best  be  attained  through  a 
state  or  federal  amendment  was  another  area  of  controversy  that  often 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  49 


The  Wisconsin  Citizen. 


VOL.  XXVIII 


WAUKESHA,   WISCONSIN,   SEPTEMBER.    1915. 


GOING    TO    NEW    YORK. 

I  have  a  great  piece  of  news  foi 
CliiiAn  readers  nils  month— ni  Joast 
li  serms  great  -to-  mo.  iSoih  Mrs. 
llalKht  sua  it^seK  arc  ,jing  10  Now 
York  lo  worn  ...  i in-  woman  sutTrngc 
campaign  'or  n  mon  I  It,  I  go  tir  llocli 
ester,  .leaving  on  September  '-".. 
and  Mrs.  Hindu  goes  to  lint- 
fnlo  a  week  later.  Mrs.  Ha  I  ell  I  boos 
under  contract  wiih.iho  Empire  Slato 
Campaign  iommitt'ec  anil  I  wis  rep- 
resentative of  the. Wisconsin  Woman's 

:  Snffrase  association.  ,\t  the  meeting 
ol    the    Executive    hoard    i'i    Ihis    pity 

,  .recently  a  rcso'lution  was  passed  aulh- 
-orlzing  nje  10  no  and  nppropriailnK  the 
necessary  fitnils  for  expenses,  Tins 
action  whs  taken  on  ihe  uudoisland- 
ing  Hint  in  woman  suffrage  work,  the 
yt  el  tare  of  one  is  the  welfare  of  all. 
It  is  tremendously  important  lor  Wis- 
consin'that    New    York   shall    uNi,    and, 

I  our  Executive  hoard  helieves  thai  in 
sending  a  worker  lo  that  stare  !t  is 
Indirectly,  but  possibly  most  eJToct- 
Ively.  fighting  its  own  hatlles.  as  well 
as  adding  Its. mile  of  assistance  in  .the 
tremendous  campaign   the   N'ew    York 


The    Empi 


•Sta 


Campaign 


mitiee  represents  the  Nev 
an    Suffrage    association. 

Suffrage  party,  the  Coll.' 
Hie  Equal  Franchise  sacii 
League  tor  Woman  Su 
work  Is  divided  into  FA 
puhlicity.  oreaniz'alien, 
and  lilerale. . ,  The  slat 
'into  rnmpa'gn   districts. 


•gor 


I  have  n  letter  from  Mrs.  Clements 
chairman  of  the  Seventh  Cmigre-sim 
at  district,  in  which  Rochester  is  Ij 
rated. ;  Some  idea  of  the  oomprehcii 
Blve  scoiie  of  the  work  may'  he  in 
ferred  from  Jlrs.  Clements'  leticr: 

"U'e  have  arranged  for  a  big  Vote; 
For  Women  week,  beginning  Sep- 
tember 20.  We  start  in  Monday  with  tiioni  have  lo  havi>  helpers 
an  all-day  speech  .from  10  a.,  m.  to  10  lections  and  ilislrilnilioi!  o!' 
p.  m„  with  the  following  speakers:  .and  enrollments.  In  addifiu 
Josephine  Shayiie,  Helen  Todd,  Jane  "1°  Sozodont campaign  starts 
Thompson.  Alice  Pierson.  Mary  New-      »>">  'en  ilccorcilod  More  wii 

comb,   and    Mr.    Perkins   of   Michigan.-     Mai"    street    and    two    booths    in    iv.ii    '  tfini  andlfllf  eo 
Following  that  enrh  -day  there  will  Ye      MR  depannioni   stores,  p'.ieu  i:i    which      iniiiing  In.  hut 
st\  factory  meetings  and  six  open-air      must  have  a  capable  woman  in  oh.-ngej      lire  greajer!  nei 
meetings  each  night  in  different  sec-      "Me  l0  l:l"'  suffrage  and  . 
lions  of  the  city.     Alt  cf  these  meet-      tiortrs 
ings  have  to  be  advertised  from  house  A  great  parade  is  nr^an 


IIEMtY   M    YOIWIAX* 


l«l« 


nh    for 


lioth 
just 


to  house  1n  the  neighborhood.    All  o!      York,  city  (Jclolu 


ell    work 


Halgh  ■  and   myself  lo 

is-  jisnk    with    the  state   conven- 

ildjthe  congressional  conferences 

oilier    yleids    lo 

s  Harriet   Ilain. 

Icnoshal  has  kindly  consented  to  take 

barge   of  jbeado,uar(ers   work   during 

or  ahseme.   She  may  he  consulted  as 

u  detail);  «jf  the  convention,  the  con- 


This  September  1915  edition  of  The  Wisconsin  Citizen  featured  an  article  written  by  Mrs. 
Henry  M.  Youmans  as  well  as  a  photograph  of  her. 


50 


Burt 'Spring  1999 


threatened  the  unity  of  the  Wisconsin  movement.  The  first  generation  of 
feminists  of  the  1850s  and  1860s  had  hoped  to  bring  about  woman 
suffrage  on  a  national  level  and  lobbied  to  include  the  concept  of  univer- 
sal suffrage  in  the  14th  Amendment.  When  that  plan  was  defeated  in 
1868  and  subsequent  campaigns  for  a  federal  suffrage  amendment  were 
defeated,  suffragists  began  to  focus  their  energies  on  winning  the  right  to 
vote  state  by  state.  Thus,  while  the  federal  amendment  languished  in 
Washington,  state  organizations  lobbied  for  suffrage  at  the  local  level.  In 
the  meantime,  the  national  suffrage  associations,  which  united  as  the 
National  American  Woman  Suffrage  Association  (NAWSA)  in  1890,  kept 
a  continued  presence  in  the  national  capital.  Whenever  congressional 
action  seemed  imminent,  the  NAWSA  would  call  on  the  state  organiza- 
tions for  campaign  workers.52 

Like  most  other  state  suffrage  associations,  the  WWSA  divided  its 
energies  between  campaigning  for  legislation  in  Wisconsin,  supporting 
similar  campaigns  in  other  states,  and  sending  delegates  to  Washington  to 
lobby  for  a  federal  amendment.  This  diffusion  of  energy  had  both  positive 
and  negative  effects  on  the  Wisconsin  movement.  On  the  positive  side, 
the  WWSA  had  much  to  gain  from  the  resources  of  the  national  move- 
ment and  stronger  state  organizations.  It  was  a  series  of  lectures  by  Susan 
B.  Anthony  in  1 867,  for  example,  that  sparked  the  surge  of  interest  that 
led  to  the  organization  of  the  WWSA  two  years  later.  And  in  later  years, 
the  Wisconsin  movement  gained  considerable  support  from  other  state 
suffrage  organizations  that  contributed  both  funds  and  the  services  of 
suffrage  workers  such  as  Catherine  McCulloch,  Harriet  Grim,  Emma 
Smith  DeVoe,  and  May  Wright  Sewall.53 

On  the  negative  side,  participation  in  other  state  campaigns  as  well 
as  the  national  campaign  drained  energy  from  the  Wisconsin  movement. 
After  the  1890  defeat  of  the  1886  Wisconsin  suffrage  bill  in  the  courts, 
for  example,  Brown  was  frequently  absent  from  the  state  to  devote  her 
energy  to  lobbying  for  the  federal  suffrage  amendment  in  Washington, 
D.C..  During  these  periods,  as  the  membership  in  the  WWSA  gradually 
shrank,  she  administered  the  WWSA  in  absentia,  delegating  her  daughter, 
Gwendolen  B.  Willis,  to  carry  out  some  of  her  duties,  including  the 
production  of  the  Citizen.^  Similarly  after  NAWSA,  in  1915,  decided  to 
devote  all  its  energy  to  winning  suffrage  in  key  campaign  states  such  as 
New  York,  Ohio,  and  Illinois,  and  to  cut  back  in  what  it  regarded  as 
hopeless  states  such  as  Wisconsin,  Youmans  and  other  WWSA  officials 
were  frequently  absent  from  the  state  for  increasing  periods.55 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  5 1 


Disputes  Often  Not  Reported 

The  decision  to  devote  their  energies  elsewhere  was  not  lightly 
reached  and  caused  disputes  among  members  that  sometimes  came  to  a 
head  during  the  WWSA's  annual  conventions,  when  they  were  dutifully 
reported  in  the  minutes  of  the  convention  published  in  the  Wisconsin 
Citizen.56  These  disputes,  however,  more  often  were  not  reported  in  the 
paper.  The  diffusion  of  energy  to  outside  campaigns,  instead,  can  be 
discovered  in  the  number  of  articles  about  campaigns  being  waged 
elsewhere  as  well  as  topics  not  even  remotely  connected  to  the  state 
movement.  Between  1901  and  1910,  for  example,  when  interest  in  the 
WWSA  was  at  its  lowest,  only  one  or  two  columns  per  issue  were  devoted 
to  local  developments.  The  remainder  of  the  paper  typically  carried 
articles  and  short  items  reprinted  from  other  newspapers  or  suffrage 
publications.57 

During  the  period  of  the  1910-1913  Wisconsin  campaigns,  the 
Citizen  focused  once  again  on  local  affairs.  In  these  years  the  publication's 
pages  were  filled  with  news  of  the  campaign  for  the  suffrage  bill  and  its 
victory  in  1911,  the  campaign  for  the  referendum  and  its  defeat  in  1912, 
and  the  proposal  of  a  second  bill  in  191 3. 58  But  with  the  fate  of  this 
second  bill  still  being  debated  in  the  legislature,  the  Citizen  shifted  its 
attention  to  the  national  front,  where  congress  had  just  passed  a  joint 
resolution  calling  for  the  submission  of  a  federal  suffrage  amendment.59 
In  April  1913,  with  the  Wisconsin  bill  awaiting  the  governor's  approval 
(which  was  denied),  the  newly  elected  Youmans  signaled  this  shift  in  her 
President's  Letter: 

If  the  unexpected  should  happen  and  the  measure  [for  the 
1913  suffrage  bill]  should  fail,  we  should  still  of  course, 
continue  our  work,  though  in  a  somewhat  different  way.  It 
is  not  always  in  so-called  campaign  states  —  that  is  those  in 
which  an  election  is  pending  —  that  the  best  campaign  work 
is  done.  Witness  the  splendid  efforts  of  the  Chicago  women, 
continued  year  after  year,  though  the  Illinois  legislature  has 
never  passed  a  woman  suffrage  measure  ....  In  any  event, 
Wisconsin  women  must  prepare  for  continued  and  vigorous 
activity  in  the  suffrage  cause  ...  in  whatever  direction  it  may 
be  exerted  .  .  .  .60 

That  "direction"  was  increasingly  away  from  Wisconsin  and  toward 
other  states.  In  the  fall  of  1915,  for  example,  Youmans  went  for  a  month 


52  Burt -Spring  1999 


to  work  for  the  Empire  State  Campaign  in  New  York,  leaving  the  Citizen 
under  the  temporary  management  of  Harriet  Bain.  "This  action  was 
undertaken  on  the  understanding  that  in  woman  suffrage  work,  the 
welfare  of  one  is  the  welfare  of  all,"  Youmans  explained  in  the  Citizen.  "It 
is  tremendously  important  for  Wisconsin  that  New  York  shall  win  .  .  .  ."61 

After  Congress  revived  the  Anthony  Amendment  in  the  same  year,  it 
became  equally  important  to  follow  the  federal  amendment.  Youmans 
frequently  reported  on  the  results  of  hearings  and  votes  in  Washington 
and  in  one  article  advised  that  local  agitation  should  be  directed  toward 
the  Wisconsin  congressmen  who  would  be  voting  on  the  amendment:  "It 
is  up  to  you,  Madame  Suffragist  in  Mr.  Blank's  district,  to  secure  his  vote 
for  justice  for  women."62 

For  the  next  five  years,  Wisconsin  organizers  temporarily  deserted 
the  state  for  other  campaigns,  and  these  national  activities  were  duly 
reported  in  the  Citizen.  (Likewise,  the  vacuum  that  resulted  in  state 
activism  was  reflected  in  the  little  mention  given  to  state  activities  by  the 
paper.)  In  late  1916,  for  example,  Maude  McCreery  campaigned  for  two 
months  in  South  Dakota.  In  early  1917,  Alice  H.  Curtis  was  dispatched 
to  New  York  City  to  work  at  the  NAWSA  headquarters.  In  late  1916  and 
again  in  early  1917  Jessie  Jack  Hooper  left  for  Washington,  D.C.  to  serve 
in  NAWSA's  congressional  lobby.63 

At  the  same  time,  some  suffragists  abandoned  the  WWSA  to  join 
Alice  Paul's  militant  Congressional  Union,  which  in  1916  became  the 
National  Woman's  Party.64  These  out-of-state  activities  took  a  toll  on  the 
WWSA  leadership,  especially  on  Youmans.  In  addition  to  maintaining  her 
position  as  editor  of  the  Citizen  and  assistant  editor  of  the  Freeman,  the 
WWSA  president  frequently  found  herself  traveling  between  Waukesha, 
Milwaukee,  Madison,  New  York  and  Washington  for  speaking  engage- 
ments and  campaign  activities.65 

One  way  for  Youmans  to  reduce  the  workload  was  to  streamline  the 
WWSA  organization  and  focus  her  energies  on  the  campaign  for  the 
national  amendment.  Streamlining  the  WWSA  had  dire  consequences  for 
the  Wisconsin  Citizen,  however,  for  Youmans  returned  to  her  earlier  plan 
of  changing  the  publication's  format  and  publishing  schedule.  In  June 
1916,  she  reduced  the  Citizen  from  a  monthly  to  a  quarterly,  and  in 
January  1917  discontinued  publication  altogether.  The  newspaper  was 
replaced  with  a  one-sheet  monthly  bulletin  to  be  sent  monthly  to  some 
1 00  state  newspapers  and  local  societies.66  Youmans'  rationale  for  this 
move  was  that  since  so  little  was  actually  happening  on  the  Wisconsin 
front,  suffrage  developments  could  effectively  be  covered  by  this  news 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  53 


bulletin  and  the  national  suffrage  publication,  the  Woman  Citizen.  Not  a 
hint  of  the  changes  to  come  appeared  in  the  pages  of  the  final  editions  of 
the  Wisconsin  Citizen.**7 

WWSA  Focus  on  the  Federal  Amendment 

Although  state  suffrage  bills  continued  to  be  submitted  and  heard  in 
the  Wisconsin  legislature  for  the  next  two-and-a-half  years,  the  federal 
amendment  remained  the  focus  of  WWSA  efforts  in  these  last  years  of  the 
movement.  This  is  clearly  stated  in  the  December  1918  bulletin.  After 
mentioning  that  the  WWSA's  annual  suffrage  convention  had  been 
postponed  by  an  influenza  epidemic,  it  announced:  "The  federal  amend- 
ment continues  to  hold  the  center  of  the  stage,  and  our  deepest  interest." 
Suffragists  should  no  longer  limit  themselves  to  writing  their  representa- 
tives and  senators,  Youmans  advised,  but  should  "make  a  direct  appeal  to 
Senators  from  other  states."  And  they  should  make  their  will  known  to 
their  state  representatives  so  that  if  the  federal  amendment  were  approved, 
it  would  be  ratified  by  the  Wisconsin  legislature.68 

Thus,  in  the  final  two  years  of  the  fight  for  suffrage,  the  WWSA  had 
no  real  local  voice  other  than  the  bulletin  and  Youmans'  column  in  the 
Freeman.  It  appears  ironic,  then,  that  in  1919  Wisconsin  women  won  a 
double  victory.  First,  they  won  presidential  suffrage  in  the  state  legislature, 
then  they  won  the  distinction  of  being  citizens  in  the  first  state  to  ratify 
the  federal  amendment.69 

Grappling  With  the  Truth 

Reformers  typically  believe  in  the  power  of  the  written  word  to 
change  public  opinion,  often  quoting  Milton's  maxim  that  if  truth  and 
falsehood  are  allowed  to  grapple,  truth  will  prevail.70  Thus  for  reformers, 
freedom  of  the  press  is  a  necessary  tool  in  their  attempt  to  win  public 
opinion  and  bring  about  change  or,  as  they  see  it,  the  truth  to  light.71 
Excluded  and  ridiculed  by  the  mainstream  press,  reformers  typically 
establish  their  own  publications  to  reach  the  public  as  well  as  their  own 
constituents. 

It  is  ironic,  then,  that  these  publications  do  not  always  allow 
expression  (which  may  be  considered  the  essence  of  freedom  of  the  press) 
to  all  members  within  their  own  constituency.  As  becomes  clear  from  this 
study,  even  the  press  of  a  reform  movement  can  be  dominated  by  elites 
who  suppress  the  free  flow  of  ideas. 


54  Burt -Spring  1999 


In  the  case  of  the  Wisconsin  woman  suffrage  movement  and  the 
WWSA,  it  is  clear  that  its  organ,  the  Wisconsin  Citizen,  was  dominated  by 
two  leaders — one  succeeded  (or  better,  ousted)  by  the  other — who  used 
the  paper  to  support  their  own  vision  of  what  the  organization  should  be 
and  how  it  should  carry  out  its  goals.  Although  dissent  within  the  Wis- 
consin suffrage  movement  was  occasionally  given  voice  in  the  Citizen, 
more  often  than  not,  it  was  suppressed  in  the  interest  of  the  movement's 
unity  and,  perhaps,  the  preservation  of  the  established  leadership. 

Thus  Olympia  Brown,  who  founded  the  paper  in  1887  and  ap- 
pointed a  series  of  editors  over  the  years,  was  able  to  maintain  control  of 
the  Citizen  as  well  as  the  leadership  and  campaign  tactics  of  the  WWSA 
for  26  years.  Convinced  that  the  "still  hunt"  was  the  best  campaign  tactic, 
Brown  believed  more  flamboyant  tactics  such  as  persistent  lobbying,  street 
speaking,  and  suffrage  tours  would  alienate  the  very  people  suffragists 
were  trying  to  persuade.  When  dissenting  members  of  the  WWSA 
challenged  her  tactics  and  leadership,  their  criticisms  were  not  published 
in  the  paper  and  the  only  evidence  of  this  dissent  —  other  than  the 
correspondence  among  suffragists  and  articles  published  in  mainstream 
newspaper  stories  —  is  found  in  the  few  articles  the  Citizen  published 
answering  these  "unjust"  charges. 

Even  after  open  revolt  split  the  WWSA  into  two  factions,  the 
Citizen  refused  to  recognize  the  rebel  group.  It  spoke  obliquely  of  the 
inappropriateness  of  the  terms  "political  equality"  and  "league,"  but  never 
legitimized  the  rebel  group  by  using  its  name,  the  "Political  Equality 
League."  In  1913  Brown  was  forced  from  her  position,  but  even  here,  the 
struggle  was  masked  and  her  "resignation,"  as  that  of  the  Citizens  editor  in 
the  following  year,  was  presented  in  the  paper  as  a  graceful  departure  for 
calmer  waters. 

Under  Theodora  Youmans'  stewardship,  the  Citizen  continued  to 
suppress  dissent.  The  struggle  over  the  appropriate  site  of  activism  for 
Wisconsin  suffragists  was  muffled  by  the  battle  cry  for  success  on  the 
national  front.  Painful  debate  over  the  allocation  of  meager  resources  was 
buried  in  the  enthusiasm  to  assist  in  the  highly  visible  campaigns, 
marches,  and  rallies  in  New  York  and  Washington,  D.C..  Although 
Youmans  later  called  the  Citizen  "a  doughty  defender  of  the  faith  for  three 
decades,"  she  sacrificed  it  when  she  had  to  choose  between  devoting  her 
energies  to  the  national  or  the  state  suffrage  movement.72 

What  is  perhaps  most  striking  is  that  the  demise  of  the  Wisconsin 
Citizen  was  completely  unannounced.  If  there  was  any  debate  over  what 
appears  to  have  been  a  very  abrupt  death,  it  was  once  again  stifled  in  the 
very  pages  of  the  victim. 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  55 


Publications  As  a  Tool  For  Control 

This  study,  in  fact,  confirms  observations  made  by  other  scholars  of 
reform  and  social  movement  publications  that  such  publications  do  not 
always  express  a  unified  or  representative  voice,  whether  in  regard  to 
ideology,  goals  or  tactics.  Perhaps  more  to  the  point,  this  study  contradicts 
observations  by  some  scholars  that  women's  reform  publications,  both  of 
the  19th  and  20th  centuries,  emphasized  an  "open  forum,"  and  a  coop- 
erative rather  than  a  competitive  approach.73  The  communities  created 
and  sustained  by  reform  publications,  as  identified  by  Folkerts  in  her 
study  of  the  Farmers'  Alliance  and  by  Steiner  in  her  study  of  suffrage 
publications,  in  fact  are  not  always  inclusive.74  In  the  case  of  the  Wisconsin 
Citizen  and  the  WWSA,  those  who  did  not  adhere  to  the  ideas  of  first 
Brown  and  then  Youmans  found  themselves  excluded  from  the  debate  in 
the  publication.  To  find  a  place  to  express  their  views  and  find  like- 
minded  women,  their  only  option  was  to  join  other  organizations  such  as 
the  PEL  in  1911  and  the  National  Woman's  Party  in  1916. 

These  observations  suggest  a  further  consideration  of  the  role  played 
by  reform  publications.  Often  viewed  as  a  liberating  factor  by  organiza- 
tional leaders  and  constituents,  these  publications  also  serve  as  a  tool  for 
dominant  groups  or  individuals  within  a  movement  to  control  the  flow  of 
ideas,  create  an  illusion  of  consensus,  and  suppress  dissent. 

This  of  course  can  have  positive  effects — unifying  the  movement, 
making  it  more  effective,  allowing  it  to  reach  stated  goals.  But  it  also  can 
have  negative  effects — discouraging  or  eliminating  the  free  flow  of  ideas 
within  the  movement,  excluding  the  ideas  of  those  who  would  challenge 
the  movement's  elite  perhaps  for  the  better,  forcing  dissenters  from  the 
movement,  and  ultimately  distancing  the  leadership  from  the  constituency. 

Social  movement  scholars  have  noted  that  as  social  movements 
mature  they  become  bureaucratized  and  rigid,  controlled  by  a  few  leaders 
rather  than  a  fluid  and  creative  grass  roots  constituency.75  If,  as  this  study 
indicates,  movement  publications  can  come  to  serve  as  an  organ  for 
movement  leaders  rather  than  constituents,  this  would  suggest  one 
explanation  for  the  rigidity  within  maturing  social  movements  and  the 
gradual  disenfranchisement  of  their  members.  In  this  scenario,  rather  than 
serving  as  a  community  sounding  board,  reform  publications  become 
mere  mouthpieces  for  the  elite  within  the  movement. 


56  Burt -Spring  1999 


Endnotes 

'Lauren  Kessler,  The  Dissident  Press:  Alternative  Journalism  in  American  History  (Newbury  Park, 
SAGE:  1984),  8-20;  Harvey  Molotch,  "Media  and  Movements,"  in  The  Dynamics  of  Social 
Movements,  ed.  M.  Zald  and  J.  McCarthy  (Cambridge:  Winthrop,  1979). 

:See,  for  example,  Sherilyn  Cox  Bennion,  "Woman  Suffrage  Papers  of  the  West,  1869-1914," 
American  Journalism  3  (1986):  2-14;  Linda  Steiner,  "Finding  Community  in  19th  Century  Suffrage 
Periodicals,"  American  Journalism  1  (Summer  1983):  1-15;  Lynne  Masel- Walters,  "A  Burning  Cloud 
by  Day:  The  History  and  Content  of  the  Woman's  Journal'  Journalism  History  3  (1986):  103-108; 
Nancy  L.  Roberts,  "A  Preliminary  Profile  of  the  Nineteenth-Century  U.S.  Peace  Advocacy  Press," 
presented  to  American  Journalism  Historians  Association,  Salt  Like  City,  October  1993;  Sharon 
Murphy,  "Neglected  Pioneers:  19th  Century  Native  American  Newspapers,"  Journalism  History  4:3 
(Autumn  1977):  79-82,  98-100. 

'Kessler,  The  Dissident  Press,  74. 

4In  her  study  of  the  Farmers'  Alliance  newspapers  of  the  1880s,  Folkerts  also  identified  two  other 
major  functions  of  the  reform  press:  to  provide  information  neglected  or  ignored  by  the  mainstream 
press,  and  to  confer  a  sense  of  legitimacy  on  the  movement's  opposition  to  the  dominant  economic 
and  political  structure.  Jean  Folkerts,  "Functions  of  the  Reform  Press,"  in  Media  Voices:  An  Historical 
Perspective,  ed.  Jean  Folkerts  (New  York:  MacMillan,  1992),  207.  Steiner  also  refers  to  the  sense  of 
community  created  by  reform  journals  in  her  study  of  suffrage  periodicals.  (Steiner,  "Finding 
Community  in  19th  Century  Suffrage  Periodicals.") 

Tor  discussion  of  the  splintering  of  a  social  movement,  see  Jo  Freeman,  The  Politics  of  Women's 
Liberation  (Palo  Alto:  Manfield,  1975);  Todd  Gitlin,  The  Whole  World  is  Watching  (Berkely:  University 
of  California  Press,  1980),  and  Mayer  Zald,  "The  Trajectory  of  Social  Movements  in  America," 
Research  in  Social  Movements  10  (1988):  19-41. 

^Bernell  Elizabeth  Tripp,  "The  Antebellum  Press,"  in  The  Media  in  America:  A  History,  3rd  ed.,  ed. 
Win.  David  Sloan  and  James  D.  Startt  (Northport,  AL:  Vision  Press),  187.  Julius  Thompson  observes 
similar  splits  in  the  black  press  over  militancy  and  accommodationism  from  the  1890s  through  the 
Civil  Rights  era.  (Julius  Thompson,  The  Black  Press  in  Mississippi,  1865-1985  (University  Press  of 
Florida,  1993.) 

7See,  for  example:  Janet  M.  Cramer,  "Woman  as  Citizen:  Race,  Class,  and  the  Discourse  of 
Woman's  Citizenship,  1894-1909,"  Journalism  Monographs  165  (March  1998);  Linda  Steiner,  "19th- 
century  Suffrage  Periodicals:  Conceptions  of  Womanhood  and  the  Press,"  in  Ruthless  Criticism:  New 
Perspectives  in  U.S.  Communication  History,  ed.  William  S.  Solomon  and  Robert  W  McChesney 
(Minneapolis:  University  of  Minnesota  Press,  1993). 

"Quoted  in  Steiner,  "19th-century  Suffrage  Periodicals,"  92. 

''Examination  of  various  histories  of  social  movement  publications  reveals  examples  of  this 
tendency.  Reform  and  alternative  publications,  in  fact,  often  became  known  as  the  paper  of  the 
founding  editor  or  editors.  A  few  examples  that  come  readily  to  mind  are  Frederick  Douglass  Paper, 
Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  and  Susan  B.  Anthony's  Revolution,  Amelia  Bloomer's  Lily,  and  Benjamin 
Flower's  Arena. 

"'Dominick  LaCapra,  "Rethinking  Intellectual  History  and  Reading  Texts,"  in  Modern  European 
Intellectual  History:  Reappraisals  and  New  Perspectives,  ed.  Dominick  LaCapra  and  Steven  L.  Kaplan 
(Ithaca:  Cornell  University  Press,  1982),  47-84. 

"The  territorial  conventions  rejected  it  as  "impractical  and  unnecessary."  Theodora  W  Youmans, 
"How  Wisconsin  Women  Won  the  Ballot"  Wisconsin  Magazine  of  History  5(1921):  3-4. 

'Taura  Ross  Wolcott,  "Wisconsin,"  in  History  of  Woman  Suffrage  v.  3,  1 876- 1 885,  ed.  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton,  (New  York:  Arno  and  the  New  York  Times,  1969),  640-41;  Youmans,  "How 
Wisconsin  Won  the  Ballot,"  8-11;  Olympia  Brown,  "Wisconsin's  Fight  for  Suffrage,"  Milwaukee  Free 
Press  Sunday  Magazine,  23  July  1911,  1 .  For  discussion  of  Emma  Brown  and  the  Wisconsin  Chief,  see 
Genevieve  G.  McBride,  On  Wisconsin  Women:  Workingfor  Their  Rights  from  Settlement  to  Suffrage 
(Madison:  University  of  Wisconsin  Press,  1993),  22-37;  106-1 10. 

l3Brown  was  a  graduate  from  Antioch  College  (class  of  1860)  and  was  the  second  female  minister 
to  be  ordained  in  the  United  States.  She  founded  the  New  England  Woman  Suffrage  Association  in 
1868  and  helped  found  the  American  Equal  Rights  Association  in  1866.  In  1878,  she  moved  to 
Racine  whete  she  took  the  pulpit  in  a  Universalis!  church  and  where  her  husband,  John  Henry  Willis 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  57 


became  part  owner  and  business  manager  of  the  Times  Publishing  Company.  (Charles  E.  Neu, 
"Olympia  Brown  and  the  Woman's  Suffrage  Movement,"  Wisconsin  Magazine  of  History  43  [Summer 
I960]:  277-79.) 

uBrown,  "Wisconsin,"  989-91;  Youmans,  "How  Wisconsin  Women  Won  the  Ballot,"  16-17; 
William  Francis  Raney,  Wisconsin:  A  Story  of  Progress  (New  York:  Prentice  Hall,  1940),  325. 

l5"To  Timid  Friends,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  February  1888,  3;  Brown,  "Wisconsin's  Fight  for 
Suffrage."  During  its  earl)'  years  The  Wisconsin  Citizen  was  printed  at  the  Times-Call  press,  where 
Brown's  husband,  John  Henry  Willis,  was  part  owner. 

"■Brown,  "Wisconsin's  Fight  for  Woman  Suffrage";  Youmans,  "Wisconsin,"  701;  Ada  Lois  James 
Papers,  reel  4,  doc.  1074,  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  Archives  and  Manuscripts  Collection, 
Madison,  Wis.  (hereafter  ALJ  Papers). 

17Youmans,  "Wisconsin,"  703-4;  Genevieve  G.  McBride,  "Theodora  Winton  Youmans  and  the 
Wisconsin  Woman  Movement,"  Wisconsin  Magazine  of  History  71  (Summer  1988):  248. 

"Because  of  highly  organized  opposition  from  the  brewing  industry  and  the  German-American 
Alliance,  Wisconsin  had  been  identified  as  a  "losing  proposition"  by  the  NAWSA. 

'''Youmans,  "Wisconsin,"  705-08. 

2"Here  the  word  "minority"  is  used  to  describe  the  concept  of  powerlessness  rather  than  a  numerical 
percentage  of  less  than  half. 

1  '"Salutatory,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  August  1887,  1. 

"It  was  published  as  a  monthly  and  bimonthly  1887-1914;  as  a  monthly  1914-1916,  and  as  a 
quarterly  1916-1917.  Membership  in  the  WWSA  was  one  dollar  per  year. 

23Under  Youmans's  editorship,  the  Citizen  was  sent  to  other  suffrage  periodicals  and  newspapers  as 
exchanges  in  addition  to  being  circulated  to  subscribers.  Efforts  were  also  made  to  boost  circulation 
by  combining  subscriptions  to  the  Citizen  with  those  to  the  Woman's  Journal.  "Report  of  Headquar- 
ters," Wisconsin  Citizen,  February  1915,  5. 

"Editors  and  places  of  publication  were:  Mrs.  M.  P.  Dingee,  Racine  (1887-1894);  Mrs.  H.  H. 
Charlton,  Brodhead  (1894-1906);  Lena  V.  Newman,  Brodhead  (1906-1914),  and  Theodora  Winton 
Youmans,  Waukesha  (1914-1917).  ("Preface,"  in  microfilm  collection  of  The  Wisconsin  Citizen,  in 
Woman's  Press  Collection,  Memorial  Library  Microfilm  Collection,  University  of  Wisconsin,  Madison.) 

''McBride,  "Theodora  Winton  Youmans,"  246-61;  "Preface"  to  Wisconsin  Citizen  Collection. 

lhWisconsin  Citizen,  1887-1917,  passim;  "Our  Editor,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  November  1889,  1. 

"Wisconsin  Citizen,  passim. 

^Wisconsin  Citizen,  passim.  The  majority  of  records  and  correspondence  of  the  WWSA  and  the 
PEL  are  contained  in  the  Ada  Lois  James  Papets  and  the  Wisconsin  Woman's  Suffrage  Association 
Papers  at  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  in  Madison. 

"'Neu,  279-81. 

3"Brown,  "Wisconsin's  Fight  for  Suffrage,"  1;  Lawrence  L.  Graves,  "The  Wisconsin  Woman 
Suffrage  Movement,  1846-1920,"  (Ph.D.  Diss.,  University  of  Wisconsin,  1954),  111;  "Report  of  the 
Wisconsin  Woman's  Suffrage  Association,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  May  1910,  2. 

31Josephine  Kulzick  to  Olympia  Brown,  23  March  191 1,  ALJ  Papers,  box  5,  folder  1. 

3-"Report  of  Annual  Meeting,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  October  1910,  2. 

"Mary  Swain  Wagner  to  Ada  James,  Match  8,  1911,  ALJ  Papers,  box  5,  folder  1 . 

34 'Milwaukee  Journal,  1  April  1911,  8;  Olympia  Brown,  "To  the  Wisconsin  Woman  Suffrage 
Association,"  April  191 1,  3. 

35Brown,  "An  Explanation,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  March  1911,  1. 

3fl" Meeting  of  WS. A.  in  Madison,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  March  1911,  1. 

37See,  for  example,  Brown  to  James,  July  1911,  ALJ  Papers,  box  6,  folder  1 . 

3801ympia  Brown,  "To  the  Wisconsin  Woman's  Suffrage  Association,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  April 
1911,2. 

3'Youmans,  "Wisconsin,"  700-01;  "The  Launching  of  the  Ship,"  Milwaukee  Journal,  1 1  April 
191 1,  1.  Wagner's  machinations  soon  alienated  the  rebel  faction  as  well.  She  withdrew  briefly  to  New 
York,  then  returned  to  Wisconsin  and  in  November  1911  organized  her  own  group,  the  American 


58  Burt  •  Spring  1999 


Suffragettes,  in  Milwaukee.  This  group,  however,  was  small  and  disorganized.  (See:  "Miss  Mary 
Back,"  Milwaukee  Journal,  27  June  1911,  1;  Gwendolen  B.  Willis,  "The  Co-operative  Committee," 
Wisconsin  Citizen,  June  1912,  5.) 

""Olympia  Brown,  "Wisconsin  to  the  Front,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  June  1911,  3. 

4l"The  Wis.  W.S.A.,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  July-August  1911,3.  This  article  mentioned  that  James 
had  resigned  her  position  with  the  WWSA  to  become  president  of  an  "opposing  society." 

4'The  Press  Bulletin  is  described  in  "Wisconsin  Active  Along  Many  Lines,"  Woman's  Journal,  4  May 

1912,  and  "Press  Work  in  Wisconsin,"  Woman's  Journal,  14  September  1912.  The  last  issue  of  the 
Bulletin  was  published  on  28  November  1912. 

"""Address  of  Rev.  Olympia  Brown,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  October  191 1,  3;  Gwendolen  B.  Willis, 
"What  Methods,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  December  1911,  1-2.  Brown  reiterated  her  position  in  a  letter  to 
Ada  Lois  James,  warning  her  that  her  "untimely  and  most  injurious  movement"  (the  PEL)  would 
defeat  the  suffrage  referendum.  (Brown  to  James,  July  1911,  ALJ  Papers,  box  6,  file  1.) 

44One  exception  was  an  article  about  an  auto  tour  by  Illinois  suffragist  Catherine  Waugh 
McCulloch  in  summer  1912.  McCulloch  and  Brown  had  been  friends  and  suffrage  allies  since  the 
1890s  and  in  1891  Brown  had  christened  McCulloch's  oldest  son.  (See  "The  McCulloch  Tour," 
Wisconsin  Citizen,  April  1912,  5.) 

*iSIn  her  farewell  address,  published  in  the  December  1912  -January  1913  issue  of  the  Citizen, 
Brown  referred  to  the  recent  division  of  the  WWSA,  the  "first  sign  of  serious  disagreement  in  all  the 
years  since  the  society  was  founded  in  1882."  Referring  obliquely  to  Wagner,  she  placed  the  blame  for 
the  division  on  "influences  and  persons  outside  the  state."  (Brown,  "Farewell  Address,"  Wisconsin 
Citizen,  December  1912  -January  1913,  1-2.) 

46" Wisconsin  Women  at  it  Again,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  November  1912,  1. 

^Wisconsin  Citizen,  1913-1917,  passim.  Having  a  column  specifically  labelled  as  the  "President's 
Letter"  was  a  departure  from  tradition,  for  although  during  her  presidency  Brown  had  typically 
published  signed  columns  in  the  Citizen,  these  were  not  marked  as  coming  from  the  president.  Brown 
probably  felt  this  was  superfluous,  as  everyone  knew  she  was  the  president.  Because  Brown  continued  to 
publish  signed  articles  in  the  publication  after  her  removal  as  president,  it  is  possible  that  Youmans 
felt  the  need  of  establishing  her  own  position  and  authority  by  labelling  her  own  columns  as  the 
official  voice  of  WWSA  leadership. 

'l8James  to  Youmans,  17  June  1913,  Wisconsin  Woman's  Suffrage  Association  Papers,  box  2,  folder 
2,  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  Archives  and  Manuscripts  Collection,  Madison,  Wis. 
(hereafter  WWSA  Papers);  "Annual  Meeting  of  the  Wisconsin  Woman's  Suffrage  Association," 
Wisconsin  Citizen,  November-December  1913,  2-3. 

""''Brown,  "How  'The  Citizen'  Could  Be  Made  Self-Supporting,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  September 

1913,  2;  "Annual  Meeting  of  the  Wisconsin  Woman's  Suffrage  Association,"  Wisconsin  Citizen, 
November-December  1913,  3-4;  Willis  to  Youmans,  12  January  1914,  WWSA  Papers,  box  3,  folder 
1;  Brown  to  Youmans,  14  January  1914,  WWSA  Papers,  box  3,  folder  1. 

s"Youmans,  "Salutatory,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  June  1914,  1. 

"Brown  remained  a  member  of  the  WWSA,  although  she  devoted  her  energies  increasingly  to  the 
campaign  for  a  federal  amendment  and  eventually  aligned  herself  with  Alice  Paul's  National  Woman's 
Party.  In  1920,  at  the  age  of  eighty-five,  she  was  allowed  to  vote  for  the  first  time  (Neu,  284-85.) 

'Tlexner,  145-51,  159-81,222-31. 

53In  1887,  for  example,  Mary  Livermore  and  Lillie  Devereux  Blake  of  New  York  and  Rev.  Anna 
Garland  Spencer  of  Rhode  Island,  spoke  at  meetings  throughout  the  state  ("The  Work  for  August," 
"Mrs.  Mary  Livermore,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  August  1887,  1,  3).  In  1894,  Emma  Smith  DeVoe  of 
Illinois  gave  a  series  of  suffrage  lectures  ("Mrs.  DeVoe's  Lectures,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  November  1894, 
4).  And  during  the  191 1-1912  campaign,  the  participation  of  Harriet  Grim  and  Catherine  Waugh 
McCulloch  of  Illinois  was  financed  by  the  NAWSA  ("Miss  Harriet  Grim  of  111.,"  Wisconsin  Citizen, 
July-August  1911,8;  "The  McCulloch  Tour,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  April  1912,  5;  "Mrs.  DeVoe's  Visit," 
Wisconsin  Citizen,  October  1911,  4;  "Generous  Friends,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  July  1912,  1.) 

54Graves,  "The  Wisconsin  Suffrage  Movement,"  111. 

"Clara  Bewick  Colby  to  My  Dear  Mrs.  Proudfoot,  1  May  1915,  Clara  Bewick  Colby  Papers,  box  4, 
folder  1,  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  Archives  and  Manuscript  Collection,  Madison,  Wis.; 
Flexner,  273-276,  286-301;  McBride,  "Theodora  Winton  Youmans  and  the  Wisconsin  Woman 
Movement,"  263-70. 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  59 


5f,In  1910,  for  example,  a  proposal  from  rhe  NAWSA  thar  the  WWSA  reorganize  along  Congres- 
sional voting  lines  was  seen  as  a  challenge  to  the  authority  of  the  various  chapters  scattered  around  the 
state.  The  WWSA  voted  to  delay  such  a  plan  until  it  was  "more  fully  developed,"  but  did  make  a 
resolution  that  the  NAWSA  should  push  for  a  federal  amendment.  ("Report  of  Annual  Meeting," 
Wisconsin  Citizen,  October  1910,  3.) 

57See,  for  example,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  "Progress  is  the  Law,"  (From  the  Boston  Investigator), 
reprinted  in  Wisconsin  Citizen,  January  1901,  2;  "The  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  in  Michigan," 
Wisconsin  Citizen,  January  1900,  1;  Ida  Husted  Harper,  "Women  in  Congress,"  Wisconsin  Citizen, 
January  1902,  1.  It  was  a  common  practice  for  newspapers  during  this  period  to  share  material 
through  "exchanges." 

5The  1913  bill  was  subsequently  approved  by  the  legislature  and  then  vetoed  by  the  governor.  See: 
"The  Governor  Vetoes  the  Bill,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  June  1913,  3. 

^'"Resolution  of  the  63rd  Congress,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  April  1913,  1. 

"Youmans,  "Our  Most  Pressing  Need,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  April  1913,  1. 

61Youmans,  "Going  to  New  York,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  September  1915,  1. 

"Youmans,  "The  Vote  in  the  House,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  January  1915,  1;  Youmans,  "Our 
Congressmen  and  Our  Cause,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  February  1915,  1;  "Lenroot  and  the  Amendment," 
Wisconsin  Citizen,  December  1915,  2;  Youmans,  "Your  Responsibility,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  January 
1917,  1. 

,,3"Four  Hundred  Dollar  Hat,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  January  1917,  4;  "Suffrage  Headquarters," 
Wisconsin  Citizen,  September  1913,  4;  "Personal,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  January  1917,  4;  "Mrs.  Hooper 
in  Washington,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  January  1917,  2. 

'""McBride,  "Theodora  Winton  Youmans,"  263-69. 

""Swinging  'Round  the  Circle,"  Wisconsin  Citizen,  January  1917,  2. 

f'The  bulletin  retained  the  name  The  Wisconsin  Citizen,  with  a  subtitle,  "Monthly  Bulletin  of  the 
Wisconsin  Woman's  Suffrage  Association."  It  is  clear,  however,  that  it  was  not  published  on  a  regular 
monthly  basis,  for  in  the  December  1918  issue,  Youmans  apologized  for  missing  several  weeks  as  the 
result  of  an  illness. 

fi7In  1917,  the  Woman's  Journal,  which  had  been  the  official  organ  of  NAWSA  since  1890,  merged 
with  the  Woman  Voter  and  the  National  Suffrage  News  to  become  the  Woman  Citizen. 

''"Wisconsin  Citizen,  December  1918. 

''''Youmans,  "Wisconsin,"  706. 

7"John  Milton,  Areopagitica,  \6AA.  See  for  example,  an  editorial  cartoon  published  in  the  Woman's 
Journal,  "Wall  of  Public  Opinion,"  that  shows  a  suffragist  building  a  wall  of  positive  public  opinion 
with  individual  stones  labelled  "Suffrage  News,"  Editorial,"  and  "Cartoons."  ("Wall  of  Public 
Opinion,"  Woman's  Journal,  2  Oct.  1915.)  Another  reform  organization,  the  Anti-Saloon  League,  used 
the  same  metaphor.  An  editorial  cartoon  published  in  the  American  Issue,  "Publicity  Will  Kill  Him," 
shows  a  knight  with  a  sword  labelled  "truth"  confronting  a  dragon  representing  "Demon  Rum." 
("Publicity  Will  Kill  Him,"  American  Issue,  17  July  1915.) 

7lThese  sentiments  are  clearly  expressed  in  many  reform  publications  of  the  period,  including  the 
Woman's  Journal  and  the  American  Issue,  the  journal  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League.  See  Elizabeth  V.  Burt, 
"An  Arena  For  Debate:  Woman  Suffrage,  the  Brewing  Industry,  and  the  Press,  Wisconsin,  1910- 
1919,"  (Ph.D.  diss,  University  of  Wisconsin,  1994),  430-431. 

72Youmans,  "How  Wisconsin  Women  Won  the  Ballot,"  17. 

73In  her  study  of  19th-century  periodicals,  Steiner  concludes  that  Aldrich's  invitation  to  diverse 
ideas  (cited  above)  was  typical  of  19th-century  suffrage  editors  and  was  "remarkably  prophetic  of  the 
continuing  commitment  of  feminists  to  let  women  express  themselves  in  their  own  way..."  (Steiner, 
"19th-century  Suffrage  Periodicals,"  93.)  In  an  analysis  of  women's  media  between  1963  and  1983, 
Martha  Leslie  Allen  attributed  eight  characteristics  to  women's  communication  networks,  which 
included  women's  publications.  These  included:  allowing  women  to  speak  for  themselves;  using  a 
sharing  instead  of  a  competitive  approach;  using  a  non-attack  approach  toward  different  views;  and 
emphasizing  an  "open  forum."  (Quoted  in  Maurine  H.  Beasley  and  Sheila  J.  Gibbons,  A  Documentary 
History  of  Women  and  Journalism,  2nd  ed.  [Washington,  D.C.:  American  University  Press,  1993], 
192.) 


60  Burr -Spring  1999 


7,Folkerts,  ""Functions  of  the  Reform  Press;"  Steinet,  "Finding  Community  in  Nineteenth  Century 
Suffrage  Periodicals." 

7,Jo  Freeman,  The  Politics  of  the  Women's  Liberation,  551;  Suzanne  Staggenborg,  "The  Consequences 
of  Professionalization  and  Formalization  in  the  Pro-Choice  Movement,"  American  Sociological  Review 
53  (August  1988):  585-606;  and  John  D.  McCarthy  and  Mayer  N.  Zald,  The  Trend  of  Social 
Movements  in  America:  Professionalization  and  Resource  Mobilization  (Morristown,  N.J.:General 
Learning  Press,  1973):  24-25. 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  61 


Spring  1999 


62 


Flying  Around  the  World  in 
1889— In  Search  of  the 
Archetypal  Wanderer 

by  Paulette  D.  Kilmer 

Two  young  "ladies"  challenged  traditional  definitions  of  a  woman's  place 
by  racing  against  each  other  to  beat  the  time  set  by  Jules  Verne's  hero,  Phileas 
Fogg.  Their  quest  reflects  the  often  nebulous  line  between  fiction  and  reality. 
Their  trek  symbolizes  the  fascination  with  wanderers  deeply  imprinted  within 
the  American  mindset.  This  essay  analyzes  the  archetypal  significance  of 
women  flying  (speeding)  around  the  world  in  1889. 

Once  upon  a  time,  20  blind  historians  went  on  a  picnic  to 
the  zoo.  Their  tour  guide  invited  them  to  feel  the  crea- 
tures so  they  could  appreciate  each  ones  unique  character. 
Soon  a  guessing  game  started.  The  fangs  and  halitosis  gave  away  the  tiger. 
The  thick  bumps  and  big,  leathery  grin  elicited  a  chorus  of  "crocodile"! 
Then,  the  experts  at  inferences  based  on  tactile  information  got  stumped. 
One,  tugging  on  the  beast's  tail,  swore  it  had  to  be  a  snake!  The  one 
feeling  the  ear,  deduced  it  could  be  none  other  than  a  stingray.  The  one 
petting  the  side  declared  the  keeper  had  pulled  a  trick  on  them;  actually, 
they  were  being  shown  a  wall.  The  fellow  with  the  trunk  insisted  the 
critter  was  an  anteater.  Not  until  they  stopped  wrangling  and  pooled  their 
evidence  did  they  figure  it  out — the  mystery  animal  was  an  elephant. 


Paulette  D.  Kilmer  is  an  Assistant  Professor  of  History,  Ethics  and  Law  at  the  University 
of  Toledo. 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  63 


In  some  ways,  all  historians  are  blind.  None  of  us  has  the  expertise 
to  understand  all  the  fields  our  colleagues  investigate.  We  divide  ourselves 
quickly  into  qualitative  and  quantitative  factions  but  actually  we  comprise 
many  threads  of  insight:  feminism,  biography,  critical  studies,  cultural 
studies,  economics,  and  a  myriad  of  other  subtopics,  each  vital  in  its 
contribution  to  the  tapestry  of  the  past.  When  historians  first  proposed 
studying  women's  history,  some  denounced  the  idea  as  trivial.  We  must  be 
open  to  new  areas  of  inquiry  because  what  doesn't  grow,  dies.  New 
approaches  and  focuses  revitalize  the  standard  ways  of  doing  historical 
research. 

I  write  about  archetypes  and  values.  My  work  is  crucial  because  I  use 
interdisciplinary  resources  to  evaluate  experiences  in  terms  of  motivations 
that  arise  from  the  bedrock  of  American  values.  I  study  the  public  lives  of 
people  because  the  public  stories  they  tell  about  themselves  shape  cultural 
perceptions  of  what  it  means  to  be  an  American.  The  mass  media  are 
innately  emotional.  My  work  objectively  analyzes  those  feelings  and 
patterns  of  symbols  that  teach  us  our  society's  mores.  My  evidence 
includes  newspaper  and  magazine  articles,  biographies,  and  an  avalanche 
of  excellent  historical  studies  contributed  by  other  historians  as  well  as  by 
cultural  scholars. 

This  essay  provides  a  different  perspective  for  viewing  Nellie  Bly.  It 
is  not  the  only  way  to  assess  her  accomplishments.  Nevertheless,  until  we 
consider  together  Nellie  Bly  and  Elizabeth  Bisland  (her  rival  for  the  title 
of  America's  globe-trotting  sweetheart)  we  will  not  appreciate  how  they 
reflected  the  turmoil  of  changing  expectations  and  challenges  that  con- 
fronted women  at  the  turn  of  the  century. 

The  Fascination  of  Distant  Places 

A  hundred  years  ago,  "flying  around  the  world"  meant  circling  the 
globe  swiftly.  The  implosion  of  inventions  in  the  late  19th  century  stirred 
up  interest  in  rapid  travel  as  a  moneymaking  venture.  However,  the  idea 
of  journeying  to  distant  places  fascinated  ordinary  people  more  than 
profit  motives.  In  the  1870s,  Jules  Verne's  story  about  an  English  gentle- 
man, Phileas  Fogg,  who  wins  a  wager  at  his  club  by  dashing  Around  the 
World  in  80  Days,  captured  the  imagination  of  the  multitude  in  the 
United  States.1  In  fact,  Fogg's  adventures  inspired  the  Neiv  York  World,  the 
most  powerful  newspaper  in  1889,  to  send  a  reporter,  Nellie  Bly  [Eliza- 
beth Cochrane],  to  beat  Fogg's  time.  The  editor  of  Cosmopolitan  magazine 
bet  $1,000  that  his  writer,  Elizabeth  Bisland,  would  finish  before  Bly. 


64  Kilmer -Spring  1999 


Thus,  the  figment  of  Verne's  imagination,  Phileas  Fogg,  lived  once 
again — this  time  on  the  pages  of  newspapers  around  the  world.  Of  course, 
the  furor  created  a  demand  for  the  science  fiction  novel  and  for  products 
bearing  Bly's  name  or  likeness.  Feminists  have  concentrated  on  the  impact 
of  Bly's  feat  on  the  treatment  of  women  and  the  development  of  political 
agendas.  To  discover  the  real  woman  behind  the  legendary  figure,  biogra- 
phers have  focused  on  Bly's  struggles  as  well  as  her  triumphs.  Because 
other  scholars  have  analyzed  the  social  and  cultural  implications  of  the 
race,  it  is  possible  to  examine  this  historical  event  as  a  saga  in  the  mythol- 
ogy of  the  United  States  of  America.  The  flesh-and-blood  globe-trotters 
inspired  an  American  legend  and,  therein,  revived  an  old  archetype 
(repeating  pattern)  in  the  bedrock  of  national  consciousness. 

Bly  And  Bisland  As  Cultural  Myths 

In  this  essay,  I  will  apply  Jungian  concepts  to  the  facts  others  have 
already  established  as  well  as  to  some  primary  sources.  The  purpose  of  this 
venture,  then,  is  to  illuminate  why  Nellie  Bly's  flight  around  the  world 
became  a  cultural  myth  and  how  she  embodied  the  icon  for  pluck.  Bly 
and  Bisland  both  defied  the  customs  of  their  day  and  achieved  fame  for 
their  courageous  trek.  But,  while  Bly  became  a  footnote  in  history, 
Bisland  vanished. 

This  essay  will  answer  three  questions  to  explain  why  the  World's 
daring  stunt  girl  and  not  Cosmopolitans  dainty  writer  left  an  indelible 
mark  on  the  American  mindset:  How  did  Bly  reflect  the  invasion  of 
women  into  male  domains?  How  did  Bisland  epitomize  the  rebuff  of 
female  advancement  into  public  arenas  by  traditionalists?  How  did  Bly 
crystallize  into  the  icon  for  pluck  and  her  story  become  a  legend?  Answer- 
ing these  questions  entails  expanding  on  three  themes:  women's  break 
from  the  gingham  ghetto;  women's  view  of  themselves  as  trailblazers,  and 
one  woman,  Nellie  Bly,  as  the  archetypal  wanderer. 

Out  of  the  Kitchen,  Into  the  World 

During  the  late  19th  century,  women  struggled  to  discover  their 
identity  by  "[leaving]  the  known  for  the  unknown."  2  When  Elizabeth 
Cochrane,  who  had  already  added  an  "E"  to  the  end  of  her  name,  crashed 
the  newsroom,  she  took  Nellie  Bly  as  her  pen  name.  This  plucky  upstart 
served  as  a  role  model  for  those  aspiring  to  be  "new  women"  and  reporters 
rather  than  recipe  editors  or  fashion  critics.  3  Her  rival,  Elizabeth  Bisland, 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  65 


defended  hearth  and  home  against  rebels  like  Bly.  Both  the  modern  girl, 
Bly,  and  her  old-fashioned  challenger,  Bisland,  shattered  the  image  of 
women  as  helpless  vessels  incapable  of  retaining  their  sanity  if  thrust  into 
public  spheres. 

However,  although  their  dash  around  the  globe  was  remarkable,  it 
was  not  a  fluke.  This  publicity  stunt  reflected  the  upsurge  of  nonconfor- 
mity that  prompted  women  in  numerous  walks  of  life  to  question  stale 
social  conventions.  In  1887,  the  famous  muckraker,  Ida  M.  Tarbell, 
declared  that  journalism  offered  women  a  wide-open  field  of  opportunity. 4 
By  1890,  4,500  women  served  as  physicians,  surgeons,  osteopaths, 
chiropractors,  healers,  and  medical  service  workers.  Another  2,500 
graduated  with  bachelor  of  arts  degrees  from  colleges  and  universities,  and 
250,000  women  taught  in  a  variety  of  institutions. 

Women's  clubs  and  professional  organizations  also  emerged  during 
the  late  19th  century.  Of  course,  settlement  houses  and  consumer  leagues 
as  well  as  the  temperance  and  suffrage  crusades  proved  that  women  could 
assume  responsibility  for  guiding  social  change.5  Bly  covered  woman- 
suffrage  events,  interviewed  Susan  B.  Anthony  (whom  she  praised  for 
being  both  brainy  and  well-dressed),  and  limited  her  support  of  the  cause 
to  setting  an  example  for  others  to  follow.6  Bisland  warned  in  a  short 
story,  "The  Coming  Subjugation  of  Man,"  that  human  males  might  find 
themselves  consigned  to  drones  in  the  hive  of  humanity  if  women  ever 
attained  equality.7  On  this  issue  of  women's  rights,  indeed  on  most 
points,  the  two  globe-trotters  disagreed  vehemently. 

Events  in  1889  and  1890  showed  that  women  could  participate 
productively  in  many  arenas  once  considered  appropriate  only  for  men. 
For  example,  while  Bly  raced  against  time,  settlers  in  Wyoming  refused 
to  accept  statehood  unless  their  wives,  mothers,  sisters,  and  daughters 
were  allowed  to  enter  with  voting  rights.  For  20  years  before  Wyoming 
attempted  to  join  the  Union,  women  there  had  participated  as  enfran- 
chised citizens  and  served  on  juries.  "When  Wyoming  celebrated  its  newly 
won  statehood  in  Cheyenne  on  July  23,  1890,  the  flag  honoring  the 
occasion  was  presented  to  the  Governor  by  Mrs.  Esther  Morris,  'the 
mother  of  woman  suffrage  in  Wyoming.'"8 

In  that  same  year,  Ida  B.  Wells,  editor  of  the  Memphis  Free  Speech, 
lost  her  teaching  job  when  she  criticized  the  inferior  schools  run  for 
African  American  children.  She  fled  the  city  when  her  crusade  against 
lynching  precipitated  death  threats  from  the  Ku  Klux  Klan.  Despite  a  tide 
of  public  disapproval,  Wells  published  her  two-year  investigation  of 
lynching  and  lectured  in  Great  Britain,  where  she  organized  anti-lynching 


66  Kilmer 'Spring  1999 


societies.  Perhaps  her  journey  of  the  soul  was  more  remarkable  than  Bly 
and  Bisland's  global  chase.  Wells  certainly  proved  to  be  just  as  dedicated 
and  courageous  as  Bly,  whom  Mayor  Cleveland  of  Jersey  City  credited 
with  "[adding]  another  spark  to  the  great  beacon  light  of  American 
liberty,  that  is  leading  people  of  other  nations  in  the  grand  march  of 
civilization  and  progress."9  During  the  last  years  of  her  life,  Bly  devoted 
her  newspaper  column  to  finding  homes  for  orphans.  She  wrote  passion- 
ately about  the  Pullman  Strike,  the  drought  in  the  Midwest,  and  Eugene 
Debs'  commitment  to  social  justice.10  Both  Wells  and  Bly  cared  passion- 
ately about  reform,  and  their  lives  as  well  as  their  deeds  provided  examples 
of  how  women  of  vision  could  change  the  world. 

A  Stage  for  Experimenting  with  Progress 

Newspapers  followed  both  Bly's  and  Wells'  efforts  to  change  society. 
Such  stories  related  facts  but  also  incorporated  the  community's  shared 
narratives  about  a  woman's  place,  role,  and  rightful  aspirations.  Moreover, 
the  popular  press,  including  dailies  and  magazines,  offered  writers  a  stage 
for  experimenting  with  the  consequences  of  progress  and  for  revamping 
traditional  plots  to  accommodate  the  advancement  of  women  into  civic, 
political,  and  professional  circles.  Browsing  through  editions  of  the 
Detroit  Evening  News  that  appeared  during  Bly's  sojourn  to  immortality 
revealed  that,  besides  detailed  accounts  of  wrecks  and  fires,  journalists 
then  as  now  sought  news  of  unusual  individuals  who  dared  to  be  uncon- 
ventional. Of  course,  Bly's  triumph  generated  lively  copy. 

Two  articles  about  the  "girl  reporter"  who  outwitted  Father  Time 
appeared  toward  the  end  of  her  quest.  In  one  item,  the  editors  lamented 
that  Bisland  had  missed  her  connections  and,  therein,  her  chance  to  beat 
Bly."  While  Rittenhouse  suggested  that  Verne  had  promised  to  applaud  if 
Bly  made  the  journey  in  79  days  and  had  declared  that  if  she  did  it  in  75 
days,  it  would  be  a  miracle,  the  Michigan  editors  reported  on  November 
24  that  the  French  author  had  tried  to  discourage  the  "sylph"  of  the  New 
York  World. 

Beneath  the  article  about  Bly,  an  item  recounted  the  fate  of  an 
aeronaut  who  flew  into  the  skies  over  Honolulu  in  a  balloon.  The  wind 
blew  him  two  miles  out  to  sea.  He  parachuted  into  the  rough  waves.  A 
boat  sped  to  rescue  him.  "[But]  not  a  trace  was  found.  No  doubt  he  was 
eaten  by  sharks."12  Other  items  depicted  disasters  at  sea  and  the  possibil- 
ity of  creating  a  tubular  train  engine  that  would  whisk  passengers  to  their 
destinations  at  record-breaking  paces.  Bly  took  off  for  foreign  ports  in 
risky  times  indeed. 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  67 


Sir  Henry  Morton  Stanley's  search  for  Dr.  David  Livingstone 
commanded  about  four  times  as  much  coverage  as  Bly's  bid  "to  put  her 
girdle  'round  the  earth."  l3  These  stories  about  journeys  reflect  the  interest 
in  transportation  even  in  small  city  dailies.  The  realization  that  vacation- 
ing helped  people  stay  healthy  generated  an  avalanche  of  copy  about 
travel  in  the  late  19th  century.  Bly  and  Bisland  both  relied  upon  commer- 
cial carriers,  showing  that  remote  locales  could  be  safely  reached. 

The  stormy  seas  and  the  number  of  shipwrecks  between  November 
1889  and  late  January  1890  did  not  discourage  the  drove  of  adventurers 
who  followed  Bly's  example.  Bly  returned  a  heroine,  toasted  on  five 
continents.  However,  before  her  victory  over  Bisland  and  the  stopwatch, 
some  editors  criticized  the  stunt  reporter.  For  example,  the  trade  maga- 
zine, The  Journalist:  Devoted  to  Newspapers,  Authors,  Artists  and  Publishers, 
predicted  Bisland  would  finish  first  and,  later,  accused  the  World  of 
playing  dirty  tricks  to  ensure  Bly's  victory.  Although  in  November  1889, 
The  Journalist  gushed  that  the  race  would  serve  some  "great  humanitarian 
purpose,"  when  Bly  won,  the  editor  scoffed,  "Today  we  have  the  lightning 
press,  the  paragraph-long  editorial,  the  special  railroad  train,  the  Atlantic 
Cable,  the  telephone,  the  phonograph,  and  Nelly  [sic]  Bly — What  of  it? 
Forsooth."14 

Newspapers  often  overlooked  in  historical  studies  also  slammed  Bly. 
For  instance,  on  January  12,  1890,  the  Detroit  Neivs  solved  "The  Mystery 
of  Nellie  Bly"  by  relating  the  "History  of  the  Girl  Who  Is  Flying  Around 
the  World."  The  headline  also  declared  that  she  was  "an  Eccentric  Young 
Man-Hater  Who,  to  Support  a  Widowed  Mother,  Has  Undergone 
Dangers  and  Experiences  Without  Parallel  in  the  Annals  of  Woman- 
hood." Moreover,  "Not  one  newspaper  reader  in  a  thousand  is  quite  sure 
whether  Nellie  Bly  is  of  the  feminine  gender."  15 

Facing  the  Jealousy  of  Her  Colleagues 

Biographer  Brooke  Kroeger  concluded  that  The  Journalist  and 
editors  snubbed  Bly  because  many  of  her  colleagues  seethed  with  jealousy. 
The  rumors  surrounding  Bly's  identity  included  allegations  that  she  wore 
trousers  and  drank  "absinthe  frappe  in  inordinate  quantities."  Some 
insisted  that  the  real  Nellie  Bly  was  the  father  of  "an  interesting  trio  of 
bouncing  baby  boys"  whose  wife  wrote  the  columns.  16 

However,  The  Journalist  inferred,  "No  doubt  she  has  performed  feats 
worthy  of  the  sterner  sex,  but  she  is  eminently  feminine  in  her  appearance 
and  manners."17  The  Journalist  preferred  Bisland  over  Bly.  For  example, 


68  Kilmer -Spring  1999 


the  January  25,  1890  issue  briefly  told  readers  Bly  was  Pink  Cochrane 
who  had  started  her  career  with  the  Pittsburgh  Dispatch  and  noted  that  the 
Nellie  Bly  game  rivaled  Parcheesi  and  Fifteen  Puzzle  in  popularity.  A  few 
pages  later,  the  editors  gushed  in  a  lengthy  paragraph  over  Bisland's  dainty 
and  distinctive  style  "quite  aside  from  her  observant  and  receptive  facul- 
ties as  a  gleaner  of  news  .  .  .  ."18 

The  Michigan  paper  dispensed  these  false  tales:  Bly  was,  in  fact,  a 
woman — "past  the  school-girl  age  and  not  yet  at  the  quarter  post  of  old 
maidism  [sic]."  She  was  "a  very  ordinary,  everyday  young  woman,  rather 
slight  in  form,  leaning  to  eccentricity  in  dress,  masculine  in  her  tastes  and 
ideas...."  Not  only  was  this  maverick  unladylike,  but  she  "had  never  been 
in  love  with  any  human  being  on  the  face  of  the  earth  except  her 
mother."19  The  article  cast  Bly's  adventures  invading  the  newsroom, 
gallivanting  to  Mexico,  and  crusading  for  reform  into  a  twisted  parable 
about  how  dangerous  escapades  and  unfeminine  behavior — all  just  to  get 
the  story — had  ruined  Bly's  demeanor  and  social  life.20 

Although  the  feature  about  Bly  reflects  the  Detroit  daily's  frantic 
scramble  to  keep  things  the  same  by  denying  women  public  roles,  news 
items  about  women  in  Detroit — indeed,  in  the  nation — begin  to  erode 
that  very  stance  against  female  participation.  For  example,  Susan  B. 
Anthony's  speeches  on  behalf  of  suffrage  generated  several  sympathetic 
stories.  However,  the  most  fascinating  pieces  dealt  with  ordinary  women 
right  in  the  city.  Some  acted  out  of  passion  or  conviction.  Others  felt  the 
pinch  of  economic  necessity.  All  joined  the  ranks  of  Bly  and  Bisland  as  the 
path-breakers  of  changes  that,  ultimately,  would  empower  women  to 
become  spiritual  as  well  as  physical  wanderers.  Through  their  quests, 
women  would  attain  enough  wisdom  to  balance  their  need  for  commu- 
nity ties  with  their  equally  compelling  need  for  solitude. 

"Lady"  Trail  Blazers 

Although  today  the  word  "lady"  connotes  foolish  affectation,  a 
century  ago  even  nonconformists,  like  Nellie  Bly,  still  feared  losing  their 
status  as  ladies.  Olga  Stanley  denounced  the  "mannish  woman,"  conclud- 
ing that  successful  women  journalists  made  it  their  priority  to  be  attrac- 
tive and  "beloved  by  .  .  .  co-workers  and  fellow-beings  generally."  21 
Venturing  out  of  the  home  exposed  women  to  the  glare  of  public  scrutiny, 
and,  therein,  the  risk  of  losing  their  social  status.  Often,  men  did  most  of 
the  shopping,  and  some  business  districts  remained  virtually  closed  to 
women.  Books  prescribed  strict  rules  of  conduct  to  maintain  the  shield  of 


Spring  1999  •American Journalism  69 


privacy  that  protected  a  woman's  virtue.  In  Rudeness  and  Civility:  Manners 
in  19th  Century  Urban  America,  John  F.  Kasson  noted  that  rebels  who 
played  a  role  in  shaping  community  life  "continued  to  be  branded 
shameless  and  unwomanly.  If  the  ideal  for  both  men  and  women  was  to 
be  completely  inconspicuous  in  public,  for  women  the  stakes  were  much 
higher  and  the  possibilities  for  transgression  much  greater."  n 

Nevertheless,  despite  the  risks,  women  broke  the  rules.  Like  Bly, 
they  responded  to  psychological  needs  for  attaining  a  balance  between 
personal  fulfillment  and  social  expectation,  for  developing  a  sense  of  self 
as  a  character  in  the  community's  ongoing  story.  To  understand  them- 
selves and  others,  they  relied  upon  archetypes  (repeated  patterns  embed- 
ded deep  within  the  mind  and  spirit,  often  via  narratives). 

Wanderers  Instead  of  Shadows 

Thus,  the  resolve  to  forge  ahead  by  assuming  unconventional  roles 
arose  from  inner  conviction.  Myths,  including  the  story  of  the  Pleiades, 
indicate  the  quest  for  self-improvement  began  eons  ago.  Like  the  heroines 
in  that  Australian  story  of  sisters  who  conquered  darkness  by  becoming 
stars,  ordinary  women  as  well  as  remarkable  achievers,  like  Nellie  Bly, 
dispelled  ignorance  by  proving  themselves  capable  of  performing  astonish- 
ing deeds.  She  and  other  brave  women  accepted  the  call  to  be  wanderers 
instead  of  shadows.  In  the  Century  of  Struggle:  The  Woman's  Rights  Move- 
ment in  the  United  States,  Eleanor  Flexner  explained  how  improvements  in 
the  standard  of  living  enabled  women  to  venture  outside  of  the  home 
without  neglecting  domestic  responsibilities. 

It  was  an  era  of  gee- whiz  gizmos.  The  introduction  of  gas  lighting  as 
well  as  municipal  water  systems  and  indoor  plumbing,  the  promotion  of 
canning,  the  commercial  production  of  ice,  the  development  of  efficient 
stoves,  and  the  invention  of  time-saving  homemaking  tools  instilled  in 
many  a  respect  that  bordered  on  awe  for  modern  things.  "From  1865  on, 
a  veritable  domestic  revolution  was  under  way,  which  freed  those  able  to 
take  advantage  of  it  for  pursuits  other  than  housework."  23 

While  inventions  facilitated  changes  in  women's  roles,  they  do  not 
entirely  explain  it.  These  "ladies"  drew  strength  from  the  rich  reservoirs  of 
traditional  stories  woven  within  their  psyches.  Bly  and  Bisland  invaded 
territories  of  accomplishment  designated  for  "men  only."  A  maverick  who 
learned  from  19th  century  trailblazers,  Jane  Wheelright  described  the 
force  that  drives  people  to  fulfill  their  potential  despite  the  odds.  This 
Jungian  analyst  explained,  "A  woman  with  courage,  a  woman  who's 


70  Kilmer  •  Spring  1999 


adventurous,  a  woman  who  speaks  her  mind  is  supported  by  the  ani- 
mus."24 The  animus  represents  the  male  side  of  a  woman's  personality  just 
as  the  anima  embodies  the  female  side  of  a  mans  personality.  To  be 
healthy,  individuals  must  balance  these  polar  dimensions  of  self. 

The  editors  who  ridiculed  Nellie  Bly  when  she  girdled  the  earth,  no 
doubt,  did  not  understand  this  psychological  equilibrium.   Henrik  Ibsen 
illuminated  the  clash  of  traditional  expectations  and  human  needs  \nA 
Doll's  House.  That  drama  depicts  Nora's  rebellion  against  being  cast  in  the 
suffocating  role  of  helpless  mate  and  childish  mother. 

Some  critics  denounced  A  Doll's  House.  In  fact,  Bisland,  who 
shocked  her  social  circle  by  accepting  the  assignment  from  Cosmopolitan 
to  race  against  Bly  without  chaperones,  twice  condemned  Ibsen's  depic- 
tion of  women's  need  for  self-fulfillment.  She  blamed  "The  Abdication  of 
Men"  for  the  defection  of  wives  from  the  domestic  kingdom  and  deplored 
"the  triviality  of  a  drama  fit  only  for  wooden  puppets."  25  Bisland  decried 
the  "criticism  of  the  marriage  relation.  The  stage  concerns  itself  almost 
exclusively  with  that  topic  for  the  moment,  Ibsen  having  struck  the  key  to 
which  all  the  playwrights  are  pitching  their  chorus  of  echo.  Every  book- 
stall is  heavy  with  similar  discussions  in  dialogue  carried  on  by  the 
puppets  of  fiction."  26 

Bisland  was  one  of  many  women  who  found  themselves  straddling 
two  intellectual  pinnacles — on  the  one  hand,  the  writer  expressed  the 
traditional  desire  to  serve  silently  a  magnanimous  master  but,  simulta- 
neously, she  felt  the  urge  to  express  her  feelings  and  to  test  her  potential  in 
ways  entirely  inconsistent  with  being  the  Victorian  home  angel.  In  fact, 
by  1889,  Bisland  was  "[working]  early  and  late  producing  an  average  of 
50,000  words  a  month  and  earning  some  $5,000  a  year."  27  Ibsen's 
timeless  story  shook  the  complacency  of  19th  century  audiences  because 
Nora  embarked  upon  an  inner  quest  to  find  herself  that  took  as  much 
courage  as  the  magazine  editor  (Bisland)  and  the  stunt  reporter  (Bly) 
summoned  to  beat  Phileas  Fogg's  record. 

From  Goddess  to  "Journalistic  Daisy" 

Her  victory  over  time  earned  Bly  many  titles,  including  "journalistic 
daisy,"  that  subconsciously  draw  upon  that  symbolic  turf  of  myth  where 
pretty  girls  prefer  being  transformed  into  blossoms  to  being  deflowered. 
Reconstructing  the  1 889  race  in  archetypal  terms  emphasizes  its  cultural 
and  emotional  significance.  Archetypes  are  patterns  of  behavior,  imagery, 
or  attitudes  of  subconscious  significance  that  endure  and,  through 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  71 


repetitions  over  time,  saturate  culture.  In  her  study  of  the  origins  of  the 
great  goddess  archetype,  Susan  Lichtman  explained  that  people  often 
overlook  vibrant  female  paragons  whose  adventures  delineate  what  it 
means  to  be  a  woman.  Literature  and  history  record  female  experience 
according  to  unspoken  assumptions  about  reality  that  automatically 
relegate  past  generations  of  sisters  to  passive,  submissive  roles.  Many 
feminine  models  of  courage  and  greatness  have  been  forgotten.  "For 
woman  to  have  a  future  in  modern  society,  she  must  first  have  a  past  that 
contains  her  own  traditions,  her  own  folklore,  and  her  own  heroes."  28 

Bly  certainly  qualifies  as  a  role  model,  a  heroine  for  all  ages  whose 
example  inspires  others  to  turn  dreams  into  action.  Articles  about  both 
Bly  and  Bisland  appear  in  The  New  York  Times  Index.  The  obvious 
references,  a  trip,  a  tour  around  the  world,  describe  all  the  articles.  This 
language  fits  the  psychic  need  to  cull  the  story  down  to  its  essential 
nugget  so  that  the  main  points  are  not  buried  in  an  avalanche  of  detail.  29 

Slipping  Into  Fantasy 

In  folklore  and  formula  tales,  heroines  complete  quests  fraught  with 
perils.  Persevering  over  incredible  odds  forces  them  to  develop  inner 
resources  and,  thus,  prove  themselves  worthy  of  emulation.  The  sacred 
quest  of  Bly  and  Bisland  invited  readers  to  vicariously  prevail  over  forces 
of  evil — despair,  loneliness,  and  disease.  Just  as  magically  as  protagonists 
in  fairy  tales  persevere  far  away  from  home,  the  flesh-and-blood  sojourn- 
ers triumphed  over  the  supernatural,  faceless  foe  of  fear.  Newspapers 
around  the  world  as  well  as  around  the  nation  chronicled  the  adventures 
of  Bly  and  Bisland  as  they  conquered  time  itself.  Of  course,  whenever 
reporters  recorded  the  progress  of  either  globetrotter,  they  inadvertently 
enabled  readers  to  slip  into  the  realm  of  fantasy. 

Moreover,  readers  translated  the  sprint  around  the  planet  into 
personally  relevant  terms.  Although  they  embraced  the  news  stories  as 
proof  of  the  march  of  progress,  they  also  subconsciously  filed  images  in 
their  internal  library  of  mythology.  Members  of  a  community  inherit  a 
body  of  archetypes  that  preserve  values  and  celebrate  individual's  contri- 
butions to  ventures  greater  than  self.  In  The  Wisdom  of  the  Dream, 
Stephen  Segaller  and  Merrill  Berger  point  out  that  all  humans  are  con- 
nected by  a  pool  of  symbols  and  archetypes  called  the  collective 
unconscious.  30 


72  Kilmer -Spring  1999 


Despite  the  differences  between  newspaper  articles  (like  the  lively 
accounts  of  the  1889  race  between  Bly  and  Bisland)  and  fiction  (like 
Verne's  Around  the  World  in  80  Days),  one  inevitable  commonality  links 
both  forms  of  expression.  Both  provide  readers  with  imagery,  evidence, 
and  emotional  grounding  at  a  subconscious  level.  Pearson  explains  that 
people  find  meaning  in  their  lives  by  weaving  their  experiences  into 
narratives  that  supply  scripts  for  living.  Every  sequence  of  action  contains 
a  beginning,  middle,  and  end.  The  stockpile  of  plots  enables  citizens  to 
recycle  ancient  archetypes  into  modern  events,  thus  sustaining  the  moral 
code. 

Pearson  notes  that  not  all  plots  merit  exploration.  Some  lie  dormant 
deep  within  the  subconscious.  However,  others  stay  on  the  surface  and 
greatly  affect  people.  "For  an  archetype  to  have  a  major  influence  upon 
our  lives,  there  must  be  some  external  duplication  or  reinforcement  of  the 
pattern,  an  event  in  one's  life  or  stories  recounted  in  the  culture  that 
activates  the  pattern."31 

The  media  have  always  generated  narratives  that  trigger  the  recogni- 
tion of  archetypes  in  public  spaces  as  well  as  in  private  homes.  Although 
reporters  seek  facts,  ultimately  readers  subjectively  interpret  the  content  of 
even  the  most  objective  account  according  to  its  archetypal  salience.  "For 
many,  however,  the  newspaper  is  the  main  institution  that  provides  a 
sense  of  belonging."  i2  Those  who  read  papers  find  repeated  in  truncated 
form  the  patterns  that  reinforce  the  value  system  dominant  in  their 
community. 

James  W.  Carey  has  pointed  out  that  all  writing,  including  journal- 
ism, tells  a  story  built  upon  character,  plot,  action,  dramatic  unity,  and 
purpose.  33  To  appreciate  any  narrative,  readers  decode  the  archetypes 
within  it  and,  therein,  understand  their  own  experiences.  Bly  and  Bisland 
both  generated  news  that  invited  readers  to  assess  the  meaning  of  their 
own  as  well  as  of  women's  lives  in  general. 

Bly,  the  Eternal  Wanderer — Not  Bisland 

The  journey  around  the  world  took  Bly  and  Bisland  much  farther 
than  simply  around  the  globe.  It  must  have  been  a  trek  of  the  heart  like 
those  psychologist  Carl  Jung  took  in  the  1920s  to  learn  about  himself  by 
seeing  how  people  in  faraway  places  lived  and  thought.34  Both  women 
saw  themselves  reflected  in  the  eyes  of  strangers  in  exotic  places.  Although 
Bisland  did  not  want  to  go,  she  decided  later  that  the  trip  had  enriched 
her  as  a  writer  and  expanded  her  vision  of  humanity. 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  73 


The  intrepid  globetrotters  followed  Phileas  Fogg's  route.  Neverthe- 
less, their  quest  echoed  the  universal  desire  to  discover  self  through 
encountering  others  that  had  inspired  American  authors,  including 
Herman  Melville  and  Mark  Twain.  When  the  narrator  of  Melville's  novel, 
Moby  Dick,  invites  readers  to  call  him  Ishmael  (which  means  wanderer)  he 
invokes  an  archetype  as  old  as  the  human  race.35 

Ishmael  watches  hatred  consume  Captain  Ahab  and  his  ship.  Ahab's 
obsession  with  killing  the  great  white  whale  casts  mythological  themes  of 
hero  quests  gone  awry  into  early  19th  century  American  experience.  The 
image  of  the  outcast  determined  to  complete  a  journey  for  noble  reasons 
has  always  permeated  our  popular  culture  via  melodramas,  paperbacks, 
and  newspapers.  Bly,  willingly,  and  Bisland,  unintentionally,  fit  this 
paradigm  because  few  women  traveled  anywhere  alone  and  few  dared  to 
defy  rules  that  restricted  exciting  news  coverage  to  men. 

Bly's  name  still  conjures  up  images  of  the  eternal  wanderer,  the 
seeker  who  discovers  self-worth  and  identity  by  exploring  mysterious 
terrains.  Only  an  American  girl  could  perform  such  a  feat,  according  to 
European  papers.  Moreover,  just  as  fictional  protagonists  narrowly  avert 
disaster,  on  the  last  lap  of  her  journey,  Nellie  Bly's  train  "almost  hurled  to 
destruction.  The  escape  is  a  miraculous  one,  and  section  men  who 
witnessed  the  train  flash  over  the  straw-like  structure  (washed  out  bridge) 
regard  the  escape  as  one  of  the  most  marvelous  in  railway  history."  36 
Notice  the  dramatic  wording  of  the  quotation.  Heroines  never  persevere 
in  a  humdrum  fashion. 

Pearson  points  out  that  the  cowboy,  the  knight,  and  the  explorer 
represent  the  desire  to  shed  the  conventions  imposed  by  society  long 
enough  to  traverse  unknown  realms.  ,7  The  prize  is  inner  peace  rather 
than  material  treasures.  The  process  of  mythology  strips  individuals  of 
their  humanity  to  transform  them  into  icons  for  archetypes,  thus  connect- 
ing the  culture  to  its  values.  Nellie  has  ceased  to  be  a  mere  woman.  She 
embodies  pluck,  chutzpah,  and  rebellion.  Bisland's  name  is  often  inter- 
changed with  Bly's,  but  her  name  alone  does  not  symbolize  anything.  The 
opposite  natures  of  the  two  women  considered  together  illuminate  both 
Bly's  contributions  and  Bisland's  counterclockwise  journey  around  the 
world. 

In  real  life,  no  woman  could  have  been  as  glamorous  or  outrageous 
as  the  heroine  of  the  "Tales  of  Bly,"  the  mythic  version  of  the  girl  who 
turned  New  York  upside  down  with  her  exposes  of  madness  and  her 
conquest  of  prize  fighters  and  New  York's  aristocrats.  The  legends  high- 
light incidents  that  fill  the  intrinsic,  human  need  for  role  models.  As  the 


74  Kilmer  •Spring  1999 


feminist  movement  has  emerged  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  20th  century, 
the  litany  offemme  has  resurrected  the  stories  of  women  who  deserve  to 
be  respected  for  their  accomplishments.  A  few,  like  Nellie  Bly,  transcend 
history  because  their  experiences  echo  the  archetypal  skeleton  of  the 
nation.  Comparing  the  lives  of  the  two  globetrotters  reveals  the  difference 
between  history  and  cultural  memory. 

Bly  Respected  Her  Granduncle's  Adventure 

Elizabeth  Cochrane  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  her  granduncle, 
Thomas  Kennedy,  who  toured  the  world  in  three  years.  Unfortunately,  he 
died  shortly  after  completing  the  amazing  journey  that  destroyed  his 
health.  The  same  spirit  of  adventure  that  inspired  him  to  risk  his  life  to 
encounter  the  unknown  also  fired  the  imagination  of  his  grandniece. 
Kroeger  could  not  document  the  origin  of  the  spellbinding  assignment, 
but  most  accounts  insist  that  Bly  forced  the  editors  at  the  World  to  send 
her — not  a  man — on  the  dangerous  mission.  "But  as  usual  Nellie  had 
iron  determination  behind  her  sweet  face."  38  Giving  Bly  full  credit 
reflects  her  personality  and  adds  to  her  legendary  stature. 

Elizabeth  Bisland,  on  the  other  hand,  called  the  global  dash  a 
ridiculous  wild  goose  chase.39  Initially,  she  refused  to  accept  the  assign- 
ment. "In  the  first  place,  I  didn't  wish  to.  In  the  second  place,  people  were 
coming  to  my  house  to  tea  on  the  following  day."  40  Can  anyone  picture 
the  indefatigable  Bly  uttering  such  heresy? 

The  contrast  between  the  personalities  of  the  two  globetrotters 
inadvertently  reflects  the  extremes  in  modern  and  traditional  choices 
women  made  during  the  Gilded  Age  (1870-1914).  Nellie  Bly:  "The  New 
York  World's  correspondent  who  placed  a  girdle  around  the  earth  in  72 
days,  6  hours  and  1 1  minutes  burst  like  a  comet  on  New  York,  a  dynamic 
figure,  five  feet  three,  with  mournful  gray  eyes  and  persistent  manners."  41 
While  Bly  rushed  to  her  tailor's  to  order  special  clothing — her  famous 
checkered  coat  and  cap — that  she  could  pack  into  her  valise,  Bisland 
fretted  about  not  having  "appropriate  garments"  and  packed  a  "good-sized 
steamer  trunk,  a  large  Gladstone  bag,  and  shawl  strap"  as  well  as  "a  second 
larger  box  with  everything  [she]  could  possibly  require."  42 

Even  their  pseudonyms  reflected  their  different  outlooks.  Bly,  the 
flamboyant  tomboy,  took  her  pen  name  from  the  Stephen  Foster  song, 
"Nellie  Bly."  Bisland,  the  pragmatic  lady,  published  items  as  B.  L.  R. 
Dane.  Both  worked  for  newspapers,  but  Bisland  stayed  in  the  literary 
department.  Bly,  on  the  other  hand,  put  aside  the  niceties  of  the  woman's 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  75 


turn  of  phrase  in  poems,  short  stories,  and  essays  to  crash  the  newsroom 
as  a  stunt  reporter.  While  Bly  was  not  the  first  of  her  sex  to  work  as  a 
reporter,  she  was  outspoken  about  her  goals  in  the  newsroom.  Bly  pursued 
stunt  reporting  to  prove  that  she  could  do  the  same  work  men  did — a 
ghastly  notion  for  many,  including  Bisland,  in  1889. 

Although  seeing  her  name  in  headlines  reminded  Bly  of  her  success 
as  a  journalist,  Bisland  felt  "distress"  when  she  read  her  name  in  a  headline 
while  she  worked  for  the  New  Orleans  Times-Democrat  and  from  then  on 
wrote  unsigned  columns. 43  In  fact,  Bisland  secretly  mailed  her  poetry 
from  a  nearby  village,  fearing  that  the  pseudonym  alone  would  not 
protect  her  identity.  44  Bly  relished  having  her  name  repeated  three  times 
in  headlines  that  announced  her  latest  pursuit  for  social  justice.  Her 
column  in  the  New  York  World  in  the  1890s  not  only  featured  her  name 
above  the  copy  but  included  her  photo,  which  also  was  labeled.  Necessity 
prodded  both  women. 

According  to  Frances  E.  Willard  and  Mary  A.  Livermore  (her 
contemporary  biographers)  Bisland  worked  only  because  while  she  was  a 
child  her  parents  had  lost  all  of  their  property  during  the  Civil  War.  She 
helped  support  her  relatives  with  her  writing,  the  one  potentially  commer- 
cial talent  she  had  discovered  during  the  prosperous  years  when  the  family 
still  had  enjoyed  its  status  as  one  of  the  oldest  and  finest  in  Louisiana.45 
After  going  to  New  York,  Bisland  sought  a  position  as  a  magazine  con- 
tributor partly  because  she  disliked  being  associated  with  newsrooms 
which,  like  saloons,  were  forbidden  turf  for  ladies. 

"What  Are  Girls  Good  For?" 

Despite  this  social  taboo,  Bly  sought  a  career  in  journalism.  Like 
Bisland,  she,  too,  felt  compelled  to  earn  money  to  pay  her  expenses  and 
help  her  family.  But  unlike  the  southern  author,  she  relished  conquering 
the  newsroom.  Her  fiery  persona  and  gutsy  stunts  caught  the  public's 
imagination.  She  was  the  stuff  of  dreams  and  wrote  fittingly  about 
Cinnamon  Gardens,  elephants,  and  eating  Christmas  lunch  in  the  Temple 
of  the  Dead  in  Canton,  China.  Bisland  described  suffering  from  the  cold, 
fatigue  and  hunger.  She  made  long  literary  references  and  described 
sunsets,  Chinese  playing  fantan,  going  to  Japanese  theater,  watching  flying 
fish,  and  everywhere  the  salutary  impact  of  British  rule  on  heathens.  She 
feared  being  lost  in  the  fog  or  getting  influenza. 

Meanwhile,  Bly  visited  Jules  Verne,  bought  a  monkey,  and  danced 
with  princes.  Once  Bisland  asked  a  man  to  make  arrangements  for  her 


76  Kilmer -Spring  1999 


Courtesy  of  Library  of  Congress 

Elizabeth  Cochrane  (Nellie  Bly)  pictured  in  a  photograph  dated  1890. 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism 


77 


because  she  was  far  away  from  home,  afraid,  and  exhausted.  Bly,  on  the 
other  hand,  emphasized  the  thrills  awaiting  those  who  flew  around  the 
world  solo  on  regular  commercial  carriers — ships,  trains,  sampans, 
elephants,  or  rickshaws.  Both  of  them  undoubtedly  got  seasick.  To  Bly  it 
was  just  another  dramatic  episode  in  a  splendid  romp  to  best  Father  Time. 
Bisland  wrote  realistically  about  the  agonies  of  shipboard  illness  in  1889. 
Nevertheless,  both  had  fun  and  made  friends  as  they  sped  across  the 
continents. 

Although  both  women's  styles  seem  stilted  today,  each  had  an 
audience.  Bly  wrote  emotionally  and  transcribed  interviews  into  lively 
dialogues.  She  proved  herself  capable  of  doing  a  man's  job  by  responding 
to  an  article  in  the  Pittsburgh  Dispatch,  "What  Are  Girls  Good  For?"  In 
her  first  assignment  as  a  member  of  the  news  staff,  she  examined  divorce, 
an  unseemly  topic  for  a  maiden  to  contemplate. 

While  Bly  focused  on  the  legal  problems  confronting  women 
trapped  in  deplorable  domestic  situations,  Bisland  concluded  that  the 
security  and  comforts  of  marriage  made  women  "honored  priestesses;" 
moreover,  the  noble  duty  of  bearing  children  negated  any  possibility  of 
equality  with  men.46  Both  women  expressed  themselves  powerfully.  Bly's 
stories  reflected  the  metamorphosis  of  women  in  the  Gay  90s  from  the 
traditional,  sheltered  Madonnas  in  aprons  praised  by  Bisland  to  the 
brazen,  modern  women  like  Bly  who  challenged  the  bromide — it's  a  man's 
world. 

Bisland  and  Bly  both  sought  fame  as  literary  writers.  Bisland 
published  short  stories,  essays,  and  novels.  Her  name  appears  in  a  half- 
dozen  biographical  dictionaries  of  writers.  47  Bly  left  The  World  to  pursue 
a  literary  career  after  her  triumphant  trip  around  the  world.  For  six 
months,  Bly  lectured  about  her  experiences.  Nellie  Bly's  Book,  Around  the 
World  in  72  Days,  rapidly  sold  out  the  first  printing.  The  Journalist 
predicted  that  Bly  would  make  more  money  on  her  memoirs  than  English 
explorer  Sir  Henry  Morgan  Stanley.  "Stanley  has  sold  his  forthcoming 
book  [about  finding  Dr.  David  Livingston]  for  $200,000,  but  we  have 
already  perused  his  accounts  of  African  exploration.  Miss  Bly  will  come 
back  from  a  novel  enterprise,  and  her  account  of  her  journey  should  make 
a  book  more  salable  than  Stanley's.  The  wise  publisher  will  be  prepared  to 
meet  the  fair  traveler  at  the  depot."  48 

Bly  signed  a  contract  with  N.  L.  Munro's  New  York  Family  Story 
Paper  for  three  years  at  the  awesome  salary  of  $10,000  a  year.  However, 
she  either  found  the  stay-at-home  life  boring  or  just  did  not  have  any 
talent  for  writing  fiction.  49    Bly  published  books  drawn  from  her  newspa- 


78  Kilmer -Spring  1999 


per  writing:  her  experiences  in  Mexico  as  a  correspondent  for  the  Pitts- 
burgh Dispatch,  her  expose  of  Blackwell  Island  {Ten  Days  in  a  Mad  House) 
for  The  World  and,  of  course,  her  book  about  girdling  the  globe. 

While  Bly  excelled  in  the  newsroom,  Bisland  earned  respect  in 
literary  circles.  She  contributed  essays  to  The  Atlantic  Monthly  as  well  as  to 
The  North  American  Review,  beginning  as  the  protege  of  Frank  Hatton  in 
the  literary  department  of  the  Washington  Post.  Later,  she  sent  pieces  to  the 
New  Orleans  Times-Democrat  and,  eventually,  published  these  books:  A 
Plying  Trip  Around  the  World,  A  Candle  of  Understanding,  The  Secret  Life, 
Life  and  Letters  ofLafcadio  Hearn,  At  the  Sign  of  the  Hobby  Horse,  Seekers 
in  Sicily,  and  The  Case  of  John  Smith.  Bisland  stopped  writing  about  13 
years  before  she  died. 

Both  Bly  and  Bisland  married.  Bly's  husband,  a  hardware  store 
tycoon,  was  nearly  four  decades  older  than  his  bride.  Bly  wrote  for  The 
World  off and  on  until  she  felt  secure  in  her  marriage.  After  the  first 
stormy  year,  she  found  happiness  with  Robert  Seaman.  50  "There  were  no 
more  bylines  or  brass  bands."  5I  However,  a  whirlwind  of  parties,  ex- 
tended vacations,  and  luxurious  business  trips  with  her  husband  kept  her 
busy  and  contented  until  Seaman  died  in  1904,  leaving  Bly  a  very  rich 
widow. 

Bisland's  tycoon  started  out  a  lawyer  but  soon  left  the  legal  profes- 
sion to  pursue  corporate  connections  in  the  steel  industry  and  mining 
speculations  in  the  Midwest.  While  Bly  chose  a  father  figure  for  her 
partner,  at  the  age  of  30,  Bisland  wed  a  yachting  enthusiast  just  seven 
years  older  than  herself.  Neither  Bly  nor  Bisland  bore  children,  but  for 
several  years  after  her  husband's  death  Bly  took  in  street  orphans  until  she 
could  arrange  adoptions  for  them. 

Bisland's  Obituary  Duller  Than  Bly's 

By  1919,  Bly  returned  to  writing  for  newspapers  to  support  herself 
because  litigation  with  former  employees  had  consumed  most  of  her 
fortune.  Her  old  friend,  Arthur  Brisbane,  offered  her  a  job  at  the  New 
York  Pvening Journal.  Times  had  changed  enough  so  that,  on  the  eve  of 
the  Roaring  20s,  Bly's  once  thrilling  style  seemed  quaint.  Nevertheless,  she 
crusaded  for  reforms  (particularly  in  the  treatment  of  children)  and  shook 
up  the  whole  nation  with  her  eyewitness  account  of  an  execution  that 
depicted  graphically  her  opposition  to  capital  punishment.  "She  died  still 
in  harness,  doing  the  work  she  loved  best.  There  were  no  close  survivors. 
The  Journal  said,  simply,  "She  was  considered  the  best  reporter  in 
America."  52 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  79 


Although  Bly  has  become  an  icon  and  Bisland  has  been  forgotten 
The  Neiv  York  Times  gave  Bisland,  who  died  on  January  9,  1929,  on  her 
estate  near  Charlottesville,  a  thorough  and  upbeat  but  nevertheless,  dry 
obituary.  Kroeger  points  out  that,  overall,  New  York  newspapers  ad- 
equately saluted  Bly,  who  died  nearly  penniless  in  a  New  York  City 
hospital  on  January  27,  1922.  They  both  succumbed  to  pneumonia.  53 
The  Associated  Press  wire  story  concluded  Bly's  life  "was  more  active  than 
falls  to  the  lot  of  more  than  one  woman  in  10,000."54 

Two  Women  But  One  Myth 

Although  two  flew  against  time  to  beat  Phileas  Fogg  in  1889, 
usually  historians  mention  only  the  triumphant  one.  They  often  check 
coverage  in  The  New  York  Times  because  it  is  the  newspaper  of  record,  the 
daily  with  national  circulation.  The  New  York  Times  obituary  for  the  loser 
was  certainly  as  complimentary  as  the  winner's  death  notice;  nevertheless, 
a  century  later,  Nellie  Bly's  star  blazes  amidst  the  novas  of  other  immortals 
whose  lives  embody  sacred  cultural  tenets.  "Creating  a  character  part 
dream,  part  reality,  she  bettered  the  world  for  others  while  fulfilling  her 
own  destiny.  In  a  startling  fashion,  she  made  seemingly  impossible  hopes 
come  true."  55 

Bly  traveled  farther  faster  on  new  forms  of  commercial  transporta- 
tion than  anyone  had  ever  imagined  possible  and,  unlike  her  granduncle, 
lived  to  tell  the  tale.  "The  Amazing  Nellie  Bly"  became  a  part  of  American 
folklore  and  "a  larger-than-life  figure"  who  deserved  to  be  respected  for 
her  contributions  as  a  first-person  reporter  in  an  era  when  men  still 
dominated  newsrooms.  56  Ross  credited  that  "small  tornado"  with  making 
"America  conscious  of  the  woman  reporter"  and  emphasized  Bly's  indomi- 
table spirit.  57  Frank  Luther  Mott  called  her  trip  around  the  world  "the 
most  spectacular  stunt"  performed  by  any  woman  in  the  1 880s  to  prove 
herself  a  capable  journalist.58 

Jean  Folkerts  and  Dwight  Teeter  do  not  use  the  term  stunt  reporter. 
Instead,  they  recognize  Bly  as  one  of  Pulitzer's  "able  staff."  59  Their  list  of 
Bly's  crusades  reveals  why  she  has  become  an  icon  for  the  wanderer.  The 
outrageous  Nellie  Bly  did  all  those  things  Americans  in  the  20th  century 
have  come  to  respect — at  least  from  afar.  She  defied  authority  for  the  sake 
of  justice.  She  went  to  jail.  She  broke  bread  with  lunatics  to  help  victims 
of  the  system  escape  from  the  crudest,  most  terrifying  label  of  her  day — 
insanity.  She  stood  her  ground  even  when  her  knees  shook  and  her  heart 
pounded.  As  foreign  journalists  noted,  only  an  American  girl  would  dare 


80  Kilmer 'Spring  1999 


fly  around  the  world.  Americans  like  to  think  of  themselves  as  singular,  as 
chosen  by  God  for  special  missions.  Nellie  Bly  fits  that  conceit. 

Bly,  not  Bisland,  remains  a  symbol  of  the  archetypal  wanderer 
because  she  broke  the  rules  creatively  to  improve  society.  She  persevered. 
Had  Bly  merely  beat  Phileas  Fogg,  she  probably  would  have  been  forgot- 
ten as  quickly  as  Bisland.  Bly  fought  corruption  in  government  in  Mexico 
and  among  lobbyists  in  New  York  state,  campaigned  for  rights  for  factory 
girls,  and  exposed  mashers  as  well  as  testified  before  grand  juries  about  the 
conditions  in  prisons,  tenements  and  hospitals.  She  married  a  millionaire 
but  died  penniless  and  alone — nevertheless  contented — demonstrating 
that  while,  ultimately,  earthly  treasures  rust,  spiritual  riches  endure.  That 
sort  of  cosmic  justice  appeals  to  the  American  mindset. 

However,  the  loss  of  her  fortune  gained  its  archetypal  significance 
because  through  determination  and  luck,  even  though  she  was  in  her  50s, 
Nellie  Bly  made  a  comeback.  She  did  not  rise  to  her  former  celebrity 
status  as  a  reporter,  but  she  did  arrange  homes  for  orphans  and  write  her 
column  until  she  died,  which  indicated  that  wealth  had  not  corrupted  her. 
Rather  than  accept  charity,  the  widow  went  to  work,  an  action  frowned 
upon  in  1919,  but  highly  commended  today.  Bly  maintained  her  respect- 
ability and  her  autonomy  by  supporting  herself  with  her  pen. 

Strength  from  External  and  Internal  Journeys 

Bly's  life  story  offers  the  moral  that  those  who  answer  the  call  to 
stray  from  traditional  paths  transform  dreams  into  reality.  In  fact,  true 
wanderers  gain  strength  from  essential  external  and  internal  journeys. 
"Nellie  Bly  seemed  to  embody  the  romance  of  journalism,  the  lure  of 
travel  and  the  pluck  of  the  American  girl."  60  Perhaps,  her  greatest 
achievement  was  in  attaining  the  goal  of  all  wanderers — finding  out  who 
she  was  while  doing  the  work  she  loved  best.  Bly  was  not  an  upstart  who 
broke  the  rules  to  shock  old  fogies.  Bly  was  not  one  of  a  kind,  unnatural 
and  unfeminine.  Bly  was  not  a  solitary  woman  born  into  the  wrong 
century.  Her  hour  of  glory  transpired,  simultaneously,  with  the  awakening 
of  many  sisters  driven  by  inner  visions  of  possibilities  that  most  could  not 
see.  That  is  why  Nellie  Bly  ceased  being  Elizabeth  Cochrane  in  cultural 
memory.  She  has  become  the  icon  for  informed  risk-taking  that  enhances 
the  self  by  enabling  the  soul  to  grow.  She  is  a  legend,  a  mythic  heroine. 

The  New  York  Times  obituary  emphasized  Bly's  daring  exploits,  like 
testing  a  diving  bell.  To  eulogize  Bisland,  The  Times  declared  that  an 
author  had  died  in  the  South.  Thus,  Bly's  flamboyant  adventures  eclipsed 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  8 1 


Bisland's  quiet  accomplishments.61  Nevertheless,  the  mistake  is  intriguing 
because  while  history  records  two  bold  deeds,  mythology  and,  albeit 
inadvertently,  the  Times  index  recall  but  one  noble  quest  fraught  with 
peril  and  worthy  of  emulation.  Both  women  contributed  to  the  history  of 
transportation  by  stirring  up  interest  in  commercial  travel.  Moreover,  they 
proved  that  both  "tomboys"  and  "nice  girls"  could  complete  a  task  that 
required  rational  thought  and  physical  stamina  as  well  as  self-confidence. 


Endnotes 

1  Jules  Verne,  Around  the  World  in  80  Days  (New  York:  Dodd,  Mead,  1956). 

2  Carol  S.  Pearson,  The  Hero  Within:  Six  Archetypes  We  Live  By  (San  Francisco:  Harper,  1989)  54. 

3  In  the  same  year,  Bly  and  Bisland  raced  against  time,  Mary  Twombly  urged  women  to  cheerfully 
and  gratefully  accept  their  place  in  the  women's  department,  the  only  suitable  work  for  them  on 
newspapers.  See  "Women  in  Journalism,"  The  Writer,  3:8  (Aug.  1889)  169-172.  Ida  M.  Tarbell,  in 
The  Chautaiiquan:  A  Monthly  Magazine  Devoted  to  the  Promotion  of  True  Culture,  Organ  of  The 
Chautauquan  Literary  and  Scientific  Circle,  7:8  (April  1887),  concluded  that  some  reporting,  like 
morgues  and  the  police  beat,  are  impossible  for  women,  393. 

"Tarbell,  393. 

'For  information  about  the  number  of  women  who  participated  in  ventures  outside  of  the  home, 
see  Eleanor  Flexner,  The  Century  of  Struggle:  The  Woman's  Rights  Movement  in  the  United  States 
(Cambridge,  Mass.:  Belknap  Press  of  Harvard  University,  1975)  "Chapter  XIII:  The  Growth  of 
Women's  Organizations,"  especially  179-181. 

''Brooke  Kroeger,  Nellie  Bly:  Daredevil,  Reporter,  Feminist  (New  York:  Random  House,  1994)  193, 
281-286. 

7  Elizabeth  Bisland,  "The  Coming  Subjugation  of  Man,"  Belford's  Magazine  (October  1889)  in 
Science-Fiction:  The  Early  Years  by  Everett  E  Bleier  with  assistance  from  Richard  J.  Bleier  (Kent,  Ohio: 
Kent  State  University  Press,  1990),  68. 

"Flexner,  181. 

''Mignon  Rittenhouse,  The  Amazing  Nellie  Bly  (New  York:  Dutton,  1956)  209. 

10  Kroeger,  Nellie  Bly,  Pullman  Strike,  229-237;  Eugene  Debs,  251;  the  drought  in  the  Midwest, 
252  and  her  reform  efforts  through  her  newspaper  column  during  her  last  years  as  a  reporter,  455- 
510. 

1 '  "The  Globe  Trotters  [sic]  Miss  Bisland  Deprived  of  Victory  By  a  Mistake,"  The  Detroit  News,  19 
January  1890,  p.  1.,  c.  6. 

12  "An  Aeronaut's  Fate.  Drops  Into  the  Sea  With  a  Parachute  and  Devoured  by  Sharks,"  Detroit 
News,  24  November  1889,  p.  1,  c.  1. 

13  The  first  story,  "Nellie  Bly 's  Trip,"  appeared  in  the  Detroit  News,  23  November  1889,  p.  1,  c.  1. 

14  Allan  T  Forman,  "By-the-Bye",  The  Journalist:  Devoted  to  Newspapers,  Authors,  Artists  and 
Publishers,  16  Nov.  1889.  10:9,  9;  Also,  see  "The  Two  Globe  Trotters"  [sic],  23  Nov.  1889,  Vol. 
10:10,  9;  Allan  T  Forman,  "By-the-Bye,"  1  February  1890,  10:20,  8. 

15  "The  Mystery  of  Nellie  Bly.  History  of  the  Girl  Who  Is  Flying  Around  the  World.  Eccentric 
Young  Man-Hater  Who,  to  Support  a  Widowed  Mother,  Has  Undergone  Dangers  and  Experiences 
Without  Parallel  in  the  Annals  of  Womanhood,"  Detroit  News,  12  January  1890,  p.  3,  c.  1. 

ir,"The  Mystery  of  Nellie  Bly,"  Detroit  News,  12  January  1890,  p.  3,  c.  1. 
>'■ 'The Journalist,  1 1  January  1890,  Vol.  10:17,  6. 

'"AllanT  Forman,  "By-the-Bye,"  The  Journalist,  25  January  1890.  10:19,  Two  short  sentences 
about  Bly,  5;  long  paragraph  about  Bisland,  9. 


82  Kilmer  •  Spring  1999 


'''This  comment  in  the  Detroit  Neivs  article,  "Mystery  of  Nellie  Bly,"  proved  eventually  to  be 
tragically  ironic  because  disputes  over  ownership  of  a  steel  barrel  manufacturing  concern  resulted  in 
Bly  being  abandoned  by  the  very  mother  whom  she  had  supported  and  taken  care  of  for  years. 
Kroeger  describes  the  decay  of  Bly's  family  ties  in  the  chapters  on  bankruptcy  and  on  Bly's  final  years, 
"Bankruptcy",  329-388  and  "The  Journal",  455-512. 

2""The  Mystery  of  Nellie  Bly,"  Detroit  News,  12  January  1890,  p.  3,  c.  1. 

21  Olga  Stanley,  "Personalities  of  Literary  and  Journalistic  Women,"  The  Outlook,  57:7  (16  October 
1897)427. 

22  John  F.  Kasson,  Rudeness  and  Civility:  Manners  in  Nineteenth  Century  Urban  America  (New  York: 
Hill  and  Wang,  1990)  117-118. 

2,Flexner,  182. 

u  Stephen  Segaller  and  Merrill  Berger,  The  Wisdom  of  the  Dream:  The  World  ofC  J.  Jung  (Boston: 
Shambahla,  1990)  115. 

25  Elizabeth  Bisland,  "The  Abdication  of  Man,"  The  North  American  Review  167  (August  1898) 
191. 

2(1  Elizabeth  Bisland,  "Notes  and  Comments:  The  Modern  Woman  and  Marriage,"  The  North 
American  Review  160  (June  1895)  48. 

27  Olga  Stanley,  "Personalities  of  Literary  and  Journalistic  Women,"  The  Outlook,  57:7  (16  October 
1897)  427.  Katherine  Verdery,  "Elizabeth  Bisland  Wetmore,  1861-",  in  the  Library  of  Southern 
Literature:  Compiled  Under  the  Direct  Supervision  of  Southern  Men  of  Letters,  ed.  Edwin  Anderson 
Alderman  et  al,  Vol.  13  (New  Orleans:  Martin  and  Hoyt,  1907)  5770. 

28  Susan  Lichtman,  The  Life  Stages  of  Woman  Heroic  Journey:  A  Study  of  the  Origins  of  the  Great 
Goddess  Archetype  (Lewiston,  Wales:  Mellen,  1991)  3. 

2''The  articles  appear  in  January  of  1890  as  the  two  globe  trotters  are  hurrying  to  complete  the  race. 
The  1966  New  York  Times  Index  in  the  University  of  Wisconsin  Memorial  Library  indicates  that  the 
Times  ran  three  items  about  Bisland  (Bisland,  Miss.,  "Tour  Around  the  World,"  19  January  1890  1:6; 
22  January  1890  2:5,  and  23  January  1890,  9:6.)  The  Index  lists  one  article  about  Bly:  "Trip  Around 
the  World,  Arrival  at  New  York,"  26  January  1890,  8:3.  Since  the  New  York  Times  tried  to  avoid  the 
sensationalism  that  made  Bly's  paper  The  New  York  World  popular;  the  editors  may  have  hoped 
Bisland  would  beat  the  stunt  reporter. 

"'Stephen  Segaller  and  Merrill  Berger,  The  Wisdom  of  the  Dream:  The  World  of  C J.  Jung  (Boston: 
Shambahla,  1990)  especially  Chapter  Seven:  "Travels  in  Time  and  Space,"  126-153. 

"Carol  S.  Pearson,  The  Hero  Within:  Six  Archetypes  We  Live  By  (San  Francisco:  Harper,  1989)  xxv- 
xxvi. 

32  Daniel  C.  Hallin,  "Where?  Cartography,  Community,  and  the  Cold  War,"  in  Reading  the  News, 
Robert  Carl  Manoff  and  Michael  Schudson,  eds.  (New  York:  Pantheon,  1986)  117. 

33  James  W.  Carey,  "Why  and  How?  The  Dark  Continent  of  Journalism,"  in  Reading  the  News,  149. 

34  Segaller  and  Berger,  136. 

35  Herman  Melville,  Moby  Dick  or  the  Whale  (New  York:  Random  House,  1930). 

v'  "Nellie  Bly's  Escape.  Her  Special  Train  Almost  Hurled  to  Destruction.  Going  at  a  Rate  of  Over 
Fifty  Miles  an  Hour,  Track  Repairers  Fail  to  Stop  It  Where  the  Rails  Were  Not  Spiked  Down — The 
Train  Went  Over  Safely,"  The  Detroit  Evening  News,  23  January  1893,  p.  I.e.  2. 

'Pearson,  51. 

3*Madelon  Golden  Schilpp  and  Sharon  M.  Murphy,  Great  Women  of  the  Press  (Carbondale: 
Southern  Illinois  U  P,  1983)  140.  Also,  see  Kroeger,  Nellie  Bly. 

'"Elizabeth  Bisland,  "A  Flying  Trip  Around  the  World:  Second  Stage,"  The  Cosmopolitan  9:1  (May 
1890)56. 

■"'Elizabeth  Bisland,  "A  Flying  Trip  Around  the  World:  First  Stage,  "The  Cosmopolitan,  8:6,  (April 
1890)  692.  The  series  ran  from  April  through  October.  See  The  Cosmopolitan,  "A  Flying  Trip  Around 
the  World:  Second  Stage,"  9:1  (May  1890),  51-61;  The  Cosjnopolitan,  "A  Flying  Trip  Around  the 
World:  The  Third  Stage,"  9:2  (June  1890),  173-184;  The  Cosmopolitan,  "A  Flying  Trip  Around  the 
World:  Fourth  Stage,"  9:3  (July  1890),  272-284;  The  Cosmopolitan,  "A  Flying  Trip  Around  the  World: 
Fifth  Stage,"  9:4  (August  1890),  401-413;  The  Cosmopolitan,  "A  Flying  Trip  Around  the  World:  Sixth 
Stage,"  9:5  (September  1890),  533-545;  The  Cosmopolitan,  "A  Flying  Trip  Around  the  World:  Last 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  83 


Stage,"  9:6  (October  1890),  666-577.  She  also  published  her  memoir  as  a  book,  A  Flying  Trip  Around 
the  World. 

41  Ishbel  Ross,  Ladies  of  the  Press:  The  Story  of  Women  in  Journalism  by  an  Insider  (New  York:  Harper 
1936)  48.  The  page  across  from  the  title  page  featured  a  photo  of  Bly  in  her  traveling  costume. 

42  Bisland,  "First  Stage,"  693. 

43  Bisland,  "First  Stage,"  692-693. 

""Verdery,  5770-5771. 

45Frances  E.  Willard  and  Mary  A.  Livermore,  American  Women:  1500  Biographies,  1 ,400 portraits;  A 
Comprehensive  Encyclopedia  of  American  Women  During  the  Nineteenth  Century  (Detroit,  MI:  Gale 
Research,  1973  reprint,  orig.  printed  in  1897)  86. 

46  Elizabeth  Bisland,  "Notes  and  Comments:  The  Modern  Woman  and  Marriage,"  The  North 
American  Review  160  (June  1895)  755. 

47  Surprisingly,  Bisland's  name  does  not  appear  in  Notable  American  Women  or  other  modern 
biographical  sources.  However,  her  life  receives  lengthy  consideration  in  the  Library  of  Southern 
Literature  previously  cited  and  standard  paragraph-long  mention  in  The  Bibliophile  Library  of 
Literature,  Art  and  Rare  Manuscripts:  History,  Biography,  Science,  Poetry,  Drama,  Travel,  Adventure, 
Fiction,  Little-Known  Literature  from  the  Archives  of  Great  Libraries  of  the  World,  compiled  and 
arranged  by  Nathan  Haskell  Dole,  Forrest  Morgan  and  Caroline  Ticknor,  New  York:  International 
Bibliophile  Society,  1904;  Library  of  the  World's  Best  Literature,  Ancient  and  Modem,  ed.  Charles 
Dudley  Warner  (New  York:  International  Society,  1898)  61;  Who  Was  Who  Among  North  American 
Authors,  1921-1939,  2  (K-Z)  (Detroit:  Gale,  1976)  originally  published  by  the  Golden  Syndicate,  Los 
Angeles.  The  Journalist  also  ran  a  photo  and  valentine  profile  of  her,  "Miss  Elizabeth  Bisland  of  The 
Cosmopolitan  Magazine,"  30  November  1889,  2.  The  writer  praised  Bisland's  beauty  and  talent  but 
spent  about  half  of  the  article  talking  about  The  Cosmopolitan  magazine  as  "really  a  competitor  of  the 
Century,  Harpers  and  Scribner's." 

48  "Book  Makers  and  Others,"  The  Journalist,  10:17  ,  1 1  January  1890,  6. 
4''  Kroeger,  Nellie  Bly,  186. 

5"Kroeger,  Nellie  Bly,  268-292. 

51  Schilpp  and  Murphy,  146. 

52  Kroeger,  509. 

53  See  Kroeger  for  information  about  Bly's  death  507  and  The  Neiv  York  Times  obituary  for  Bisland: 
"Mrs.  E.  B.  Wetmore,  author,  dies  in  South:  Former  Elizabeth  Bijsland  of  this  city'  to  be  buried  in 
Woodlawn:  9  January  1929,  31:4. 

54Kroeger,  507. 

"Rittenhouse  107-108. 

%  Lea  Ann  Brown,  "Elizabeth  Cochrane  (Nellie  Bly)",  Dictionary  of  Literary  Biography  58. 
Rittenhouse  entitled  his  biography,  The  Amazing  Nellie  Bly. 

57  Ross  48,  50. 

"Frank  Luther  Mott,  American  Journalism:  A  History  1690-1960  (New  York:  MacMillan,  1972), 
437.  Also,  see  Edwin  and  Michael  Emery,  The  Press  and  America:  An  Interpretive  History  of  the  Mass 
Media  (Englewood  Cliffs,  N.J.:  Prentice  Hall,  1984). 

59  Jean  Folkerts  and  Dwight  L.  Teeter,  Voices  of  a  Nation:  A  History  of  the  Media  in  the  United  States 
3rd  ed.(New  York:  MacMillan,  1989)  268. 

''"Bernard  A.  Weisberger,  "Elizabeth  Cochrane  Seaman,"  Notable  American  Women,  1971,  254. 

'''"Nellie  Bly,  Journalist  Dies  of  Pneumonia,  famous  lor  Rapid  Trip  Around  the  World  and  other 
Daring  Exploits,"  The  New  York  Times,  28  January  1922,  13:4. 


84  Kilmer*  Spring  1999 


"There  Is  Nothing  in  This 
Profession  .  .  .  That  a  Woman 
Cannot  Do":  Doris  E.  Fleischman 
and  the  Beginnings  of  Public 
Relations 

by  Susan  Henry 

Between  1913  and  1922,  public  relations  began  to  be  formed  as  a 
profession,  and  the  life  of  one  of  its  previously  unacknowledged  pioneers — 
Doris  E.  Fleischman — changed  in  remarkable  ways.  This  article  charts 
Fleischman's  early  career  as  a  publicist,  fundraiser  and  newspaper  reporter, 
and  then  as  the  first  employee  hired  by  Edward  E  Bernays  ivhen,  in  1919,  he 
opened  an  office  providing  "publicity  direction."  It  describes  some  of  their  key 
early  campaigns,  the  rapid  development  of  and  changes  in  their  business,  and 
the  increasingly  productive  collaboration  betiveen  them  until  1922,  when 
Fleischman  became  an  equal  partner  with  Bernays  in  the  firm  of  Edward  L. 
Bernays,  Counsel  on  Public  Relations. 

When  she  graduated  from  Barnard  College  in  spring  1913, 
Doris  E.  Fleischman  said,  she  was  "shoved  into  the 
ocean  without  having  learned  to  swim."1  Although  she 
was  a  talented  singer  and  athlete,  she  had  never  read  a  newspaper,  knew 
little  about  the  world  and  felt  "bewildered"  when  her  father  asked  her 
what  she  planned  to  do  after  graduation.  At  age  21,  she  knew  she  would 


Susan  Henry  is  a  Professor  of  Journalism  at  California  State  University,  Northridge. 


Spring  1999  •American Journalism  85 


"do  something"  but  had  no  clear  idea  what  that  would  be  and  no  confi- 
dence that  she  was  prepared  for  any  career  at  all.2 

A  decade  later,  she  was  excelling  in  a  profession  that  had  not  been 
invented  when  she  graduated  from  college,  leading  a  life  that  would  have 
been  unimaginable  to  her  at  that  earlier  time.  In  September  1922  she 
became  an  equal  partner,  with  its  founder,  in  one  of  the  country's  earliest 
and  most  successful  public  relations  agencies,  having  helped  it  first  thrive 
as  a  publicity  service  and  then  evolve  into  a  public  relations  firm.  She  did 
this  with  almost  no  public  recognition,  in  contrast  to  the  firm's  founder, 
Edward  L.  Bernays,  who  cultivated  the  limelight  from  the  start  and, 
throughout  his  career,  usually  received  sole  credit  for  the  agency's  accom- 
plishments. When  he  died  in  1995,  the  headline  of  his  New  York  Times 
obituary  labeled  him  the  "father  of  public  relations,"3  but  his  partnership 
with  Fleischman  in  the  birth  and  development  of  the  field  has  only 
recently  been  acknowledged.4 

This  article  looks  at  the  beginnings  of  Fleischman's  career  and  the 
beginnings  of  the  profession  she  helped  form.  It  charts  the  work  she  and 
Bernays  did  before  they  joined  together,  the  growth  of  and  changes  in 
their  new  agency,  their  development  of  public  relations  techniques  that 
were  to  become  mainstays,  and  some  of  the  reasons  their  early  collabora- 
tion was  so  successful.  The  scarcity  of  published  information  about  how 
early  agencies  operated  (and  the  fact  that  the  first  years  of  this  particular 
firm  have  received  only  cursory  attention)  made  it  worthwhile  to  examine 
some  of  Bernays'  work  in  addition  to  Fleischman's.  This  gives  context  to 
information  about  Fleischman  as  well  as  helping  to  provide  a  broad 
picture  of  the  nascent  agency  itself. 

Thus,  this  study  adds  an  understanding  of  public  relations'  early 
years,  a  time  that  has  not  yet  been  well-documented,  in  part  because  the 
behind-the-scenes  nature  of  many  of  the  activities  carried  out  makes  them 
difficult  to  investigate.  Similarly,  although  the  advantages  of  collaboration 
in  today's  public  relations  activities  are  widely  understood,  little  is  known 
about  the  ways  early  collaborators  worked  together.  This  largely  is  due  to 
the  still-further-behind-the-scenes  interactions  of  collaborators,  which 
make  researching  them  doubly  problematic.  And  while  the  contributions 
of  many  individual  men  to  the  development  of  public  relations  have  been 
at  least  generally  sketched,  women's  early  work  rarely  has  been  studied.  A 
male-female  collaboration  seems  worthy  of  particular  attention. 

Fleischman  was  by  far  the  most  important  of  the  field's  women 
pioneers,  and  this  period  is  a  significant  one  for  understanding  both  her  as 
an  individual  and  the  patterns  of  what  was  to  become  her  62-year-long 


86  Henry 'Spring  1999 


collaboration  with  Bernays.  Because  their  business  was  relatively  simple 
when  it  began  and  the  bulk  of  her  work  was  precisely  defined,  it  is  much 
easier  to  identify  her  skills  and  responsibilities  then  than  it  is  during  the 
remainder  of  their  partnership,  when  their  work  essentially  merged. 
Separating  out  key  components  of  her  work  at  this  time  reveals  what  she 
brought  to  the  business  from  the  start  and  how  she  helped  it  develop. 
Several  new  findings  also  correct  inaccurate  claims  repeatedly  made  by 
Fleischman  and  Bernays  about  her  activities  before  as  well  as  after  they 
joined  together. 

From  Little  Direction  to  Publicity  Direction:  1913  to  1919 

Fleischman's  life  changed  during  the  period  of  this  study  largely  due 
to  fundamental  career  decisions  made  by  her  friend,  Edward  Bernays. 
First,  he  almost  accidentally  became  a  theatrical  press  agent  in  1913 
when,  while  editing  two  small  medical  magazines,  he  also  ingeniously 
promoted  a  controversial  play  about  syphilis,  "Damaged  Goods,"  which  a 
physician  had  praised  in  one  of  Bernays'  magazines.5  He  later  explained 
the  effect  of  this  experience:   "I  had  had  so  much  pleasure  from  what  I 
had  done  that  I  said  to  myself,  'This  is  what  I  want  to  do.'  I  became  a 
press  agent."6 

For  the  next  five  years  he  was  a  highly  successful  publicist  for 
Broadway  plays,  actors,  musical  performers  such  as  Enrico  Caruso,  and — 
during  three  years  that  he  said  "taught  me  more  about  life  than  I  have 
learned  from  politics,  books,  romance,  marriage  and  fatherhood  in  the 
years  since" — Diaghilev's  Ballet  Russe.  He  described  this  work  as  "one 
thrill  after  another"  and  loved  what  he  did.  Yet  as  exciting  to  him  as  the 
glamour  and  sophistication  of  the  performing  arts  world  was  his  own 
success.  He  had  found  his  calling  and  quickly  learned  that  he  was  very 
good  at  it.7 

In  June  1918,  he  happily  stopped  this  work  to  join  the  many 
journalists,  press  agents  and  advertising  people  working  for  the  US 
Committee  on  Public  Information  (CPI).  Headed  by  George  Creel,  this 
huge  propaganda  operation  was  extraordinarily  effective  in  building 
nationwide  public  support  for  this  country's  World  War  I  efforts  and 
spreading  US  government  views  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  Bernays  worked 
out  of  the  New  York  office  of  the  CPI  Foreign  Press  Bureau  until,  when 
the  war  ended  in  November,  he  went  to  Paris  for  the  Versailles  Peace 
Conference  as  part  of  the  official  press  mission.8 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  87 


The  CPI  has  been  widely  credited  with  vividly  demonstrating  the 
power  of  organized,  well-funded  public  opinion  manipulation.  The 
general  public  increasingly  became  aware  of  this  power,  as  did  businesses 
and  other  organizations,  and  many  of  the  people  who  had  worked  for  the 
CPI  were  particularly  struck  by  its  effectiveness,  Bernays  among  them.9 
He  also  was  affected  by  his  experiences  at  the  Peace  Conference.  "Paris 
was  swarming  with  ethnic  entities  that  had  been  promised  independence 
in  Wilson's  Fourteen  Points,"  he  explained,  and  "I  couldn't  but  observe 
the  tremendous  emphasis  the  small  nations  of  the  world  placed  on  public 
opinion."  Having  "seen  this  world  picture  emphasizing  the  power  of 
words  and  ideas,"  he  decided  that  when  he  returned  to  New  York  in 
March  1919  he  "would  go  into  an  activity  that  dealt  with  this  force  of 
ideas  to  affect  attitudes."10 

Bernays'  CPI  connections  soon  resulted  in  contracts  to  do  publicity 
work  for  two  organizations.  On  March  20,  1919,  the  Lithuanian  National 
Council  hired  him  to  help  in  its  efforts  to  obtain  US  support  for  recogni- 
tion of  the  country  as  an  independent  republic,  and  10  weeks  later  he 
began  working  with  the  US  War  Department  on  its  campaign  for  the  re- 
employment of  former  servicemen.  He  initially  operated  just  as  he  had  as 
a  theatrical  press  agent^out  of  his  clients'  offices  or  his  parents'  home, 
where  he  lived.  But  on  July  28,  1919,  he  made  a  second  career  change 
when  he  opened  his  own  office.  That  same  day,  he  hired  Doris 
Fleischman  as  a  staff  writer." 

In  1919  Fleischman  had  much  less  to  show  for  the  preceding  years 
than  did  her  new  boss.  After  graduating  from  college  in  1913,  she  appar- 
ently worked  as  a  fundraiser  and  publicist  for  a  charity  on  New  York's 
lower  east  side.12  The  next  year,  Bernays  helped  her  get  a  job  at  the  New 
York  Tribune,  where  she  began  as  a  women's  page  writer,  then  was  pro- 
moted to  assistant  women's  page  editor  and  assistant  Sunday  editor. 
Sometimes  writing  as  many  as  three  long  feature  stories  a  week,  she 
interviewed  many  well-known  people,  traveled  to  San  Francisco  to  report 
on  the  Women's  Peace  Conference  at  the  1915  Panama- Pacific  Interna- 
tional Exposition,  and  claimed  to  be  the  first  woman  to  cover  a  prize  fight 
for  a  major  newspaper.  Although  she  seems  to  have  done  well  and  greatly 
enjoyed  this  work,  she  left  the  Tribune  sometime  in  1916.13 

Exactly  when  and  why  she  left  remains  a  mystery.  In  interviews, 
Bernays  was  very  reluctant  to  acknowledge  that  she  stopped  working  at 
the  newspaper  before  1919,  while  in  her  own  published  and  unpublished 
writings  and  in  interviews,  Fleischman  seldom  admitted  that  she  left 
before  this  date.  One  friend  from  the  1970s  with  whom  she  sometimes 
discussed  her  early  career  speculates  that  she  left  for  family  reasons.14 


Henry*  Spring  1999 


Imprecise  as  it  is,  this  interpretation  makes  sense  and  helps  explain  her 
reticence  in  discussing  this  period  of  her  life. 

In  1916  she  was  living  at  home  with  her  parents.  Her  mother, 
Harriet  Rosenthal  Fleischman,  was  a  pleasant,  compliant  woman — in 
many  ways  a  typical  late- Victorian  upper-middle-class  wife  and  mother — 
while  her  father,  Samuel  E.  Fleischman,  was  a  rigid,  authoritarian  man 
who  exerted  firm  control  over  his  family.  A  prominent  lawyer  who  was 
conservative  in  most  of  his  views,  he  nonetheless  encouraged  Doris  to 
attend  a  good  college  and  then  get  a  job  when  she  graduated,  but  she  did 
not  accept  the  offer  from  the  Tribune  until  she  had  asked  his  permission 
to  do  so.  And,  fearful  that  she  would  be  hurt,  he  accompanied  her  when 
she  covered  the  prize  fight. l5    Her  father  was  by  far  the  strongest  force  in 
her  life,  and  she  certainly  would  have  left  the  Tribune  if  that  was  what  he 
wanted. 

Little  more  is  known  about  her  professional  life  following  her 
departure  from  the  Tribune,  but  it  is  clear  that  it  included  freelance 
publicity  and  fundraising  jobs.16  One  client  for  which  she  apparently  did 
considerable  work  was  a  hospital,  the  Spring  Street  Infirmary,  which  she 
later  called  "a  terrible  place."'7  None  of  this  work  seems  to  have  been  very 
satisfying,  and  it  certainly  was  a  step  down  from  the  Tribune.  She  must 
have  been  delighted  when  Bernays  offered  her  a  full-time  writing  position 
in  July  1919. 

Both  Fleischman  and  Bernays  consistently  asserted  that  he  hired  her 
directly  away  from  the  Tribune.  This  claim  both  obscures  how  she  spent 
the  three  years  after  she  left  the  newspaper  and  neglects  to  recognize  one 
additional  freelance  job  she  held  during  this  time.  A  careful  examination 
of  the  work  Bernays  carried  out  for  both  the  Lithuanian  National  Council 
and  the  War  Department  in  spring  and  early  summer  1919  reveals  that 
Fleischman  wrote  press  releases  for  him  before  he  opened  his  own  office 
and  officially  hired  her.18 

Certainly  she  was  a  logical  choice.  She  was  looking  for  freelance 
work  and  Bernays  had  thought  she  was  a  talented  writer  since  reading  her 
high  school  fiction.  They  had  lived  around  the  corner  from  each  other  (he 
on  West  106th  Street,  she  on  West  107th  Street)  since  1912.  He  had 
helped  her  make  the  contacts  that  led  to  her  Tribune  job,  and  she  had 
gone  with  him  to  see  "Damaged  Goods"  and  other  theatrical  productions 
he  promoted.19  She  also  said  that,  during  the  time  he  edited  the  two 
medical  magazines,  "I  wrote  reviews  and  stories  for  him  for  fun."20 

At  the  same  time,  his  work  was  extensive  enough  to  require  help.  In 
addition  to  organizing  promotional  events  for  the  Lithuanian  National 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  89 


Courtesy  of  Susan  Henry 
Doris  E.  Fleischman  and  Edward  L.  Bernays,  dressed  for  a  night  out,  probably  mid  1 920s. 


90 


Henry  •  Spring  1999 


Council,  he  had  agreed  to  produce  six  weekly  press  releases,  which  often 
required  extensive  research.  His  War  Department  work  was  more  sophisti- 
cated and  complex,  involving  the  production  of  new  programs,  slogans 
and  large  numbers  of  press  releases.  Because  he  had  both  clients'  releases 
typeset,  bound  into  pads,  and  sent  to  newspapers  and  other  publications, 
he  also  had  to  work  extensively  with  printers  and  mailers.  And  he  was 
quite  well-paid,  receiving  $150  a  week  from  the  Lithuanian  National 
Council  and  $100  (plus  a  large  expense  budget)  from  the  War  Depart- 
ment. So  he  certainly  could  afford  to  pay  a  freelancer.'1 

By  the  end  of  July,  he  also  realized  he  could  afford  to  rent  his  own 
three-room  office  on  the  fifth  floor  of  an  old  building  at  19  East  48th 
Street.  He  calculated  his  first  month's  expenses  for  rent  and  furniture  at 
$1,357,  and  his  first  employee,  Fleischman,  was  a  bargain  at  $50  a  week. 
She  quickly  helped  him  hire  a  secretary,  a  mail  clerk,  an  office  boy  and  his 
brother-in-law  Murray  C.  Bernays,  who  was  paid  $75  a  week  to  do 
research  and  some  writing.22 

Fleischman  later  blamed  herself  for  not  asking  for  a  higher  salary 
(she  actually  had  requested  $45),  saying  she  knew  little  about  money  since 
she  lived  at  home  and  her  father  supported  her.  Her  salary  "was  extra  and 
unimportant."23  That  for  three  years  she  had  had  no  full-time  job,  and 
probably  modest  freelance  income,  also  may  have  led  her  to  give  little 
thought  to  her  salary  when  she  was  offered  this  position. 

(In  fairness,  it  seems  possible  that  she  might  not  have  asked  for  more 
even  if  she  had  carefully  considered  her  situation.  A  1921  book  about 
professional  women  noted  that  salaries  for  "experienced  publicity  consult- 
ants" were  "around  $50  a  week,  and  are  said  to  be  about  10  per  cent  lower 
than  those  for  men."24   A  1920  book  describing  careers  for  women 
quoted  a  "director  of  one  publicity  agency"  as  saying  that  women  "free- 
lance workers"  could  earn  from  $50-100  a  week.25  When  she  left  the 
Tribune,  Fleischman  had  been  making  $22  a  week.26) 

Bernays  had  struggled  with  what  to  call  his  new  business,  finally 
settling  on  "Edward  L.  Bernays  Publicity  Direction."  He  hoped  this 
would  differentiate  him  from  press  agents  by  indicating  that  he  would 
"direct  actions  of  my  client  to  get  publicity  and  win  public  support."27 
But  much  of  his  work  during  the  rest  of  1919  seems  to  have  been  little 
different  from  his  pre-war  press  agent  activities  in  which  he  simply  called 
attention  to  his  clients  (albeit  often  cleverly).  One  reason  for  this  may 
have  been  that  he  had  numerous  theatrical  clients.  "I  accepted  these 
assignments  because  I  was  not  yet  well  enough  established  not  to,"  he 
explained.28 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  9 1 


Other  clients  that  year  included  the  American  Civil  Liberties  Union, 
Best  Foods  Company  (for  which  he  helped  launch  a  new  salad  oil),  and 
the  Federation  for  the  Support  of  Jewish  Philanthropies  (which  was 
conducting  a  large  fundraising  drive).  The  Lithuanian  National  Council 
and  War  Department  continued  as  clients  through  the  summer.29  By  the 
end  of  December,  Bernays  had  10  employees  and  had  earned  about 
$11,000.30 

Publicity  and  "Aggressive  Publishing" 

His  largest  client  during  his  first  year  in  his  new  office,  and  the  one 
for  whom  he  went  on  to  work  the  longest,  was  the  book  publisher  Boni 
and  Liveright.  It  is  useful  to  examine  portions  of  this  campaign  because 
they  typify  key  strategies  Bernays  and  Fleischman  were  to  use  for  many 
years  and  show  how  well-developed  these  techniques  were  at  the  start  of 
their  business.  Specific  contributions  by  Fleischman  also  can  easily  be 
identified. 

Fleischman  seems  to  have  played  a  role  in  obtaining  this  client,  since 
it  was  her  much-adored  older  brother  Leon  who  urged  the  firm's  founder, 
Horace  Liveright,  to  hire  Bernays.  A  poet  and  former  newspaper  reporter, 
Leon  had  recently  bought  into  the  firm  as  a  vice  president  and  also  served 
as  its  secretary  and  treasurer.31    According  to  Bernays,  Leon  insisted  that 
Bernays  "could  give  the  firm  and  the  authors  an  imaginative  type  of 
publicity  other  publishers  had  not  dreamed  of  using,  that  this  would  sell 
books  and  upgrade  the  list  of  authors  by  attracting  good  new  ones."32 

Whatever  his  sister's  role,  the  match  was  an  excellent  one.  Liveright, 
who  hired  Bernays  in  fall  1919,  was  a  daring  young  publisher  who  was 
willing  to  gamble  on  unknown  authors  and  controversial  books.  He  had 
recently  lured  a  few  established  authors  like  Theodore  Dreiser  to  his  firm, 
but  he  also  was  anxious  to  publish  works  by  the  Greenwich  Village 
intellectuals  who  had  been  ignored  by  his  rival  publishers.33 

"Other  publishers  deplored  him,  some  envied  him,  and  all  had  to 
admire  his  list,"  according  to  book  historian  John  Tebbel.  "If  Liveright  did 
not  invent  the  literary  renaissance  of  the  '20s,  he  was  at  least  its  chief 
conductor."34  And  he  was  enthusiastic  about  shattering  the  old,  staid 
molds  of  book  publishing  as  well  as  the  musty  conventions  of  bookselling. 
He  had,  in  Bernays'  words,  "faith  in  aggressive  publishing."  Bernays,  in 
turn,  was  "eager  to  try  out  our  strategies  and  tactics  on  books."  He 
believed  "books  should  respond  more  quickly  to  our  techniques  than 
almost  any  other  commodity."35 


92  Henry  •  Spring  1999 


During  the  year-long  campaign,  Bernays  and  Fleischman  focused  on 
expanding  the  book-reading  public  beyond  the  narrow  audiences  previ- 
ously identified  by  most  publishers.  They  prepared  an  attractive  supple- 
mentary catalog  highlighting  the  most  important  books — those  that 
would  be  discussed  wherever  "men  and  women,  who  are  interested  in  life 
and  the  books  that  express  life,  gather" — and  bombarded  300  bookstores 
with  weekly  circulars  on  different  books.  In  addition  to  mailing  out 
constant  short  press  releases,  they  sent  100  feature  articles  related  to  Boni 
and  Liveright  books  to  newspapers  throughout  the  country.36 

In  what  Bernays  said  was  an  application  of  a  technique  used  in  his 
government  CPI  work,  these  1,000  to  1,500-word  features  were  offered  as 
exclusives  to  one  newspaper  in  a  town.37    Editors  first  received  brief 
synopses  of  articles  "prepared  for  your  free  publication  by  our  Doris 
Fleischman,  who  was  until  recently  on  the  staff  of  the  New  York  Tribune, 
and  by  other  experienced  feature  writers."  They  returned  postcards 
indicating  the  articles  they  wanted,  which  then  were  sent  to  them.38 

A  small  number  of  books  were  singled  out  for  special  publicity 
efforts.  One  was  Christopher  Morley  and  Bart  Haley's  satire  on  Prohibi- 
tion, In  the  Sweet  Dry  and  Dry.  Copious  feature  stories  and  shorter  releases 
were  supplemented  by  the  creation  of  a  booklovers  tavern  in  New  York's 
Majestic  Hotel,  whose  bar  had  been  closed  by  Prohibition.  Books  by  Boni 
and  Liveright  authors  replaced  bottles  behind  the  bar  while  some  of  these 
authors,  as  well  as  the  president  of  the  New  York  County  chapter  of  the 
Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  were  in  attendance  at  its  well- 
covered  opening.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  campaign  to  turn  "corner 
saloons"  in  10  medium-sized  towns  into  bookstores,  and  it  also  led  to  the 
creation  of  an  American  Council  for  Wider  Reading,  devoted  to  stimulat- 
ing more  reading  by  Americans.39 

This  work  is  a  good  example  of  a  frequently  used  technique  that 
Bernays  variously  labeled  "the  overt  act,"  "created  circumstances"  and  "the 
created  event."  As  he  explained  it  in  1923,  with  such  activities  the  public 
relations  practitioner  "is  not  merely  the  purveyor  of  news;  he  is  more 
logically  the  creator  of  news."40  Working  for  Boni  and  Liveright,  he  said, 
"I  studied  each  book  not  as  literature,  but  to  find  ideas  that  might  be 
emphasized  to  increase  public  interest  in  the  volume.  I  then  looked  for  a 
current  news  idea  that  could  be  correlated  with  the  ideas  I  had  isolated. 
Then  I  tried  to  dramatize  these  ideas."41 

The  campaign  for  Iron  City  by  M.  H.  Hedges  illustrates  another 
technique — the  "segmental  approach" — that  Bernays  and  Fleischman 
went  on  to  repeatedly  use.  This  strategy,  Bernays  explained,  required  the 
practitioner  to  "subdivide  the  appeal  of  his  subject  and  present  it  through 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  93 


the  widest  possible  variety  of  avenues  to  the  public."42  Set  on  a  college 
campus,  Iron  City  dealt  with  a  wide  range  of  issues  that  Fleischman 
"subdivided"  into  features  with  titles  such  as  "Can  the  College  Woman 
Love?",  "The  Insecure  Tenure  of  the  College  Professor — How  He  Is  Pried 
Loose  from  His  Job"  and  "Big  Business  and  the  American  College — What 
Will  Happen  When  the  Two  Are  Divorced?"  One  release  even  asked  the 
question,  "Are  the  Children  of  College  Parents  Puny?"43 

Other  releases  connected  the  book  to  current  news  events,  including 
fall  1919  strikes  in  the  coal  industry  and  a  strike  by  professors  at  the 
Carnegie  Institute  in  Pittsburgh  (the  book  portrayed  a  professors'  strike). 
Author  Hedges  was  asked  to  identify  college  professors  who  would  be 
willing  to  talk  with  newspaper  reporters  about  issues  raised  in  the  novel, 
letters  extolling  the  book  were  sent  to  teachers  unions,  and  attempts  were 
made  to  obtain  cooperative  publicity  with  the  Stutz  Motor  Car  Company 
and  Chicago's  Marshall  Field  and  Company  (both  prominently  men- 
tioned in  the  book).44 

Another  effective  strategy  was  the  association  of  specific  books  with 
well-known  people — whether  or  not  they  had  any  real  connection  to  the 
books.  For  example,  to  call  attention  to  Adriana  Spadoni's  The  Swing  of 
the  Pendulum,  a  novel  dealing  with  a  professional  woman  and  her  lovers, 
releases  were  prepared  describing  contemporary  women  activists  like  Alice 
Duer  Miller  and  Helen  Rogers  Reid.  Similarly,  anarchist  writer  Hutchins 
Hapgood's  novel,  The  Story  of  a  Lover  (written  anonymously),  was  publi- 
cized with  quotes  from  movie  stars  like  Mary  Pickford  and  Lillian  Gish, 
who  had  supplied  Fleischman  with  their  definitions  of  love.  Within  six 
months,  1 1 ,000  copies  were  sold.45 

The  Boni  and  Liveright  campaign  bears  examination  in  part  because 
of  its  effects.  Intellectual  historian  Ann  Douglas  said  that  it  "made  sellers 
out  of  books  that  were  not  natural  sellers"  and  proved  it  was  possible  to 
"create  market  receptivity  and  revenue."46  Not  everything  they  tried  was 
successful,  and  no  doubt  much  of  this  steady  stream  of  publicity  was 
ignored.47  But  they  did  succeed  in  helping  to  expand  the  appeal  of  books, 
and  certainly  excitement  was  generated  for  some  Boni  and  Liveright  titles 
that  otherwise  would  have  received  little  attention.  Horace  Liveright  must 
have  believed  these  kinds  of  actions  were  productive,  for  during  the 
remainder  of  the  decade  he  went  on  to  spend  over  a  million  dollars 
promoting  his  books  through  public  relations  and  advertising.48 

More  important,  many  other  publishers  began  to  adopt  much  more 
dynamic  sales  techniques  aimed  at  broader  audiences,  while  new  compa- 


94  Henry  •  Spring  1999 


nies  publishing  books  for  previously  neglected  markets  were  born. 
Bookselling  changed.4''  By  the  end  of  the  decade,  according  to  John 
Tebbel,  "Publishers  were  at  last  convinced  of  the  value  of  promotion  and 
publicity,  much  more  so  than  they  had  been  before  the  war,  and  for  the 
first  time  they  were  willing  to  spend  money  on  it."'0 

"A  Nose  for  News  and  a  Steady  Compulsion  to  Write" 

Bernays  later  wrote,  "My  work  with  Liveright  represented  a  divide 
between  what  I  had  done — my  press-agentry,  publicity,  publicity  direc- 
tion— and  what  I  now  attempted  to  do:  counsel  on  public  relations."51  In 
1920  Fleischman  played  at  least  one  significant  role  in  this  change  when 
she  helped  him  coin  the  phrase  "counsel  on  public  relations"  to  describe 
what  they  saw  as  a  new  role:  "giving  professional  advice  to  our  clients  on 
their  public  relationships,  regardless  of  whether  such  advice  resulted  in 
publicity."52  Bernays  frequently  credited  Fleischman  with  being  co-creator 
of  this  new  title,  also  noting  that  she  earlier  had  helped  him  develop  the 
label  "publicity  direction"  for  the  services  he  provided  when  he  opened  his 
office  in  19 19.53 

She  called  on  different  talents  in  1920  when  the  National  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People  hired  Bernays  to  stage  a 
campaign  for  its  Atlanta  national  convention,  planned  for  late  May  and 
early  June.  This  was  the  first  NAACP  convention  ever  held  in  the  South, 
and  the  decision  had  been  controversial  among  the  organization's  mem- 
bers. The  city  had  been  the  scene  of  fierce  race  riots  in  1906,  lynchings 
and  mob  violence  had  increased  since  that  time,  and  antagonism  against 
local  NAACP  chapters  had  grown  in  other  areas  of  the  South.54 

Hurriedly  brought  in  after  the  regular  NAACP  publicity  person 
became  ill  in  early  May,  Bernays  and  Fleischman  were  largely  ignorant 
about  the  problems  faced  by  African  Americans,  particularly  in  the  South. 
And  because  the  convention  would  begin  soon,  they  had  to  act  quickly. 
Their  only  instructions  were  to  get  extensive  good  publicity  into  southern 
newspapers  (most  of  which  had  previously  shown  little  support  for  the 
NAACP).  Otherwise,  they  were  on  their  own.55 

Bernays  stayed  in  New  York  to  work  with  northern  media  and,  a 
week  before  the  convention  began,  sent  Fleischman  by  herself  to  Atlanta. 
Since  they  knew  little  about  the  situation  in  the  city,  her  job  was  essen- 
tially to  be  an  advance  person — to  "probe  the  territory  from  the  stand- 
point of  public  opinion"  and  also,  Bernays  said,  "to  make  arrangements 
for  news  coverage  and  to  try  to  assure  that  some  top  Georgian  political 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  95 


figures  would  attend  our  meetings  so  that  we  could  publicize  the  sanction 
our  cause  was  receiving  in  Atlanta  by  their  presence."56 

Bernays  explained  that  one  reason  he  gave  Fleischman  this  assign- 
ment was  that  he  thought  she  would  be  able  to  avoid  antagonizing  the 
individuals  she  was  trying  to  persuade  to  take  actions  they  no  doubt 
would  have  preferred  not  to  take.  He  also  believed  the  people  she  encoun- 
tered would  like  her.57  And  her  innocence  meant  that  "no  one  could 
possibly  mistake  her  for  a  propagandist  for  Civil  Rights  in  the  South."58 

She  first  met  with  the  city's  mayor  and  the  state's  governor.  Accord- 
ing to  Bernays,  after  the  governor  warned  Fleischman  that  he  thought 
whites  were  likely  to  cause  trouble,  she  asked  him  to  put  the  National 
Guard  on  reserve,  which  he  did  by  phone  as  she  sat  in  his  office.  Still, 
neither  he  nor  the  mayor  ultimately  agreed  to  attend  the  convention  (the 
mayor  did  send  an  official  welcome).59 

She  had  more  success  when  she  next  met  with  men  at  Atlanta's  daily 
newspapers  and  wire  service  bureaus.  They  all  agreed  to  either  cover 
conference  meetings  or  write  reports  based  on  news  releases  they  received. 
The  Atlanta  Constitution's  city  editor  both  consulted  with  Fleischman  on 
how  to  cover  what  was  for  him  an  unusual  event  and  asked  her  to  provide 
stories  on  individual  meetings  and  interviews  with  key  participants.  All  of 
these  media  went  on  to  provide  substantial  positive  coverage.60  According 
to  Fleischman,  "Their  calm  and  matter-of-fact  handling  helped  to  make 
the  community  accept  this  invasion  from  the  North  quietly."61 

Fleischman  had  received  no  NAACP  briefing  on  the  likely  situation 
in  Atlanta  and  was,  Bernays  said,  "oblivious  to  the  dangers  of  her  mis- 
sion."62 Indeed,  it  was  many  years  before  she  learned  from  NAACP 
Assistant  Secretary  Walter  White  that  she  had  been  accompanied  by  four 
bodyguards  each  time  she  left  her  hotel.  Branded  a  "nigger  lover"  by  some 
whites,  she  also  had  failed  to  notice  the  men  standing  around  the  hotel 
lobby  who  threw  pennies  at  her  feet  to  tell  her  they  thought  she  was  no 
better  than  a  prostitute  who  would  sell  herself  for  pennies.63 

She  did  express  her  relief  that  the  city  had  stayed  calm  in  a  news 
release  she  prepared  after  the  convention  had  ended.  "Atlanta  is  breathing 
easier  now  .  .  .  and  so  are  the  delegates,"  she  wrote.  She  quoted  one 
delegate  as  saying  she  couldn't  wait  to  get  home  because  "I  feel  as  if  I  were 
sitting  on  a  volcano."64 

Bernays  met  her  in  Atlanta  during  the  week  of  the  convention  and 
together  they  worked  out  a  plan  to  guide  their  remaining  work.  After 
deciding  on  a  "publicity  platform"  stating  three  themes  they  would  stress 
in  their  releases,  they  set  about  "preparing  copy  for  the  newspapers  under 


96  Henry 'Spring  1999 


constant  deadlines. '6^  Mary  White  Ovington,  the  NAACP  chairman  of 
the  board  who  attended  the  conference,  said  that  their  technique  "was  to 
make  friends  with  the  reporters  and  do  all  their  work."66  They  also 
telegraphed  numerous  stories  to  New  York  and  Chicago  newspapers.67 

Their  efforts  appear  to  have  been  successful.  Ovington  remarked 
with  surprise  at  "how  fully  and  correctly  the  Atlanta  Constitution  reported 
our  meetings."68  Soon  after  the  convention,  the  NAACP's  Walter  White 
informed  Bernays  that  "the  amount  of  publicity  secured,  largely  through 
your  efforts,  was  greater  than  at  any  other  of  the  ten  conferences  preced- 
ing, although  all  of  these  conferences  were  held  in  northern  cities."69 
Similarly,  The  Nation  reported  that  this  convention  had  received  more 
publicity  than  any  held  previously.70 

The  convention  also  had  strong  personal  meaning  for  Fleischman. 
When  the  meetings  were  over,  she  and  Bernays  met  members  of  the 
NAACP  northern  delegation  at  the  Atlanta  railroad  station  and  she 
insisted  on  joining  the  black  delegates  in  the  Jim  Crow  sleeping  car  for 
the  trip  north,  even  though  it  was  illegal.71  Forty  years  later,  she  said  of 
her  Atlanta  experience,  "No  work  I  have  ever  done  has  had  so  deep  and 
lasting  an  effect  on  me."72 

Her  work  for  other  clients  during  this  time  was  more  routine,  but 
they  did  keep  her  very  busy  writing  and  placing  stories.  She  described 
herself  during  this  time  as  having  "a  nose  for  news  and  a  steady  compul- 
sion to  write."73  A  fast  writer  (and  typist)  with  an  exceptional  vocabulary, 
she  also  was  an  excellent  editor.  She  often  wrote  between  1 5  and  20 
stories  a  week,  then  took  them  to  newspaper  offices  and  worked  to  get 
them  placed.  Bernays  said  she  was  good  at  placing  because,  if  editors 
wanted  changes,  she  was  able  to  quickly  modify  what  she  had  written  for 
them.74 

Clients  added  in  1920  and  1921  included  several  theatrical  produc- 
ers and  performers,  Good  Housekeeping  and  Cosmopolitan  magazines, 
Cartier  jewelers,  the  Waldorf  Astoria  Hotel,  the  Dort  Motor  Company,  an 
accounting  firm,  a  clothing  company,  and  the  National  Council  of 
American  Importers  and  Traders.75  Their  "first  big  business  client,"  in 
Bernays'  words,  was  the  U.S.  Radium  Corporation,  which  hired  them  in 
1920  to  promote  radium's  luminous  properties  for  commercial  use  and  its 
application  in  cancer  therapy.  Fleischman's  stories,  which  were  distributed 
in  printed  clip  sheets  for  immediate  use,  had  titles  like  "The  Royal  Jewel 
of  Today,"  "Radium  Becoming  a  Household  Aid"  and  "Radium  Bank  for 
Those  Who  Bank  on  Radium."76  The  latter  story  described  a  service  their 
client  had  established  at  their  suggestion:  a  national  radium  bank,  which 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  97 


made  radium  accessible  to  physicians  treating  cancer  patients  (and  called 
attention  to  the  element's  medical  value).77 

In  addition  to  doing  extensive  writing  during  this  time,  Fleischman 
was  the  firm's  office  manager.  From  the  start,  Bernays  said,  she  was  "the 
balance  wheel  of  our  operation."78  Thus  she  interviewed  all  job  candi- 
dates, set  up  schedules,  charted  the  work  being  done  for  different  clients, 
kept  the  books  and  paid  bills.79 

One  of  the  few  surviving  office  memos  between  Fleischman  and 
Bernays  from  this  time  nicely  illustrates  some  of  her  responsibilities. 
Probably  written  in  early  1921  when  Fleischman  planned  to  be  briefly 
absent,  it  brought  Bernays  up  to  date  on  their  campaigns  for  four  key 
clients,  left  instructions  for  following  up  on  specific  tasks,  explained  the 
work  others  in  the  office  would  carry  out,  and  detailed  payments  received 
and  bills  due.  She  said  monthly  vouchers  had  not  yet  been  checked,  but 
"Please  do  not  do  anything  about  this  until  I  get  back,  because  I'm  not 
happy  unless  I  do  it  myself."80  No  wonder  Bernays  asserted  that  her  work 
"took  the  burden  off  me."81  She  certainly  knew  much  more  about  how 
their  office  operated  than  he  did. 

Collaboration  and  a  Changing  Business 

Fleischman  likely  took  care  of  many  of  the  details  when  in  1921 
they  moved  from  their  three  cramped  rooms  in  an  old  building  to  newer, 
larger,  more  attractive  offices  at  a  "prime  address"  next  to  the  elegant  Ritz- 
Carlton  Hotel  on  46th  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue.82  With  the  move  she 
gained  her  own  office,  rather  than  sharing  a  crowded  space  outside  of 
Bernays'  office  with  other  staff  members,  as  she  had  previously.83  Appar- 
ently, though,  their  staff  stayed  the  same  size  it  had  been  in  1919,  when 
Bernays  had  1 0  employees.  84 

Their  staff  may  not  have  increased  but  their  income  certainly  had. 
When  they  began,  they  tried  to  set  their  rates  at  a  minimum  of  $75  a 
week,  but  by  the  early  1920s  they  were  earning  between  $12,000  and 
$25,000  a  year  from  most  clients.85  They  certainly  were  able  to  afford 
nicer  quarters,  particularly  since  their  business  continued  to  expand. 
Clients  added  in  1922  included  Macy's  department  store,  the  Hotel 
Association  of  New  York  (which  hired  them  to  publicize  New  York  as  a 
friendly  place  to  visit),  the  National  Prosperity  Bureau,  the  Venida 
Hairnet  Company,  and  numerous  performers  and  event  organizers.86 

Occasionally,  Fleischman  was  in  charge  of  entire  small  campaigns. 
For  example,  in  January  1921  she  planned,  carried  out  all  of  the  publicity 


98  Henry  •  Spring  1999 


Courtesy  of  Anne  Bernays 

Doris  E.  Fleischman,  working  at  her  desk  in  the  firm  of  Edward  L.  Bernays,  Counsel  on 
Public  Relations,  late  1910s  or  early  1920s. 


for  and  worked  closely  with  the  organizers  of  two  charity  fundraisers. 
(Her  earlier  fundraising  work  must  have  made  these  kinds  of  activities 
very  familiar  to  her.)  The  first  event  was  a  musical  review  presented  by  the 
Cardiac  Committee  of  the  Public  Education  Association.  The  other,  for 
which  she  obtained  excellent  advance  coverage,  was  a  symphony  concert 
at  Carnegie  Hall  to  benefit  the  Babies  Hospital  of  New  York.87  All 
surviving  news  releases  for  the  latter  activity  are  identified  as  "From  Doris 
E.  Fleischman,  19  East  48th  Street."  They  contain  no  reference  to 
Bernays.88 

These  are  among  the  few  examples  of  client  contact  that  can  be 
found  for  Fleischman.  Indeed,  Bernays  repeatedly  maintained  that  she 
never  had  client  contacts.89  But  it  is  clear  that,  particularly  in  the  early 
1920s,  she  did  have  at  least  a  small  number  of  such  contacts. 

For  example,  in  1922,  she  made  the  initial  contact  and  then  met 
with  the  publisher  of  American  Agriculturist  to  plan  a  campaign  for  his 
weekly  magazine.  Her  notes  from  the  meeting  show  that,  among  other 
things,  she  suggested  ways  of  attracting  more  young  readers  through  new 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism 


99 


kinds  of  stories  and  the  formation  of  boys  and  girls  clubs,  proposed  a 
more  scientific-sounding  name  for  the  magazine's  testing  department, 
advised  that  more  articles  be  run  about  new  patents  (since  this  might 
encourage  new  advertising),  and  recommended  that  well-known  public 
officials  be  solicited  for  articles,  which  then  could  be  widely  distributed  to 
media  organizations  and  interest  groups.90 

A  year  later,  when  she  traveled  to  Europe  by  herself,  she  met  with  a 
French  colonial  official  to  work  out  a  plan  for  "tout  le  service  de publicite 
en  vue  d'une  campagne  de  propaganda  intensive,  "which  would  promote  US 
tourism  to  North  Africa.91  Since  part  of  the  purpose  of  her  European  trip 
was  to  meet  with  business  and  government  officials  who  could  help  the 
firm,  it  seems  likely  that  she  made  other  client  contacts  there  as  well. 
Much  later,  Bernays  denied  that  she  met  with  any  clients  on  this  trip 
although  that  may  simply  be  traced  to  faulty  memory.92 

There  is  no  doubt,  though,  that  her  client  contacts  were  limited. 
This  was  despite  her  extensive  knowledge  of  public  relations  tactics  and 
her  demonstrated  competence  in  working  with  people  outside  their 
agency.  In  addition  to  having  been  the  contact  person  for  at  least  a  few 
small  clients,  she  had  worked  successfully  with  New  York  newspaper 
editors  as  a  "placer"  and  had  been  persuasive  with  the  Atlanta  editors 
making  decisions  about  NAACP  coverage. 

She  offered  her  own  explanation  for  her  lack  of  client  contacts  when 
she  wrote,  "Many  men  resented  having  women  tell  them  what  to  do  in 
their  business.  They  resented  having  men  tell  them,  too,  but  advice  from  a 
woman  was  somewhat  demeaning."  She  feared  "if  ideas  were  considered 
first  in  terms  of  my  sex,  they  might  never  get  around  to  being  judged  on 
their  merits."93  Bernays  closely  echoed  her  explanation  in  his  memoirs, 
using  similar  words  to  explain  why  clients  didn't  meet  with  Fleischman.94 

Yet  in  interviews  he  gave  a  more  pragmatic  reason.  "If  it  had  been 
known  I  was  linked  up  with  a  woman,  I  would  have  been  considered  an 
imbecile  or  somebody  strange."  Indeed,  he  believed  that  if  her  involve- 
ment had  been  known  "when  we  started  in  1919,  it  would  have  meant,  I 
am  sure,  that  we  wouldn't  have  had  any  clients  at  all."95  He  also  main- 
tained that,  since  she  was  a  woman,  most  clients  would  not  have  believed 
her,  so  it  made  no  sense  for  her  to  work  directly  with  them.  Rather,  her 
good  ideas  should  be  filtered  through  him  so  they  would  be  accepted.96 

Certainly  she  became  more  qualified  to  advise  clients  in  the  early 
1920s  as  she  spent  less  time  writing  and  more  time  working  with  Bernays 
on  campaign  strategies.  "I  decided  early  on  that  writing  was  the  least 

100  Henry  •  Spring  1999 


important  part  of  public  relations,"  Bernays  explained.9     He  said  that 
about  two  years  after  they  began,  having  realized  that  "actions  spoke 
louder  than  words,"  they  "changed  from  thinking  that  announcements  to 
people  were  of  value."  As  a  result,  Fleischman's  writing  skills  became 
much  less  vital  than  her  ability  to  "originate  and  develop  programs  for 
action."  She  thus  wrote  fewer  and  fewer  news  releases,  Bernays  said,  since 
"I  found  her  brain  was  a  much  greater  talent  than  her  writing,  because  as 
we  moved  along  from  that  early  period,  we  gave  advice,  and  the  advice  is 
what  they  paid  us  for."98 

Bernays  was  not  able  to  explain  precisely  when  these  changes 
occurred  and  the  written  record  is  sketchy,  but  it  does  show  Fleischman 
continuing  to  write  and  place  stories  at  least  as  late  as  1922."  Still,  he  was 
adamant  that,  from  the  firm's  beginnings  in  1919,  the  two  of  them 
developed  campaigns  together.  As  Bernays  put  it,  "I  had  the  advantage  of 
[Fleischman]  having  a  mind  that  I  thought  was  as  good  as  mine  that  I 
could  always  play  with"  in  campaign  development.  After  he  met  with 
clients,  the  two  often  brainstormed  together — suggesting  alternatives, 
identifying  critical  issues,  speculating  on  outcomes,  critiquing  each  other's 
ideas,  talking  through  strategies.100  No  doubt  one  reason  the  agency  could 
increasingly  offer  advice  was  that  Bernays  had  someone  with  whom  to 
collaborate  in  forming  complex  plans. 

One  additional  change  in  1922  can  be  much  more  precisely  identi- 
fied. On  September  22,  1922,  Fleischman  and  Bernays  were  married,  and 
shortly  afterwards  they  signed  legal  documents  making  them  equal 
partners  in  the  firm  of  Edward  L.  Bernays,  Counsel  on  Public  Rela- 
tions.101   They  both  came  to  refer  to  their  life  and  work  together  after  this 
time  as  their  "24-hour-a-day  partnership."  It  continued  until  Fleischman's 
death  in  July  1980. 

"The  Best  Move  I  Ever  Made" 

Forty  years  after  beginning  his  new  firm,  Bernays  looked  back  over 
his  career  and  wrote  that  hiring  Fleischman  in  1919  was  "the  best  move  I 
ever  made  in  my  life."102  This  article  has  shown  some  of  the  ways  Bernays 
benefited  from  that  decision  during  his  firm's  beginnings  and  early  growth 
as  well  as  the  ways  that  decision  changed  Fleischman's  own  life. 

In  1919  and  1920,  when  much  of  their  work  involved  gaining 
publicity  for  their  clients  through  news  releases,  Bernays  relied  on 
Fleischman  to  produce  large  numbers  of  them.  She  proved  to  be  very 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 0 1 


good  at  both  writing  and  placing,  and  her  ability  to  write  diverse  stories 
even  about  narrow  subjects  helped  them  use  the  "segmental  approach." 
Her  Tribune  background  also  was  used  as  a  selling  point  in  placing 
national  stories  for  Boni  and  Liveright,  and  probably  in  other  campaigns 
as  well.  Additionally,  she  freed  Bernays  from  many  practical  day-to-day 
concerns  by  serving  as  his  office  manager. 

Her  value  increased  as  she  learned  from  her  work  experiences  and 
they  moved  from  doing  "publicity  direction"  to  the  expanded  "counsel  on 
public  relations" — a  phrase  they  coined  collaboratively  in  1920.  Bernays 
was  an  expert  at  publicity,  but  once  he  was  moving  beyond  that,  he 
needed  someone  with  whom  he  could  talk  through  possible  new  ap- 
proaches, especially  someone  who  had  excellent  ideas  of  her  own.  Their 
complementary  abilities  and  personalities,  evident  from  the  beginning  of 
their  work  together,  help  explain  the  highly  productive  synergy  of  their 
long  collaboration. 

They  did  differ  significantly  in  their  perceptions  of  their  own 
strengths  and  roles.  Bernays  quickly  came  to  see  himself  as  a  scientist, 
theoretician  and  philosopher.  Anxious  to  apply  techniques  and  ideas  from 
the  behavioral  and  social  sciences  to  public  relations,  he  loved  developing 
principles,  thinking  broadly,  intellectualizing.  In  interviews  and  his  own 
extensive  writings,  he  pontificated  at  length  about  his  theories,  finding 
meaning  in  them  far  beyond  their  immediate  results. 

Two  public  relations  historians  have  aptly  noted  some  of  the  most 
conspicuous  qualities  of  his  mind  and  personality.  Scott  Cutlip  described 
Bernays  as  "a  man  who  was  bright,  articulate  to  excess,  and  most  of  all,  an 
innovative  thinker  and  philosopher  of  his  vocation. "103  Stuart  Ewen  called 
Bernays  "the  most  important  theorist  of  American  public  relations"  and 
relied  heavily  on  his  key  1920s  publications  to  describe  the  field's  under- 
pinnings. Yet  Ewen  still  noted  the  "customary  bombast"  of  those  writ- 
ings.104 

Fleischman,  though,  was  devoid  of  bombast.  In  contrast  to  her 
forceful,  confident  collaborator,  she  was  modest  and  somewhat  shy, 
seeming  to  have  little  need  for  the  approval  or  attention  of  others.  At  the 
same  time,  she  was  far  more  organized  and  practical  than  Bernays  (as 
shown,  in  a  simple  example,  by  her  work  as  their  office  manager).  She  was 
able  to  help  him  translate  his  broad  ideas  into  workable  strategies  and  also 
had  a  particular  talent  for  anticipating  how  the  public  would  react  to 
these  strategies.  ,0:> 


102  Henry 'Spring  1999 


An  excellent  listener  and  a  quick,  perceptive  judge  of  people,  she 
had  much  stronger  interpersonal  skills  than  Bernays.  People  tended  to  like 
her  when  they  first  met  her,  in  part  because  they  often  found  she  under- 
stood them  and  was  sensitive  to  their  needs.106  Daughter  Anne  Bernays, 
who  noted  that  her  father  often  had  trouble  reading  people  accurately, 
called  Fleischman  his  "personal  antennae  forjudging  people."107  He 
admitted  that  "her  insight  and  judgment  are  better  than  mine."108 

Given  these  strengths,  it  seems  very  likely  that  she  would  have 
contributed  even  more  to  the  firm  if  her  responsibilities  had  included 
consistent  client  contacts.  But  these  contacts  were  minimal  in  the  early 
years  covered  here,  and  by  the  end  of  the  1920s  she  apparently  had  none 
at  all.109  According  to  both  Bernays  and  Fleischman,  there  was  a  simple 
reason  for  this:  Clients  would  have  either  refused  to  work  with  her  or 
disregarded  her  advice. 

Yet  this  rationale  contradicts  what  they  said  when  they  wrote  about 
women  working  in  public  relations,  rather  than  about  their  own  work. 
Here,  they  expressed  confidence  that  women  could — and  should — do 
everything  men  did.  Thus  in  the  three  pieces  Fleischman  published  about 
women  public  relations  practitioners,  she  consistently  described  their 
client  contacts  and  never  mentioned  any  circumstances  under  which  they 
shouldn't  expect  to  have  these  contacts.110  Similarly,  when  he  wrote  a 
chapter  on  public  relations  for  inclusion  in  his  1927  book  on  careers, 
Bernays  asserted,  "Theoretically,  there  is  nothing  in  this  profession  that  a 
man  can  do  that  a  woman  cannot  do."  A  woman,  he  said,  "is  limited 
mainly  by  her  personal  ability  to  make  the  men  she  deals  with  realize  that 
she  is  as  capable  as  if  she  were  a  man."111  And  a  decade  later,  in  a  co- 
authored  article  on  public  relations  careers,  Fleischman  and  Bernays 
together  declared,  "There  is  nothing  in  this  profession  that  a  man  can  do 
that  a  woman  cannot  do."112 

Clearly  neither  Fleischman  nor  Bernays  believed  other  women 
working  in  public  relations  should  avoid  client  contacts,  and  it  must  have 
been  obvious  that  Fleischman  was  highly  capable  of  carrying  out  such 
contacts.  Indeed,  despite  their  denials  that  she  ever  worked  directly  with 
clients,  a  few  examples  of  her  doing  this  can  be  found  in  the  early  1920s. 
It  seems  likely  that  other  cases  also  exist  for  this  period,  although  docu- 
mentation has  not  survived.  Why,  then,  did  they  maintain  that  she 
neither  had  nor  should  have  had  these  contacts?  And  why  were  the 
contacts  she  did  carry  out  so  minimal  in  importance  and  number? 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  103 


Bernays  Reluctant  to  Share  the  Spotlight 

Their  daughter  Anne  offered  a  forthright  answer:  "He  didn't  want 
her  to  get  the  credit."113  It  also  is  a  persuasive  answer.  Bernays  was  an 
exceedingly  strong,  assertive,  dynamic  person  who  loved  his  work  and 
loved  being  recognized  for  it.  His  early  background  in  theatrical  publicity 
no  doubt  was  an  influence  here.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that,  if  he  could 
avoid  doing  so,  he  would  have  willingly  shared  credit  for  their  work. 
Sharing  credit  with  a  woman  at  a  time  when  professional  women  were  not 
widely  accepted  was  even  more  problematic. 

The  invisibility  of  Fleischman's  role  also  was  advantageous  to 
Bernays  because  it  helped  him  do  something  that  he  said  was  a  priority  in 
the  early  1920s:  "Make  the  word  'Bernays'  stand  for  advice  on  public 
relations."1'4  He  very  consciously  promoted  not  only  his  clients  but 
himself,  while  even  as  he  was  selling  himself,  he  was  selling  the  new  field 
of  public  relations.  As  he  put  it,  "Public  relations  would  become  a  con- 
tinuing free  client."115  He  carried  out  two  of  his  most  significant  early 
efforts  to  bring  visibility  and  respectability  to  this  free  client  (and  himself) 
in  1923.  In  February,  he  began  teaching  the  first  university  course  on 
public  relations  (at  New  York  University).  And  later  that  year,  his  Crystal- 
lizing Public  Opinion — this  country's  first  book  on  public  relations — was 
published  by  Boni  and  Liveright.  (Bernays  orchestrated  its  elaborate 
promotional  campaign.)116 

Business  historian  Alan  R.  Raucher  succinctly  described  Bernays  as 
"an  aggressively  self-confident  man,  as  sure  about  the  social  value  of 
public  relations  work  as  he  was  about  his  own  contribution  to  that 
field. ""7  This  description  helps  capture  his  own  stake  in  being  identi- 
fied— as  often  as  possible — as  a  major  figure  in  the  profession  and  in 
holding  a  position  that  would  let  him  mold  the  field.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  Fleischman  helped  him  gain  this  influence,  work  successfully  with 
clients  and,  when  he  was  writing  Crystallizing  Public  Opinion,  form  its 
ideas."8  On  a  few  occasions  when  he  was  unavailable,  she  even  (very 
nervously)  taught  his  New  York  University  course.119  But  he  was  not 
about  to  give  up  the  attention,  authority  and  credit  he  received  from 
client  contacts  by  sharing  them,  as  he  no  doubt  would  have  had  to  do  if 
his  partner  had  been  a  man. 

One  significant  finding  of  this  article  is  that  the  patterns  that  were 
to  characterize  their  partnership  after  their  marriage  were  evident  in  1919 
and  firmly  established  by  the  time  they  married  in  1922.  From  the  start, 
Fleischman  brought  much-needed  writing  skills  to  the  business.  Soon 
afterwards,  she  began  collaborating  with  Bernays  in  developing  strategies 


104  Henry  •  Spring  1999 


and  even  naming  their  new  profession.  Then  for  six  decades,  Bernays 
admitted,  her  work  was  as  vital  to  their  business  as  his  own,  and  she  did 
everything  he  did  except  have  client  contacts.  But,  thanks  to  her  public 
invisibility  and  his  own  prodigious  talents  for  self-promotion,  he  was  the 
focus  of  the  frequent  attention  he  made  sure  the  firm  attracted,  receiving 
virtually  all  of  the  credit  for  its  achievements.  He  benefited  from  their 
partnership  in  ways  that  were  more  than  practical.120 

Fleischman's  rewards  also  were  substantial,  if  more  straightforward, 
and  they  are  clarified  by  this  examination  of  her  early  years  with  Bernays. 
Most  important,  she  gained  a  career,  and  a  chance  to  grow  and  succeed  in 
it  to  an  extraordinary  degree.  Although  she  had  earlier  been  an  accom- 
plished newspaperwoman,  she  seems  to  have  had  little  career  direction  and 
few  firm  options  at  the  time  Bernays  hired  her.  She  could  not  have 
anticipated  that  she  would  obtain  the  kind  of  rewarding,  challenging, 
exciting  position  her  job  quickly  became.  In  the  beginning,  Bernays  taught 
her  a  great  deal  even  as  he  took  full  advantage  of  her  abilities.  Most  clients 
may  not  have  known  about  or  appreciated  her  work  and  talents,  but  he 
certainly  did.  She  felt  valued,  and  must  have  delighted  in  seeing  measur- 
able results  of  her  work  in  their  growing  revenues  and  list  of  clients. 

A  close  look  at  these  early  years  also  helps  explain  why,  during  the 
rest  of  her  life,  she  consistently  deferred  to  him  in  both  their  business  and 
their  marriage.  In  1919  Bernays  was  Fleischman's  boss.  He  had  envisioned 
the  new  business  that  was  to  suit  her  skills  so  well,  while  it  was  his 
reputation — based  on  his  initial  remarkable  success  in  theatrical  public- 
ity— that  attracted  many  early  clients.  He  offered  her  a  good  job,  he 
determined  the  work  she  would  do,  he  was  her  teacher.  He  also  was 
supremely  self-confident.  It  makes  sense  that  he  dominated  their  relation- 
ship at  the  start,  while  this  early  dominance  is  part  of  the  reason  why,  30 
years  later,  she  still  maintained:  "Eddie's  word  is  final  and  he  casts  the 
deciding  vote  in  our  partnership.  I  have  elected  him  Chairman  of  the 
Board  and  Executive  President  in  our  personal  life  and  ...  in  our  public 
relations  office."121 

Looking  back,  she  also  pondered  her  lack  of  client  contacts,  saying 
that  when  she  first  joined  with  Bernays  in  1919,  "I  decided  that  I  would 
not  try  to  compete  with  men  because  the  hurdles  were  too  great."  Yet  she 
admitted,  "I  surrendered  without  having  seen  an  enemy.  I  wonder  if  I 
would  try  to  avoid  all  conflict  with  men  if  I  were  to  begin  today."122 
These  wistful  words  also  might  apply  to  her  continuing  personal  and 
professional  relationship  with  Bernays. 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 05 


Still,  she  must  always  have  thought  she  owed  him  a  gteat  deal.  Fot, 
despite  her  1913  fears  of  the  ocean,  she  learned  to  swim  exceedingly  well 
and  found  the  water  far  more  agreeable  than  it  had  appeared  when  she 
graduated  from  college.  It  did  not  seem  to  matter  greatly  to  her  that  she 
swam  in  the  wake  of  a  much  more  visible,  powerful  swimmer,  since 
without  him,  she  might  well  have  sunk.  And  without  her  as  his  collabora- 
tor, he  certainly  would  made  a  far  less  spectacular  and  enduring  splash  in 
this  new  profession. 

Susan  Henry  thanks  Rodger  Streitmatter  for  his  unflagging  encour- 
agement and  good  ideas  during  the  many  years  of  this  research  on  Doris  E. 
Fleischman,  and  for  his  superb  Washington,  DC,  accommodations,  which 
made  it  possible  to  collect  much  of  the  data  for  this  article. 


Endnotes 

'Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  "Plus  Ca  Change,  Plus  C'Est  La  Meme  Chose,"  Phantasm,  Sept. -Oct. 
1977,  3. 

TJoris  Fleischman  Bernays,  A  Wife  Is  Many  Women  (New  York:  Crown  Publishers,  1955),  167-68. 

3"Edward  Bernays,  'Father  of  Public  Relations'  and  Leader  in  Opinion  Making,  Dies  at  103,"  New 
York  Times,  10  March  1995,  A12. 

4The  only  published  scholarly  works  on  Fleischman  have  appeared  within  the  past  two  years:  Susan 
Henry,  "Anonymous  in  Her  Own  Name:  Public  Relations  Pioneer  Doris  E.  Fleischman,"  Journalism 
History  23  (Summer  1997):  50-62,  and  Susan  Henry,  "Dissonant  Notes  of  a  Retiring  Feminist:  Doris 
E.  Fleischman's  Later  Years,"  Journal  of  Public  Relations  Research  10  (Winter  1998):  1-33. 

The  1 997  article  is  a  very  compressed  biography  of  Fleischman,  broadly  covering  all  of  her  life.  As  a 
result,  occasional  duplication  can  be  found  in  the  information  and  analysis  in  it  and  in  this  American 
Journalism  piece.  The  1998  article  looks  at  Fleischman  during  the  three  decades  before  her  death  in 
1980. 

Fleischman  also  is  discussed  sporadically  in  the  recent  (and  only)  biography  of  Bernays,  Larry  Tye, 
The  Father  of  Spin:  Edward  L.  Bernays  and  the  Birth  of  Public  Relations  (New  York:  Crown  Publishers, 
1998).  Despite  having  had  access  to  much  of  this  author's  research,  though,  Tye  says  only  a  little 
about  Fleischman's  professional  contributions  to  the  firm  and,  in  his  many  descriptions  of  individual 
campaigns,  presents  them  as  the  work  or  Bernays  alone.  Fleischman  most  often  is  portrayed  as  a 
victim — a  dramatic  device  to  call  attention  to  Bernays'  failings.  Tye's  book  also  contains  very  little 
information  about  the  public  relations  work  Bernays  and  Fleischman  carried  out  during  the  time 
period  covered  in  this  article. 

5  Edward  L.  Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea:  Memoirs  of  Public  Relations  Counsel  Edward  L.  Bernays 
(New  York:  Simon  and  Schuster,  1965),  49-62. 

'Transcript  of  Edward  L.  Bernays  oral  history  (1971),  Oral  History  Research  Office,  Columbia 
University,  New  York,  N.Y.,  448. 

7Bernays  describes  these  early  years  at  length  in  Biography  of  An  Idea,  62-1 52.  The  quotes  are  on 
pages  102  and  75. 

"Ibid,  155-78.  For  a  good  description  of  the  work  of  the  CPI,  see  Stuart  Ewen,  PR'  A  Social  History 
of  Spin  (New  York:  Basic  Books,  1996),  102-27. 

''See,  for  example,  Ewen,  126-33;  Scott  Cutlip,  The  Unseen  Power:  Public  Relations.  A  History 
(Hillsdale,  N.J.:  Lawrence  Erlbaum  Associates,  1994),  105-06;  Alan  R.  Raucher,  Public  Relations  and 


106  Henry  •  Spring  1999 


Business,  1900-1929  (Baltimore:  The  Johns  Hopkins  Press,  1968),  73-74;  Richard  S.  Tedlow,  Keeping 
the  Corporate  Image:  Public  Relations  and  Business.,  1900-1950  (Greenwich,  Conn.:  JAI  Press,  1979), 
40-41. 

"'Bernays  oral  history  transcript,  60-62. 

"Ibid,  61-66;  Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  187-94.  Specific  dates  are  from  a  chronology  of  his 
activities  prepared  by  Bernays  in  box  1:498,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  Library  of  Congress, 
Washington,  D.C.  (hereafter  LC). 

'-In  her  published  and  unpublished  wrirings,  Fleischman  never  mentioned  any  jobs  she  held  before 
1914.  She  always  began  describing  her  employment  history  by  discussing  her  1914  New  York  Tribune 
work.  In  interviews  with  this  author,  though,  Bernays  said  her  first  job  was  doing  fundraising  and 
publicity  for  a  "charity"  devoted  to  "taking  care  of  women."  But  he  said  he  told  her  "she  could  learn 
nothing  there,"  encouraged  her  to  enter  journalism,  and  introduced  her  to  a  reporter  at  the  New  York 
Telegram,  who  helped  her  get  her  job  at  the  Tribune.  See  interviews  with  Edward  L.  Bernays, 
26  March  1988,  and  29  March  1988,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

"It  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  clearly  chart  the  details  of  Fleischmans  professional  work  before  she 
was  hired  by  Bernays.   In  most  interviews  and  in  their  own  writings,  both  Fleischman  and  Bernays 
maintained  that  she  worked  at  the  Tribune  between  1914  and  1919,  when  she  left  to  join  Bernays. 
(Occasionally,  she  said  she  had  started  at  the  Tribune  in  1913,  soon  after  graduating  from  Barnard.) 
But  her  donated  clippings  files  contain  no  Tribune  articles  with  her  byline  before  1  November  1914; 
the  last  is  dated  19  March  1916.  See  carton  1,  file  2,  Doris  Fleischman  Bernays  Papers,  Schlesinger 
Library  on  the  History  of  Women,  Cambridge,  Mass.  (hereafter  Schlesinger  Library).  (Although  it 
does  not  contain  all  that  Fleischman  wrote  for  the  Tribune,  this  file  does  give  a  good  sense  of  how 
productive  she  was  during  some  weeks.  ) 

Stronger  evidence  that  she  left  the  Tribune  in  1916  is  found  in  the  brief  biographies  she  (or 
Bernays)  wrote  to  accompany  her  chapters  in  two  books  each  of  them  edited  in  the  1920s.  Both 
sources  describe  her  as  working  at  the  Tribune  from  1914  to  1916.  See  Doris  E.  Fleischman,  ed., 
Careers  for  Women:  A  Practical  Guide  to  Opportunity  for  Women  in  American  Business  (New  York: 
Doubleday,  Doran  &  Company,  1928),  384,  and  Edward  L.  Bernays,  ed.,  An  Outline  of  Careers:  A 
Practical  Guide  to  Achievement  by  Thirty-Eight  Eminent  Americans  (New  York:  Doubleday,  Doran  & 
Company,  1927),  opposite  page  423. 

Fleischman  describes  her  Tribune  work  in  Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  A  Wife  Is  Many  Women,  167- 
69,  and  in  unused  notes  for  A  Wife  Is  Many  Women,  carton  1,  file  33,  Doris  Fleischman  Bernays 
Papers,  Schlesinger  Library.   Her  press  pass  for  the  Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition  is  in  box 
1:3,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

'"Telephone  interview  with  Camille  Roman,  20  November  1995. 

"Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  26  May  1986,  Cambridge,  Mass;  Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  A 
Wife  Is  Many  Women,  167-68;  Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  "Plus  Ca  Change,  Plus  C'Est  La  Meme 
Chose,"  3;  Doris  E.  Fleischman,  "Woman  at  the  Lightweight  Championship,"  New  York  Tribune,  14 
March  1915. 

"Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  29  March  1988,  Cambridge,  Mass.  A  small  amount  of 
material  related  to  this  work  is  in  addenda,  file  1,  Doris  Fleischman  Bernays  Papers,  Schlesinger 
Library. 

'Audiotape  of  interview  with  Doris  Fleischman  Bernays  by  MaryAnn  Yodelis,  July  1973, 
Cambridge,  Mass.  A  few  documents  about  the  New  York  Dispensary  are  in  addenda,  file  1,  Doris 
Fleischman  Bernays  Papers,  Schlesinger  Library. 

18  Fleischmans  byline  appears  on  articles  about  Lithuania  and  the  servicemen's  re-employment 
campaign  published  by  newspapers  in  April,  June  and  July-all  before  Bernays  opened  his  office.  See 
clippings  in  box  III:  3,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC,  and  addenda,  file  1,  Doris  Fleischman  Bernays 
Papers,  Schlesinger  Library. 

'''Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  A  Wife  Is  Many  Women,  169;  "Doris  and  I"  (a  section  in  Bernays'  notes 
for  Biography  of  An  Idea),  1-4,  box  1:462,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

:"Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  A  Wife  Is  Many  Women,  170. 

2lBernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  188-92;  "Finding  My  Way"  (a  section  in  Bernays'  notes  for 
Biography  of  An  Idea),  1-22,  box  1:461,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC;  Edward  L.  Bernays  oral  history 
transcript,  61-66. 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 07 


"Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  193-94;  interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  29  October  1989, 
Cambridge,  Mass.  Murray  Bernays,  born  Murray  Cohen,  married  Bernays'  sister  Hella  in  1917. 
Shortly  afterwards,  he  had  his  name  legally  changed  to  Murray  C.  Bernays  to  keep  his  wife's  family 
name  alive,  since  Edward,  her  only  brother,  had  said  he  would  never  marry.  Murray  Bernays  was 
divorced  from  Hella  in  1924  but  kept  her  last  name.  See  "Murray  Bernays,  Lawyer,  Dead;  Set 
Nuremberg  Trials  Format,"  New  York  Times  undated  clipping,  box  111:6,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers, 
LC. 

23Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  A  Wife  Is  Many  Women,  38. 

'"•Elizabeth  Kemper  Adams,  Wome?t  Professional  Workers  (New  York:  The  Macmillan  Company, 
1921),  307. 

"Catherine  Filene,  ed.,  Careers  for  Women  (Cambridge,  Mass.:  Riverside  Press,  1920;  repr.,  New 
York:  Arno  Press,  1974),  19. 

26Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  A  Wife  Is  Many  Women,  38. 

27Bernays  oral  history  transcript,  72. 

'"Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  195. 

29Bernays  describes  some  of  his  clients  during  this  time  in  Biography  of  An  Idea,  194-99.  Also  see 
chronology,  box  I:  498,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC,  and  receipt  from  H.P.  Inman  of  the 
Lithuanian  National  Council  for  work  done  by  Bernays,  19  August  1919,  box  111:6,  Edward  L. 
Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

3"Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  1 99. 

"Walker  Gilmer,  Horace  Liveright:  Publisher  of  the  Twenties  (New  York:  David  Lewis,  1970),  19; 
"Liveright"  (a  section  in  Bernays'  notes  for  Biography  of  An  Idea),  1-2,  box  1:458,  Edward  L.  Bernays 
Papers,  LC. 

32"Liveright,"  1. 

33Gilmer,  Horace  Liveright:  Publisher  of  the  Twenties  (New  York:  David  Lewis,  1970),  10-20. 

"John  Tebbel,  A  History  of  Book  Publishing  in  the  United  States,  vol.  Ill  (New  York:  R.R.  Bowker 
Company,  1978),  136,  138. 

35Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  277-78. 

3r'Ibid,  284;  "Boni  and  Liveright-Book  Publishers-Publicity  Campaign"  (a  section  in  Bernays'  notes 
for  Biography  of  An  Idea),  8-11,  box  1:457,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC;  the  quote,  taken  from  the 
foreword  to  the  First  Supplementary  Catalog,  is  on  p.  11. 

37"Liveright,"  17. 

3tlLetter  from  Edward  L.  Bernays  to  the  feature  editor  of  the  Detroit  Free  Press,  13  November  1919, 
box  1:120,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

"Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  280-81;  "Boni  and  Liveright-Book  Publishers-Publicity 
Campaign,"  21-26,  37-39. 

4"Edward  L.  Bernays,  Crystallizing  Public  Opinion  (New  York:  Boni  &  Liveright,  1923;  repr.,  New 
York:  Liveright  Publishing  Corporation,  1961),  195. 

4,"Liveright,"  10-11. 

4Tbid,  137. 

43"Boni  and  Liveright-Book  Publishers-Publicity  Campaign,"  12-15;  Bernays,  Biography  of  An 
Idea,  282.  Some  of  these  releases  are  in  box  1:120,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

44"Boni  and  Liveright-Book  Publishers-Publicity  Campaign,"  14-20. 
45Ibid,  74-75;  Gilmer,  26,  63;  Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  282-83. 

46Ann  Douglas,  Terrible  Honesty:  Mongrel  Manhattan  in  the  1920s  (New  York:  Farrar,  Straus  and 
Giroux,  1995),  68. 

47Bernays  admitted,  for  example,  that  although  the  Majestic  Hotel's  "booklovers  tavern"  received 
extensive  coverage  in  New  York  newspapers,  In  the  Sweet  Dry  and  Dry y/ as  not  mentioned  in  any 
articles.  See  "Liveright,"  16-17. 

48Gilmer,  90.  A  large  in-house  advertising  staff  apparently  took  over  all  further  promotional 
activities  during  the  rest  of  the  1920s. 

^'Douglas,  67-71;  Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  286. 


1 08  Henry  •  Spring  1 999 


"Tebbel,  335-36. 

"Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  287. 

"Ibid,  288. 

5,See,  for  example:   ibid;  Edward  L.  Bernays,  Public  Relations  (Norman:  University  of  Oklahoma 
Press,  1952),  78-79;  Edward  L.  Bernays,  "Emergence  of  the  Public  Relations  Counsel:  Principles  and 
Recollections,"  Business  History  Review  45  (Autumn  1971):  301-02;  interview  with  Edward  L. 
Bernays,  28  May  1986,  Cambridge,  Mass; 

'"Charles  Flint  Kellogg,  NAACP:  A  History  of  the  National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored 
People,  vol.  1  (Baltimore:  The  Johns  Hopkins  Press,  1967),  137,  245-46;  Mary  White  Ovington,  The 
Walls  Came  Tumbling  Down  (New  York:  Harcourt,  Brace  and  Company,  1947;  repr.,  New  York:  Arno 
Press,  1969),  177. 

"Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  208-1 1;  "The  NAACP- 1920"  (a  section  in  Bernays'  notes  for 
Biography_pfAn  Idea),  1-16,  box  1:459,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

wThe  NAACP-1920,"  17. 

'"Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  29  March  1988. 

'""National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People"  (a  section  in  Bernays'  notes  for 
Biography  of  An  Idea),  3,  box  1:459,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

""The  NAACP-1920,"  19-20;  Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  211-13;  Bernays  oral  history 
transcript,  236; 

'"'Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  212-14;  "The  NAACP-1920,"  20-22,  32-39. 

'''Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  A  Wife  Is  Many  Women,  170. 

'•-"The  NAACP-1920,"  18. 

'''Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  211. 

''"Quoted  in  "The  NAACP-1920,"  39. 

"Ibid,  25A-27,  29. 

''''Ovington,  178. 

''  "The  NAACP-1920,"  35-37;  "National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People,"  4, 
11,18 

''"Ovington,  178. 

'"'Walter  White  to  Mr.  E.  L.  Bernays,  July  13,  1920,  box  111:6,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

'"According  to  Bernays  in  "The  NAACP-1920,"  53. 

'Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  215. 

7:Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  transcript  of  a  speech  to  the  Radcliffe  Club,  31  January  1961,  1 1, 
carton  1,  file  39,  Doris  Fleischman  Bernays  Papers,  Schlesinger  Library. 

7,Ibid,  11. 

'"Interviews  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  31  March  1988,  and  28  May  1986,  Cambridge,  Mass; 
interview  with  Anne  Bernays,  27  May  1986,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

"Scattered  information  on  clients  for  these  years  can  be  found  in  the  alphabetically  arranged  client 
files,  boxes  1:56-421,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC,  and  in  Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea±  187-252. 

7''Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  188.  The  release  titled  "Radium  Becoming  a  Household  Aid"  is  in 
box  III:  3,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

77Bernays,  Public  Relations,  8 1 . 

7"Bernays,  "The  Emergence  of  the  Public  Relations  Counsel,"  301. 

"Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  29  March  1988;  "Doris  and  I,"  (a  section  in  Bernays'  notes  for 
Biography  of  An  Idea),  7,  box  1:461,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

""Undated  (probably  February  1921)  memo  from  Doris  E.  Fleischman  to  Edward  L.  Bernays,  box 
1:4,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

"'Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  29  March  1988. 

":Bernays  oral  history  transcript,  99. 

"'Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  28  May  1986. 


Spring  1999  •American Journalism  109 


84 Although  Bernays  wrote  very  specifically  about  his  1919  staff  and  facilities,  lie  had  little  to  say 
about  his  later  offices,  so  they  cannot  be  described  in  the  same  kind  of  detail.  The  best  evidence  of  the 
size  of  his  1921  office  is  in  a  memo  dated  9  January  1923,  which  is  addressed  to  10  employees.  See 
"Memorandum  to  Organization  from  E.L.B.  and  J.M.T.  [J.  Mitchel  Thorsen],"  box  1:5,  Edward  L. 
Bernays  Papers,  LC.  Significantly,  one  person  listed  on  that  memo — Kathleen  Goldsmith — was  a 
writer. 

"Edward  L.  Bernays,  Your  Future  in  Public  Relations  (New  York:  Richards  Rosen  Press,  1961),  142. 
Also  see  the  report  on  work  for  the  Dort  Motor  Company,  which  shows  that  they  were  paid  $600  for 
four  weeks'  work.  ("Dort  Motor  Company,  Inc."  [a  section  in  Bernays'  notes  for  Biography  of  An 
Idea],  box  1:458,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC.) 

"''See  client  files,  boxes  1:56-421,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC,  and  Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea, 
205-52. 

s7"Junior  League  of  the  Cardiac  Committee  of  the  Public  Education  Association"  and  "Babies 
Hospital  Benefit-1921,"  (sections  in  Bernays'  notes  for  Biography  of  An  Idea),  box  1:461,  Edward  L. 
Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

8SSee  box  1:105,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

"''Bernays  was  adamant  about  this  whenever  it  came  up  in  several  interviews  with  this  author. 
Similarly,  in  his  memoirs,  he  wrote  that  Fleischman  "has  done  everything  in  public  relations,  except 
get  into  the  direct  client  relationships."  (Biography  of  Ah  Idea,  220.) 

In  her  own  published  work,  Fleischman  was  vague  about  client  contacts,  only  hinting  that  she  met 
with  some  clients  in  early  years.  (See  A  Wife  Is  Many  Women,  171.)  Her  unused  notes  for  this  book  are 
more  explicit.  An  outline  listing  some  of  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  working  with  her 
husband  includes  the  statement:  "I  made  contacts  before  marriage,  but  not  after."  (Doris  Fleischman 
Bernays  Papers,  carton  1,  file  19,  Schlesinger  Library.)  But  in  every  interview  with  her  this  author  has 
located,  she  denied  ever  having  had  any  contacts  at  any  time. 

'"'Doris  E.  Fleischman  to  Henry  Morganthau,  Jr.,  9  May  1922;  Henry  Morganthau,  Jr.,  to  Doris  E. 
Fleischman,  10  May  1922,  and  Fleischman's  follow-up-notes  from  their  May  12  meeting,  box  II:  1, 
Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

'"[First  Name  Illegible]  Saint-Charbin  to  Mademoiselle  Fleischman,  30  June  1923,  box  III:  2, 
Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC.  (My  thanks  to  Elizabeth  Burt  for  the  translation  from  the  French.) 

'^Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  29  March  1988. 

''•'Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  v4  Wife  Is  Many  Women,  171. 

'"''Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  221. 

'^Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  26  October  1989,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

'""'Interviews  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  28  May  1986  and  29  March  1988,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

'^Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  26  May  1986. 

'"Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  29  March  1988. 

''""Memorandum  to  Organization  from  E.L.B.  and  J.M.T.,"  probably  written  in  1922,  discusses  the 
need  for  Fleischman  to  be  free  at  set  times  during  the  week  to  meet  with  Bernays  to  discuss  clients.  It 
also  refers  to  the  need  to  hire  new  people  to  take  over  "a  portion  of  the  stories  and  releases  Miss 
Fleischman  is  now  burdened  with."  Additionally,  an  28  April  1922,  invoice  itemizes  costs  related  to 
production  of  one  news  release,  listing  the  charge  for  "Miss  Fleischman  placing  story"  as  $25.00.  See 
box  1:4,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 

lOOInterview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  26  May  1986.  (Bernays  discussed  their  extensive  collabora- 
tion throughout  their  partnership  in  many  interviews  with  this  author.  In  this  one,  he  explicitly  stated 
that  they  strategized  together  from  the  start.) 

""Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  24  May  1986. 

'"-Bernays,  "The  Emergence  of  the  Public  Relations  Counsel,"  301. 

""Cutlip,  169. 

'""Ewen,  163  and  170. 

'"'Interviews  with  Doris  Bernays,  27  May  1986,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  Anne  Bernays,  27  October 
1989,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  and  Edward  L.  Bernays,  29  May  1988. 

"'Tbid. 


1  JO  Hcnty  •  Spring  1 999 


"'•Interview  with  Anne  Bemays,  18  October  1995,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

'""Bernays  interview  with  Scott  Cutlip,  12  March  1959,  quoted  in  Cutlip,  169. 

'"''See  footnote  89  above. 

""Doris  E.  Fleischman,  "Public  Relations,"  in  Doris  E.  Fleischman,  ed.,An  Outline  of  Careers  for 
Women,  385-95;  Doris  E.  Fleischman,  "Public  Relations:  A  New  Field  for  Women,"  Independent 
Woman,  Feb.  1931,  58-59,  86;  Doris  E.  Fleischman,  "Keys  to  a  Public  Relations  Career,"  Independent 
Woman,  Nov.  1 94 1 ,  332-33,  340. 

'"Edward  L.  Bernays,  "Public  Relations,"  in  Edward  L.  Bernays,  ed.,An  Outline  of  Careers,  296. 

"JEdward  L.  Bernays  and  Doris  E.  Fleischman,  "Public  Relations  as  a  Career,"  Occupations.  The 
Vocational  Guidance  Magazine,  Nov.  1937,  133. 

'"Interview  with  Anne  Bernays,  27  October  1989. 

"''Interview  with  Edward  L.  Bernays,  28  May  1986. 

"'Bernays,  Biography  of  An  Idea,  289. 

"'Tedlow,  42-44.  The  original  course  descriprion  is  in  box  1:462,  Edward  L.  Bernays  Papers,  LC. 
Tedlow  describes  the  final  exam  on  p.  54,  f72.  Bernays'  salary  for  teaching  the  course  was  $200; 
student  tuition  was  $20. 

"7Raucher,  103. 

"sIn  his  1971  oral  history  (transcript,  p.  77)  Bernays  calls  Crystallizing  Public  Opinion  "our  first 
book."  Two  secondary  sources  also  refer  to  Fleischman's  involvement  in  conceptualizing  this  book: 
Cutlip,  178,  and  Eric  F.  Goldman,  Two-Way  Street:  The  Emergence  of  the  Public  Relations  Counsel 
(Boston:  Bellman  Publishing  Company,  1948),  18.  But  these  assertions  of  her  contributions  seem  to 
be  based  more  on  the  authors'  assumptions  than  on  explicit  statements  from  Bernays.  My  own 
conclusion,  based  on  knowledge  of  their  relationship  in  1921  and  1922,  is  that  they  discussed  much 
that  went  into  the  book  as  he  wrote  it,  and  that  she  helped  a  great  deal  in  forming  its  key  ideas. 

"Audiotape  of  Doris  Fleischman  Bernays  interview  with  MaryAnn  Yodelis. 

l2"For  a  detailed  description  of  their  "24-hour-a-day  partnership"  following  their  1922  marriage,  see 
Henry,  "Anonymous  in  Her  Own  Name:  Public  Relations  Pioneer  Doris  E.  Fleischman,"  54-60. 

'-'Doris  Fleischman  Bernays,  A  Wife  Is  Many  Women,  167. 

l::Unused  notes  (or  A  Wife  Is  Many  Women,  carton  1,  file  25,  Doris  Fleischman  Bernays  Papers, 
Schlesinger  Library. 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 1 


Spring  1999 


112 


Great  Ideas 

Rethinking  Objectivity  in 
Journalism  and  History:  What  Can 
We  Learn  from  Feminist  Theory 
and  Practice? 

By  Carolyn  Kitch 

Over  the  past  several  years,  panels  on  objectivity — an 
ongoing  series  of  debates  over  whether  or  not  journalists 
can  achieve  this  goal — have  become  common  offerings  on 
conference  programs,  just  as  they  make  for  lively  classroom  discussions. 
This  theme  also  underlies  the  practice  and  teaching  of  "public  journal- 
ism," a  professional  model  in  which  the  role  of  journalists  moves  away 
from  detached  objectivity  and  toward  an  acknowledgment  of  involvement 
in  the  stories  they  cover.  Such  debates  are  almost  always  spirited,  fre- 
quently controversial,  and  rarely  conclusive. 

This  essay  is  an  expanded  version  of  my  own  comments  on  objectiv- 
ity panels  at  both  the  Association  for  Journalism  and  Mass  Communica- 
tion (AEJMC)  and  American  Journalism  Historians  Association  (AJHA) 
1998  conferences,  in  which  I  explained  how  reading  feminist  theory  in  a 
variety  of  scholarly  disciplines  has  helped  me  to  think  critically  about 
objectivity  in  my  own  work,  as  a  journalist,  a  historian  of  journalism,  and 
a  journalism  educator.  These  thoughts  draw  not  only  on  disciplines 
outside  journalism,  but  also  on  the  work  of  female  scholars  in  our  own 
field,  among  them  Catherine  Covert,  Brenda  Dervin,  and  Linda  Steiner, 
who  have  suggested  that  feminist  theory  and  the  history  of  women's 
experience  are  useful  lenses  through  which  to  re-evaluate  our  understand- 
ing of  the  journalistic  present  and  past.1  The  essay  deals  to  a  great  extent 
with  journalism  today,  yet  it  also  is  about  history  in  two  senses:  it  consid- 


Carolyn  Kitch  is  an  Assistant  Professor  at  the  Medill  School  of  Journalism  at  Northwestern 
University. 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 3 


ers  the  ways  in  which,  throughout  the  American  past,  some  female 
journalists  have  rejected  the  rhetoric  of  objectivity;  and,  in  a  broader 
sense,  it  discusses  ideals  that  govern  the  practice  of  historical  research  as 
well  as  the  practice  of  journalism. 

At  the  start,  I'd  like  to  clarify  my  goal  in  offering  these  thoughts. 
After  the  AJHA  session,  one  audience  member  expressed  concern  that  I 
had  painted  a  dichotomous  picture  of  both  gender  and  objectivity 
suggesting,  essentially,  that  women  are  subjective  and  therefore  good  for 
journalism,  while  men  are  objective  and  therefore  bad  for  journalism. 
This  was  not  my  intention  at  all.  My  exploration  of  this  subject  has  been 
prompted  by  the  fact  that  I  do  research  on  gender;  in  other  words,  I  have 
gained  a  new  perspective,  which  I  bring  to  the  classroom  as  well  as  to  my 
research  because  of  the  specific  nature  of  the  scholarly  literature  in  my 
own  subfield. 

Yet  my  thoughts  on  objectivity  in  both  journalism  and  history  are 
not  exclusively  feminist  (or  feminine).2  This  essay  suggests  not  that 
objectivity  itself  is  gendered,  but  rather  that  the  work  of  some  women — as 
journalists  and  as  scholars — offers  interesting  ways  for  anyone  to  think 
about  professional  ideals.  It  further  explores  how  debates  about  objectivity 
taking  place  in  other  fields,  including  the  mainstream  of  the  history 
discipline,  can  inform  our  own  continuing  discussions  in  journalism 
scholarship. 

Objectivity  Defined  As  Presence  and  Proximity 

Traditional  definitions  of  objectivity  turn  on  metaphors  of  physical 
presence  and  promixity,  of  the  literal  positioning  of  oneself  with  regard  to 
"the  facts."  According  to  professional  standards,  as  they  are  usually  taught 
in  journalism  schools,  an  objective  journalist  is  unbiased,  neutral,  impar- 
tial, detached,  balanced  and  invisible.  (While  this  essay  is  primarily  about 
journalism,  it  is  worth  noting  that  the  ideal  method  of  historical  research 
is  discussed  in  much  the  same  terms.)  These  attributes  characterize 
objective  inquiry  and  lead  to  the  revelation  of  "the  news,"  which  itself 
exists  somewhere  in  a  realm  of  its  own,  outside  or  beyond  our  own  lives. 
This  model  for  professional  practice  was  neatly  summed  up  by  television 
journalist  Daniel  Schorr  who,  in  his  book  Clearing  the  Air,  described  his 
work  this  way:  "I  remained  the  untouched  observer,  seeing  the  whole 
picture  because  I  was  not  in  the  picture.  The  notion  of  being  the  invisible 
stranger  always  appealed  to  me."3 


1 1 4  Great  Ideas  •  Spring  1 999 


These  kinds  of  words  characterized  my  own  journalism  education 
and  the  mainstream  of  professional  practice  during  the  years  I  worked  in 
the  magazine  business.  Even  though  I  worked  in  a  field  (women's  maga- 
zines) that  routinely  challenged  the  notion  of  objectivity,  I  did  not  think 
critically  about  the  central  ideals  of  journalism  until  I  began  to  do  schol- 
arly research  that  required  me  to  read  widely  in  interdisciplinary  feminist 
theory.  This  time  in  my  career  happened  to  coincide  with  the  beginning 
of  debate  about  objectivity  within  both  the  journalism  profession  and 
journalism  scholarship.  What  struck  me  about  the  reading  I  was  doing 
was  that,  while  it  came  from  seemingly  unrelated  fields,  the  professional 
ideals  these  writers  challenged  were  articulated  in  the  very  rhetoric  of 
journalism. 

In  history,  I  read  Joan  Scott,  one  of  the  first  scholars  to  question  the 
definition  of  history  as  "that  knowledge  of  the  past  arrived  at  through 
disinterested,  impartial  investigation  and  available  to  anyone  who  has 
mastered  the  requisite  scientific  procedures. "4  I  also  read  Bonnie  Smith, 
who  rejects  the  historical  trajectory  of  great  men,  institutions,  and  events, 
noting  that  in  this  story  there  is  no  place  for  women  and  women's  lives — 
which  do  not  "fit  professional  historical  procedures  and  categories."5 

In  literature,  I  read  Jane  Tompkins,  who  laments  the  idea  that  the 
only  professionally-legitimate  subjects  through  which  she  might  make  a 
contribution  to  "knowledge"  in  her  field  are  "impersonal"  ones  and  must 
be  discussed  in  an  "authoritative  language  [that]  speaks  as  though  the 
other  person  weren't  there."6  In  law,  I  read  Carol  Smart  and  Kathleen 
Lahey,  who  contend  that  law  as  a  "method  to  establish  the  truth"  gener- 
ates a  discourse  of  "reasonableness"  that  silences  dissent  and  diminishes 
the  legitimacy  of  alternative  views  that  differ  from  precedent.7 

In  sociology,  I  read  Dorothy  Smith,  who  notes  that  "although 
sociological  inquiry  is  necessarily  a  social  relation,  we  have  learned  to 
dissociate  our  own  part  in  it.  We  recover  only  the  object  of  our  knowledge 
as  if  it  stood  all  by  itself."  In  fact,  she  argues,  "The  only  way  of  knowing  a 
socially  constructed  world  is  knowing  it  from  within.  We  can  never  stand 
outside  ....  Even  to  be  a  stranger  is  to  enter  a  world  constituted  from 
within  as  strange."8 

In  science,  I  read  Sandra  Harding,  who  writes  that  "value-free 
objectivity  .  .  .  requires  a  notion  of  the  self  as  a  fortress  that  must  be 
defended  against  polluting  influences  .  .  .  .The  self  whose  mind  would 
perfectly  reflect  the  world  must  create  and  constantly  police  the  borders  of 
a  gulf,  a  no-man's-land,  between  himself  as  the  subject  and  the  object  of 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 5 


his  research.  .  . "9  And  I  read  Donna  Harraway,  who  argues  for  a  new  kind 
of  scientific  standard  based  on  "positioned  rationality,"  not  "the  view  from 
above,  but  the  joining  of  partial  views.  .  .  into  collective  subject  position 
that  promises  a  view.  .  .  from  somewhere."10 

I  realized  that  all  of  these  scholars  are  concerned  with  two  aspects  of 
professionalism  that  are  also  at  the  heart  of  debate  about  journalistic  and 
historical  objectivity:  what  subject  matter  is  considered  professional,  and 
what  role  the  researcher/ reporter  plays  in  how  those  subjects  are  researched 
and  written  about.  I  also  was  intrigued  by  how  closely  these  scholars 
examined  the  professional  language  of  their  fields.  Their  analyses  helped 
me  think  about  the  language  of  journalism. 

Analyzing  the  Language  of  Journalism 

Chief  among  the  spatial  metaphors  we  use  to  talk  about  journalistic 
objectivity  are  two  seemingly  contradictory  ideas:  journalists  position 
ourselves  as  being  outside  the  news  while  also  situating  ourselves  at  its 
center.  The  very  word  "media"  suggests  a  central  position,  just  as  television 
journalists  "anchor"  the  news.  Yet  key  to  this  notion  of  being  at  the  center 
of  the  news  is  the  assumption  that  we  have  no  actual  contact  with  it — 
almost  as  if  we  were  in  the  eye  of  a  storm  swirling  around  us. 

Though  this  removal  is  psychological,  it  is  described  as  physical.  We 
speak  of  maintaining  a  professional  "distance"  from  our  sources  and  the 
events  we  write  about.  The  word  dis-tance  suggests  that  we  have  no  stance, 
no  opinion  on  the  news.  Instead,  we  are  "neutral"  (a  word  that  means 
"without  color").  In  the  same  breath  that  we  talk  about  getting  the  "inside 
scoop,"  we  position  ourselves  as  non-participants  in  the  story;  we  remain 
"unbiased"  (not  slanted  in  one  direction  or  another).  Our  coverage  is 
"balanced,"  the  fulcrum  point  between  two  "sides"  of  the  story.  We  are 
without  an  agenda,  and  thus,  presumably,  without  agency.  We  avoid 
writing  in  the  first  person,  using  what  Virginia  Woolf  called  "the  T  that 
casts  a  shadow  across  the  page."11 

In  these  ways,  we  are  simultaneously  inside  and  outside  the  story.  Yet 
sometimes  we  are  above  it,  as  Schorr  implied  in  claiming  to  "see  the  whole 
picture."  A  similar  perspective  is  invoked  when  we  say  that  we  "cover" 
stories.  We  see  them  from  overhead,  and,  like  a  bird,  we  see  the  entire 
picture,  which  is  not  clear  to  the  actors  mired  in  the  details  and  passions  of 
the  event  itself  down  below.  Even  when  we  admit  our  presence  at  a  news 
event,  we  say  that  we  are  on  rather  than  in  the  scene. 

Of  course,  all  of  this  language,  and  journalists'  claims  of  detachment, 
are  frequently  undermined  by  the  realities  of  professional  practice.  It  is 


1 1 6  Great  Ideas  •  Spring  1 999 


impossible  to  be  the  invisible  stranger  when  we  arrive  with  news  trucks 
and  lights  and  cameras  and  when  we  appear  on  videotape  quite  literally  in 
the  picture.  Yet  even  in  print  journalism,  there  are  consistent  departures 
from  our  detachment  ideals,  and,  ironically,  some  of  these  departures  are 
among  the  most  celebrated  aspects  of  journalism.  One  is  the  claim  of 
"eyewitness"  status,  a  process  of  reporting  from  one's  own  literal  perspec- 
tive. Another  is  "literary  journalism"  (which  shaped  practice  in  the  early 
1900s  as  well  as  the  1960s),  the  use  of  narrative  techniques  to  provide 
interpretation  and  meaning.  A  third  example  is  the  most  venerated  form  of 
journalism,  investigative  reporting,  an  active  rather  than  reactive  practice 
in  which  reporters  "wwcover  " scandal,  thus  creating  rather  than  merely 
covering  news  that  is  out  there  happening  all  by  itself  without  our  help. 

The  Rhetoric  of  Objectivity  in  Journalism  History 

I've  been  better  able  to  understand  these  contradictions  in  journal- 
ism from  my  readings  of  other  scholars  who  are  struggling  to  understand 
the  rhetoric  of  objectivity  in  their  fields.  It  so  happens  that  they  are 
feminist  scholars.  Actually,  any  scholars  in  their  fields  could  have  come  up 
with  a  similar  critique  of  objectivity,  just  as  one  doesn't  have  to  be  female 
to  think  about  the  rhetoric  of  journalistic  objectivity.  So  why  focus  on  the 
writings  of  women?  Because  they  have  been  at  the  forefront  of  debates 
about  objectivity.  "Objective"  knowledge  across  disciplines  has  frequently 
left  out  women,  women's  experiences,  and  women's  interests  entirely. 
Consequently,  many  scholars  interested  in  women's  lives  have  questioned 
the  usefulness  of  objectivity. 

So  too  have  some  female  journalists  questioned  the  nature,  content, 
and  voice  of  "objective"  news  throughout  the  American  past.  A  look  back 
at  their  work  illustrates  not  only  a  women's  perspective  on  journalism,  but 
also  the  long  history  of  tensions  over  the  norms  of  journalistic  practice. 
During  the  mid- 19th  century,  newspaper  writers  such  as  Fanny  Fern  and 
Jenny  Croly  wrote  about  "women's"  (social  rather  than  political)  topics, 
and  often  wrote  with  "empathy"  or  "sentiment"  (subjectively).12  In  1896, 
in  a  speech  titled  "How  to  Make  a  Newspaper  Interesting,"  23-year-old 
reporter  Willa  Cather  told  the  women's  division  of  the  Nebraska  Press 
Association  that  good  journalism  "must  go  beyond  the  dishing-out  of 
facts"  and  instead  offer  personal  commentary'3  In  the  1940s,  syndicated 
newspaper  columnist  Dorothy  Thompson  referred  to  her  work  as  "alto- 
gether female,"  meaning  that  she  spoke  her  mind  and  didn't  hide  her 
identity.14  Documenting  the  fraying  American  social  fabric  of  the  1970s, 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 7 


Joan  Didion  redefined  what  people  and  places  were  "newsworthy"  and,  in 
magazine  articles,  recorded  her  own  reactions  to  the  scenes  she  encoun- 
tered.15 Not  all  of  these  journalists  thought  of  themselves  as  "women 
writers,"  yet  all  wrote  subjectively,  connecting  with  their  subjects  as  well 
as  their  readers. 

For  more  than  1 50  years,  subjectivity  has  been  the  editorial  founda- 
tion of  women's  magazines,  from  Godey's  Lady's  Book  to  Ms.,  and  this  may 
be  one  reason  for  their  journalistic  marginalization.  Their  common  use  of 
first  person  and  the  overt  connection  their  editors  make  with  readers 
(these  magazines  are  nearly  a  conversation:  there  is  definitely  someone  on 
the  other  end)  remove  their  content  from  the  realm  of  objectivity,  as  does 
their  subject  matter — relationships,  parenting,  health,  and  other  service 
material — which  is  rarely  considered  "news"  or  "real  journalism." 

Yet  in  other  contemporary  settings,  some  female  journalists  have 
been  taken  more  seriously  when  they've  rejected  the  rhetoric  of  objectiv- 
ity. Yunghi  Kim,  a  female  photojournalist  who  has  won  international 
honors  and  has  been  a  Pulitzer  finalist  for  her  depiction  of  poverty  in 
Africa,  believes  that  her  success  is  due  in  large  part  to  the  fact  that  she 
empathizes  with  the  people  she  photographs:  "There  has  to  be  a  bonding 
with  my  subjects,"  she  says.  Another  female  journalist  did  Win  the  Pulitzer 
Prize  when  she  put  herself  into  the  story.  When  she  began  working  for 
The  New  York  Times  in  the  1970s,  Anna  Quindlen  believed  "that  I  was 
meant  to  be  hidden  from  the  reader,  a  byline  without  a  face,  a  voyeur 
without  a  point  of  view.""  She  later  changed  her  mind  and  wrote  her 
prize-winning,  highly-personal  "Life  in  the  30s"  column,  which  cast  a 
mother's  life — her  own  life — as  journalism. 

The  Other  Side  of  the  Mirror 

Quindlen  uses  the  metaphor  of  a  one-way  mirror,  through  which  the 
examiners  can  see  the  examined,  but  not  the  other  way  around,  to  describe 
the  journalistic  objectivity  she  found  less  and  less  useful.  She  writes:  "I 
slipped  to  the  other  side  of  the  mirror.  It  was  an  odd  thing  to  do.  Even  I 
disapproved  of  it  somewhat.  I  grew  up  holding  a  third  person  to  my  chest, 
like  a  shield,  having  no  political  party  affiliation,  no  public  persona,  no 
expressed  opinions.  Suddenly  I  dropped  the  pretense,  and  week  after  week 
I  said  things  that  third  persons  do  not  say."  The  fact  that  she  won  the 
Pulitzer  Prize  for  doing  so  raises  the  interesting  notion  that  subjectivity 
may  not  only  be  not  a  bad  thing;  it  might  actually  be  a  good thing. 


1 1 8  Great  Ideas  •  Spring  1 999 


When  I  was  doing  women's  studies  coursework  during  my  doctoral 
studies,  I  was  struggling  through  the  writing  of  an  essay  that  asked  the 
same  question  we  tend  to  ask  at  our  conferences  and  in  our  classrooms: 
Can  journalists  really  be  objective?  A  fellow  graduate  student,  who  was  an 
anthropologist  and  a  filmmaker,  read  a  draft  of  this  work  and  offered  a 
margin  comment  that  I  (being,  after  all,  a  journalist)  found  astounding  at 
the  time.  She  wrote:  "Maybe  the  question  isn't  whether  'objective  truth'  is 
or  is  not  possible.  Maybe  the  question  is:  Why  is  the  concept  of  a  'subjec- 
tive truth'  devalued?  Why  is  it  associated  with  lack  of  truth?'"' 

Scientist  Sandra  Harding,  whom  I  quoted  earlier  in  this  essay,  makes 
a  similar  point.  She  advocates  what  she  calls  "strong  objectivity,"  a 
methodology  that  is  informed,  rather  than  tainted,  by  the  researcher's 
acknowledgment  of  his  or  her  point  of  view.  This  is  otherwise  known  as 
standpoint  epistemology,  the  theme  of  the  most  recent  work  I've  read  by  a 
feminist  scholar  on  this  subject  in  our  field,  an  article  in  the  May  1998 
Communication  Theory  in  which  Meenakshi  Gigi  Durham  calls  for  new 
journalistic  standards  requiring  reporters  to  "summon  a  critical,  reflective 
consciousness  as  part  of  reporting."  In  this  view,  incorporating  one's  own 
bias  becomes  part  of  professional  method. 

Durham's  theoretical  critique  echoes  the  debates  underway  in  other 
disciplines;  it  is  also  remarkably  similar  to  Quindlen's  description  of  her 
work  for  The  New  York  Times.  None  of  the  writers  whose  work  I've 
discussed  in  this  essay  has  suggested  abandoning  professional  ethics.  Yet 
they  all  envision  a  reformulation  of  the  goal  of  objectivity  into  one  of 
accountability,  a  model  for  practice  that  turns  on  metaphors  of  connec- 
tion rather  than  detachment,  of  visibility  rather  than  invisibility.  And  the 
journalists  among  them  have  done  so  for  some  time — suggesting  that 
what  we  think  of  as  a  modern  debate  may  in  fact  be  a  historical  one.  They 
ask  us,  as  my  classmate  did,  to  consider  the  value  of  "subjective  truth." 
They  call  for  our  willingness  to  see  our  own  shadow  on  the  page.  As 
journalists  and  as  scholars,  we  might  consider,  and  encourage  our  students 
to  imagine,  how  that  shadow  shapes  both  news  and  history. 


Endnotes 


1.  Catherine  L.  Covert,  "Journalism  History  and  Women's  Experience:  A  Problem  in  Conceptual 
Change,"  Journalism  History  8,  no.  1  (Spring  1981),  2-6;  Brenda  Dervin,  "The  Potential  Contribu- 
tion of  Feminist  Scholarship  to  the  Field  of Communication ,"  Journal  of Communication  37,  no.  4 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 9 


(Autumn  1987),  107-121;  Linda  Steiner,  "Feminist  Theorizing  and  Communication  Ethics," 
Communication  12  (1989),  157-173.  Covert  suggested  a  reconsideration  of  historical  time  in  light  of 
women's  life  experiences.  Dervin  notes  that  feminist  scholarship  offers  a  model  of  work  that  is  "self- 
reflexive  about  the  relationship  and  responsibility  of  the  researcher  to  the  researched"  (109),  while 
Steiner  considers  the  usefulness  of  feminist  theory  in  re-evaluating  journalism  ethics,  including  what 
she  called  "the  'objectification'  of  mass  media  'subjects'"  (169). 

2.  Nor,  clearly,  is  the  critical  analysis  of  objectivity  solely  a  feminist  enterprise.  Many  of  the 
questions  I  raise  here  have  previously  been  raised  by  male  scholars  who  have  taken  a  historical  view 
(and  on  whose  work  I  also  draw)  including  Michael  Schudson,  Origins  of  the  Ideal  of  Objectivity  in  the 
Professions  (New  York:  Garland,  1990);  Jay  Rosen,  Getting  the  Connections  Right:  Public  Journalism  and 
the  Troubles  in  the  Press  (New  York:  Twentieth  Century  Fund  Press,  1996);  and  David  T  Z.  Mindich, 
Just  the  Facts:  How  "Objectivity"  Came  to  Define  American  journalism  (New  York:  New  York  University 
Press,  1998). 

3.  Daniel  Schorr,  Clearing  the  Air  (Boston:  Houghton  Mifflin,  1977),  viii. 

4.  Joan  Wallach  Scott,  "Women's  History,"  in  American  Feminist  Thought  at  Century's  End,  ed. 
Linda  S.  Kaufman  (Cambridge,  MA:  Blackwell,  1993),  238-39. 

5.  Bonnie  G.  Smith,  "Gender,  Objectivity,  and  the  Rise  of  Scientific  History,"  in  Objectivity  and  Its 
Other,  ed.  Wolfgang  Natter,  Theodore  R.  Schatzki,  and  John  Paul  Jones  III  (New  York  and  London: 
Guilford  Press,  1995),  64. 

6.  Jane  Tompkins,  "Me  and  My  Shadow,"  in  The  Intimate  Critique:  Autobiographical  literary 
Criticism,  ed.  Diane  P.  Freedman,  Olivia  Frey,  and  Frances  Murphy  Zauhar  (Durham:  Duke 
University  Press,  1993),  31. 

7.  Carol  Smart,  Feminism  and  the  Power  of  Law  (New  York:  Routledge,  1989),  10;  Kathleen  A. 
Lahey,  "Reasonable  Women  and  the  Law,"  in  At  the  Boundaries  of  Law:  Feminism  and  Legal  Theory, 
ed.  Martha  Albertson  Fineman  and  Nancy  Sweet  Thomdsen  (New  York:  Routledge,  1991),  5. 

8.  Dorothy  E.  Smith,  The  Conceptual  Practices  of  Power:  A  Feminist  Sociology  of  Knowledge  (Boston: 
Northeastern  University  Press,  1990),  22-23. 

9.  Sandra  Harding,  Whose  Science?  Whose  Knowledge?  Thinking  from  Women's  Lives  (Ithaca,  NY: 
Cornell  University  Press,  1991),  158. 

10.  Donna  J.  Haraway,  "Situated  Knowledges:  The  Science  Question  in  Feminism  and  the  Privilege 
of  Partial  Perspective,"  in  Simians,  Cyborgs,  and  Women:  The  Reinvention  of  Nature  (New  York: 
Routledge,  1991),  196. 

11.  Virginia  Woolf,  A  Room  of  One's  Own  (New  York:  Harcourt  Brace  Jovanovich,  1929),  103. 

12.  Among  a  number  of  sources  that  recount  the  careers  of  Fern  and  Croly  is  Maurine  Beasley  and 
Sheila  Gibbons,  Taking  their  Place:  A  Documentary  History  of  Women  and  Journalism  (Washington, 
DC:  American  University  Press,  1993). 

13.  Bernice  Slote,  ed.,  The  Kingdom  of  Art:  Willa  Cather's  First  Principles  and  Critical  Statements, 
1839-1902  (Lincoln:  University  of  Nebraska  Press,  1966),  27,  based  on  accounts  of  the  speech  in  the 
Nebraska  State  Journal  (31  January  and  1  February  1896)  and  the  Beatrice  [NE]  Weekly  Express  (6 
February  1896). 

14.  Quoted  in  Anna  Quindlen,  Thinking  Out  Loud:  On  the  Personal  the  Political,  the  Public  and  the 
Private  (New  York:  Random  House,  1993),  xvii,  xxvii. 

15.  Many  of  these  articles,  which  originally  appeared  in  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  Esquire,  Life, 
Vogue,  and  other  magazines,  are  collected  in  The  White  Album  (New  York:  Pocket  Books,  1979)  and 
Slouching  Towards  Bethlehem  (New  York:  Pocket  Books,  1981). 

16.  Quoted  in  Sherry  Ricchiardi,  "Getting  the  Picture,"  American  Journalism  Review  (January/ 
February  1998),  29. 

17.  Quindlen,  Thinking  Out  Loud,  xix. 

18.  Anna  Quindlen,  "Life  in  the  30's,"  The  New  York  Times  (1  December  1988),  CI. 

19.  This  comment  was  made  by  Francesca  Soans  of  Temple  University  during  the 
spring  of  1996. 

20.  Harding,  Whose  Science?,  16  1. 

21.  Meenakshi  Gigi  Durham,  "On  the  Relevance  of  Standpoint  Epistemology  to  the 
Practice  of  Journalism:  The  Case  for  'Strong  Objectivity,"'  Communication  Theory  8,  no.  2  (May 
1998),  133. 


1 20  Great  Ideas  •  Spring  1 999 


Book  Reviews 


In  this  issue,  we  are  returning  to  our  roots  to  take  a  long  look  at  some 
recent  publications  in  journalism  history.  As  always,  the  field  is  enriched  with 
a  treasure  ofinew  goods  including  a  fine  study  of  the  suffragist  movement  and 
the  press,  memories  of  an  editor  who  worked  on  Fleet  Street  in  London,  the 
tale  of  the  Binghams  of  the  Louisville,  Kentucky,  press  family,  a  collection  of 
dispatches  issued  during  the  Russian  Revolution,  a  study  of  the  relationship  of 
the  French  press  and  the  US  Civil  War,,  a  fine  study  of  the  Fombstone, 
Arizona,  wild  west  journal  The  Epitaph  and  a  look  at  Hollyivood  betiveen 
1918  and  1939.  Of  course,  we  will  open  with  the  editors  choice,  a  book  that 
pays  homage  and  respect  to  media  historians  by  a  journalist  with  a  creative 
bent  relating  to  one  of  the  most  significant  events  in  early  20th  Century 
America. 

>  David  R.  Spencer,  Book  Review  Editor 


/  Editor's  Choice 


Big  Trouble 

By  J.  Anthony  Lukas,  New  York,  N.Y.:  Touchstone  Books,  1998,  875  pp. 

When  I  first  picked  up  a  copy  of  J.  Anthony  Lukas'  Big  Frouble  at 
the  Pittsburgh  Airport,  I  did  not  think  at  the  time  that  the  work  would  be 
one  which  I  would  want  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  media  scholars.  After 
all,  this  heavyweight,  875  page  volume  is  the  history  of  the  murder  trials 
of  three  western  miners'  union  leaders  in  early  20th  century  Idaho.  So, 
what  do  Big  Bill  Haywood,  Charles  Moyer  and  George  Pettibone  have  in 
common  with  the  press?  Plenty,  it  turns  out.  But  before  launching  into 
Lukas'  interesting  perspectives  on  Gilded  Age  media,  a  summary  of  the 
book's  contents  are  in  order. 

Fundamentally,  the  book  tells  the  story  of  the  murder  of  retired 
Idaho  Governor  Frank  Steunenberg  at  Christmastime  in  1905. 
Steunenberg  had  presided  over  one  of  the  most  difficult  periods  of  Idaho 
history  when  miners  in  the  Coeur  d'Alene  region  rebelled  violently 
against  the  autocratic  rule  of  the  area's  mine  owners.  Although  his  loyalties 
were  never  clear,  miners  thought  that  the  Governor  was  the  agent  of  the 
owners.  And  of  course,  the  owners  were  unhappy  with  Steunenberg  over 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  121 


what  they  felt  were  fairly  lenient  approaches  to  the  miners.  Then,  some- 
one planted  a  bomb  at  the  ex-Governor's  gate,  sending  him  into  eternity 
and  igniting  a  class  struggle  for  the  heart  of  America  which  eventually 
superseded  the  intensity  of  the  Haymarket  Affair  and  its  aftermath. 

I  can  say  with  sincerity  that  Anthony  Lukas  is  a  gifted  writer.  This 
book  puts  to  bed  the  concept  that  only  professional  scholars  can  research 
and  write  meaningful  history.  Lukas  has  the  touch  that  made  William  L. 
Shirer's  many  writings  so  vivid,  so  colorful  and  so  exciting.  As  we  know, 
Shirer's  German  memoirs  of  Adolf  Hitler  in  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Third 
Reich  were  treated  with  a  disdain  bordering  on  contempt  by  leading 
members  of  the  Northeastern  historical  establishment  who  implied  that 
such  a  work  by  an  amateur  must  be  filled  with  errors  and  conjecture. 
After  all,  Shirer  was  a  journalist,  not  a  historian. 

Lukas  begins  his  tale  by  taking  us  to  the  scene  of  the  activity.  He 
paints  a  vivid  picture  of  life  in  Caldwell,  Idaho,  the  home  town  of  Frank 
Steunenberg.  One  by  one,  the  major  characters  in  the  ex-Governor's 
political  and  business  careers  begin  to  appear,  each  given  sufficient  space 
that  the  reader  begins  to  think  he/she  will  eventually  know  these  people 
on  a  familiar  if  not  intimate  basis.  After  "coloring"  life  in  Idaho,  Lukas 
takes  us  to  rough  and  ready  Denver,  Colorado,  where  the  Western 
Federation  of  Miners,  under  its  bombastic  leader  Big  Bill  Haywood,  is 
headquartered.  It  is  here  that  the  story  begins  to  unfold  with  Haywood 
and  his  cronies  pitted  not  only  against  the  government  of  Colorado  and 
the  mine  owners  but  a  man  who  is  referred  to  throughout  the  text  as  "The 
Great  Detective,"  Pinkerton  agent  James  McParlan.  McParlan  had 
become  a  legend  in  his  own  time  for  his  work  in  infiltrating  the  Molly 
Maguires  in  Pennsylvania  some  years  previous.  It  is  McParlan  who 
succeeds  in  orchestrating  the  abduction  of  Haywood,  Moyer  and 
Pettibone  who  are  spirited  by  rail  from  Denver  to  Boise  throughout  the 
night  to  an  uncertain  fate  in  front  of  a  jury. 

So  why  should  this  book  mean  something  to  journalism  historians? 
For  one,  Lukas  uses  newspapers  as  sources  to  define  many  of  the  lesser 
known  but  critical  factors  in  the  case.  But  more  significantly,  he  devotes 
55  pages  titled  "Gentlemen  of  the  Press"  to  discuss  the  behaviour  of  the 
journalism  community  at  Haywood's  trial.  The  chapter  is  gripping,  as  is 
much  of  Lukas'  dialogue.  It  is  here  that  we  see  the  pursuit  of  story,  the 
commercialization  of  the  press  and  the  implications  of  what  it  means  to 
have  a  press  war  take  place  thousands  of  miles  from  the  scene  of  the 
action.  Lukas  lines  up  the  characters  on  two  sides  of  an  imaginary  line, 
those  journalists  who  favor  Haywood  and  write  for  his  acquittal  and  those 


122  Book  Reviews  •  Spring  1999 


who  seem  to  be  in  the  back  pockets  of  the  mine  owners  and  their  friends 
in  the  political  establishment  who  are  advocating  conviction  and  execu- 
tion. In  one  instance,  he  tells  the  tale  of  how  a  group  of  leading  reporters 
for  metropolitan  dailies  get  access  to  Harry  Orchard,  a  convicted  criminal 
and  the  leading  state  witness  against  Haywood  while  the  socialist  papers, 
in  particular  Julius  Augustus  Wayland's  The  Appeal  to  Reason  are  not 
invited  to  share  the  moment.  Lukas  notes  that  the  newspaper  reporters  are 
seated  in  the  courtroom  by  their  specific  approach  to  the  trial.  Those 
sympathetic  to  conviction  are  given  the  best  seats  and  the  best  facilities 
while  those  writing  in  favor  of  the  accused  are  shuffled  off  to  the  back  of 
the  courtroom. 

This  is  in  reality  a  book  about  characters.  Throughout  its  pages,  we 
are  introduced  to  Ethel  Barrymore,  baseball  great  Walter  Johnson, 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  railroad  entrepreneur  E.  H.  Harriman,  William 
Allen  White,  Eugene  Debs  and  of  course  Haywood's  defense  attorney 
Clarence  Darrow.  This  is  both  one  of  the  book's  major  strengths,  but  also 
one  of  its  weaknesses.  There  were  many  times  when  the  Haywood  story 
took  a  back  seat  to  what  the  author  must  have  considered  enriching 
information.  Without  significant  powers  of  concentration,  it  is  highly 
likely  that  the  reader  could  get  lost  in  what  seemed  to  be  a  multiplicity  of 
sub-plots  and  diversions. 

Reading  this  book  takes  work.  It  is  best  to  digest  it  in  small  pieces.  It 
is  very  dense,  almost  a  complete  lesson  in  American  history  in  the  com- 
pact period  between  Haywood's  arrest  and  his  acquittal.  Yet,  it  is  worth 
the  effort.  It  is  a  finely  crafted  piece  not  only  of  scholarship  but  of 
journalism.  Its  57  pages  of  notes  in  what  appears  to  be  six  point  Times 
Roman  type  speak  to  the  work  that  Lukas  put  into  researching  and 
writing  this  story.  He  notes  that  the  murder  "sets  ofTa  struggle  for  the  Soul 
of  America"  in  a  time  period  when  the  threat  of  class  warfare  was  looming 
on  the  horizon  of  a  society  in  the  creation  process.  It  is  not  often  that  we  get 
this  kind  of  intense  contribution  by  a  journalist  who  speaks  to  journalism 
history  as  a  major  player  in  a  major  event.  Let  us  hope  we  get  more. 

>  David  R.  Spencer,  University  of  Western  Ontario 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  123 


Dispatches  From  The  Revolution:  Russia  1916-1918 

By  Morgan  Philips  Price  &  Tania  Rose,  (eds.),  Durham,  NC:  Duke 
University  Press,  1998.  175  pp. 

It  is  hard  to  imagine  how  anyone  could  have  been  more  qualified  to 
cover  the  Russian  Revolution  than  Morgan  Philips  Price.  When  he 
became  the  Manchester  Guardians  special  correspondent  to  Russia  in 
1914,  he  was  29  years  old,  had  traveled  extensively  throughout  Russia 
since  he  was  25,  and  spoke  fluent  Russian.  He  stayed  in  Russia  through 
1918,  writing  for  the  Guardian  even  after  his  dispatches  had  stopped 
appearing  by  demand  of  the  British  censors.  When  he  could  no  longer 
depend  on  money  from  Britain,  he  took  a  job  as  a  translator  for  the 
revolutionary  government.  At  the  end  of  1918,  he  moved  to  Berlin, 
where  he  served  as  correspondent  for  the  Daily  Herald  until  he  returned 
to  Britain  in  1923. 

His  coverage  of,  and  later  participation  in,  the  revolution  caused  a 
great  change  in  Price.  When  he  first  went  to  Russia,  it  was  as  a  capitalist, 
representing  his  family's  timber  business.  By  the  time  he  left,  he  was 
firmly  convinced  that  the  world's  salvation  lay  in  the  rise  of  the  working 
classes  to  dominate  governments.  As  his  political  views  changed  near  the 
end  of  the  revolution,  he  even  began  writing  propaganda  pamphlets  for 
the  revolutionary  government.  This  gradual  change  in  attitude  is  reflected 
in  his  dispatches,  and  adds  complexity  to  a  fascinating  view  of  one  of  the 
most  critical  events  in  history. 

In  his  foreword  to  the  book,  Eric  Hobsbawm  points  out  that  Price's 
writings  about  the  Russian  revolution  have  been  largely  forgotten,  and 
that  this  book,  edited  by  Price's  daughter,  Tania  Rose,  "is  an  extraordinar- 
ily valuable  compilation  of  Price's  published  and  unpublished  writings 
about  the  Russian  Revolution,  many  of  them  hitherto  virtually  or  entirely 
inaccessible."  The  purpose  of  the  book,  however,  is  not  entirely  clear.  It 
does,  in  fact,  include  many  unpublished  letters,  but  much  of  the  most 
critical  content  is  reprinted  from  his  previous  books  and  newspaper 
accounts. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  book  could  not  stand  alone  as  a  comprehen- 
sive history  of  the  Russian  Revolution,  but  is  most  valuable  as  contextual 
material  for  people  already  familiar  with  events  of  the  period.  It  is,  rather, 
like  a  series  of  snapshots.  Rose,  recognizing  the  need  for  more  historic 
information,  provides  introductory  essays  to  each  chapter,  an  epilogue, 
biographical  notes,  and  explanatory  notes  and  references.  These  elements 
do  provide  historical  context,  but  unfortunately  they  also  tend  to  make 

124  Book  Reviews  •  Spring  1 999 


for  a  lot  of  paging  back  and  forth.  The  difference  in  writing  style  between 
Rose's  connecting  sections,  Price's  articles,  his  formal  letters,  and  his 
informal  notes  and  postcards  adds  to  the  problem.  One  result  of  this 
disjointedness  is  that  concepts  are  sometimes  introduced  and  either  never 
pursued,  or  followed  up  so  much  later  that  the  original  reference  has  been 
forgotten. 

The  notes  and  index  are  generally  quite  good,  and  add  to  the  book's 
usefulness  as  a  reference  work,  but  are  not  without  gaps.  For  example, 
Rose,  in  her  introduction,  refers  to  Arthur  Ransome  and  John  Reed,  two 
other  correspondents  in  Russia  during  the  time  Price  was  there.  The 
biographical  notes  include  helpful  background  information  about  Reed, 
but  Ransome  is  excluded.  Rose's  writing  in  the  introduction,  historical 
sections  in  each  chapter,  and  epilogue  is  functional,  solid  and  businesslike, 
but  not  very  exciting.  Price's  writing  is  varied,  sometimes  a  bit  workman- 
like, but  more  often  quite  colorful  and  evocative.  Not  surprisingly,  he  is  at 
his  weakest  when  compiling  factual  information  from  the  Russian  press  to 
keep  his  British  audience  appraised  about  political  and  economic  events 
in  Russia.  It  doesn't  help  non-British  readers  that  he  sometimes  likens 
these  events  to  British  situations  of  the  time.  For  example,  to  explain  a 
particularly  complex  political  point,  he  says,  "A  similar  situation  would  be 
created  in  England  if  the  Conservatives  and  Liberal  Imperialists  ceased  to 
exist  and  the  Radicals  and  the  Labour  Parry  were  defending  the  national 
idea  of  British  democracy  against  the  Independent  Labour  Party  and  the 
British  Socialist  Party,  standing  for  the  dictatorship  of  the  Trade  Union 
Congress  and  the  international  Parliament  of  labour."  Oh,  right! 

When  giving  eyewitness  accounts,  however,  his  writing  is  much 
more  expressive,  as  in  his  description  of  Kerensky's  rebuttal  of  Lenin:  "He 
paused  and  walked  slowly  across  the  platform  towards  the  corner  where 
the  group  surrounding  Lenin  sat.  Not  a  sound  was  heard  in  the  great  hall, 
and  we  waited  spellbound  for  the  next  sentence.  'I  will  not  be  the  dictator 
that  you  are  trying  to  make,'  and  so  saying  he  turned  his  back  scornfully 
upon  Lenin,  while  the  assembled  delegates  thundered  their  applause."  It  is 
when  Price  leaves  the  city,  however,  to  travel  throughout  the  Asian 
provinces  and  give  the  common  peoples'  reactions  to  the  revolution,  that 
his  work  really  shines.  For  20  pages  in  the  middle  of  the  book,  he  evokes  a 
picture  of  the  people — their  situations  and  their  surroundings — so 
compelling  as  to  draw  readers  in  completely.  It  is  in  this  section  that  it 
becomes  clear  just  how  different  the  situations  were  for  the  various 
groups,  from  the  peasants  of  the  northern  Volga  region  who  lived  under 


Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 25 


such  tyrannical  rule  of  the  landlords  that  they  couldn't  kill  them  and 
divide  up  their  land  quickly  enough,  to  the  Cossacks  of  the  East  who 
already  held  their  land  communally,  even  redistributing  it  every  25  years. 

Despite  a  few  inherent  shortcomings,  Dispatches  from  the  Revolution 
is  a  fascinating  insider's  look  at  events  surrounding  the  Russian  Revolu- 
tion. It  provides  insights  on  some  aspects  of  the  period  that  might  not  be 
available  through  other  means.  In  discussing  the  effect  of  World  War  I  on 
the  revolution,  for  example,  Price  says:  "The  war  and  the  desire  to  end  it 
is  the  one  thing  that  links  the  confused  social  mass  together  in  this  third 
stage  of  the  Revolution,  and  as  soon  as  there  is  peace  it  will  break  up  into 
its  component  parts  and  create  new  combinations  and  coalitions  for  the 
political  struggle  in  the  fourth  stage." 

Price  offers  political  insights  informed  both  by  the  fact  that  he 
was — for  the  most  part — an  objective  observer,  while,  concurrently  more 
knowledgeable  about  the  situations  of  the  various  groups  than  almost 
anyone  else  at  the  time.  It  was  this  dual  role  that  allowed  him,  for  ex- 
ample, to  say  about  the  Moslems  in  Turkestan:  "Needless  to  say,  they  are 
quite  unaffected  by  the  programme  of  the  Russian  Socialist  Revolutionary 
Party.  'Land  and  Liberty'  has  no  meaning  for  them.  No  one  in  Turkestan 
wants  land  because  it  is  all  desert.  But  everyone  wants  water,  and  no  party 
has  come  forward  promising  'Water  and  Liberty'  because  the  water  in 
Turkestan  depends  not  on  the  political  situation  in  Petrograd  but  on  the 
snowfall  in  the  Pamir  plateau.  "This  book  offers  a  perspective  on  the 
Russian  Revolution  that  only  a  person  such  as  Price — and  he  may  have 
been  unique  in  the  situation,  a  foreign  journalist  living  as  a  Russian 
during  the  revolution — to  see  the  reality  of  the  situation  in  terms  such  as: 
"Let  it  be  remembered  that  we  are  dealing  here  with  180  million  people 
covering  the  greater  part  of  two  continents,  in  which  the  industrial  system 
of  Western  Europe  has  only  just  begun  to  exist.  Now  three  years  of  war 
has  simply  destroyed  this  tender  plant  and  has  reduced  the  country  to  the 
economic  state  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages.  This  is  indeed  a  fact." 

>Roy  E.  Blackwood,  Bemidji  State  University 

Fleet  Street  Around  the  Clock 

By  Gordon  Allan,  London,  England:  The  Alpha  Press,  1998,  75  pp. 

As  Gordon  Allan  asserts  in  the  preface,  "This  is  the  story,  different 
in  detail,  but  no  different  in  kind  from  many  others,  of  one  provincial 


126  Book  Reviews  •  Spring  1999 


who  came  to  Fleet  Street  when  it  was  Fleet  Street  ..."  But  this  brief 
memoir  is  also  about  "Newspaper  life  before  laptops  replaced  typewriters 
and  hot  metal  now  relegated  to  the  past .  .  .  the  days  when  Fleet  Street  — 
the  real  Fleet  Street  — was  the  goal  of  every  young  journalist  with  .  .  . 
ambition  .  .  .  [and]  .  .  .  the  sense  of  learning  the  craft  of  writing  for  a 
newspaper  was  paramount." 

Allan  was  one  of  these  aspiring  young  men  in  post- World  War  II 
Britain  who  entered  journalism  directly  from  secondary  school  (in  Allan's 
case,  the  Aberdeen  Grammar  School)  and  who,  after  an  apprenticeship  on 
two  Scottish  newspapers,  migrated  to  London.  In  the  metropolis,  his 
career  in  Fleet  Street  was  spent  mostly  on  The  Times  before  the 
"Thunderer"  left  "The  Street  of  Ink"  for  Wapping  in  the  resuscitated  East 
London.  Working  mostly  as  a  sub-editor  (often  laboring  in  exhausting 
night  shifts)  and  stints  as  a  sports  reporter  and  columnist,  Allan  was  able 
to  observe  and  know  prominent  newspapermen  and  editors.  He  provides 
some  very  perceptive  thumbnail  sketches  of  these  worthies.  Equally 
important  are  his  accounts  of  the  year-long  closure  of  The  Times  in  1979 
and,  as  ordered  by  the  newspaper  mogul,  Rupert  Murdoch,  the  overnight 
move  of  the  paper  from  Gray's  Inn  Road  to  Wapping. 

Always  interested  in  creative  writing  as  a  youth,  Allan  primed 
himself  for  a  career  in  journalism  by  studying  the  Kemsley  Manual  of 
Journalism  and  Whitaker's  Almanack  and  began  work  as  a  low  ranker  on 
the  Aberdeen  Evening  Express,  the  Press  and  Journal,  and  the  Weekly 
Journal.  His  first  job  in  London  was  in  the  Daily  Telegraph's  sub-editors 
room,  which  was  not  a  "happy  office",  especially  under  the  irascible  Brian 
Roberts  and  his  successor,  the  dreadful,  ruthlessly  ambitious  Peter 
Eastwood.  As  Allan  wryly  notes  of  these  notorious  Fleet  Street  ogres, 
Roberts  and  Eastwood  had  charming  sides,  but  that  was  forgotten  when  the 
other  side  was  so  objectionable.  Under  Eastwood,  "the  harassed  sub-editors 
were  forced  to  waste  much  time  going  back  over  previous  work  to  correct 
alleged  mistakes  and  contravention  of  style  pounced  on  by  Eastwood."  As 
Allan  notes,  ".  .  .  it  is  a  miracle  the  paper  ever  came  out .  .  .  ."  After  a  year 
of  this  tyranny,  Allan  left  the  Telegraph  for  a  year  of  work  on  the  Edinburgh 
Scotsman  in  the  early  1960s,  but  he  returned  to  London  to  work  briefly 
with  the  Press  Association  and  Reuters  before  joining  The  Times  in  1965  as 
sports  sub-editor  and  occasional  columnist  and  here  he  remained  until 
retirement  and  work  as  a  free-lancer. 

In  these  reminiscences,  Allan  also  provides  some  interesting  portraits 
of  that  accomplished  Times  Sports  Editor,  John  Hennessy,  and  the  gifted 

Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 27 


team  of  sports  correspondents  he  had  assembled  who  made  The  Times. 
one  of  the  best  British  papers  on  sports  news.  Another  one  of  Allan's  great 
heroes  is  the  renowned  doyen  of  cricket  writers  and  music  critics,  Neville 
Cardus.  And,  of  course,  there  is  Allan's  appreciation  of  Louis  Heren,  the 
son  of  a  Times  printer,  brought  up  in  the  rough  East  End,  who  spent  a 
lifetime  in  the  service  of  The  Times  rising  from  messenger  boy  to  star 
foreign  correspondent  and  Deputy  Editor.  He  died  a  disappointed  man 
because  the  Editorship  which  would  have  crowned  his  life's  work,  eluded 
him  because  of  his  plebeian  background  and,  no  doubt,  his  lack  of 
Oxbridge  credentials. 

One  of  Allan's  most  interesting  accounts  is  his  work  as  a  "stone  sub" 
—  the  sub-editor  who  remains  behind,  after  every  one  has  gone,  to  work 
with  the  notoriously  rough  and  independent-minded  printers  on  page 
changes  for  later  editions  of  the  paper.  He  also  endured  industrial  mal- 
practice and  unofficial  strikes  in  the  production  and  clerical  departments 
which  led  to  the  year  long  closure  of  The  Times  and  the  move  to  Wapping. 
According  to  Allan,  the  move  and  Rupert  Murdoch's  proprietorship  did 
not  make  the  paper  better. 

Allan  also  has  some  interesting  things  to  say  about  novels  based  on 
the  Fleet  Street  experience  and  what  they  depict  of  the  reality  of  journal- 
ists and  their  work  in  London.  Thus,  while  some  deem  Philip  Gibbs' 
Street  of  Adventure  (1909)  as  probably  having  persuaded  more  young  men 
to  take  up  journalism  as  a  career  than  any  other  book  of  the  same  genre, 
Allan  rates  Alphonse  Courlander's  Mightier  than  the  Sword  (1912)  as  far 
better  than  Gibbs'  work  because  it  views  a  journalist's  life  and  career  in 
terms  of  tragedy  rather  than  romance.  Courlander  knew  his  subject  well, 
as  a  result  of  his  long  work  on  the  Daily  Express  under  the  legendary 
editor,  R.  D.  Blumenfeld,  and  as  the  paper's  ace  Paris  correspondent.  But 
despite  Courlander's  view  of  Fleet  Street,  Allan  is  convinced  that  newspa- 
per life  does  not  seem  to  lend  itself  to  fiction,  and  when  journalists  do 
appear  in  novels  "they  are  usually  cliche  characters,  unhappily  married 
and  potential  alcoholics 

Allan  concludes  his  discursive  memoir  with  some  pessimistic 
observations  on  present  day  journalism,  such  as  the  "death"  of  the  news- 
paper essayist,  "killed  by  the  hysterical  desire  of  modern  journalists  to  be 
topical  on  all  subjects  and  at  any  cost."  Yet,  with  (and  despite)  all  of  its 
innovations,  Allan  is  convinced  that  The  Times  is  [still]  "the  paper  that .  .  . 
does  .  .  .  things  best." 

>J.  O.  Baylen  (Emeritus),  Eastbourne,  England 


128  Book  Reviews  •  Spring  1999 


French  Newspapers'  Opinion  on  the  American  Civil  War 

By  George  M.  Blackburn,  Westport,  CT:  Greenwood  Press,  1997,  176  pp. 

In  this  book,  George  M.  Blackburn  confirms  an  assertion  that 
historians  of  Europe  in  the  1860s  have  made  convincingly  for  decades: 
the  French,  like  other  Europeans,  were  fascinated  by  the  causes  and 
contours  of  the  American  Civil  War,  and  followed  with  great  interest  the 
events  of  the  conflict.  In  France,  a  considerable  amount  of  journalists'  ink 
was  spilled  in  covering  the  War  Between  the  States,  a  fact  that  reveals 
much  about  French  ideology  and  statesmen  in  the  age  of  the  Second 
Empire  (1852-71),  when  executive  authority  outweighed  democratic 
voice.  "  [Politically  aware  Frenchmen  perceived  the  American  Civil  War 
as  an  acid  test  of  the  legitimacy  and  viability  of  democratic  institutions 
not  only  in  America,  but  also  in  France." 

Blackburn  approaches  French  attitudes  through  an  examination  of 
war  coverage  in  75  newspapers,  Parisian  and  provincial.  In  their  treat- 
ments, the  issue  of  slavery  was  not  the  decisive  factor:  all  French  newspa- 
pers seemed  clearly  to  denounce  the  practice.  The  most  important 
division  between  newspapers,  the  author  asserts,  was  ideological:  conser- 
vative editors  and  writers  (Legitimists,  pro-Bourbon  Catholics,  and 
supporters  of  Napoleon  III)  decried  the  War  as  bald  northern  aggression 
and  an  assault  on  constitutional  right  and  social  order;  liberal  editors  and 
writers  (Orleanists,  liberal  Catholics,  and  republicans)  viewed  the  conflict 
as  a  just  war  for  democracy,  individual  freedom  and  economic  liberalism. 

This  depiction  of  1860s  French  political  thinking  is  not  new;  several 
antecedent  studies  have  long  identified  these  patterns.  The  novel  assertion 
in  Blackburn's  work  is  that  contemporary  newspapers  serve  as  a  reliable 
index  to  those  views.  Previously  dismissed  by  scholars  as  "unfree,"  venal, 
and  inordinately  coloured  by  domestic  political  ramifications,  French 
newspapers  contained  instead  genuine  reflections  of  their  editors'  and 
writers'  views,  and  the  consistency  of  their  treatments  of  the  War  attest  to 
this  fact.  Blackburn  traces  conservative  and  liberal  editorial  coverage  of 
the  War  chronologically  in  eight  chapters  from  the  1 860  American 
election,  through  the  Trent  Affair  (1861),  the  Cotton  Crisis  (1862-3), 
French  overtures  in  mediation  (1862-3),  and  the  consequences  of  the 
war's  conclusion. 

The  book's  argument  is  generally  credible:  French  newspapers  did 
reflect  the  discourse  in  French  politics  generated  by  the  American  Civil 
War.  Even  so,  this  book  contains  several  faults  that,  put  together,  reduce 
the  overall  impact  that  this  book  will  have  in  the  study  of  foreign  views  of 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  129 


the  Civil  War  and  in  journalism  history.  Blackburn's  book  fails  to  establish 
the  significance  of  French  newspaper  opinion  on  the  Civil  War,  either  as  it 
related  to  the  United  States,  or  as  it  related  to  France.  Ultimately,  one 
wonders:  did  French  views  matter  much  to  American  combatants?  (and 
relatedly,  if  not,  why  has  this  volume  been  placed  in  a  series  entitled 
"Contributions  in  American  History"?)  Perhaps  more  pointedly,  did  the 
War  effect  any  long-term  change  in  French  political  culture?  Extending 
the  analysis  to  the  mid- 1870s,  or  beyond,  might  have  afforded  the  author 
the  opportunity  to  make  a  broader  and  more  meaningful  assessment.  As  a 
result,  the  book's  conclusion  seems  obtuse. 

In  terms  of  method,  Blackburn's  examination  does  not  seem  to 
differentiate  between  types  of  newspaper  coverage.  Did  differences  in 
format — editorial  versus  routine  news  coverage — matter  qualitatively? 
Finally,  most  lacking  in  this  analysis  is  a  sense  of  the  personalities  involved 
in  newsmaking,  normally  one  of  the  most  colorful  and  influential  aspects 
of  journalism  history.  Notably  absent  in  Blackburn's  treatment  of  French 
journalism  is  a  sense  of  the  characters  of  editors  and  writers.  If  the  press, 
as  the  author  argues,  was  demonstrably  free,  who  exercised  this  liberty  and 
in  what  ways  were  their  personal  judgments  and  characters  reflected  in 
their  journalism?  Blackburn's  book  makes  a  contribution  to  the  history  of 
mid- 19th  century  journalism,  but  one  ultimately  that  falls  short  of  its 
potential  to  illuminate  fully  the  role  of  French  newspapers  as  a  medium 
connecting  the  Civil  War's  "discussion"  about  republican  liberty  and 
French  political  culture. 

>Andrew  C.  Holman,  Bridgewater  State  College 

Rampant  Women  Suffragists  and  the  Right  of  Assembly 

By  Linda  Lumsden,  Knoxville:  University  of  Tennessee  Press,  1997,  273  pp. 

In  her  introduction,  Linda  Lumsden  states  that  the  right  of  assem- 
bly provided  the  foundation  of  every  step  of  the  suffrage  campaign.  This 
crucial  link  between  the  right  to  peaceably  assemble  and  women's  struggle 
for  the  right  to  vote  is  explored  by  the  author  in  this  well-written  and 
engrossing  book. 

The  book  details  the  painstaking  struggle  of  women  to  overcome 
numerous  obstacles  to  win  the  right  to  vote.  Not  only  were  there  legal 
hurdles  to  overcome,  but  perhaps  even  more  in  evidence  were  deeply 
ingrained  social  barriers.  Women's  attempts  to  assemble  in  public  and  to 
attain  the  right  to  vote  and  the  full  citizenship  those  rights  implied  were 
seen  as  threats  to  the  social  order  and  to  the  way  women  were  viewed  by 


1 30  Book  Reviews  •  Spring  1 999 


society.  The  right  to  assemble  was  one  the  Founding  Fathers  intended  for 
men,  not  necessarily  women,  and  women  exercising  this  right  met  with 
criticisms  and  sanctions.  Lumsden  provides  a  review  of  women's  early 
attempts  to  exercise  the  right  to  gather  and  speak  publicly  in  a  male- 
dominated  society.  She  describes  Anne  Hutchison's  attempt  to  gather 
women  in  her  home  to  study  religion  in  1630,  which  led  to  Hutchison's 
banishment  by  the  authorities,  and  she  credits  the  abolition  movement's 
key  role  in  winning  women  their  right  to  speak  in  public,  noting  the 
contributions  of  particular  southern  women  abolitionists  and  the  criticism 
of  their  efforts. 

The  book's  organization  follows  the  progression  of  women's  use  of 
the  right  of  assembly.  The  author  devotes  a  chapter  each  to  the  right  of 
association  and  women's  use  of  it  in  suffrage  mass  meetings,  delegations, 
and  conventions;  their  use  of  open  air  meetings;  their  use  of  petitions; 
their  use  of  parades  to  build  support  for  the  movement;  their  staging  of 
pageants  to  gain  middle  and  upper-class  support,  and  their  use  of  pickets 
to  further  their  cause.  She  notes  the  importance  of  the  suffrage  conven- 
tions as  the  movement's  heart  and  as  gatherings  where  women  gained  the 
skills  and  confidence  they  needed  to  take  their  message  to  a  wider  audi- 
ence. She  describes  the  spread  of  the  open  air  meetings,  first  held  in  New 
York  and  then  around  the  country,  and  the  problems  suffragists  had  in 
getting  legal  permits  to  speak  on  street  corners.  She  explores  in  detail  how 
the  issues  of  race  and  class  affected  the  suffrage  movement,  paying  close 
attention  to  the  racism  that  African  American  women  were  subject  to  not 
only  from  police  and  the  public,  but  from  white  suffragists  as  well. 

Of  particular  interest  to  journalism  historians  are  Lumsden's  detailed 
discussions  of  the  reactions  of  the  newspapers  of  the  period  to  the  suffrag- 
ists' efforts  to  bring  their  message  to  the  public.  Newspapers  often  ridi- 
culed their  early  efforts  and  their  public  gatherings,  as  evidenced  by  the 
editorial  the  New  York  Herald  carried  in  1853,  from  which  Lumsden 
quotes:  "The  assemblage  of  rampant  women  which  convened  at  the 
Tabernacle  yesterday  was  an  interesting  phase  in  the  comic  history  of  the 
19th  century."  However,  by  the  turn  of  the  century,  newspapers  began  to 
change  the  tone  of  their  coverage,  and  Lumsden  describes  how  the 
newspapers,  as  the  most  influential  mass  medium  at  the  time,  provided 
the  movement  a  national  forum  by  covering  the  suffrage  parades  as 
serious  news  stories  with  front  page  coverage. 

Modern  readers,  in  this  age  of  instant  visual  communication,  may 
find  it  difficult  to  comprehend  fully  the  absolutely  vital  role  the  right  to 
assemble  played  in  the  advancement  of  the  suffrage  movement.  The 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  131 


women  Lumsden  describes  literally  took  their  arguments  to  the  people  by 
the  only  means  open  to  them — their  hard-fought  right  to  assemble,  and 
to  petition,  parade,  speak,  and  picket  in  public  to  often  uninformed, 
indifferent,  and  hostile  audiences  in  cities  across  the  nation.  Lumsden 
brings  these  women's  words  and  arguments  to  life  in  this  account. 

This  book  is  a  must-read  for  many  reasons.  It  is  written  in  a  compel- 
ling fashion  and  is  based  on  extensive  research  using  numerous  primary 
sources,  archival  materials,  legal  cases,  and  secondary  sources.  The  bibliog- 
raphy alone  is  worth  a  look,  as  are  the  extensive  notes  provided  for  each 
chapter  and  the  appendices  regarding  major  figures,  events,  and  chronol- 
ogy of  the  suffrage  movement. 

Rampant  Women  has  wide  appeal.  It  should  appeal  to  anyone 
interested  in  understanding  the  integral  role  the  right  of  assembly  plays  in 
the  struggle  of  any  disenfranchised  group  in  American  society. 

>Tamara  Baldwin,  Southeast  Missouri  State  University 

Robert  Worth  Bingham  and  the  Southern  Mystique: 
From  the  Old  South  to  the  New  South  and  Beyond 

By  William  E.  Ellis,  Kent,  OH:  Kent  State  University  Press,  1997,  258  pp. 

William  E.  Ellis  of  Eastern  Kentucky  University  has  set  out  to 
accomplish  two  difficult  tasks.  The  first  is  to  dispel,  once  and  for  all,  the 
rumor  that  dogged  Robert  Worth  Bingham  (1871-1937)  to  his  grave  and 
well  beyond  that  he  killed  his  second  wife  for  her  money  so  that  he  could 
buy  The  Courier-Journal  and.  Times  of  Louisville,  Kentucky.  Ellis'  second 
task  is  to  show  that  the  life  of  this  lawyer  and  local  officeholder  who 
bought  the  two  newspapers  and  eventually  served  as  ambassador  to 
England  is  the  stuff  of  compelling  biography.  Because  of  his  thoroughness 
and  attention  to  detail,  Ellis  accomplishes  his  first  task:  He  convincingly 
lays  the  scandal  to  rest.  But  despite  his  exhaustive  research,  the  second 
task  proves  insurmountable.  The  subject  of  this  careful  report  never 
emerges  as  a  vital  force  that  can  propel  a  narrative  from  beginning  to  end. 

It's  not  that  Bingham  lacked  for  passion.  He  was  a  progressive  with 
resolve  living  in  unjust  times,  a  man  with  motive  and  opportunity  who 
was  determined  to  do  good.  As  interim  mayor  of  Louisville  for  several 
months  in  1907,  Bingham  stopped  local  saloons  from  flouting  the  Sunday 
Closing  Law,  removed  policemen  and  firemen  from  a  system  of  political 
patronage,  encouraged  police  vice  raids  of  downtown  prostitution  and 
gambling  operations,  and  exposed  the  filthy  facilities  of  City  Hospital.  As 


1 32  Book  Reviews  •  Spring  1 999 


a  circuit  court  judge  appointed  to  serve  a  vacated  post,  Bingham  reduced 
a  backlog  of  cases  to  a  manageable  level.  As  publisher  of  The  Courier- 
Journal  and  Times,  Bingham  supported  prohibition,  women's  suffrage,  and 
the  League  of  Nations,  and  he  helped  tobacco  farmers  organize  coopera- 
tives to  get  fair  prices  for  their  produce.  And  as  FDR's  ambassador  to  the 
Court  of  St.  James,  he  increasingly  denounced  Nazi  Germany  as  "people 
who  regard  war  as  a  cult  and  blood  and  honour  as  something  to  teach 
little  children,  and  who  only  listen  to  the  argument  of  force." 

Most  of  this  history  is  lost  on  people  today.  Thanks  to  a  spate  of 
tawdry  exposes  from  The  Binghams  of  Louisville  in  1987  to  The  Patriarch 
in  1991,  Robert  Worth  Bingham  is  remembered  as  a  media  mogul  who 
poisoned  his  wife  for  an  inheritance.  The  truth,  as  Ellis  carefully  points 
out,  lacks  the  intrigue  but  none  of  the  tragedy.  In  1913  Bingham's  wife 
Eleanor  died  when  a  commuter  train  slammed  into  her  car.  Three  years 
later,  he  married  the  widow  of  multimillionaire  Henry  M.  Flagler,  Mary 
Lily  Kenan  Flagler.  There  was  no  prenuptial  agreement,  nor  was  there 
provision  for  Bingham  in  her  will,  but  a  codicil  signed  just  six  weeks 
before  Mary  Lily  died  unexpectedly  (after  only  seven  months  of  marriage 
to  Bingham)  left  him  $5  million.  Rumors  swirled,  claiming  that  Flagler  or 
Bingham  had  given  syphilis  to  Mary  Lily  and  that  Bingham  had  drugged 
her  and  pushed  her  down  a  flight  of  stairs.  These  rumors  were  unfounded. 
What  few  people  knew  was  that  when  Mary  Lily  died,  Bingham  was 
searching  for  a  treatment  for  her  alcoholism.  The  family  secret  was  that 
Mary  Lily  was  a  binge  drinker  who,  according  to  Dr.  Hugh  Young  of 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Hospital,  would  "lock  herself  up  and  drink 
many  bottles  of  gin."  Young  confirmed  that  alcohol  abuse,  and  not 
"poisoning  or  foul  play,"  had  killed  Mary  Lily. 

Bingham  received  his  inheritance  one  year  after  Mary  Lily  died,  and 
within  days  he  had  purchased  71  percent  of  the  shares  of  The  Courier- 
Journal  and  Times.  He  purchased  the  remaining  29  percent  two  years  later. 
The  total  cost  was  $1.5  million.  Bingham  ran  the  papers  until  1933, 
when  he  left  Louisville  to  serve  as  ambassador  to  St.  James'  Court.  His 
two  oldest  children  were  alcoholics  and  unreliable,  so  leadership  of  the 
papers  went  to  his  youngest  child  Barry,  who  became  publisher  at  the  age 
of  27. 

Throughout  this  book,  Ellis  points  out  that  Bingham's  progressive- 
ness  did  not  extend  to  the  issue  of  race,  hence  the  title  Robert  Worth 
Bingham  and  the  Southern  Mystique.  Bingham  supported  African  Ameri- 
can educational  institutions  and  he  opposed  the  Ku  Klux  Klan,  but  his 
Courier-Journal  continued  to  publish  the  racist  comic  "Hambone" 
throughout  the  1920s.  Bingham  did  little,  Ellis  says,  "to  overturn  the 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  133 


racial  mores  of  the  community."  It's  a  stretch  to  call  this  support  of  the 
racial  status  quo  "the  southern  mystique"  —  what  was  the  support  of  the 
racial  status  quo  called  in  New  York,  Boston,  or  Chicago?  —  but  that's  the 
only  lapse  in  this  otherwise  authoritative  book  that  sets  the  record  straight 
on  Robert  Worth  Bingham. 

>  John  P.  Ferre,  University  of  Louisville 

The  World  According  To  Hollywood  1918-1939. 

By  Ruth  Vasey,  Madison,  Wisconsin:  The  University  of  Wisconsin  Press, 
1997,  299  pp. 

From  the  flickering  beginnings  of  the  Nickelodeon  to  today's  hi-tech 
film  industry,  attempts  to  regulate  movie  content  have  been  as  much  a 
part  of  film  history  as  the  rise  of  the  Hollywood  studios,  the  coming  of 
sound,  or  wide  screen  projection.  The  control  of  movie  content  by  state 
and  local  censorship  boards,  and  after  1 920,  the  Hays  Office,  and  later 
still,  the  Production  Code  Administration  (PCA),  was  a  well  known  fact 
to  generations  of  moviegoers.  Indeed,  the  press  reported  that  American 
audiences  often  booed  the  PCA  seal  when  it  appeared  on  their  local 
screens. 

Even  so,  establishing  the  who,  what,  when,  where,  and  why  of  film 
censorship  is  something  of  a  Johnny-come-lately  to  the  field  of  film 
history.  Scholarly  attention  to  the  actual  operations  of  film  censorship 
began  in  earnest  only  after  the  records  of  the  Production  Code  Adminis- 
tration were  opened  to  scholars  in  1983.  Ruth  Vasey 's  The  World  According 
to  Hollywood,  1918-1939  is  the  latest  contribution  to  a  growing  library 
devoted  to  the  history  of  film  censorship. 

A  Professor  of  Film  Studies  at  the  University  of  New  South  Wales, 
Australia,  Vasey  correctly  notes  that  recent  books  on  censorship  largely 
ignore  the  impact  Hollywood's  financial  reliance  on  foreign  markets  had 
on  shaping  American  film  content.  Indeed,  Hollywood's  financial  health 
depended  on  a  global  economy  long  before  the  phrase  gained  its  present 
currency.  As  Vasey  notes,  following  the  end  of  World  War  1,35  percent  of 
the  studios'  gross  revenue  was  generated  from  rentals  outside  the  United 
States.  With  millions  of  foreign  dollars  at  stake,  Hollywood  was  as 
concerned  to  pacify  foreign  censors  as  it  was  to  placate  its  domestic  critics. 
In  turn,  Hollywood  films  depicted  a  world  devoid  of  political  strife, 
tyranny  or  terror.  In  short,  the  world  according  to  Hollywood  was  an 
idealized,  romanticized,  exotic  version  of  Andy  Hardy's  Main  Street,  USA 


134  Book  Reviews  •  Spring  1999 


If  Hollywood's  product  proved  simpleminded,  the  process  involved 
in  making  pictures  for  world  wide  distribution  while  avoiding  political 
controversy  and  cultural  offense  became  increasingly  complex,  particularly 
with  the  introduction  of  the  sound  film.  Throughout  the  silent  film  era, 
dealing  with  the  knotty  intricacies  of  foreign  political  and  cultural 
sensibilities  was  fairly  easy.  As  Vasey  explains,  offending  material  could  be 
cut  without  destroying  the  narrative  structure  of  the  film.  For  example, 
the  Japanese  routinely  cut  out  scenes  that  showed  kissing,  while  the 
British  cut  scenes  featuring  religious  ceremonies.  In  fact,  foreign  distribu- 
tors often  inserted  new  title  cards  that  completely  changed  the  original 
intent  of  the  story. 

The  coming  of  sound  in  1927  presented  a  new  challenge.  Cutting 
scenes  from  a  synchronized  sound  film  destroyed  its  narrative  coherency. 
Thus,  Vasey  argues,  after  the  advent  of  talking  pictures,  Hollywood  has 
forced  to  create  a  single  international  standard  for  film  content  that 
eliminated  as  much  as  possible  the  need  for  censorship.  This  need  was, 
Vasey  contends,  a  chief  motivating  factor  behind  the  1930  adoption  of 
the  Production  Code.  Clearly,  American  film  censorship  was  the  product 
of  a  number  of  interactive  forces.  Amidst  economic  depression,  threats  of 
government  oversight  of  Hollywood's  monopolistic  business  practices,  the 
specter  of  Legion  of  Decency  instigated  boycotts,  and  a  fear  of  losing 
foreign  revenues  all  played  their  part.  Vasey's  book  gives  a  good  overview 
of  the  particular  impact  of  foreign  markets  on  American  film  censorship, 
even  if  one  wishes  for  more  detailed  analysis  of  how  the  various  foreign 
censors  worked  in  specific  situations.  What  did  different  foreign  govern- 
ments specially  object  to?  What  internal  political,  religious,  and  cultural 
pressure  groups  were  foreign  censors  themselves  subject  to? 

If  Vasey's  study  raises  more  questions  than  it  answers,  it  does  make 
plain  that  studio  self-censorship  was  as  determined  to  avoid  political 
controversy  as  it  was  to  eliminate  immorality.  As  Vasey  notes,  the  pressure 
to  circumscribe  the  terms  of  Hollywood's  political  discourse,  arising  from 
worldwide  institutions  of  censorship  helped  to  reinforce  the  perceived 
status  of  Hollywood  movies  as  objects  of  entertainment  devoid  of  political 
significance.  Vasey  makes  one  assertion  about  the  final  effect  of  censorship 
that  civil  libertarians  might  find  dubious.  She  contends  that  censorship 
threw  the  responsibility  for  interpretation  squarely  onto  the  audience 
providing  a  wider  range  of  imaginative  options.  As  the  argument  goes, 
censorship  thus  produced  gaps  in  the  text  that  offered  more  open  rather 
than  closed  interpretations. 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  135 


No  doubt  film  audiences  became  adept  at  reading  between-the-lines, 
but,  I  fear,  in  a  rush  to  valorize  so-called  active  audiences,  over  against 
passive  receivers  of  media  messages,  many  film  historians  inadvertently 
turn  a  historical  necessity  into  a  theoretical  virtue.  In  any  event,  Vasey's 
work  opens  up  an  area  of  research  that  is  important  to  an  understanding 
of  the  political  and  social  impact,  at  home  and  abroad,  of  Hollywood's 
depiction  of  a  world  that  never  was. 

>G.  Tom  Poe,  University  of  Missouri,  Kansas  City 

Tombstone  *s  Epitaph 

By  Douglas  D.  Martin,  Norman,  OK:  University  of  Oklahoma  Press, 
1997,287  pp. 

Listen  closely  as  you  turn  the  pages  of  Douglas  D.  Martin's 
Tombstone's  Epitaph.  You  will  swear  that  you  can  hear  Wyatt  Earp's  spurs 
jingle  with  each  of  his  steps,  the  gunshots  at  the  OK  Corral,  and  horses' 
hooves  pounding  Tombstones  dirt  streets.  Reading  this  book  is  like 
stepping  into  a  time  tunnel  and  taking  a  quantum  leap  into  the  Wild 
West  of  the  late  19th  century.  If  journalism  is  the  first  draft  of  history,  as 
many  claim  it  is,  then  Tombstones  Epitaph  is  a  compilation  of  a  truly  rich 
source  of  Old  West  lore.  By  compiling  and  categorizing  numerous  articles 
from  this  frontier  newspaper,  and  then  weaving  them  with  his  own 
narrative,  Martin  provides  a  series  of  verbal  snapshots,  transporting  the 
reader  deep  into  Tombstone  of  the  1880s.  In  effect,  the  book  is  the 
product  of  an  ethnographic  study,  using  written  documents  in  this  case, 
articles  from  the  Tombstones  Epitaph  as  a  window  into  this  world. 

Founded  in  1880,  the  Epitaph  is  Arizona's  oldest  continuously 
published  newspaper.  Martin  meticulously  combed  the  pages  of  editions 
from  the  early  1880s,  piecing  together  a  portrait  of  life  in  legendary 
Tombstone.  As  revealed  in  the  pages  of  the  Epitaph,  it  is  a  world  rich  in 
both  the  expected  and  unexpected.  While  the  focus  of  late  19th  century 
Tombstone  as  well  as  Tombstone's  Epitaph  is  the  stereotypical  image  of 
shoot-outs  and  the  infamous  OK  Corral,  there  was  much  more  to  Tomb- 
stone. In  addition  to  news  of  holdups  and  murders,  one  can  also  find  other 
"flavors"  of  Tombstone  society  in  these  pages,  including  news  of  ice  cream 
socials,  restaurant  menus,  church  bazaars,  the  annual  New  Year's  Eve  dance 
hosted  by  the  town  firefighters,  concerts  and  other  entertainment. 

The  frontier  style  of  journalism  exemplified  by  the  Epitaph  not  only 
included  detailed  accounts  of  happenings,  but  also  a  sort  of  community 


136  Book  Reviews  •  Spring  1999 


cheerleading,  sometimes  carried  to  the  point  of  less-than-objective 
accounts  of  developments.  Founder  and  editor  Jack  Clum  established  an 
editorial  policy  that  each  of  his  successors  adhered  to:  rallying  the  spirits 
of  the  people  and  renewing  their  faith  in  the  greatness  of  their  hometown. 
It  was  common  to  editorialize  within  articles,  and  also  to  attack  compet- 
ing newspapers.  The  editor  of  the  competing  Tombstone  Nugget  once 
wrote,  "The  utterances  of  the  old  Drunkard  who  runs  the  Epitaph  at 
present  do  not  bother  us  in  the  least."  As  Martin  writes,  the  fear  of  libel 
never  held  a  Tombstone  editor  back. 

Clum  used  his  lofty  position  at  the  Epitaph  to  become  Tombstone's 
first  mayor.  In  turn,  he  used  the  newspaper  as  a  vehicle  for  community 
boosterism.  At  times  that  meant  downplaying  the  coverage  of  image- 
damaging  events  such  as  natural  disasters.  Martin  suggests  it  was  probable 
that  Clum  and  his  successors  did  not  want  to  discourage  the  investment 
of  new  capital  and  an  increase  in  population.  The  editor/mayor  would 
also  use  his  position  to  chastise  those  who  failed  to  invite  him  to  impor- 
tant social  events.  In  the  midst  of  reporting  on  one  Thanksgiving  Day 
dinner,  for  example,  Clum  wrote  that  "Lack  of  space  and  an  opportunity 
of  personal  observance  forbid  a  more  detailed  account  of  the  evenings 
enjoyment." 

Another  aspect  of  Tombstone  life  that  is  typically  not  associated  with 
this  town  of  the  Old  West  is  sports.  Coverage  of  sports  stories,  especially 
Tombstone's  favorites  sport,  baseball,  was  commonplace.  The  Tombstone 
nine  would  travel  the  Arizona  territory,  with  game  results  sometimes 
taking  days  to  reach  the  paper's  offices.  Once  after  some  tough  losses  at  the 
territorial  fair  in  "Phenix"  (sic),  the  editor  was  so  carried  away  in  his 
lament  that  he  neglected  to  mention  the  scores  in  the  Epitaph's  Sunday 
edition.  And  with  no  Monday  edition,  the  paper  could  not  remedy  the 
oversight  until  Tuesday.  Sports  coverage  also  extended  to  events  such  as 
cockfighting  and  boxing,  with  the  Epitaph  often  encouraging  the  latter, 
providing  space  for  the  issuance  and  acceptance  of  challenges. 

But  based  on  the  selections  that  Martin  includes  in  his  book,  the 
primary  "sport"  in  Tombstone  seems  to  have  been  gun  fighting.  Perhaps 
no  town  was  ever  more  appropriately  named.  As  Martin  writes,  "Surely  no 
other  paper  in  the  history  of  American  journalism  ever  carried  more 
reports  of  crime  than  the  Epitaph  published  in  its  first  10  years."  While 
the  laws  were  enforced  a  bit  more  loosely  than  today,  Tombstone  and  the 
southeastern  part  of  the  Arizona  territory  did  not  exhibit  the  lawlessness 
that  many  assume.  In  fact,  the  infamous  gunfight  at  the  OK  Corral  which 
plays  a  prominent  role  in  Tombstones  Epitaph  was  the  culmination  of  an 


Spring  1999  •  American  Journalism  137 


effort  to  combat  the  "cow-boy  situation."  Tombstone's  two  newspapers 
disagreed  over  how  to  best  handle  the  situation.  The  Republican  Epitaph 
called  these  men  a  curse  to  the  country  and  to  business  while  the  Nugget 
belittled  efforts  to  control  them. 

After  the  OK  Corral  shoot-out  occurred  on  October  26,  1881,  there 
was  a  sharp  division  not  just  among  the  townsfolk,  but  also  between  the 
newspapers  over  whether  the  three  Earp  brothers  and  Doc  Holliday  were 
justified  in  killing  three  people.  The  Nugget  led  the  criticism  of  Marshall 
Earp,  while  the  Epitaph  ultimately  defended  the  need  to  uphold  the  law. 
As  the  debate  raged,  so  did  federal  attempts  to  investigate  and  possibly 
intercede  in  Arizona.  When  President  Chester  Arthur  later  issued  a 
proclamation  admonishing  those  in  the  Territory  of  Arizona  from  taking 
part  in  any  unlawful  proceeding  the  Epitaph,  by  then  under  a  new 
Democratic  publisher,  replied  with  an  editorial  stating  that  Arizona  was 
one  of  the  most  peaceful  parts  of  the  country  and  all  it  wanted  was  to  be 
left  alone. 

But  the  damage  to  Wyatt  Earp  had  already  been  done.  The  "Lion  of 
Tombstone"  left  the  town  in  March  1 882.  The  Epitaph  had  clearly  been 
supportive  of  Earp,  calling  his  appointment  as  deputy  sheriff  in  1880  an 
"eminently  proper  one,"  and  a  week  later  noting  that  he  is  "ever  to  the 
front  when  duty  calls."  After  Earp  was  appointed  US  Marshal,  the  Epitaph 
reported  that  "the  town  has  been  noted  for  its  quietness  and  good  order." 
Remember,  this  was  a  newspaper  whose  philosophy  was  to  develop  good 
will,  particularly  among  the  business  community.  Investors  would  be 
reluctant  to  sink  capital  into  ventures  in  a  town  that  could  not  protect 
their  investment.  No  wonder  the  paper  supported  Earp,  his  brothers,  and 
Doc  Holliday.  But  that  could  not  stop  the  investigation  of  the  OK  Corral 
incident.  The  Epitaph  carried  the  testimony  in  full.  While  the  Earps  and 
Holliday  were  exonerated,  they  were  marked  men.  When  Morgan  Earp 
was  killed,  the  Epitaph  headlined  the  story  "The  Deadly  Bullet:  The 
Assassin  at  Last  Successful  in  His  Devilish  Mission"  in  its  March  20,  1882 
edition.   It  was  shortly  thereafter  that  Wyatt  left  town.  The  last  mention 
of  his  whereabouts  was  in  the  April  14,  1882  edition  of  the  Epitaph. 

Given  the  nature  of  Tombstone  life,  hangings  were  not  uncommon, 
nor  were  the  Epitaph's  accounts  of  them.  The  same  kind  of  detailed 
reporting  that  was  the  rule  of  the  day  with  other  kinds  of  stories  also 
prevailed  here.  The  pages  of  the  newspaper  would  contain  items  such  as 
what  the  condemned  ate  for  dinner  the  night  prior  to  their  executions, 
what  they  wore,  and  the  attendance  at  the  hanging:  "The  prisoners  last 
night  regaled  themselves  with  a  hearty  supper  of  oysters  and  other  delica- 
cies furnished  by  the  sheriff.  As  they  were  being  attired  in  grave  clothes  an 


1 38  Book  Reviews  •  Spring  1 999 


occasional  grim  joke  at  the  appearance  of  some  of  their  comrades  was 
indulged  in  by  the  bandits.  Over  500  tickets  of  admission  to  the  jail  yard 
to  witness  the  execution  were  issued."  Nor  was  the  detailed  reporting 
confined  to  pre-execution  festivities.  It  included  highly  descriptive 
accounts  of  the  hanging  itself,  including  how  long  each  body  pulsated 
from  the  moment  the  trap  door  fell  with  a  "swish." 

The  Epitaph  was  not  immune  from  many  of  the  realities  of  contem- 
porary journalism,  including  the  economic  imperative  of  advertising.  In 
fact,  there  were  long  stretches  when  the  front  page  carried  nothing  but 
advertising.  The  primary  advertisers  were  saloons,  restaurants,  and  not 
surprisingly  undertakers.  There  was  also  what,  from  a  late  20th  century 
perspective,  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  naivete  or  innocence  in  the  Epitaph's 
writing.  But  not  unlike  contemporary  journalism,  it  also  reflected  a  "what 
are  people  talking  about"  approach  to  coverage.  Articles  included  the 
following:  "It  won't  do  any  harm  to  go  to  church  today.  Try  the  experi- 
ence." After  the  death  of  a  citizen:  "The  body  was  not  well  embalmed  and 
the  stench  was  beginning  to  get  so  great  it  was  feared  the  express  company 
would  not  ship  it."  "A  hair-pulling  match  occurred  on  Fifth  street  yester- 
day between  two  parties  of  the  weaker  sex.  During  the  melee  various  and 
numerous  articles  of  feminine  wearing  apparel  were  flying  wildly  through 
the  air  and  total  annihilation  of  everything  present  seemed  imminent." 
"Beautiful  day  yesterday."  "Another  crank  has  been  toying  with  a  Gila 
monster,  with  the  result  that  he  is  likely  to  die." 

According  to  one  story,  the  Epitaph  acquired  its  name  based  on  the 
theory  newspapers,  like  epitaphs,  were  generally  a  collection  of  lies.  One 
hopes  that  philosophy  extends  only  to  that  story  and  not  to  the  publica- 
tion itself.  Otherwise  the  newspaper  and  consequently  Martin's  book  is 
largely  a  compilation  of  untruths.  While  that  seems  unlikely,  it  does  point 
to  the  potential  pitfalls  in  writing  a  book  that  relies  on  a  solitary  source 
like  the  Epitaph.  Not  only  is  it  dependent  on  the  accuracy  of  the  docu- 
ments, but  what  is  not  in  the  record  can  be  as  important  as  what  is.  Other 
minor  defects  include  that  the  author  does  not  provide  the  reader  with 
information  regarding  his  method  of  deciding  what  he  included,  nor  is  it 
made  clear  that  this  1997  edition  is  largely  a  reprint  of  a  work  originally 
published  in  1951.  Nonetheless,  Tombstones  Epitaph  is  a  fascinating  work, 
symbolic  of  the  notion  that  the  products  of  journalism  although  them- 
selves possibly  flawed  provide  a  one-of-a-kind,  "You  are  there"  glimpse 
into  historical  periods  like  few  other  sources  can. 

>Joseph  A.  Russomanno,  Arizona  State  University 

Spring  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 39 


00   ON 


A  Journal  of  Media  History 


Summer  1999 
Volume  16,  Number  3 


J  American    -j  _• 
ournansm 

"In  Common  with  Colored  Men,  I  Have 

Certain  Sentiments":  Black  Nationalism  and 

Hilary  Teage  of  the  Liberia  Herald 

Carl  Patrick  Burrowes 

Women's  Moral  Reform  Periodicals  of  the 

19th  Century:  A  Cultural  Feminist  Analysis 

of  The  Advocate 

Therese  Lueck ?! 

Redefining  Racism:  Newspaper  Justification 

for  the  1924  Exclusion  of  Japanese  Immigrants         -~ 

Bradley  J.  Hamm 

Project  Chariot,  Nuclear  Zeal,  Easy  Journalism 

and  the  Fate  of  Eskimos 

John  Merton  Marrs 7r 

Great  Ideas:  My  Newspaper  is  Older 

Than  Your  Newspaper! 

Michael  R.  Smith ??. 

Book  Reviews 


A.  Journal  of  Media  History  Summer  1999 

Volume  16,  Number  3 


American 


J  American    *  _• 
ournalism 


Editor Shirley  Biagi 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Book  Review  Editor David  Spencer 

University  of 
Western  Ontario 

Assistant  Editor Timi  Ross  Poeppelman 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Design Gwen  Amos 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Former  Editors William  David  Sloan 

University  of  Alabama 

Gary  Whitby 

East  Texas  State 

John  Pauly 

Saint  Louis  University 

Wallace  B.  Eberhard 

University  of  Georgia 


1 999  American  Journalism 

Historians  Association  Officers 

President Eugenia  Palmegiano 

Saint  Peter's  College 

1st  Vice  President William  David  Sloan 

University  of  Alabama 

2nd  Vice  President David  Copeland 

Emory  Henry  College 

Administrative  Secretary Carol  Sue  Humphrey 

Oklahoma  Baptist 
University 

Treasurer Dick  Scheidenhelm 

Colorado  State 
University 

Historian Alf  Pratte 

Brigham  Young 
University 

Board  of  Directors David  Abrahamson 

John  Coward 
David  Davies 
Wallace  Eberhard 
Kathleen  Endres 
John  Ferre 
Tracy  Gottlieb 
Pat  Washburn 
Julie  Williams 


Definition  of  History . 


For  purposes  of  written  research  papers  and  publications,  the  term  history 
shall  be  seen  as  a  continuous  and  connected  process  emphasizing  but  not 
necessarily  confined  to  subjects  of  American  mass  communications.  History 
should  be  viewed  not  in  the  context  of  perception  of  the  current  decade,  but  as 
part  of  a  significant  and  time-conditioned  human  past. 


Editorial  Purpose 


American  Journalism  publishes  articles,  book  reviews  and  correspondence 
dealing  with  the  history  of  journalism.  Contributions  may  focus  on  social, 
economic,  intellectual,  political  or  legal  issues.  American  Journalism  also  welcomes 
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tion of  all  relevant,  available  sources  with  a  focus  on  written,  primary  documents 
but  not  excluding  current  literature  and  interviews. 

Copyright 

©  American  Journalism  Historians  Association  1999.  Articles  in  the  journal 
may  be  photocopied  for  use  in  teaching,  research,  criticism  and  news  reporting, 
in  accordance  with  Sections  107  and  108  of  the  U.  S.  Copyright  Law.  For  all 
other  purposes,  including  electronic  reproduction  and/or  distribution,  users  must 
obtain  written  permission  from  the  editor. 

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send  five  manuscript  copies  (including  an  abstract  with  each).  Manuscripts 
should  follow  the  Chicago  Manual  of  Style,  14th  Edition,  and  should  not  exceed 
the  recommended  maximum  length  of  20  pages.  Research  manuscripts  are  blind 
refereed. 

Great  Ideas  is  designed  to  showcase  new  approaches  and  information  about 
the  teaching  of  media  history.  Great  Ideas  are  typically  three  to  six  manuscript 
pages.  Authors  of  Great  Ideas  should  first  query  the  editor. 

American  Journalism  is  produced  on  Macintosh  computers  using  Microsoft 
Word  6.0.1.  Authors  whose  manuscripts  are  accepted  for  publication  are  asked  to 
submit  their  work  on  PC  or  Macintosh  disk,  formatted  in  Microsoft  Word  5.0 
or  6.0.1. 


Send  Submissions  to Professor  Shirley  Biagi 

American  Journalism 
Communication 
Studies  Department 
6000  T  Street 
Mendocino  5042 
Sacramento,  CA 
95819-6070 

Telephone:  (916)  278-5323 
E-mail:  ajha@csus.edu 

Book  Reviews To  review  or  propose  a 

book  review  contact: 

Professor  David  Spencer 

Graduate  School  of 

Journalism 

University  of  Western 

Ontario 

London,  Ontario 

Canada  N6A  5B7 

E-mail: 

dspencer@j  ulian.  uwo.ca 

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A  Journal  of  Media  History  Summer  1999 

Volume  16,  Number  3 


J  American   *  . 
ournalism 


\  Editor's  Note:  Media  History  As  a  Reflection  of  Ideological 
Diversity 9 

"In  Common  with  Colored  Men,  I  Have  Certain  Sentiments":  Black 

Nationalism  and  Hilary  Teage  of  the  Liberia  Herald 17 

Carl  Patrick  Burrowes 

The  author  subjects  the  writings  of  former  Liberia  Herald  editor  Hilary  Teage 
to  a  "discourse  analysis.  "  This  analysis  seeks  to  understand  the  thought  process 
behind  Teage's  writings. 

Women's  Moral  Reform  Periodicals  of  the  19th  Century:  A  Cultural 

Feminist  Analysis  of  The  Advocate 37 

Therese  Lueck 

Using  cultural  feminism  as  its  theoretical  framework,  this  study  attempts  to 
show  how  the  mission  of  The  Advocate,  to  reform  and  retrain  prostitutes  into 
composers  and  typesetters  for  The  Advocate,  significantly  contributed  to 
feminist  ideology  in  the  19th  century. 

Redefining  Racism:  Newspaper  Justification  for  the  1924  Exclusion  of 

Japanese  Immigrants 53 

Bradley  J.  Hamm 

This  article  discusses  editorials  about  the  Immigration  Act  in  six  daily 
newspapers — The  New  York  Times,  the  New  York  Herald  Tribune,  the 
Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  the  San  Francisco 
Examiner,  the  Louisville  Courier-Journal — during  the  congressional  debate 
over  the  Act  in  April  and  May  1924. 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism 


Project  Chariot,  Nuclear  Zeal,  Easy  Journalism  and  the  Fate  of 

Eskimos 71 

John  Merton  Marrs 

This  article  focuses  on  the  newspaper  coverage  of  Project  Chariot,  a  proposal  to 
detonate  five  nuclear  bombs  in  northwest  Alaska  in  the  1960s. 

Great  Ideas:  My  Newspaper  is  Older  Than  Your  Newspaper! 99 

Michael  R.  Smith 

The  author  discusses  the  debate  and  controversy  over  which  newspaper  is  the 
nations  oldest. 


Book  Review  Editor's  Note 103 


Book  Reviews    1 03 

/  Editor's  Choice:  Comic  Strips  and  the  Consumer 

Culture:  1890-1945  103 

By  Ian  Gordon 

Reviewed  by  David  R.  Spencer 

American  Photojournalism  Comes  of  Age 1 06 

By  Michael  L.  Carlebach 
Reviewed  by  Ronald  E.  Ostman 

As  Long  As  Sarajevo  Exists 1 09 

By  Kemal  Kurspahic 

Reviewed  by  Owen  V.  Johnson 

The  Carnivalization  of  Politics:  Quebec  Cartoons 
on  Relations  with  Canada,  England,  and  France, 

1960-1979 112 

By  Raymond  N.  Morris 
Revieived  by  Mary  Vipond 

Darwinian  myths:  The  Legends  and  Misuses  of 

a  Theory  114 

By  Edward  Caudill 
Reviewed  by  David  R.  Davies 


6  Table  of  Contents  •  Summer  1999 


The  Electronic  Grapevine:  Rumor,  Reputation  and 

Reporting  in  the  New  On-Line  Environment 115 

By  Diane  L.  Borden  and  Kerric  Harvey 
Reviewed  by  David  Abrahamson 

Masterpieces  of  Reporting:  Volume  1 117 

By  William  David  Sloan  and  Cheryl  S.  Wray 
Reviewed  by  Kathy  English 

War  of  the  Black  Heavens:  The  Battles  of  Western 

Broadcasting  in  the  Cold  War 118 

By  Michael  Nelson 
Reviewed  by  Craig  Allen 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism 


Summer  1999 


Editor  s  Note 


Media's  rich,  diverse  past  is  the  subject  of  this  month's  journal, 
covering  a  period  of  more  than  100  years.  In  all  cases,  the  authors  of  the 
articles  in  this  issue  focus  on  media  history  that  is  outside  the  mainstream, 
hoping  to  add  new  faces  and  perspectives  to  the  stories  that  scholars  can 
tell. 

"In  Common  with  Colored  Men,  I  Have  Certain  Sentiments"  by 
Carl  Patrick  Burrowes  is  the  story  of  Hilary  Teague,  editor  of  the  Liberia 
Herald  from  1835  to  1850.  Born  in  the  US,  Teague  emigrated  to  Africa  as 
a  teenager.  He  became  a  landowner,  a  merchant,  and  an  influential  voice 
in  Liberia's  move  from  a  colony  to  a  republic.  Burrowes  documents 
Teague's  accomplishments  in  an  attempt  to  "rescue  Teague  from  unde- 
served obscurity." 

As  a  voice  for  reform  for  19th  century  women,  The  Advocate  "was 
the  foremost  messenger  for  moral  reform,"  according  to  Therese  L.  Lueck. 
In  "Women's  Moral  Reform  Periodicals  of  the  19th  Century:  A  Cultural 
Feminist  Analysis  of  The  Advocate,"  Lueck  says  that  the  role  of  female 
reform  societies  has  been  minimized  by  some  feminist  scholars,  as  tangen- 
tial to  women's  history.  This  is  a  mistake,  says  Lueck,  citing  scholar  Susan 
Henry's  important  observation  that  the  journalism  produced  by  these 
women  "developed  shared,  female-identified  values,  rituals,  relationships 
and  modes  of  communication  that  were  sources  of  satisfaction  and 
strength." 

While  the  women  at  The  Advocate  were  working  for  z'wclusion  in 
American  society,  1920s  US  newspapers  found  themselves  in  the  position 
of  trying  to  justify  the  exclusion  of  Japanese  immigrants.  In  "Redefining 
Racism:  Newspaper  Justification  for  the  1924  Exclusion  of  Japanese 
Immigrants,"  Bradley  J.  Hamm  focuses  on  the  way  several  newspapers 
treated  the  Immigration  Act  of  1924  as  a  way  to  analyze  attitudes  toward 
the  Japanese  in  this  country  before  World  War  II.  Besides  the  traditional 
arguments  for  exclusion,  says  Hamm,  one  newspaper  even  found  itself  in 
the  unusual  position  of  editorializing  that  the  Japanese  should  be  pre- 
vented from  joining  the  nation's  workforce  because  they  were  equal,  even 
superior  to  US  workers. 

Nearly  40  years  later,  the  media's  actions  actually  helped  stop  an 
Atomic  Energy  Commission  proposal  to  detonate  five  nuclear  bombs  to 
excavate  a  harbor  in  Northwest  Alaska.  John  Merton  Mars,  in  "Project 
Chariot,  Nuclear  Zeal,  Easy  Journalism  and  the  Fate  of  Eskimos,"  says 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism 


that  media  coverage  of  the  issue,  although  both  late  and  lazy,  brought 
enough  visibility  that  eventually  the  government  scrapped  the  plan.  "The 
press,"  says  Mars,  "seems  to  be  willing  to  treat  oppositional  news  fairly,  so 
long  as  the  opposition  brings  the  news  to  the  press." 

In  Great  Ideas,  Michael  R.  Smith  talks  about  the  difficulty  of 
defining  just  which  newspaper  is  the  nation's  oldest.  And  David  Spencer's 
book  review  selections  maintain  the  theme  of  presenting  diverse  ideas 
with  reviews  of  a  wide  range  of  topics,  including  comic  strips,  photojour- 
nalism, Sarajevo,  and  online  journalism. 

The  subject  of  this  issue — diversity — was  very  important  to  one  of 
AJHA's  most  ardent  supporters,  Donna  Allen.  Donna  died  this  summer. 
As  founder  of  Media  Report  to  Women,  she  was  a  pioneer.  I  remember  the 
first  AJHA  Women's  Roundtable  luncheon  I  attended.  We  all  sat  around 
one  small,  circular  table  and  Donna  Allen  was  the  honoree.  After  shyly 
acknowledging  the  honor,  she  spent  the  rest  of  the  time  speaking  on 
behalf  of  the  importance  of  media  history  for  and  about  women.  AJHA 
will  miss  her  exuberance,  her  energy  and  her  commitment  to  media 
history,  to  diversity  and  to  women. 

The  focus  of  the  next  issue  0$  American  Journalism  will  be  conserva- 
tive media,  with  Rodger  Streitmatter  serving  as  Guest  Editor.  Also,  as  the 
journal  begins  to  turn  the  corner  on  the  next  century,  David  Mindich  has 
agreed  to  serve  as  Guest  Editor  for  the  journal's  special  issue  scheduled  for 
fall  2000.  "The  Buzz:  Technology  in  Journalism  and  Mass  Communica- 
tion History"  is  the  title  David  has  given  this  special  issue.  Don't  miss  the 
Call  for  Manuscripts  (with  a  February  1,  2000  deadline)  on  page  11. 

Shirley  Biagi 


10  Editor's  Note  •  Summer  1999 


Call  for  Manuscripts 
The  Buzz:  Technology  in  Journalism 
and  Mass  Communication  History 


American  Journalism,  the  quarterly  journal  of  the  American 
Journalism  Historians  Association,  announces  a  call  for  manuscripts  for 
a  special  theme  issue  focusing  on  technology  and  history. 

The  issue,  edited  by  David  T.  Z.  Mindich,  called  The  Buzz: 
Technology  in  Journalism  and  Mass  Communication  History,  is  sched- 
uled for  Fall  2000.  The  deadline  for  submissions  is  February  1,  2000. 

The  theme  of  technology  is  inclusive.  Topics  could  include  but 
are  not  limited  to: 

•  how  printing,  the  telegraph,  or  other  devices  changed  or 
challenged  journalism; 

•  implicit  comparisons  between  older  technologies  and  newer  ones, 
including  ways  in  which  the  public  viewed  future  technology;  and 

•  the  role  of  technology  in  formulating  or  reformulating  minority 
communities. 

The  term  "technology"  itself  could  be  approached  in  a  number  of 
ways,  including  electronic,  electric,  and  pre-electric  (including 
printing)  communication  aids.  Manuscripts  that  include  graphics 
and/or  photographs  are  encouraged. 

Manuscripts  should  follow  the  American  Journalism  guidelines  for 
submissions,  and  be  sent  to: 

David  T  Z.  Mindich 

Dept  of  Journalism  and  Mass  Communication 

Saint  Michael's  College 

Colchester,  VT  05439 

For  more  information,  please  contact  David  Mindich  at 
dmindich@smcvt.edu  or  phone  (802)  654-2637. 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 


12  Summer  1999 


American  Journalism  Reviewers 


David  Abrahamson 
Northwestern  University 

June  Adamson 
University  of  Tennessee 

Donna  Allen 

Women's  Institute  for  Freedom  of  the  Press 

Perry  Ashley 

University  of  South  Carolina 

Donald  Avery 

Penn  State  University 

Gerald  Baldasty 
University  of  Washington 

Warren  "Sandy"  Barnard 
Indiana  State  University 

Sharon  Bass 
University  of  Kansas 

Maurine  Beasley 
University  of  Maryland 

Tom  Beell 

Iowa  State  University 

Louise  Benjamin 
University  of  Georgia 

Sherilyn  Cox  Bennion 
Humboldt  State  University 

Douglas  Birkhead 
University  of  Utah 

Roy  Blackwood 
Bemidji  State  University 

Margaret  Blanchard 
University  of  North  Carolina 

Fred  Blevens 

Southwest  Texas  State  University 

Patricia  Bradley 
Temple  University 

Bonnie  Brermen 

Virginia  Commonwealth  University 

Joshua  Brown 

American  Social  History  Project 

Pam  Brown 
Rider  University 


Judith  Buddenbaum 
Colorado  State  University 

Elizabeth  Burt 
University  of  Hartford 

Flora  Caldwell 
University  of  Mississippi 

James  Carey 
Columbia  University 

Jean  Chance 
University  of  Florida 

Ann  Colbert 
Indiana-Purdue  University 

Tom  Connery 
University  of  St.  Thomas 

John  Coward 
University  of  Tulsa 

David  Copeland 
Emory  &  Henry  College 

Ed  Cray 

University  of  Southern  California 

David  Davies 

University  of  Southern  Mississippi 

John  DeMott 

University  of  Missouri,  Kansas  City 

Donna  Dickerson 
University  of  South  Florida 

Pat  Dooley 
University  of  Maine 

Carolyn  Dyer 
University  of  Iowa 

Wally  Eberhard 
University  of  Georgia 

Kathleen  Endres 
University  of  Akron 

Ferrell  Ervin 

Southeast  Missouri  State  University 

Bruce  Evenson 
DePaul  University 

Fred  Fedler 

University  of  Central  Florida 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism 


13 


Tony  Fellow 

California  State  University,  Fullerton 

John  Ferre 

University  of  Louisville 

Jean  Folkerts 

George  Washington  University 

Robert  Former 
Calvin  College 

Jim  Foust 

Bowling  Green  University 

Ralph  Frasca 
Hofstra  University 

Brooks  Garner 
Oklahoma  State  University 

Dennis  Gildea 
Springfield  College 

Don  Godfrey 

Arizona  State  University 

Doug  Gomery 
University  of  Maryland 

Tracy  Gottleib 
Seton  Hall  University 

Karla  Gower 

University  of  North  Carolina,  Chapel  Hill 

Paul  Grosswiler 
University  of  Maine 

Dennie  Hall 

University  of  Central  Oklahoma 

Margot  Hardenbergh 
Marist  College 

Susan  Henry 

California  State  University,  Northridge 

Louise  Hermanson 
University  of  South  Alabama 

Tom  Heuterman 
Washington  State  University 

Glenn  Himebaugh 

Middle  Tennessee  State  University 

Nathaniel  Hong 
University  of  Washington 

Brad  Howard 

Mount  St.  Clare  College 

Herbert  Howard 
University  of  Tennessee 


Carol  Sue  Humphrey 
Oklahoma  Baptist  University 

Bill  Huntzicker 
University  of  Minnesota 

Frankie  Hutton 
Lehigh  University 

Terry  Hynes 
University  of  Florida 

Dolores  Jenkins 
University  of  Florida 

Jay  Jernigan 

Eastern  Michigan  University 

Phil  Jeter 

Florida  A  &  M  University 

Sammye  Johnson 
Trinity  University 

Tom  Johnson 

Southern  Illinois  University 

Paula  Kassell 

New  Directions  for  Women 

Arthur  Kaul 

University  of  Southern  Mississippi 

Beverly  Keever 
University  of  Hawaii 

Elliott  King 
Loyola  College 

Judith  Knelman 
Middlesex  College 

Bill  Knowles 
University  of  Montana 

Ed  Lambeth 
University  of  Missouri 

Linda  Lawson 
Indiana  University 

Richard  Lentz 

Arizona  State  University 

Lawrence  Lichty 
Northwestern  University 

Larry  Lorenz 
Loyola  University 

Charles  Marler 

Abilene  Christian  University 

John  Marrs 

Everett  Community  College 


14 


American  Journalism  Reviewers  •  Summer  1 999 


Maclyn  McClary 
Humboldt  State  University 

Sheila  Mclntyre 
Harvard  University 

Floyd  McKay 

Western  Washington  University 

Joe  Mc  Kerns 

Ohio  State  University 

Craig  McKie 
Carleton  University 

James  McPherson 
Washington  State  University 

Beverly  Merrick 

New  Mexico  State  University 

Karen  Miller 
University  of  Georgia 

David  Mindich 

Saint  Michael's  College 

Catherine  Mitchell 
University  of  North  Carolina 

James  Mooney 

East  Tennessee  State  University 

Meg  Moritz 
University  of  Colorado 

Michael  Murray 

University  of  Missouri,  St.  Louis 

Orayb  Najjar 

Northern  Illinois  University 

Jack  Nelson 

Brigham  Young  University 

Richard  Nelson 
Louisiana  State  University 

Maureen  Nemecek 
Oklahoma  State  University 

Mark  Neuzil 
University  of  St.  Thomas 

Doug  Newsom 

Texas  Christian  University 

Ron  Ostman 
Cornell  University 

Laurie  Ouellette 
Rutgers  University 

Anna  Paddon 

Southern  Illinois  University 


Oscar  Patterson 
Pembroke  State  University 

Carol  Polsgrove 
Indiana  University 

Steve  Ponder 
University  of  Oregon 

Alf  Pratte 

Brigham  Young  University 

Chuck  Rankin 

Montana  Historical  Society 

Barbara  Reed 
Rutgers  University 

Ford  Risley 

Pennsylvania  State  University 

Nancy  Roberts 
University  of  Minnesota 

Kitt  Rushing 

University  of  Tennessee,  Chattanooga 

Bill  Ryan 
Rockhurst  College 

Joe  Scanlon 
Carleton  University 

Dick  Scheidenhelm 
Colorado  State  University 

Michael  Schudson 
UC  San  Diego 

Mitchell  Shapiro 
University  of  Miami 

Susan  Siler 

University  of  Tennessee 

Roger  Simpson 
University  of  Washington 

Norm  Sims 

University  of  Massachusetts 

David  Sloan 
University  of  Alabama 

Steve  Smethers 
Oklahoma  State  University 

C.  Zoe  Smith 
University  of  Missouri 

F.  Leslie  Smith 
University  of  Florida 

Ted  Smythe 

California  State  University,  Fullerton 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism 


15 


David  Spencer 

University  of  Western  Ontario 

K.  Sriramesh 
Purdue  University 

Jim  Startt 
Valparaiso  University 

Ronald  Stotyn 

Georgia  Southern  University 

Andris  Straumanis 
University  of  Minnesota 

Rodger  Streitmatter 
American  University 

Victoria  Sturgeon 
Tennessee  State  University 

Leonard  Teel 

Georgia  State  University 

Clarence  Thomas 

Virginia  Commonwealth  University 


Bernell  Tripp 
University  of  Florida 

Tom  Volek 
University  of  Kansas 

Pat  Washburn 
Ohio  University 

Susan  Weill 

University  of  Mississippi 

Mary  Weston 
Northwestern  University 

Jan  Whitt 

University  of  Colorado 

Julie  Williams 
Samford  University 

Betty  Winfield 
University  of  Missouri 


16 


American  Journalism  Reviewers  •  Summer  1999 


"In  Common  with  Colored  Men,  I 
Have  Certain  Sentiments":  Black 
Nationalism  and  Hilary  Teage  of 
the  Liberia  Herald 

By  Carl  Patrick  Burrowes 

As  editor  of  the  Liberia  Herald  from  1835  to  1850,  Hilary  Teage 
exerted  a  profound  influence  on  events  in  Liberia  and  his  reputation  reverber- 
ated among  blacks  across  the  Atlantic.  In  addition  to  writing  Liberia's 
declaration  of  independence,  he  published  over  100  articles,  editorials,  poems, 
sermons  and  speeches.  Three  persistent  and  pervasive  themes  in  Teage  s  writings 
were:  aesthetic  romanticism;  black  nationalism,  an  ideology  that  emerged 
during  the  era  of  the  early  American  republic;  and  liberal  republicanism,  ivith 
its  emphasis  on  empirical  analysis  and  limited  government. 

Born  in  1805  at  the  lowest  rung  of  Virginia  slave  society, 
Hilary  Teage  emigrated  at  age  17  to  West  Africa  where  he 
went  on — in  the  words  of  one  of  his  contemporaries — to 
make  the  single  greatest  personal  contribution  to  the  "framing  and 
establishment"  of  the  Republic  of  Liberia.1  Founded  in  1820,  Liberia  was 
operated  by  the  American  Colonization  Society  (ACS),  an  organization  of 
powerful  and  influential  whites,2  as  a  colony  for  American  free  blacks 
until  1847,  when  the  repatriates  declared  their  independence. 

While  Liberia  was  a  colony,  it  encompassed  nine  scattered  coastal 
towns  with  a  population  of  2,390.  Only  27  percent  of  the  people  were 
locally  born,  including  some  indigenous  persons  who  had  adopted 


Carl  Patrick  Burrowes  is  Associate  Professor  of  Mass  Communication,  School  of  Communica- 
tions, Howard  University  in  Washington,  DC.  He  can  be  reached  at:  CPBurrowes@aol.com. 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  17 


Liberian  ways.  By  1868,  the  country  had  expanded  to  encompass  a  two- 
mile  strip  along  the  coast,  and  the  population  had  increased  to  15,000, 
consisting  of  12,000  emigrants  and  3,000  indigenous  Africans.3  Through 
the  end  of  the  19th  century,  the  country  attracted  some  19,000  blacks 
from  various  parts  of  Africa  and  its  Diaspora.  Over  this  commonwealth, 
Teage  cast  a  long  shadow,  as  Baptist  minister,  merchant,  elected  official, 
president  of  the  Liberia  Lyceum,  and  especially  as  editor  of  the  Herald 
(1835-1850),  which  he  used  to  spearhead  the  drive  for  Liberia's  indepen- 
dence. 

In  serving  as  editor  of  the  Liberia  Herald  for  1 5  years,  Teage  left  a 
detailed,  colorful  and  rare  record  of  journalistic  conditions  in  19th 
century  Africa.  In  addition,  he  had  what  probably  was  the  longest  journal- 
ism career  of  any  black  in  the  antebellum  era.  In  contrast,  John  B. 
Russwurm,  who  proceeded  Teage  as  editor  of  the  Herald  and  is  better 
known  for  having  co-founded  the  first  African  American  newspaper 
{Freedom's  Journal)  had  a  journalistic  career  of  seven  years.  Even  Samuel 
Cornish,  who  edited  four  newspapers — a  record  for  any  African  American 
during  that  period — only  served  a  combined  five  years  and  two  months  in 
journalism.4 

Extended  the  Enlightenment  to  Africa 

More  important  than  longevity  of  service,  Teage  made  a  distinctive 
intellectual  contribution  by  applying  Enlightenment  ideas  to  the  black 
race  and  extending  them  to  the  continent  of  Africa,  both  of  which  had 
been  viewed  as  beyond  the  scope  of  the  humanities.  Also  evident  in  his 
writings  are  all  the  defining  elements  of  an  ideology  known  as  black 
nationalism. 

As  the  author  of  Liberia's  declaration  of  independence,  Teage  was 
called  "the  Jefferson  of  Liberia,"5  a  comparison  that  was  intended  to  be 
flattering  but  nonetheless  was  diminutive  because  it  consigned  him  to  the 
shadows  of  a  republican  slaveholder,  without  recognition  for  his  own 
distinctive  contribution  to  the  struggle  for  human  liberty.  Despite  Teage's 
myriad  accomplishments,  his  ideas,  his  contributions  and  his  reputation 
have  faded  over  the  years,  like  the  newsprint  through  which  they  were 
realized. 

The  Search  for  a  Recurring  Pattern 

This  study  seeks  to  rescue  Teage  from  undeserved  obscurity  by 
providing  a  sketch  of  his  life,  along  with  an  analysis  of  a  major  theme  in 


18  Burrowes  •  Summer  1999 


his  writings.  Data  was  assembled  by  examining  every  surviving  issue  of 
five  periodicals  that  reported  intensively  on  19th  century  Liberia,6  along 
with  a  similarly  exhaustive  examination  of  letters  from  African  American 
repatriates  to  their  relatives,  friends  and  former  masters  in  the  United 
States  in  two  published  collections.7  In  addition  to  many  items  by  a 
variety  of  authors  on  the  life  of  Teage,  this  search  process  uncovered  112 
substantive  documents  written  by  the  subject,  including  71  news  articles 
and  editorials,  six  poems,  two  sermons,  two  major  speeches,  a  treatise  on 
self-government  by  blacks,  and — his  magnum  opus — Liberia's  declaration 
of  independence. 

Among  his  works  that  apparently  did  not  survive  were  a  journal  in 
which  he  kept  records  of  his  travels,8  a  contemplated  history  of  Liberia9 
and  copies  of  sermons.10  Some  20  research  collections  with  holdings  on 
African  colonization,  Liberia  and  Baptist  history  were  searched,  of  which 
eight  yielded  significant  primary  materials."  Sources  were  selected  on  the 
basis  of  availability,  relevance  and  reliability.  To  guard  against  unconscious 
or  deliberate  biases,  each  document  or  set  of  documents  was  checked 
against  others  drawn  from  different  individual,  political  and  institutional 
sources. 

But  this  study  goes  beyond  a  recounting  of  events  to  concern  itself 
with  "the  thought  within  them"  which,  as  journalism  historian  James 
Carey  has  suggested,  should  be  the  goal  of  cultural  historians.12  To  achieve 
this  objective,  Teage's  writings  were  subjected  to  "discourse  analysis," 
meaning  the  search  "to  uncover  the  codes,  constructions,  cultural  assump- 
tions, connotations,  values,  and  beliefs  embedded  in  the  text  by  locating 
correspondences  between  a  text  and  social  structures  and  identities, 
noting  recurring  patterns,  such  as  the  repetition  of  certain  themes, 
phrases,  rhetoric,  and  so  on  in  the  discourse."13 

Black  Nationalism  a  Consistent  Theme 

One  persistent  and  pervasive  theme  uncovered  in  Teage's  writings 
was  black  nationalism.  This  ideology  emerged  during  the  era  of  the  early 
American  republic,  when  the  contradiction  between  the  revolutionary 
sentiments  of  America's  founders  and  their  willingness  to  compromise 
with  slavery14  engendered  a  black  reaction  against  white  rejection,  a  sense 
of  racial  identity  and  a  belief  that  people  of  African  descent  share  a 
historical  mission.15  In  the  early  19th  century,  the  phrase  "black  national- 
ism" was  not  used  to  describe  what  was  then  an  emerging  phenomenon; 
nonetheless  a  sense  of  racial  identification  among  blacks  was  common. 
When  the  American  Colonization  Society's  president  wrote  Teage  in  1841 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 9 


to  complain  about  an  "offensive"  article  in  the  Herald,  for  example,  the 
editor  responded: 

In  common  with  colored  men,  I  have  certain  sentiments  ...  I 
should  be  altogether  unworthy  of  your  confidence  and  respect, 
if  I  should  at  any  time  forget  for  a  moment  that  this  is  my 
indefeasible  right,  or  so  base  and  mean-spirited  as  not  to  claim 
to  exercise  it  whenever  circumstances  should  demand  it.16 

Undergirding  this  response  was  the  essence  of  black  nationalism, 
evident  in  his  reference  to  "certain  sentiments"  that  he  shared  with  other 
people  of  color. 

Given  the  anomalous  situation  of  African  Americans,  consisting  of 
geographic  dispersal  across  the  country,  coupled  with  legal  segregation 
from  others  on  the  basis  of  race,  their  "nationalism"  has  always  been 
racially  defined,  "premised  on  the  assumption  that  membership  in  a  race 
could  function  as  the  basis  of  a  national  identity."  Because  of  its  racial 
composition,  black  nationalism  easily  elides  into  the  kindred  ideology  of 
pan-Africanism  which,  in  its  broadest  interpretation,  refers  to  a  "general 
sense  of  sympathy  and  mutual  supportiveness  among  Africans  and  peoples 
of  African  descent." 

Like  other  nationalisms,  however,  black  nationalism  is  anchored  in 
the  belief  among  a  group  of  people  that  they  are  "bound  together  by  ties 
of  kinship,  history  and  heritage,"  which  distinguishes  them  from  others 
by  their  commonly  held  beliefs,  behaviors  and  ways  of  thinking.'7  As  a 
belief  system  that  was  consciously  elaborated  during  a  time  of  social  strain 
and,  over  time,  achieved  integration,  black  nationalism  has  all  the  charac- 
teristics of  an  "ideology,"  as  defined  by  anthropologist  Clifford  Geerzt, 
who  contributed  considerably  to  focusing  scholarly  attention  on  the 
concept  during  the  past  several  decades.18 

Rising  in  the  State  of  Being 

Teage  was  born  in  1805  to  slave  parents  on  a  plantation  in 
Goochland  County,  Virginia,  halfway  between  Richmond  and 
Charlottesville,  not  far  from  the  home  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  Two  years 
later,  his  artisan  father,  Colin,  was  sold  to  the  owners  of  a  saddle  and 
harness  factory  in  Richmond,  a  move  that  significantly  widened  the 
family's  vistas.  By  1819,  Colin  had  paid  $1,300  to  purchase  his  family  of 
three19  and,  one  year  later,  held  property  in  Henrico  County,  outside  the 
city  limits.20 

In  Richmond,  the  Teage  family  attended  the  racially  mixed  but 
segregated  First  Baptist  Church,  where  in  1815a  tri-weekly  night  school 


20  Burrowes  •  Summer  1999 


was  organized  for  about  17  leading  black  members,  including  Colin.21 
Several  white  Baptist  tradesmen  and  merchants,  who  had  supported  Colin 
in  his  quest  for  manumission  and  literacy  skills,  also  assisted  in  the 
creation  of  the  Richmond  African  Baptist  Missionary  Society  in  1815  and 
the  ACS  Richmond  auxiliary  in  1823.22  This  was  the  context  in  which 
Colin  opted  in  1821  to  become  a  missionary  to  Africa,  taking  his  wife, 
Frances;  Hilary,  then  age  16,  and  a  15-year-old  daughter,  Colinette,  all  of 
whom  were  literate.23 

Two  years  before  leaving  for  Africa,  Hilary  and  his  sister  were 
described  as  having  "been  to  school  considerably."  Their  education  was 
organized  in  part  by  William  Crane,  a  fellow  Baptist  and  native  of 
Newark,  New  Jersey,  who  had  coordinated  a  night  school  for  their  father 
and  other  black  adults.24  At  this  time,  schooling  for  blacks  was  frowned 
upon  in  Virginia,  and  there  were  no  public  schools,  even  for  whites.  The 
curriculum  of  private  schools  in  Richmond  then  included  Latin,  Greek, 
mathematics,  history,  geography  and  natural  philosophy.2'  Hilary  later 
showed  some  familiarity  with  all  of  these  subjects. 

Teage  brought  considerable  intellectual  powers  and  energy  to  his 
various  pursuits,  including  a  trading  business,  which  he  inherited  after  his 
father's  death  in  1838  and  quickly  expanded.  By  1845  he  owned  five 
buildings  in  Monrovia,  was  earning  an  annual  commission  of  $7,000,  and 
had  five  warehouses  along  the  coast  worth  $30,000,  with  about  $20,000 
in  trade  stock.  Between  1827  and  1853,  he  owned  at  least  eight  vessels 
that  were  engaged  in  the  West  African  coasting  trade.26 

However,  his  commercial  fortunes  declined  in  the  late  1840s,  as  he 
poured  his  energies  into  the  campaign  for  independence.27  Teage  was 
elected  colonial  secretary  in  1835,  a  member  of  the  colonial  council  and 
commissioner  for  Montserrado  County  five  years  later,  member  of  the 
Constitutional  Convention  in  1847,  and  senator  for  Montserrado  County 
one  year  later.  In  addition,  he  served  as  attorney  general  (1850-51)  and 
secretary  of  state  (1852-1853),  with  a  stint  in  May  1852  as  acting  chief 
executive,  while  President  Joseph  Jenkins  Roberts  was  abroad.28 

Pride  of  Place  Among  Liberian  Intellectuals 

During  the  crucial  period  of  1830  to  1847,  when  Liberia  moved 
from  being  a  colony  to  a  republic,  Teage  occupied — by  virtue  of  his  age, 
activities  and  early  arrival  in  the  colony — pride  of  place  among  local 
intellectuals.  His  contemporaries  in  1845  elected  him  the  first  president 
of  the  Liberia  Lyceum,  which  until  about  1850  sponsored  public  speeches 
and  debates  as  a  means  of  energizing  and  educating  the  larger  commu- 
nity.29 He  was  said  to  have  been  "remarkable  for  his  abilities,  his  acquisi- 
tions and  his  influence,"30  "one  of  the  ablest  and  best  read  men  in 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  2 1 


Liberia,"31  and  one  of  Liberia's  "brightest  and  most  cultivated  intellects."32 
West  African  writer  Edward  Wilmot  Blyden  (who  would  come  to  be 
better  known  through  the  hundreds  of  essays  and  countless  letters  he 
wrote  to  a  large  and  influential  circle  of  correspondents  in  Africa,  England 
and  the  United  States)  described  Teage  as  having  "genius."33 

As  pastor  of  the  Providence  Baptist  Church  in  Monrovia,  Teage  filled 
his  days  with  such  routine  ministerial  cares  as  preaching,  ordaining  and 
meeting  with  his  flock  and  other  clergymen.  From  his  warehouse  on  the 
river  front,  he  had  a  direct  view  of  the  St.  Paul  River,  which  was  also  the 
site  on  many  Sundays  of  the  deep  immersion  baptisms  preferred  by 
emigrants  from  the  South.  In  1848  alone,  he  baptized  61  people — more 
than  any  other  minister  in  the  country.34  Teage  was  what  sociologist 
Antonio  Gramsci  termed  an  "organic  intellectual,"  being  the  thinking  and 
organizing  element  of  a  particular  social  group.  More  than  a  mere  elo- 
quent mover  of  feelings  on  a  momentary  basis,  he  was  a  "permanent 
persuader."35 

Although  Teage  was  rigid  in  his  commitment  to  the  cause  of  republi- 
canism and  repatriation,  he  displayed  none  of  the  acerbity  and  self- 
righteousness  that  characerizes  many  ideologues.  A  traveling  companion 
on  a  sea  trip  from  the  United  States  to  Liberia  nored,  "He  was  never 
disposed  to  urge  his  opinions  upon  others,  well  knowing  that  the  best  and 
most  thorough  converts  to  the  truth  usually  become  such  through  the 
force  of  their  own  reflections  and  convictions."36  He  described  Teage  as 
"highly  accomplished  in  his  manners,  very  agreeable,  various,  and  win- 
ning in  his  conversations;  of  a  kind,  obliging  and  generous  disposition, 
and  earnestly  intent  upon  building  up  the  cause  of  civilization  and 
Christianity  in  Africa."  About  Teage's  personality,  he  said,  "Amid  trying 
reverses  in  his  pecuniary  affairs  his  vivacity  and  cheerfulness  continued 
without  abatement."37 

Teage  As  Romantic  Empiricist 

Teage's  tenure  as  editor  of  the  Liberia  Herald began  in  1835,  follow- 
ing the  resignation  of  John  B.  Russwurm,  the  paper's  founding  editor  and 
one  of  the  first  blacks  to  graduate  from  an  American  college.38  Four  years 
later,  Teage  acquired  ownership  of  the  paper  from  the  ACS,  which  led  the 
editor  of  the  rival  Luminary  to  comment,  "We  speak  advisedly  when  we 
say  that  the  editor,  who  is  also  publisher  and  proprietor,  is  making  new 
and  judicious  effort  to  improve  it  in  every  respect."39  In  an  editorial,  Teage 
described  the  newspaper  office  as  quaint  and  somewhat  rustic: 

a  little  sooty  apartment  of  six  by  eight.  Beneath  (the  editor's) 
dingy  foolscap  a  portion  of  deal  lies  supinely  on  an  empty 


22  Burrowes  •  Summer  1999 


barrel.  A  few  odds  and  ends  of  books  and  newspapers  lie  in 
hopeless  confusion  around.  At  his  side  an  inkstand,  not  of 
china,  nor  of  bronze,  but  the  small  end  of  a  cow's  horn,  on  his 
left  a  quiver  of  quills  rifled  from  the  upper  surface  of  a 
porcupine  ....  The  walls  are  duly  chalked,  not  with  mechani- 
cal design,  nor  geometrical  diagrams,  but  with  mathematical 
momentos  of  the  kroos40  of  potatoes  of  which  he  has  relieved 
the  farmer.  This  is  his  blotter;  ledger,  he  keeps  none.41 

True  to  the  temper  of  the  times,  Teage's  writing  showed  the  impact 
of  two  dominant  intellectual  orientations.  On  the  one  hand,  his  social 
perspective  was  anchored  by  18th  century  liberal  republicanism,  with  its 
emphasis  on  empirical  analysis,  free  enterprise  economics  and  limited 
government.  On  the  other  hand,  his  aesthetic  was  linked  to  romanticism, 
the  leading  Western  literary  trend  from  about  1789  to  1839.42  His 
commitment  to  objectivity  was  rooted  in  an  empiricist  theory  of  knowl- 
edge— then  emerging  as  the  sine  qua  non  of  scientific  thought.  As  Teage 
explained  in  an  1845  lecture  to  the  Lyceum,  "Knowledge  is  derived  from 
without.  After  all  that  has  been  said  about  innate  ideas  and  principles,  it 
will,  I  think,  be  no  easy  matter  for  anyone  to  show,  that  we  have  one 
single  idea  that  we  did  not  originally  receive  by  perception  or  sensation." 
Later  he  added:  "The  object  of  the  modern  philosophy  is  to  collect  facts, 
unlike  the  ancient  which  was  to  explain  phenomena."43 

In  keeping  with  his  scientific  cast  of  mind,  Teage's  reports  in  the 
Herald  were  detailed  and  colorful.  He  distinguished  between  various  types 
of  local  termites  on  the  basis  of  physical  characteristics  and  used  a  micro- 
scope to  scrutinize  such  oddities  as  the  "witch"  recovered  by  a  traditional 
African  healer.44  Among  English-language  writers,  he  admired  the  "vigor, 
precision  or  copiousness"  of  John  Milton,  Edmund  Burke,  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  Sir  James  Hall,  and  "the  almost  immortals  that  signed  the 
Declaration  of  American  Independence.  "4S  Teage  was  modernist  even  in 
his  choice  of  type  for  the  newspaper,  which  consisted  of  pica  and  bour- 
geois faces,46  in  contrast  to  the  Old  English  and  various  classical  faces 
favored  by  other  editors  of  the  Herald. 

Eclectic,  Sardonic  and  Witty 

Concerning  aesthetics,  he  was  eclectic,  finding  value  and  pleasure  in 
sources  as  diverse  as  American  oratory,  African  cuisine  and  18th  century 
British  poetry.  His  own  poetry,  mostly  on  nature  and  patriotic  themes, 
contained  many  allusions  to  Africa's  past  grandeur.  One  of  the  poets  most 
often  cited  by  Teage  was  England's  Edward  Young,  whose  work — like 
some  of  his  own — was  laced  with  tinges  of  melancholy  and  meditations 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  23 


on  mortality.47  ButTeage's  most  masterful  pieces  were  his  speeches,  which 
combined  systematic  argumentation  and  flourishes  of  poetry  delivered 
with  the  full  powers  of  a  Baptist  pastor.  These  often  were  laced  with 
poetic  repetition,  as  in  a  section  of  a  speech  on  the  displacement  of  a 
martial  ethos  by  a  civil  era: 

He  who  would  embalm  his  name  in  the  grateful  remembrance 
of  coming  generations — he  who  would  secure  for  himself  a 
niche  in  the  temple  of  undying  fame — he  who  would  hew  out 
for  himself  a  monument  of  which  his  country  may  boast — he 
who  would  entail  upon  heirs  a  name  which  they  may  be 
proud  to  wear,  must  seek  some  other  field  than  that  of  battle 
as  the  theatre  of  his  exploits.48 

Taken  as  a  whole  Teage's  works  reveal  a  knowledgeable  and  witty  writer 
who  could  be  self-deprecating  at  times  yet  devastatingly  sardonic,  if 
crossed.49 

In  picturesque,  self-mocking  terms,  Teage  described  an  editor's 
duties  in  his  poverty-stricken  society: 

the  boy  comes  for  copy.  He  draws  on  a  well  backed  trestle,  for 
which  he  is  indebted  to  the  carelessness  of  the  carpenter,  and 
seats  himself  in  front  of  the  barrel.  Seizing  the  fearful  quill,  he 
thus  begins: 

'The  press,  the  omnipotent  press,  is  the  most  powerful 
engine  which  it  has  ever  been  the  lot  of  mortals  to 
possess.  It  is  the  scourge  of  tyrants,  the  pillar  of 
religion  and  the  Palladium  of  civil  liberty.  From  it,  as 
from  an  impregnable  rampart,  the  fearless  independent 
editor 

But  this  self-congratulatory  rumination  by  the  editor  is 
suddently  interrupted  by  the  copy  boy,  whose  concerns  are 
more  mondane: 

There  is  no  cassado50  for  breakfast,  sir. 

Well,  go  and  get  some,  and  don't  bother  me. 

/  have  no  money,  sir. 

Well  go  and  collect  some  money. 

/  have  carried  out  the  bills,  sir. 

Have  you  collected  any  money? 


24  Burrowes  •  Summer  1999 


No  sir. 

Why? 

Mr.  —  says  he  has  no  money,  and  you  need  not  be  afraid 

of  the  small  amount.  Mr.  —  says  he  don't  like  the  paper 

now;  you  are  too  polite .  Mr.  — says  your  paper  is 

scurrilous.  Mr.  —  says  there  is  too  much  religion  in  it  and 

too  little  politics.  Mr.  — says  there  is  too  much  politics 

and  too  little  religion,  and  Mr.  —  says  you  have  insulted 

his  fathers  tenth  cousin.  They  say  they  will  not  make  the 

paper  any  longer,  and  they  will  pay  when  they  get  the 

money. 

That  will  do;  go  and  call  again  in  an  hour  for  copy. 

With  this  dismissal,  the  editor  briefly  resumes  his  rumination: 

And  though  there  is  no  class  of  men  to  whom  the 

world  is  under  more  immense  obligation,  yet,  there  is 

none . . . 

Jambo  has  come  to  get  his  pay  for  the  palm  oil,  sir 

Be  gone,  sir,  don't  you  see  I  am  engaged  .  .  .  there  is 

none  we  respect  that  is  doomed  to  a  more  hopeless  .  .  . 

The  ram  has  gnawed  the  rollers,  sir. 

Well,  cast  another. 

We  have  no  molasses,  sir. 

Well,  shut  up  the  office,  and  go  to  dinner.51 

In  keeping  with  journalistic  standards  in  an  era  when  copyright 
conventions  were  not  strictly  observed,  Teage  published  samples  from  his 
diverse  readings.  The  November  7,  1845  issue  of  the  Herald,  for  example, 
carried  a  letter  from  a  correspondent  in  Haiti,  along  with  articles  culled 
from  the  Republican-leaning  New  York  Tribune,  published  by  Horace 
Greeley;  the  Federalist  Evening  Post,  founded  by  Alexander  Hamilton;  the 
New  York  Sun,  the  first  successful  penny  press  and  an  ally  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Party;  London's  iconoclastic  Punch;  and  England-based  Westminster 
Review,  an  outlet  for  the  writings  of  Jeremy  Bentham  and  James  Mill,  two 
founders  of  British  utilitarian  economics.52 

Adhered  to  Journalistic  Standards 

Stemming  from  his  avid  reading,  Teage  revealed  a  keen  understand- 
ing of  journalistic  standards  of  his  day.  In  an  appeal  to  his  patrons  for 
support,  he  noted  differences  between  the  news  environment  of  Africa 
and  more  industrialized  countries,  bemoaning  the  absence  in  Liberia  of 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  25 


"the  privilege  of  arraigning  and  abusing  public  men  and  measures."  This 
was  lacking,  he  noted: 

not  perhaps  from  a  virtuous  disposition  in  us,  or  that  we  write 
with  a  pen  less  wayward  than  others,  that  we  do  not  make 
occasional  drafts  on  this  fruitful  subject,  but  rather  because 
our  men  and  measures  are  known  within  a  circle  so  circum- 
scribed that  any  thing  we  could  say  with  respect  to  them, 
would  be  uninteresting  to  our  distinct  readers. 

Also  absent  from  his  environment  were  those  "striking  events"  that 
journalists  of  the  day  considered  newsworthy,  events  which: 

vary  and  enliven  the  dull  and  monotonous  narration  of 
ordinary  life.  No  mobs  affording  columns  of  matter  in 
accounts  of  heads  broke,  houses  rifled,  magistrates  resisted, 
laws  defied,  or  any  other  of  those  brilliant  events  which 
generally  mark  the  reign  of  mobocracy 

"To  this  degree  of  refinement,"  he  added  with  no  small  measure  of 
sarcasm,  "the  citizens  of  Liberia  have  not  as  yet  arrived;  it  is  left,  therefore, 
to  some  more  fortunate  Editor  to  describe  them,  when  futurity  shall  bring 
them  forth. "53  The  type  of  society  promoted  by  Teage  was  one  rooted  in 
reasoned  consensus,  which  could  be  achieved  only  through  "free  and 
dispassionate  discussion."14  Enlightenment  would  result,  he  argued,  from 
vigorous  public  debate,  the  kind  sponsored  by  the  Liberia  Lyceum  and 
conducted  in  the  pages  of  the  Herald: 

Let  the  whole  popular  mind,  with  its  'Press'  and  various  civil 
institutions,  concentrate  on  any  one  subject,  and  truth  will 
rise  prescient.  For  proof,  notice  the  progress  which  the  subject 
of  slavery  has  made.  As  soon  as  public  attention  is  fixed  itself 
upon  the  evils  and  dangers  it  is  likely  to  entail  on  the  Ameri- 
can people,  a  great  and  prevailing  change  was  evident  to  all. 
This  general  and  popular  agitation  may  throw  up  much  strife 
and  delusion,  but,  nevertheless,  error,  whose  certain  fate  is 
inevitable,  will  sink  and  give  place  to  truth.55 

The  Grand  Object  of  a  Republic  on  Africa's  Soil 

As  Liberians  moved  to  declare  their  independence  in  1847,  Teage — 
the  man  who  had  done  more  than  any  to  further  the  process — cited  the 


26  Burrowes  •  Summer  1999 


planting  of  "a  nation  of  colored  people  on  the  soil  of  Africa,  adorned  and 
dignified  with  the  attributes  of  a  civilized  and  Christian  community"  as 
the  "grand  object  which  at  first  brought  us  to  Africa."56  Evident  in  this 
passage  is  a  defining  element  of  19th  century  black  nationalism  as  identi- 
fied by  historian  Wilson  J.  Moses,57  which  was  a  desire  for  independence 
and  "absolute  control  over  a  specific  geographical  territory,  and  sufficient 
economic  and  military  power  to  defend  it."  As  noted  by  Moses,  other 
essential  features  of  classical  black  nationalism  include:  1)  dissatisfaction 
with  conditions  in  the  United  States;  2)  "an  invariable  belief  that  the  hand 
of  God  directed  (the)  movement"  of  blacks;  3)  a  quickness  "to  claim  an 
ancestral  connection  with  Egypt  and  Ethiopia,"  while  showing  "little 
enthusiasim  for  the  cultural  expressions  of  sub-Saharan  Africa." 

Although  Teage  is  said  to  have  made  the  most  important  personal 
contribution  to  the  "framing  and  establishment  of  Liberia,"  his  "national- 
ism" always  retained  a  racial  dimension,  in  keeping  with  its  origin  in  the 
American  environment.  He  regarded  with  anguish  the  "opprobrious 
epithets"  and  "contempt"  meted  out  by  northern  blacks  against 
Liberians.58  Unlike  many  black  leaders  in  the  United  States  who  viewed 
emigrants  and  abolitionists  as  antagonists,  he  saw  the  two  communities  as 
"companions  in  tribulation"  and  "co-laborers  in  different  compartments 
of  one  structure."  In  keeping  with  Teage's  republican  aspirations,  he 
published  in  1844  a  historical  sketch  of  the  Liberian  colony  in  which  he 
criticized  European  control  over  Sierra  Leone  and  called  in  contrast  for 
black  self-government  in  Liberia.59 

Dissatisfaction  with  life  in  the  United  States  is  clearly  evident  in  the 
Liberian  Declaration  of  Independence — Teage's  best  known  work — which 
detailed  the  American  racism  that  had  both  shaped  his  world  view  and 
driven  him  to  Africa,  along  with  other  members  of  the  Liberian  repatriate 
community.  It  reads  in  part: 

We  were  everywhere  shut  out  from  all  civil  office. 
We  were  excluded  from  all  participation  in  the  government. 
We  were  taxed  without  consent. 

We  were  compelled  to  contribute  to  the  resources  of  a  coun- 
try, which  gave  us  no  protection. 

We  were  made  a  separate  and  distinct  class,  and  against  us 
every  avenue  to  improvement  was  effectually  closed.  Strangers 
from  all  lands  of  a  color  different  from  ours,  were  preferred 
before  us.60 

Also  displayed  in  the  language  of  this  declaration  is  his  skill  as  a  writer,  as 
evident  in  the  poetic  use  of  repetition,  combined  with  a  poignant  re- 
counting of  grievances. 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  27 


Liberia  "Favour'd  of  God" 

Teage's  black  nationalism  was  clearly  anchored  in  his  religious  faith, 
specifically  a  covenant  theory  of  history,  which  held  that  "God  periodi- 
cally chose  certain  nations  to  play  the  role  of  his  chosen  people. "6I  Just  as 
American  Puritans  believed  that  they  had  inherited  the  Biblical  covenant 
from  the  Old  Testament  Israelites,  many  African  Americans,  including 
Teage,  thought  the  role  of  God's  chosen  people  had  devolved  to  blacks, 
due  to  the  involvement  of  white  Americans  in  the  slave  system.62 

This  theory  was  evident  in  his  poem  "Wake  Every  Tune,"  where  he 
claimed  Liberia  to  be  "Favour'd  of  God."63  The  interpenetration  of  his 
religious  and  political  ideas  was  facilitated  by  the  absence  of  a  firm 
division  between  the  secular  and  sacred  in  African  American  cosmology, 
which  one  scholar  characterized  as  one  of  "the  most  important  links 
between  African  culture  and  African  American  Christianity. "64  Writing  19 
years  before  the  Civil  War  culminated  in  the  abolition  of  slavery,  he  drew 
upon  a  certainty  derived  from  religious  faith  in  predicting: 

The  accursed  system  is  tottering  to  its  fall.  — All  its  aiders, 
abettors  and  apologists — all  its  protecting  powers  in  the  New 
World — intellectual  and  brutal,  cannot  long  sustain  it  against 
the  advance  of  liberal  and  religious  principles.  The  day  of 
darkness  has  passed.  The  hosts  are  mustering  for  battle.  God 
himself  is  in  the  midst.65 

As  Liberians  faced  the  uncertain  prospects  of  independence,  Teage 
sought  to  reassure  his  doubtful  compatriots  by  comparing  them  to  a 
group  in  the  Old  Testament  that  had  been  elected  to  be  saved  from  the 
destruction  of  an  immoral  civilization,  noting,  "Like  the  wanderers  from 
Sodom,  we  shall  find  it  certain  death  to  remain  here  or  to  return  to  the 
city.  Hope  can  be  indulged  only  in  going  forward."66 

In  their  flight  from  "Sodom,"  the  territory  to  which  many,  if  not 
most,  19th  century  black  nationalists  sought  to  escape  was  Africa,  their 
ancestral  home  and  a  land  to  which  many  retained  cultural  ties,  having 
been  recently  removed.  During  Teage's  childhood  in  the  United  States, 
blacks  still  referred  to  and  thought  of  themselves  as  "Africans,"  and  the 
names  they  gave  to  hundreds  of  churches  and  other  institutions,  such  as 
the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  reflected  this  identification  with 
the  continent  of  their  origin.  Similarly,  emigration  by  the  Teage  family 
and  others  to  the  area  that  became  Liberia  reflected  a  privileging  of 
Africa — above  such  alternative  sites  as  Canada  and  Haiti.  To  describe  their 
mission,  supporters  of  African  colonization  appropriated  the  phrase  from 


28  Burrowes  •  Summer  1999 


Psalm  68  of  the  Old  Testament,  "Princes  shall  come  out  of  Egypt;  Ethio- 
pia shall  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God." 

By  appealing  to  a  vision  of  Africa  that  was  both  ancient  and  awe- 
inspiring,  Teage  also  sought  to  empower  his  audiences  with  a  sense  of 
certainty  about  achieving  their  collective  goals.  Speaking  one  year  before 
the  colony  severed  its  ties  to  the  ACS,  he  challenged  his  audience: 

And  will  the  descendants  of  the  mighty  Pharaohs,  that  awed 
the  world — will  the  sons  of  him  who  drove  back  the  serried 
legions  of  Rome  and  laid  siege  to  the  "eternal  city" — will  they, 
the  achievements  of  whose  fathers  are  yet  the  wonder  and 
admiration  of  the  world — will  they  refuse  the  proffered  boon, 
and  basely  cling  to  the  chains  of  Slavery  and  dependence? 
Never!  never!!  never!!!67 

Similarly,  his  poem  "Land  of  the  Mighty  Dead"  employed  references  to  a 
more  glorious  and  orderly  African  past  to  inspire  action  toward  self- 
government  by  his  contemporaries:68 

Land  of  the  mighty  dead!  Here  science  once  displayed,  And 
art,  their  charms;  Here  awful  Pharaohs  swayed  Great  nations 
who  obeyed,  Here  distant  monarchs  laid  Their  vanquished 


They  hold  us  in  survey,  They  cheer  us  on  our  way  They  loud 
proclaim — From  Pyramidal  hall — From  Carnac's  sculptured 
wall — From  Thebes  they  loudly  call — Retake  your  fame! 

Teage  regarded  those  indigenous  societies  then  engaged  in  the  slave 
trade  to  be  debased,  fallen  from  a  higher  state.  The  involvement  of  several 
African  chiefs  in  the  slave  trade  notwithstanding,  he  was  against  the 
expropriation  of  land  from  them  without  just  compensation.69  As  noted 
in  his  poem  "Wake  Every  Tuneful  String,"  the  independence  of  Liberia 
was  but  the  harbinger  of  a  return  for  all  Africa  to  an  earlier  state  of 
freedom: 

Shout  the  loud  Jubilee  Afric  once  more  is  free 

Break  forth  with  joy; 
Let  Nile's  fettered  tongue,  Let  Niger's  join  the  song,  And 
Congo's  loud  and  long 

Glad  strains  employ70 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  29 


Since  all  humanity  had  contributed  to  "civilization,"  Teage  reasoned, 
all  could  aspire  to  partake  of  its  offerings,  including  indigenous  Africans, 
whose  religious  and  cultural  conversion  he  justified  as  a  racial  duty.71  The 
pan-racial  element  in  his  thinking  led  him  to  welcome  indigenous 
Africans  into  the  polity,  but  his  commitment  to  Christianity  and  republi- 
canism made  him  critical  of  those  African  customs  linked  to  servile 


Challenged  Some  African  Social  Practices,  Enjoyed  Others 

For  example,  he  regarded  the  status  of  women,  trial  by  ordeal  and 
some  other  features  of  contemporaneous  African  societies  as  morally 
reprehensible  and  requiring  change,  if  not  excision.72  Toward  other 
features  of  African  culture,  he  maintained  a  non-judgmental  attitude,  a 
display  of  relativism  that  was  rare  in  the  19th  century.  He  took  to  eating 
local  cuisine,73  sent  a  suit  made  from  African  cotton  cloth  for  display  at  an 
industrial  fair  in  New  York,74  and  found  African  hospitality  and  several 
cultural  practices  worthy  of  praise.71  For  a  Baptist  minister,  he  adopted  a 
surprising  moral  indifference  toward  conjuring,76  which  he  was  able  to 
describe  without  denunciation,  perhaps  conditioned  by  previous  exposure 
to  similar  practices  in  Virginia.77 

Teage's  works  highlight  the  significant  role  of  Southern  blacks  in  the 
forging  of  black  nationalism — a  position  advanced  by  social  historians 
Eugene  Genovese,  Sterling  Stuckey  and  others.78  His  writings  also  support 
the  argument  of  Moses  that  "classical  black  nationalism  brought  together 
the  apparently  contradictory  ideas  of  cultural  assimilation  and  geopolitical 
separatism."  According  to  Moses,  who  has  done  more  than  any  other 
scholar  to  historicize  the  subject,  racial  consciousness  among  African 
Americans  was  in  its  "protonationalist"  phase  from  the  late  1770s  to 
1830,  then  entered  its  classical  nationalist  expression  in  the  years  from 
1850  to  1925.79 

Given  this  periodization,  Teage  was  one  of  the  earliest  black  nation- 
alists, working  as  he  did  between  1830  and  1850.  Paradoxically,  the  racial 
ideology  he  articulated  helped  give  rise  to  a  narrow  Liberian  nationalism 
and,  through  the  efforts  of  his  protege  Edward  Wilmot  Blyden  (1832- 
1912),  to  an  all-encompassing  pan-Africanism.80  Twenty-seven  years 
Blydens  senior,  Teage  had  employed  the  younger  man  as  his  clerk  while 
serving  as  secretary  of  state  and  Herald  editor,  positions  which  Blyden 
would  eventually  come  to  occupy81  Teage's  mentoring  role  calls  into 
question  a  historical  chronology  that  credits  the  ideas  of  Blyden  as  being 
"the  most  important  historical  progenitor  of  pan-Africanism."82 


30  Burrowes  •  Summer  1999 


During  the  19th  century,  Teage's  reputation  and  ideas  reverberated 
deeply  in  Liberia  and  broadly  across  the  Atlantic.  While  he  was  editor,  the 
Herald  maintained  a  small  but  continuous  circulation  in  the  United 
States,  through  a  network  of  business  associates  and  pro-colonization 
agents,  including  William  Crane,  the  white  Baptist  businessman  who  had 
guided  his  early  education.83  In  addition,  his  writings  were  regularly 
reprinted  in  the  African  Repository,  published  monthly  by  the  American 
Colonization  Society  in  Washington,  DC,  and  in  the  bi-monthly  Mary- 
land Colonization  Journal  of Baltimore.  In  1848,  one  of  his  speeches, 
along  with  an  address  by  radical  abolitionist  Henry  Highland  Garnet  of 
New  York,  was  included  in  a  booklet  published  in  London  that  was 
intended  to  refute  the  "calumny"  that  blacks  were  incapable  of  higher 
education.84 

When  Teage  died  on  May  21 ,  1853,  after  a  long  and  painful  ill- 
ness,85 his  passing  was  noted  by  Frederick  Douglass  Paper  *b  which  had 
been  a  worthy  adversary  to  the  colonization  cause  over  the  years,  but  not 
to  those  individuals  who  had  opted  to  emigrate.  A  Herald  correspondent 
reported  the  passing  of  "the  chiefest  luminary  in  our  political  sky,"  and 
said  that  through  Teage  "the  melancholy  spirit  of  every  Liberian  was  raised 
from  deep  despair  to  hope."87  A  letter  from  Liberia  reporting  the  closing 
of  his  meteoric  career  noted,  "A  great  star  has  fallen  in  this  Republic."88 

Committed  to  Modernism  &  Black  Nationalism 

From  the  lowest  run  of  Virginia  slave  society,  Hilary  Teage  emigrated 
to  Liberia,  where  he  became  a  successful  merchant,  Baptist  pastor,  elected 
official  and  influential  editor.  Although  lacking  a  formal  education,  his 
writings  showed  a  deep  commitment  to  an  emerging  modernism,  in  the 
form  of  republican  politics,  literary  romanticism  and  epistemological 
empiricism.  Also  evident  in  his  writings  were  the  hallmarks  of  19th 
century  black  nationalism,  from  criticisms  of  America  for  failing  to  extend 
republican  liberties  to  blacks,  through  a  covenant  theology  that  confi- 
dently assumed  God  to  be  "in  the  midst"  of  the  struggle  against  slavery,  to 
evocative  images  of  Ancient  Egypt  meant  to  inspire  and  empower  his 
audiences. 

In  elaborating  what  was  a  racially  based  ideology,  he  channeled  it 
into  both  a  specifically  Liberian  nationalism  and  a  broader  pan- 
Africanism.  By  campaigning  relentlessly  through  the  Liberia  Herald, 
which  he  edited  for  1 5  years,  this  former  slave  helped  to  achieve  his 
"grand  object,"  which  was  the  creation  of  a  "nation  of  colored  people  on 
the  soil  of  Africa." 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  3 1 


Endnotes 

'"The  Late  Hilary  Teage,  of  Liberia,"  Maryland  Colonization  Journal,  1853,  71. 

:P.  J.  Staudenraus,  The  African  Colonization  Movement,  1816-1865  (New  York:  Columbia 
University  Press,  1961). 

'The  original  towns  and  their  populations  were:  Bassa  Cove,  52;  Edina,  67;  Marshall,  68; 
Monrovia,  463;  Sinoe,  40;  Bexley,  50;  Caldwell,  138;  Millsburg,  95;  and  New  Georgia,  121;  see  C. 
Abayomi  Cassell,  Liberia:  History  of  the  First  Afiican  Republic  (New  York:  Fountainhead  Publishers, 
1970),  103,  1 1 1-12,  250,  264,  and  U.  S.  Senate,  U.  S.  Navy  Department,  Tables  Showing  the  Number 
of  Emigrants  and  Recaptured  Africans  Sent  to  the  Colony  of  Liberia  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
...  Together  with  a  Census  of  the  Colony  of  Liberia  and  a  Report  of  its  Commerce,  &c.  September,  1843, 
Senate  Document  No.  1 50,  28th  Congress,  2d  session  (Washington,  DC:  Government  Printing 
Office,  1845). 

''For  black  literary  and  organizational  activities  of  the  antebellum  era,  see  R.  J.  M.  Blackett,  Building 
an  Antislavery  Wall  (Cornell  University  Press,  1 983);  James  Oliver  Horton,  Free  People  of  Color 
(Washington,  DC:  Smithsonian  Institute  Press,  1993);  M.  E.  Dunn,  The  Black  Press,  1827-1890 
(New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1972). 

^"Reward  of  Merit,"  Maryland  Colonization  journal,  August  1846,  220-221;  Cassell,  Liberia. 

''Africa's  Luminary,  a  semi-monthly  newspaper  published  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission  in 
Monrovia  from  1839  to  1841;  Vols.  1-3(15  March  1839-17  December  1841)  original  in  Yale 
Divinity  School  Library;  microfilm  produced  for  the  American  Theological  Library  Association  Board 
of  Microtext,  Chicago,  by  Dept.  of  Photoduplication,  University  of  Chicago  Library,  1970;  1  reel,  35 
mm;  the  African  Repository,  the  monthly  journal  of  the  ACS,  published  from  1825  to  1892,  vols.  1-68 
(March  1825-January  1892)  available  on  microfilm  from  University  Microfilms,  Ann  Arbor, 
Michigan;  Vols.  1-25  known  as  the  African  Repository  and  Colonial  Journal;  Vol.  1 0  contains  an  index 
to  Vols.  1-10;  the  American  Colonization  Society  Annual  Report,  1 8 1 8- 1 908/ 1 0,  with  a  reprint 
available  from  Negro  University  Press,  New  York,  1969;  Liberia  Herald,  a  bi-monthly  newspaper 
published  by  the  colonial  government  from  1830  to  1839,  when  it  reverted  to  private  ownership, 
available  in  the  following  locations:  Library  Company  of  Philadelphia  (15  February  1830;  3  May 
1843)  Library  of  Congress  (6  April  1830;  6  June  1830;  22  April  1831;  22  June  1831;  22  July  1831; 
22  February  1832;  7  June  1832;  1  August  1833;  4  September  1833;  20  November  1833;  24 
December  1833;  24  January  1834;  24  February  1834;  7  June  1834;  27  December  1834;  Oct.,  1839) 
and  Maryland  Colonization  Society  Papers  (24  January  1844;  30  March  1844;  24  January  1845;  15- 
31  March  1845;  31  May  1845;  5  September  1845;  7-28  November  1845;  3-17  July  1846;  1  January 
1847;  5  March  1847;  2  April  1847;  4  June  -  30  July  1847;  26  August-17  December  1847);  and  the 
Maryland  Colonization  Journal,  a  monthly  journal  published  in  Baltimore,  Maryland,  from  May 
1835-May  1841;  new  series,  June  1841-May  1861;  available  in  the  papers  of  the  Maryland 
Colonization  Society  (an  auxiliary  of  the  ACS),  on  microfilm  reels  28-29  from  Scholarly  Resources, 
Wilmington,  Delaware;  31  rolls  of  35mm,  with  guide.. 

7Randall  M.  Miller,  ed.,  Dear  Master:  Letters  of  a  Slave  Family  (Athens,  Georgia:  University  of 
Georgia,  1991);  Bell  I.  Wiley,  ed.,  Slaves  No  More:  Letters  from  Liberia,  1833-1869  (Lexington:  The 
University  Press  of  Kentucky,  1980). 

""Liberia  Herald,"  Liberia  Herald,  15  March  1845,  46. 

'"'The  Late  Hilary  Teage,  of  Liberia,"  Maryland  Colonization  Journal,  October  1853,  72. 

"These  include  "The  Proceedings  of  the  Liberia  Providence  Baptist  Association,"  which,  according 
to  the  Africa's  Luminary,  19  April  1839,  was  a  recently  published  pamphlet  that  contained  a  pastoral 
address  by  him,  along  with  the  proceedings  of  the  Liberia  Providence  Baptist  Association  Conventions 
of  1837  and  1838. 

"The  eight  most  important  collections  were  the  American  Colonization  Society  Papers,  Manuscript 
Division,  Library  of  Congress  (also  available  on  microfilm  through  the  Library  of  Congress, 
Photoduplication  Service,  Washington,  DC;  331  reels);  Rare  Book  and  Special  Collections  Division, 
Library  of  Congress;  Library  Company  of  Philadelphia,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania;  Historical  Society 
of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania;  Maryland  Colonization  Society  Papers,  Maryland 
Historical  Society,  Baltimore;  Library  of  Virginia  Archives,  Richmond;  Virginia  Historical  Society, 
Richmond;  and  the  Southern  Baptist  Historical  Library  and  Archives,  Nashville. 

l2James  Carey,  "The  Problem  of  Journalism  History,"  in  Eve  Stryker  Munson  and  Catherine  A. 
Warren,  eds.,  James  Carey:  A  Critical  Reader  (Minneapolis:  University  of  Minnesota  Press,  1997),  86- 
94,  especially  p.  89. 


32  Burrowes  •  Summer  1999 


l3Janet  M.  Cramer,  Woman  as  Citizen:  Race,  Class,  and  the  Discourse  of  Women's  Citizenship,  1894- 
1909.  Journalism  &  Mass  Communication  Monograph,  no.  165  (Columbia,  S.  G:  Association  for 
Education  in  Journalism  &  Mass  Communication,  1998),  13. 

'■•John  C.  Miller,  The  Wolf  by  the  Ear:  Thomas  Jejferson  and  Slavery  (New  York:  The  Free  Press, 
1977);  also  Joyce  Appleby,  Capitalism  and  a  New  Social  Order:  The  Republican  Vision  of  the  1790s 
(New  York:  New  York  University  Press,  1984),  102;  Winthrop  D.  Jordan,  White  Over  Black:  Attitudes 
Toward  the  Negro,  1550-1812  (New  York:  Pelican,  1971),  429-481;  Robert  McColley,  Slavery  and 
Jejfersonian  Virginia  (Urbana:  University  of  Illinois,  1973);  Ira  Berlin  and  Ronald  Hoffman,  Slavery 
and  Freedom  in  the  Age  of  the  American  Revolution  (Urbana:  University  of  Illinois,  1986). 

,5For  black  nationalism  generally,  see  Wilson  J.  Moses,  Classical  Black  Nationalism:  From  the 
American  Revolution  to  Marcus  Garvey  (New  York:  New  York  University,  1996),  41,  5,  36  n.  2;  also 
John  H.  Bracey,  Jr.,  August  Meier,  and  Elliott  M.  Rudwick,  eds.,  Black  Nationalism  in  America 
(Indianapolis:  Bobbs-Merrill,  1970);  E.  U.  Essien-Udon,  Black  Nationalism:  A  Search  for  an  Identity  in 
America  (Chicago:  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1962);  Eugene  D.  Genovese,  Roll,  Jordan,  Roll:  The 
World  the  Slaves  Made  (New  York,  Vintage,  1976),  xv;  Sterling  Stuckey,  Slave  Culture:  Nationalist 
Theory  and  the  Foundations  of  Black  America  (New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  1987),  3-97. 

"'"Letter  from  Mr.  Teage  to  Hon.  S.  Wilkeson  dated  Monrovia,  10  December  1840,"  African 
Repository,  5  March  1841,  95. 

l7Imanuel  Geiss,  The  Pan-African  Movement  (New  York:  Homes  and  Meier,  1974). 

'"Clifford  Geertz,  "Ideology  as  a  Cultural  System,"  in  David  Apter,  ed.,  Ideology  and  Discontent 
(New  York:  Free  Press,  1964),  47-76. 

'''"William  Crane  to  the  Rev.  O.  B.  Brown,  28  March  1819,"  in  J.  B.  Taylor,  Biography  of  Elder  Lott 
Cary,  late  Missionary  to  Africa  (Baltimore:  Armstrong  and  Berry,  1837),  17-18. 

2"United  States  Census  Office,  Fourth  Census  of  the  United  States  (Washington,  DC,  1820),  Roll 
#132,95,98. 

2 'Ralph  R.  Gurley,  TheLifeoffehudiAshmun  (James  C.  Dunn,  1835),  147-148;  Taylor,  Biography 
of  Elder,  13,  19. 

"Philip  Slaughter,  The  Virginia  History  of  African  Colonization  (Richmond:  1855);  John  H.  Russell, 
The  Free  Negro  in  Virginia,  1619-1865  (Baltimore:  The  Johns  Hopkins  Press,  1913),  73;  Marie  Tyler- 
McGraw,  "Richmond  Free  Blacks  and  African  Colonization,  1816-1832,"  Journal  of  American  Studies 
(Great  Britain)  21  (2):  207-224,  especially  p.  217;  D.  R.  Egerton,  "'Its  Origin  is  Not  a  Little  Curious': 
A  New  Look  at  the  American  Colonization  Society,"  Journal  of  the  Early  Republic  5  (1985):  463-480. 

23Tom  W.  Shick,  Emigrants  to  Liberia:  1820  to  1843:  An  Alphabetical  Listing  (Newark,  DE: 
University  of  Delaware,  1971),  96. 

24Taylor,  19.  For  the  role  of  Crane  in  Hilary's  education,  see  William  A.  Poe,  "Not  Christopolis  but 
Christ  and  Caesar:  Baptist  Leadership  in  Liberia,"  Journal  of  Church  and  State,  23  (3):  535-551, 
especially  p.  538. 

2>Tyler-McGraw,  "Richmond  Free  Blacks,"  213;  Marie  Tyler-McGraw,  "'The  Prize  I  Mean  is  the 
Prize  of  Liberty':  A  Loudon  County  Family  in  Liberia,"  Virginia  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography, 
97  (1989),  355-374;  Virginius  Dabney,  Richmond:  The  Story  of  a  City  (Garden  City,  N.  Y:  Doubleday 
and  Co.,  1990),  77. 

26Dwight  N.  Syfert,  "The  Origins  of  Privilege,"  Liberian  Studies  Journal  6  (Fall  1975),  109-128; 
Dwight  N.  Syfert,  "A  History  of  the  Liberian  Coasting  Trade,  1821-1900"  (Indiana  University,  Ph. 
D.  dissertation,  1977),  280-281;  Robert  W.  July,  The  Origins  of  Modern  African  Thought  (New  York: 
Praeger,  1967),  96. 

27Syfert,  "The  Origin  of  Privilege,"  1 14-6,  126-7;  Syfert,  "A  History  of  the  Liberian  Coasting 
Trade,"  271,  280-281,  283;  July,  The  Origins  of  Modern  African  Thought,  93-100,  especially  p.  96. 

2S"The  Election,"  Africa's  Luminary,  3  Jan.  1840;  Syfert,  "A  History  of  the  Liberian  Coasting  Trade," 
280-281;  Edith  Holden,  Blyden  of  Liberia  (New  York:  Vantage,  1966),  36.  According  to  an  author 
who  worked  at  the  Liberian  State  Department  and  had  full  access  to  official  records,  Teage  also  served 
as  the  country's  first  secretary  of  that  department;  see  Nathaniel  Richardson,  Liberia's  Past  and  Present 
(London:  Diplomatic  Press,  1959),  59,  n  *. 

"'"The  Lyceum  and  the  Lectures"  and  "For  Africa's  Luminary:  The  Liberia  Lyceum,"  Africa's 
Luminary,  7  Aug.  1840,  38-39;  Tom  W  Shick,  "Rhetoric  and  Reality:  Colonization  and  Afro- 
American  Missionaries  in  Early  Nineteenth-Century  Liberia,"  in  Sylvia  Jacobs,  Black  Americans  and 
the  Missionary  Movement  in  Africa  (Westport,  Conn.:  Greenwood,  1982),  162,  n.  50;  Wiley,  29-30, 
Letter  15. 


Summer  1999  •American Journalism  33 


"'"The  Late  Hilary  Teage,  of  Liberia,"  Maryland  Colonization  Journal,  1853,  71-72. 

""Death  in  Liberia,"  Mary/and  Colonization  Journal,  1853,  47. 

,:"Death  of  Hon.  Hillary  Teage,"  Maryland  Colonization  Journal  1853,  47. 

"Edward  W.  Blyden  to  William  Coppinger,  3  June  1878,  in  Lynch,  Selected  Letters,  270. 

'"'"Additions  to  the  Baptist  Churches  in  the  last  Five  Months,"  African  Repository,  August  1848, 
234;  Poe,  535-551. 

■"Antonio  Gramsci,  Prison  Note/wok  (New  York:  International  Publishers,  1973),  5-23. 

""The  Late  Hilary  Teage,  of  Liberia,"  Maryland  Colonization  Journal,  1853,  71. 

,7"The  Late  Hilary  Teage,  of  Liberia,"  Maryland  Colonization  Journal,  1853,  72. 

"For  the  role  of  John  B.  Russwurm  in  Liberian  politics  and  the  events  that  led  to  his  resignation  as 
editor  of  the  Liberia  Herald,  see  Carl  Patrick  Burrowes,  "Press  Freedom  in  Liberia,  1830-1847:  The 
Impact  of  Heterogeneity  and  Modernity,"  Journalism  and  Mass  Communication  Quarterly  74,  2 
(1997):  331-347. 

■'''"From  the  Liberia  Herald,"  Africa's  Luminary,  18  Oct.  1839. 

■"'A  unit  of  measure  in  Nineteenth  Century  Liberia  that  was  equivalent  to  six  imperial  gallons  of  3 
kg- 

"'"An  African  Editor,"  Liberia  Herald,  17  March  1842,  19. 

"'Geoffrey  Tillotson,  Paul  Fussell  and  Marshall  Waingrow,  Eighteenth-Century  English  Literature 
(New  York:  Harcourt  Brace  Jovanovich,  1969),  18. 

"'"Address  Delivered  Before  the  Liberia  Lyceum,  in  the  Council  Chamber  on  May  21,  1845," 
Liberia  Herald,  31  May  1845,  9-10. 

''''"Liberia  Herald,"  Liberia  Herald,  26  Nov.  1842,  8;  "A  Conjurer  and  Conjuration,"  Liberia  HeralA, 
3  July  1846,  70. 

45"Republican  Legislature,"  Liberia  Herald,  29  Dec.  1849,  10.  Although  Teage  used  only  last  names, 
these  writers  were  probably  intended,  given  their  popularity  at  the  time. 

"''Hilary  Teage  to  R.  R.  Gurley,  Monrovia,  20  March  1839,  ACS  Papers. 

"7Stephen  Cornford,  Edward  Young  "Night  Thoughts"  (Cambridge:  Cambridge  University  Press, 
1989),  ix;  also  Russell  Noyes,  English  Romantic  Poetry  and  Prose  (New  York:  Oxford  University  Press, 
1967),  xxiii.  For  a  reference  by  Teage  to  "Night  Thought,"  see  "Liberia  Herald,"  Liberia  Herald,  1  Jan. 
1847,  22-23.  According  to  Corntord,  Young's  "Night  Thoughts"  was  not  only  "one  of  the  most 
influential,  praised  and  well  known  poems  of  the  English  language"  during  the  nineteenth  century, 
but  it  was  also  revered  by  some  Christians  as  a  "standard  devotional  work,"  second  only  to  the  Bible. 

"""Anniversary  Speech,"  Liberia  Herald,  18  December  1846,  17-18,  and  "Anniversary  Speech 
(continued),"  Liberia  HeralA,  5  February  1847,  29-30. 

4''For  examples,  see  "Liberia  Herald,"  Liberia  Herald,  21  Jan.  1843,  1 1,  and  "The  Luminary," 
Liberia  Herald,  11  February  1843. 

"In  the  nineteenth  century,  "cassado"  a  common  spelling  of  cassava,  the  root  of  a  shrubby  tropical 
plant  that  is  a  staple  food  in  parts  of  Liberia  and  many  areas  of  the  tropics. 

5l"An  African  Editor,"  Liberia  Herald,  17  March  1842,  19. 

52AJvin  Sullivan,  ed.,  British  Literary  Magazines:  The  Romantic  Age,  1789-1836  (Westport,  Conn.: 
Greenwood,  1983),  424-433;  Richard  A.  Schwarzlose,  Newspapers:  A  Reference  Guide  (Westport, 
Conn.:  Greenwood,  1987). 

""Liberia  Herald,"  African  Repository,  April  1837,  131-132. 

""Our  Affairs,"  Liberia  Herald,  18  Dec.  1846,  19. 

""Liberia  Herald,"  Liberia  Herald,  7  Nov.  1847. 

"[Hilary  Teage,]  "The  Liberia  Herald  with  Regard  to  Independence,"  Thirteenth  Annual  Report  of 
theACS,\S47,2l. 

57  Moses,  1-42.  For  the  religious  foundation  of  black  nationalism,  see  Genovese,  280-284; 
""The  Weekly  Elevator,"  Liberia  Herald,  30  March  1844,  2;  also  Hilary  Teage  to  the  Rev.  J.  B. 
Pinney,  Monrovia,  27  August  1852,  printed  in  ACS  Annual  Report,  January  1853,  17-18. 

""Death  of  Hon.  Hillary  Teage,"  Maryland  Colonization  Journal,  1853,  47;  Hilary  Teage,  "The 
Colony  of  Liberia  [Part  I],"  African  Repository,  September  1844,  257-61;  "Hilary  Teage,  "The  Colony 
of  Liberia  [Part  2],"  African  Repository,  January  1845,  13-17. 


34  Burrowes  •  Summer  1999 


''"Republic  of  Liberia,  The  Independent  Republic  of  Liberia:  Its  Constitution  and  Declaration  of 
Independence ...  Issued  Chiefly  for  Use  by  the  Free  People  of  Color.  (Philadelphia:  William  F.  Geddes, 
1848). 

'''Michael  Lienesch,  New  Order  of  the  Ages:  Time,  the  Constitution  and  the  Making  of  Modem 
American  Political  Thought  (Princeton:  Princeton  University  Press,  1988),  197. 

''-Poe,  535-551;  C.  Eric  Lincoln  and  Lawrence  H.  Mamiya,  The  Black  Church  in  the  African- 
American  Experience  (Durham:  Duke  University  Press,  1990),  22. 

''•'"Wake  Every  Tuneful  String,"  Liberia  Herald,  26  August  1847,  76. 

''"Donald  G.  Mathews,  Religion  in  the  Old  South  (Chicago:  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1977),  190. 

""The  Weekly  Elevator,"  Liberia  Herald,  30  March  1844,  2. 

''''"Address  Delivered  Before  the  Liberia  Lyceum:  Liberia  Herald,  31  May  1845,  9-10. 

'^"Anniversary  Speech,  December  1st,  1846,"  Liberia  Herald,  18  December  1846,  17-18,  and 
Liberia  Herald,  4  February  1847,  29-30. 

''""Land  of  the  Mighty  Dead,"  Liberia  Herald,  23  December  1842,  8.  This  poem  was  reprinted  as 
"Specimen  of  Liberian  Poetry,"  Aflican  Repository,  June  1843,  191-192,  and  Maryland  Colonization 
journal,  July  1843,  32,  with  the  note,  "sung  to  the  tune  'Bermondsey'." 

M" Liberia  Herald,"  Liberia  Herald,  16  October  1846,  2. 

7""Wake  Every  Tuneful  String,"  Liberia  Herald,  26  August  1847,  76;  reprinted  in  Afiican  Repository, 
February  1848,  58. 

7le.  g.,  "Internal  Improvement,"  Liberia  Herald,  3  May  1843,  25. 

7:" Liberia  Herald,"  Liberia  Herald,  30  September  1843,  31;  "Tender  Mercies  or  Heathenism," 
Liberia  Herald,  30  September  1843,  31; 

7-'See  various  references  to  "cassado"  as  part  of  his  cuisine  in  "An  African  Editor,"  Liberia  HeralA,  17 
March  1842,  19;  "Hard  Times,"  Liberia  Herald,  31  May  1845,  1 1;  "Scarcity,"  Liberia  Herald,  4  June 
1847,  62. 

7"HilaryTeage  to  R.  R.  Gurley,  Monrovia,  12  April  1839,  ACS  Papers. 

75"A  Beautiful  Custom,"  Liberia  Herald,  28  July  1 848,  38;  "Excursion,"  Liberia  Herald,  19  April 
1842,  22;  "African  Belief,"  Liberia  Herald,  30  March  1844. 

7''"A  Conjurer  and  Conjuration,"  Liberia  Herald,  3  July  1846,  70. 

77For  information  on  conjuring  among  Virginia  blacks,  see  Charles  L.  Perdue,  Jr.,  Thomas  E. 
Barden  and  Robert  K.  Phillips,  eds.,  Weevils  in  the  Wheat:  Interviews  with  Virginia  Ex-Slaves 
(Bloomington:  Indiana  University  Press,  1976);  Mechal  Sobel,  The  World  They  Made  Together:  Black  and 
White  Values  in  Eighteenth-Century  Virginia  (Princeton:  Princeton  University  Press,  1987),  41-43,  338. 

7fiGenovese,  xv;  Stuckey,  3-97. 

7''Moses,  2. 

""For  the  black  nationalist  antecedents  of  pan-Africanism  and  of  African  micro  nationalisms,  see 
Hollis  R.  Lynch,  Edward  Wilmot  Blyden:  Pan-Negro  Patriot,  1832-1912  (New  York:  Oxford  University 
Press,  1970);  Henry  S.  Wilson,  Origitis  of  West  African  Nationalism  (New  York:  St.  Martin's,  1969). 
For  Teage's  contribution  to  African  thought,  see  July,  The  Origins  of  Modern  Afiican  Thought,  85-109. 

*' Lynch,  Edward  Wilmot  Blyden,  492.  For  Blyden's  invocation  of  a  poem  byTeage  during  a  visit  to 
the  pyramids  in  Egypt,  see  Holden,  Blyden  of  Liberia,  141. 

SJLynch,  Edward  Wilmot  Blyden,  251;  also  Holden,  Blyden  of  Liberia;  Hollis  R.  Lynch,  Selected 
Letters  of  'Edward  Wilmot  Blyden  (Millwood,  N.  J.:  KTO  Press,  1978). 

"William  Crane,  Esq.,  served  for  several  years  as  the  agent  of  the  Herald  in  Baltimore,  Maryland  (e. 
g.,  "From  the  Liberia  Herald,"  Liberia  Herald,  18  October  1839,  and  "Agents  for  the  Liberia  Herald," 
Liberia  Herald,  28  February  1849). 

"4E.  Wilson  Armistead,  Calumny  Refuted  by  Facts  from  Liberia  (London:  1848). 

s5Two  years  before  his  death,  he  ended  a  letter  to  an  ACS  official  with  "I  now  close,  by  soliciting  an 
interest  in  your  prayers.  Yours,  in  affliction"  (HilaryTeage  to  J.  B.  Pinney,  Monrovia,  May  17,  1851, 
printed  in  African  Repository,  September  1851,  269). 

"'"Frederick  Douglass' Paper,  3  June  1853. 

"7Daniel  B.  Warner,  "Letter  to  the  Editor,"  Liberia  Herald,  15  June  1853,  86. 

"""Death  in  Liberia,"  Maryland  Colonization  Journal,  1853,  47. 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  35 


36  Summer  1999 


Women's  Moral  Reform  Periodicals 
of  the  19th  Century:  A  Cultural 
Feminist  Analysis  of  The  Advocate 

By  Therese  L.  Lueck 

A  publication  staffed  and  produced  entirely  by  women  for  nearly  a 
century,  The  Advocate,  the  national  publication  of  the  female  moral  reform 
movement,  brings  women's  journalism  more  fully  into  the  assessment  of 
national  journalistic  traditions.  This  analysis  ofThe  Advocate  situates 
women's  reform  periodicals  at  the  forefront  of  cultural  feminist  intellectual 
history.  Cultural  feminist  theory  enables  The  Advocate  to  be  seen  as  a  forum 
for  a  national  dialogue  ofivomen's  worth.  This  perspective  also  foregrounds 
consideration  of  the  values  derived  from  women's  culture  that  The  Advocate 
used  in  retraining  prostitutes  to  become  composers  and  typesetters  on  the 
publication. 

On  filthy  city  streets  where  women  sold  their  bodies  and  the 
urban  poor  struggled  to  survive,  19th  century  evangelical 
Protestant  women  saw  a  corrupt  society  in  desperate  need 
of  reform.  Compelled  by  missionary  zeal,  these  white  upper-middle  class 
women  banded  together  to,  quite  literally,  clean  up  American  society.  The 
messengers  for  this  moral  crusade  were  the  19th  century  female  reform 
periodicals,  which  enabled  these  women  to  boldly  broaden  their  domestic 
sphere  of  influence  to  encompass  society  at  large. 

The  New  York  Female  Moral  Reform  Society  was  founded  in  the 
1830s,  a  time  known  as  the  "Second  Great  Awakening"  when  "a 
millennial  spirit  pervaded  efforts  at  transforming  United  States  society," 


Therese  L.  Lueck  is  Associate  Professor  in  the  School  of  Communication  at  the  University  of 
Akron. 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  37 


and  reformers  "sought  not  merely  social  change  but  spiritual  transforma- 
tion, the  moral  regeneration  of  the  world."1  The  society  started  what  was 
to  become  the  national  reform  periodical,  The  Advocate,1  during  this 
period.  From  the  mid- 19th  to  the  mid-20th  century,  The  Advocate  was  the 
foremost  messenger  in  the  crusade  for  moral  reform. '  This  magazine  had 
two  specific  missions:  to  convert  prostitutes  and  to  publicize  incidents  of 
sexual  assault.  It  did  not  put  blame  on  women  for  prostitution.  Rather,  it 
laid  a  full  measure  of  responsibility  on  the  men  who  had  seduced  the 
women  in  the  first  place  and  on  the  adulterers  who  kept  prostitution 
thriving.  The  Advocate  also  educated  children  against  becoming  either 
victims  or  perpetrators  of  immoral  behavior. 

This  study  situates  women's  reform  periodicals  at  the  forefront  of  the 
19th  century  cultural  feminist  tradition  so  that  they  can  better  claim  their 
place  in  American  feminist  intellectual  history.  Relying  on  analysis  of  the 
national  female  reform  periodical  The  Advocate  as  women's  culture,  this 
research  is  an  attempt  to  more  fully  incorporate  these  periodicals  into 
journalism  history  so  that  their  influence  and  impact  can  be  further 
assessed  in  the  development  of  national  journalistic  traditions. 

Examining  Female  Practices  and  Values 

Theorist  Josephine  Donovan  has  proposed  that  cultural  feminism, 
"the  second  major  tradition  of  19th-century  feminist  theory,"  may  be  an 
appropriate  theoretical  framework  for  an  examination  of  female  reform 
societies  and  their  publications.4  Whereas  liberal  feminism,  seen  as  the 
19th  century's  first  feminist  theoretical  tradition,  is  the  feminist  theory 
most  often  employed  in  examining  US  media,  it  is  not  the  most  useful 
perspective  for  analyzing  these  types  of  periodicals.  While  these  magazines 
did  advocate  some  legislative  reforms  and  rights  for  women,  the  typical 
indicators  recognized  by  liberal  feminism  as  progress,  these  aspects  were 
not  the  focus  of  the  social  vision  that  guided  moral  reform  publications. 
That  mission  was  to  reform  prostitutes  and  shelter,  educate,  and  train 
homeless  women  and  children. 

Liberal  feminist  theory's  inheritance  from  liberal  political  theory  is 
its  blindness  to  the  homefront,  community  building,  and  traditional 
women's  organizing,  which  causes  it  to  be  a  less  than  adequate  theoretical 
perspective  for  examination  of  these  magazines  as  women's  culture.  Liberal 
feminism's  dual  emphases  on  the  individual  and  equality  define  a  perspec- 
tive that,  when  applied  to  these  reformers  and  their  work,  does  not  enable 
viewing  them  as  feminist  or  their  activism  as  important. 

Cultural  feminism  is  a  form  of  feminist  separatism  that  seeks  to  set 
women's  culture  apart  so  that  a  separate  set  of  female  values  and  practices 


38  Lueck*  Summer  1999 


can  be  nurtured  within  that  women-centered  space.   Historian  Alice 
Echols  noted  that  cultural  feminists  operate  within  patriarchal  boundaries 
to  positively  equate  women  with  culturally  defined  female  traits  and  that 
in  particular  "cultural  feminists  wish  to  establish  a  female  standard  of 
sexuality."5  Researcher  Linda  Alcoff  stated  that  cultural  feminist  theory  is 
"grounded  securely  and  unambiguously  on  the  concept  of  the  essential 
female,"6  or  that  the  ideology  of  a  cultural  feminist  theoretical  perspective 
relies  on  biologically  determined  sex  difference.  On  top  of  that,  Echols 
noted  that  cultural  feminism  is  "committed  to  preserving  rather  than 
challenging  gender  differences."7  The  theory  does  not  question  the 
cultural  positioning  of  femininity  in  opposition  to  masculinity  as  gender 
description.  However,  recognizing  that  patriarchy  has  described  feminin- 
ity in  restrictive  terms  in  order  to  define  the  nature  of  masculinity  as 
dominant,  cultural  feminists  have  adopted  those  very  terms  and  used 
them  to  redefine  femaleness  in  order  to  empower  women. 

Donovan  noted  that  contemporary  cultural  feminists  exhibit  their 
intellectual  heritage  by  espousing  the  view  that  a  "women's  political  value 
system  may  be  derived  from  traditional  women's  culture  and  applied  to 
the  public  realm."  However,  she  maintained,  "Contemporary  feminists 
are  more  aware  of  the  need  to  systematize  cultural  feminist  ideology  .  .  . 
than  were  their  19th-century  predecessors  who  .  .  .  tended  to  feel  that 
pacifist  and  reformist  attitudes  were  inherent  in  women's  nature."  She 
pointed  to  the  importance  of  the  cultural  feminist  intellectual  tradition, 
stating,  "Cultural  feminism  remains  one  of  the  most  important  traditions 
of  feminist  theory,  if  somewhat  more  sophisticated  in  form  and  political 
consciousness  today  than  in  the  19th  century."8 

Echols  observed  that  "by  equating  feminism  with  the  so-called 
reassertion  of  a  female  identity  and  culture,  cultural  feminism  seems  to 
promise  an  immediate  solution  to  women's  powerlessness  in  the  culture  at 
large."9  Using  the  activism  of  the  second-wave  feminists  of  the  latter  20th 
century  as  an  example,  Echols  acknowledged  that  "cultural  feminism  has 
succeeded  in  mobilizing  feminists  .  .  .  however  fragile  the  alliance."10 
Radical  feminist  Jo  Freeman  charted  the  emergence  of  latter  20th  century 
cultural  feminism  as  "an  attempt  to  identify  and  extol  what  women  had  in 
common,  to  put  substance  on  the  concept  of  sisterhood.  It  became  a 
celebration  of  all  things  female  without  concern  for  whether  these  things 
came  from  hormones,  socialization,  or  social  status.  As  had  happened 
earlier  in  the  prior  woman  movement,  difference  between  the  sexes  was 
elevated  to  a  primary  principle  with  female  characteristics  claiming  the 
moral  edge.""  Such  conscious  defining  of  this  theory  in  the  late  20th 
century  has  enabled  historical  researchers  to  identify  its  earlier  emergence. 


Summer  1999  •American Journalism  39 


Women  As  Morally  Superior 

Researcher  Barbara  Berg  has  traced  the  roots  of  American  feminism 
to  the  19th  century  women's  volunteer  societies.12  Such  an  observation 
recognized  the  boldness  of  these  women  and  their  social  activism,  includ- 
ing the  publication  and  distribution  of  their  periodicals.  But  such  a 
feminist  tracing  has  tended  to  beg  the  question:  Did  their  activism  enable 
these  women  to  transcend  their  traditional  sphere,  which  has  been  defined 
as  the  "Cult  of  True  Womanhood"13  ?  Contradictions  have  emerged  when 
a  liberal  feminist  lens  has  been  used  to  examine  these  women,  their 
reforms,  and  their  publications. 

In  reflecting  the  female  moral  reform  movement  itself,  the  leading 
periodical,  The  Advocate,  presented  what  researcher  Mary  Ryan  viewed  as 
contradictory  tendencies.  While  it  exposed  the  double  standard  of  sexual 
morality,  it  also  "reveled  in  portraying  the  .  .  .  19th-century  stereotype  of 
'true  womanhood."'4  Historian  Carroll  Smith-Rosenberg  postulated  that 
female  reformers  were  able  to  effectively  expand  their  influence  beyond 
the  domestic  sphere  by  carrying  with  them  the  authority  bestowed  them 
by  virtue  of  this  "Cult  of  True  Womanhood."15  The  belief  in  the  essential 
difference  between  women  and  men  and  that  women's  inherent  moral 
superiority  resided  in  that  difference  situated  these  19th  century  reformers 
at  a  formative  stage  of  the  American  cultural  feminist  tradition.  These 
beliefs  guided  their  vision  of  reform,  which  went  "beyond  the  fundamen- 
tally rationalist  and  legalistic  thrust  of  Enlightenment  liberal  theory. 
Instead  of  focusing  on  political  change,  feminists  holding  these  ideas  look 
for  a  broader  cultural  transformation."16 

In  her  feminist  reconstruction  of  Victorian  America,  Smith- 
Rosenberg  observed:  "We  turned  to  women's  religious  enthusiasm,  tracing 
the  influence  of  millennial  religion  on  women's  reform  activities  and  role 
expansion.  Some  women  who  held  back  from  self-conscious  feminism,  we 
discovered,  had  nevertheless  assumed  innovative  roles  as  urban  philan- 
thropists, public-health  advocates,  opponents  of  child  labor."17  Crediting 
Margaret  Fuller  with  initiating  cultural  feminist  theory,  Donovan  traced 
its  intellectual  tradition  from  Romanticism  and,  more  directly,  from 
American  Transcendentalism,  a  movement  that  relied  on  the  superiority 
of  intuition  over  reason.18  The  work  of  the  reformers  in  the  dirty  city 
streets  was  anything  but  romantic;  however,  their  romantic  vision  for 
cultural  transformation  worked  as  a  sustaining  optimism  as  these  women 
ventured  into  the  depths  of  the  cities  to  bring  forth  forgotten  women. 

Drawing  a  distinction  between  feminism  and  women's  rights,  Berg 
stated  that  The  Advocate  "continuously  and  explicitly  refuted  the  tradi- 
tional role  assigned  to  antebellum  women  and  urged  a  feminist  critique  of 


40  Lueck  •  Summer  1999 


society."19  Female  moral  reform  publications  did  not  dwell  on  equal  rights 
for  women,  but  more  than  a  decade  earlier  than  the  1848  Seneca  Falls 
Convention,20  moral  reform  societies  were  advocating  that  women 
enlarge  their  sphere  of  influence  to  encompass  more  of  the  public  realm. 
Smith-Rosenberg  has  credited  the  moral  reform  movement  with  being  the 
forerunner  of  the  woman's  rights  movement  in  the  United  States.  "Both 
groups  found  women's  traditionally  passive  role  intolerable.  Both  wished 
to  assert  female  worth  and  values  in  a  heretofore  entirely  male  world. 
Both  welcomed  the  creation  of  a  sense  of  feminine  loyalty  and  sisterhood 
that  could  give  emotional  strength  and  comfort  to  women  isolated  within 
their  homes  ....  And  it  can  hardly  be  assumed  that  the  demand  for  votes 
for  women  was  appreciably  more  radical  than  a  moral  absolutism  which 
encouraged  women  to  invade  bordellos,  befriend  harlots,  and  publicly 
discuss  rape,  seduction,  and  prostitution."21 

Liberal  feminism,  which  has  driven  feminist  media  research  in  the 
latter  20th  century,  necessarily  views  female  reformers  and  their  work  as  a 
contradiction.  Such  dichotomy  once  defined  by  a  theoretical  perspective 
becomes  a  closed  argument.  In  this  case,  liberal  feminism  has  circled  back 
on  itself  instead  of  advancing  feminist  discussion  and  theoretical  develop- 
ment. Liberal  feminism's  inability  to  provide  a  sense-making  frame  for 
women's  culture  and  traditions  causes  it  to  be  an  inadequate  theoretical 
tool  for  the  examination  of  moral  reform  magazines.  Cultural  feminism 
provides  a  perspective  that  dissolves  the  contradiction  Ryan  noted, 
resolving  the  perceived  dichotomy  between  domestic  and  public  action 
that  a  liberal  feminist  perspective  only  exacerbates. 

The  researchers  here  reviewed  have  recognized  many  of  the  contribu- 
tions of  19th  century  female  reform  societies,  and  at  least  one  of  them  has 
noted  that  these  accomplishments  would  be  more  evident  when  examined 
from  a  cultural  feminist  perspective.  However,  in  general,  there  has  been  a 
lack  of  scholarly  consideration  of  these  women,  their  societies,  and  their 
publications.  The  accepted  classification  of  moral  reform  as  falling  outside 
the  feminist  movement  has  pushed  these  19th  century  reformers  into  the 
margins  of  feminist  intellectual  history,  minimizing  the  recognition  of 
their  impact  on  feminist  theoretical  development.  Since  moral  reform 
periodicals  have  been  considered  outside  the  prevailing  feminist  theoreti- 
cal framework,  they  have  not  been  defined  as  feminist  publications  and 
therefore  have  not  received  the  scholarly  attention  that  they  deserve.  The 
lack  of  a  cohesive  body  of  feminist  analysis  of  moral  reform  publications 
has  marginalized  the  importance  of  these  early  women-driven  periodicals 
in  the  history  of  American  journalism. 

Journalism  historian  Susan  Henry  cited  The  Advocate  as  an  excellent 
example  of  "the  journalism  produced  by  the  women  who  lived  and 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  41 


believed  most  fervently  in  the  values"  of  women's  culture,  a  sphere 
separate  from  the  men's,  in  which  women  "developed  shared,  female- 
identified  values,  rituals,  relationships,  and  modes  of  communication  that 
were  sources  of  satisfaction  and  strength."  She  called  for  further  research: 
"  The  Advocate  is  waiting  to  be  studied  by  a  journalism  historian  who  can 
analyze  it  within  the  context  of  women's  culture  of  the  period."22  Consid- 
eration of  the  publications  and  the  culture  that  produced  them  may  be 
enabled  by  the  shift  of  feminist  perspective  proposed  with  this  study  in  its 
analysis  of  The  Advocate. 

Launched  by  New  York  Female  Reformers 

The  roots  of  the  Advocate  begin  with  a  group  of  women  who 
followed  the  teachings  of  missionary  John  McDowall.  In  1832,  McDowall 
had  issued  a  controversial  report  on  the  need  for  the  reform  of  New  York 
society.  In  spite  of  the  public  censure  McDowall  incurred  because  of  these 
pronouncements,  the  women  sought  further  inspiration  in  the  revivals  of 
theologian  and  reformer  Charles  G.  Finney  and  formed  their  own  society, 
the  New  York  Female  Moral  Reform  Society,  on  May  12,  1834. 23  In  the 
fall  of  1834,  the  society  voted  to  purchase  McDowalTs  Journal  and 
"transform  it  into  a  national  women's  paper  with  an  exclusively  female 
staff."24  The  journal  was  launched  in  1835  as  The  Advocate  of  Moral 
Reform. 

Among  their  first  efforts  was  the  commencement  of  a  periodi- 
cal, whose  design  was  to  exalt  the  law  of  God,  and  thus 
prevent  its  violation — to  guard  the  domestic  hearth  from  the 
invasion  of  the  Spoiler,  thus  preventing  the  fall  of  the  inno- 
cent; and,  as  far  as  practicable,  to  produce  such  a  reform  in 
the  public  sentiment,  that  the  morally  debased  should  be  .  .  . 
made  to  feel  that  access  to  the  favor  of  the  virtuous  could  only 
be  secured  by  being  pure  in  heart.25 

The  Advocate  was  the  national  female  moral  reform  periodical,  but  it 
was  by  no  means  the  only  women's  publication  dedicated  to  these  causes. 
While  the  New  York  Female  Moral  Reform  Society  was  repositioning 
itself  as  the  national  organization  and  renaming  itself  the  American 
Female  Moral  Reform  Society,  the  New  England  Female  Moral  Reform 
Society  began  its  publication,  The  Friend  of  Virtue.26  As  a  regional  society, 
the  New  England  society  had  the  potential  to  pull  members  from  a 
national  society  and  to  divert  subscribers  from  the  newly  national  maga- 
zine. Although  The  Advocate  recognized  The  Friend  of  Virtue  as  competi- 


42  Lueck*  Summer  1999 


tion  for  subscribers — and  its  society  as  competition  for  members — it 
viewed  the  publication  as  a  sister  in  the  cause  of  social  reform.  "The 
formation  of  the  New  England  Moral  Reform  Society  (a  sister  enterprise 
that  sustains  a  periodical — is  doing  much  good,  and  worthy  the  encour- 
agement of  all  friends  of  Reform)  has  tended  to  lessen  the  number  of  the 
New  England  subscribers  and  Auxiliaries,  but  we  believe  they  are  still 
efficient  in  the  cause,  and  therefore  the  early  bond  remains  unchanged."27 
As  the  nationally  circulated  periodical,  The  Advocate  was  essential  to 
the  outreach  mission  of  the  reform  society,  which  noted  that  without  its 
journal  "there  is  every  reason  to  believe  the  usefulness  of  the  Society 
would  have  been  greatly  circumscribed,  perhaps .  .  .  wholly  suspended  .... 
The  sole  aim  of  all  its  publications  has  been  to  carry  out  a  specific  object 
of  the  Society  [:]  the  formation  of  a  correct  public  sentiment,  relative  to 
the  prevention  of  vice,  the  discharge  of  Christian  duty  in  meeting  the 
claims  of  the  young,  friendless,  destitute  and  exposed,  and  the  obligations 
of  the  family  to  extend  its  guardianship  and  moral  influence  over  those 
within  its  reach."28  Impassioned  by  their  cause  to  reform  society's  morals, 
these  women  created  The  Advocate  to  extend  their  influence  beyond  their 
domestic  sphere. 

Subtle  Subversion  of  Religious  Hierarchy 

The  cause  of  moral  reform  hinged  on  the  Seventh  Commandment, 
or  the  admonition  against  committing  adultery.29  Yet  controversy  sur- 
rounded how  publicly  adultery  should  be  discussed.  Women's  frustration 
with  the  taboo  against  discussing  this  subject  was  a  recurring  theme  in  the 
publications.  For  example,  one  article  cited  a  conversation  between  a 
woman  and  her  niece  that  attributed  the  aunt's  disdain  of  her  minister  to 
his  refusal  to  preach  on  the  Seventh  Commandment.30  This  hesitancy  of 
ministers  to  preach  against  adultery  was  widespread.  Although  moral 
reform  was  a  subject  ministers  were  not  addressing  from  the  pulpit,  lay 
efforts  were  objected  to  as  "promiscuous  exhibition."31 

The  Advocate,  however,  boldly  spoke  out  about  matters  ministers 
hesitated  to  address,  subtly  subverting  the  organized  religious  hierarchy. 
Because  of  the  controversial  nature  of  their  subject,  editors  felt  con- 
strained to  defend  their  publications,  noting  that  the  facts  they  provided 
were  "calculated  to  show  the  terrible  consequences  of  the  sin  of  licentious- 
ness."32 Reform  advocates  found  themselves  consistently  called  on  to 
rationalize  their  mission  and  contextualize  the  discourse  of  their  publica- 
tions. "Moral  Reform  we  regard  as  a  broad  subject ....  Consequently  the 
details  of  vice,  and  what  is  technically  called  Moral  Reform,  include  but  a 
small  portion  of  the  topics  presented  to  our  readers."33 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  43 


Those  who  took  objection  to  activism  against  adultery  argued  that 
adultery  was  not  an  appropriate  topic  for  public  discussion,  much  less  by 
women.  With  its  connotations  of  adultery  and  prostitution,  the  phrase 
"moral  reform"  was  considered  to  impart  particular  vulgarity  when  used 
by  women.  The  editors  of  these  publications  were  women.  In  addition  to 
addressing  socially  sensitive  material,  editing  publications  was  not  a 
culturally  accepted  occupation  for  women,  so  they  felt  compelled  to  put 
themselves  forward  as  ladies.  "  The  Advocate  is,  as  it  professes  to  be, 
EXCLUSIVELY  under  the  direction  of  the  American  Female  Moral 
Reform  Society — it  is  edited  entirely  by  a  lady."34  Despite  defining 
themselves  as  "ladies,"  these  women  were  not  given  to  euphemism  and 
did  not  shirk  from  addressing  social  problems  in  a  straightforward 
manner  not  found  anywhere  else  in  cultural  discourse.  However,  when  it 
was  determined  that  the  term  "moral  reform"  was  discouraging  financial 
contributors  as  well  as  magazine  subscribers,  the  phrase  was  dropped  from 
the  title  of  the  national  publication  and  its  society. 

The  Advocate  was  able  to  foster  a  national  network  among  women 
activists  who  otherwise  would  have  operated  in  isolated  pockets  or  given 
up  altogether.  Sister  associations  used  The  Advocate  as  their  forum.  One 
group's  sentiment  typified  the  ostracism  of  women  who  publicly  broached 
issues  of  rape,  incest,  or  prostitution:  "As  a  society  of  a  little  band  of 
females,  we  are  surrounded  by  discouragements;  we  have  not  the  hearty 
co-operation  of  our  ministers  ....  We  regard  The  Advocate  as  well 
calculated  to  enlighten  and  instruct  and  believe  it  may  be,  in  many 
instances,  the  monitor  and  protector  of  the  unwary  and  innocent."35 
Women  readers  also  looked  to  these  periodicals  for  advice.  In  the  New 
England  periodical,  one  woman  wrote  that  when  she  was  young  a  "pre- 
tended gentleman"  turned  out  to  be  a  stalker.  If  not  for  the  warnings  and 
the  identification  of  this  type  of  behavior  in  the  Friend  of  Virtue,  she 
wondered  "what  would  have  become"  of  her.36 

The  Nation  As  an  Extended  Family 

Educated,  morally  righteous  women,  the  editors  of  moral  reform 
publications  gathered  their  authority  from  the  domestic  sphere  and 
extended  their  realm  of  legitimacy  outwards  from  the  family  to  the  larger 
society.  Editors  advocated  cultural  restructuring  by  using  the  family  as  a 
natural  stepping  stone  to  personalizing  problems  of  the  nation.  "The 
Family  takes  precedence.  It  was  instituted  in  the  Garden  of  Eden.  The 
State  is  of  later  origin."37  With  so  many  family  circles  broken  during  the 
Civil  War,  The  Advocate  characterized  America  as  a  "nation  of  mourn- 
ers."38 It  saw  the  rends  in  the  nation's  social  fabric  as  the  great  evil  of  the 
war,  and  thus  the  reuniting  of  the  nation  as  a  family  was  the  war's  great 


44  Lueck  •  Summer  1999 


triumph.39  Considering  the  nation  its  extended  family,  The  Advocates 
editorial  voice  guided  the  establishment  of  a  women's  culture  and  defined 
the  values  nurtured  within  that  culture. 

While  editors  held  that  women  were  different  from  men,  and  in  that 
difference  morally  superior,  they  were  not  blind  to  the  fact  that  some 
women  needed  guidance.  Treating  this  lack  as  ignorance,  they  carried 
their  critique  of  society  back  into  the  realm  of  the  domestic  sphere, 
endeavoring  to  educate  readers.  In  addition  to  the  "partial  silence  on  the 
pulpit,"  poor  childhood  training  was  considered  one  of  the  primary  causes 
of  crime.  The  target  audience  was  women  who  were  presumed  to  be 
mothers  and  as  such  held  responsible  for  the  formation  of  the  moral 
character  of  their  children.40  Editors  filled  pages  with  cautionary  tales, 
such  as  one  that  told  of  a  man  who  nearly  escaped  jail  time  even  though 
he  molested  children  on  their  way  home  from  school.  The  reader  who 
sent  in  the  clipping  pointed  out  that  two  of  the  molested  girls  did  not 
reveal  the  crime  until  their  mothers  noticed  the  girls  had  contracted  a 
disease.  "Is  it  not  a  duty  that  mothers  owe  their  children  to  teach  them,  if 
insulted  in  this  way,  to  scream?  Should  they  not,  as  they  value  their  safety, 
teach  them  to  distinguish  between  right  and  wrong  on  all  subjects  that 
they  may  need  to  understand  .  .  .  ."41 

When  editors  found  articles  in  other  publications  that  echoed  their 
sentiments,  they  would  reprint  them  for  their  readers.  For  example,  these 
editors  considered  it  necessary,  not  selfish,  for  mothers  to  attend  to  their 
own  health  and  well-being.  The  Friend  of  Virtue  ran  a  reprint  that  empha- 
sized, "How  important  an  element  of  domestic  order  and  happiness  is  the 
health  of  the  mother!  A  disordered  house,  a  table  alternately  extravagant 
and  mean,  a  group  of  children  with  untidy  persons  and  rude  manners,  too 
surely  indicate  the  absence  of  a  mother's  care."42  Mothers  were  asked  to 
keep  uppermost  children's  physical,  as  well  as  spiritual,  needs.  Contrary  to 
conventional  wisdom,  mothers  were  urged  to  encourage  the  physical 
education  of  their  daughters.  The  publication  ran  an  article  advocating 
plain  food,  exercise,  and  a  good  "romp":  "Let  us  give  our  daughters  the 
training  which  makes  our  sons  healthy,  and  they  will  be  so  likewise."43  If 
mothers  neglected  these  basic  responsibilities,  they  did  so  with  serious 
moral  consequence. 

Do  not  mothers,  by  neglecting  important  duties  in  the  training 
of  their  children,  help  to  swell  the  dark  catalogue  of  crime? .  .  . 
And  now,  dear  mothers,  let  me  give  you  a  little  advice,  and  do 
not  be  shocked  at  the  seeming  vulgarity.  Instead  of  consulting 
half  a  dozen  doctors,  .  .  .  give  your  daughters  healthy  employ- 
ment; let  them  rise  early  in  the  morning,  clean  the  parlors  .... 
Let  them  cultivate  the  flowers  .  .  .  .44 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  45 


Mothers  were  recognized  as  role  models  who  could  mould  and  fashion  the 
minds  and  manners,  the  habits  and  feelings  of  their  children,  especially 
those  of  daughters,  into  almost  any  form  they  please.  But  in  doing  this, 
they  must  also  see  to  it  that  they  are,  themselves,  what  they  would  wish 
their  children  to  be.4s 

A  Place  to  Discuss  Seduction 

Unlike  the  other  editors  of  the  day,  moral  reform  editors  allowed 
many  women's  voices  to  be  heard  throughout  the  pages  of  their  publica- 
tions. Female  readers  displayed  a  sense  of  moral  responsibility  similar  to 
that  of  the  editors,  as  did  one  reader  in  her  complaint  about  a  secular 
magazine's  frontispiece:  "I  feel  prompted  by  a  sense  of  duty,  as  a  friend  to 
the  young,  as  a  friend  to  good  morals,  as  a  friend  to  purity,  as  the  rightful 
guardian  of  my  daughter's  chastity,  'in  thought,  speech  and  behavior,'  to 
protest  against  such  exquisitely  immodest  prints."46  Readers  submitted 
accounts  of  seduction,  which  they  could  share  nowhere  else,  such  as  one 
woman's  story  about  being  raped  while  she  was  traveling,  to  which  the 
editor  added  the  caution,  "Let  those  of  the  weaker  sex  who  may  read  it,  be 
admonished  never  to  travel  alone  in  a  public  conveyance,  till  a  renovated 
state  of  society  is  apparent."47 

Making  known  the  plight  of  "fallen"  women  was  a  focus  of  moral 
reform  publications  and  the  first  step  in  the  activist  mission  of  the  women 
in  the  moral  reform  movement.  Reformers  did  not  shirk  their  self- 
imposed  duty  when  they  began  to  realize  the  larger  implications  of  their 
actions.  As  reformers  recognized  that  they  were  disrupting  women's 
livelihoods  when  they  discouraged  prostitution,  these  reformers  took  an 
interest  in  women's  economy,  which  can  be  seen  as  they  addressed  female 
labor  on  the  pages  of  The  Advocate.  For  example,  in  1859  the  national 
society  developed  a  sewing  machine  fund  through  which  they  supplied 
the  "most  worthy"  with  sewing  machines,48    which  they  bought  from 
manufacturers  and  sold  to  the  women.  To  achieve  financial  autonomy,  the 
seamstresses  made  installment  payments  of  $3  to  $5  a  month  on  the 
machines.  After  one  year,  the  fund  had  distributed  42  sewing  machines, 
and  most  of  the  money  had  been  repaid.49 

"Printed  at  the  Home  of  Industry" 

Beyond  recording  the  society's  labor  reform  efforts,  The  Advocate 
enabled  women  to  work,  most  notably  on  its  own  pages.  The  national 
society  housed  victimized  women  at  its  shelter,  which  was  known  as  the 
Home  of  Industry,  a  place  where  women  were  offered  employment 
training.  This  retraining  included  learning  skills  for  the  typesetting  and 


46  Lueck  •  Summer  1999 


printing  of  The  Advocate.  By  June  1859,  the  publisher's  box  ran  the  line 
"Printed  at  the  Home  of  Industry."  While  viewing  this  self-publishing  as 
an  achievement,  editors  felt  constrained  to  answer  questions  of  social 
impropriety:  "To  the  inquiry,  'Why  should  a  benevolent  society  publish 
and  print  on  their  own  premises,  in  a  charitable  institution?'  we  reply,  the 
Society  has  issued  a  paper,  as  its  organ  with  the  public,  during  the  25 
years  of  its  existence,  which  facts  without  number  have  proved  indispens- 
able to  the  success  of  the  enterprise."50 

By  1861  the  paper  was  entirely  produced  by  women.  The  society 
found  the  consolidation  of  operations  convenient  and  less  expensive,  and 
the  "experiment"  of  encouraging  young  girls  "to  live  honestly  by  the  work 
of  their  hands  .  .  .  not  only  self-sustaining  but  advantageous."51  After  four 
years  of  being  printed  in  the  Home  Chapel  basement,  the  publication 
stated  that  "every  branch  of  the  business  is  satisfactorily  performed"  by 
the  females  in  the  home, 

not  merely  the  type-setting  .  .  .  but  the  more  difficult  pro- 
cesses of  the  art,  including  the  proof-reading  and  other 
complex  details,  being  subject  only  to  the  general  oversight  of 
the  superintendent  of  this  department.  There  are  now  eight 
female  employees  regularly  engaged,  with  two  assisting 
occasionally.  Three  of  these  are  deaf-mutes,  who  have  already 
attained  a  satisfactory  proficiency  in  those  branches  for  which 
previous  education  had  fitted  them.  This  "corps"  of  laborers 
prepare  the  pages  of  The  Advocate  for  stereotyping — it  now 
being  printed  by  steam  from  plates — print  the  wrappers,  and 
fold  the  papers  ready  for  mailing  ....  [W]e  expect  to  gradu- 
ate a  number  of  young  women  as  proficients  in  the  course  of  a 
few  years.52 

Both  from  the  standpoint  of  providing  skills  training  for  women  and 
of  producing  the  publication  at  reasonable  cost,  the  "experiment"  of  using 
women  as  in-house  labor  to  produce  The  Advocate  was  deemed  successful 
and  was  continued  as  normal  practice.  Readers  did  not  feel  that  women's 
labor  cheapened  the  publication.  Circulation  increased  fairly  steadily, 
despite  the  fact  that  the  high  price  of  paper  during  the  Civil  War  forced 
some  thinner  issues.'3  Although  The  Advocate  had  a  practice  of  circulating 
as  many  as  half  of  the  issues  without  cost,54  the  publication  was  operated 
at  a  profit,  and  this  money  went  toward  the  society's  home  for  the  desti- 
tute. In  this  manner,  The  Advocate  itself  became  the  society's  strongest 
voice,  supporter  and  role  model  for  women's  labor. 

The  Advocate  charted  its  own  progress  in  the  unconventional  use  of 
women's  work,  noting  that  the  printing  department  "appears  to  be  a 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  47 


decided  success,  as  regards  the  feasibility  of  carrying  on  the  various 
branches  of  printing  and  publishing  wholly  by  female  operatives."55  Much 
as  the  reformers  enlarged  their  sphere  of  influence,  they  incrementally 
expanded  the  duties  of  the  women  working  on  the  publication,  from 
production  to  distribution  to  securing  additional  work.  The  publication 
noted  in  1861  that  production  "included  in  its  sphere  the  mailing  of  the 
papers,  in  addition  to  all  the  other  manual  processes  connected  with  the 
issue  of  The  Advocate  and  Guardian,  together  with  the  execution  of 
miscellaneous  pamphlet  and  jobbing  work."56  In  reaping  the  rewards  of  its 
labor  "experiment,"  the  publication  extolled  the  virtues  of  women's 
culture  and  of  women,  even  of  women  society  had  discarded  once  they 
were  reclaimed  in  this  women's  culture.  "It  is  now  satisfactorily  demon- 
strated that  with  the  necessary  intellectual  capacity  and  preparatory 
literary  acquirements,  young  women  are  as  well  fitted  for  the  business  as 
the  other  sex."57  The  Advocate  also  noted  that  the  women's  work  was 
"superior."58 

Reformers  did  not  themselves  cheapen  the  worth  of  the  women's 
labor,  but  in  recognizing  the  differences  between  women  and  men, 
instituted  fair  labor  practices  within  their  own  operation.  "[F]rom  the 
experiment  made  in  the  'Home'  Printing  Office,  they  are  more  apt  to 
learn  and  fully  as  reliable,  except,  perhaps  in  the  power  of  continued 
endurance.  In  our  office,  provision  is  made  not  to  overtax  the  operatives, 
in  this  respect,  by  working  fewer  hours  each  day  and  allowing  occasional 
respite  from  office  duties."59 

Once  the  foundations  for  this  women's  culture  had  been  established, 
the  pages  of  The  Advocate  over  the  years  charted  the  shift  in  the  national 
society's  mission  from  reforming  women  to  housing  and  educating 
children  until  they  were  graduated  from  high  school  and  ready  to  support 
themselves.60  A  print  of  the  imposing  home  was  added  to  the  publication's 
masthead,  reflecting  the  refocused  mission  to  house  the  "friendless."  The 
shift  in  focus  enabled  the  society  and  its  publication  to  successfully 
survive  to  the  mid-20th  century.61 

Carved  Out  a  Public  Sphere  for  Women 

Moral  reform  activists  brought  values  of  the  white  middle-class 
women's  domestic  sphere  out  to  bear  on  the  public  sphere  by  carving  out 
a  space  for  women  in  the  public  domain  and  establishing  a  women's 
culture  in  that  space.  The  voice  developed  in  this  women's  culture  was 
embodied  in  the  moral  reform  periodical.  Editors  guided  the  moral 
assessment  of  society  as  an  extended  family.  So,  too,  they  brought  their 
moral  message  back  into  the  domestic  sphere,  urging  mothers  to  exercise 
and  educate  their  children  and  to  pay  particular  attention  to  their  daugh- 


48  Lueck- Summer  1999 


ters  so  that  they  would  not  number  among  the  lost  and  forgotten.  Moral 
reform  publications  carried  the  voices  of  women  who  would  not  be 
silenced,  even  by  the  religion  and  the  religious  leaders  they  revered. 
Through  the  national  dissemination  of  its  messages,  The  Advocate  created 
a  sisterhood  among  female  reformers. 

The  Advocate  spoke  in  a  profoundly  female  voice,  unusual  to  hear 
even  more  than  a  century  later.  It  was  a  periodical  bought  with  the  intent 
of  transforming  it  into  a  female-staffed  publication.  Having  accomplished 
that  and  more,  if  these  women  cannot  be  seen  to  have  achieved  the  moral 
regeneration  of  American  society,  the  attainment  of  their  grand  vision  still 
did  not  falter.  From  within  a  culture  they  created  in  19th  century  Ameri- 
can society,  they  transformed  this  publication  to  enable  it  to  carry  their 
vision  into  the  larger  society.  They  created  a  female  editorial  voice  to 
speak  of  women's  worth.  They  pulled  women  from  the  seamy  side  of 
society  to  enact  that  transformation.  And  they  succeeded.  In  reeducating 
these  women,  making  them  literate  and  skilled,  reform  activists  trans- 
formed their  own  publication,  The  Advocate,  into  a  national  role  model 
that  showcased  the  place  of  women  in  society  and  the  value  of  women's 
work. 

The  women  of  the  19th  century  moral  reform  movement  set  out  to 
counteract  culturally  sanctioned  practices  in  what  began  as  an  unabash- 
edly female  manner  of  traditional  influence.  They  established  female 
auxiliaries  to  the  male  religious  societies  to  address  what  the  male  hierar- 
chy refused  to  address — adultery,  seduction,  rape  and  prostitution. 
During  the  formation  of  their  religious  societies,  the  women  realized  the 
need  for  a  strong  female  voice  to  speak  for  their  perspective.  They  went 
beyond  accepted  female  bounds  to  establish  their  periodicals,  through 
which  they  cultivated  a  voice  and,  with  The  Advocate,  extended  the  range 
of  their  influence  to  a  national  network  of  sister  activists.  The  Advocate 
emanated  from  a  local  women's  culture  that  was  created  within  patriarchal 
society  to  speak  for  the  true  value  of  women.  The  message  of  The  Advocate 
was  feminist  in  its  re-evaluation  of  women  and  its  simultaneous  debunk- 
ing of  the  male  myth  that  women's  role  was  to  service  men  sexually,  at  any 
cost  to  themselves. 

It  is  of  particular  note  that  from  the  beginning  reformers  intended 
The  Advocate  as  a  female-staffed  publication — and  that  within  30  years 
the  production  of  the  publication  was  entirely  female.  From  organizing  to 
editing,  producing,  and  distributing,  these  women's  expression  of  activism 
was  the  female  moral  reform  periodical.  The  Advocate  continued  to  build 
its  local  women's  culture  to  increase  its  reliance  on  women  at  all  levels  of 
its  production  even  after  it  was  successfully  repositioned  as  the  national 
magazine.  As  a  national  women's  journal  that  rose  from  a  cohesive 
women's  culture,  The  Advocate  itself  stands  as  a  powerful  symbol  of 


Summer  1999  •American Journalism  49 


cultural  transformation,  a  true  advocate  for  women.  The  women  suc- 
ceeded in  transforming  their  periodical  into  a  wholly  female  endeavor  and 
in  that  fulfilled  the  mission  of  their  women's  culture,  while  establishing 
early  fair  labor  practices  for  women  and  engaging  women  in  a  meaningful 
national  discourse.  With  women  as  the  editorial  and  production  staff  as 
well  as  audience,  the  publication  closed  the  circle  and  established  a  link  in 
a  cycle  through  which  the  values  of  this  women's  culture  could  be  per- 
petuated, perhaps  even  across  generations. 

It  is  argued  here  that  these  women  spoke  as  cultural  feminists.  Based 
on  beliefs  of  sex  difference  and  women's  moral  superiority,  they  urged 
social  reform  well  outside  their  traditional  purview  by  means  of  moral 
reform  periodicals.  The  perspective  of  cultural  feminism  brings  into  focus 
the  importance  of  the  sisterhood  that  these  periodicals  established  and  an 
examination  of  the  women's  culture  that  made  it  possible.  It  enables  a 
glimpse  beneath  the  cloak  of  conservatism  under  which  these  "ladies" 
veiled  themselves  to  see  the  activist  duty  they  imposed  on  themselves  and 
the  sense  of  personal  responsibility  they  encouraged  others  to  accept. 

Perhaps  most  important  for  the  purposes  of  journalism  history,  this 
perspective  enables  a  view  of  The  Advocate  as  a  manifestation  of  cultural 
transformation  and  the  symbol  of  the  larger  accomplishments  of  these 
reformers.  It  is  hoped  that  this  study  provides  a  theoretical  framework  on 
which  to  structure  answers  to  journalism  historian  Henry's  call  for 
research  and  that  it  enables  further  research  into  the  women's  training 
cycle  begun  in  the  print  shop  of  The  Advocate.  With  The  Advocate  as  the 
role  model,  19th  century  women's  moral  reform  periodicals  were  instru- 
mental in  defining  the  intellectual  and  activist  tradition  of  cultural 
feminism  in  the  United  States. 


Endnotes 

'Lori  D.  Ginzberg,  '"Moral  Suasion  Is  Moral  Balderdash":  Women,  Politics  and  the  Social  Activism 
of  the  1850s"  Journal  of 'American  History,  73  (1986):601. 

'In  this  paper  the  publication  is  referred  to  simply  as  The  Advocate.  Begun  as  The  Advocate  of 
Moral  Reform,  the  title  was  changed  in  1847  to  The  Advocate  of  Moral  Reform  and  Family  Guardian; 
and  in  1849,  to  The  Advocate  and  Family  Guardian,  which  it  remained  until  ceasing  publication  in 
1941.  A  Home  for  the  Friendless  was  opened  in  July  1847,  see  Flora  L.  Northrup,  The  Record  of  a 
Century,  1834-1934  (New  York:  American  Female  Guardian  Society  and  Home  for  the  Friendless, 
1934),  p.  30,  which  was  incorporated  into  the  society's  title,  the  American  Female  Guardian  Society 
and  Home  for  the  Friendless. 

TTierese  L.  Lueck,  "The  Advocate  and  Family  Guardian"  in  Kathleen  L.  Endres  and  Therese  L. 
Lueck  (eds.)  Women's  Periodicals  in  the  United  States:  Social  and  Political  Issues  (Westport,  CT: 
Greenwood,  1996),  pp.  [1]-11. 


50  Lueck*  Summer  1999 


"Josephine  Donovan,  Feminist  Theory:  The  Intellectual  Traditions  of  American  Feminism,  re.  ed. 
(New  York:  Continuum,  1994),  p.  214,  n.  2. 

5  Alice  Echols,  "The  New  Feminism  of  Yin  and  Yang"  in  Ann  Snitnow,  Christine  Stansell  and 
Sharon  Thomspson  (eds.)  Powers  of  Desire:  The  Politics  of  Sexuality  (New  York:  Monthly  Review  Press, 
1983),  p.  454. 

''Linda  Alcoff,  "Cultural  Feminism  versus  Post-Structuralism:  The  Identity  Crisis  in  Feminist 
Theory"  in  Linda  Nicholson  (ed.)  The  Second  Wave:  A  Reader  in  Feminist  Theory  (New  York: 
Routledge,  1997),  p.  332. 

7Alice  Echols,  "The  Taming  of  the  Id:  Feminism  and  Sexual  Politics,  1968-85"  in  Carole  S.  Vance 
(ed.)  Pleasure  and  Danger:  Exploring  Female  Sexuality  (Boston:  Routledge,  1984),  p.  51. 

"Donovan,  p.  62. 

"Echols,  1983,  p.  455. 

'"Echols,  1984,  p.  56. 

1  'Jo  Freeman,  "From  Stiff  rage  to  Women's  Liberation:  Feminism  in  20th-century  America"  in  Jo 
Freeman  (ed.)  Women:  A  Feminist  Perspective,  5th  ed.  (Mountain  View,  CA:  Mayfield,  1994),  p.  23. 

'^Barbara  Berg,  The  Remembered  Gate:  Origins  of  American  Feminism:  The  Woman  and  the  City, 
1800-1860  (New  York:  Oxford  University  Press),  1978. 

13  Barbara  Welter,  "The  Cult  of  True  Womanhood:  1820-1860"  in  T.R.  Frazier  (ed.)  The  Underside 
of  American  History:  Other  Readings  (New  York:  Harcourt,  1973),  pp.  21 1-222. 

'"Mary  P.  Ryan,  "The  Power  of  Women's  Networks:  A  Case  Study  of  Female  Moral  Reform  in 
Antebellum  America"  Feminist  Studies,  5  (Spring  1979):  67. 

''Carroll  Smith-Rosenberg,  Disorderly  Conduct:  Visions  of  Gender  in  Victorian  America  (New  York: 
Knopf),  1985),  p.  109. 
"'Donovan,  p.  31. 
17Smith-Rosenberg,  p.  14. 
'"Donovan,  p.  32. 
'"Berg,  note  45,  p.  291;  pp.  4-5. 

-''The  Seneca  Falls,  New  York  Convention  is  generally  recognized  as  the  beginning  of  the  US 
women's  rights  movement. 

2 'Smith-Rosenberg,  p.  127. 

"Susan  Henry,  "Changing  Media  History  Through  Women's  History"  in  Pamela  J.  Creedon  (ed.) 
Women  in  Mass  Communication,  2"d.  ed.  (Newbury  Park,  CA:  Sage,  1993),  pp.  349,  350. 

23Smidi- Rosenberg,  pp.  111-12. 

24Smith- Rosenberg,  p.  115. 

25"Thirteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Female  Moral  Reform  Society"  in  The  Advocate  of 
Moral  Reform  and  Family  Guardian  (1  June  1847),  p.  [81]. 

lbThe  Friend  of  Virtue  was  begun  in  1 838,  about  one  year  after  the  New  England  Female  Moral 
Reform  Society  was  formed. 

27"Twelfth  Annual  Report  or  the  American  Female  Moral  Reform  Society"  in  The  Advocate  of  Moral 
Reform  (1  June  1846),  p.  [81]. 

2*"Twenty-fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Female  Guardian  Society  and  Home  for  the 
Friendless"  in  The  Advocate  and  Family  Guardian  (1  June  1859),  p.  167. 

2"In  the  Exodus  text  in  common  Protestant  use,  the  Seventh  Commandment  is  the  commandment 
that  warns  against  committing  adultery. 

3""For  the  Friend  of  Virtue:  Conversation  Between  Georgiana  and  her  Aunt"  in  The  Friend  of 
Virtue  (1  February  1840),  p.  [33]. 

"L.W  Wright,  "An  Address  Read  Before  the  Maternal  Association,  Sullivan,  N.H."  in  The  Friend 
of  Virtue  (1  March  1840),  p.  [65]. 

32[A  venerable  lady  of  this  city],  "To  the  Executive]  Com[mittee]  of  the  N.E.EM.R.S."  in  The 
Friend  of  Virtue  (15  February  1840),  p.  55. 

33"The  Friend  of  Virtue"  [editorial],  in  The  Friend  of  Virtue  (1  July  1851),  p.  197. 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  5 1 


'■"Executive  Committee  of  the  American  Female  Reform  Society,  "Publishers  Box"  in  The  Advocate 
of 'Moral  Reform  (1  January  1844),  p.  1. 

"Mrs.  H.  Newhall,  "Abstract  of  Annual  Reports"  in  The  Advocate  of  Moral  Reform  (15  January 
1844),  p.  15. 

"'"Communicated"  in  The  Friend of  Virtue  (1  July  1851),  p.  197. 

""Anniversary  Meeting"  [editorial],  in  The  Friend  of  Virtue  (1  June  1847),  p.  84. 

•'"Editor,  "The  New  Year"  in  The  Advocate  and  Family  Guardian  (2  January  1865),  p.  8;  The 
Advocate  noted  that  the  society  lost  members  with  "the  decided  stand  taken  by  the  majority  for  the 
Union  side,"  Northrup,  p.  44. 

'''Editor,  "Long  Live  the  Republic!"  in  The  Advocate  and  Family  Guardian  (16  May  1865),  p.  1 16. 

""Typical  of  female  reform  periodicals,  The  Friend  of  Virtue  ofcen  began  its  articles  with  "ladies."  On 
occasion,  however,  the  magazine  incorporated  men  into  household  and  child-rearing  recommenda- 
tions with  its  appeals  to  "parents." 

4IH — S,  "A  Caution  to  Mothers"  in  The  Advocate  of  Moral  Reform  (15  January  1844),  p.  1 1. 
,; Mother's  Journal ',  "Healrh"  [reprint],  in  The  Friend  of  Virtue  (15  January  1840),  p.  19. 
''''Means  and  Ends  "Pure  Air  and  Ventilation"  [reprint],  in  The  Friend of Virtue  (15  February  1840), 
p.  51. 

44"For  the  Friend  of  Virtue:  'For  the  Mothers'"  in  The  Friend  of  Virtue  (1  January  1850),  p.  9. 
'"''"The  Training  of  Children"  in  The  Friend  of  Virtue  (\  January  1852),  p.  10. 

4fA  Plain  Countrywoman,  "Common  Sense  Comments"  [letter  to  the  editor]  in  The  Advocate  of 
Moral  Reform  and  Family  Guardian  (1  December  1847),  p.  179. 

47H.  Smith,  "An  Outrage"  in  The  Advocate  of  Moral  Reform  (15  January  1844),  p.  14;  Editor,  p.  15. 

4s"Twenty-Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Female  Guardian  Society  and  Home  for  the 
Friendless"  in  The  Advocate  and  Family  Guardian  (1  June  1860),  p.  167. 

4''Northrup,  p.  45. 

,""Twenty-Fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Female  Guardian  Society  and  Home  for  the 
Friendless"  in  The  Advocate  and  Family  Guardian  (1  June  1859),  p.  167. 

Sllbid. 

""Twenty-Seventh  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Female  Guardian  Society  and  Home  for  the 
Friendless"  in  The  Advocate  and  Family  Guardian  (1  June  1961),  pp.  168-169. 

1 'There  was  a  slight  decline  in  circulation  in  the  post-war  years;  the  1868  annual  report  shows  a 
circulation  of  38,000,  a  drop  of  3,000  from  a  peak  of  41,000  in  1864. 

54"Thirteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Female  Moral  Reform  Society"  in  The  Advocate  of 
Moral  Reform  and  Family  Guardian  (1  June  1847),  p.  81. 

""Twenty-Eighth  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Female  Guardian  Society"  in  The  Advocate  and 
Guardian  (2  June  1862),  p.  166. 

5fiIbid. 

"Ibid. 

"Ibid. 

s"Ibid. 

""Northrup,  pp.  78,  83;  The  society  eventually  became  the  Woodycrest  Youth  Service.  See  Jonathon 
W.  Zophy,  "Moral  Reform"  in  Angela  Howard  Zophy  (ed.)  Handbook  of  American  Women's  History 
(New  York:  Garland,  1990),  pp.  385-386. 

"'Other  publications  were  not  so  fortunate.  The  Friend  of  Virtue,  having  changed  its  name  to  The 
Home  Guardian,  adopted  a  more  upbeat  tone  than  its  earlier  didacticism.  Instructive  fiction  became  a 
staple  of  the  magazine.  This  publications  crusade  against  immorality  branched  out  to  embrace  other 
types  of  social  reform,  in  particular,  intemperance.  Its  broadened  mission  and  more  popularized 
format  pitting  it  against  other  works,  the  magazine  met  its  demise  in  1892. 


52  Lueck  •  Summer  1999 


Redefining  Racism:  Newspaper 
Justification  for  the  1924  Exclusion 
of  Japanese  Immigrants 

By  Bradley  J.  Hamm 

This  study  integrates  the  "mentalities"  concept  from  a  classic  historical 
racial  study  as  a  way  to  examine  media  framing  of  Japanese  during  debate 
about  the  Immigration  Act  of  1924.  To  better  understand  this  century's 
coverage  of  Japanese  and  Asian  Americans,  it  is  essential  to  look  at  the 
dominant  historical  mentality,  or  mentalities,  that  existed  among  ivhite 
newspapers  which  were  central  in  framing  the  debate.  The  mentality  method 
could  be  useful  concerning  historical  coverage  of  other  minorities  and  groups 
in  the  United  States. 

The  message  to  the  Japanese  in  California  in  the  early  1920s 
was  clear:  "Keep  out,  Japs."  The  words  were  written  in  signs 
in  California  businesses  and  homes.  Other  signs,  from  San 
Francisco  to  Los  Angeles,  were  just  as  challenging:  "Swat  the  Japs,"  or 
"Are  you  pro-American  or  pro-Jap?,"  or  "Japs,  move  on.  California  doesn't 
want  you."' 

As  the  United  States  has  struggled  in  the  20th  century  with  the 
questions  of  who  to  let  in  the  country,  from  where  and  how  many,  the 
passage  of  the  Immigration  Act  of  1924  was  an  early  dramatic  statement 
of  immigration  views.2  The  act  served  two  main  goals  for  the  country:  it 
relied  upon  a  formula  designed  to  restrict  immigrants  from  Southern 
Europe,  and  the  act  formally  banned  all  Japanese  immigration. 


Bradley  J.  Hamm  is  Assistant  Professor  of  Journalism  &  Communications  at  Elon  College  in 
North  Carolina. 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  53 


Newspaper  editorials  about  the  Immigration  Act  offer  an  opportunity 
to  determine  whether  there  were  common  and  distinct  press  "mentalities" 
about  the  Japanese  that  were  used  to  justify  the  ban  and  how  these  mentali- 
ties were  communicated  to  the  mass  audience.  The  Immigration  Act  was 
clearly  designed  to  limit  certain  races,  rather  than  just  control  immigration 
numbers.  Historian  Joel  Williamson,  in  a  much  acclaimed  history  of 
black — white  race  relations,  defines  mentalities  as  "...  an  intellectual 
atmosphere  of  a  distinctive,  clearly  identifiable  quality.  It  is  derived  from  the 
broad  society,  touches  a  large  number  of  individual  minds,  and  flows  and 
changes  over  time  influencing  behavior  and  being  influenced  by  behavior,  and 
by  the  physical  world.  It  is  in  part  emotional,  and  it  does  compel  action."3 

Williamson  Defines  Three  Mentalities 

Are  there  mentalities  evident  in  the  press  that  can  both  reflect 
societal  views  and  influence  attitudes  and  behavior  toward  the  Japanese? 
Williamson  identified  three  distinct  mentalities  that  developed  in  the 
mind  of  the  white  South  about  African  Americans,  particularly  the  slaves, 
before  the  Civil  War:  liberal,  conservative  and  radical.  The  liberal  view  felt 
African  Americans  had  not  been  given  a  fair  chance,  and  liberals  showed 
both  a  willingness  to  help  and  a  faith  in  the  future  for  African  Americans. 
The  conservative  mentality  was  based  on  the  assumption  of  racial  inferior- 
ity, and  the  future  of  race  relations  was  about  determining  the  "proper 
place"  for  African  Americans.  The  most  extreme  mentality,  radicalism, 
envisioned  the  freed  slaves  "retrogressing  rapidly  toward  his  natural  state 
of  savagery  and  bestiality."4  Radicals  believed  there  was  no  place  for 
African  Americans  in  the  future  United  States.5 

Once  formed,  these  mentalities,  Williamson  argues,  live  on  through 
the  20th  century  and  help  explain  underlying  racial  views  that  are  evident 
throughout  the  South  in  the  1900s,  especially  during  flash  points,  such  as 
the  Klan  uprising  or  school  integration.  This  study,  limited  to  the  Immi- 
gration Act  of  1924,  attempts  to  examine  possible  mentalities  that  surface 
in  newspaper  editorials  during  another  racial  flash  point,  the  debate  to 
ban  Japanese  immigration. 

The  emphasis  on  the  Japanese  and  this  time  period,  the  1920s,  is 
lacking  in  mass  communication  research,  although  as  this  study  suggests, 
newspapers  concentrated  almost  exclusively  on  the  Japanese  situation 
during  the  immigration  debate  in  1924.  Few  studies  have  dealt  with  Asian 
Americans  and  mass  media  in  general.6  Among  those  examining  history, 
the  primary  time  studied  is  World  War  II.  The  most  complete  summary 
of  historical  research  about  Japanese  and  mass  communication,  by  media 
historian  Thomas  Heuterman,7  includes  one  cite  for  the  1920s:  this  study, 


54  Hamm  •  Summer  1999 


as  a  paper  presentation  in  1995.  One  communications  study  of  1920s 
immigration  and  press  coverage  barely  mentions  Japanese  immigration  at 
all,  concentrating  on  the  plight  of  Europeans.8 

This  study  attempts  to  explore  three  central  questions  by  using 
editorials  about  the  Immigration  Act  of  1924  from  seven  newspapers. 
First,  did  newspapers  support  or  oppose  Japanese  emigration  to  the 
United  States,  and  why?  How  was  the  issue  framed  for  readers?  Second, 
from  these  editorials,  were  there  specific  racial  "mentalities"  that  can  be 
identified  in  the  way  white-owned  newspapers  felt  about  the  Japanese,  or 
Asians  in  general,  similar  to  what  Williamson  found  white  Southerners 
generated  about  African  Americans?  And,  of  importance  for  considering 
coverage  of  the  Japanese  in  later  years,  does  there  appear  to  be,  according 
to  editorials,  a  relatively  equal  place  (liberal  mentality),  a  "proper"  place 
(conservative  mentality),  or  no  place  (radical  mentality)  for  Japanese 
immigrants  in  the  future  United  States  society,  as  expressed  by  the 
newspapers? 

In  the  early  1900s,  immigrants  from  Southern  and  Eastern  Europe 
poured  into  New  York,  Japanese  immigrants  moved  to  the  West  Coast 
(especially  California)  and  African  Americans  from  the  South  migrated  to 
the  North  and  West.  For  African  Americans,  "This  migration  expanded 
the  realities  of  racial  inequality  beyond  the  Deep  South  and  into  the 
North  and  the  West  Coast,"  wrote  media  historian  Rodger  Streitmatter.9 
For  the  Japanese,  the  racial  inequality — most  strongly  felt  along  the  West 
Coast — was  about  to  be  written  into  national  law. 

The  Japanese  would  find  very  little  support  from  these  United  States 
newspapers.  Instead,  editorialists  exhibited  "mentalities"  toward  the 
Japanese  unlike  the  ones  identified  by  Williamson  in  black-white  rela- 
tions. In  addition,  one  mentality  reflects  an  unusual  racial  view  in  United 
States  history:  the  Japanese  should  be  banned  because  they  were  equal,  or 
even  superior,  to  the  white  race  in  terms  of  economics  and  ability  to  work 
hard.  Thus,  the  Japanese  were  considered  both  superior  and  inferior. 

Substantial  Newpaper  Editorial  Coverage 

This  sample  and  study  includes  all  editorials  about  the  immigration 
act  from  six  daily  newspapers —  The  New  York  Times,  the  New  York  Herald 
Tribune,  the  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  the  San 
Francisco  Examiner,  the  Louisville  Courier-Journal —  and  the  nation's 
leading  African  American  weekly  newspaper,  the  Chicago  Defender,  during 
the  congressional  debate  from  the  months  of  April  and  May  1924.  All  but 
one  of  the  dailies  supported  exclusion  of  the  Japanese.  Only  the  Courier- 
Journal  was  opposed;  it  supported  allowing  Japanese  immigration  at  the 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  55 


same  quota  level  as  European  nations.  The  weekly  Defender  also  opposed 
the  ban. 

The  New  York  papers  were  chosen  because  the  city  was  the  entry 
point  for  most  immigrants  during  this  period.  The  San  Francisco  papers 
were  chosen  because  many  Asian  immigrants  also  came  into  the  country 
through  this  city.  The  two  cities'  papers  were  well  aware  of  the  daily  flood 
of  immigrants.  Chicago  and  Louisville  were  selected  to  provide  viewpoints 
from  a  distance,  because  they  were  less  affected  than  New  York  City  and 
San  Francisco,  which  were  dealing  with  the  boat  loads  of  new  immigrants; 
they  were  on  opposite  sides  politically,  with  the  Daily  Tribune  being 
conservative  and  the  Courier-Journal being  liberal;  and,  since  the  Immi- 
gration Act  was  about  race,  the  Courier-Journal -was,  an  early  and  impor- 
tant voice  in  support  of  civil  rights  for  African  Americans  in  the  South. 
Thus,  they  should  offer  distinct  views. 

Would  Louisville  view  the  Japanese  plight  in  California  in  a  similar 
way  to  the  Southern  racial  problems?  Likewise,  the  Defender  -was  included 
to  consider  the  views  of  one  of  the  most  prominent  African  American 
newspapers  in  United  States  journalism  history.  A  study  of  the  Defenders 
reaction  offers  a  diverse  viewpoint  and  depth  to  the  racial  issue  facing  the 
Japanese,  a  perspective  that  might  be  lacking  in  the  white  daily  newspa- 
pers. 

Newspaper  editorial  coverage  of  the  Immigration  Act  was  substan- 
tial— nearly  60  editorials  over  about  30  days  in  April  and  May  1924 
surrounding  the  immigration  discussion  in  Congress.  This  study  covers 
the  time  period  for  the  discussion — mid-April  to  mid-May — and  two 
weeks  before  and  after.  The  immigration  ban  was  front-page  news  starting 
April  12,  when  the  House  voted  322  to  71  to  ban  Japanese  immigrants. 
Nearly  all  the  editorials  occur  after  the  vote,  not  before.  The  Tribune,  for 
example,  ran  editorials  on  the  topic  nine  consecutive  days  after  the  House 
vote,  and  the  Times  averaged  about  one  editorial  every  two  days  for  nearly 
a  month. 

The  main  arguments  in  1924  immigration  are  discussed  here,  along 
with  how  the  newspapers  viewed  the  debate.  The  United  States  was  doing 
to  Japan  what  Japan  was  doing  to  others,  including  the  United  States.  The 
United  States  excluded  Japanese;  the  Japanese  excluded  Koreans  and 
Chinese.  Californians  did  not  allow  aliens  to  own  land;  neither  did  Japan. 
And,  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle  argued,  United  States  citizens  were 
allowed  in  Japan  only  because  "we  compelled  the  Japanese  to  admit  us  by 
sending  Commodore  [Matthew]  Perry  to  shoot  up  their  coast  towns  [in 
1854]  if  they  did  not  admit  us."10 

All  countries  were  affected  by  quotas  under  the  Immigration  Act  of 
1924,  but  the  hardest  hit,  in  exclusion  and  wounded  national  pride,  was 


56  Hamm  •  Summer  1999 


Japan.  Japan's  case  accounted  for  almost  100  percent  of  editorials  in  the 
seven  newspapers.  "The  [immigration]  problem  is  one  of  the  gravest 
which  the  country  has  faced  in  many  years,"  said  The  New  York  Times 
shortly  before  the  congressional  debates  in  April  1924."  The  San  Francisco 
Examiner  said  passage  of  the  immigration  bill  represented  California's 
most  significant  victory  since  achieving  statehood.12  The  views  of  many  of 
the  newspapers  can  be  summarized  through  a  letter  by  publisher  William 
Randolph  Hearst  to  his  editor  at  the  San  Francisco  Examiner.  "We  do  not 
want  in  this  country  the  demoralizing  competition  of  low  Oriental  labor 
conditions,  poor  standards  of  living,  and  contaminating  Oriental  morals," 
he  wrote.  "This  is  not  race  prejudice.  It  is  race  preservation."13 

Majority  of  Japanese  Immigrants  Lived  in  California 

When  the  United  States  annexed  Hawaii  in  1898,  Japanese  laborers, 
who  made  up  about  two-thirds  of  Hawaii's  work  force,  began  to  move  to 
California  for  better  wages.  President  Theodore  Roosevelt  responded  by 
signing  an  order  in  March  1907  prohibiting  aliens,  mainly  Japanese,  who 
had  passports  to  go  to  Hawaii  (and  Mexico  and  Canada)  from  settling  on 
the  mainland  United  States.14  Both  countries  negotiated  other  points,  and 
the  action  became  known  as  the  "Gentlemen's  Agreement"  of  1907-8. 15 

The  agreement  determined  Japanese  immigration  until  the  1920s. 
Laborers  were  allowed  to  bring  wives  from  Japan  or  Hawaii.16  Some  men 
sent  pictures  of  themselves  to  Japan,  or  received  pictures  of  women,  for 
marriage  partners.  Women  who  arrived  to  meet  their  husbands  for  the 
first  time  were  known  as  "picture  brides."  Some  United  States  citizens 
believed  the  practice  to  be  immoral,  and  Japan  discontinued  it  in  1920, 
allowing  only  marriages  with  men  who  returned  to  Japan  for  at  least  30 
days  to  find  wives.17 

From  1890  to  1920,  the  number  of  Japanese  soared  from  2,039  to 
1 1 1,010  on  the  mainland.  About  two-thirds  lived  in  California.18  These 
first-generation  Japanese  settlers,  known  as  "issei,"  were  not  eligible  for 
citizenship  for  several  reasons.19  Their  children,  known  as  "nisei,"  or 
second-generation  Japanese,  were  US  citizens  by  birth. 

Most  Japanese  farmed  land  considered  worthless  by  other  Califor- 
nians.  By  1920,  their  farms  produced  ten  percent  of  California's  crops.20 
California  responded  in  1920  with  an  amended  Alien  Land  Law.  The 
original  law,  in  1913,  prohibited  aliens  or  companies  with  a  majority  of 
Japanese  stockholders  from  owning,  selling,  or  bequeathing  agricultural 
land  to  another  immigrant.  Agricultural  needs  for  World  War  I  and  a 
loophole  (their  children  born  in  the  states  were  not  immigrants,  so 
Japanese  land  owners  could  give  the  land  to  their  children)  reduced  the 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  57 


law's  effect.  The  loophole  was  closed  in  1920,  and  the  US  Supreme  Court 
gave  its  approval  in  November  1923  after  appeals.21  Japanese  laborers  lost 
their  land  and  their  economic  foundation. 

Next,  many  Californians  pushed  to  block  all  Japanese  immigration. 
In  early  1924,  bills  in  Congress  proposed  severely  limiting  immigration 
from  Europe  and  banning  completely  any  immigration  from  Japan.  Other 
Asians  had  been  banned  in  previous  years  (in  1882  Congress  passed  the 
Chinese  Exclusion  Act22)  but  the  Japanese  believed  they  had  a  different, 
better  relationship  with  the  United  States  government  as  evidenced  by  the 
Gentlemen's  Agreement.  They  learned  otherwise. 

Japan  reacted  in  anger  to  an  immigration  ban  that  it  perceived  as  a 
national  insult.  July  1,  the  day  the  bill  was  enacted,  was  declared  "Na- 
tional Humiliation  Day."23  The  period  after  the  enactment  of  the  Immi- 
gration Act  was  filled  with  tension  that  "bordered  on  a  war  scare."24 

Newspaper's  View:  A  Superior/Inferior  Mentality? 

Five  of  six  daily  newspapers  in  this  study  wanted  Japanese  immi- 
grants barred,  but  they  found  positive  ways  to  frame  the  exclusion. 
Editorial  writers  framed  the  debate  around  four  main  themes:  race, 
economy,  national  security  and  political  decency.  Three  themes  were 
essential  to  the  act:  possible  racial  and  cultural  mixing  between  whites  and 
Asians,  the  economic  impact  of  Japanese  workers,  and  national  security. 
The  fourth  area  was  about  the  manner  in  which  Japan  was  excluded, 
rather  than  the  exclusion  itself. 

In  their  editorials,  newspapers  could  have  supported  the  Immigra- 
tion Act  in  its  entirety;  supported  the  Act  but  argued  against  exclusion  of 
Japanese;  or  opposed  the  whole  Act.  The  Louisville  Courier-Journal  was 
the  only  daily  newspaper  to  argue  against  Japanese  exclusion,  and  it  did  so 
on  diplomatic  grounds.  While  it  supported  the  rest  of  the  immigration 
bill,  the  newspaper  said  the  United  States  should  not  break  its 
Gentlemen's  Agreement  with  Japan. 

Newspapers  denied  that  racism  was  an  issue  in  the  passage  of  the 
bill;  they  cited  economic  reasons  to  exclude  the  Japanese.  The  Japanese 
had  reason  to  believe  otherwise.  The  1924  Act  allowed  for  immigration  at 
a  two  percent  quota  for  non-Asians;  each  country  was  allowed  an  immi- 
gration level  of  two  percent  of  the  foreign  born  individuals  in  the  United 
States  in  1890.2^  If  the  two  percent  quota  had  been  extended  to  Japan  as 
it  was  to  all  European  countries,  only  about  146  Japanese  immigrants  a 
year  would  have  been  admitted  to  the  United  States — hardly  a  grave 
threat  to  the  US  economy.  This  study  shows  that  racism  was  indeed 
significant  in  newspaper  arguments  against  the  Japanese.  The  ways  in  which 


58  Hamrn- Summer  1999 


the  racism  was  presented  reflect  the  1920s  "mentalities"  of  the  newspapers 
toward  the  Asian  race  in  general  and  the  Japanese  in  particular. 

Mentality  1 :  The  Asian  As  Incompatible  Alien 

Again  and  again,  the  newspapers  denied  racism  was  an  issue  in 
excluding  Japanese.  Racism,  according  to  James  M.  Jones  in  Prejudice  and 
Racism,  builds  on  negative-attitude  view  of  prejudice  and  also  includes 
three  other  criteria:  race  as  a  biological  concept,  the  superiority  of  one's 
own  race,  and  institutional  and  cultural  practices  that  formalize  the 
domination  of  one  racial  group  over  another.26  The  newspapers  argued 
that  superiority  was  not  an  issue: 

•  "This  does  not  imply  that  it  adheres  to  silly  notions  of 
'superior'  or  'inferior'  races  or  believes  that  persons  with 
blue  eyes  are  better  Americans  than  those  with  black,"  said 
the  Times.27 

•  "There  is  no  valid  question  of  superiority  or  inferiority," 
said  the  Tribune.2* 

•  "It  is  not  because  we  consider  the  Japanese  an  'inferior' 
race,  as  the  Japanese  should  fully  understand,"  said  the 
Chronicle. ,29 

•  "If  they  want  a  certificate  of  excellence,  why,  we  can  go 
before  a  notary  public  and  have  one  made  out:  we  can  give 
them  a  certificate  of  intellectual,  moral  and  artistic  equal- 
ity," said  the  Examiner. 30 


And  yet .  .  .  There  are  differences,  the  newspapers  added. 

The  Times  sz\d:  "This  objection,  it  cannot  be  sufficiently  empha- 
sized, does  not  rest  on  any  imagined  superiority  of  the  white  race,  but 
solely  on  the  incompatibility  of  the  different  racial  standards."31  A 
compromise  could  be  reached  easily  because  Japan  "recognizes  that  the 
two  races  cannot  mix."32 

The  Chicago  Daily  Tribune  said:  "We  insist  merely  that  there  are 
differences  which  not  only  bar  Japanese  immigrants  from  American 
citizenship  but  prevent  social  amalgamation. "33  (The  Tribune  was  alone 
among  daily  newspapers  in  referring  to  the  Japanese  in  terms  such  as  "a 
great  little  people"34  and  "wonderful  little  people."35  The  Defender  did 
refer  to  the  Japanese  as  "yellow  people"  in  its  editorials.) 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  59 


The  Chronicle  said: 

We  do  not  want  them  and  will  not  have  them  because  they  are 
so  different  that  they  do  not  assimilate;  because  they  settle  in 
colonies  from  which  our  own  people  move  away  because  the 
social  atmosphere  is  destroyed;  because  their  standard  of 
living,  being  lower  than  ours,  they  undersell  our  people 
whenever  it  is  necessary;  because  the  Japanese  government 
holds  immigrants  and  their  descendants  forever  as  Japanese 
subjects;  because  they  are  so  much  more  prolific  than  we  that 
without  restriction  in  a  few  generations  they  will  possess  our 
land.36 

While  no  racism  is  involved,  said  the  Chronicle,  "if  such  aliens  are 
allowed  to  enter  they  will  come  in  numbers  so  large  as  to  produce  social 
and  economic  conditions  which  are  unjust  to  ourselves  and  are  sure  to 
result  in  real  race  hatreds  and  domestic  disturbances  leading  to  interna- 
tional feeling  which  will  be  really  'grave'."37 

Though  the  Herald  Tribune  noted  "a  magnificent  bonfire"  of  racial 
hatred  attributable  to  the  Senate,38  it  argued  the  debate  was  not  about  a 
racial  question.  Guests  were  allowed  from  Japan,  thus  refuting  any  notion 
of  racism.39  The  immigration  bill  did  not  exclude  visitors  such  as  stu- 
dents, professors,  and  ministers.  In  short,  because,  the  Tribune  argued,  the 
Japanese  could  visit  but  not  stay,  which  was  proof  of  no  racism.40  It  was, 
rather,  a  policy  decision.  "[A  quota  system]  would  admit  less  than  250 
[Japanese]  immigrants  a  year,  but  it  would  run  counter  to  the  settled 
policy  of  this  country,  founded  on  the  principle  of  race  separation,  against 
admitting  Orientals  on  the  same  terms  as  Europeans,"  the  Herald  Tribune 
said.41 

Only  the  Chicago  Defender  claimed  racism.  "The  color  question  got 
mixed  up  in  the  Japanese  debate.  Our  white  people  are  determined  to 
make  this  a  'white'  country."42  The  newspaper  ran  an  editorial  cartoon 
with  a  California  landowner  tossing  a  brick,  labeled  "land  shall  be  sold  to 
Caucasians  only"  The  brick  was  shown  bouncing  off  the  head  of  a 
Japanese  man  and  striking  the  head  of  an  African  American  man.  The 
caption  for  the  cartoon  said,  "Perhaps  it  wasn't  intended  for  us,  but  — 

White  Versus  "Yellow  People" 

Race  determined  the  outcome  of  the  exclusion  ban,  said  the  De- 
fender. "[Japan]  rose  as  a  yellow  people.  As  soon  as  it  got  up  it  wanted  to 
be  'white.'  No,  said  your  Supreme  Court;  no,  we  wish  you  well  but  we 
have  our  hands  full  trying  to  settle  who  is  white,  and  who  is  not  white,  in 


60  Hamm  •  Summer  1999 


43 


the  USA."44  The  United  States  had  "chronic  colorphobia,"  according  to 
the  newspaper.  The  Defender  said  whites  in  the  United  States  wanted  to 
take  a  slap  at  the  Japanese,  "the  most  powerful  of  the  darker  races,"  to 
prove  white  supremacy.45 

The  New  York  Times  challenged,  early  and  often,  the  notion  of  a 
Nordic  superior  race  and  the  implications  upon  United  States  immigra- 
tion policy.  The  Times  suggested  standards  to  be  met  by  future  immi- 
grants that  would  move  beyond  racial  qualities.  "The  test  of  the  would-be 
immigrant  is,  not  has  he  blue  eyes  and  flaxen  hair,  but  will  he  make  a 
good  citizen,  will  he  adapt  himself  easily  and  willingly  to  American  life, 
will  he  contribute  to  the  strength  of  the  American  nation  and  the  Ameri- 

1  "46 

can  racer    ° 

Despite  this  talk  against  a  Nordic  superior  race,  the  Times  advocated 
that  an  immigration  policy  was  more  like  a  science  experiment.  It  was 
both  natural  and  wise  to  not  change  the  "present  blend"  much,  the 
newspaper  said.  The  Times  endorsed  a  proposal  to  determine  the  present 
racial  composition  in  the  United  States  and  to  "seek  to  preserve  the 
existing  proportion  of  those  races  which  contributed  to  the  present 
fusion."  The  result,  according  to  the  Times,  was  no  discrimination  against 
particular  races  or  groups.  "This  is  as  it  should  be,"  it  said.47 

Even  the  Louisville  Courier-Journal,  which  was  the  only  daily  news- 
paper to  speak  against  Japanese  exclusion,  said  the  bill  favored  those  who 
furnished  the  best  class  of  citizens.  The  editorial  offered  a  lengthy  quota- 
tion by  a  University  of  Virginia  doctor  which  claimed  the  United  States 
had  done  everything  possible  since  1875  to  ensure  racial  decay.48 

Perhaps  the  most  unusual  argument  was  made  by  the  San  Francisco 
Examiner.  Its  editorial  on  May  1,  1924  was  headlined  "Exclude  Prejudice 
from  US  Immigration  Policy!"  So,  was  the  Examiner  speaking  in  favor  of 
Asians?  Not  at  all.  Saying  that  "unassimilable  races,  and  unassimilable 
people,  generally,  must  be  barred  from  the  United  States,"  the  newspaper 
argued  that  there  should  be  no  "artificial"  discrimination  or  prejudice 
among  "the  various  peoples  of  our  own  color  and  blood."4'  Since  the 
Immigration  Act  discriminated  among  whites  from  different  countries, 
the  Examiner  called  it  the  worst  and  silliest  measure  on  immigration  ever 
devised."  Of  course,  most  of  these  European  immigrants  were  entering  on 
the  East  Coast,  so  San  Francisco  was  much  less  affected. 

In  a  related  editorial,  the  Examiner  said:  "For  our  nation  to  stand,  on 
its  statute  books,  committed  to  so  fantastic  a  theory  of  discrimination 
between  neighboring  peoples  of  Caucasian  blood  and  proven  ability, 
would  be  both  hurtful  and  foolish."50  To  stand  on  its  statute  books  on  a 
theory  of  discrimination  against  Asians  was  acceptable  to  the  newspaper. 
The  Japanese  were  portrayed  as  incompatible  aliens.  This  theme  was  the 
most  dominant  among  all  of  the  editorials. 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  61 


Mentality  2:  The  Asian  As  Overachiever 

The  second  area  is  unusual  in  terms  of  racism  studies:  not  only  were 
the  Japanese  presented  as  worse  than  white  immigrants  or  citizens  (which 
is  an  emphasis  of  most  racism,  the  degradation  of  another  race)  but 
editorial  writers  offered  great  praise  for  the  work  ethic  of  the  Japanese.  In 
short,  the  Japanese  should  be  banned  because  they  were  both  worse  and 
better  than  whites. 

Why  should  the  Japanese  be  excluded  while  Europeans  would  not 
be?  They  work  too  hard,  the  Chicago  Daily  Tribune  argued.  Thus,  this  Act 
should  not  insult  Japan;  exclusion  was  a  compliment,  a  tribute  of  respect. 
It  was  an  economic  white  flag  to  Japan,  saying  that  men  in  the  United 
States  could  not  compete  on  the  same  level  as  Japanese  men.  After  all,  the 
Japanese  had  taken  land  that  was  abandoned  or  deemed  worthless  by 
California  farmers,  and  they  turned  it  into  highly  productive,  profitable 
farms.  "Their  industry,  ability,  and  thrift  have  put  many  American 
farmers  and  small  tradesmen  out  of  business,"  the  Tribune  said." 

The  Japanese  worker  labored  longer  hours  and  spent  less  on  himself, 
especially  if  he  did  not  have  a  wife  and  children,  the  Tribune  said.  He 
saves  the  money  to  buy  more  land  and  supplies,  then  works  even  harder. 
"Industry,  self-control,  economy  in  expenditure  are  all  virtues  which  we 
respect,"  the  newspaper  said.52  Still,  United  States  citizens  had  a  different, 
higher  standard  of  living,  the  newspaper  said.  They  had  families  to 
support  at  this  higher  standard. 

The  Neiv  York  Times  shared  a  similar  view:  "Whatever  element  of 
'inferiority'  may  be  found,  when  it  is  considered  in  terms  of  economics, 
rests  on  the  side  of  the  whites  rather  than  of  the  Asiatic  races."  The  Times 
noted  the  principal  objections  were  of  the  Japanese  working  harder,  living 
more  simply  and  getting  ahead  through  diligence.1'3  The  ban  of  laborers 
was  not  enough,  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle  said.  No  more  Japanese 
women  should  be  allowed  in  because  wives  were  economic  threats,  too. 
"Japanese  brides  are  far  more  objectionable  immigrants  than  Japanese 
men.  They  work  in  the  field  like  men  and  their  coming  means  several 
Japanese  citizens  per  bride,  who  can  be  landowners  because  [they  are] 
born  in  this  country  and  who  can  still  live  in  colonies,  leading  the  dual 
life  of  American  citizens  and  Japanese  subjects."54 

The  editorial  added  that  extra  ships  were  needed  for  the  thousands 
of  Japanese  women  heading  to  the  United  States  before  the  exclusion's 
July  1,  1924  deadline.  The  solution  for  Japanese  men  seeking  wives?  Leave 
the  country,  the  Chronicle  advised.  "If  Japanese  lawful  residents  in  this 
country  wish  to  marry  they  should  move  back  to  Japan.  Let  us  do  a 
disagreeable  but  necessary  job  in  the  pleasantest  way  possible."55 


62  Hamm  •  Summer  1999 


If  most  newspapers  studied  used  racist  thinking  to  denounce  the 
perceived  moral  differences  between  United  States  citizens  and  the 
Japanese,  they  added  an  unusual  twist.  Rarely  do  racists  portray  the  other 
group  to  be  superior,  especially  in  important  areas  for  personal  or  group 
pride  such  as  hard  work  or  diligence.  They  were  not  getting  ahead  by 
cheating,  or  by  doing  less;  the  Japanese  men  and  women  worked  hard, 
were  thrifty,  practiced  self-control  and  taught  these  traits  to  their  children, 
according  to  the  newspapers.  Therefore,  they  should  be  stopped. 

Mentality  3:  The  Asian  As  Loyal  Invader 

One  other  theme  about  the  Japanese  immigrants  is  threaded  through 
the  editorials.  Newspapers  suggested  that  the  rapidly  growing  number  of 
Japanese  in  California  signaled  an  invasion  of  sorts;  the  immigrants  could 
establish  a  peacetime  foothold  on  the  West  Coast. 

After  a  national  columnist  for  the  Hearst  newspapers  referred  to  "the 
Japanese  empire  with  its  tens  of  millions  of  intelligent,  determined 
fighters,"56  the  Chronicle  complained  about  colonies  of  Japanese  workers 
in  the  United  States  or  United  States  workers  in  Japan.  This  situation,  the 
newspaper  said,  would  result  in  "social  clashes,  which  neither  government 
could  prevent  drifting  into  international  antagonisms,  which  would  make 
impossible  the  cordial  cooperation  of  the  two  nations."57 

The  "hard  worker"  argument  in  the  Tribune  moved  quickly  from 
economic  superiority  to  a  conquering  mentality.  The  Tribune  believed  that 
to  delay  the  immigration  ban  would  be  damaging  for  the  future.  "To  go 
along  year  by  year,  with  the  exclusion  issue  always  irritating  our  relations 
with  Japan,  but  never  inducing  us  to  prepare  for  its  defense,  is  to  make 
war  certain,  and  at  the  same  time  insure  that  it  will  be  fought  by  us  at  the 
greatest  possible  disadvantage."58 

The  disagreement  must  be  faced  head-on,  the  Tribune  argued,  rather 
than  allowed  to  simmer  constantly.  "If  the  Japanese  either  cannot  or  will 
not  respect  our  right  to  exclude  whom  we  please  from  our  household,  an 
issue  is  forced  upon  us  from  which  we  will  not  and  cannot  recede,  even 
though  our  position  means  war."59  Without  the  Act,  the  West  would 
become  an  Asiatic  colony.60  If  war  with  Japan  did  come  because  of  the 
Exclusion  Act,  it  would  be  a  war  for  the  United  States  worker,  "a  people's 
conflict  without  qualification."61 

The  Japanese  were  portrayed  in  the  editorials  as  incompatible  aliens, 
as  overachieving  hard  workers,  and  loyal  invaders.  For  these  reasons,  they 
deserved  to  be  banned.  But  they  did  not  deserve  to  be  embarrassed,  the 
newspapers  said.  And  Congress,  according  to  the  editorial  writers,  acted 
terribly  and  brought  shame  to  both  countries. 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  63 


Congress  As  "The  Ugly  American" 

The  Times  suggested  the  actions  by  United  States  lawmakers  could 
lead  to  future  conflict.  Their  speeches  and  action  against  Japan  were 
certain  to  intensify  hatred  by  the  Japanese.  "The  Senate  cast  responsibility 
to  the  winds  and  showed  itself  willing  to  sow  the  seeds  of  future  wars  in 
order  to  rebuke  a  fancied  present  threat.  Such  bull-in-the-shop  tactics  are 
as  disconcerting  to  Americans  as  to  foreigners."62 

The  US  Secretary  of  State,  Charles  Evans  Hughes,  had  opposed  the 
exclusion  bill.  While  Congress  was  debating  the  bill,  Hughes  asked 
Masanao  Hanihara,  Japanese  ambassador  to  the  United  States,  to  write  a 
letter  explaining  Japan's  position  and  its  views  about  the  present 
Gentlemen's  Agreement.  The  letter  was  relayed  by  Hughes  to  the  Senate. 
In  an  example  of  diplomacy  gone  terribly  awry,  the  letter  was  used  against 
Japan  to  rally  both  public  and  congressional  opposition. 

In  the  letter,  Hanihara  discussed  many  items,  including  the  observa- 
tion that  Japan  was  most  interested  in  the  same  respect  and  consideration 
as  other  nations.  "In  a  most  friendly  spirit,"  Hanihara  added  that  "grave 
consequences"  could  result  from  the  Act  in  regard  to  relations  between  the 
two  countries.63  Supporters  of  the  bill  argued  that  Japan  was  trying  to 
bully  its  way  toward  favorable  legislation. 

The  Senate  and  House  responded  swiftly.  The  bills  were  approved 
within  a  few  days  by  overwhelming  margins.  The  whole  scene  was  an 
embarrassment,  the  newspapers  said.  "The  United  States  is  surely  above 
the  childishness  of  answering  such  imagined  provocation  out  of  pure  spite 
by  the  gravest  legislation,"  said  the  Herald  Tribune.^  "The  Senate's  passion 
is  about  on  a  level  with  the  rage  of  a  group  of  college  sophomores  bent  on 
a  hazing  bee  in  retaliation  for  some  fancied  disrespect  on  the  part  of  a 
freshman.  Doubtless  the  United  States  is  in  a  position  to  affront  Japan  or 
any  other  nation  of  a  smaller  stature;  but  the  bully  does  not  cut  a  pleasing 
figure  among  men  or  nations." 

Following  1923's  earthquake  in  Tokyo,  the  Exclusion  Act  was  an 
emotional  earthquake  for  Japan,  the  Herald  Tribune  said.  The  ban  could 
be  accomplished  through  a  revision  of  the  Gentlemen's  Agreement,  rather 
than  the  very  public  Immigration  Act.  "[The  Senate]  should  strike  out  the 
obnoxious  provision  that  humiliates  Japan.  It  is  a  wretched  exhibition  of 
jingoism."65 

The  New  York  Times  called  the  quick  votes  "hasty  and  intemperate" 
action.  The  legislative  work  was  "unwisdom  by  the  House  .  .  .  that  was 
not  corrected  by  the  Senate."66  The  Times  said  that  one  Easter  hope  was 
that  the  Department  of  State  and  the  Japanese  government  would  meet  to 
compromise  with  the  least  possible  harm  to  both  sides  —  or  even  that  the 


64  Hamm  •  Summer  1999 


president  would  veto  the  bill.67  Still,  the  Times  wasn't  against  the  exclusion 
ban,  though  at  the  beginning  of  the  debate  its  editorials  appeared  to  favor 
some  consideration  of  Japan's  position.  By  the  time  the  bill  was  settled, 
the  newspaper  asked  only  for  a  kinder  way  to  deal  with  the  problem.68 

Anti-Japanese  Sentiment  Was  Widespread 

This  study,  covering  one  of  the  most  significant  laws  in  immigration 
history,  shows  that  five  of  six  selected  daily  newspapers  opposed  any 
admission  of  Japanese  under  the  1924  Act — not  10,000  Japanese,  or  100 
Japanese,  or  one.  The  Japanese  should  not  be  covered  by  the  two  percent 
quota  that  applied  to  most  other  countries,  said  each  daily  newspaper 
except  the  Louisville  Courier-Journal.  The  Japanese  might  dilute  the 
Nordic  strain;  they  were  unassimilable.  This  view  was  held  not  just  in  San 
Francisco,  where  white  citizens  were  interacting  with  Japanese,  but  also  in 
New  York  and  Chicago. 

Editorial  writers  exhibited  racism  toward  the  Japanese,  but  where  the 
conservative  mentality  in  the  South  believed  in  the  African  American's 
inferiority  and  the  radical  mentality  thought  of  the  African  American  as  a 
savage,  a  dangerous  beast  or  criminal,  editorial  writers  did  not  frame  the 
Japanese  or  Asians  in  similar  ways.  It  would  have  been  nearly  impossible 
in  United  States  society  for  white  newspapers  to  argue  that  African 
Americans  in  the  1920s  worked  much  too  hard,  as  the  Tribune  did,  or 
that  they  worked  harder,  lived  more  simply  and  got  ahead  through 
diligence,  as  the  Times  argued.  Nor  would  most  white  newspapers  in  this 
era  have  offered  to  give  African  Americans  a  certificate  of  intellectual, 
moral  and  artistic  equality,  as  the  Examiner  offered  to  give  to  the  Japanese. 

Editorial  writers  at  white  newspapers  used  a  different  racial  mental- 
ity toward  Asians  than  those  used  by  Southern  whites  against  African 
Americans.  They  viewed  the  Japanese  as  Incompatible  Aliens,  Hard 
Workers,  Loyal  Invaders.  In  many  ways,  these  United  States  newspapers 
declared  the  Japanese  to  be  both  superior  and  inferior.  Oddly,  the  Japa- 
nese have  been  described  as  having  a  similar  superior/inferior  attitude 
toward  the  United  States.  The  term  for  this  is  "gaijin  complex."69  The 
mentality  exhibited  by  these  newspapers  was  not  liberal,  conservative  or 
radical — instead,  it  was  a.  gaijin  complex,  a  mentality  where  both  superior 
and  inferior  attitudes  are  used  to  reach  the  same  conclusion:  ban  the 
Japanese  because  whites  in  the  United  States  do  not  want  them  in  the 
country. 

In  1924,  these  daily  newspapers  in  their  editorials  could  have  been 
optimistic  about  a  future  of  racial  unity,  of  a  melting  pot  that  included 
Asians.  While  Williamson's  three  mentalities  do  not  match  the  views 
toward  the  Japanese  in  this  case,  the  future  outcome  or  possibilities  of 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  65 


each  mentality  can  be  applied.  The  newspapers  could  have  projected  an 
equal  place  (liberal  mentality),  a  "proper"  place  (conservative  mentality), 
or  no  place  (radical  mentality)  for  Japanese  immigrants  in  the  future 
United  States  society.  They  chose  no  place. 

Harsher  Racist  Attitudes  Still  a  Danger 

Not  until  four  decades  later  were  federal  immigration  laws  liberal- 
ized. Even  today,  the  existing  1924  mentality  of  newspapers  toward 
Japanese  and  Asians  appears  in  press  coverage.  In  a  1994  article  about 
"Covering  the  Invisible  'Model  Minority'  "  William  Wong  cited  a  popular 
inflammatory  phrase — "Asian  invasion" — still  used  in  1990s  coverage  of 
articles  dealing  with  Asian  Americans.70  "To  the  historian,"  wrote  John 
Dower  in  War  Without  Mercy,  "  there  is  certainly  a  humorous  side  to  the 
reincarnation  of  the  Japanese  'superman'  in  a  business  suit  four  decades 
after  he  was  first  observed  in  military  uniform  in  the  skies  of  the  Pacific," 
or  even  earlier,  culminating  in  the  1920s  legislation  in  California  and  the 
1924  Immigration  Act,  as  in  this  study.71  "As  the  transition  of  Japan  and 
the  Western  powers  from  war  to  peace  demonstrated,  the  hard  idioms 
have  a  soft  underside;  but  by  the  same  token,  the  softer  idioms  often 
conceal  a  hard  and  potentially  devastating  edge.  ...  It  is  predictable  that 
harsher  racist  attitudes  reminiscent  of  the  war  years  will  again  arise  at 
times  of  heightened  competition  or  disagreement."72 

This  study  integrates  the  mentality  concept  from  historical  racial 
study  as  a  way  to  examine  historical  media  framing  of  Japanese,  but  the 
mentality  method  could  be  useful  concerning  historical  coverage  of  other 
minorities  and  groups  in  the  United  States.  To  better  understand  the 
coverage  in  this  century  of  Japanese  and  Asian  Americans,  it  is  essential  to 
look  at  the  dominant  historical  mentality  or  mentalities  that  existed 
among  white  newspapers  which  were  essential  in  framing  the  debate. 
Those  mentalities  were  different  from  the  mentalities  of  Southern  whites 
about  African  Americans.  These  mentalities  were  developed  long  before 
World  War  II  and  were  essential  in  the  way  Asians,  and  particularly  the 
Japanese,  were  framed. 


Endnotes 

'Edward  Doherty,  "A  California 'Close-up' of  the  Japanese,"  18  April  1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  1:7. 

Administrative  Procedure  Act:  Statutes  at  Large,  43,  153  (1924). 

'Joel  Williamson,  A  Rage  for  Order:  Black-White  Relations  in  the  American  South  Since  Emancipation, 


66  Hamm  •  Summer  1999 


New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  1986,  70. 

'Ibid,  71. 

Ibid,  72. 

'Virginia  Mansfield-Richardson,  "Asian  Americans  and  Mass  Communication  in  the  United  States: 
A  Wake-up  Call.  Paper  presented  at  the  Association  for  Education  in  Journalism  and  Mass  Commu- 
nication Annual  Conference,  Washington,  D.C.,  August  1995. 

Thomas  H.  Heuterman,  "The  Japanese  Americans,"  in  U.S.  News  Coverage  of  Racial  Minorities:  A 
Sourcebook,  1934-1996,  Beverly  Ann  Deepe  Keever,  Carolyn  Martindale  and  Mary  Ann  Weston,  eds. 
(Westport,  Conn.:  Greenwood  Press,  1997),  216-248.  For  further  study  of  Japanese  in  this  time 
period,  see  Heuterman's  The  Burning  Horse:  The  Japanese-American  Experience  in  the  Yakima  Valley 
1920-1942  (Cheney:  Eastern  Washington  University  Press,  1995). 

"Marion  Marzolf,  "Americanizing  the  Melting  Pot:  The  Media  as  a  Megaphone  for  the  Restriction- 
ists,"  in  Mass  Media  Between  the  Wars:  Perceptions  of  Cultural  Tension,  1918-1941,  Catherine  L.  Covert 
and  John  D.  Stevens,  eds.  (Syracuse  University  Press,  1984),  107-125. 

''Rodger  Streitmatter,  "The  Media  and  Racial  Equality,"  in  The  Significance  of  the  Media  in 
American  History,  James  D.  Startt  and  Wm.  David  Sloan,  eds.  (Northport,  Alabama:  Vision  Press, 
1994),  264. 

"'"Let  Reason  Prevail,"  16  April  1924,  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  26:2. 

""'Supermen  and  Immigration,"  10  April  1924,  The  New  York  Times,  22:4.  In  The  Ambivalent 
Welcome:  Print  Media,  Public  Opinion  and  Immigration,  authors  Rita  J.  Simon  and  Susan  H. 
Alexander  (Westport,  Conn.:  Praeger,  1993)  show  that  United  States  magazines  and  The  New  York 
Times  seldom  supported  immigrant  causes  from  1880  to  1990.  In  a  review  of  the  book  J.  Herbert 
Altschull  of  Johns  Hopkins  University  said,  "It  is  healthy  for  Americans,  journalists  in  particular,  to 
pause  every  now  and  then  to  examine  the  warts  in  our  history  and  remember  that  our  record  of 
treatment  of  the  downtrodden  offers  little  ground  for  boasting."  J.  Herbert  Altschull,  "Book 
Reviews,"  Journalism  History  19:4  (Winter  1994),  140.  Simon  and  Alexander's  study  was  a  sampling 
of  articles  in  magazines  and  the  Times. 

l2"Nation  Learns  to  Heed  Voice  of  California,"  17  April  1924,  San  Francisco  Examiner,  5B:1. 

'-'William  Randolph  Hearst,  "Japanese  Exclusion  Vital  to  US,  Says  Mr.  Hearst,"  15  April  1924,  San 
Francisco  Examiner,  6B:  1 .  For  a  later  period,  no  West  Coast  newspapers  (of  27  studied)  supported  the 
Japanese  during  the  internment  period  in  World  War  II.  See  Lloyd  Chiasson,  "The  Japanese- 
American  Encampment:  an  Editorial  Analysis  of  27  West  Coast  Newspapers,"  Newspaper  Research 
Journal  12  (2):  92-107. 

'^Immigration  Act  of  20  February  1907,  Administrative  Procedure  Act:  Statues  at  Large  34,  898 
(1907). 

'The  Gentlemen's  Agreement  consisted  of  telegrams,  cables  and  other  communications,  rather 
than  a  statute.  Bill  Ong  Hing,  Making  and  Remakuig  Asian  America  Through  Immigration  Policy, 
1850-1990  (Stanford:  Stanford  University  Press,  1993),  254. 

"The  agreement  was  to  end  the  immigration  of  laborers.  Passports  still  could  be  —  and  were  — 
issued  to  parents,  wives,  and  children  of  residents.  Also,  others  such  as  former  residents,  merchants, 
students,  diplomats  and  tourists  could  receive  passports. 

l7Hing,  55. 

lsAkemi  Kikumura,  Issei  Pioneers:  Hawaii  and  the  Mainland,  1885  to  1924  (Los  Angeles:  Japanese 
American  National  Museum,  1992),  37-38.  For  a  comparison,  about  15  million  Europeans  emigrated 
to  the  United  States  from  1900  to  1924.  Bill  Hosokawa,  Nisei:  The  Quiet  Americans,  New  York: 
William  Morrow  and  Company,  1969),  94. 

'The  Japanese  government  did  not  allow  its  citizens  to  become  citizens  of  other  countries.  In 
addition,  the  US  Congress  in  1790  had  given  naturalization  rights  to  free  white  persons  residing  in 
the  United  States  for  two  years.  After  the  Civil  War,  African  Americans  were  included.  However, 
Asians  were  denied  naturalization  rights  in  the  Naturalization  Act  of  1870. 

:"Kikumura,  49. 

JIWebb  v.  O'Brien,  263  US  313  (1923).  The  alien  land  laws  were  not  declared  unconstitutional 
based  on  racial  discrimination  until  Masaoka  v.  California,  39  Cal.  2d  883  (1952)  and  Fujii  v. 
California,  38  Cal.  2d  718  (1952).  In  Hing,  60.  The  US  Supreme  Court  was  not  supportive  of  the 
Japanese  immigration  efforts  during  this  time;  it  later  ruled  in  1925  that  the  Japanese,  Asian  Indians 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  67 


and  Filipinos  were  not  free  white  persons  eligible  for  naturalization.  Toyota  v.  United  States,  268  U.S. 
402(1925). 

"Administrative  Procedure  Act:  Statutes  at  Large  22,  58  (6  May  1882). 

23Yuji  Ichioka,  The  hsei:  The  World  of  the  First  Generation  Japanese  Immigrants,  1885-1924  (New 
York:  The  Free  Press,  1988),  247. 

24Sadao  Asada,  Japan  an/i  the  United  States,  1915-25  (Ann  Arbor,  MI:  University  Microfilms, 
1963),  390. 

:The  debate  over  which  census  to  use  became  a  significant  point  in  the  law.  If  lawmakers  chose  the 
1890  census,  then  western  and  northern  European  immigrants  would  be  rewarded  with  higher 
numbers.  II  lawmakers  chose  the  more  recent  1920  census,  the  number  of  eastern  and  southern 
European  immigrants  would  increase  because  of  the  great  immigration  during  and  after  World  War  I. 
Lawmakers  chose  to  follow  the  1890  census. 

2r,James  M.  Jones,  Prejudice  and  Racism,  2nd  ed.  (New  York:  McGraw-Hill,  1997),  1 1. 

27"Preserving  the  American  Race,"  5  April  1924,  The  New  York  Times,  14:3. 

2fl"Japanese  Penetration  in  Hawaii,"  15  April  1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  8:2. 

2'"'No  Time  to  Stir  Up  Hatreds,"  15  April  1924,  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  24:2. 

"'"Let  Congress  act  today  on  Japanese  exclusion  bill,"  12  May  1924,  San  Francisco  Examiner,  6B:1. 

""Asiatics  in  America,"  27  April  1924,  The  New  York  Times,  6:2. 

""Finding  a  Way  Out,"  29  April  1924,  The  New  York  Times,  16:3. 

""Japanese  Penetration  in  Hawaii,"  15  April  1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  8:2. 

'''"A  Japanese  Boycott,"  25  April  1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  8:2. 

""Think  It  Over,"  4  May  1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  8:1. 

"'"No  Time  to  Stir  Up  Hatreds,"  15  April  1924,  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  24:2.  After  such  a  critical 
commentary,  the  Chronicle  then  suggested  the  debate  must  "stop,  in  heaven's  name,  without  one 
disagreeable  word  on  either  side,  and  especially  with  only  the  kindest  speech  on  our  side."  Then,  after 
calling  the  Japanese  both  virile  and  competent,  the  Chronicle  ended  with,  "What  this  poor  world 
needs  most  is  good  nature.  Let  us  contribute  our  share." 

""President  for  Exclusion,"  5  May  1924,  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  22:1.  In  this  editorial,  the 
newspaper  offers  an  unusual  view  of  what  is  expected  in  a  democratic  society.  "It  will  not  help  matters 
to  publicly  discuss  them.  When  the  President  officially  informs  Congress  that  a  certain  course  is 
desirable  in  initiating  an  international  policy  in  which  he  is  in  complete  accord  with  Congress,  that 
should  be  sufficient." 

'""The  California  Lesson,"  8  May  1924,  New  York  Herald  Tribune,  12:1. 

""'Some  friendlier  Way,"  30  April  1924,  New  York  Herald  Tribune,  10: 1 . 

""'The  New  York  Times  agreed  with  this  view  ("Asiatics  in  America,"  27  April  1924,  The  New  York 
Times,  6:2).  Because  the  immigration  standards  did  not  exclude  Asian  visitors,  the  Times  argued,  there 
was  no  racism  involved,  only  exclusion  of  workers  "on  account  of  difference  of  traditions  and  types  of 
civilization." 

4 '"The  Gentlemanly  Way,"  13  April  1924,  New  York  Herald  Tribune,  II  6:2. 

42Roscoe  Simmons,  "The  Week,"  26  April  1924,  Chicago  Defender,  II  1:2. 

"'"Perhaps  It  Wasn't  Intended  for  Us,  but  — ,"  19  April  1924,  Chicago  Defender,  14:3. 

44Simmons,  26  April  1924. 

4,"Stirring  Up  Race  Hatreds,"  3  May  1924,  Chicago  Defoider,  I  14:2. 

"''"'Supermen'  and  Immigration,"  10  April  1924,  The  New  York  Times,  22:4. 

47" Preserving  the  American  Race,"  5  April  1924,  The  New  York  Times,  14:3. 

4S"The  Immigration  Question,"  8  April  1924,  Louisville  Courier-Journal,  6:2.  The  Louisville  paper 
did  not  cover  the  issue  much.  It  had  a  half-dozen  editorials  about  the  immigration  act  in  nearly  two 
months.  The  othet  daily  newspapers  had  that  many  in  less  than  ten  days.  The  argument  by  biologist 
Dr.  Ivey  F.  Lewis  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  as  quoted  in  the  Courier-Journal,  was:  "The  citizen  of 
tomorrow!  Is  there  any  problem  facing  our  statesmen  to  compare  in  importance  with  this?  Our 
country  will  be  what  it  is  tomorrow  because  of  what  it  is  today.  We  have  undertaken  the  direction  of 
human  evolution.  At  the  present  moment  we  are  bungling  the  job.  What  is  happening  in  the  United 


68  Hamrn*  Summer  1999 


States  is  insuring  with  tragic  finality  chat  the  next  generation  will  be  less  capable  of  bearing  its  burden 
than  the  present  one.  Since  1875  we  have  been  doing  nearly  everything  possible  to  insure  racial  decay. 
The  falling  birth  rate  has  been  accomplished  among  the  better  classes.  Unrestricted  immigration  has 
diluted  our  stock  with  millions  of  unassimilated  aliens." 

''''"Exclude  Prejudice  From  US  Immigration  Policy,"  1  May  1924,  San  Francisco  Examiner,  1 B:  1 . 

'""Nation  Needs  Plenty  of  Desirable  Immigration,"  30  April  1924,  San  Francisco  Examiner,  6B:1. 

5l"The  Issue  with  Japan,"  14  April  1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  8:2. 

""Insulting  Japan,"  18  April  1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  8:1. 

""Differing  Standards,"  24  April  1924,  The  New  York  Times,  18:2. 

54"The  Real  Japanese  Menace,"  17  May  1924,  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  26:1. 

55"Co-operation  Necessary"  10  May  1924,  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  25:2. 

^Arthur  Brisbane,  "Today,"  6  April  1924,  San  Francisco  Examiner,  1,  2. 

57"Co-operation  Necessary,"  10  May  1924,  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  25:2. 

'""We  Cannot  Compromise  a  Sovereign  Right,"  16  April  1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  8:1. 

5'"We  Cannot  Compromise  a  Sovereign  Right,"  16  April  1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  8:1. 

''""Japanese  Penetration  in  Hawaii,"  15  April  1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  8:2. 

S,"A  People's  Issue,"  20  April  1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  8:1.  The  Tribune  also  argued,  however, 
that  Japan  would  be  unlikely  to  attack  the  Philippines  because  "the  Japanese  do  not  like  or  thrive  in 
tropical  climates,  any  more  than  they  like  or  thrive  in  severe  northern  climates.  It  is  their  chief,  and 
perhaps  their  sole,  physical  weakness  as  a  race."  From  "The  Philippines,  Japan  and  America,"  17  April 
1924,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  8:1. 

w"As  Congress  Cools  Off,"  17  April  1924,  The  New  York  Times,  18:1. 

"Hanihara  to  Hughes,  10  April  1924,  Papers  Relating  to  the  Foreign  Relations  of  the  United 
States,  1915-25  (Washington,  D.C.,  1924-39).  In  Asada,  390. 

M"Spite  Diplomacy,"  16  April  1924,  New  York  Herald  Tribune,  14:1. 

''5"Uncalled-for  Temper,"  15  April  1924,  New  York  Herald  Tribune,  14:1. 

"'"Affronting  Japan,"  15  April  1924,  The  New  York  Times,  20:1. 

67"A  Black  Friday,"  20  April  1924,  The  New  York  Times,  II  6:2. 

ss"The  Real  Japanese  Question,"  3  May  1924,  The  New  York  Times,  \A-A. 

f'"For  a  description  of  the  "gaijin  complex,"  see  Robert  C.  Christopher,  The  Japanese  Mind:  The 
Goliath  Explained,  New  York:  Linden  Press,  1983.  Gaijin  means  foreigner  in  Japanese. 

7"William  Wong,  "Covering  the  Invisible  'Model  Minority,'"  Media  Studies  Journal,  8,  3  (Summer 
1994),  49-61. 

7lJohn  W  Dower,  War  Without  Mercy:  Race  and  Power  in  the  Pacific  War,  New  York:  Pantheon 
Books,  1986,312. 

72Ibid,  312. 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  69 


70  Summer  1999 


Project  Chariot,  Nuclear  Zeal,  Easy 
Journalism  and  the  Fate  of  Eskimos 


By  John  Merton  Marrs 

A  federal  government  proposal  to  detonate  up  to  five  nuclear  bombs  in 
northwest  Alaska  was  greeted  in  1958  with  routine  news  coverage  in  Alaska's 
two  largest  newspapers  and  in  The  New  York  Times.  The  press  coverage 
followed  routine  patterns,  framed  the  proposal  in  progressive  economic  terms 
and  favored  government  sources  until  after  I960,  when  articles  that  repre- 
sented the  Native  Alaskan  point  of  view  and  questioned  the  Natives'  safety 
began  to  appear  in  alternative  media.  The  same  mainstream  media  tendencies 
that  earlier  produced  coverage  that  ignored  the  Natives  ultimately  resulted  in 
recognition  of  their  cause  and  helped  to  prevent  the  project's  completion. 

The  circumpolar  arctic  tundra  is  a  unique  environment  on 
this  planet,  having  no  counterpart  in  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere. Not  infrequently  it  is  described  as  remote,  desolate, 
barren,  and  climatically  rigorous.  Probably  none  of  these 
adjectives  is  accurate,  and  possibly  they  are  misleading. 
— Committee  on  Environmental  Studies  for  Project  Chariot,  1966' 

Project  Chariot,  proposed  publicly  in  1958,  was  a  plan  to 
detonate  five  nuclear  bombs  to  excavate  a  harbor  in  north 
west  Alaska.  The  announcement  of  the  plan  by  the  Atomic 
Energy  Commission  (AEC)  began  a  four-year  controversy  that  awakened 
Eskimos  to  their  political  interests  and  helped  stimulate  a  national 
environmental  movement.  The  controversy  unfolded  amid  international 
cold  war  tensions  and  public  anxiety  over  the  prospects  of  nuclear  war  and 


John  Merton  Marrs  teaches  journalism  at  Everett  (Wash.)  Community  College.  This  paper  is 
based  on  research  as  a  doctoral  student  at  the  University  of  Washington. 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  71 


the  effects  of  radiation.  Yet  the  issue  unfolded  slowly  in  the  pages  of  the 
newspapers,  even  in  Alaska. 

The  performance  of  the  newspapers  was  marked  by  doing  business 
as  usual  and  by  a  reluctance  to  pay  attention  to  the  negative  side  of  the 
issue  until  time  and  other  media  thrust  the  fuller  issue  into  the  newspa- 
pers' laps.  This  paper  argues  that  this  "lap  effect"  in  the  end  served  the 
cause  of  the  marginalized  Eskimo  minority  by  recognizing  the  cause  once 
it  gained  legitimacy,  although  the  history  of  Project  Chariot  shows  that 
this  effect  could  have  come  too  late  in  a  controversy  of  less  complexity 
and  longevity. 

The  venue  of  controversy  was  a  remote  corner  of  the  Arctic,  a  region 
of  barren  gravel  beaches  and  tundra  west  of  the  mountains.  Prime-time 
news  had  not  dawned  on  television,  and  the  vortex  of  the  still-new  public 
debate  over  atomic  energy  in  the  United  States  manifested  in  the  pages  of 
the  daily  newspapers  and  news  magazines.  This  article  analyzes  the 
performance  of  daily  newspapers  in  the  unusual  case  of  Project  Chariot. 
How  did  the  press  respond  to  unusual  news  respecting  people  outside  the 
mainstream?  Did  press  coverage  portray  conflict  so  that  more  attention 
might  be  drawn  to  the  issues,  or  was  the  Project  Chariot  proposal  pre- 
sented as  conflict-free? 

If  coverage  failed  to  uncover  conflict  in  the  beginning,  did  this 
change  over  time?  Did  any  changes  in  press  coverage  occur  after  the 
Native  cause  was  recognized  in  alternative  publications  outside  of  Alaska 
and  after  Native  groups  met  to  express  their  protest  with  one  voice?  How 
did  press  coverage  work  out  regarding  the  legitimacy  of  the  issues  of 
Eskimo  rights  or  environmental  hazard?  These  questions  may  require 
suggesting  answers  to  others,  such  as:  How  did  the  press  use  or  rely  on 
sources?  What  mode  of  operation  characterized  press  performance? 
The  concept  of  the  "mainstream,"  defined  as  the  Caucasian  majority, 
capitalist-adherent  population,  is  central  to  these  considerations. 

The  author  reviewed  relevant  literature  in  studies  of  conflict;  of 
minority  influence;  of  the  inter-related  media  hypotheses  known  by  the 
names  of  gatekeeping,  source  reliance  and  issue  framing;  of  the  economics 
and  politics  of  hegemony;  interviewed  principal  actors  from  the  time; 
studied  documents  at  the  Department  of  Energy  in  Germantown, 
Maryland,  and  at  the  University  of  Alaska,  Fairbanks;  and  analyzed  all  the 
articles  about  Project  Chariot  in  the  Anchorage  Daily  Times,  the  Fairbanks 
Daily  News-Miner  and  The  New  York  Times  between  June  1958  and 
August  1962. 

This  analysis  focuses  on  key  newspapers  in  a  controversy  that  was 
the  genesis  of  government  environmental  impact  studies,  the  political 
organization  of  disparate  Alaska  villages  and  tribes,  and  Alaska  Native 


72  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


land  claims.  Project  Chariot  was  an  active  proposal  until  August  1962, 
and  remains  controversial  for  the  discovery  in  1992  of  radioactive  material 
left  behind  as  an  experiment  in  nuclear  waste  erosion.2  News  articles  and 
editorial  commentaries  from  the  newspapers  have  been  coded  paragraph 
by  paragraph  and  analyzed  quantitatively  and  qualitatively.  The  coverage 
of  Project  Chariot  manifested  121  articles  in  the  Fairbanks  newspaper,  92 
in  the  Anchorage  Times  and  16  in  The  New  York  Times.  The  latter  was 
chosen  for  comparison  as  an  industry  standard  and  as  an  outside  refer- 
ence.3 

Atomic  Energy  Commission  Never  Conceded  Danger 

The  Atomic  Energy  Commission's  initial  announcement  of  an 
Alaska  nuclear  harbor  experiment  on  June  8,  1958,  attracted  fleeting 
attention  in  Alaska  and  no  singular,  immediate  notice  in  77?^  New  York 
Times.  The  Anchorage  Daily  Times,  then  Alaska's  largest  newspaper,  printed 
the  Associated  Press  (AP)  story  on  page  one;  the  Fairbanks  Daily  News- 
Miner  ran  the  AP  report  on  page  three,  and  the  Anchorage  Daily  News, 
then  a  poor,  job-shop  competitor  of  the  Times,  printed  a  United  Press 
report  on  page  one.  No  additional  news  stories  appeared  until  July  1 5 
when  nuclear  physicist  Edward  Teller  and  at  least  two  colleagues  made  an 
impromptu  tour  of  Juneau,  Anchorage  and  Fairbanks  to  talk  with  reporters, 
politicians  and  community  leaders.  The  New  York  Times  first  reported  the 
experiment  "between  Cape  Seppings  and  Cape  Thompson"  on  page  9,  July 
20.  "Project  Chariot,"  as  it  would  be  named,  appeared  regularly  in  articles 
and  editorials  for  the  next  49  months  in  Alaska  and  The  New  York  Times. 

Those  months  can  be  viewed  through  the  analogy  of  a  foot  race, 
subdivided  into  laps  as  follows:  July  1958  through  May  I960,  June  I960 
through  May  1961,  and  from  June  1961  to  the  end.  During  the  first  two 
years,  Teller  and  the  AEC  faced  some  mainstream  questions  in  press 
coverage  about  economic  prospects,  but  the  Eskimos  and  their  environ- 
ment were  discussed  only  once — in  a  Fairbanks  letter  to  the  editor. 
During  the  next  year,  Teller  left  the  program  and  the  opposition  showed 
signs  of  mounting  a  challenge.  Finally,  in  the  third  lap,  the  challenges  won 
a  balance  in  coverage.  One  reality  underlay  the  entire  project:  the  govern- 
ment scientists'  overweening  interest  in  nuclear  blasting  and  their  coinci- 
dent dismissal  of  the  arguments  of  Eskimos  and  dissenters.  The  press,  by 
and  large,  followed  the  leaders  until  late  in  the  race. 

The  central  question  involved  the  government's  consideration  of 
environmental  effects.  Doubts  concerned  more  than  500  Eskimos,  the 
wild  game  they  relied  on  in  a  harsh  wilderness,  and  the  effects  that 
radioactive  fallout  might  have  on  their  lives.4  The  central  conflict  derived 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  73 


from  the  AEC's  inability  to  acknowledge  risk,  while  repeatedly  insisting 
that  everything  would  be  done  to  assure  the  experiment  would  hurt  no 
one.  In  the  end,  the  commissions  action  was  as  good  as  its  promises,  but 
the  commission  never  conceded  danger  as  a  reality  and  documents  suggest 
that  the  commission  staff  never  wanted  to  give  up.  In  the  spring  of  1962, 
the  director  of  the  Division  of  Peaceful  Nuclear  Explosives  recommended 
the  project's  termination,  but  wrote  as  he  did  so  that  the  experiment  could 
still  provide  data  on  nuclear  excavation  and  "the  chance  of .  .  .  jeopardizing 
the  lives  of  the  local  inhabitants  ...  is  exceedingly  remote  ....  [The] 
uncertainties  .  .  .  can  only  be  resolved  by  proceeding  .  .  .  ."5 

The  Project  Chariot  controversy  was  actually  small  amid  major 
events  from  1958  to  1962:  the  years  of  Sputnik,  the  first  space  flights  by 
Soviets  and  by  Americans,  the  Soviet  capture  of  U2  spy  plane  pilot 
Francis  Gary  Powers,  the  construction  of  the  Berlin  Wall,  the  failed  Bay  of 
Pigs  invasion  of  Cuba,  and  extensive  nuclear  testing  that  brought  the 
world  to  the  brink  of  nuclear  war.  In  Alaska,  Project  Chariot  never  ranked 
in  any  of  the  year-end  Top  Ten  lists  of  state  news  in  the  Anchorage  or 
Fairbanks  papers. 

The  public  worried  about  nuclear  war,  and  newspaper  articles 
showed  how  to  build  backyard  fallout  shelters,  but  disagreement  was 
widespread  regarding  radiation  dangers.  By  I960,  Teller  and  a  prominent 
adversary,  Dr.  Linus  Pauling,  were  the  living  icons  of  the  opposing 
arguments.  Teller  professed  humanity's  ability  to  control  nuclear  contami- 
nation and  Pauling  doubted  it.  Looking  back  on  the  debate,  Sheldon 
Novick  wrote  in  1969  in  "The  Careless  Atom"  that  nuclear  testing  "was 
probably  the  most  massive  (and  unintentional)  experiment  in  biology  ever 
undertaken,  and  the  results  are  just  beginning  to  come  in."6 

Edward  Teller  Promoted  Peaceful  Uses 

As  though  to  rescue  the  world  from  nuclear  nightmares,  Dr.  Teller 
(widely  nicknamed  "the  father  of  the  hydrogen  bomb")  stepped  forward 
to  promote  Project  Plowshare,  a  program  designed  to  find  peaceful  uses 
for  the  nuclear  sword.  He  was  director  of  the  University  of  California's 
Livermore  Radiation  Laboratory,  which  had  proposed  the  Plowshare 
program  and  which  the  AEC  had  charged  with  the  program's  direction. 
Teller  and  the  AEC  envisioned  digging  harbors  and  canals  (including  a 
new  Panama  canal),  mining  water  resources  and  generating  electricity 
with  nuclear  explosions.  In  theory,  money  could  be  saved  because  nuclear 
power  could  move  much  more  earth  per  dollar  than  dynamite.7  Teller 
went  to  Juneau  to  herald  the  first  beneficial  application  of  nuclear  power 
under  the  rubric  of  Plowshare.  He  boasted  of  moving  mountains   ("just 


74  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


drop  us  a  card")  and  later  averred  that  atomic  power's  first  victims,  the 
Japanese,  could  be  the  first  major  beneficiaries  of  the  peaceful  application 
of  nuclear  explosion  technology.8  The  first  step  was  to  be  a  harbor  at 
Cape  Thompson. 

Eskimos  Overlooked  in  Early  Planning 

Teller's  plan  to  rescue  Alaska's  frozen  north  from  its  stereotypically 
useless  status  as  barren  waste  was  a  dream  of  the  mainstream  culture.  The 
other  side  of  the  story  centers  on  the  5,000-year-old  Eskimo  culture  of 
Point  Hope,  Alaska,  where  Native  hunters  in  the  fall  of  1958  were 
surprised  to  find  AEC  workers  in  the  Ogotoruk  Valley.  The  AEC  had  not 
bothered  to  notify  the  inhabitants  of  villages  so  far  away,  yet  so  near.9 

Here  lay  the  crux  of  the  problem.  The  300  Eskimo  citizens  of  Point 
Hope,  who  lived  32  miles  north  of  ground  zero,  were  of  such  little 
account  in  the  thought  of  the  majority  culture,  as  represented  by  govern- 
ment agents  and  the  press,  that  they  were  simply  not  considered  in  the 
project's  first-stage  work.  The  Eskimos  had  thrived  in  the  Arctic  environ- 
ment for  centuries,  but  their  subsistence  lifestyle  was  alien  to  the  main- 
stream. Teller  told  the  press  the  government  had  looked  all  over  the  world 
for  the  best  site,  yet  this  search  was  actually  paperwork,  compiled  by  a 
consulting  firm  without  setting  foot  in  northwest  Alaska.10 

Project  Chariot  drew  no  opposition  in  the  villages  at  first.  Some 
Natives  gained  part-time  field  work  with  AEC.  Point  Hope  had  been  in 
regular  contact  with  white  people  for  more  than  100  years,  and  the  village 
included  an  Episcopal  church.  Point  Hope's  economy  was  not  100 
percent  subsistence.  A  number  of  the  village  men  had  served  in  the  armed 
forces  and  many  worked  summer  jobs  in  Fairbanks  to  earn  money  for 
housing  materials,  heating  oils,  flour  and  hunting  materials  for  whaling 
and  for  shooting  caribou." 

The  Eskimos  were  not  party  to  the  public  debate  through  1958  and 
early  1959  over  the  harbor  proposed  in  their  hunting  area.  The  debate, 
such  as  it  was,  occurred  in  the  mainstream  press  and  in  the  meetings  of 
chambers  of  commerce  over  whether  Alaska  would  benefit  economically 
from  a  harbor  on  the  Chukchi  Sea  coast.  Teller  and  others  envisioned  the 
Eskimos  as  new- age  coal  miners.  But  on  June  26,  1959,  the  Anchorage 
Times  reported  that  Teller  conceded  during  a  press  conference  that  there 
was  no  foreseeable  economic  value  for  a  Cape  Thompson  harbor.  The 
cape  was  icebound  eight  or  nine  months  of  the  year,  and  mineral  deposits 
were  not  in  fact  close  enough  to  be  transported  to  the  site  except  at  great 
expense.12 

The  Daily  News-Miner  buried  this  resolution  of  the  great  economic 
debate  in  a  continuation  on  an  inside  page  four  days  later.  The  scientists 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  75 


still  hoped  to  test  their  hypotheses  about  nuclear  excavation  and  pressed 
on  with  a  public  relations  campaign  aimed  at  winning  over  Alaskans.  The 
project  was  downsized— from  2.4  megatons  to  460  kilotons.13  Livermore 
and  AEC  scientists  said  the  hole  could  still  be  used  if  anyone  wanted  to 
pay  for  harbor  improvements,  and  the  notion  of  a  harbor  persisted  to  the 
very  end  when  the  final  AEC  press  release  described  Project  Chariot  as  "a 
small  scale  harbor."14 

Over  months  doubts  emerged  in  Point  Hope.  A  geographer,  Don 
Charles  Foote,  hired  from  McGill  University  by  AEC,  became  troubled 
by  likely  effects  on  the  Eskimos.  Other  scientists  from  the  University  of 
Alaska  developed  doubts,  notably  botanist  Leslie  Viereck,  who  on  Decem- 
ber 29,  1960,  resigned  from  the  project,  effectively  accusing  the  AEC  of 
lying  about  research  findings.  He  became  president  of  the  Alaska  Conser- 
vation Society  and  later  campaigned  publicly  against  the  project.15 

Point  Hope's  Episcopal  minister,  Keith  Lawton,  joined  the  doubters, 
as  did  two  New  Hampshire  businessmen,  Joe  Haddock,  who  visited  Point 
Hope  in  the  summer  of  I960,  and  his  friend  Max  Foster,  both  Episcopal 
parishioners.16  The  two  lobbied  Congress  and  also  contacted  university 
scientists  with  the  Greater  St.  Louis  Committee  for  Nuclear  Information 
(CNI),  a  group  that  included  Barry  Commoner  of  Washington  Univer- 
sity, who  would  become  a  leading  spokesman  for  environmental  causes. 
This  was  one  of  at  least  two  Eskimo  links  to  CNI.   LaVerne  Madigan, 
national  secretary  of  the  Association  for  American  Indian  Affairs,  also 
made  sure  the  Eskimos  and  CNI  knew  each  other.17  In  time,  as  CNI 
studied  Project  Chariot,  the  committee  connected  with  some  of  the  field 
researchers,  including  Foote,  Viereck,  and  William  Pruitt,  and  the  Eski- 
mos' circle  of  friends  grew.18  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  political  mobili- 
zation that  would  culminate  in  an  unprecedented  meeting  of  disparate 
Native  groups  in  northern  Alaska. 

A  Clash  of  Cultures 

The  Eskimos  of  Point  Hope  first  protested  in  November  1959  in  a 
letter  to  the  AEC.19  Eventually,  the  Chariot  officials  were  persuaded  they 
must  deal  with  Point  Hope  and,  in  March  I960,  three  men  visited  the 
village.  What  occurred  was  a  clash  of  cultures  that  only  assured  the 
Eskimos  their  fears  were  well  founded.  Lawton  attended  the  meeting.  His 
notes  show  that  the  visitors  presented  a  technical  film  with  a  technical 
narration  the  residents  little  understood.  The  villagers'  elemental  ques- 
tions were  not  answered  except  by  sweeping  assurances  that  no  harm 
would  come  to  them.20 


76  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


The  AEC  did  extend  its  program  of  environmental  studies.  This  was 
significant  for  at  least  two  reasons:  it  expanded  the  purpose  of  the  studies 
and  lengthened  the  project's  lead  time.  AEC  had  a  program  of  environ- 
mental studies  from  the  beginning,  but  the  original  purpose  was  simply  to 
collect  "before"  data  to  compare  with  "after"  data  from  the  blast;  now  the 
studies  took  on  the  larger  purpose  of  considering  the  Eskimos'  welfare 
rather  than  only  the  effects  upon  them.  This  elemental  shift  went  unre- 
ported in  the  press  beyond  pro  forma  reports  that  there  would  be  50 
researchers  in  the  Ogotoruk  Valley  for  the  summer  of  1 960.  The  full 
environmental  report  would  not  be  published  until  1966,  but  dissenting 
researchers  made  reports  to  CNI,  which  proved  to  be  as  public  relations 
conscious  as  Teller  and  the  AEC. 

In  June  1961,  CNI  devoted  a  full  edition  of  its  bulletin,  Nuclear 
Information,  to  Project  Chariot.  At  the  core  of  the  report: 

•  radioactive  fallout  concentrates  in  lichen,  a  rootless  plant  that 
takes  its  sustenance  not  from  the  soil  but  straight  from  the  air; 

•  caribou  live  on  lichens,  including  places  like  Cape  Thompson's 
Ogotoruk  Valley  where  winds  sweep  off  the  snow  and  expose 
the  delicate  tundra  plant  life; 

•  Eskimos  eat  caribou,  up  to  30  percent  of  their  diet. 


The  bottom  line  was  troubling.  Even  though  radioactive  fallout  fell 
in  lighter  quantities  in  polar  regions  than  elsewhere,  the  effect  of  the 
Eskimo  food  chain  was  to  concentrate  the  radioactivity  such  that  Eskimos 
carried  much  more  radioactivity  than  other  Americans.  Commoner  and 
CNI  did  not  directly  oppose  the  project  but  argued  that  no  one  knew 
what  was  safe,  and  that  the  AEC  could  not  assure  that  no  one  would  be 
harmed  by  blasting  Chariot.21  The  timing  of  CNI's  bulletin  proved 
critical.  It  followed  shortly  after  the  Sierra  Club  Bulletin  reprinted 
Viereck's  story  from  the  Alaska  Conservation  Society,  and  it  stimulated 
further  coverage  of  the  issue  nationally  by  the  wire  services  and  magazines. 

With  support  from  the  Association  for  American  Indian  Affairs, 
Alaska's  Eskimos  held  an  unprecedented  meeting  in  Barrow  in  November 
1961  under  the  name  "Inupiat  Paitot,"  a  reference  to  "people's  heritage." 
The  Natives  took  a  stand  that  the  lands  surrounding  their  villages  (includ- 
ing Cape  Thompson)  were  historically  theirs,  that  they  held  legitimate 
rights  to  these  lands,  and  the  government  had  no  right  to  the  use  of  the 
land  without  their  consent.  Neither  the  Anchorage  Times  nor  The  New 
York  Times  covered  the  conference,  but  the  Fairbanks  Daily  News-Miner 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  77 


sent  reporter  Tom  Snapp.  The  rest  of  the  press  thus  covered  this  singular 
Native  American  event  second  hand.  This  story  was  the  culmination  of  a 
significant  change  in  coverage  by  the  Fairbanks  newspaper,  as  will  be 
shown.22 

When  the  AEC  actually  set  Chariot  on  the  shelf,  The  New  York 
Times  told  the  story  in  only  three  AP  paragraphs.  In  the  third  paragraph, 
the  AEC  conceded  nothing,  saying  that  "information  expected  to  be 
gained  from  the  project  was  now  available  or  might  be  developed  from 
other  experiments."23  AEC's  project  chief  had  written  in  an  internal 
memorandum: 

However,  on  balance,  it  would  appear  that  the  most  seriously 
adverse  effect  of  the  decision  to  cancel  .  .  .  would  be  the 
lasting  impression  on  certain  officials  and  on  public  opinion 
generally  that  there  was  really  some  danger  to  the  local 
inhabitants  after  all.24 

New  Territory  for  Press  Coverage 

This  study  explores  the  role  of  the  press  in  Project  Chariots  transfor- 
mation from  project  to  reject.  Throughout  the  period  from  1958  to  1962 
Project  Chariot  had  a  public  dimension  as  part  of  Project  Plowshare.  As  a 
plan  for  civil  uses  of  nuclear  technology,  Plowshare  work  was  ostensibly 
above  board  and  public  rather  than  classified.  In  practice,  the  AEC  had 
broad  military  security  powers,  and  an  uncertain  volume  of  documenta- 
tion remained  under  classification  review  more  than  30  years  later.25 

Yet  the  AEC's  public  relations  campaign  and  the  nature  of  the 
program  brought  Plowshares  Projects  Chariot,  Gnome  and  Sedan 
extensive,  issue-oriented  news  coverage.  This  was  new  territory  for  news 
organizations,  accustomed  by  the  secrecy  of  wartime  atomic  research  to 
receiving  only  what  their  government  considered  newsworthy.26  How  did 
the  press  respond  to  unusual  news  respecting  people  beyond  the  main- 
stream? Did  press  coverage  portray  conflict  and  debate?  Did  coverage 
manifest  change  over  time?  What  reporting  methods  or  practices  were 
evident,  including  the  use  of  sources,  in  the  way  the  press  handled  Project 
Chariot? 

To  analyze  such  press  performance,  a  framework  was  needed  that 
encompassed  the  nature  of  the  press  as  well  as  the  nature  of  the  issues 
under  consideration.  This  study  examines  the  articles  published  in  Alaska's 
two  primary  daily  newspapers  of  the  day,  the  Anchorage  Times  and  the 
Fairbanks  Daily  News-Miner,  and  the  nation's  then  most-ubiquitous  daily, 


78  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


The  New  York  Times.  The  analytical  framework  includes  the  nature  of 
minorities  and  influence  in  public  politics  and  the  role  of  conflict  as  a 
mechanism  of  interaction  and  communication.  Questions  of  minorities 
and  press  treatment  deal  as  well  with  the  legitimation  of  minority  points 
of  view.  The  importance  of  influence  and  its  relationship  to  conflict  has 
been  studied  in  social  psychology  and  communications.  Moscovici  in 
1976  showed  how  the  social  control  value  of  the  majority  culture,  or 
mainstream,  relies  on  the  "painless  resolution  of  conflicts"  to  help  main- 
tain a  "single  view  of  reality"  in  support  of  the  status  quo.27  He  wrote  that 
conflict  is  "at  the  root  of  uncertainty"  as  people  vie  to  make  others  unsure 
of  their  opinions,  and  "the  greater  the  conflict  the  more  profound  the 
uence. 

Tichenor,  Donohue  and  Olien,  in  extensive  research  of  Minnesota 
communities  and  news  media,  have  shown  that  the  portrayal  of  conflict 
over  issues  helps  to  increase  public  attention  and  tends  also  to  narrow  the 
"knowledge  gap"  with  "an  increased  likelihood  in  a  conflict  that  citizens 
of  all  status  levels  will  acquire  information."29  Similarly,  Hornig  studied 
readers'  feelings  of  powerlessness  in  relation  to  science  news  and  found 
that  conflict  or  the  representation  of  ambiguity  among  supposed  experts 
gave  readers  an  enhanced  sense  of  power  as  opposed  to  when  all  experts 
seemed  to  agree.30  Thus  it  appears  that  press  portrayals  can  attract  atten- 
tion, stimulate  doubt  and  lend  legitimacy  to  arguments.  The  obverse 
supposition  is  that  without  conflict,  little  information  is  acquired,  or  the 
information  purveyed  tends  only  to  support  the  status  quo  and  not  to 
stimulate  change. 

Hallin  illustrated  the  importance  of  gaining  legitimacy  in  order  for  a 
minority  point  of  view  to  win  recognition.  In  his  model  of  news  status, 
Hallin  depicts  concentric  circles  in  which  the  inner  circle  is  the  sphere  of 
consensus,  the  middle  circle  the  sphere  of  legitimate  controversy,  and 
everything  beyond  that  circle  the  sphere  or  domain  of  the  deviant,  or 
those  who  are  not  recognized  in  the  inner  circles.  The  move  from  devi- 
ance into  legitimate  controversy  is  critical,  for  it  is  only  there  that  issues 
win  debate.  Issues  in  deviance  are  largely  ignored,  while  matters  in 
consensus  are  accepted  as  given.31 

In  separate  studies  on  minority  influence,  Moscovici  and  Gerard 
found  that  such  a  move  into  legitimate  controversy  is  critical  to  minority 
achievement  in  conflict  with  a  majority.  Once  a  minority  achieves  cred- 
ibility, it  may  even  enjoy  a  tactical  advantage,  as  described  by  Gerard: 

The  majority  establishment .  .  .  tends  to  be  deaf  to  currents  of 
opinion  that  might  undermine  their  vested  interests,  whereas 
the  marginal  minority,  with  no  such  stake,  can  afford  to  be 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  79 


open  .  .  .  The  closed,  confirming,  biased  stance  of  the  majority 
...  is  the  seed  of  the  majority's  eventual  undoing.32 

Moscovici  concluded  that  a  group  creates  conflict  when  it  resists 
conforming  to  the  majority  and  proposes  an  alternative.  Consistent 
pressure  can  bring  its  viewpoint  to  the  fore  and  such  a  group  "thus  forces 
everyone  to  take  its  alternative  into  consideration."33 

In  reference  to  Alaska,  circa  1959,  the  terms  "mainstream"  and 
"majority  culture"  will  be  used  here  synonymously  as  references  to  the 
white,  Judaeo-Christian  majority  population,  and  its  capitalist,  frontier 
land-use  ethic.  The  minority  in  this  study  is  actually  a  coalition:  the 
Eskimos,  small  in  number  and  separated  from  the  majority  by  geography 
and  an  aboriginal  culture;  and  dissenting  members  of  the  mainstream, 
chiefly  university  scientists  and  conservationists.  In  the  course  of  Project 
Chariot,  these  groups  effectively  coalesced  around  the  Eskimo  cause. 

Mainstream  Press:  Benign  or  Malignant? 

In  this  study's  conceptual  framework,  where  does  the  press  fit?  The 
consensual  view  in  Alaska,  then  as  now,  favored  progress  and  boosterism. 
The  new  state's  majority  culture  was  flush  with  the  triumph  of  statehood 
in  1959,  and  the  Anchorage  Times  and  its  publisher,  Robert  Atwood,  were 
at  the  forefront.  In  the  American  experience,  such  boosterism  was  com- 
mon in  the  frontier  press.34  Behind  the  slogan  of  the  "Last  Frontier"  in 
Alaska,  there  ran  a  strong  thread  of  a  frontier  spirit  and  an  accompanying 
boosterism  that  Atwood  championed  as  much  as  if  not  more  than  any- 
one.3'' In  Fairbanks,  publisher  C.W.  Snedden  was  a  newcomer  by  Alaska 
standards,  but  he  embraced  the  booster  mentality,  serving  the  new  Alaska 
State  Chamber  of  Commerce  as  president.36 

Such  publishers  held  a  stake  in  a  kind  of  progressive  status  quo  and 
as  such  were  members  of  the  mainstream,  majority  culture.  Yet  this  is  not 
a  study  of  publishers  alone,  and  here  a  full  picture  of  newspaper  press 
performance  requires  an  additional  frame  of  reference.  In  Human  Behav- 
ior and  the  Principle  of  Least  Effort,  Zipf  hypothesized  that  people  are 
prone  to  find  paths  that  work,  and  to  rely  on  them  in  ways  that  create  and 
reinforce  a  status  quo. 

The  principle  holds  that  humans  seek  efficiency  in  terms  of  the  least 
effort  required  to  achieve  a  given  result,  and  then  repeat  the  behavior 
rather  than  risk  new  effort.  Thus  habits  are  born.37  The  principle  is  put 
forward  here  as  a  single  container  for  other  hypotheses — newsroom 


80  Marrs*  Summer  1999 


socialization,  gatekeeping,  agenda  setting,  source  reliance  and  issue 
framing — to  be  dealt  with  as  a  whole,  accepting  their  common  emphasis 
on  how  the  press  does  its  job,  but  rejecting  for  the  purposes  of  this  study 
arguments  of  distinction  and  cause  and  effect.  The  principle  of  least  effort 
also  offers  an  alternative  explanation  to  the  conspiratorial  implication 
made  in  some  analyses  that  press  complicity,  rather  than  expedience  or 
habit,  is  at  work  in  repressing  minorities  and  upholding  the  majority 
status  quo.  The  proposition  here  suggests  that  complicity  resulting  merely 
from  sloth  or  habit  is  susceptible  to  change.  It  is  assumed  that  a  conscious 
application  of  ideology  would  not  be  so  amenable  to  change.  In  other 
words,  the  assumption  suggests  that  a  slothful  press  can  manifest  changes 
that  a  conspiratorial  press  would  refuse;  that  the  mainstream  press  at  its 
worst  may  be  benign  rather  than  malignant. 

This  inquiry  includes  questions  of  how  issues  are  framed  in  the 
news,  which  issues  are  portrayed  as  newsworthy,  and  how  news  organiza- 
tions use  sources.  Thus,  the  question  of  how  the  press  performs  contains 
within  it  a  subsidiary  question:  Does  press  performance  manifest  an 
aspect  of  news  coverage  by  rote  rather  than  by  the  rigorous  search  for 
truth  that  the  press  often  claims  as  its  nature?  Does  the  press  use  and  rely 
on  readily  available  sources,  habitual  sources,  or  those  sources  with  a 
vested  interest  in  one  point  of  view?  Or  does  the  press  seek  out  the  hard 
interview  or  the  unusual  answers? 

One  model  of  the  difference  between  using  routine  sources  and 
methods  or  seeking  out  alternative  views  was  displayed  by  the  Seattle 
Times  in  its  coverage  of  another  Alaska  story,  the  Exxon  Valdez  oil  spill  in 
1989.  In  Smith's  analysis  of  the  Exxon  Valdez  coverage,  the  Pulitzer  Prize, 
taken  as  an  award  that  recognizes  exemplary  journalism,  was  earned  by 
the  Seattle  Times  because  its  reporters  and  editors  avoided  routine,  easy 
approaches  to  find  perspectives  that  other  media  ignored.38 

Certain  assumptions  undergird  this  study.  The  first  is  that  Project 
Chariot  would  have  harmed  the  Eskimos  and  their  lifestyle.  Disagree- 
ments about  fallout  effects  go  back  to  the  1940s.39  Yet  evidence  of  harm 
from  nuclear  testing  has  been  documented  in  Kazakhstan,  where  the 
Soviet  Union  detonated  some  500  nuclear  weapons,  as  well  as  among 
island  peoples  of  the  Pacific  testing  area  used  by  the  United  States.40, 41 

The  second  and  primary  assumption  is  that  this  case  study  is 
generalizable,  for  its  place  in  the  past  is  the  recent  past  and  not  the  far  past 
and  lies  well  within  prevailing  press  norms  of  the  practice  of  objectivity 
and  fair  play.  The  press  by  the  late  '50s  was  accustomed  to  portraying 
itself  as  the  watchdog  of  government.  Further,  issues  central  to  this  study, 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism 


including  a  call  for  the  press  to  be  open  to  minority  points  of  view,  were 
promoted  prominently  a  decade  earlier  in  the  Report  of  the  Commission 
on  Freedom  of  the  Press.42 

Early  Studies  Criticized  Coverage 

Several  studies  of  Project  Chariot  have  been  published.  Four  retro- 
spective works  have  been  published  since  1986,  each  critical  of  Alaska's 
mainstream  press  for  supporting  the  project  without  regard  for  the 
Eskimos  of  the  region  or  the  environment.  The  earliest  major  critiques  of 
Project  Chariot  were  the  reports  in  the  Sierra  Club  Bulletin  in  May 
1961,43  by  the  Committee  for  Nuclear  Information  in  June  196144  and 
by  Harpers  magazine  in  1962.4:i  These  reports  did  not  address  media 
questions. 

The  recent  studies  have  been  qualitative  examinations  that  (among 
other  arguments)  suggested  active  press  bias  without  attempting  to 
account  for  the  full  range  of  press  coverage  and  publicity.  In  "An  Authen- 
tic Voice  in  the  Technocratic  Wilderness:  Alaskan  Natives  and  the  Tundra 
Times,"  authors  Patrick  Daley  and  Beverly  James  viewed  Project  Chariot 
from  a  communications  perspective  in  light  of  the  Gramscian  concept  of 
hegemony.  The  authors  offer  an  extensive  critical  analysis  of  the  events  in 
two  issues  affecting  Alaska  Natives:  Project  Chariot  and  the  coincident 
federal  enforcement  of  a  waterfowl  hunting  ban  near  Barrow. 

The  paper  shows  how  Natives  resorted  to  media,  the  founding  of  the 
Tundra  Times,  to  gain  access  into  Alaska's  mass  media.  It  aptly  critiques 
the  failings  of  the  mainstream  press  to  confront  the  issues,  but  it  also  fails 
to  measure  or  acknowledge  press  changes  during  the  controversy  or  to 
explore  ways  in  which  Eskimos,  scientists  and  conservationists  were  able 
to  enter  the  public  debate  through  the  mainstream  media.  The  Tundra 
Times  actually  came  too  late  to  the  rescue,  publishing  its  first  edition  after 
Project  Chariot  was  suspended. 

In  the  Daley  and  James  view,  whether  it  was  hegemony  or  home- 
town boosterism,  the  result  was  the  same: 

In  Alaska,  this  process  was  played  out  in  the  press  whenever  issues 
of  economic  development  offered  promises  of  economic  payoff 
through  the  quick  fixes  of  scientific,  technological,  and  military 
expertise.  Any  dissent  could  be  managed  by  appealing  to  the 
technical  and  scientific  knowledge  of  legitimated  experts.  Claims 
could  be  asserted  under  the  professional  rules  of  objectivity  and 
impartiality  .  .  .  legitimated  sources  could  command  newspaper 
space  . .  .  with  little  threat  of  challenge  .  . .  .46 


82  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


An  extensive  Project  Chariot  account  came  from  a  British  researcher, 
Peter  Coates,  in  his  book,  The  Trans-Alaska  Pipeline  Controversy.  In  laying 
the  groundwork  for  the  pipeline  story,  Coates  first  details  the  history  of 
two  presaging  proposals,  Project  Chariot  and  Rampart  Dam,  an  abortive 
plan  to  dam  the  Yukon  River.  The  Coates  book  has  a  lengthy  bibliography 
and  extensive  notations,  and  traces  the  history  of  the  country's  colonial 
use  of  Alaska  to  modern  Alaska  boosterism.  Coates  addresses  Native 
concerns  and  sketches  press  coverage  of  Project  Chariot,  including  the 
boosterism  of  publishers  Atwood  and  Snedden,  without  posing  any 
research  question  about  press  performance.47  Coates  concluded  that  the 
argument  over  Chariot  was  "how  the  proposal  jeopardized  the  Native  way  of 
life  .  .  .  and  the  inseparability  of  humankind  from  the  rest  of  nature  .  .  .  ."48 

Coates  took  his  lead  from  an  historical  account  of  the  controversy, 
"Project  Chariot:  How  Alaska  Escaped  Nuclear  Excavation,"  published  in 
1989  in  the  Bulletin  of  Atomic  Scientists  by  Dan  O'Neill.49  O'Neill's  is  an 
extensively  researched,  compact  history,  touching  on  all  the  major  points 
of  Project  Chariot,  but  it  deals  only  peripherally  with  the  press.  He  later 
expanded  his  report  to  book  length.50  One  other  book,  Art  and  Eskimo 
Power:  The  Life  and  Times  of  Alaskan  Howard  Rock  by  Lael  Morgan, 
includes  four  chapters  about  Project  Chariot,  but  deals  with  the  media 
only  anecdotally.51 

This  literature  tells  much  of  the  history  of  Project  Chariot  but  has 
examined  the  news  media  role  only  secondarily  and  hypothetical  ques- 
tions about  minority  influence  not  at  all.  It  seems  insufficient  to  quote  a 
few  editorials  that  seem  outrageous  in  the  light  of  1986  or  1989,  and  to 
conclude  that  Project  Chariot  was  a  botch  job  by  the  mainstream  press. 
The  studies  published  so  far  do  not  tell  us  whether  the  press  failed  to 
portray  conflict,  failed  to  report  the  Eskimo  viewpoint,  or  failed  to  tell 
oppositional  sides  of  the  story. 

The  "Frontier"  Alaska  Press  Cheered  Project  Chariot 

The  Alaska  press  in  1958  was  not  metropolitan.  The  Anchorage 
Times  was  the  largest  newspaper  and  passed  20,000  in  circulation  during 
the  Project  Chariot  period.  The  next  largest  papers  were  the  Fairbanks 
Daily  News-Miner  and  the  Anchorage  Daily  News  with  roughly  10,000 
circulation  each.52  The  Daily  News  was  then  a  sideline  published  by  a 
printing  shop  operator,  and  was  not  taken  very  seriously.53, 54  There  were 
only  three  other  daily  newspapers  in  the  state,  totaling  fewer  than  9,000 
subscribers  in  Juneau,  Ketchikan  and  Sitka. 

Anchorage  and  Fairbanks  had  commercial  radio  stations.  Television 
was  available,  but  there  were  no  satellite  links,  network  programming 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  83 


wasn't  live  and  newscasting  efforts  were  slight.  Alaska  TV  viewers  waited 
to  see  programs  that  were  broadcast  at  least  a  week  earlier  in  the  lower  48 
states.  United  Press  had  a  representative  in  Anchorage.  The  Associated 
Press  operated  a  one-man  Alaska  bureau  in  Juneau,  the  new  state's  capital 
city.  Juneau  was  almost  as  far  as  one  could  be  from  Point  Hope  and  still 
be  in  the  same  state,  a  distance  roughly  equal  to  that  between  Chicago 
and  San  Francisco,  but  here  there  was  no  road  from  one  to  the  other,  no 
train  tracks,  no  regularly  scheduled  airline,  and  no  telephone  lines. 

In  Alaska's  two  largest  cities,  the  Anchorage  Times  and  the  Fairbanks 
Daily  News-Miner  cheered  the  AEC,  following  every  official  visit  of  Teller 
or  other  AEC  representatives  with  editorials  and  largely  one-sided  news 
reports. 5S  Anchorage's  Atwood  stood  second  to  no  one  as  an  Alaska  and 
Anchorage  booster,  and  manifested  little  interest  in  any  journalistic  ethic 
that  would  separate  him  from  his  favorite  causes.  He  chaired  the  State- 
hood Committee  while  his  newspaper  promoted  statehood  without  pause 
or  caution,  both  in  editorial  comment  and  in  choices  of  coverage  and 
emphasis. 

When  it  came  to  the  AEC  proposal,  he  recalled,  "We  were  always 
pro,  positive  and  go-for-it;  go  ahead."  He  had  editorialized  that  the 
newspaper  was  for  the  people  and  that  his  concerns  were  those  that 
reflected  the  most  good  for  the  most  people.'6  Now  his  newspaper  said 
editorially  that  Alaskans  had  to  trust  in  progress  and  the  experts  who, 
after  all,  were  the  ones  who  understood  nuclear  technology. S7  Atwood  had 
published  the  Times  since  buying  it  in  1935  when  Anchorage  was  a  town 
of  2,500  on  the  shore  of  Cook  Inlet.  It  could  be  said  that  Atwood  married 
Anchorage,  for  his  purchase  of  the  newspaper  virtually  coincided  with  his 
marriage  to  Evangeline  Rasmuson,  daughter  of  the  town's  and  eventually 
the  state's  No.  1  banker.  What  was  good  for  Anchorage's  economy  was 
good  for  the  Atwoods,  and  what  was  good  for  the  Atwoods  from  1942  on 
was  an  almost  constantly  increasing  federal  presence. 

The  federal  government  put  Anchorage  at  the  heart  of  Alaska, 
choosing  to  route  the  Alaska  Railroad  from  ports  at  Seward  and  Whittier 
through  Anchorage  to  the  Interior,  and  siting  Air  Force  and  Army  bases 
just  across  the  river  from  the  city.  By  1958,  some  70,000  people  lived  in 
Anchorage  and  Atwood  was  selling  almost  20,000  newspapers  a  day  six 
days  a  week.  Few  members  of  his  newspaper's  audience  were  Alaska 
Natives,  and  some  of  those  were  Indians  rather  than  Eskimos.  In  1960, 
Alaska's  urban  population  was  85,767;  the  white  majority  numbered 
76,131;  African  Americans  3,414;  Indians  3,524;  "Other"  1,972;  and 
Asians  1,769.  The  Eskimos  were  part  of  the  "other"  category.58 

In  Fairbanks,  C.W  Snedden  came  along  in  the  mid-1950s  as  a 
newspaper  efficiency  expert  who  had  been  hired  to  size  up  the  Daily 


84  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


News-Miner  and  make  recommendations  to  its  publisher,  Austin  "Cap" 
Lathrop,  a  successful  businessman  who  also  owned  radio  stations.  When 
Lathrop  didn't  like  the  bottom  line  of  Snedden's  recommendations, 
Lathrop  said  that  he  wished  he  had  someone  to  buy  it.  Snedden  took  him 
up  on  the  idea.59 

Fairbanks  had  benefited  from  federal  spending  as  Anchorage  had. 
Fairbanks  was  the  terminus  of  the  Alaska  Highway,  the  home  of  Ladd  Air 
Force  Base  and  the  city  nearest  to  Fort  Greely.  Construction  was  under 
way  on  early-warning  system  radar  stations  in  the  north.  Neither  the 
Anchorage  Times  nor  the  Fairbanks  News-Miner  was  in  the  business  of 
questioning  federal  spending  in  Alaska,  let  alone  in  a  distant  corner  which 
some  believed  to  be  a  barren  waste.  If  the  feds  could  make  Cape  Thomp- 
son worth  something — in  the  capitalist,  land-profiting  sense  of  worth — 
then  this  was  all  to  the  good.60  A  sympathetic  biographer  wrote  that 
Atwood  "celebrated"  Project  Chariot  as  "tailor-made  for  the  remote  and 
sparsely  settled  region."61    The  News-Miner  unabashedly  welcomed  Teller 
and  the  AEC  in  its  editorial  columns,  quoting  Teller  and  concluding:  "We 
say  to  Dr.  Teller  and  his  fellow  scientists:  Alaska  welcomes  you.  Tell  us 
how  we  can  help."62 

Economics  Versus  Invisible  Eskimos 

The  only  early  arguments  in  the  press  about  the  merits  of  Project 
Chariot  were  about  economics  and  were  among  members  of  the  majority 
culture.  Early  press  reports  usually  made  no  mention  of  the  presence  of 
Native  residents,  and  their  use  of  the  land  was  not  an  issue. 

Despite  common  interests  in  boosterism  and  federal  spending,  the 
Fairbanks  News-Miner  and  the  Anchorage  Times  were  not  twins.  Anchor- 
age was  the  hub  of  Alaska's  mainstream  economy,  and  Native  influence 
was  slight — economically  and  socially.  Fairbanks,  the  commercial  center 
of  the  north,  was  much  closer  to  the  villages  and  enjoyed  significant  ties 
to  the  life  and  economy  of  the  Yukon  River,  the  traditional  "highway"  to 
the  coast.  The  Fairbanks  newspaper's  interest  in  the  villages  was  evident  in 
its  publication  of  rural  correspondent  reports.  Two  Fairbanks  editors, 
George  Sundborg  and  his  successor,  Cliff  Cernick,  recalled  that  the  Daily 
News-Miner  was  noted  for  these  columns,  often  written  in  folksy  styles  or 
even  broken  English.63' 64 

The  number  of  rural  correspondent  columns  in  the  newspaper's 
pages  doubled  during  Cernick's  editorship,  the  middle  years  of  the  Project 
Chariot  period.  The  News-Miner  network  of  correspondents  included 
Allen  Rock  of  Point  Hope,  brother  of  the  founding  editor  of  the  Tundra 
Times,  and  Guy  Okakok  of  Barrow,  who  would  become  a  principal  actor 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  85 


in  the  Natives'  first  area-wide  conference  in  1961.  These  connections  led 
the  News-Miner  to  other  Native  news,  such  as  school  crowding  or  a 
critical  shortage  of  heating  fuel  in  Barrow,  that  did  not  appear  in  the 
Anchorage  newspaper.6-  6<s  The  rural  correspondents  provided  a  steady 
flow  of  anecdotal  evidence  of  the  Native  lifestyle  and  the  importance  of 
hunting  for  food.  Clearly  the  News-Miner,  unlike  the  Times,  included  the 
Native  population  within  its  newspaper  community,  yet  this  newspaper  in 
the  late  '50s  was  just  as  clearly  a  mainstream  publication,  complete  with 
Ann  Landers,  Blondie  and  the  daily  horoscope. 

In  the  1980s,  William  Tobin,  then  an  editor  with  the  Anchorage 
Times,  explained  why  Natives  were  not  included  in  that  newspaper's 
concept  of  its  role. 

I  think  it's  perfectly  proper  that  the  white  establishment  press 
doesn't  tell  the  Native  side.  We  are  not  out  for  a  particular 
cause.  We  don't  have  a  Native  affairs  reporter;  but  we  don't 
have  a  military  affairs  reporter,  either.67 

Another  way  of  stating  this  argument  would  be  that  the  Times  viewed 
itself  precisely  as  a  newspaper  of  the  majority  culture.  In  Fairbanks,  the 
newspaper's  definition  of  community  was  more  inclusive.  The  Anchorage 
Times  never  sent  a  reporter  to  Point  Hope;  the  News-Miner  did,  once  in 
1959. 

Tobin  said  that  when  he  was  AP's  Alaska  reporter  from  1956  to 
I960  he  never  dreamed  of  going  to  Point  Hope  or  any  place  in  the 
Bush.68  There  might  as  well  have  been  no  way  to  get  there,  Tobin  said, 
and  that  wasn't  what  he  was  there  for.  "We  were  covering  the  building  of  a 
new  state,"  he  said,  referring  to  the  organization  starting  in  January  1959 
of  the  state  government.  He  remembered  Project  Chariot  as  something  he 
had  to  worry  about  only  when  Edward  Teller  came  to  town.69 

Effort  and  expense  were  the  costs  of  reporting  news  in  the  Bush. 
Further,  it  was  doubtful  whether  a  reporter  could  file  stories  because  of 
irregular  communications  links.  All  of  this  probably  discouraged  assign- 
ment editors  with  limited  staffs.  Sources  from  the  AEC,  Teller's  Livermore 
laboratory,  and  the  Chambers  of  Commerce  were  available;  Eskimos  were 
not.  Atwood  said  he  doesn't  remember  being  offered  any  flights  to  Point 
Hope  and  wasn't  anxious  to  go  there.  Project  Chariot  was  "way  out  there 
where  nobody  was  around  and  couldn't  get  hurt,"  as  he  remembered  in 
the  spring  of  1993.  "We  didn't  do  that  much  [coverage],  you  know. 
Unless  some  scientist  or  engineer  who  was  working  on  it  would  say 
something.  It  [Chariot  news]  had  to  pretty  much  fall  in  our  laps." 
Atwood  added,  "We  were  pretty  much  writing  about  things  we  didn't 
know  too  much  about."70 


86  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


Eskimos  Could  Be  "Stirred  up  by  lawyers  .  .  ." 

The  AEC  fell  into  their  laps  more  often  than  the  opposition.  In  92 
articles  (including  editorials  and  letters)  the  Anchorage  Times  published 
regarding  Project  Chariot,  the  newspaper  cited  AEC  or  Livermore 
spokesmen  as  sources  or  for  other  reasons  in  444  paragraphs,  while  citing 
village  residents,  Natives  in  general  or  conservationists  as  sources  or  actors 
154  times.  The  News-Miner,  in  its  121  articles  (including  editorials  and 
letters),  cited  AEC  sources  or  actors  613  times  while  mentioning  Natives 
or  conservationists  as  sources  or  actors  294  times.  Atwood  did  not 
remember  the  Eskimos  as  being  very  concerned  about  Chariot.  Rather,  he 
said,  "They  could  be  stirred  up  by  lawyers  and  do-gooders  to  serve  their 
ends."71 

Keith  Lawton,  Point  Hope's  Episcopal  minister  from  1959  to  1965, 
disagreed  dramatically  with  that  view.  The  village  had  elected  a  council 
since  the  1940s.  Lawton  said  he  knew  the  Eskimos  as  "very  political,"  and 
said  the  village  men's  exposure  to  the  military  and  to  the  cities  had  made 
them  astute  about  cultural  differences.  Their  English  writing  may  have 
seemed  awkward,  but  he  said  they  were  determined.  He  helped  them 
interpret  AEC  technical  language,  but  they  insisted  on  writing  their 
letters.  "These  people  are  pretty  sharp  ...  as  far  as  being  able  to  assess  the 
dangers  to  them  that  Project  Chariot  made,  yes  indeed."72 

The  News-Miner,  meanwhile,  in  the  summer  of  1959  sent  staff 
writer  Albro  Gregory  to  Cape  Thompson  when  the  AEC  invited  newspa- 
pers to  visit.  There  was  one  catch:  the  government  did  not  offer  transpor- 
tation.73 The  only  newspaper  reporters  dispatched  were  Gregory  and — a 
year  later — Lawrence  Davies  of  The  New  York  Times.  Gregory's  reporting 
produced  no  breakthroughs.  In  a  four-part  series  of  articles,  he  relayed  the 
story  as  told  to  him  by  Livermore  and  AEC  sources,  mentioned  the 
Eskimos  only  in  passing,  and  did  not  attribute  any  information  or 
arguments  to  any  Eskimo  or  to  any  of  the  University  of  Alaska  researchers 
who  were  then  working  in  the  field  with  AEC. 

Atwood  said  he  could  not  remember  the  size  of  the  Anchorage  Times 
news  staff  then.  At  least  1 1  staff  bylines  appeared  in  1961-62  and, 
following  the  industry  standard  of  the  time  (one  news  staffer  per  1 ,000 
circulation),  it  seems  reasonable  to  guess  that  the  news  staff  numbered  20. 
The  typical  daily  edition  was  16  to  24  pages  long.  In  Fairbanks,  according 
to  Sundborg,  the  news  staff  numbered  no  more  than  nine  persons.  The 
typical  daily  edition  was  10  to  16  pages  long.  An  annual  "Progress 
Edition"  in  November  ran  as  long  as  166  pages,  accomplished  by  con- 
tracting a  supplemental  editor  who  worked  for  several  weeks  with  no 
other  responsibilities.  Among  other  things,  this  edition  showed  off  the 


Summer  1999  •American Journalism  87 


prowess  of  Snedden's  print  shop  operation  in  which  he  invested  more 
pride  and  dollars  than  he  did  in  the  news  department.74 

The  Neiv  York  Times  worked  under  stricter  limitations  in  Alaska, 
with  no  staff  stationed  there.  The  Chariot  stories  published  in  the  New 
York  paper  came  from  Associated  Press,  from  Times  staffers  working  in 
Washington,  D.C.,  or  from  Davies,  the  paper's  West  Coast  correspondent, 
stationed  in  San  Francisco.  During  the  Project  Chariot  years,  Davies  twice 
filed  reports  from  Alaska,  once  from  Point  Hope  and  once  from  Anchor- 
age. 

While  Gregory  and  Davies  each  made  one  trip  to  Point  Hope,  the 
Anchorage  Times  wound  up  writing  letters  to  Eskimos  asking  them  to 
write  back.  Two  did.  The  first,  a  letter  from  Kivalina,  a  village  of  about 
100  people  40  miles  south  of  ground  zero,  was  featured  in  a  story  follow- 
ing up  the  Barrow  conference  about  whether  Natives  really  opposed 
Project  Chariot.  It  quoted  the  single  letter  as  saying  the  men  of  Kivalina 
were  more  interested  in  AEC  jobs  than  opposing  the  project.  No  other 
Eskimos  were  quoted. 7S  The  second  letter,  reported  in  a  later  story,  told 
of  Point  Hope  village  leader  David  Frankson's  objections  to  Chariot.76 

Alaska  and  its  small-town  press  may  have  been  suited  to  a  kind  of 
control  Teller  and  the  AEC  officials  hoped  to  enjoy  over  information  flow. 
Teller  made  two  trips  to  Alaska,  once  each  in  1958  and  1959.  According 
to  news  accounts,  Teller's  associate  director  at  the  laboratory,  Gerald 
Johnson,  made  at  least  two  trips;  Dr.  Harry  Keller  made  one,  accompa- 
nied by  colleagues;  AEC  Commissioner  Leland  Haworth  and  others  made 
one;  Dr.  John  N.  Wolfe,  head  of  environmental  studies  for  the  AEC, 
made  at  least  two;  and  a  variety  of  other  AEC  officials  and  representatives 
of  contractors  made  appearances  in  the  Alaska  press  during  northern  trips. 
Between  visits  by  scientists  and  AEC  officials,  and  AP  stories  quoting 
Alaska's  Senator  Bartlett  and  Washington's  Senator  Jackson,  the  press  had 
numerous  Chariot  stories  fall  in  their  laps. 

Associated  Press  was  a  primary  source  for  both  the  Anchorage  Times 
and  the  Fairbanks  paper.  In  Anchorage,  47  percent  of  the  Project  Chariot 
paragraphs  were  from  non-staffers,  almost  exclusively  the  Associated  Press. 
In  Fairbanks,  38.2  percent  of  all  paragraphs  were  from  AP  and  from 
letters  to  the  editor.  (The  New  York  Times  coding  for  AP  stories  was  17.2 
percent,  but  some  other  "special  to  the  Times"  stories  appeared  to  include 
information  from  AP  reports.) 

Again,  official  sources  were  easy  to  come  by  and  minority  sources 
were  not.  Table  1  shows  the  percentage  frequency  of  paragraph  references 
during  the  Teller  period  in  the  Anchorage  Times,  the  Fairbanks  Daily  News- 
Miner  and  The  New  York  Times  for  sources  and  actors  from  the  AEC  and 
its  representatives  (shown  as  AEC);  for  sources  and  actors  from  among  the 
Natives;  and  as  sources  only  from  university  scientists,  conservationists 


88  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


and  other  oppositional  sources  (shown  as  Opp.).  Sources  indicate  source 
reliance  and  framing  by  the  press,  while  actors  are  one  indication  of 
framing,  especially  when  relevant  actors  are  excluded. 

Table  1 :  Percentage  Frequency  of  References  by  Paragraph 


Newspaper 

AEC 

AEC 

Native 

Native 

Opp. 

source 

actor 

source 

actor 

source 

Daily  Times 

27.9 

27.2 

0.3 

7.5 

4.8 

News-Miner 

29.6 

26.9 

0.3 

5.3 

5.1 

N.  Y.  Times 

34.6 

14.1 

0 

3.8 

0 

[Daily  Times  N=574, 

News-Miner  N= 

774;  NV  Times  N=7&.] 

The  "After-Teller"  Effect 

With  the  arrival  of  summer  in  I960,  Teller  left  Livermore  (and  thus 
Project  Chariot)  to  work  as  a  university  professor  on  broader  issues. 
During  the  next  12  months  press  coverage  manifested  changes  in  sources 
of  information,  in  issues  covered  and  in  conflicts  portrayed.  How  much  of 
this  shift  might  be  attributed  to  Teller's  high  profile  public  relations  and 
his  aggressive  promotional  attitude,  and  how  much  might  be  a  result  of 
growing  momentum  and  cohesion  among  oppositional  forces  is  specula- 
tive. This  study  reveals  interesting  changes  in  press  performance  before 
and  after  Teller's  departure,  but  no  direct  evidence  to  prove  a  "Teller 
effect." 

Broad,  in  a  critical  biography  of  Teller,  portrays  an  erratic  genius 
with  a  Midas  touch  for  publicity.77  Teller  himself  did  not  respond  to 
inquiries  about  such  questions,  but  his  administrative  assistant  at 
Livermore,  Gen  Phillips,  replied  that  he  was  not  in  any  event  the  official 
spokesman  for  either  the  AEC  or  the  project,  and  added  that  "our  col- 
leagues" believe  the  speculation  here  about  the  Teller  effect  "is  based  on  an 
erroneous  assumption,"  that  is,  "The  tone  and  amount  of  newspaper 
coverage  changed,  but  it  is  believed  that  this  was  due  to  increasing  public 
knowledge  about  the  project,  and  the  actions  of  a  few  individuals  ada- 
mantly opposed  to  the  project."78  The  AEC's  belief  that  a  few  individuals 
fueled  the  opposition  was  documented  in  1961  when  Brig.  Gen.  A.W. 
Betts  compiled  a  "top  ten"  list  that  included  Don  Foote,  Keith  Lawton, 
the  men  in  New  Hampshire,  Les  Viereck,  the  Alaska  Conservation 
Society  and  CNI.79 

The  question,  however,  was  not  whether  Teller  was  the  official 
spokesman  for  Project  Chariot,  but  whether  he  acted  as  such — either  on 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  89 


his  own  volition  or  as  a  result  of  news  reporting.  In  fact,  Teller  and  Wolfe 
were  cited  explicitly  more  often  than  any  other  officials  as  sources  or  as 
project  leader  in  news  stories  about  Project  Chariot  in  the  Anchorage 
Times  and  in  the  Fairbanks  Neivs-Miner.  Teller  was  so  cited  in  34  articles; 
Wolfe  in  22.  Teller's  associate  director  was  so  cited  21  times.  No  one  else 
came  close,  and  Rod  Southwick,  the  AEC's  public  information  spokes- 
man, was  so  cited  in  only  eight  articles.80 

By  the  time  CNI's  June  1961  bulletin  brought  the  Project  Chariot 
issue  to  a  head,  nuclear  testing  in  the  atmosphere  was  well  under  way  in 
the  Soviet  Union  and  was  about  to  be  resumed  in  the  United  States.  This 
heightened  general  awareness  and  anxiety  about  fallout  produced  many 
newspaper  articles,  in  Alaska  as  elsewhere,  about  local  radiation  levels, 
fallout  and  fallout  shelters.  Yet  none  of  these  articles  related  the  fallout 
issue  to  Project  Chariot.  That  issue  was  left  to  CNI,  the  Greater  St.  Louis 
Citizens  Committee  for  Nuclear  Information.  The  committee's  bulletin, 
Nuclear  Information,  reported  how  radioactive  fallout  concentrates  in  the 
lichen  the  caribou  eat  before  the  Eskimos  eat  the  caribou.  The  committee 
reported  that  the  effect  of  the  Eskimo  food  chain  was  to  concentrate 
radioactivity  inside  the  Eskimos.81 

The  committee's  report  created  controversy  that  resulted  in  portray- 
als of  conflict  in  the  Anchorage  Times,  in  the  Fairbanks  News-Miner,  and  in 
The  New  York  Times.  Other  media  outlets  also  took  interest,  such  as  The 
Christian  Science  Monitor,  which  ran  a  major  article  and  followed  thereaf- 
ter with  occasional  reports.  But  the  critical  difference  that  came  in  Alaska 
was  a  decision  at  the  Fairbanks  Daily  News-Miner  to  cut  the  fetters  from 
reporter  Tom  Snapp,  who  had  been  arguing  for  coverage  of  the  opposi- 
tional cause.  He  produced  a  four-part  series  detailing  the  Native  concerns 
in  August  1961.  Snapp's  reportorial  recognition  of  the  Eskimos'  argu- 
ments as  legitimate  controversy  marked  a  notable  mainstream  press 
breakthrough.  Most  of  the  conflict  that  found  its  way  into  print  in  the 
spring  and  summer  of  1961  had  been  arguments  about  Eskimos;  Snapp 
presented  views  of  the  Eskimos. 

Alaska's  Eskimos  took  a  stand  in  the  fall  of  1961.  The  different 
Eskimo  villages,  finding  common  cause  in  Project  Chariot  and  the  eider 
duck  controversy,  and  with  support  from  the  Association  for  American 
Indian  Affairs,  held  a  meeting  in  Barrow  in  November  in  which  the 
villages  acted  in  concert  for  the  first  time.  The  story  was  reported  in  the 
Anchorage  Times  on  November  20,  1961 ,  in  six  paragraphs  on  page  three 
and  in  The  New  York  Times  over  four  columns  on  an  inside  page  on 
Sunday,  December  3,  1961.  These  reports  were  second-hand  reports, 
drawn  from  wire  service  versions  of  the  reporting  of  Tom  Snapp,  the  only 
reporter  who  attended  the  Eskimo  meeting.  The  Daily  News-Miner 
published  Snapp's  account  on  page  one,  and  followed  up  in  a  later  edition 


90  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


with  a  full  page  of  his  photographs  of  the  event.  This  exposure,  combined 
with  the  CNI  bulletin  news,  bears  the  marks  of  confirming  the  Eskimo 
cause  as  an  occupant  of  Hallin's  Sphere  of  Legitimate  Controversy.  Deeper 
analysis  revealed  stronger  indications  that  the  breakthrough  into  legiti- 
macy was  achieved  and  that  news  coverage  changed. 

Quality  of  Coverage  Changed 

Media  performance  was  not  static.  The  content  analysis  for  this 
study  produced  a  variety  of  calculations  to  support  the  proposition  that 
the  quality  of  Project  Chariot  news  coverage  did  change  over  time,  that 
the  minority  achieved  a  breakthrough  into  legitimacy  in  the  news,  and 
that  the  newspapers  adhered  to  the  principle  of  least  effort  in  their 
approaches  to  reporting  the  story.  Evidence  of  these  changes  is  found  by 
extending  the  calculations  used  in  Table  1  to  the  full  period  of  study. 

The  percentage  of  frequencies  for  AEC  sources  and  actors,  Native 
sources  and  actors,  and  other  oppositional  sources  shows  little  change 
from  the  first  period  (the  Teller  years)  to  the  second  or  transitional  period. 
But  in  the  final  period,  comprising  the  1 5  months  after  CNI's  special 
bulletin  edition  on  Project  Chariot,  Alaska  Natives  move  from  virtual 
invisibility  to  representation  in  almost  half  of  the  paragraphs  appearing  in 
the  Fairbanks  News-Miner  articles  and  nearly  one-third  of  the  paragraphs 
in  the  Anchorage  Times. 


Table  2:  Percentage  Frequency 

of  References  by  Paragraphs 

,  1958-62 

These  figures  com 

pare  reference  percentages  in 

paragra 

:>hs  in 

June  1961  throug 

i  August 

1962  with  the  same  percentages  for 

the  earlier  periods 

of  this  study  for  each  newspaper. 

Newspaper 

AEC 

AEC 

Native 

Native 

Opp. 

source 

actor 

source 

actor 

source 

Daily  Times 

15.1 

20.1 

12.1 

17.6 

6.5 

June '60-61 

28.0 

26.2 

0 

9.3 

14.0 

June  '58-60 

27.9 

27.2 

0.3 

7.5 

4.8 

News-Miner 

12.1 

18.2 

6.5 

40.6 

20.6 

June '60-61 

21.5 

29.2 

0 

7.6 

16.0 

June  '58-60 

29.6 

26.9 

0.3 

5.3 

5.1 

NY  Times 

17.4 

26.8 

6.5 

16.7 

6.5 

June '60-61 

30.4 

15.2 

6.5 

21.7 

0 

June  '58-60 

34.6 

14.1 

0 

3.8 

0 

[Sample  for  June  1960  through  May  196' 

:  Daily  Th 

iesN=107,News- 

MinerN=l44,  NYTimes 

N=46;  and  June  1961 -Aug 

ust  1962:  Dad) 

Times  N= 

1 99,  News-Mitier  N=340,  NY  Times  N=  1 38.] 

Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  91 


Change  in  source  choices  and  an  indication  of  a  shift  in  emphasis 
were  also  supported  by  frequencies  regarding  business  sources  and  actors, 
and  those  for  conservationists.  Before  June  I960  (while  the  Alaska 
newspapers  were  covering  Chamber  of  Commerce  debates),  business 
sources  and  actors  appeared  in  44  paragraphs  (7.7  percent)  in  the  Anchor- 
age Times,  47  paragraphs  (6  percent)  in  the  Fairbanks  Daily  News-Miner, 
and  2  paragraphs  (2.5  percent)  in  The  New  York  Times.  Afterward, 
business  sources  virtually  disappeared;  there  were  none  in  either  Times 
newspaper  and  a  single  occurrence  in  the  Fairbanks  paper.  Thus,  such 
sources  dropped  from  6.5  percent  of  paragraphs  in  the  first  two  years  to 
.001  percent  in  the  remaining  two.  Conservationists,  on  the  other  hand, 
followed  an  inverse  pattern,  from  near  invisibility  to  marginal  visibility. 
They  appeared  only  in  the  Fairbanks  newspaper  for  the  first  two  years 
(2.3  percent  in  the  News-Miner  and  1.2  percent  overall),  but  in  8.7 
percent  of  all  paragraphs  thereafter. 

Two  events  mark  change  in  the  resolution  of  Project  Chariot,  as  well 
as  in  the  nature  of  its  news  coverage.  The  first  was  the  departure  in  mid- 
1960  of  Edward  Teller  as  a  pointman  for  Project  Chariot.  The  second  was 
the  publication  by  CNI  in  June  1961  of  an  edition  of  its  Nuclear  Informa- 
tion that  was  devoted  to  the  project  and  to  an  issue  the  AEC  and  the  press 
had  not  disclosed:  the  peculiar  relationship  of  the  Eskimo  to  a  unique 
food  chain  and  radioactivity.  After  June  I960,  as  has  been  shown,  change 
manifested  in  the  pages  of  the  Anchorage  Times  and  Fairbanks  News- 
Miner,  after  June  1961  this  change  accelerated. 

One  change  was  a  decelerated  rate  of  reporting.  Teller  left  Project 
Chariot  at  the  halfway  point  of  the  period  involved  in  this  study,  but  well 
more  than  half  of  the  coverage  occurred  during  the  two  years  he  headed 
the  Livermore  laboratory.  The  Anchorage  Times,  for  example,  published  64 
stories  during  the  two  years,  and  just  28  stories  afterward.  In  all  three 
newspapers,  1,426,  or  59.4  percent  of  all  paragraphs  in  articles  about 
Project  Chariot,  appeared  in  print  during  Teller's  two  years.  Whatever  the 
reasons,  Teller's  leadership  brought  more  stories  to  the  newspapers  than 
found  their  way  into  print  after  his  departure. 

The  content  of  the  newspapers  was  also  coded  for  viewpoints. 
Percentages  show  that  13.7  percent  of  all  paragraphs  questioned  Project 
Chariot  while  Teller  was  in  charge  and  28.9  percent  did  so  after  he  left. 
The  percentage  increased  to  31.6  percent  after  the  CNI  bulletin  of  June 
1961.  This  viewpoint  thus  increased  in  each  successive  period:  13.7 
percent  to  22.9  percent  to  31.7  percent. 

How  often  did  the  newspapers  refer  to  pro-Chariot  and  oppositional 
actors  in  the  same  story?  These  frequencies  indicate  the  portrayal  of 
conflict,  if  actors  (people  mentioned  but  not  cited  as  sources)  both  pro 


92  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


and  con  occur  in  the  same  articles  more  or  less  often.  Such  a  tally,  calcu- 
lated at  the  level  of  the  article  rather  than  the  paragraph,  subsumes  those 
articles  in  which  pro-Chariot  and  oppositional  sources  appear  in  the  same 
story,  as  the  conflicting-source  stories  virtually  always  also  include  pro  and 
con  actors.  Table  3  shows  these  indicators  of  conflict  portrayals  by 
chronological  subdivision.  The  cases  in  which  the  newspapers  reported 
Native  actors  and  AEC  actors  in  the  same  article  are  listed  by  frequency 
and  by  percentage  of  articles  during  each  time  period. 

Table  3:  Native  Actors  Compared  with  AEC  Actors,  As  a 
Percentage  of  Articles 


Paper 

6/58-5/60 

6/60-6/61 

6/61-8/62 

Anchorage  Times 

17      26.5 

4        36.4 

105     55.5 

Fairbanks  News 

17      23.0 

5        29.4 

15      50.0 

NY  Times 

1        16.7 

2        67.0 

4       57.0 

Finally,  one  test  provides  a  finding  that  some  of  the  key  changes 
manifested  in  newspaper  coverage  over  time  were  statistically  significant. 
Cross-tabulations  of  the  time  periods  by  paragraph  viewpoint,  the 
presence  of  Native  actors  and  the  presence  of  keywords  all  produced 
strongly  significant  findings  of  association  in  the  newspapers  when 
calculating  for  the  Chi  Square  test.82  Six  of  the  nine  tests  resulted  in 
findings  that  the  probability  of  the  association  occurring  by  chance  was 
.001  or  less;  one  was  less  than  .002,  and  the  other  two  were  .007  or  less. 
For  example,  in  coding  for  viewpoint  (that  is,  whether  the  paragraph 
contained  content  questioning  the  advisability  of  Project  Chariot),  the 
Anchorage  Times  data  produced  a  probability  level  of  less  than  .001  (Chi 
Square  32.6  with  2  degrees  of  freedom  and  24.6  minimum  expected 
frequency),  as  the  frequency  of  "questioning"  viewpoint  increased  chrono- 
logically. 

Conflict,  Easy  Journalism  and  a  Lazy  Press 

There  is  little  room  to  doubt  that  the  Anchorage  Times  and  the 
Fairbanks  News-Miner  covered  Project  Chariot  as  former  publisher 
Atwood  recalled,  that  is  by  reliance  on  news  coming  to  the  newspaper, 
rather  than  by  aggressive  reporting.  The  profile  does  not  appear  very 
different  for  The  New  York  Times.  This  was  clearly  the  path  of  least  effort. 
The  indicated  reliance  on  aggressive  sources  with  special  interests  suggests 
weakness  in  the  newspapers'  approach. 


Summer  1999  •American Journalism  93 


Another  conclusion  suggested  in  this  study  is  that  the  reporting  of 
the  issues  of  Project  Chariot,  from  1958  to  1962  in  the  Alaska  newspapers 
was  not  anomalous.  The  Daily  Times  and  the  Daily  Neivs-Miner  coverage 
manifested  as  many  signs  of  thoroughness  as  did  the  Chariot  coverage  in 
The  New  York  Times.  Where  differences  occurred,  many  tended  to  favor 
the  Alaska  newspapers,  especially  the  Fairbanks  paper.  The  weakness  of 
this  conclusion  is  that  The  New  York  Times  covered  Project  Chariot  with 
such  a  markedly  different  frequency  of  reporting  that  the  comparisons 
used  have  all  been  approximate  at  best. 

The  newspapers  portrayed  virtually  no  conflict  during  the  first  two 
years  of  Project  Chariot,  and  then  substantial  conflict  thereafter.  It  is 
problematical  to  draw  any  conclusions  that  the  newspapers  focused  on 
conflict  for  the  evidence,  weighted  qualitatively,  is  not  strong.  Conflict, 
when  it  appeared,  seemed  to  come  to  the  newspaper  in  such  ways  that  it 
had  to  be  treated  forthrightly  An  additional  aspect  of  the  problem,  one 
which  finds  no  hint  of  a  guideline  from  the  work  of  Moscovici  or 
Tichenor,  et  al.,  is  how  much  conflict?  This  study  did  not  attempt  to 
define  a  standard  of  how  much  conflict  is  significant. 

I  also  have  speculated  in  this  study  about  the  impact  of  Edward 
Tellers  leadership  because  of  its  apparent  relationship  to  Atwood's  lap 
effect.  The  evidence  is  circumstantial,  as  the  data  show  that  dramatic 
changes  in  news  coverage  and  emphasis  occurred  coincident  with  Teller's 
retirement  from  the  scene.  Field  geographer  Don  C.  Foote,  writing  to  his 
brother  in  1961,  repeatedly  referred  to  Teller  as  the  leader  and  chief 
salesman  of  Project  Chariot.83  It  is  possible  that  Teller's  absence  from  the 
Livermore  laboratory  resulted  in  a  public  relations  vacuum  or  a  shift  to  a 
circumspective  stance  among  the  leaders  of  the  environmental  studies, 
just  as  growing  oppositional  expressions  awakened  the  press  to  new  and 
broader  questions.  The  marked  decline  in  the  amount  of  post-Teller 
coverage  suggests  that  the  answer  is  not  as  simple  as  the  increased  activism 
of  oppositional  individuals  and  organizations  at  work  on  a  lazy  press. 

The  focus  of  this  study  has  been  on  the  questions  of  whether  the 
minority  achieved  legitimation  in  or  through  the  press,  whether  press 
coverage  manifested  change  over  time,  and  whether  press  behavior 
exhibited  signs  of  the  principle  of  least  effort,  particularly  in  the  use  of 
sources  and  in  story  origination.  The  evidence  found  here  strongly 
suggests  that  the  simple  answer  to  all  three  questions  is  yes.  With  more 
complexity,  the  story  of  Project  Chariot  shows  that  the  press  at  its  weakest 
can  claim  saving  graces,  but  the  story  affords  no  cause  for  praise.  This 
study  suggests  that  the  saving  grace  of  the  principle  of  least  effort,  when 
applied  to  the  press,  is  that  the  press  seems  to  be  willing  to  treat  opposi- 
tional news  fairly,  so  long  as  the  opposition  brings  the  news  to  the  press. 


94  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


Habitual  ways  of  working  and  thinking  tend  to  support  the  status  quo 
and  confront  minorities  with  obstacles  when  it  comes  to  opposing 
mainstream  ideology  through  the  media.  Their  shortest  route  to  recogni- 
tion appears  to  lie  in  the  creation  of  conflict. 

The  findings  presented  here  offer  a  compelling  profile  of  the  "lap 
effect,"  to  paraphrase  Atwood.  All  the  qualitative  evidence  and  the 
quantitative  data  of  this  study  can  be  easily  applied  to  the  principle  of 
least  effort.  The  Anchorage  Times,  the  Fairbanks  News-Miner  and  The  Neiv 
York  Times  did  not  pursue  the  basic  questions  about  Project  Chariot 
aggressively.  They  relied  heavily,  especially  at  the  outset,  on  official  and 
habitual  sources.  None  challenged  government  claims  of  veracity  and,  in 
general,  the  press  manifested  a  style  of  coverage  designed  to  save  costs  and 
incidentally  to  favor  technological  progressivism  as  a  consensus  value  of 
society. 

In  terms  of  the  principle  of  least  effort,  the  newspapers'  sights  were 
set  too  low  to  achieve  better  results.  The  ability  of  the  minority  in  time  to 
win  news  space,  legitimacy  and  influence  seems  as  much  testimony  to  the 
"lap  effect"  as  does  the  minority's  absence  from  earlier  coverage.  If  the 
press  were  ideologically  motivated,  the  minority  might  never  have  ex- 
pected any  acknowledgment.  What  we  see  instead  with  Project  Chariot  is 
an  easygoing  press — a  watchdog  asleep  on  the  porch  that  is  only  gradually 
roused  to  the  dissonance  of  new  voices  and  shadowy  dangers  behind  the 
well-intended,  if  ill  conceived,  offering  of  a  juicy  steak. 


Endnotes 

'  Wilimovsky,  Norman  J.,  ed.  Environment  of  the  Cape  Thompson  Region,  Alaska.  Oak  Ridge,  lean.: 
United  States  Atomic  Energy  Commission  Division  of  Technical  Information,  1966. 

2  Department  of  Energy.  "Project  Chariot  Summary."  Germantown,  Md.:  U.S.  Department  of 
Energy,  Record  Group  326,  U.S.  Atomic  Energy  Commission,  Energy  History  Collection,  1993. 

3  Gans,  Herbert  J.  Deciding  What's  News:  A  Study  of  CBS  Evening  News,  NBC  Nightly  News, 
Newsweek  and  Time,  lsted.,  New  York:  Pantheon  Books,  1979:  pp.  180-181. 

4 There  were  three  villages  in  the  official  fallout  zone:  Point  Hope  with  approximately  300  residents, 
Kivalina  with  140  and  Noatak  with  about  75.  Point  Hope  lay  32  miles  north  of  the  blast  site  and 
Kivalina  42  miles  southeast.  Noatak,  more  than  60  miles  away,  was  not  mentioned  in  any  news 
accounts. 

5  Kelly,  John  S.  "Report  to  the  General  Manager  by  the  Director,  Division  of  Peaceful  Nuclear 
Explosives."  Germantown,  Md.:  Record  Group  326,  U.S.  Atomic  Energy  Commission,  Energy 
History  Collection,  81 1/104,  No.  45,  1962. 

''Novick,  Sheldon.  The  Careless  Atom,  first  ed.,  Boston:  Mifflin  Company,  1969,  p.  97. 

7  Sanders,  Ralph.  Project  Plowshare:  The  Development  of  the  Peaceful  Use  ofNuclear  Explosives. 
Washington,  D.C.:  Public  Affairs  Press,  1962. 

"Teller,  Edward.  "University  of  Alaska  Commencement  Address."  Folder  51.  Don  C.  Foote  Papers: 
University  of  Alaska  Fairbanks  archives,  1959. 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  95 


9  Morgan,  Lael.  Art  and  Eskimo  Power:  The  Life  and  Times  of  Alaskan  Howard  Rock.  First  ed., 
Fairbanks,  Alaska:  Epicenter  Press,  1988,  p.  164. 

'"E.J.  Longyear  Co..  "Report  to  the  University  of  California  Radiation  Laboratory  on  the  mineral 
potential  and  proposed  harbor  locations  in  Northwest  Alaska."  In  E.L.  Bartlett  Papers,  18  April  1958, 
University  of  Alaska  Fairbanks,  Box  5,  Federal  Departments  and  Agencies;  Atomic  Energy  Commis- 
sion. 

' '  VanStone,  James  W.  Point  Hope:  An  Eskimo  Village  in  Transition.  Seattle:  University  of  Washing- 
ton Press,  1962. 

12  Brenner,  Betty.  "Expert  Quiet  On  Red  Issue  Of 'H-Bomb'."  Anchorage  Daily  Times,  26  June 
1959,11. 

"O'Neill,  Dan.  "Project  Chariot:  How  Alaska  Escaped  Nuclear  Excavation."  The  Bulletin  of  Atomic 
Scientists  45  (10  1989):  28-37. 

14  Kelly.  "Report  to  the  General  Manager  by  the  Director,  Division  of  Peaceful  Nuclear  Explosives." 
'^Snapp,  Thomas.  "Why  Researcher  Resigned."  Fairbanks  Daily  News-Miner,  22  August  1961,  3. 

"'  Lawton,  Keith.  Telephone  interview,  22  April  1993. 
'   Morgan.  Art  and  Eskimo  Power. 

15  Viereck  and  Pruitt  were  awarded  honorary  doctorates  by  the  University  of  Alaska  Fairbanks  in 
1993  for  their  careers  and  their  work  on  Project  Chariot.  They  were  nominated  lor  the  honor  by 
university  historian  Dan  O'Neill.  Don  Foote  died  after  an  automobile  accident  in  the  late  1960s. 

"  Point  Hope  Village  Council.  "Letter  to  Atomic  Energy  Commission."  Don  C.  Foote  Papers: 
University  of  Alaska  Fairbanks  archives,  1959. 

211  Lawton,  Keith.  "Notes  on  village  meeting."  Don  C.  Foote  Papers:  University  of  Alaska  Fairbanks 
archives,  1960.  Box  12  (29). 

21  Reiss,  Eric,  ed.  Nuclear  Information.  June  1961  ed.,  Vol.  3.  St.  Louis:  Greater  St.  Louis  Citizens' 
Committee  for  Nuclear  Information,  1961. 

"Snapp,  Thomas.  Interview  in  Fairbanks,  Alaska.  26  June  1993. 

23  "Harbor-Blasting  Project  In  Alaska  Put  Off  by  U.S."  The  New  York  Times,  25  August  1962,  5. 

:'1  Kelly.  "Report  to  the  General  Manager  by  the  Director,  Division  of  Peaceful  Nuclear'  Explosives."  3. 

2,Scroger,  Betsy.  Conversation  at  Department  of  Energy,  Germantown,  Md.  28  May  1993. 

:r'  Washburn,  Patrick  S.  "The  Office  of  Censorship's  Attempt  to  Control  Press  Coverage  of  the 
Atomic  Bomb  During  World  War  II."  Journalism  Monographs  (120  1990) 

27  Moscovici,  Serge.  Social  Influence  and  Social  Change.  Vol.  10.  Translated  by  Carol  Sherrard,  Greta 
Heinz.  European  Monographs  in  Social  Psychology,  ed.  Henri  Tajfel.  London:  Academic  Press,  1976, 
p.  96. 

2RIbid.  102. 

:''  Tichenor,  Phillip  J.,  George  A.  Donohue,  and  Clarice  N.  Olien.  Community  Conflict  &  the  Press. 
first  ed.,  Beverly  Hills:  Sage  Publications,  1980,  pp.  23-24. 

30  Hornig,  Susanna.  "The  Genie  Escapes  From  the  Bottle:  News  Frames  and  the  Phenomenology  of 
Science  News."  Dissertation,  University  of  Washington,  1988. 

31  Hallin,  Daniel  C.  The  Uncensored  War:  The  Media  and  Vietnam.  New  York:  Oxford  University 
Press,  1986. 

12  Gerard,  Harold  B.  "When  and  How  the  Minority  Prevails."  In  Perspectives  on  Minority  Influence, 
ed.  Serge  Moscovici,  Gabriel  Mugny,  and  Eddy  Van  Avermaet.  Cambridge:  Cambridge  University 
Press,  1985,  p.  173. 

33  Moscovici,  Serge.  "Innovation  and  Minority  Influence."  In  Perspectives  on  Minority  Influence,  ed. 
Serge  Moscovici,  Gabriel  Mugny,  and  Eddy  Van  Avermaet.  Cambridge:  Cambridge  University  Press, 
1985,  p.  21. 

34VanHorn,  Catherine.  "Boosterism  on  All  Borders?  A  Comparison  of  Frontier  Newspaper  Roles  in 
the  United  States  and  Fiji."  In  the  annual  meeting  of  Association  for  Education  in  Journalism  and 
Mass  Communications  in  Montreal,  1992,  p.  3. 

35  Hanrahan,  John  and  Peter  Gruenstein.  Lost  Frontier:  The  Marketing  of  Alaska.  New  York:  WW. 
Norton  8c  Co.  Inc.,  1977.  See  Chapter  III,  "Citizen  Atwood,"  pp.  42-65. 
3r>  Sundborg,  George.  Interview  in  Seattle,  Wash.  1  Sept.  1993. 


96  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


37Zipf,  George  Kingsley.  Human  Behavior  a)id  the  Principle  of  Least  Effort.  Cambridge:  Addison- 
Wesley  Press  Inc.,  1949. 

38 Smith,  Conrad.  "News  Sources  and  Power  Elites  in  Newspaper  Coverage  of  the  Exxon  Valdez  Oil 
Spill."  In  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Association  for  Education  in  Journalism  and  Mass  Communica- 
tion in  Boston,  Mass.,  1991.  For  Smiths  fuller  study,  see  Media  and  Apocalypse:  News  Coverage  of  the 
Yellowstone  Forest  Fires,  Exxon  ValAez  Oil  Spill  and  the  Loma  Prieta  Earthquake.  Westport,  Conn.: 
Greenwood  Press,  1992. 

"'Washburn,  pp.  28-29. 

""Edwards,  Mike.  "Kazakhstan:  Facing  the  Nightmare."  National  Geographic,  183  (March  1993): 
22-37. 

41  Lawsky,  David.  "Islanders  left  in  path  of  fallout."  Seattle  Post-Intelligencer  25  February  1994,  A13. 

4-  The  Commission  on  Freedom  of  the  Press.  A  Free  and  Responsible  Press.  Chicago:  The  University  of 
Chicago  Press,  1947. 

1,3  Wood,  Ginny  Hill  and  Leslie  A.  Viereck.  "Project  Chariot  —  The  Long  Look."  Sierra  Club 
Bulletin,  May  1961,  pp.  4-17. 

""Reiss,  ed.  Nuclear  Information. 

45  Brooks,  Paul  and  Joseph  Foote.  "The  Disturbing  Story  of  Project  Chariot."  Harper's  Magazine, 
April  1962,  60-67. 

46  Daley,  Patrick  and  Beverly  James.  "An  Authentic  Voice  in  the  Technocratic  Wilderness:  Alaskan 
Natives  and  the  Tundra  Times."  Journal  of  Communication  (Summer  1986):  13. 

47Coates,  Peter  A.  The  Trans-Alaska  Pipeline  Controversy.  Bethlehem:  Lehigh  University  Press,  1991. 
"sIbid.,  p.  129. 

,'' O'Neill.  "Project  Chariot:  How  Alaska  Escaped  Nuclear  Excavation." 

5,1  O'Neill's  book-length  history  of  the  controversy  is  The  Firecracker  Boys.  New  York:  St.  Martin's 
Press,  1994. 

sl  Morgan.  Art  and  Eskimo  Power. 

52  Editor  &  Publisher  International  Yearbook.  New  York:  Editor  and  Publisher  Co. 

53  Fink,  Tom.  Personal  letter,  May  12,  1993.  Then  Mayor  of  Anchorage,  Fink  was  a  businessman 
and  schoolboard  member  in  the  early  1960s. 

,4Tobin,  William.  Telephone  interview,  24  April  1993. 

55Coates,  p.  115. 

v'Skidmore,  David.  Atwood's  Alaska:  A  Place  for  People.  Ketchikan:  Ketchikan  Daily  News  and 
Allied  Daily  Newspapers,  1985,  p.  6. 

5/  How  Will  Scientists  Find  The  Answer?"  Anchorage  Daily  Times,  10  February  1959,  4. 

'"Census,  U.S.  Bureau  of  the.  U.S.  Census  of  Population:  1960.  Vol.  1.  Washington,  D.C.:  U.S. 
Government  Printing  Office,  1963. 

^'Sundborg,  1  September  1993. 

f,"The  original  proposed  cost  to  blast  the  project  crater  was  $5  million,  and  documents  at  the 
Department  of  Energy  estimated  the  actual  funds  expended  on  the  project  at  its  close  at  $4  million. 
The  Longyear  Co.  report  to  Livermore  estimated  the  costs  of  actually  turning  the  project  into  a  viable 
harbor  at  more  than  10  times  the  blast  cost. 

61  Skidmore,  p.  8. 

''2  "Nuclear  Engineering  in  Alaska."  Fairbanks  Daily  News-Miner,  24  July  1958,  4. 

'''Sundborg,  1  September  1993. 

MCernick,  Cliff.  Telephone  interview,  8  September  1993. 

65 Fairbanks  Daily  News-Miner,  28  January  1959,  4. 

66  Fairbanks  Daily  News-Miner,  22  January  1960,  1. 

"  Murphy,  James  E.  and  Donald  R.  Avery.  "A  Comparison  of  Alaskan  Native  and  Non-Native 
Newspaper  Content."  Journalism  Quarterly  GO  (1983):  316-322. 

In  the  Alaska  lexicon,  the  word  "Bush"  when  capitalized  denotes  areas  of  the  state  that  are  not  on 
the  road  system. 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  97 


'"Tobin,  24  April  1993. 

711  Atwood,  Robert  B.  Telephone  interview,  29  April  1993. 

?l  Ibid. 

7:Lawton,  22  April  1993. 

71Southwick,  Rod.  "Telegram  to  Cliff  Cernick."  In  Alaska  Conservation  Society  Papers,  University 
of  Alaska  Fairbanks,  Envelope  45  (28). 

''Sundborg,  1  September  1993. 

s  Bowkett,  Jerry.  "Eskimo  Opinions  Vary  On   Project  Chariot."  Anchorage  Daily  Times,  13 
December  1961,24. 

r- "Point  Hope  Council  Chief  Opposes  AEC's  'Chariot'  Project."  Anchorage  Daily  Times,  3  March 
1962,4. 

7T  Broad,  William  J.  Teller's  War.  New  York:  Simon  &  Schuster,  1992. 

7X  Phillips,  Gen.  Personal  letter,  15  December  1993. 

7,'Betts,  A.W.  "Memorandum  for  Chairman  Seaborg."  In  Subject:  Opposition  to  Project  Chariot, 
Washington,  DC:  Record  Group  326,  U.S.  Atomic  Energy  Commission,  Energy  History  Collection, 
Box  40,  1961. 

80  During  the  second  period  of  this  study,  June  1960  through  May  1961,  the  leadership  of  the 
project  effectively  passed  to  Dr.  John  Wolfe  as  head  of  the  environmental  study.  He  had  advised  the 
scientists  working  on  the  project  to  be  circumspect  about  publicity  and  publication  in  a  3  December 
1959,  memorandum,  Project  Chariot  Papers,  University  of  Alaska  Fairbanks,  Box  1  (1),  AEC 
Correspondence,  Division  of  Biological  Medicine,  Wolfe,  et  al.,  1959-66. 

81  Reiss,  pp.  3-4. 

"The  coding  system  categories  were  refined  in  pretesting  with  several  coders  using  articles  from  the 
Anchorage  Times.  Reliability  testing  was  then  done  by  three  coders  using  one-sixth  of  the  Anchorage 
sample,  or  15  articles.  Substantial  difficulty  was  encountered  only  with  source  and  viewpoint 
categories.  "Viewpoint"  began  as  a  five-option  category.  It  was  refined  in  stages  until  it  became  binary: 
"Does  the  paragraph,  read  in  context,  question  the  advisability  of  the  Project  Chariot  proposal?  1.  Yes; 
2.  No."  The  "source"  category  explanation  in  the  coding  book  was  refined  and  retested  until  it 
achieved  reliability  percentages  of  90  percent  and  95  percent  between  the  author  and  two  separate 
coders  working  with  separate  samples  of  135  paragraphs,  the  former  from  Associated  Press  and  the 
Daily  News-Miner;  the  latter  from  the  Anchorage  Times.  Final  reliability  coding  tests  were  conducted 
between  the  author  and  one  coder  on  20  percent  of  the  Fairbanks  articles.  The  results  exceeded  94 
percent  agreement  on  every  category  except  sources  (90  percent)  and  "hook"  (whether  the  article  was 
based  on  specific  actions  of  the  Atomic  Energy  Commission  and  its  representatives).  The  author  and 
the  coder  then  discussed  the  definition  of  the  hook  category,  and  drew  a  new  sample  from  the  Daily 
News-Miner  and  the  Associated  Press.  The  final  outcome  was  95  percent  on  a  sample  with  20  stories 
and  184  paragraphs.  I  did  the  final  coding  of  all  units.  I  tested  the  stability  of  my  coding  by 
comparing  coding  done  at  different  times  for  95  paragraphs  that  appeared  identically  in  the 
Anchorage  Times  and  the  Fairbanks  Daily  News-Miner.  Of  the  categories  finally  used  in  this  analysis, 
the  stability  percentage  agreement  was  90.5  percent  for  sources,  92  percent  for  viewpoint,  and  greater 
than  94  percent  for  all  others.  "Keywords"  were  those  such  as  caribou  or  food  chain  that  appeared 
almost  exclusively  in  references  in  the  context  of  questioning  the  advisability  of  Project  Chariot. 

83  Foote,  Don  C.  "Notes  to  his  brother,  Joe  Foote."  Don  C.  Foote  Papers:  University  of  Alaska 
Fairbanks  Archives,  Box  10;  1961. 


98  Marrs  •  Summer  1999 


Great  Ideas 

My  Newspaper  Is  Older  Than  Your 
Newspaper! 

By  Michael  R.  Smith 

Before  long  the  nation's  oldest  newspaper  will  celebrate  another 
anniversary. 

Will  it  be  the  Maryland  Gazette,  founded  September  19,  1727  by 
William  Parks? 

Or  will  it  be  The  Hartford  Courant,  first  published  October  29,  1764 
by  Thomas  Green? 

Or  is  it  The  Virginia  Gazette,  founded  August  6,  1736  by  William 
Parks  (the  same  Parks  of  the  Maryland  Gazette)^ 

Each  newpaper  makes  a  distinction  on  some  level,  with  the  Maryland 
Gazette  displaying  the  words  "America's  oldest  newspaper"  on  its  front 
page,  The  Courant  noting  it  is  "America's  oldest  continuously  published 
newspaper"  on  its  page  one  and  The  Virginia  Gazette  saying  "Covering 
Williamsburg,  James  City  and  York  since  1736"  on  its  inside  page  one. 

Who's  right? 

"We  claim  tongue-in-cheek  to  be  the  oldest  continuing  publishing 
company,"  says  gregarious  Philip  Merrill,  chairman  and  publisher  of  the 
Maryland  Gazette,  four  other  Maryland  newspapers  and  The  Washingto- 
nian  magazine. 

Tim  Hughes  of  Timothy  Hughes  Rare  and  Early  Newspapers  of 
Williamsport,  Pennsylvania,  agrees  that  the  Maryland  Gazette  is  an  old 
publisher. 

"The  first  lasted  from  1727  to  1734,"  he  says.  "Then  one  lasted  but 
for  a  single  year  in  1779,  and  another  from  1745  through  1839.  This  one 
was  'down'  for  about  six  years  and  was  started  again  in  1845,  but  it  might 
have  been  begun  again  by  a  different  publisher;  in  any  case  it  certainly  did 
not  run  continuously  from  1745  to  the  present,  which  the  Connecticut/ 
Hartford  Courant  can  lay  claim  to." 


Michael  R.  Smith  is  Director  of  Journalism  Studies  at  Taylor  Univeristy  in  Fort  Wayne, 
Indiana. 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  99 


No  problem.  Merrill's  not  unduly  protective  of  the  historic  claim, 
noting  that  The  Courant  has  honors  for  its  continuous  newspaper  publish- 
ing record,  but  he  is  insistent  that  his  Gazette  began  a  printing  business  in 
1727  in  Annapolis,  making  it  the  oldest  publisher. 

As  for  The  Courant,  its  web  page  (<www.courant.com/about/ 
history.stm>)  details  the  newspaper's  history  and  some  of  the  qualifiers 
used  to  establish  it  as  the  nation's  oldest  continuously  published  newspa- 
per. For  instance,  the  web  page  article  says  The  Courant  has  always  been 
located  in  Hartford,  has  an  unbroken  publishing  history  from  1764  and 
was  never  absorbed  by  another  newspaper. 

Having  made  this  statement,  the  article  goes  on  to  say  the  name  has 
varied  some  over  the  years,  from  The  Connecticut  Courant,  when  it  was 
originally  a  weekly,  to  The  Daily  Courant  when  it  went  daily  in  1837. 
Furthermore,  the  newspaper  suspended  publication  for  two  issues  during 
the  Revolutionary  War  when  it  ran  out  of  paper.  And  although  it  has  been 
owned  by  Times  Mirror  Company  since  1979,  the  newspaper  considers 
itself  to  still  be  the  same  publication. 

Both  the  Maryland  Gazette  and  The  Hartford  Courant  have  exhibits 
at  the  Newseum  in  Arlington,  Virginia,  which  reinforce  their  claims  to 
distinction.  On  display  is  the  Maryland  Gazettes  edition  that  features  a 
copy  of  the  US  Constitution  and  the  May  8,  1775  issue  of  The  Connecti- 
cut Courant  with  a  report  on  the  battles  of  Lexington  and  Concord.  The 
report  is  said  to  have  been  penned  by  Isaiah  Thomas,  known  today  as  a 
journalism  historian,  for  his  own  newspaper,  The  Massachusetts  Spy.  The 
Courant  from  April  9,  1865,  announcing  Lee's  surrender  at  Appomattox, 
also  is  on  display. 

Jeff  Schlosberg  of  the  Newseum  said  the  displays  make  no  mention 
of  either  newspaper  as  being  the  oldest.  "We  steer  clear  of  these  sorts  of 
claims,  since  there  is  always  an  element  of  uncertainty,"  he  says. 

Newseum's  Griffin  Kane  said  the  Newseum  avoids  generalizations 
about  the  nation's  oldest  continuously  published  newspaper  because  the 
issue  is  so  controversial.  However,  the  Newseum  highlights  the  New  York 
Evening  Post  for  its  longevity  in  publishing  circles. 

In  the  Newseum  is  an  illustration  of  Alexander  Hamilton  (1755- 
1804),  among  the  400  journalists  selected  to  represent  leading  figures  in 
journalism  history.  Beneath  the  illustration  of  Hamilton  is  this  note:  "In 
1801,  Hamilton  helps  found  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  the  country's 
oldest  continuously  published  daily." 

If  ownership  and  names  aren't  too  much  of  an  issue,  a  New  Hamp- 
shire newspaper  may  have  some  distinction.  Venerable  journalism  histo- 
rian Frank  Luther  Mott  cited  the  New-Hampshire  Gazette  of  Portsmouth 
as  the  oldest  surviving  newspaper  in  his  seminal  history,  American  Journal- 
ism, A  History  of  Newspapers  in  the  United  States  Through  250  Years,  1690 


1 00  Great  Ideas  •  Spring  1 999 


to  1940 .  The  descendant  of  The  New-Hampshire  Gazette  is  The  Ports- 
mouth Herald,  says  Derek  Wood,  former  manager  and  now  special 
projects  director  at  The  Herald. 

Hanging  on  the  wall  of  a  conference  room  at  The  Herald  is  a  repro- 
duction of  the  first  copy  of  its  ancestor,  dated  October  7,  1756.  However, 
not  much  is  made  of  the  history,  says  Wood.  "We  refer  to  it  in  a  casual 
sort  of  way,  but  it's  not  part  of  our  marketing  strategy.  The  phrase  we 
sometimes  use  is  'the  Sea  Coast's  first  newspaper.'" 

Nevertheless,  The  Couranis  Kenneth  J.  DeLisa  says,  "In  a  very  real 
sense,  The  Courant  is  older  than  the  nation,"  adding  that  it  reported  on 
the  adoption  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  US  Constitu- 
tion and  was  the  newspaper  George  Washington  used  to  advertise  land  for 
lease  at  his  Mount  Vernon  estate. 

The  idea  of  a  suspension  makes  dating  tricky. 

For  instance,  in  Sidney  Kobre's  thick  Development  of  American 
Journalism  published  in  1969,  Parks  is  said  to  have  founded  The  Virginia 
Gazette  in  Williamsburg  on  August  6,  1736  and  operated  it  "until  the 
middle  of  the  century,  when  he  died  almost  penniless."  In  the  1930s  The 
Virginia  Gazette  was  revived  in  Williamsburg,  but  publisher  and  editor  W 
C.  O'Donovan  doesn't  see  the  lapse  in  printing  as  a  suspension. 

"We  were  America's  oldest  weekly,  at  least  until  1984  when  we 
started  publishing  twice  a  week,"  O'Donovan  says,  adding  that  his 
newspaper  comes  out  Wednesday  and  Saturday.  He  noted  that  the 
newspapers  of  the  time  moved  when  the  capital  became  Richmond  in 
1 780  and  all  of  them  wanted  to  be  known  as  The  Virginia  Gazette  to 
qualify  for  the  government  printing  contracts.  Only  The  Virginia  Gazette 
was  qualified,  hence  the  competition  for  the  name.  While  several  itera- 
tions of  the  Gazette  existed  over  the  years,  the  name  remains  the  same. 

Merrill,  publisher  of  the  Maryland  Gazette,  says  when  his  corporate 
attorney  read  that  The  Virginia  Gazette  ranked  itself  as  serving  readers 
since  1736,  Merrill  mailed  a  protest.  In  reply,  Merrill  was  told,  "I  read 
about  the  suspensions  of  the  Maryland  Gazette.  If  you  can  have  a  suspen- 
sion for  a  few  days  and  still  claim  to  be  the  oldest,  we  can  have  a  suspen- 
sion for  230  years  and  say  we're  the  oldest." 

For  Merrill,  that  kind  of  thinking  makes  for  great  newspapers  that 
deserve  to  boast,  and  he  has  no  trouble  with  it  at  all. 


Resources  Cited 

Sidney  Kobre,  Development  of  American  Journalism.  (Dubuque,  Iowa:  William  C.  Brown  Co., 
1969). 

Frank  Luther  Mott,  American  Journalism,  A  History  of  Newspapers  in  the  United  Sates  Through  250 
Years,  1690  to  1940  (New  York:  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1947). 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 0 1 


102  Summer  1999 


Book  Reviews 


I  am  beginning  to  realize  that  the  material  a  book  revieiver  chooses  to  send 
for  comment  is  only  partially  under  his/her  control.  It  would  be  ideal  if  the  only 
volumes  an  editor  received  were  strictly  committed  to  the  discipline  of  history  With 
32  reviews  per  year,  this  is  not  always  possible.  As  a  result,  many  of  the  collections 
which  appear  in  American  Journalism  are  relatively  eclectic  and  this  issues 
reviews  reflect  just  such  an  approach.  I  must  mention  that  these  books  ivere  chosen 
for  review  because  in  many  ways,  they  reflect  on  the  kind  of  lives  we  now  lead. 

David  Abrahamson's  look  at  on-line  reporting  is  most  appropriate  because, 
if  for  nothing  else,  this  collection  will  be  part  of  a  history  that  is  yet  to  come. 
Craig  Aliens  review  of  Cold  War  broadcasting  serves  to  remind  us  that  the  past  is 
some  cases  is  just  the  present  with  a  bit  of  a  lag.  This  is  one  of  the  few  books  that 
has  been  published  on  media  and  the  Cold  War,  ivhich  is  why  I  chose  to  include 
it  in  this  volume.  Since  we  are  on  the  subject  of  war,  and  having  just  gone 
through  the  nights  over  Yugoslavia,  I  chose  to  include  a  story  of  bravery  and 
horror  by  a  journalist  in  Sarajevo.  It  is  amazing  how  soon  current  events  lead  us 
to  forget  those  of  the  past  and,  in  this  case,  the  recent  past. 

Of  course  we  pay  homage  to  the  past  with  David  Davies  insigh  fid  look  at 
Edward  Caudill's  study  of  Charles  Darwin  and  how  a  theory  promoted  myths 
and  misuse.  Ronald  Ostman  gives  us  his  views  on  some  recent  works  on  photo- 
journalism, something  quite  of  en  missing  in  publications  dedicated  to  journal- 
ism history.  Kathy  English  comments  on  a  collection  of  what  the  editors  refer  to 
as  some  of  the  best  examples  of  reporting,  and  Mary  Vipond  looks  at  the  latest 
collection  of  contemporary  cartoons  on  Canadian  political  subjects,  in  particular 
French -English  relationships.  This  months  feature  ivork  also  deals  with  car- 
toons. Ian  Gordons  study  of  the  commercial  impact  of  cartoons  and  comic  strips 
argues  with  effectiveness  that  both  modes  of  communication  were  critical  in  the 
emergence  of  a  consumer  cidture  in  America,  if  not  in  the  Western  World. 

> David  R.  Spencer,  Book  Review  Editor 

y  Editor  s  Choice 

Comic  Strips  and  the  Consumer  Culture:  1890-1945 

Ian  Gordon,  Washington  and  London:  Smithsonian  Institute  Press, 
1998.  233  pp. 

Let  the  newspaper  editor  who  dares  cancel  someone's  favorite  comic 
strip.  Columns  come  and  go,  missed  by  some  but  seldom  by  all.  Yet 

Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  103 


comics,  as  they  have  done  since  1895,  inspire  not  only  a  significant  draw 
for  a  journal,  but  fierce  loyalty  as  well.  For  those  of  us  interested  in  the 
various  forms  of  cartoon  art,  we  are  struck  on  one  occasion  by  the 
simplicity  of  many  of  the  drawings  and  the  complexity  of  the  messages 
they  deliver.  It  is  the  messages  they  deliver  that  struck  the  curiosity  of  Ian 
Gordon.  Gordon,  now  the  head  of  the  faculty  of  visual  communication  at 
the  KvB  College  of  Visual  Communication  in  Australia,  spent  some  of  his 
time  as  a  pre-doctoral  fellow  with  the  Smithsonian's  National  Museum  of 
American  History.  His  book  Comic  Strips  and  the  Consumer  Culture: 
1890-1945  would  appear  to  be  the  consequence  of  that  relationship. 

In  contemporary  times,  anyone  who  watches  television,  reads  a 
magazine,  turns  on  the  radio,  picks  up  a  telephone,  goes  to  the  live  theater 
or  attends  a  sporting  event  cannot  be  ambivalent  to  the  invasion  of  our 
senses  that  the  advertising  industry  provides.  Messages  are  everywhere,  on 
the  boards  surrounding  the  arenas  in  which  hockey  teams  play,  on 
scoreboards  for  baseball  and  football  games,  on  Girl  Guide  cookie  boxes, 
on  the  Internet,  beside  streets  and  highways.  There  appears  to  be  no 
escape  from  the  constant  barrage  of  "invitations"  to  buy  this  or  try  that.  I 
still  find  it  truly  amazing  that  consumers  will  pay  significant  sums  of 
money  to  wear  clothing  that  is  in  effect  a  mobile  advertising  vehicle  for 
clever  designers. 

The  strength  of  Gordon's  work  is  that  it  provides  answers  as  to  how 
this  form  of  consumer  inundation  began.  He  blames  the  commercializa- 
tion of  the  comic  strip,  beginning  humbly  with  Richard  F.  Outcault's  now 
famous  Yellow  Kid.  In  Gordon's  analysis,  the  comic  strip  was  the  single 
instrument  which  switched  advertising  policy  from  the  written  and 
pseudo-oral  to  the  visual.  More  importantly,  it  performed  the  feat  rela- 
tively quickly.  Just  eight  short  years  after  Outcault  drew  his  first  single 
cartoon  and  then  strip  for  two  New  York  newspapers,  comic  strips  began 
to  appear  in  newspapers  across  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

More  subtle  was  the  shift  from  making  the  characters  in  the  strips 
entertainers  to  marketers  of  products  and  services.  It  was  this  transition 
which  began  with  the  introduction  of  Buster  Brown  strips  in  1902  to  an 
overall  merchandising  strategy  which  is  still  in  vogue  today,  that  is  the 
after-market  of  toys,  music,  computer  software,  clothing,  films  and  any 
one  of  a  dozen  creations  designed  to  sell  products  and  services.  Any  parent 
today  can  relate  to  the  intense  pressure  this  places  on  the  family  when 
Jason  next  door  has  a  complete  set  of  Ninja  Turtle  toys  and  Jonathan 
living  at  your  home  does  not.  Buster  Brown  made  advertising  a  visual 
notoral,  or  written  form  of  communication.  In  a  word,  it  was  iconology. 

Gordon  specifically  points  to  the  move  to  the  syndication  of  comics 
which  began  in  1903  in  his  attempt  to  explain  their  success  as  a  market- 
ing tool.  This  is  beyond  a  doubt  the  strongest  part  of  the  book.  He 


1 04  Book  Reviews  •  Summer  1 999 


painstakingly  traces  the  growth  of  comics  from  central  sources,  in  particu- 
lar the  Hearst  chain  in  New  York,  and  measures  the  impact  of  economies 
of  scale  on  the  publication  industry.  It  is  here  that  his  argument  has 
considerable  force.  Instead  of  being  trapped  in  local  markets  across  the 
country,  products  became  national  in  scope  with  seemingly  endless 
choices  for  expansion.  The  classic  example  he  uses  is  that  of  Outcault's 
Buster  Brown,  which  not  only  became  a  long  running  and  successful 
strip,  but  the  brand  name  of  a  shoe  company  which  continues  to  exist.  It 
is  fitting  that  the  face  of  the  nerdy,  innocent  looking  kid  adorns  the  dust 
jacket  of  the  book. 

Gordon  is  particularly  effective  in  his  portrayal  of  how  consumer 
culture  values  leaked  into  the  strips,  intentionally  or  otherwise.  In  the 
strip  Gasoline  Alley,  which  was  launched  on  the  eve  of  the  automobile 
age,  Gordon  argues  that  the  strip  had  as  much  to  do  with  the  "car-ing"  of 
America  as  any  well-designed  advertising  plan  by  advertising  firms 
representing  the  major  auto  manufacturers.  Week  after  week,  the  central 
character  Walt  Wallet,  as  well  as  his  hangers-on,  demonstrate  their 
devotion  and  love  for  the  piece  of  metal  that  gets  them  around  the  town. 
But,  as  Gordon  clearly  points  out,  the  car  is  not  merely  a  means  to  go 
from  A  to  B.   In  Walt's  mind  it  is,  in  a  McLuhanesque  sense,  an  extension 
of  the  man  himself. 

The  integration  of  social  values  and  marketing  ploys  in  mass  enter- 
tainment is  no  surprise  to  movie  and  music  consumers  today.  In  a  scene 
in  the  Frank  Sinatra  -  Gene  Kelly  film  "Anchors  Aweigh"  the  female  lead 
Kathryn  Grayson  invites  Kelly  to  join  her  in  a  Coke,  but  not  a  soda  or 
cola.  Manufacturers  have  been  known  to  pay  millions  of  dollars  to  ensure 
that  their  products  receive  some  prominent  platform  in  today's  mass 
marketed  films.  Some  things  never  change. 

The  Gordon  book  is  a  must  read  for  any  scholar  interested  in  the 
question  of  popular  culture.  If  one  accepts  Gordon's  basic  thesis  that  this 
form  of  marketing  is  not  new,  but  just  recycled  in  different  and  more 
prevalent  forms,  his  thesis  should  come  as  no  surprise  to  anyone.  How- 
ever, the  strength  of  the  work  is  clearly  lodged  in  his  analysis  of  comics.  It 
remains  for  other  scholars  to  examine  the  movies,  popular  literature  and 
popular  music,  to  name  just  three. 

The  major  problem  with  this  book  is  that  it  is  just  too  short. 
Although  he  discusses  a  number  of  prominent  cartoons,  such  as  Gasoline 
Alley  and  Winnie  Winkle,  it  is  hard  to  contend  that  the  process  which  he 
describes  is  somehow  universal  and  all -penetrating.  But,  let  us  not  detract 
from  a  good  and  readable  work.  As  someone  who  dabbles  in  comic  art 
myself,  I  can  appreciate  the  immensity  of  the  task  that  Ian  Gordon  faced. 
It  is  not  that  easy  when  one  considers  how  limited  the  indices  to  these 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  105 


kinds  of  work  are.  Let  us  hope  that  Gordon  does  not  lose  interest  in  the 
subject.  It  would  be  nice  to  anticipate  a  sequel,  perhaps  two. 

>  David  R.  Spencer,  University  of  Western  Ontario 


American  Photojournalism  Comes  of  Age 

Michael  L.  Carlebach,  Washington,  DC:  Smithsonian  Institution  Press, 
1997.  222  pp. 

American  Photo  magazine,  in  its  September/October,  1996  issue,  ran 
an  extensive  cover  story  asking,  "Is  photo-journalism  dead?"  In  its  lengthy 
subsequent  spread,  American  Photo  puzzled  about  such  issues  as  the 
decline  in  magazine  publication  of  serious  photojournalism  (and  the 
resulting  meager  earnings  made  by  many  photojournalists),  the  exciting 
new  possibilities  opened  by  Internet  home  pages  and  art  gallery  walls,  the 
reluctance  of  staid  publishers  to  print  graphic,  hard-hitting  photos,  the 
crisis  in  management  and  mission  being  experienced  by  the  big  photo 
agencies,  the  competition  posed  by  cable  and  digital  TV,  the  growth  of 
celebrity  journalism  at  the  expense  of  news  photography,  the  growing 
expense  of  publishing  books  with  large  groups  of  images,  the  blurring  of 
boundaries  between  news,  documentary,  and  fine  art  photographs .  .  .  the 
list  is  lengthy.  Clearly,  contemporary  photojournalism  is  searching  and 
redefining  itself. 

But  not  to  worry.  Michael  Carlebach's  book  on  the  origins  and 
development  of  photojournalism  gives  plenty  of  assurance  that  change  in 
photojournalism  is  inevitable  and  that  it  usually  is  fueled  by  new  technol- 
ogy and  new  ideas.  Seen  in  the  context  of  1880  to  1936,  Carlebach 
demonstrates  that  much  of  what  is  happening  today  is  being  recycled  after 
a  fashion.  Lawrence  Peter("Yogi")  Berras  famous  dictum,  "It  was  deja  vu 
all  over  again"  comes  to  mind. 

So,  when  contemporary  photojournalists  worry  about  the  impact  of 
digital  retouching  of  photos,  Carlebach  shows  us  that  fakes,  retouching 
and  "composographs"  have  been  on  the  scene  for  decades.  When  a  hue- 
and-cry  is  raised  about  paparazzi,  Carlebach  reminds  us  that  concern  for 
"in  your  face"  photographers,  telephoto  lenses,  and  invasion  of  privacy  is 
an  old,  old  story  (e.g,  Harry  Coleman's  relentless  1920s  stalking  of 
industrialist  and  financier  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  in  order  to  click  New  York 
Journal  photos  of  J.P.'s  "grossly  inflamed  and  swollen"  nose).  When  critics 
worry  that  increasing  dependence  upon  visual  communication  will  result 
in  further  deterioration  of  print  literacy  and  an  inevitable  descent  into  the 


106  Book  Reviews  •  Summer  1999 


bottomless  pits  of  tastelessness,  Carlebach's  book  shows  them  that  elite, 
text-oriented  intelligentsia  opposition  to  visual  communication  is  more 
than  100  years  old  and  that  current  themes  of  opposition  travel  rather 
well-trod  trails.  (However,  Carlebach  emphasizes  that  photos  necessarily 
depend  upon  text  for  meaningful  interpretation.)  When  critics  complain 
of  politicians  and  staged  pseudo-events  as  if  this  were  a  relatively  recent 
phenomenon,  the  book  points  out  that  the  canned  photo-op  was  old 
when  Theodore  Roosevelt  groomed  and  managed  his  "roughrider"  image 
in  1898. 

Further,  recent  charges  that  photos  often  emphasize  the  sordid,  the 
sleazy,  and  the  sanguinary  side  of  human  existence  have  an  historic 
forerunner  in  photojournalists  like  New  York  City's  Arthur  Fellig 
("Weegee"),  who  reveled  in  the  seamy  side  of  the  naked  city's  underworld 
during  the  1920s  through  the  1950s.  The  claim  that  contemporary 
photographs  do  not  represent  all  segments  of  the  population,  but  rather 
tend  to  focus  on  fresh-cheeked,  supple-figured  young  people  is  shown  to 
have  been  a  common  approach  during  yellow  journalism  days  at  the  turn 
of  the  century.  Similar  complaints  that  today's  press  minimizes  photo- 
graphs of  racial  minorities  doing  well,  but  highlights  wrongdoing  by 
minorities  also  are  shown  to  have  precedents.  The  charge  that  recent 
photography  is  too  much  controlled  by  the  press  associations,  syndicates, 
and  chains  is  not  new,  either.  Functionally  equivalent  collection  and 
distribution  agencies  have  been  around  since  the  late  1880s. 

American  Photojournalism  Comes  of  Age  is  well-researched  and  well- 
written.  Its  four  chronologically  arranged  chapters  review  familiar  biogra- 
phies and  photo  feats.  For  example,  Chapter  3,  "Photojournalism, 
Documentary  and  Reform"  discusses  the  ideas  and  works  of  Jacob  Riis, 
Edward  S.  Curtis,  Lewis  Wickes  Hine,  Roy  Stryker  and  the  Farm  Security 
Administration  photographers,  and  the  Photo  League.  However,  space 
also  is  given  to  the  less  well-known  persons  and  events  which  deserve 
notice  within  the  broad  sweep  of  photojournalism  history. 

To  illustrate,  Chapter  1,  "Photojournalism  at  the  Turn  of  the 
Century,"  gives  attention  to  Walter  H.  Home,  documenter  of  the  Mexi- 
can Revolution  and  postcard  entrepreneur,  as  well  as  to  B.  Lloyd  Singley, 
founder  of  the  Keystone  View  Company,  which  specialized  in  the  stereo- 
graphs which  were  so  popular  in  late  19th  and  early  20th  centuries. 
American  Photojournalism  Comes  of  Age  alternates  between  sketching  the 
broad  sweep  of  historical  epoch  and  relating  of  illustrative  anecdotes,  such 
as  that  of  the  ghoulish  Hearst  photographer  who  specialized  in  post 
mortem  photography,  originally  related  by  Harry  J.  Coleman  in  his  1943 
Give  Us  A  Little  Smile,  Baby  (New  York:  E.  P.  Dutton).  Visually,  146 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  107 


black-and-white  reproductions  accompany  the  text.  Carlebach's  careful 
search  of  the  country's  archives  has  given  us  fresh  images  from  the  past, 
such  as  the  light-hearted  scene  of  a  passel  of  press  photojournalists 
snapping  a  famous  baby  in  a  carriage  on  a  sidewalk,  contrasted  with  a 
single,  studio-bound  photographer  laboriously  making  a  camera-domi- 
nant portrait  of  a  Washington  Star  editorial  cartoonist.  In  another  ex- 
ample, on  a  more  somber  note,  we  see  a  photographer  working  amid  the 
ruins  of  a  tornado  which  slammed  into  Kirksville,  Missouri,  in  1899. 

This  book  also  reproduces  a  handful  of  photos  which  have  stopping 
power  equivalent  to  any  in  today's  cavalcade  of  images.  For  example,  there 
is  a  grisly  Boxer  Rebellion-era  stereograph  image  of  a  bound  and  bloody 
headless  torso  in  the  background  while  the  Chinese  executioner  holds  the 
severed  head  by  the  hair  in  the  foreground  (Chapter  2,  Covering  War). 
Another  photo  chronicles  a  dazed  rescuer  holding  a  limp,  drowned  baby 
from  the  Eastland  steamer  disaster  in  the  Chicago  River,  1915.  These 
powerful  images  are  precursors  of  recent  images,  such  as  those  showing 
Somalians  dragging  an  American  soldier's  body  through  the  streets  of 
Mogadiscio  and  the  fireman's  retrieval  of  a  bloodied  child's  corpse  from 
the  Oklahoma  City  federal  building  bombing  debris. 

Chapter  4  (Tabloids,  Magazines,  and  the  Art  of  Photojournalism), 
being  of  a  more  recent  era,  contains  visual  icons  familiar  to  almost  every 
American:  Charles  Lindbergh  posing  in  front  of  The  Spirit  of  St.  Louis 
before  his  May  20,  1927  Atlantic  flight  from  New  York  to  Paris  and  the 
Hindenburg  zeppelin  disaster  at  Lakehurst,  New  Jersey,  on  May  6,  1937, 
for  example.  Of  equal  historic  interest  will  be  the  early  attempts  at  photo 
essays,  such  as  the  National  Geographies  feature  coverage  of  Alexander 
Graham  Bell's  experiments  with  kites  and  aviation  early  in  the  20th 
century,  the  Harpers  Weekly  spread  on  Woodrow  Wilson  campaigning 
during  the  1912  election,  and  Time's  informal  glimpse  of  Franklin  D. 
Roosevelt's  activities  in  the  1935  Oval  Office. 

Carlebach's  book  points  out  that  many  photojournalists  lose  their 
personal  identities  amid  historical  effusion,  but  they  live  on,  vicariously, 
through  an  image  made  during  a  single  Carder- Bresson  decisive  moment 
in  their  lives,  as  if  that  one  picture  was  justification  for  their  being.  A 
healthy  theme  of  Carlebach's  book  is  the  tension  between  photography  as 
a  utilitarian  workhorse,  serving  up  sturdy,  routine,  practical  images  of 
family  members  at  their  picnics,  identification  mugshots,  newspaper 
handshakes,  and  pass-the-check  publicity  as  contrasted  with  the  cultured 
"do  not  touch"  art  gallery  and  museum  thoroughbred  of  the  species,  the 
pictorial,  artsy,  soft-focused  romantic  fluff  of  visual  dreams.  Somewhere 
between  these  extremes  are  the  truly  wonderful  photojournalistic  images 
which  live  on  and  on  because  they  have  captured  something  of  historical 
and  human  importance  in  a  way  that  television,  film,  the  graphic  arts 


1 08  Book  Reviews  •  Summer  1 999 


poster,  and  other  visual  arts  cannot:  a  compelling,  and  unforgettable  still 
image  which  epitomizes  its  subject  in  a  memorable  and  truthful  way.  That 
image  which  the  viewer  cannot  forget  is  perhaps  the  lifelong  quest  of  most 
photojournalists,  past  and  present.  And  even  when  they  fail,  their  results 
are  usually  something  worth  seeing. 

Thus,  Carlebach  provides  a  viable  answer  to  the  American  Photo 
question  asked  not  long  ago.  "Is  photojournalism  dead?"  Judging  by  its 
fascinating,  vital,  and  lively  past,  the  answer  is  "Hardly!"  Carlebach  did 
not  address  the  following  words  specifically  to  the  American  Photo  ques- 
tion, but  his  words  are  very  relevant:  "Today,  in  the  new  age  of  the 
illimitable  information  highway,  the  news  photograph  still  has  the  power 
to  mesmerize." 

> Ronald  E.  Ostman,  Cornell  University 


As  Long  As  Sarajevo  Exists 

Kemal  Kurspahic,  Colleen  London  (trans.),  Stony  Creek,  Connecticut: 
The  Pamphleteer's  Press,  1997.  248  pp. 

This  is  the  story  of  Oslobodjenje  (Liberation),  a  Bosnian  newspaper 
that  received  international  fame  and  support  for  continuing  to  publish 
daily  during  the  siege  of  Sarajevo  from  1992-95,  as  told  through  the 
recollections  of  the  paper's  editor.  The  author,  who  spent  the  mid-1980s 
as  the  paper's  New  York  correspondent,  served  as  editor  from  1988  until 
late  February  1994,  when  he  was  sent  to  the  United  States  as  the 
newspaper's  editor-correspondent,  funded  for  a  year  as  a  Nieman  Fellow 
at  Harvard  and  then  by  a  grant  from  the  Tribune  McCormick  Foundation 
in  Chicago.  The  book  reflects  Kemal  Kurspahic's  strong  commitment  to  a 
free  and  independent  press  that  must  not  be  afraid  to  take  a  moral  stand. 

Kurspahic  had  the  misfortune  of  writing  his  book  at  nearly  the  same 
time  as  National  Public  Radio  correspondent  Tom  Gjelten  was  writing 
Sarajevo  Daily:  A  City  &  Its  Newspaper  Under  Siege  (1995),  a  gripping 
narrative  that  interweaves  the  stories  of  Oslobodjenje  and  Sarajevo. 
Kurspahic's  book,  in  contrast,  is  a  memoir  with  a  mission,  describing  the 
paper's  commitment  to  truth  and  a  multi-ethnic  Bosnia.  In  a  somewhat 
wooden  translation,  it  tells  not  only  the  story  of  the  paper,  but  the 
individual  stories  of  heroism  and  tragedy  of  its  Serb,  Croatian  and 
Bosnian  Muslim  staffers.  Readers  unfamiliar  with  South  Slav  names  may 
find  such  parts  inspiring,  but  unable  to  remember  who's  who.  Kurspahic 
would  certainly  say  that  their  witness  must  be  recorded.  (There  is  no 
index  so  that  readers  looking  for  information  about  specific  individuals 


Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  109 


will  need  to  go  through  the  book  page  by  page.  There  is  no  bibliography 
either.) 

His  journalistic  world  is  largely  one  of  black  and  white,  where  there 
is  no  room  for  moral  equivocation,  although  he  recognizes  that  family 
pressures — including  a  staffer's  love  for  family — can  intrude  on  this 
world.  It  is  difficult  for  any  outsider  to  second-guess  the  decisions  made 
by  any  of  the  Bosnian  journalists  under  the  stress  of  shelling,  food 
shortages,  the  black  market  and  often  unheated  living  conditions. 
Kurspahic  himself  suffered  a  badly  broken  leg  when  the  car  in  which  he 
was  riding  crashed  into  a  police  car  during  a  high-speed  trip  through 
Sniper's  Alley. 

The  heart  of  the  book  is  divided  into  three  chapters.  The  first  tells 
briefly  the  story  of  the  paper  from  its  founding  in  1943  to  its  declaration 
of  political  independence  in  1990  and  culminating  in  the  first  free 
elections  in  November  1990  in  which  the  nationalist  parties  emerged 
triumphant.  Kurspahic  seems  uncomfortable  as  he  refers  to  the  earlier 
history  of  the  paper  under  Communist  rule. 

Some  journalists  in  Yugoslavia  and  elsewhere  in  the  Communist- 
ruled  countries  developed  identities  as  professionals  even  while  the  system 
demanded  they  serve  the  party.  The  police  used  informers  on  the  newspa- 
per staff  to  pressure  the  more  independent-minded  journalists.  This  was 
more  than  just  "mediocre  conformism  and  place-seeking  and  time- 
serving." This  tricky  subject  between  the  system  and  the  profession  still 
awaits  its  historian  since  it  requires  understanding  the  compromises  that 
almost  every  journalist  had  to  make.  Few  of  these  journalists  want  to 
admit  today  that  they  once  served  the  Communist  cause  in  any  way  since 
it  could  threaten  their  livelihood,  yet  people  such  as  Kurspahic  were 
produced  in  this  system  and  aspects  of  the  Communist  media  culture 
persisted  in  the  post-Communist  period. 

The  second  chapter  describes  the  newspaper's  efforts  to  remain 
independent  while  the  society  around  it  mostly  divided  into  nationalist 
partisanship  and  the  paper's  opponents  pointed  to  the  financial  subsidy  it 
continued  to  receive  from  the  government.  Some  of  the  paper's  journalists 
left  the  staff,  threatening  its  multi-ethnic  diversity.  The  final  chapter, 
which  constitutes  more  than  half  the  book,  details  the  paper's  heroic  life 
under  the  siege,  1992-94,  when  the  paper's  circulation  area  shrank  to  the 
area  of  Sarajevo,  when  supplies  of  vital  materials  were  limited  and  some 
staffers  were  killed. 

This  volume  will  be  of  greatest  interest  to  free  press  apostles.  It  will 
also  be  of  value  to  historians  who  study  Yugoslavia,  including  historians  of 
the  media,  who  will  find  here  factual  details  unavailable  elsewhere.  For 


1 1 0  Book  Reviews  •  Summer  1 999 


journalism  historians  generally,  especially  those  interested  in  the  interna- 
tional sphere,  the  book  raises  questions  about  the  varying  roles  of  the 
media  under  different  social  and  political  conditions.  After  all,  newspapers 
historically  have  reflected  their  societies.  They  have  been  successful  only 
to  a  limited  degree  in  fomenting  national  or  political  hatred.  Rather  they 
have  usually  mirrored  the  divisions.  In  the  case  of  Bosnia,  these  were  not 
ancient  hatreds,  but  20th  century  ideas  that  were  fomented  by  unscrupu- 
lous leaders  and  only  weakly  contested  by  opponents. 

Just  as  19th  century  newspaper  readers  in  the  United  States  did  not 
know  how  to  react  at  first  to  newspapers  that  sought  to  move  away  from  a 
political  mold,  many  Sarajevo  readers  in  the  1990s  must  have  responded 
in  similar  fashion  to  the  1 990s  Oslobodjenje.  Kurspahic  himself  remarks 
that  the  elite  who  shared  his  views  were  much  more  receptive  to  the 
analysis  and  discussion  in  his  paper  than  were  the  mass  of  the  populace  or 
the  nationalist  leaders.  The  goal  of  Kurspahic  and  most  of  his  staff 
throughout  the  siege  was  to  keep  publishing  to  show  their  commitment 
to  the  journalistic  profession  and  to  a  pluralist,  multi-ethnic  Bosnia 
Hercegovina.  According  to  the  1995  Dayton  accords,  however,  an 
integrated,  diverse  population  has  virtually  disappeared.  Much  of  the 
public  continues  to  find  an  independent  press  difficult  to  understand  in  a 
highly  politicized  society.  That  might  suggest  that  the  paper  failed  in  its 
mission,  that  under  pressure  of  war,  the  multi-ethnic  society  receded,  even 
while  the  journalists  of  Oslobodjenje  fought  for  its  existence. 

The  paper  succeeded  in  two  important  ways,  however.  First,  it 
remained  virtually  the  sole  form  of  public  communication  during  much 
of  the  siege  of  Sarajevo.  Even  when  a  shortage  of  newsprint  reduced  the 
print  run,  the  limited  number  of  copies  was  shared  around  so  that  readers 
could  ascertain  what  rumors  were  true  and  who  had  died.  Cannons  and 
tanks  could  not  silence  this  freedom  of  expression.  Second,  the  paper 
became  a  symbol  to  the  international  media  community,  and  to  the  world 
at  large,  of  the  Bosnians'  will  to  survive.  Numerous  international  corre- 
spondents wrote  about  the  paper,  though  few  recognized  that  the  society 
the  paper  wanted  to  promote  was  ceasing  to  exist.  These  articles  helped 
generate  numerous  international  media  awards  for  the  paper  and  its  staff, 
which  gave  the  English-speaking  Kurspahic  platforms  abroad  for  promot- 
ing his  country's  cause  and  income  and  supplies  to  keep  the  paper  alive. 

Kurspahic  and  his  paper  were  heroes  in  their  time.  Even  if  this  book 
does  not  do  justice  to  the  complexity  of  the  situation,  it  provides 
Kurspahic's  valuable  witness  to  his  paper's  efforts. 

>Owen  V.  Johnson,  Indiana  University 

Summer  1999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 1 


The  Carnivalization  of  Politics:  Quebec  Cartoons  on 
Relations  with  Canada,  England,  and  France,  1960-1979. 

Raymond  N.  Morris,  Montreal  and  Kingston:  McGill-Queen's 
University  Press,  1995.  148  pp. 

Rather  unexpectedly,  reviewing  this  book  doubled  my  fun.  As  is  my 
custom,  when  I  received  the  package  in  the  mail  from  the  book  review 
editor,  I  quickly  scanned  the  introduction.  There  I  discovered  that  The 
Carnivalization  of  Politics  is  a  sequel  to  an  earlier  work  by  the  same  author, 
Behind  the  Jester 's  Mask:  Canadian  Editorial  Cartoons  About  Dominant  and 
Minority  Groups.  So  before  beginning  the  new  book,  I  checked  the  older 
one  out  of  the  library  (It  was  published  by  the  University  of  Toronto  Press 
in  1989). 

In  Behind  the  Jesters  Mask,  Morris  argues  that  political  cartoonists 
play  the  role  of  the  jesters  of  the  modern  bourgeoisie.  Using  editorial 
cartoons  selected  from  a  large  collection  representing  newspapers  from 
across  Canada  covering  the  years  I960  to  1979,  he  shows  that  the  car- 
toonists consistently  poked  fun  at  the  incompetence  of  the  political 
system  and  politicians  by  portraying  them  as  ineffective  and  foolish  and 
by  emphasizing  the  gaps  between  promise  and  performance.  Modern 
cartoonists,  unlike  those  who  drew  for  newspapers  in  the  19th  century, 
present  themselves  as  non-partisan;  they  are  equal-opportunity  balloon- 
poppers,  ridiculing  all  politicians  equally.  On  the  other  hand,  Morris 
argues,  they  never  target  businessmen  or  capitalism,  and  they  falsely 
position  politics  and  business  as  oppositional.  Just  as  the  court  jester  was 
the  servant  of  the  king,  he  suggests,  these  cartoonists  are  the  agents  of  the 
bourgeoisie  and  the  bourgeois  state,  as  of  course  are  the  newspapers  in 
which  they  publish. 

Morris  moves  beyond  this  argument  in  The  Carnivalization  of 
Politics  by  selecting  and  analyzing  more  closely  the  work  of  four  Quebec 
cartoonists  (three  French  and  one  English)  on  the  subject  of  French- 
English  relations,  as  well  as  on  the  relations  of  Quebec  and  Canada  with 
England  and  France.  As  the  title  indicates,  Morris  conceptualizes  these 
cartoons  somewhat  differently,  by  using  the  idea  of  carnivalization  as 
developed  by  Mikhail  Bakhtin.  As  in  pure  carnival,  he  argues,  the  car- 
toonists examined  use  such  devices  as  inverting  the  social  structure  and 
comically  exaggerating  political  rituals  in  order  to  suggest  that  all  politi- 
cians are  naive  and  impractical.  Morris  demonstrates,  however,  that 
probably  the  more  appropriate  term  to  describe  these  works  is  hyper- 
carnival,  a  reified,  commercialized,  more  cynical  form  of  carnival  where 
the  participants  are  professionals  and  the  public  only  spectators. 

Morris  proceeds  at  several  levels  simultaneously.  He  works  with 
groups  of  cartoons  on  a  single  subject  (for  example,  the  Queen's  visit  to 


112  Book  Reviews  •  Summer  1999 


Quebec  in  1964  or  the  referendum  campaign  of  1980)  to  decipher  the 
metaphors  that  underlie  the  frame,  message,  content  and  form  of  the 
cartoons.  Occasionally,  this  results  in  a  "one  drawing  after  another" 
tedium,  but  the  summary  arguments  are  conceptually  rich  and  complex. 
One  continuing  metaphor  is  that  of  the  unhappy  but  still  married  couple, 
English  Canada  the  husband  and  Quebec  the  wife.  England  and  France 
are  the  in-laws,  and  the  language  minorities  (French  in  Canada  and 
English  in  Quebec)  the  children.  But  other  metaphors  combine  with  and 
sometimes  contradict  this  family  one. 

At  one  time  or  another  the  cartoonists  portray  all  politicians  as 
childish,  associated  with  irresponsibility,  incongruity,  impulsiveness,  and 
symbolic  play.  But  childishness  is  also  associated  with  nature,  spontaneity, 
openness,  and  intuition.  Most  frequently  these  traits  are  ascribed  to 
Quebec  nationalist  politicians,  in  contrast  to  the  more  reasoned,  control- 
ling, dominant,  "cultured"  adults — that  is  the  federalists,  specially  the 
English.  But  the  challenge  of  separatism  also  has  the  power  to  shake  up 
the  federalists,  reducing  them  to  a  state  of  disorderliness,  as  shown  in  the 
Girerd  cartoon  depicted  on  the  dust  jacket,  which  portrays  a  very  shaggy 
and  disreputable  English  part-bulldog  mongrel  challenging  its  sophisti- 
cated and  sleek  French  counterpart  with  the  punning  "Wolfe,  Wolfe"  and 
reacting  with  confusion  and  dismay  at  the  French  dog's  witty  riposte, 
"Montcalm."  Moreover,  the  acquisition  of  power  can  turn  a  cartoonist's 
heroic  Quebec  politician  into  a  devious  fool  very  quickly.  Thus,  Morris' 
approach  highlights  nuances  and  subtleties,  by  drawing  attention  to  the 
multiple  metaphoric  interactions  occurring  within  each  cartoon  series. 

The  book  has  two  weaknesses,  in  my  view.  The  first  is  that  the 
subtleties  sometimes  over  take  the  message.  Too  often  myriad  contradic- 
tory readings  are  stated,  but  not  resolved.  Unfortunately  as  well,  the 
reader's  ability  to  sort  out  the  confusion  is  limited  because  the  vast 
majority  of  the  cartoons  are  described  rather  than  reproduced,  presumably 
for  financial  reasons. 

The  editorial  cartoons  on  which  Morris  bases  his  analysis  concern 
Canadian  political  events  during  the  1960s  and  1970s.  Those  without  a 
good  knowledge  of  Canadian  politics  may  occasionally  find  themselves 
puzzled.  Although  the  author  makes  a  valiant  attempt  to  place  the 
cartoons  within  historical  context,  this  is  necessarily  so  briefly  sketched 
that  it  may  be  insufficient  for  non-Canadian  readers.  Nevertheless, 
Morris'  general  analytical  approach  is  interesting  and  rich  enough  that  not 
only  can  it  be  widely  applied  but  it  will  inspire  readers  to  attempt  to  do 
so.  Anyone  seriously  interested  in  editorial  cartoon  analysis  should  read 
this  book. 

>Mary  Vipond,  Concordia  University 

Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 3 


Darwinian  Myths:  The  Legends  and  Misuses  of  a  Theory 

Edward  Caudill,  Knoxville:  University  of  Tennessee  Press,  1997.  208  pp. 

Charles  Darwin's  theory  of  evolution  not  only  revolutionized  the 
world  of  science  but  was  put  to  myriad  uses  as  well.  Stretched  to  apply  to 
social  relations,  it  served  as  the  underpinning  of  the  eugenics  movement, 
which  sought  to  improve  humanity  by  encouraging  selective  breeding. 
Shortly  thereafter  Nazi  Germany  perverted  the  theory  by  using  it  to  help 
justify  state-enforced  natural  selection.  Edward  Caudill's  book  describes 
these  and  other  uses  and  misuses  of  Darwin's  theory — and  particularly  the 
social  Darwinism  espoused  by  philosopher  Herbert  Spencer — since  the 
publication  of  On  the  Origin  of  Species  in  1859.  In  the  process,  Caudill, 
Professor  of  Journalism  at  the  University  of  Tennessee,  debunks  many  of 
these  Darwinian  myths  while  explaining  their  importance  in  American 
culture. 

The  book  is  of  particular  importance  to  media  historians  because 
press  accounts  played  such  a  large  role  in  shaping  the  myths  that  grew  out 
of  Darwinism.  Caudill  begins  by  explaining  how  Thomas  Huxley  and 
Joseph  Hooker,  two  of  Darwin's  closest  allies  in  science,  engaged  in  a 
concerted  effort  to  further  the  acceptance  of  the  theory  of  evolution  in  the 
popular  and  scientific  press.  Huxley,  nicknamed  "Darwin's  bulldog,"  used 
this  campaign  to  advance  his  own  reputation  in  the  world  of  science. 
Darwin  himself  stayed  in  the  background  for  these  media  battles  but 
offered  encouragement  and  advice  to  his  allies.  Huxley  and  Hooker  not 
only  wrote  articles  but  spoke  frequently  about  Darwin's  work,  and 
consequently  evolution  was  widely  accepted  by  scientific  elites  a  few  years 
after  Darwin  first  wrote  about  natural  selection. 

Huxley's  "debate"  with  an  Anglican  clergyman  at  an  1860  meeting  of 
the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  spawned  a 
Darwinian  myth.  In  scientific  circles,  the  exchange  between  Huxley  and 
Bishop  Samuel  Wilberforce  was  mythologized  as  a  turning  point  in  the 
evolution-creation  debate.  In  a  long  speech,  Wilberforce  attacked  evolu- 
tion and  closed  by  ridiculing  Huxley  with  a  pointed  question:  On  which 
side  of  his  family,  his  grandmother's  or  his  grandfather's,  was  he  descended 
from  an  ape?  "If  I  had  to  choose,"  Huxley  replied,  according  to  one 
account,  "between  being  descended  from  an  ape  or  a  man  who  would  use 
his  great  powers  of  rhetoric  to  crush  an  argument,  I  should  prefer  the 
former." 

Huxley's  remark  and  subsequent  defense  of  Darwinism  eventually 
became  a  symbol  of  the  triumph  of  science  over  religion.  Both  Darwin's 
and  Huxley's  sons,  in  collecting  their  fathers'  papers,  helped  to  mytholo- 
gize  the  encounter.  Until  recently,  historians  accepted  their  accounts.  But 


1 14  Book  Reviews  •  Summer  1999 


Caudill  explains,  in  a  chapter  that  could  serve  as  a  text  for  research 
methods  students,  that  the  historical  record  shows  a  much  more  inconclu- 
sive result.  Nonetheless,  the  myth  remains  important  for  the  insight  it 
offers  into  how  myth-making  can  serve  one  group's  ends. 

After  exploding  this  and  several  other  Darwinian  myths,  Caudill 
explains  how  Darwin's  theories  were  misused  in  the  20th  century,  particu- 
larly as  they  were  employed  to  serve  as  the  basis  for  the  social  Darwinism 
espoused  by  philosopher  Herbert  Spencer.  Even  though  Darwin  himself 
had  never  applied  his  theory  of  natural  selection  to  the  social  arena,  his 
theories  nonetheless  lent  scientific  credence  to  movements  based  on  social 
Darwinism.  Caudill  devotes  one  chapter  to  the  growth  of  the  eugenics 
movement  in  the  early  20th  century,  showing  how  Darwinism  was 
twisted  and  misapplied  to  justify  xenophobic  and  racist  goals.  Eugenicists, 
like  Darwin's  disciples  before  them,  were  experts  at  using  the  media  to 
further  their  ideas.  The  American  Eugenics  Society  embarked  on  an 
ambitious  publicity  campaign  in  the  1920s  and  1930s  to  promote  their 
movement.  By  the  beginning  of  World  War  II,  their  campaign  was 
declining  in  America,  but  in  Nazi  Germany,  another  mutated  version  of 
social  Darwinism  was  thriving  to  serve  as  the  intellectual  underpinning  of 
Aryan  supremacy  and  the  extermination  of  the  Jews. 

Caudill,  who  has  written  a  previous  book  about  Darwinism  and  the 
press,  convincingly  explains  the  power  of  Darwinian  myths  in  American 
culture.  The  book  would  be  valuable  for  teachers  of  both  media  history 
and  historical  research.  Both  will  appreciate  Caudill's  meticulous  use  of 
historical  sources  to  demonstrate  the  building  of  myths,  as  well  as  the 
author's  use  of  evidence  to  debunk  them. 

>David  R.  Davies,  University  of  Southern  Mississippi 


The  Electronic  Grapevine:  Rumor,  Reputation  and 
Reporting  in  the  New  On-line  Environment 

Diane  L.  Borden  and  Kerric  Harvey  (eds.),  Mahwah,  NJ:  Lawrence 
Erlbaum  Associates,  1998.  200  pp. 

Of  all  the  "revolutions" — technological,  sociological,  economic  and 
otherwise — that  have  swept  through  the  nation's  newsrooms  in  the  last 
decade  or  so,  it  now  appears  that  few  will  have  as  long-lasting  an  impact 
on  both  the  production  and  consumption  of  journalism  as  the  Internet. 
While  the  exact  long-term  effects  of  this  ongoing  transformation  are  still 
anyone's  guess,  this  anthology  of  essays,  edited  by  George  Mason 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 5 


University's  Diane  L.  Borden  and  Kerric  Harvey  of  George  Washington 
University,  is  an  excellent  starting  point  for  any  discursive  engagement 
with  many  of  the  important  questions. 

Like  many  solid  anthologies,  the  12  essays  included  in  The  Electronic 
Grapevine  are  a  self- reinforcing  blend  of  analysis  and  anecdote,  theory  and 
practice.  By  deliberately  employing  a  structure  which  intertwines  theoreti- 
cal overviews  with  cogent  case  studies,  the  resulting  combination  is  a 
thoughtful  explication  of  likely  causes  and  possible  effects.  And  in  doing 
so,  it  invites  the  reader  to  embark  on  an  exploration  of  a  number  of 
fundamental  journalistic  issues — many  of  which,  though  arguably  decades 
in  gestation,  are  clearly  writ  large  by  the  recent  advent  of  the  Internet. 

Perhaps  the  most  essential  questions  speak  to  the  very  heart  of 
journalism's  intrinsic  professional  claim  to  credibility  and  credulity. 
Within  the  established  customs  and  practices  of  the  reportorial  craft,  how 
do  we  know  what  we  know?  More  problematic,  how  do  we  know  what  we 
know  is  true?  And  now,  how  is  the  Internet  changing  what  we  know,  how 
we  know  it  and  even,  perhaps,  what  we  mean  by  true?  "It's  hard  enough 
to  do  journalism,"  the  book's  editors  write,  "when  you  can  actually  get 
your  hands  on  what  it  takes  to  do  so,  when  you  can  reread  that  press 
release  or  sense  that  your  interview  subject  is  lying  to  you  by  the  way  he 
keeps  twisting  paper  clips  into  little  gnarled  metal  pretzels  as  you  talk. 
Imagine  the  quantum  leap  in  the  challenges  presented  by  traditional 
journalism  when,  suddenly,  everything  physical  goes  out  of  it." 

As  the  work's  subtitle  suggests,  matters  related  to  rumor  and  reputa- 
tion take  on  a  heightened  significance  in  the  world  of  on-line  journalism. 
Two  essays  in  particular  cast  the  issues  into  sharp  relief.  "Cyberspace:  A 
Consensual  Hallucination"  by  Jason  Primuth,  executive  producer  oversee- 
ing content  on  a  local  CBS  affiliate's  website,  explores  some  of  the  not-so- 
obvious  implications  of  the  essential  anonymity  of  the  virtual  world.  And 
as  an  elegantly  analytical  complement  to  the  ground  truths  presented  in 
Primuth's  work,  "Cyber  Libel:  Time  to  Flame  the  Times  Standard"  by 
Diane  Borden  presents  the  legal  and  sociocultural  constructs  required  to 
frame  a  much-needed  discussion  of  what  may  or  may  not  constitute 
defamation  in  the  on-line  environment. 

A  strong  candidate  for  the  most  useful  essay  in  the  collection, 
however,  might  be  "Journalists'  Use  of  On-Line  Technology  and  Sources" 
by  Columbia  University's  Steven  S.  Ross.  Since  the  early  1990s,  Ross  has 
not  only  tracked  the  influence  of  information  technology  on  journalism 
but  is  also  widely  credited  with  a  defining  role  in  the  origination,  practice 
and  pedagogy  of  computer-assisted  reporting.  In  his  contribution  to  this 
anthology,  he  reports  the  results  of  a  survey  of  almost  4,000  newspapers 
and  magazines,  inquiring  into  their  growing  comfort  with  (reliance 


1 16  Book  Reviews  •  Summer  1999 


upon?)  the  Internet  as  an  information  source.  As  both  a  rigorously 
quantitative  benchmark  and  revealing  snapshot  of  prevailing  practices,  the 
study  is  must-reading  for  anyone,  scholar  or  practitioner,  who  wants  to 
understand  what  is  actually  happening  in  the  nation's  newsrooms — in 
effect,  the  "real"  reality  of  journalism's  struggle  with  the  virtual  kind. 

>David  Abrahamson,  Northwestern  University 


Masterpieces  of  Reporting:  Volume  1 

Wm.  David  Sloan  and  Cheryl  S.  Wray  (eds.),  Northport,  Alabama: 
Vision  Press  1997.  473  pp. 

Masterpieces  of  Reporting,  Volume  1,  carries  the  promise  that  further 
volumes  of  anthologies  of  great  American  reporting  will  follow  in  future 
years.  One  hopes  these  editors  remain  true  to  that  intention,  for  this  is 
indeed  a  collection  that  comes  close  to  fulfilling  its  hyperbolic  back  cover 
lines  that  the  book  contains  "The  Greatest  Stories  American  Newspapers 
Have  Ever  Produced." 

Editors  Wm.  David  Sloan  and  Cheryl  S.  Wray  have  done  a  superb 
job  of  selecting  their  70  "masterpieces"  of  American  newspaper  journalism 
from  among  thousands  of  possibilities.  Their  choices  span  a  range  of 
American  history  from  the  pre-Civil  War  years  to  the  1 990s  and  cover 
spot  news,  narrative  and  descriptive  writing,  profiles,  investigative  and 
analytical  writing.  Some  of  the  pieces,  such  as  Henry  Morton  Stanley's 
1872  Neiv  York  Herald  Tribune  story  about  the  search  for  David 
Livingstone,  and  sports  writer  Grantland  Rice's  1924  immortalization  of 
Notre  Dames  "Four  Horsemen  of  the  Apocalypse"  are  well-known  classics 
that  most  certainly  belong  in  an  anthology  that  bills  itself  as  a  collection 
of  masterpieces.  Other  stories,  such  as  the  1994  Pulitzer  prize  account  of 
Rwanda's  ghastly  "village  of  death"  written  by  the  Associated  Press'  Mark 
Fritz,  and  The  New  York  Times  1994  coverage  of  the  funeral  of  Jacqueline 
Bouvier  Kennedy  are  new  classics  that  well  deserve  the  honor  of  a  place  in 
this  anthology. 

The  selections  in  this  anthology  have  one  unifying  theme — excellent 
writing  that  produces  compelling,  resonant  stories  that  stand  the  test  of 
time.  The  editor's  introductory  chapter  on  what  makes  good  newspaper 
writing  is  worth  as  much  as  the  newspaper  stories  that  follow  and  will 
serve  as  excellent  reading  for  senior  feature  writing  classes.  Good  writing, 
say  Sloan  and  Wray,  is  writing  that  achieves  its  purpose  of  informing  and 
interesting  the  reader.  They  proclaim  that  journalistic  writing  can  be 
'wonderful!  .  .  .  engrossing,  poignant,  dramatic  and  moving." 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 7 


In  producing  Masterpieces  of  Reporting,  Sloan  and  Wray  have  indeed 
achieved  their  purpose  of  both  informing  and  interesting  this  reader.  The 
question  that  remains  for  the  future  is  whether  they  can  sustain  the  level 
of  this  work  in  future  volumes.  One  can  only  hope. 

>Kathy  English,  Ryerson  Polytechnical  University 


War  of  the  Black  Heavens:  The  Battles  of  Western 
Broadcasting  ln  the  Cold  War 

Michael  Nelson,  Syracuse,  NY:  Syracuse  University  Press,  1997.  300  pp. 

The  collapse  of  the  Soviet  Union  and  the  demise  of  Communism 
have  rightfully  led  to  an  explosion  of  literature  explaining  these  once 
inexplicable  events.  Yet  not  until  War  of  the  Black  Heavens  has  there  been 
a  sustained  attempt  to  end  the  Cold  War  on  a  mass  media  note.  Energeti- 
cally written  and  prodigiously  researched,  Nelson's  account  goes  a  long 
way — but  not  the  full  distance — toward  persuading  readers  that  Western 
radio  transmissions  were  what  finally  brought  Communism  to  its  knees. 
It  is  a  stunning  exploration  of  Radio  Free  Europe  (RFE),  the  Voice  of 
America,  Radio  Liberty,  and  the  BBC,  and  a  certain  jumping-off  point  for 
more  media-related  studies  of  this  defining  moment  in  20th  century 
affairs. 

Nelson,  a  retired  manager  and  correspondent  for  Reuters,  scores  a 
10-strike  with  his  extensive  documentation.  A  principal  feature  is  the 
book's  application  of  records  and  materials  from  the  files  of  the  Soviet 
Communist  Party.  Drawing  from  these  sources  and  nearly  50  interviews, 
Nelson  brings  to  light  the  Soviets'  intense  fears  about  RFE  and  the  other 
services.  And  he  adds  to  the  intrigue  with  new  evidence  the  Soviets  shot 
themselves  in  the  foot.  This  was  because  the  Soviet  factions  most  con- 
cerned about  Western  radio  broadcasts  were  the  same  ones  who  urged  the 
continued  manufacture  of  short-wave  radios. 

The  book  is  most  penetrating  in  its  examination  of  Soviet  jamming 
practices.  According  to  Nelson's  figures,  not  millions  but  billions  were 
spent  by  Communist  leaders  to  shield  citizens  from  Western  radio.  At 
issue  are  not  just  news  and  information  but  the  "forbidden"  fruits  of 
Western  popular  culture.  In  retrospect  the  image  of  the  "iron  curtain" 
seems  more  formidable  than  ever.  Yet  the  book  has  two  shortcomings. 

First,  as  unlikely  as  such  an  observation  may  seem,  it  is  too  histori- 
cal. Most  of  the  content  reaches  back  to  the  opening  phases  of  the  Cold 
War,  with  relatively  little  discussion  pegged  to  the  climatic  events  between 


1 1 8  Book  Reviews  •  Summer  1 999 


1989  and  1991.  Second,  largely  because  of  its  distant  perspective,  the 
book's  central  argument — that  Western  radio  superseded  all  other  factors 
including  the  economy  in  driving  the  masses  into  the  streets — is  hard  to 
accept.  Here  Nelson  falls  into  a  familiar  media  history  trap,  that  media 
institutions  and  media  delivery  are  not  the  same  as  media  effects.  This  is 
one  of  those  books  that  raises  the  question  of  effects,  and  then  answers  it 
with  exquisite  accounts  of  happenings  behind  the  scenes. 

By  no  means,  though,  should  the  book  be  discounted.  The  new 
source  work  alone  is  worth  the  reader's  attention.  Perhaps  above  all  is 
Nelson's  fortitude  in  waging  his  collapse-of-Communism  thesis.  Even  if 
his  radio-did-it-all  explanation  is  tempered  down  the  road,  he  will  have 
made  a  contribution  by  stating  the  essential  case. 

>Craig  Allen,  Arizona  State  University 


Summer  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 9 


On   On 


Z 

o 
z 

§ 

H 
O 

S 


A  Journal  of  Media  History 


Fall  1999 

Volume  16,  Number  4 


J  American   -j _• 
ournalism 

Conservative  Media:  A  Different  Kind  of 

Diversity < 

Rodger  Streitmatter,  Guest  Editor 

The  Savannah  Morning  News  As  a  Penny 

Paper:  Independent,  But  Hardly  Neutral .< 

Ford  Risley 

"One  of  the  fine  figures  of  American 
journalism":  A  Closer  Look  at  Josephus 

Daniels  of  the  Raleigh  News  and  Observer ^7 

W.  Joseph  Campbell 

Family  Pictures:  Constructing  the  "Typical" 

American  in  1920s  Magazines 

Carolyn  Kitch 

Conserving  Racial  Segregation  in  1954: 
Brown  v.  Board  of  Education  and  the 

Mississippi  Daily  Press '.'. 

Susan  Weill 

Book  Reviews 

American  Journalism  Index  for  1999 


A  Journal  of  Media  History  Fall  1 999 

Volume  16,  Number  4 

yAmerican  i^ 

Journalism 


Editor Shirley  Biagi 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Book  Review  Editor David  Spencer 

University  of 
Western  Ontario 

Assistant  Editor Timi  Ross  Poeppelman 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Design Gwen  Amos 

California  State 
University,  Sacramento 

Former  Editors  •  •  ■ William  David  Sloan 

University  of  Alabama 

Gary  WTiitby 

East  Texas  State 

John  Pauly 

Saint  Louis  University 

Wallace  B.  Eberhard 

University  of  Georgia 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism 


1999  American  Journalism 
Historians  Association  Officers 

President 


Eugenia  Palmeeiano 

Saint  Peter's  College 


1st  Vice  President William  David  Sloan 

University  of  Alabama 

2nd  Vice  President David  Copeland 

Emory  Henry  College 

Administrative  Secretary Carol  Sue  Humphrey 

Oklahoma  Baptist 
University 

Treasurer Dick  Scheidenhelm 

Colorado  State 
University 

Historian Alf  Pratte 

Brigham  Young 
University 

Board  of  Directors David  Abrahamson 

ohn  Coward 
David  Davies 
Wallace  Eberhard 
Kathleen  Endres 
John  Ferre 
Tracy  Gottlieb 
Pat  Washburn 
Julie  Williams 


Definition  of  History . 


For  purposes  of  written  research  papers  and  publications,  the  term  history 
shall  be  seen  as  a  continuous  and  connected  process  emphasizing  but  not 
necessarily  confined  to  subjects  of  American  mass  communications.  History 
should  be  viewed  not  in  the  context  of  perception  of  the  current  decade,  but  as 
part  of  a  significant  and  time-conditioned  human  past. 


Editorial  Purpose 


American  Journalism  publishes  articles,  book  reviews  and  correspondence 
dealing  with  the  history  of  journalism.  Contributions  may  focus  on  social, 
economic,  intellectual,  political  or  legal  issues.  American  Journalism  also  welcomes 
articles  that  treat  the  history  of  communication  in  general;  the  history  of 
broadcasting,  advertising  and  public  relations;  the  history  of  media  outside  the 
United  States;  theoretical  issues  in  the  literature  or  methods  of  media  history;  and 
new  ideas  and  methods  for  the  teaching  of  media  history.  Papers  will  be  evaluated 
in  terms  of  the  author's  systematic,  critical,  qualitative  and  quantitative  investiga- 
tion of  all  relevant,  available  sources  with  a  focus  on  written,  primary  documents 
but  not  excluding  current  literature  and  interviews. 

Copyright 

©  American  Journalism  Historians  Association  1999.  Articles  in  the  journal 
may  be  photocopied  for  use  in  teaching,  research,  criticism  and  news  reporting, 
in  accordance  with  Sections  107  and  108  of  the  U.  S.  Copyright  Law.  For  all 
other  purposes,  including  electronic  reproduction  and/or  distribution,  users  must 
obtain  written  permission  from  the  editor. 

Submission  Guidelines ,  . , . 


Authors  submitting  research  manuscripts  for  publication  as  articles  should 
send  five  manuscript  copies  (including  an  abstract  with  each).  Manuscripts 
should  follow  the  Chicago  Manual  of  Style,  14th  Edition,  and  should  not  exceed 
the  recommended  maximum  length  of  20  pages.  Research  manuscripts  are  blind 
refereed. 

Great  Ideas  is  designed  to  showcase  new  approaches  and  information  about 
the  research  and  teaching  of  media  history.  Great  Ideas  are  typically  three  to  six 
manuscript  pages.  Authors  of  Great  Ideas  should  first  query  the  editor. 

American  Journalism  is  produced  on  Macintosh  computers  using  Microsoft 
Word  6.0.1.  Authors  whose  manuscripts  are  accepted  for  publication  are  asked  to 
submit  their  work  on  PC  or  Macintosh  disk,  formatted  in  Microsoft  Word  6.0  or 
above. 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism 


Send  Submissions  to  •  ■ Professor  Shirley  Biagi 

American  Journalism 
Communication 
Studies  Department 
6000  J  Street 
Mendocino  5042 
Sacramento,  CA 
95819-6070 

Telephone:  (916)  278-5323 
E-mail:  ajha@csus.edu 

Book  Reviews To  review  or  propose  a 

book  review  contact: 
Professor  David  Spencer 
Graduate  School  of 
Journalism 
University  of  Western 
Ontario 

London,  Ontario 
Canada  N6A  5B7 
E-mail: 
dspencer@julian.uwo.ca 

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dues  and  single  copy  orders  to Dick  Scheidenhelm 

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80301-1626 


A  Journal  of  Media  History  Fall  1999 

Volume  16,  Number  4 


American 


Journalism 


-4 


Editor's  Note:  A  Special  Issue  Devoted  to  Conservative  Media 


Conservative  Media:  A  Different  Kind  of  Diversity 9 

Rodger  Streitmatter,  Guest  Editor 

Call  for  Manuscripts  on  The  Buzz:  Technology  in  Journalism  and  Mass 
Communication  History 13 

The  Savannah  Morning  News  As  a  Penny  Paper:  Independent, 

But  Hardly  Neutral 19 

Ford  Risley 

The  author  examines  the  neutrality  claim  the  Morning  News  gave  itself. 
Many  examples  are  offered  in  this  article  demonstrating  that,  although  the 
Morning  News  was  financially  independent  from  the  political  process,  it  was 
unable  to  stay  out  of  the  political  arena  altogether. 

"One  of  the  fine  figures  of  American  journalism":  A  Closer  Look  at 

Josephus  Daniels  of  the  Raleigh  News  and  Observer 37 

W.  Joseph  Campbell 

This  article  attempts  to  fill  a  critical  void  among  journalism  historians — the 
uncovering  of  Josephus  Daniels'  role  and  his  advocacy  of  white  supremacy. 

Family  Pictures:  Constructing  the  "Typical"  American  in 

1920s  Magazines 57 

Carolyn  Kitch 

This  article  examines  the  written  and  visual  "typical family"  images  that  were 
created  by  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  ^WGood  Housekeeping.  The 
author  attempts  to  demonstrate  how  these  images  constructed  "typical family" 
values  as  being  patriarchal,  child-centered,  insulated  and  exclusive. 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism 


Conserving  Racial  Segregation  in  1954:  Brown  v.  Board  of  Education  and 

the  Mississippi  Daily  Press 77 

Susan  Weill 

The  author  reveals  how  the  white  editors  and  reporters  of  the  Mississippi  press 
in  1954  endorsed  and  defended  a  racially  segregated  society  with  African 
Americans  in  subservient  roles  as  second  class  citizens. 


Book  Review  Editor's  Note 101 


Book  Reviews 101 

/  Editor's  Choice:  The  Collected  Writings  of  Walt 

Whitman:  The  Journalism,  Volume  1:  1834-1846 101 

By  Herbert  Bergman  (Ed.) 
Reviewed  by  David  R.  Spencer 

Live,  Direct  and  Biased?  Making  Television  News  in  the 

Satellite  Age 1 04 

By  Brent  MacGregor 
Reviewed  by  Louise  Benjamin 

Press  Freedom  and  Development,  Bibliography 105 

By  Clement  E.  Asante 
Reviewed  by  Carolyn  Kitch 

Public  Journalism  and  Public  Life:  Why  Telling  the 

News  is  Not  Enough  (2nd  Ed.)  107 

By  Davis  "Buzz"  Merritt 
Reviewed  by  Jon  Bekken 

SALANT,  CBS,  AND  THE  BATTLE  FOR  THE  SOUL  OF  BROADCAST 

Journalism:  The  Memoirs  of  Richard  S.  Salant 109 

By  Susan  and  Bill  Buzenberg 
Reviewed  by  Steven  Phipps 

Sartre  and  the  Media 110 

By  Michael  Scriven 
Reviewed  by  Andrew  M.  Osier 


Table  of  Contents  •  Fall  1999 


The  Troubles  of  Journalism:  A  Critical  Look  at  What's 

Right  and  Wrong  with  the  Press 113 

By  William  A.  Hachten 
Reviewed  by  Douglas  Birkhead 

US  News  Coverage  of  Racial  Minorities:  A  Sourcebook, 

1934-1996 115 

By  Beverly  Ann  Deepe  Keever,  Carolyn  Martindale,  and  Mary 

Ann  Weston 

Reviewed  by  Elizabeth  V.  Burt 


American  Journalism  Index  for  1999 119 

Compiled  by  Timi  Ross  Poeppelman,  Assistant  Editor 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism 


Editor  s  Note 


Less  than  24  hours  after  the  AJHA  Board  approved  my  appointment 
as  editor  of  American  Journalism,  Rodger  Streitmatter  and  I  sat  down  to 
discuss  this  special  issue  of  the  journal.  That  was  more  than  two  years  ago, 
and  I'm  delighted  to  see  that  Rodger's  vision  for  a  special  issue  is  finally  in 
print. 

Rodger  has,  of  course,  written  widely  on  topics  such  as  African 
American  media  and  gay  media  and  has  contributed  several  excellent 
books  and  articles  on  these  and  other  related  topics.  So  at  our  meeting  I 
asked  Rodger  to  edit  a  special  issue  on  diversity  in  media  history,  but 
Rodger  had  other  ideas. 

"While  I'm  certainly  interested  in  the  topic  of  diversity,"  Rodger  said 
tactfully,  "I'm  becoming  more  and  more  intrigued  by  the  conservative 
media."  Dissident  media,  he  said,  in  many  cases  was  responding  to 
attacks,  yet  much  less  had  been  written  about  the  attacks  that  sparked  the 
rebellions. 

And  so,  the  five  articles  published  in  this  issue  grew  from  Rodger's 
valuable  insight  about  new  scholarship  that  could  enhance  and  expand 
our  understanding  of  the  context  in  which  change  happens.  My  thanks  to 
the  authors  who  submitted  their  articles  for  publication  and,  of  course,  to 
Rodger  for  the  dedicated,  conscientious  care  he  gave  the  manuscripts  and 
their  authors. 

Shirley  Biagi 
Editor 


Editor's  Note  •  Fall  1999 


Conservative  Media:  A  Different 
Kind  of  Diversity 

By  Rodger  Streitmatter,  Guest  Editor 

When  future  historians  attempt  to  identify  the  major  trends  that 
defined  the  United  States  in  the  final  decades  of  the  20th  century,  one 
word  that  is  sure  to  be  on  every  scholar's  list  is  diversity. 

From  the  President's  Cabinet  to  my  daughter's  high  school  pom- 
pom squad,  the  myriad  institutions  and  organizations  that  make  up  this 
nation  have,  in  the  last  few  decades,  made  considerable  progress  toward 
recognizing  the  value  of  reflecting  the  eclectic  nature  of  our  population. 

American  journalism  history  has  been  very  much  in  concert  with 
this  trend.  In  the  last  few  years,  an  enormous  quantity  of  research  has 
illuminated  the  contributions  of  women  and  men  who  previously  had 
been  either  ignored  or  marginalized  at  least  partially  because  of  their 
gender,  race,  ethnicity,  class  or  sexual  orientation. 

When  it  comes  to  another  form  of  diversity,  however,  the  record  has 
not  been  so  strong.  The  aspect  I  have  in  mind  may  best  be  suggested  by 
the  term  "ideological  diversity."  More  specifically,  we  scholars  have  made 
great  strides  toward  expanding  the  body  of  knowledge,  I  would  argue, 
related  to  the  genetic  characteristics  of  journalists,  but  we  have  not  always 
paid  sufficient  attention  to  the  range  of  ideological  perspectives  that  also 
have  been  represented  by  the  men  and  women  who  have  contributed  to 
the  media's  evolution. 

Oh  yes,  we  have  been  eager  to  chronicle  how  progressive  the  Ameri- 
can news  media  have  been.  How  often  have  we  read  that  a  particular 
reporter,  editor,  newspaper,  or  television  network  was  "out  in  front"  in 
opposing  the  Vietnam  War  or  in  supporting  civil  rights? 

But  how  often  have  any  of  us  read — or  written — that  a  particular 
journalist  or  news  organization  was  a  firm  and  committed  believer  in  the 
status  quo*.  How  often,  in  other  words,  have  we  committed  our  intellectual 
time  and  energy  to  documenting  that  many  newsmen  and  newswomen 
have  used  their  talent  and  the  power  of  their  positions  to  fight  either  to 
hold  society  exactly  where  it  is  or  to  push  society  toward  a  time  gone  by? 

And  yet,  are  these  individuals  and  organizations  not  also  part  of  the 
American  journalistic  experience?  Do  not  their  ideas  and  efforts — even  if 
they  make  some  of  us  more  than  a  bit  uncomfortable — also  deserve  a 
place  in  the  historical  record  that  documents  the  depth,  the  complexities, 
and  the  texture  of  this  nation's  media? 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism 


The  articles  contained  in  this  theme  issue  of  American  Journalism 
seek  to  make  a  contribution  to  the  effort  to  celebrate  diversity  by  illumi- 
nating some  aspects  of  conservatism  that  are  part  of  the  heritage  of  the 
American  media. 

In  the  first  essay,  Ford  Risley  provides  a  diamond-sharp  analysis  of 
the  1850s  editorial  voice  of  William  Tappan  Thompson  of  the  Savannah 
Morning  News.  Although  Thompson  insisted  that  his  paper  was  "neutral 
and  independent"  on  political  issues,  Ford  shows  that  the  paper  was  an 
ardent  supporter  of  the  traditional  values  of  the  South — including 
continued  dependence  on  slavery. 

The  second  article,  by  W.  Joseph  Campbell,  provides  a  revisionist 
interpretation  of  Raleigh  News  and  Observer  editor  Josephus  Daniels.  In 
his  gracefully  written  piece,  Joe  examines  the  editorial  content  of  Daniels' 
paper  at  the  turn  of  the  century  to  show  that  the  editor  was  not  "one  of 
the  fine  figures  of  American  journalism"  that  other  historians  have 
characterized  him  as  being,  but  was,  in  fact,  a  race-baiting  white  suprema- 
cist. (Incidentally,  because  Joe  Campbell  and  I  are  from  the  same  univer- 
sity, American  Journalism  editor  Shirley  Biagi  shepherded  this  manuscript 
through  the  review  process;  I  do  not  even  know  the  names  of  the  indi- 
viduals who  reviewed  the  manuscript.) 

Carolyn  Kitch  next  moves  us  forward  to  the  1920s  with  an  engaging 
study  of  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  and  Good  Housekeeping.  Carolyn's 
highly-textured  rhetorical  analysis  argues,  and  persuasively  so,  that  these 
two  immensely  popular  publications  attempted  to  erase  from  the  Ameri- 
can consciousness  the  identity  of  people  who  possessed  characteristics 
inconsistent  with  "the  ideal  family"  as  defined  by  the  country's  dominant 
social  and  political  forces. 

Finally,  Susan  Weill  provides  an  exhaustive  examination  of  the 
editorial  and  news  content  of  all  20  daily  newspapers  being  published  in 
Mississippi  in  the  wake  of  the  1954  Brown  v.  Board  of  Education  decision 
by  the  US  Supreme  Court.  Sue's  study  found  that,  despite  the  mandate  by 
the  highest  court  in  the  land  that  segregation  cease,  Mississippi's  daily 
press  continued  to  insist  that  American  society  was  not  ready  to  be 
integrated  and  that  blacks  were  by  no  means  equal  to  whites. 

As  I  attempted  to  identify  common  threads  in  the  four  studies,  the 
theme  that  came  bursting  to  the  surface  is  that  all  of  them  involve,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  the  exact  same  issue:  race.  From  the  debate  about 
slavery  in  the  1850s  to  the  strikingly  similar  one  about  segregation  in  the 
1960s,  the  American  news  media  have  struggled — these  essays  on  conser- 
vatism once  again  show — with  the  single  issue  that,  more  than  any  other, 
has  continued  to  confound  this  nation  throughout  its  history. 

Regarding  what  this  theme  issue  does  not  contain,  all  of  the  articles 
consider  how  conservative  ideology  has  been  manifested  in  the  main- 


10  Streitmatter  •  Fall  1999 


stream  media.  So,  I  regret,  there  are  no  articles  on  the  history  or  impact  of 
overtly  conservative  alternative  media.  This  dearth  is  consistent  with  my 
own  experience. 

My  next  book  will  be  a  history  of  American  dissident  presses.  In 
searching  for  scholarly  studies  on  the  subject,  I  found  material  about 
networks  of  dissident  publications  with  a  progressive  bent — such  as  the 
presses  founded  to  advance  the  women's  rights  and  counterculture 
movements — but  virtually  nothing  about  presses  that  bore  a  conservative 
stripe — such  as  those  created  to  oppose  immigration  in  the  late  1900s  or 
to  support  the  growth  of  the  New  Right  in  more  recent  decades.  Perhaps 
American  Journalism  will  publish  a  future  issue  dedicated  to  research  on 
such  ideologically  conservative  dissident  presses. 

I  want  to  finish  this  editor's  note  by  thanking  Shirley  Biagi  for  her 
expert  and  generous  guidance  and  by  thanking  the  several  dozen  reviewers 
who  helped  enormously  with  this  issue  by  providing  their  thoughtful, 
sensitive,  and  prompt — for  the  most  part! — feedback  to  the  authors 
whose  work  is  included  here. 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 


Fall  1999 


12 


Call  for  Manuscripts 
The  Buzz:  Technology  in  Journalism 
and  Mass  Communication  History 


American  Journalism,  the  quarterly  journal  of  the  American 
Journalism  Historians  Association,  announces  a  call  for  manuscripts  for 
a  special  theme  issue  focusing  on  technology  and  history. 

The  issue,  edited  by  David  T.  Z.  Mindich,  called  The  Buzz: 
Technology  in  Journalism  and  Mass  Communication  History,  is  sched- 
uled for  Fall  2000.  The  deadline  for  submissions  is  February  1 ,  2000. 

The  theme  of  technology  is  inclusive.  Topics  could  include  but 
are  not  limited  to: 

•  how  printing,  the  telegraph,  or  other  devices  changed  or 
challenged  journalism; 

•  implicit  comparisons  between  older  technologies  and  newer  ones, 
including  ways  in  which  the  public  viewed  future  technology; 

•  the  role  of  technology  in  formulating  or  reformulating  minority 
communities. 

The  term  "technology"  itself  could  be  approached  in  several  ways, 
including  electronic,  electric,  and  pre-electric  (including  printing) 
communication  aids.  Manuscripts  that  include  graphics  and/or 
photographs  are  encouraged. 

Manuscripts  should  follow  the  American  Journalism  guidelines  for 
submissions,  and  be  sent  to: 

David  T  Z.  Mindich 

Dept.  of  Journalism  and  Mass  Communication 

Saint  Michael's  College 

Colchester,  VT  05439 

For  more  information,  please  contact  Mindich  at  dmindich@smcvt.edu 
or  phone  (802)  654-2637. 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 3 


Fall  1999 


14 


American  Journalism  Reviewers 


David  Abrahamson 
Northwestern  University 

June  Adamson 
University  of  Tennessee 

Donna  Allen 

Women's  Institute  for  Freedom  of  the  Press 

Perry  Ashley 

University  of  South  Carolina 

Donald  Avery 

Penn  State  University 

Gerald  Baldasty 
University  of  Washington 

Warren  "Sandy"  Barnard 
Indiana  State  University 

Sharon  Bass 
University  of  Kansas 

Maurine  Beasley 
University  of  Maryland 

Tom  Beell 

Iowa  State  University 

Louise  Benjamin 
University  of  Georgia 

Sherilyn  Cox  Bennion 
Humboldt  State  University 

Douglas  Birkhead 
University  of  Utah 

UlfBjork 

Indiana  State  University 

Roy  Blackwood 
Bemidji  State  University 

Margaret  Blanchard 
University  of  North  Carolina 

Fred  Blevens 

Southwest  Texas  State  University 

Sharon  Blum 

University  Wisconsin-Madison 

Patricia  Bradley 
Temple  University 

Bonnie  Brennen 

Virginia  Commonwealth  University 


Joshua  Brown 

American  Social  History  Project 

Pam  Brown 
Rider  University 

Judith  Buddenbaum 
Colorado  State  University 

Elizabeth  Burt 
University  of  Hartford 

Flora  Caldwell 
University  of  Mississippi 

Douglas  Campbell 
Lock  Haven  University 

James  Carey 
Columbia  University 

Jean  Chance 
University  of  Florida 

Ann  Colbert 
Indiana-Purdue  University 

Tom  Connery 
University  of  St.  Thomas 

John  Coward 
University  of  Tulsa 

David  Copeland 
Emory  &  Henry  College 

Ed  Cray 

University  of  Southern  California 

David  Davies 

University  of  Southern  Mississippi 

John  DeMott 

University  of  Missouri,  Kansas  City 

Donna  Dickerson 
University  of  South  Florida 

Pat  Dooley 
University  of  Maine 

Carolyn  Dyer 
University  of  Iowa 

Wally  Eberhard 
University  of  Georgia 

Gary  Edgerton 
Old  Dominion 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism 


15 


Kathleen  Endres 
University  of  Akron 

Ferrell  Ervin 

Southeast  Missouri  State  University 

Bruce  Evenson 
DePaul  University 

Fred  Fedler 

University  of  Central  Florida 

Tony  Fellow 

California  State  University,  Fullerton 

John  Ferre 

University  of  Louisville 

Jean  Folkerts 

George  Washington  University 

Robert  Fortnet 
Calvin  College 

Jim  Foust 

Bowling  Green  University 

Ralph  Frasca 
Hofstra  University 

Alan  Fried 

University  of  South  Carolina 

Brooks  Garner 
Oklahoma  State  University 

Dennis  Gildea 
Springfield  College 

Don  Godfrey 

Arizona  State  University 

Doug  Gomery 
University  of  Maryland 

Howard  Good 

State  University  of  New  York  at  New  Paltz 

Tracy  Gottleib 
Seton  Hall  University 

Karla  Gower 

University  of  North  Carolina,  Chapel  Hill 

Paul  Grosswiler 
University  of  Maine 

Dennie  Hall 

University  of  Central  Oklahoma 

Margot  Hardenbergh 
Marist  College 

Susan  Henry 

California  State  University,  Northridge 


Louise  Hermanson 
University  of  South  Alabama 

Tom  Heuterman 
Washington  State  University 

Glenn  Himebaugh 

Middle  Tennessee  State  University 

Nathaniel  Hong 
University  of  Washington 

Brad  Howard 

Mount  St.  Clare  College 

Herbert  Howard 
University  of  Tennessee 

Carol  Sue  Humphrey 
Oklahoma  Baptist  University 

Bill  Huntzicker 
University  of  Minnesota 

Frankie  Hutton 
Lehigh  University 

Terry  Hynes 
University  of  Florida 

Dolores  Jenkins 
University  of  Florida 

Jay  Jernigan 

Eastern  Michigan  University 

Phil  Jeter 

Florida  A  &  M  University 

Sammye  Johnson 
Trinity  University 

Tom  Johnson 

Southern  Illinois  University 

Paula  Kassell 

New  Directions  for  Women 

Arthur  Kaul 

University  of  Southern  Mississippi 

Beverly  Keever 
University  of  Hawaii 

Elliott  King 
Loyola  College 

Judith  Knelman 
Middlesex  College 

Bill  Knowles 
University  of  Montana 

Ed  Lambeth 
University  of  Missouri 


16 


American  Journalism  Reviewers  •  Fall  1 999 


Linda  Lawson 
Indiana  University 

Richard  Lentz 

Arizona  State  University 

Lawrence  Lichty 
Northwestern  University 

Larry  Lorenz 
Loyola  University 

Charles  Marler 

Abilene  Christian  University 

John  Marrs 

Everett  Community  College 

Genevieve  McBride 

University  of  Wisconsin-Milwaukee 

Maclyn  McClary 
Humboldt  State  University 

Sheila  Mclntyre 
Harvard  University 

Floyd  McKay 

Western  Washington  University 

Joe  McKerns 

Ohio  State  University 

Craig  McKie 
Carleton  University 

James  McPherson 
Washington  State  University 

Beverly  Merrick 

New  Mexico  State  University 

Karen  Miller 
University  of  Georgia 

David  Mindich 

Saint  Michaels  College 

Catherine  Mitchell 
University  of  North  Carolina 

James  Mooney 

East  Tennessee  State  University 

Meg  Moritz 
University  of  Colorado 

Michael  Murray 

University  of  Missouri,  St.  Louis 

Orayb  Najjar 

Northern  Illinois  University 

Jack  Nelson 

Brigham  Young  University 


Richard  Nelson 
Louisiana  State  University 

Maureen  Nemecek 
Oklahoma  State  University 

Mark  Neuzil 
University  of  St.  Thomas 

Doug  Newsom 

Texas  Christian  University 

David  Paul  Nord 
Indiana  University 

Ron  Ostman 
Cornell  University 

Laurie  Ouellette 
Rutgers  University 

Anna  Paddon 

Southern  Illinois  University 

Oscar  Patterson 
Pembroke  State  University 

Carol  Polsgrove 
Indiana  University 

Steve  Ponder 
University  of  Oregon 

Alf  Pratte 

Brigham  Young  University 

Chuck  Rankin 

Montana  Historical  Society 

Barbara  Reed 
Rutgers  University 

Ford  Risley 

Pennsylvania  State  University 

Nancy  Roberts 
University  of  Minnesota 

Kitt  Rushing 

University  of  Tennessee,  Chattanooga 

Bill  Ryan 
Rockhurst  College 

Joe  Scanlon 
Carleton  University 

Dick  Scheidenhelm 
Colorado  State  University 

Michael  Schudson 
UC  San  Diego 

Mitchell  Shapiro 
University  of  Miami 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism 


17 


Susan  Siler 

University  of  Tennessee 

Roger  Simpson 
University  of  Washington 

Norm  Sims 

University  of  Massachusetts 

David  Sloan 
University  of  Alabama 

Steven  Smethers 
Oklahoma  State  University 

C.  Zoe  Smith 
University  of  Missouri 

F.  Leslie  Smith 
University  of  Florida 

Ted  Smythe 

California  State  University,  Fullerton 

David  Spencer 

University  of  Western  Ontario 

K.  Sriramesh 
Purdue  University 

Jim  Startt 
Valparaiso  University 

Ronald  Stotyn 

Georgia  Southern  University 

Andris  Straumanis 
University  of  Minnesota 

Rodger  Streitmatter 
American  University 


Lawrence  Strout 

Mississippi  University  for  Women 

Victoria  Sturgeon 
Tennessee  State  University 

Leonard  Teel 

Georgia  State  University 

Clarence  Thomas 

Virginia  Commonwealth  University 

Bernell  Tripp 
University  of  Florida 

Tom  Volek 
University  of  Kansas 

Pat  Washburn 
Ohio  University 

Susan  Weill 
University  of  Alabama 

Mary  Weston 
Northwestern  University 

Jan  Whitt 

University  of  Colorado 

Gene  Wiggins 

University  of  Southern  Mississippi 

Julie  Williams 
Samford  University 

Betty  Winfield 
University  of  Missouri 


18 


American  Journalism  Reviewers  •  Fall  1999 


The  Savannah  Morning  News  As  a 
Penny  Paper:  Independent,  But 
Hardly  Neutral 

By  Ford  Risley 

The  Savannah  Morning  News  was  founded  in  1850  as  a  penny  paper, 
one  of  a  new  breed  of  American  newspapers  determined  to,  among  other 
things,  be  "neutral  and  independent"  in  politics.  Yet  while  its  founders  liked  to 
proclaim  the  neutrality  of  the  paper,  a  close  reading  of  the  Morning  News 
during  the  decade  of  the  1850s  reveals  a  conservative  journal  like  so  many 
others  in  the  Antebellum  South.  Although  the  News  initially  followed  many  of 
the  practices  of  the  penny  press,  its  outspoken  editor  could  not  keep  the  paper 
out  of  the  political  arena,  particularly  the  debate  over  slavery.  Significantly, 
the  News  achieved  financial  independence  from  political  parties  through  its 
business  practices,  but  its  editor  could  never  divorce  himself  from  the  conserva- 
tive partisanship  that  was  so  much  a  part  of  the  South  at  mid-century 

When  the  news  of  John  Browns  execution  reached  Savannah, 
Georgia,  on  December  2,  1859,  William  Tappan 
Thompson  of  the  Savannah  Morning  News  could  hardly 
contain  his  joy.  Years  of  anger  toward  the  hated  abolitionists  of  the  North 
boiled  over  as  the  editor  sat  down  at  his  desk  and  penned  a  rare  front-page 
editorial  for  his  daily  newspaper.  Brown's  "ignominious  death"  was  a 
fitting  close  to  an  "infamous  life,"  Thompson  wrote  in  describing  the 
leader  of  the  failed  raid  on  Harper's  Ferry.  Might  Brown's  fate  at  the 
gallows,  he  declared,  "be  the  fate  of  the  craven-hearted  instigators  and 
plotters  of  treason  which  he  so  recklessly  endeavored  to  execute?"  More- 


Ford  Risley  is  an  Assistant  Professor  in  the  College  of  Communications  at  the  Pennsylvania 
State  University. 

Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  19 


over,  Thompson  added,  "There  are  thousands  of  white-craved  necks  in 
New  England  and  the  Northern  states,  today,  that  are  as  deserving  of  John 
Brown's  hempen  tie  .  .  ."' 

Such  an  editorial  was  hardly  surprising  in  a  Southern  newspaper  as 
the  decade  of  the  1850s  drew  to  a  close.  The  region's  editors  had  been 
among  the  most  outspoken  defenders  of  slavery  and  Southern  rights, 
defending  the  South's  status  quo.2  Yet  Thompson's  strident  rhetoric  was 
seemingly  out  of  place  in  a  newspaper  that  earlier  in  the  decade  had 
prided  itself  as  being  "neutral  and  independent"  in  politics. 

The  Morning  Neius  had  been  founded  as  a  so-called  "penny  paper," 
one  of  a  small,  but  growing  number  of  daily  newspapers  determined  to, 
among  other  things,  break  the  partisan  ties  that  had  long  been  the 
lifeblood  of  the  American  press.  Borrowing  words  from  their  penny 
brethren,  the  founders  of  the  Morning  News  declared  in  their  inaugural 
issue: 

The  Morning  News  will  be  emphatically  a  Commercial  Newspa- 
per, devoted  to  the  diffusion  of  useful  information  of  subjects 
of  popular  interest,  and  to  the  advancement  of  City  and  State 
interest,  generally;  preserving  at  all  times  a  strictly  neutral  and 
independent  position  in  regard  to  Politics  and  Parties.3 

Conservative  Partisanship 

Yet  while  Thompson  liked  to  proclaim  the  neutrality  of  his  newspa- 
per, a  close  reading  of  the  Morning  News  during  the  1850s  reveals  a 
conservative  journal  like  so  many  others  in  the  Antebellum  South.4 
Although  the  Morning  News  initially  followed  many  practices  of  the 
penny  press,  including  its  pricing  structure  and  emphasis  on  news,  its 
editor  could  not  keep  the  paper  out  of  the  political  arena. 

As  the  economic,  political,  and  social  future  of  the  South  were  being 
debated,  Thompson  weighed  in  time  and  again  on  the  editorial  page  of 
the  Morning  News,  consistently  arguing  the  need  for  the  South  to  main- 
tain its  traditional  way  of  life,  particularly  the  "peculiar  institution"  of 
slavery.  Significantly,  the  Morning  News  achieved  financial  independence 
from  political  parties  through  its  business  practices,  but  its  editor  could 
never  divorce  himself  from  the  conservative  partisanship  that  was  so  much 
a  part  of  the  South  at  mid-century.5 

Political  partisanship  had  long  been  one  of  the  distinguishing  marks 
of  the  American  press.  With  relatively  small  readership  and  little  advertis- 
ing, newspapers  of  the  Early  Republic  and  Party  periods  relied  heavily  on 
political  patronage  to  survive  financially.  Struggling  editors  often  were 


20  Risley  Fall  1999 


more  than  happy  to  tout  a  political  party's  views  and,  in  return,  party 
leaders  helped  pay  the  cost  of  publishing  the  six-cent  sheets.6  Beginning  in 
the  1830s,  however,  mass-circulation  "penny  papers,"  as  they  often  were 
known,  emerged  in  New  York  and  other  major  eastern  cities,  directed  at  a 
mass  audience  of  middle-  and  working-class  readers. 

Led  by  the  New  York  Sun  and  the  New  York  Herald,  these  innova- 
tive journals  did  not  receive  party  patronage  and  instead  were  supported 
by  advertising  and  circulation.  Following  the  example  of  the  Sun  and  the 
Herald,  many  pennies  regularly  proclaimed  themselves  to  be  politically 
neutral  and  independent,  largely  as  a  way  to  distinguish  themselves  from 
their  partisan  and  mercantile  rivals.7  Although  early  scholarship  on  the 
penny  press  contended  that  the  pennies  were  indeed  neutral  in  politics, 
more  recent  studies  have  suggested  this  was  not  always  the  case  and  that, 
in  fact,  some  newspapers  remained  very  much  partisan.8  The  content  of 
the  pennies  also  differed.  Whereas  their  six-cent  rivals  emphasized  politi- 
cal and  mercantile  news,  the  penny  papers  focused  on  general  interest 
news,  especially  crime  stories. 

The  penny  press  phenomena  was  largely  centered  in  major,  eastern 
cities.  However,  a  few  newspapers  south  of  the  Mason-Dixon  Line  tried  to 
emulate  their  success.  In  New  Orleans,  the  Picayune  debuted  in  1837, 
consciously  modeling  itself  after  the  Sun  and  Herald?  That  same  year,  the 
founders  of  the  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger,  the  first  penny  paper  outside 
of  New  York,  sought  to  duplicate  the  success  by  founding  the  Baltimore 
Sun.10  In  1850,  the  Richmond  Dispatch  began  publishing,  patterning 
itself  after  the  Baltimore  Sun.  In  the  manner  of  its  predecessors,  the 
Dispatch  declared  itself  "devoted  to  the  interest  of  the  city  and  free  and 
independent  in  its  political  views."" 

William  Tappan  Thompson  also  admired  the  success  of  the 
Baltimore  Sun  and  decided  he,  too,  wanted  to  emulate  it  in  the  South. 
Born  in  Ohio  in  1812,  Thompson  had  apprenticed  as  a  printer's  devil  in 
Philadelphia.  He  then  traveled  south  to  Florida  as  a  legal  secretary,  before 
returning  to  journalism  with  Augustus  Baldwin  Longstreet  in  publishing 
the  States  Rights  Journal m  Augusta,  Georgia.  After  three  years  with 
Longstreet,  Thompson  turned  to  a  literary  career  and  made  several 
attempts  to  establish  literary  journals  that  emphasized  Southern  culture. 
None  of  the  journals  proved  successful,  but  he  achieved  some  literary 
recognition  with  the  creation  of  his  colorful  character,  "Major  Jones."12 

Unsuccessful  at  publishing  a  literary  journal  in  the  Deep  South, 
Thompson  moved  to  Baltimore  and  made  one  more  try,  this  time  with 
the  Western  Continent.  As  with  his  earlier  attempts,  Thompson's  goal  with 
the  journal  was  to  defend  the  South  and  disseminate  Southern  philosophy 
but  once  again,  the  idea  failed.  While  in  Baltimore,  however,  Thompson 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  21 


witnessed  the  success  of  a  penny  paper.  Along  with  businessman  John 
Cooper,  he  decided  to  start  such  a  newspaper  back  in  Savannah,  Georgia.13 
In  the  mid- 19th  century,  Savannah  was  the  state's  best-known  city, 
the  leading  commercial  and  port  center  south  of  Charleston.  Although  it 
was  the  largest  city  in  Georgia,  with  a  population  of  15,312,  Savannah 
was  still  small  by  the  standards  of  other  cities  in  the  North  and  South 
where  penny  papers  had  been  started.  Moreover,  Savannah  already  had 
two  well-established  dailies,  the  Democratic  Loyal  Georgian  and  the  Daily 
Republican,  a  Whig  sheet.14 

Guided  by  "neutrality,  independence  and  industry" 

Nonetheless,  on  January  15,  1850,  Thompson  and  Cooper  pub- 
lished the  first  issue  of  the  Morning  News,  declaring  it  would  be  guided  by 
the  principles  of  "neutrality,  independence,  and  industry."  Published 
Monday  through  Saturday,  its  goal  would  be  to  give  readers  "a  cheap, 
reliable,  and  comprehensive  newspaper,  and  to  the  business  man  an 
advertising  medium  through  which  he  may  reach  all  classes  of  the  com- 
munity." A  prospectus  in  the  first  issue  outlined  the  success  of  the  penny 
press  in  other  eastern  cities,  newspapers  sold  at  a  price  "so  low  as  to  place 
them  within  the  reach  of  all,"  thus  making  them  "the  best  mediums  for 
the  general  diffusion  of  information  on  all  subjects  bearing  upon  the 
interests  of  the  community."  Thompson  and  Cooper  announced: 

We  have  determined  to  publish  the  Daily  Morning  News  as 
nearly  as  possible  upon  the  plan  of  the  penny  press  of  the 
Northern  cities.  The  Morning  News  will  be  emphatically  a 
Commercial  Newspaper,  devoted  to  the  diffusion  of  useful 
information  of  subjects  of  popular  interest,  and  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  City  and  State  interest,  generally;  preserving  at 
all  times  a  strictly  neutral  and  independent  position  in  regard 
to  Politics  and  Parties.15 

Indeed,  the  Morning  News  was  different  from  Savannah's  existing 
newspapers  in  several  respects.  The  most  obvious  were  its  price  and 
distribution  practices.  Readers  in  the  city  for  the  first  time  could  buy 
individual  copies  of  a  local  newspaper  instead  of  being  forced  to  buy 
semi-annual  or  annual  subscriptions.  Single  copies  of  the  Morning  News 
sold  for  two  cents  and  could  be  purchased  on  the  street  or  at  the 
newspaper's  office.  At  $4,  the  annual  subscription  rate  of  the  Morning 
News  also  was  considerably  less  than  Savannah's  other  two  dailies. 


22  Risley  Fall  1999 


The  price  structure  apparently  struck  a  chord  with  readers  because 
less  than  three  weeks  after  the  Morning  News  began  publishing,  Thomp- 
son and  Cooper  claimed  that  it  already  had  a  greater  circulation  than 
Savannah's  two  other  dailies.16  "We  may  add  that  our  circulation  is 
confined  to  no  party  and  to  no  class,"  they  wrote.  "We  are  gratified  to 
know  that  the  Morning  News  finds  a  welcome  in  the  lady's  parlor  as  well 
as  in  the  counting  room  of  the  merchant  and  the  work-shop  of  the 
mechanic."  At  the  end  of  February,  Thompson  and  Cooper  announced 
that  circulation  still  was  increasing  and  that  they  had  to  increase  the 
number  of  carriers  from  three  to  seven.17 

The  Morning  News  also  was  generally  successful  in  its  avowed  goal  of 
carrying  "useful  information  .  .  .  of  popular  interest."  During  its  first  few 
months  of  publishing,  the  newspaper  reported  on  the  completion  of  gas 
lighting  downtown,  the  dedication  of  a  new  Methodist  church,  and  the 
opening  of  the  Athenaeum  theater's  new  season.18  Savannah's  big  May 
Day  celebration  was  thoroughly  covered.19  The  Morning  News  also  carried 
a  lengthy  story  about  a  cashier  who  allegedly  defrauded  a  local  bank  of 
$100,000.20  Businessmen  no  doubt  liked  regular  features  such  as  ship 
arrivals  and  departures,  arriving  passengers,  daily  market  prices,  and 
announcements  of  imports  and  exports. 

The  staff  of  the  Morning  News  also  showed  they  were  adept  at 
handling  big  breaking  news  stories.  For  example,  Thompson  made  special 
arrangements  to  have  news  of  a  major  fire  in  Macon  telegraphed  directly 
to  the  Morning  News.  Although  lacking  much  detail,  the  story  still 
included  a  list  of  all  buildings  damaged  or  destroyed  and  a  map  of  the 
area.21  In  April,  the  biggest  fire  in  more  than  30  years  consumed  dozens  of 
buildings  in  Savannah.  The  fire  began  after  midnight  and  was  raging  three 
hours  later  when  the  Morning  News  went  to  press.  Even  so,  the  editor  and 
his  staff  still  managed  to  carry  a  brief  story  that  included  a  list  of  the 
buildings  damaged  or  destroyed.  The  next  day  the  Morning  News  carried  a 
far  more  complete  story  with  details  of  the  fire.22 

Morning  News  Adopts  Sensationalism 

The  Morning  News  also  took  a  cue  from  other  penny  papers,  which 
found  that  sensationalism  appealed  to  many  readers.23  Most  of  the  news 
items  came  from  Northern  exchange  papers — and  the  more  gruesome  the 
story,  the  better.  For  example,  a  story  bearing  the  headline  "Murder 
Instead  of  Marriage"  told  of  a  young  man  who  was  shot  and  killed  by  a 
father  who  disapproved  of  his  daughter  marrying  the  youth.24  There  also 
was  the  news  of  a  bridesmaid  whose  dress  caught  fire  before  the  wedding 
ceremony.  The  terrified  woman  began  running  and  soon  became  engulfed 
in  flames,  startling  the  company  gathered.25 


Fall  1999  •American  Journalism  23 


As  was  customary  in  an  era  of  personal  journalism,  the  Morning 
Neivs  clearly  reflected  its  editor's  interests  in  literature,  art,  music,  and  the 
social  set.  Thompson  duly  noted  the  arrival  of  a  new  edition  of  Harper's 
Monthly  every  month.  No  theatre  or  musical  production  appeared  in 
Savannah  without  a  story  and,  often,  a  review.  Monthly  book  reviews 
always  received  prominent  play.  And  Thompson  made  sure  to  give  at  least 
some  mention  of  the  various  parties,  balls,  and  other  events  of  Savannah's 
social  set.26  The  editor  even  occasionally  inserted  some  of  his  own  humor- 
ous fiction  in  the  Morning  News. 

At  least  initially,  the  Morning  News  largely  steered  clear  of  politics  in 
its  editorial  columns,  maintaining  its  much-ballyhooed  neutrality  and 
independence.  Instead,  Thompson  often  used  the  space  to  express  civic 
pride,  praising  the  beauty  of  Savannah  and  promoting  the  city  as  the  ideal 
place  to  live  and  conduct  business.  Occasionally,  he  would  express  his 
moral  indignation  against  popular  novels  of  low-life,  the  miracle  cures 
being  peddled  by  some  merchants,  and  the  news  that  a  big  cockfight  was 
to  be  held  in  Savannah.27 

However,  most  of  Thompson's  editorials  were  more  like  the  one 
about  "Lover's  Lane"  in  which  he  praised  city  officials  for  making  long- 
overdue  improvements  to  the  popular  roadway.  "We  are  pleased  to  learn 
from  the  report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Council  last  night,  that  Lover's 
Lane  has  been  rendered  passable  for  vehicles,"  Thompson  wrote.  "We 
hope  that  we  shall  have  no  more  complaints  of  the  miserable  condition  of 
the  road,  which  for  some  times  past  made  this  pleasant  drive  almost 
impassable.  'The  course  of  true  love  never  does  run  smoothly,'  but  that  is 
no  reason  why  Lover's  Lane  shouldn't."28 

Yet  even  in  its  first  year  of  publishing,  there  were  signs  in  the 
Morning  News  that  Thompson  was  not  going  to  be  able  to  maintain 
neutral  about  politics,  especially  the  growing  debate  over  slavery's  future 
in  the  South.  The  editor  had  been  largely  silent  regarding  the  debate  over 
the  Compromise  of  1850.   However,  the  Morning  News  had  only  been 
publishing  for  a  couple  months  when  Thompson  declared  support  for  a 
convention  of  Southern  states  to  be  held  in  Nashville  to  discuss  the 
activities  of  Northern  abolitionists.  Thompson  was  not  as  ready  as  some 
to  offer  voters  a  choice  between  secession  and  submission,  but  he  argued 
the  convention  was  a  vital  step  toward  protecting  the  South's  interests. 

Thompson  criticized  Whig  journals  in  the  state  that  claimed  there 
was  a  lack  of  interest  by  Georgians  in  a  convention.  The  editor  admitted 
there  was  "no  excitement"  in  the  state  to  meet,  but  he  argued  the  South 
needed  to  send  a  message  of  unity  to  the  North.  "On  the  question  of 
resistance  to  the  Northern  aggression  there  is  no  division  at  the  South,"  he 
declared,  "and  whether  there  be  a  convention  or  not  the  north  may  rest 
assured  that  the  Southern  people  will  submit  to  no  further  wrong."29 


24  Risky  Fall  1999 


Thompson  Argues  for  Southern  Unity 

Despite  the  compromise,  secessionists  in  several  states,  including 
Georgia,  decided  to  press  the  issue  and  call  for  a  state  convention.  Georgia 
Governor  George  W.  Towns  called  for  the  election  of  a  special  state 
convention  to  meet  in  December.  As  with  the  Nashville  convention, 
Thompson  could  not  sit  idly  by.  In  several  editorials,  he  did  not  go  so  far 
as  to  urge  secession  but  argued  that  state  unity  necessitated  a  convention. 
Thompson  also  drew  the  line  against  what  was  quickly  becoming  his 
biggest  rival  in  Savannah,  the  Republican.  He  criticized  his  Whig  counter- 
part who  he  claimed  wanted  to  "preserve  his  party  affinities  with  the 
North,  regardless  of  all  consequences  to  his  own  section"  and  who  be- 
lieved there  was  no  alternative  for  the  South,  "but  that  of  submission  or 
disunion."  Thompson  argued  that  only  by  unity  could  the  wrongs  of  the 
South  be  redressed.  Discord,  on  the  other  hand,  would  "invite  further 
aggression  from  our  enemies.  If  disunion  is  to  follow  proper  constitu- 
tional resistance  to  wrong,  on  the  part  of  the  Southern  people,  then  let 
the  responsibility  of  it  rest  upon  the  wrong-doers,  and  not  upon  the 
South."30 

Growing  support  in  Congress  later  in  the  year  for  a  proposal  to 
abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  was  a  clear  indication  of  the 
growing  abolitionist  influence,  Thompson  wrote,  and  that  the  "enemy" 
was  preparing  to  "attack  the  citadel."  The  South  had  no  choice  but  to 
unite  for  the  common  defense  and  "prepare  for  the  final  struggle,"  he 
argued  adding,  "The  only  hope  for  the  Union  of  the  States  is  the  Union 
of  the  South."31 

Thompson  was  especially  concerned  with  what  he  saw  as  the 
"whirlwind  of  fanatacism"  being  spread  by  abolitionists  in  the  North.  He 
claimed  in  one  editorial  that  abolitionists  already  had  seized  the  political 
agenda  and  were  posing  a  grave  threat  to  the  peculiar  institution.  The 
South  had  to  take  action  on  its  own  behalf,  he  wrote.  "Northern  opposi- 
tion is  now,  we  fear,  too  feeble  to  crush  the  hydra-headed  monster,  which 
must  either  prey  upon  the  South  or  retrieve  its  death  blow  at  our 
hands."32  Thompson  also  showed  he  had  little  tolerance  for  freedom  of 
speech  or  the  press,  if  it  protected  abolitionist  agitators.  Although  every- 
one was  entitled  to  their  opinions,  he  argued,  "opinions  dangerous  to  the 
peace  of  the  community,  had  better  be  held  strictly  as  the  private  property 
of  their  possessors  .  .  ."33 

Such  sober  thoughts  were  set  aside  as  the  Morning  News  celebrated 
its  first  anniversary  in  January  1851.  The  management  of  the  newspaper 
marked  the  occasion  by  expanding  the  paper's  size  by  about  one-third. 
The  new  five-column  format  provided  more  room  for  news  and  advertis- 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  25 


ing  and  also  allowed  the  newspaper  to  increase  its  type  size.34  At  the  same 
time,  the  Morning  News  introduced  a  new  front-page  vignette  on  its 
nameplate  featuring  scenes  from  Savannah:  the  port,  ships,  a  train,  and 
prominent  buildings,  along  with  the  Georgia  coat  of  arms.  Later  in  the 
year,  the  Morning  News  purchased  a  new  Hoe  cylinder  power  press 
capable  of  printing  1,500  sheets  an  hour.  It  was  one  more  indication  of 
the  success  of  the  Morning  News,  Thompson  bragged  to  readers. 

Indeed,  by  the  first  anniversary  of  publication,  the  Morning  News 
could  justifiably  claim  a  successful  debut.  It  had  become  the  most  widely 
read  newspaper  in  Savannah;  many  issues  overflowed  with  advertising.  It 
remained  one  of  the  cheapest  papers  in  the  state  and  the  only  one  that 
offered  single-copy  sales.35  The  Morning  News  could  not  claim  the  kind  of 
extensive  or  lively  news  reporting  that  many  other  penny  papers  could, 
but  its  coverage  of  Savannah  certainly  was  respectable. 

Thompson,  however,  clearly  was  finding  it  harder  to  maintain  the 
widely  proclaimed  independence  and  neutrality  of  the  Morning  News. 
While  it  was  true  the  Morning  News  did  not  overtly  support  one  party  or 
another,  it  was  increasingly  evident  the  paper  was  in  no  way  neutral  when 
it  came  to  the  interests  of  the  South.  In  this  respect,  the  Morning  News 
was  no  different  than  most  Southern  newspapers.  Indeed,  the  debate  over 
slavery  increasingly  was  at  the  centrality  of  Southern  thought.36 

Showing  his  conservative  stripes,  Thompson  always  gave  prominent 
play  to  news  of  the  increasing  abolitionist  activity  in  the  North,  often 
inserting  his  own  editorial  comments  about  what  it  meant  to  the  future  of 
slavery  and  the  South.  He  expressed  outrage  at  seeing  a  copy  of  William 
Lloyd  Garrison's  controversial  newspaper,  The  Liberator.  Ignoring  the 
obvious  threats  to  a  free  press,  he  called  on  Southern  postmasters  to  refuse 
to  distribute  the  abolitionist  journal.37  Thompson  even  saw  danger 
lurking  in  less-threatening  sources.  When  the  southern  wing  of  the 
Methodist  Church  sued  the  northern  wing,  Thompson  expressed  grave 
doubt  that  the  Southerners  could  get  justice  in  a  northern  court  with  its 
"strong  prejudice"  against  the  region.38 

The  Morning  News  and  the  Republican  regularly  traded  insults  over 
the  different  views  each  held  about  the  future  course  of  the  South  on 
sectional  issues.  In  this  sense,  they  were  no  different  from  the  rival  party 
papers  in  so  much  of  19th  century  America.39  While  the  Republicans 
editor  was  adept  at  name  calling,  Thompson  was  every  bit  his  equal.  In 
one  editorial,  Thompson  compared  his  rival  at  various  times  to  both  a 
rabid  dog  and  a  slanderous  woman.  Thompson  claimed  the  Republican 
had  misrepresented  the  views  of  the  Morning  News  and  that  readers  knew 
where  his  paper  stood  on  important  issues.40 

Indeed,  the  Morning  News  continued  to  enjoy  a  larger  circulation 
than  its  Savannah  rivals.  Perhaps  bolstered  by  this  fact,  management 


26  Risley  Fall  1999 


raised  the  paper's  single-copy  price  to  three  cents  early  in  1852,  although 
the  weekly,  monthly,  and  annual  subscription  prices  remained  the  same.'*1 
An  indication  of  the  success  of  the  Morning  News  is  that  later  in  the  year  a 
new  journal  joined  the  newspaper  lineup  in  Savannah.  The  Savannah 
Courier  copied  many  of  the  practices  of  the  Morning  News,  most  notably 
its  pricing  structure.  Notably,  however,  the  Courier  announced  it  would 
be  independent,  but  not  neutral  in  politics.42 

Thompson  Supports  Secession 

As  talk  increasingly  turned  to  the  1852  presidential  race,  Thompson 
was  concerned  that  abolitionists  would  seek  to  exert  their  growing 
influence.  He  saw  grave  threats  in  the  activities  of  various  northern  anti- 
slavery  societies,  especially  the  increasingly  controversial  Fugitive  Slave 
Law.  Already,  he  wrote,  it  had  become  clear  that  the  majority  of  North- 
erners were  resolved  on  the  repeal  of  the  law.  In  view  of  this,  he  asked,  "is 
it  not  the  duty  of  the  South  to  be  prepared  for  the  worst,  and  to  assume  a 
firm,  resolute,  and  unmistakable  position  on  this  question?" 

Georgians,  he  declared,  must  "make  no  further  concessions  to  free- 
soil  fanaticism  ...  A  Presidential  contest  is  at  hand.  Parties  are  maneuver- 
ing for  position.  Now  is  the  time  for  Georgia  to  test  the  sincerity,  the 
patriotism  of  the  North."  The  Compromise  of  1850  must  be  upheld,  he 
argued.  And  if  not,  Thompson  wrote  that  Southerners  should  be  prepared 
"to  resist  even  to  the  disruption  of  every  tie  that  binds  us  to  the  Union." 
While  not  embracing  secession,  Thompson  had  joined  the  ranks  of 
Southerners  who  publicly  supported  the  doctrine  that  secession  was  a 
valid  constitutional  remedy,  applicable  in  appropriate  circumstances.  In  so 
doing,  he  made  his  supposedly  neutral  newspaper  increasingly  political 
and  increasingly  Democratic.43 

Meanwhile,  in  its  news  columns,  the  Morning  News  continued  to 
report  the  news  taking  place  in  Savannah:  the  arrival  of  a  new  fire  engine; 
a  lost  child  found  in  the  city;  the  opening  of  the  Savannah  Medical 
College;  and  a  jailbreak  by  two  men  using  a  rope  made  of  bed  sheets.44 
Still,  like  most  of  his  counterparts  at  small  daily  newspapers,  Thompson 
was  doing  the  vast  majority  of  the  writing  and  reporting  found  in  the 
Morning  News.  And  it  was  becoming  increasingly  clear  that  his  interests 
lay  chiefly  in  the  editorial  columns  of  the  newspaper. 

Thompson  seemingly  saw  sectional  antagonism  everywhere.  Sensi- 
tive to  criticism  of  the  region  and  its  "peculiar  institution,"  he  constantly 
felt  the  need  to  promote  and  defend  the  South.  The  editor  liked  to  paint  a 
rosy-hued  picture  of  Southern  progress  toward  economic  self-sufficiency, 
pointing  to  local  examples  such  as  a  new  Savannah-built  steam  engine.45 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  27 


He  advocated  sending  Southern  boys  to  the  region's  schools,  noting,  "If 
collegiate  education  is  inseparable  from  sectional  and  sectarian  influences, 
it  is  proper  that  Southern  parents  should  take  care  that  those  influences 
should  be  favorable  rather  than  hostile  to  our  political  and  domestic 
institutions."46  He  also  cited  statistics  showing  the  long  life  spans  of  many 
blacks  as  proof  that  slave  owners  were  not  the  cruel  monsters  they  often 
were  portrayed  in  the  North.47  Thompson  joined  other  Southerners  in  the 
outcry  over  publication  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  and  its  portrayal  of  slavery. 
The  popular  book  was  even  more  evidence  to  Thompson  that  the  North 
had  become  the  avowed  enemy  of  the  South.  By  1853,  Thompson  was 
proudly  claiming  that  "both  the  authoress  and  her  book  are  rapidly 
sinking  into  insignificance  and  contempt  to  which  the  sordid  moves  of 
the  one  and  the  literary  merits  of  the  other  entitle  them."48 

During  the  difficult  year  of  1854,  Thompson's  editorial  voice  was 
almost  silenced,  at  the  same  time  that  his  newspaper  and  adopted  home- 
town were  badly  shaken.  A  yellow  fever  epidemic  ravaged  Savannah  from 
August  to  November,  killing  more  than  600  people.  Thompson  caught 
the  fever  early  in  the  epidemic  and  was  critically  ill  for  several  weeks. 
When  well  enough  to  travel,  he  and  his  family  fled  to  Augusta  and  later 
across  the  river  into  South  Carolina  to  escape  the  epidemic.49  Thompson 
returned  to  Savannah  in  late  October  to  learn  that  five  members  of  the 
newspaper's  staff  had  died  from  the  fever.  If  the  epidemic  was  not  bad 
enough,  a  major  storm  struck  Savannah  in  the  midst  of  the  outbreak, 
leaving  behind  massive  wreckage.50 

The  unsettled  business  conditions  following  the  epidemic  and 
storm,  combined  with  the  nationwide  recession  of  1854-1855,  caused 
frequent  changes  in  the  ownership  of  the  Morning  News  over  the  next  five 
years.  In  November  1854,  Thompson  and  Cooper  took  in  two  additional 
partners.  The  following  March,  Thompson  purchased  the  shares  of 
Cooper  and  the  two  new  partners,  making  him  the  sole  owner  as  well  as 
editor.  In  a  message  to  readers,  Thompson  pledged  to  continue  the 
editorial  philosophy  of  the  Morning  News,  saying  its  success  had  proven 
the  wisdom  of  maintaining  "perfect  neutrality  and  independence  of  all 
parties,  cliques,  or  factions."51 

Thompson  Supports  the  Democrats 

By  1855,  however,  it  was  abundantly  clear  that  the  Morning  News 
had  become  anything  but  neutral.  There  is  no  indication  that  the  Morning 
News  ever  received  party  patronage  from  the  Democratic  Party.  Even  so, 
Thompson  was  finding  it  difficult  to  divorce  himself  from  politics.52  At 
the  same  time,  it  was  evident  the  editor  had  made  a  home  for  himself  in 


28  Risley  Fall  1999 


Savannah.  Thompson  moved  in  Savannah's  leading  political,  business, 
and  social  circles.  He  became  port  warden  and  chairman  of  the  board  of 
health.  He  was  one  of  a  group  of  businessmen  who  guaranteed  the  bonds 
of  the  Savannah,  Albany,  and  Gulf  Railroad.  A  play  based  on  his  Major 
Jones  books  was  regularly  performed,  and  he  had  the  honor  of  seeing  the 
name  Major  Jones  given  to  an  ornate  coach  that  took  pleasure  seekers  to 
nearby  Tybee  Island.  He  was  even  elected  a  Democratic  committeeman 
from  Chatham  County.53  Thompson  and  the  Morning  News  had  become 
inseparable.  As  a  man  with  literary  talents  and  interests,  the  editor  no 
doubt  took  pride  in  his  independence.  However,  he  also  had  become  a 
devoted  Georgian  and  a  Southerner.  He  put  his  love  for  the  state  and  its 
traditional  way  of  life  above  that  independence. 

The  difficulties  Thompson  and  his  newspaper  went  through  in 
1854  kept  the  editor  largely  quiet  on  such  issues  as  the  Kansas  -  Ne- 
braska Act  and  the  rise  of  the  anti-immigration  party,  the  Know-Noth- 
ings.  However,  Thompson  roared  back  on  his  editorial  page  the  follow- 
ing year  as  these  topics  increasingly  grabbed  the  nation's  attention.  The 
Know-Nothings,  also  known  as  the  Americans,  had  exploited  the 
growing  animosity  toward  Catholics  and  foreigners,  while  competing 
with  both  Whigs  and  Republicans  for  the  anti-Democratic  vote.  Thomp- 
son viewed  Know-Nothingism  as  in  "deadly  hostility  to  the  institutions 
and  rights  of  the  South."  All  signs,  Thompson  wrote,  pointed  to  the 
Know-Nothings  becoming  a  sectional  party  comprised  of  free-soilers  and 
old  Whigs.  As  such,  it  was  "another  solemn  admonition  that  the  time  is 
rapidly  approaching  when  the  question  is  to  be  determined  whether 
those  rights  and  institutions  can  be  maintained  by  us  under  the  Consti- 
tution .  ..."  It  also  was  more  evidence  to  Thompson  that  the  South 
must  unite  under  the  Democratic  Party.54 

Perhaps  because  Know-Nothingism  attracted  relatively  little  interest 
from  Georgians,  Thompson  directed  most  of  his  attention  to  the  increas- 
ingly violent  struggle  taking  place  in  Kansas.  While  the  Kansas  -  Nebraska 
Act  was  being  debated  in  Congress,  abolitionist  and  pro-slavery  groups  raced 
to  control  the  fate  of  the  state.  The  editor  was  outraged  that  emigrant  aid 
societies  had  sponsored  free-soil  settlers  moving  to  Kansas,  ignoring  that 
Missourians  had  used  force  to  repel  the  settlers.55  For  Thompson  it  was  one 
thing  when  the  anti-slavery  message  had  been  largely  confined  to  abolitionist 
groups,  churches,  and  legislative  halls,  but  the  events  in  Kansas  showed  that 
abolitionists  were  going  too  far.  The  "demon  of  Abolitionism"  had  grown 
beyond  the  North's  power  to  control  it,  he  argued.  "Unfortunately,  for  the 
country,  what  has  been  a  merely  moral  question  at  the  North  ..."  he  wrote, 
"is  at  the  South  a  material  question  of  the  gravest  importance,  involving  our 
very  existence  as  a  people."56 


Fall  1999  •American  Journalism  29 


For  Thompson,  the  settlement  of  Kansas  was  a  clear  trial  of  sectional 
strength.  With  the  stakes  so  high,  Thompson  stepped  up  his  invective  and 
cast  the  Kansas  question  in  apocalyptic  terms.  "We  have  surely  fallen  on 
evil  days,"  he  wrote.  "A  dark  cloud  is  gathering  on  our  Western  border.  A 
spirit  of  reckless  fanaticism  rules  the  day,  threatening  .  .  .  the  American 
people."57  Thompson  argued  that  the  state's  newspapers  had  not  been 
doing  enough  to  make  the  issues  at  stake  in  Kansas  clear  to  Georgians.  To 
him  the  role  of  the  South's  press  was  clear.  "The  time  has  come  when  the 
question  if  [sic]  Southern  equality  and  rights  in  the  union  must  be  met," 
he  wrote,  "and  the  press  is  but  performing  its  duty  to  the  South  and  the 
country  by  pointing  out  the  imminence  of  the  danger."  Georgians  must 
"meet  our  foes  .  .  .  with  their  own  weapons,"  he  declared.  "If  the  Consti- 
tution and  laws  are  to  be  disregarded,  and  Kansas  is  to  be  the  battle 
ground  .  .  .  then  Georgia  should  lose  no  time  in  being  represented 
there."58 

As  the  violence  in  Kansas  increased,  Thompson  stepped  up  his 
rhetoric.  Wasting  few  words,  he  declared  that,  "Even  the  most  conserva- 
tive of  the  South  must  view  a  large  majority  of  the  people  of  the  North  as 
enemies."59  He  pounded  home  that  message,  as  hardly  a  day  went  by 
without  some  kind  of  editorial  comment.  The  editor  also  gave  up  any 
public  pretense  of  the  Morning  News  being  politically  neutral.  His  at- 
tempts at  extolling  the  virtues  of  nonpartisanship,  which  he  had  pro- 
claimed regularly  in  the  paper  since  the  Morning  News  began  publishing, 
ceased  altogether. 

In  his  editorials,  Thompson  decried  the  support  given  to  abolition- 
ists by  Northern  churches.  He  reveled  in  stories  about  alleged  poor 
treatment  of  free  blacks  in  the  North.  He  also  defended  the  vicious  caning 
of  Senator  Charles  Sumner  by  Representative  Preston  Brooks.60  He  called 
John  Brown  and  participants  in  the  so-called  Pottawatomie  Massacre  of 
pro-slavery  settlers  in  Kansas  a  "curse  to  the  nation  and  a  disgrace  to  the 
human  race."61  And  he  referred  to  members  of  the  emerging  Republican 
Party  as  revolutionaries  who  possessed  all  "the  elements  of  anarchy."  "Are 
they  only  a  darker  shade  of  that  same  class  of  men  who,  in  the  French 
Revolution,  filled  the  civilized  world  with  horror  and  dismay?"  Thompson 
asked.62 

The  racial  aspects  of  Southern  life  increasingly  crept  into  the  editori- 
als found  in  the  Morning  News.  Perhaps  mindful  of  his  own  Northern 
upbringing,  Thompson  criticized  the  nativist  platform  of  the  Know- 
Nothing  Party,  saying  it  was  not  consistent  with  American  principles 
welcoming  "true  men  of  every  nation  and  clime"  so  long  as  they  were  of 
the  right  skin  color.  He  urged  Southerners  to  distance  themselves  from 
such  thinking  and  to  welcome  anyone  "who  stands  with  us  on  the  white 


30  Risley  Fall  1999 


man's  platform."  As  men  devoted  to  the  Constitution  and  the  rights  of 
the  South,  Thompson  wrote,  "We  go  for  the  white  basis  of  political 
equality."  The  editor  had  no  use  for  "Parson"  Brownlow,  the  controversial 
Tennessee  editor  who  was  an  outspoken  Unionist.64  Thompson  also  had 
nothing  but  contempt  for  those  men  and  women  in  the  South  who  dared 
criticize  slavery.  When  two  men  tried  to  speak  out  against  the  treatment 
of  slaves  in  Savannah,  they  were  rightly  arrested,  he  noted.  Both  men,  the 
editor  snidely  remarked,  "should  be  thankful  at  having  escaped  a  coat  of 
tar  and  feathers."65 

The  Morning  News  also  stepped  up  its  defense  of  the  Souths  treat- 
ment of  blacks.  In  one  editorial,  Thompson  described  a  local  Negro 
Sunday  school  class  walking  to  the  park  for  a  May  picnic.  The  colorful 
procession,  he  wrote,  would  "have  made  Aunt  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe's 
philanthropic  heart  throb.  We  are  sure  that  she  never  saw  a  happy  or 
better  clad  party,  composed  of  the  children  of  the  laboring  poor,  either  in 
this  country  or  in  Europe."66 

Thompson  reveled  in  the  news  that  a  group  of  white  shipyard 
workers  in  Baltimore  were  protesting  the  hiring  of  free  blacks.  The 
incident,  he  wrote,  was  one  more  example  that  Negroes  "have  been  driven 
from  every  employment  that  a  white  man  will  engage  in."  His  cure  for  the 
problem  was  predictable.  "As  a  civilized  being  the  African  must  'earn  his 
bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,'  and  while  he  occupies  the  same  soil  with 
the  white  man  his  only  security  is  in  the  guardianship  established  by  the 
relation  of  master  and  slave."67 

The  editor  also  had  plenty  to  say  about  the  news  of  a  plan  to  move 
thousands  of  free  blacks  in  New  York  to  Haiti.  It  would  be  far  better  for 
the  Negroes  if  they  were  returned  to  slavery  in  the  South,  Thompson 
noted.  There  could  be  no  denying  that  the  slaves  of  the  South  were  not 
only  happier  than  free  blacks  in  the  North,  he  wrote,  but  "many  wise 
people  believe  them  to  be  the  most  thoroughly  contented  people  on  the 
face  of  the  earth."  "[M]any  a  poor  starving  black  .  .  .  sighs  when  he  thinks 
of  the  glorious  days  spent  on  the  old  plantation  and  in  his  heart  desires  to 
return  to  the  corn  and  cotton  fields  of  his  youth."68 

Opposes  Greeley  and  Bennett 

A  frequent  target  of  Thompson's  attacks  was  the  northern  press, 
particularly  New  York  editors  Horace  Greeley  and  James  Gordon  Bennett. 
He  criticized  the  New  York  dailies  for  their  appetite  for  crime  and  sensa- 
tionalism, conveniently  forgetting  that  the  Morning  News  also  had  used 
such  stories  to  sell  papers  for  years.69  But  far  worse  were  the  stances  of  the 
Tribune  and  Herald  on  the  slavery  issue.  In  Thompson's  view,  Bennett  was 


Fall  1999  •American  Journalism  31 


a  traitor  to  his  race  and  country  who  had  repeatedly  slandered  and 
insulted  the  South.70  Greeley,  who  was  derisively  referred  to  as  the  "Phi- 
losopher," was  ridiculed  for  his  support  of  abolitionism  and  his  love  of 
new  ideas.71 

Bennett  and  Greeley  were  not  the  only  editors  who  came  under 
assault  by  Thompson.  The  squabbling  between  Thompson  and  his 
counterpart  at  the  Savannah  Republican  had  grown  increasingly  antagonis- 
tic and  bitter.  The  two  editors  traded  different  opinions — and  barbs — 
over  a  congressional  bill  in  1859  to  ban  slavery  from  the  Arizona  territory. 
The  Republican's  editor  concluded  his  article  by  alluding  to  the  position  of 
the  Morning  News  and  commenting,  "there  are  some  elements  .  .  .  that 
only  come  to  the  surface  when  its  waters  are  agitated  and  muddied."  To 
which  Thompson  replied  the  next  day,  "And  there  are  some  excrescences 
(sic)  that  only  grow  .  .  .  calm  and  stagnation,  and  are  the  sure  index  of 
surrounding  impurity,  corruption,  and  decay."72  By  this  point,  the 
Morning  News  and  the  Republican  were  the  only  two  papers  still  publish- 
ing in  Savannah.  A  lack  of  funding  had  led  the  Courier  to  close  several 
years  earlier.  More  surprising  was  the  closing  of  the  Loyal  Georgian  in 
1858.  No  reasons  were  given  by  its  publishers,  but  certainly  the  increas- 
ingly Democratic  stance  of  the  Morning  News  made  it  difficult  for  the 
Loyal  Georgian  to  distinguish  itself. 

By  1859,  Thompson's  worst  fears  were  coming  true.  The  rise  of  the 
hated  "Black  Republicans"  posed  an  undeniable  threat  to  the  South  and 
slavery,  in  his  view.  With  John  Brown's  ill-fated  raid  on  Harper's  Ferry, 
and  the  subsequent  northern  reaction,  Thompson  had  all  the  evidence  he 
needed  that  the  North  was  indeed  the  enemy,  although  he  initially  chose 
his  words  carefully.  Brown's  attempt  to  "deluge  the  Southern  States  in 
blood,"  Thompson  wrote,  should  be  enough  to  convince  Southerners  of 
"the  necessity  of  greater  watchfulness  and  of  some  .  .  .  effective  means  of 
protecting  themselves."74  However,  Northern  sympathy  with  Brown's  plot 
angered  Southerners  more  than  any  single  thing  "in  the  long  list  of 
Northern  wrongs,"  he  argued.  Even  the  most  conservative  men,  Thomp- 
son wrote,  "regard  the  separation  of  North  and  South  as  an  inevitable,  if 
not  an  imminent  necessity."75 

Never  a  Neutral  Newspaper 

By  the  end  of  the  decade,  it  was  clear  that  William  Tappan  Thompson's 
attempt  to  publish  a  politically  neutral  newpaper  in  Savannah  had  failed. 
Although  the  Morning  News  never  was  officially  the  political  organ  of  any 
party,  it  also  was  never  as  neutral  as  the  editor  liked  to  claim.  Declaring 
the  Morning  News  to  be  a  penny  paper  was  a  clear  way  to  distinguish  the 


32  Risley  Fall  1999 


journal  from  Savannah's  existing  partisan  press.  However,  the  Morning 
News  gradually  succumbed  to  the  narrow  sectional  orthodoxy  of  the 
South,  until  by  1 860  it  was  as  solidly  a  conservative,  Democratic  sheet  as 
any  newspaper  in  Georgia.  In  this  sense,  the  Morning  News  was  not  so 
different  from  earlier  penny  papers  in  the  North  that  claimed  to  be 
nonpartisan,  but  in  practice  were  not.  And,  indeed,  Thompson  was  no 
less  passionate  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  as  other  penny  editors  in  the 
North,  most  notably  Greeley,  who  opposed  the  institution,  and  Bennett, 
who  supported  it. 

The  Morning  News,  in  fact,  is  more  proof  that  old  ideas  regarding 
the  political  neutrality  of  the  penny  press  as  a  whole  should  be  put  to  rest. 
Thompson  himself  recognized  what  had  become  of  his  grand  experiment 
at  neutrality  six  years  later,  after  civil  war  had  ravaged  his  beloved  South. 
In  a  letter  to  a  friend,  the  former  novelist  wrote,  "For  the  past  1 5  years  I 
have  been  completely  absorbed  with  politics  and  so  identified  with  the 
exciting  questions  of  the  time,  that  I  have  given  no  thought  to  the  more 
congenial  pursuits  of  literature.  But  in  politics  as  in  everything  else  my  life 
has  been  a  failure."76 

Thompson  was  being  too  hard  on  himself.  He  had  launched  a 
successful  daily  newspaper,  one  that  is  still  publishing  today.77  Moreover, 
the  editor  had  shown  through  the  Morning  News  that  financial  indepen- 
dence from  political  parties  was  indeed  possible  in  the  South,  and  that  a 
successful  newspaper  could  be  established  through  a  mass  circulation,  not 
necessarily  a  political  one.  Yet  Thompson  also  had  learned  that  while 
political  neutrality  was  easy  to  declare  in  mid- 19th  century  America,  it 
was  much  harder  to  maintain,  especially  for  one  so  committed  to  the  ways 
of  the  Old  South. 


Endnotes 

'Stephen  B.  Oates,  To  Purge  This  Land  With  Blood:  A  Biography  of  John  Brown  (New  York:  Harper 
&  Row,  1970),  290-358;  David  M.  Potter,  The  Impending  Crisis,  1848-1861,  ed.  Don  E. 
Fehrehbacher  (New  York:  Harper  &  Row,  1976),  356-384;  Daily  Morning  News,  3  December  1859. 

"For  the  defense  of  slavery  in  general,  see  Drew  Gilpin  Faust,  The  Ideology  of  Slavery:  Proslavery 
Thought  in  the  Antebellum  South,  1830-1860  (Baton  Rouge:  Louisiana  State  University  Press,  1981); 
and  William  Sumner  Jenkins,  Pro-Slavery  Thought  in  the  Old  South  (Chapel  Hill:  University  of  Notth 
Carolina  Press,  1935). 

3Daily  Morning  News,  15  January  1850. 

''Carl  R.  Osthaus,  Partisans  of  the  Southern  Press:  Editorial  Spokesman  of  the  19th  Century 
(Lexington:  University  Press  of  Kentucky,  1994),  69-94;  Avery  Craven,  The  Growth  of  Southern 
Nationalism,  1848-1861  (Baton  Rouge:  Louisiana  State  University  Press,  1953),  303-311;  Clement 
Eaton,  The  Growth  of  Southern  Civilization:  1790-1860  (New  York:  Harper  &  Brothers,  1961),  265- 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  33 


270;  and  Frank  Luther  Mott,  American  Journalism:  A  History  1690-1960,  3rd  ed.  (New  York: 
Macmillan,  1962),  228-252. 

5See,  generally,  Dwight  L.  Dumond,  Southern  Editorials  on  Secession  (New  York:  Century  Co. 
1931).  For  a  discussion  of  the  secession  debate  in  Georgia,  see  Louis  Turner  Griffith  and  John  Erwin 
Talmadge,  Georgia  Journalism  1 763-1 950  (Athens:  University  of  Georgia  Press),  43-65. 

''W.  David  Sloan,  and  Julie  Hedgepeth  Williams,  The  Early  American  Press,  1690-1783  (Westport: 
Greenwood  Press,  1994);  Culver  H.  Smith,  The  Press,  Politics  and  Patronage:  The  American 
Government's  Use  of  Morning  Newspapers  1789-1875  (Athens:  University  of  Georgia  Press,  1977);  and 
Gerald  J.  Baldasty,  "The  Press  and  Politics  in  the  Age  of  Jackson,  "Journalism  Monographs  89  (1984). 

7The  literature  on  the  penny  press  is  extensive.  Frank  Luther  Mott,  American  Journalism:  A  History 
1690-1960,  3rd  ed.  (New  York:  Macmillan,  1962),  228-252;  Michael  Emery  and  Edwin  Emery,  The 
Press  and  America:  An  Interpretive  History  of  the  Mass  Media,  8th  ed.  (New  Yotk:  Simon  &  Schuster, 
1996),  99-106;  Michael  Schudson,  Discovering  the  Morning  News:  A  Social  History  of  American 
Morning  Newspapers  (New  York:  Basic  Books,  1978),  14-58;  Dan  Schiller,  Objectivity  and  the 
Morning  News,  The  Public  and  the  Rise  of  Commercial  Morning  Newspapers  (Philadelphia:  University 
of  Pennsylvania  Press,  1981);  Gerald  Baldasty,  The  Commercialization  of  News  in  the  19th  Century 
(Madison:  University  of  Wisconsin  Press,  1992);  and  James  L.  Crouthamel,  Bennett's  New  York  Herald 
and  the  Rise  of  the  Popular  Press  (Syracuse:  Syracuse  University  Press,  1989). 

"For  changing  views  of  the  penny  press,  see  John  C.  Nerone,  "The  Mythology  of  the  Penny  Press," 
Critical  Studies  in  Mass  Communication  4  ( 1987) ;  David  Mindich,  Just  the  Facts:  How  "Objectivity" 
Came  to  Define  American  Journalism  (New  York:  New  York  University  Press,  1998),  15-63;  William  E. 
Huntzicker,  The  Popular  Press,  1833-1865  (Westport:  Greenwood  Press,  1999),  35-51;  and  Andrew 
Saxton,  "Problems  of  Race  and  Class  in  the  Origins  of  the  Mass  Circulation  Press,"  American 
Quarterly,  36,  21 1-234.  Among  the  penny  papers  that  were  notably  partisan  were  the  New  York 
Herald  and  the  New  York  Tribune. 

''Osthaus,  Partisans  of  the  Southern  Press:  Editorial  Spokesman  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  ,  47-68. 

'"Harold  A.  Williams,  "Light  for  All:  Arunah  S.  Abell  and  the  Rise  of  the  Baltimore  Sun," 
Maryland  Historical  Magazine,  82  (Fall  1987),  197-213. 

"Lester  Cappon,  Virginia  Morning  Newspapers,  1821-1935  (New  York:  Appleton-Century,  1936),  8. 

l2The  letters  of  Jones,  an  uneducated,  independent-minded  farmer  whose  activities  provided 
humorous  commentary  on  domestic  life,  appeared  in  one  ot  the  journals  and  afterwards  were 
collected  under  the  title,  Major  Jones's  Courtship  .  Two  other  books  were  later  published,  Major  Jones's 
Chronicles  ofPineville  and  Major  Jones's  Sketches  of  Travel.  Henry  Prentice  Miller,  "Life  and  Works  of 
William  Tappan  Thompson,"  (unpublished  Ph.D.  dissertation,  University  of  Chicago,  1942),  1-14. 

"Miller,  "Life  and  Works,"  26-29. 

l4Charles  H.  Olmstead,  "Savannah  in  the  40s,"  Georgia  Historical  Quarterly,  1  (September  1917): 
243-252;  Griffith  and  Talmadge,  Georgia  Journalism  ,  47-48. 

l5Daily  Morning  News,  15  January  1850. 

KGriffin  and  Talmadge,  Georgia  Journalism,  47-48;  Daily  Morning  News,  15  January  1850. 

'  Daily  Morning  News,  30  January  1850.  No  circulation  figures  are  available  to  verify  the  claims  of 
the  Morning  News,  but  it  is  significant  that  neither  the  Republican  nor  Loyal  Georgian  disputed  the 
circulation  figures,  as  they  most  certainly  would  have  done  if  the  figures  were  not  true.  Daily  Morning 
News,  27  February  1850. 

'"Daily  Morning  News,  25  July  1850. 

'"Ibid.,  3  May  1850. 

-"Ibid.,  4  March  1850. 

2lDaily  Morning  News,  20  March  1850. 

"Ibid.,  25  April  1850;  26  April  1850. 

:,Andie  Tucher,  Froth  and  Scum:  Truth,  Beauty,  Goodness  and  the  Ax  Murder  in  America's  First  Mass 
Medium  (Chapel  Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina  Press,  1994),  7-20;  Mott,  American  Journalism,  243. 

24Daily  Morning  News,  15  January  1850. 

"Ibid.,  15  February  1850. 

'f,In  one  issue,  Thompson  publicly  complained  how  he  had  been  able  to  attend  only  two  of  the 
three  social  gatherings  he  had  been  invited  to  one  evening.  Daily  Morning  News,  14  February  1851. 


34  Risley  Fall  1999 


J7Ibid.,  27  February  1850;  30  March  1851;  19  April  1852. 

2!%id.,  15  December  1853. 

-"Michael  Holt,  The  Political  Crisis  of  the  1850s,  (New  York:  W.W.  Norton,  1972),  67-99;  Potter, 
The  Impending  Crisis,  104-105;  Daily  Morning  News,  22  April  1850. 

3"Horace  Montgomery,  "The  Crisis  of  1850  and  its  Effect  on  Political  Parties  in  Georgia,"  Georgia 
Historical  Quarterly  (1940),  293-322;  Richard  Harrison  Shyrock,  Georgia  and  the  Union  in  1850 
(Durham:  Duke  University  Press,  1926),  295-363;  Daily  Morning  News,  2  October  1850. 

"Daily  Morning  News,  24  September  1850. 

3'Ibid.,  19  November  1850.  Some  penny  editors  were  as  critical  of  the  South  and  slavery  as 
Thompson  was  of  the  North  and  abolitionism.  Most  notable  perhaps  was  Horace  Greeley  of  the  New 
York  Tribune.  Ralph  R.  Fahrney,  Horace  Greeley  and  the  Tribune  in  the  Civil  War  (Cedar  Rapids:  Torch 
Press,  1936),  7-37. 

"Ibid.,  14  August  1850. 

34Ibid.,  15  January  1851. 

35By  1851,  both  of  Savannah's  other  daily  papers  had  lowered  their  annual  and  semi-annual 
subscription  rates  to  that  of  the  Morning  News.  As  best  as  can  be  determined,  however,  neither  paper 
offered  single-issue  sales. 

36See,  generally,  Craven,  Growth  of  Southern  Nationalism;  Jenkins,  Pro-Slavery  Thought  in  the  Old 
South . 

37Daily  Morning  News,  22  July  1 85 1 . 

38Ibid.,  21  July  1851. 

3''Eaton,  Growth  of  Southern  Civilization,  268;  Osthaus,  Partisans  of  the  Southern  Press,  1-11. 
4"Daily  Morning  Ne ws,  31  January  1851. 

4lIbid.,  15  January  1852. 

42Ibid.,  21  August  1852.  Very  little  is  known  about  the  Courier.  Only  one  issue  of  the  paper  is 
known  to  exist. 

43Stanley  W.  Campbell,  Slave  Catchers:  Enforcement  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  1850-1860  (Chapel 
Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina  Press,  1968),  49-54;  Potter,  Impending  Crisis,  130-139;  Daily 
Morning  News,  11  February  1852. 

«Daily  Morning  News,  1  July  1852;  7  October  1852;  3  March  1853;  25  April  1853. 

45Ibid.,  30  August  1853. 

46Ibid.,  29  March  1850. 

47Ibid„  11  March  1853. 

48Craven,  Growth  of  Southern  Nationalism,  1 50- 1 57;  James  M.  McPherson,  Battle  Cry  for  Freedom: 
The  CivilWarEra  (New  York:  Ballantine  Books,  1988),  88-90;  Daily  Morning  News,  7  July  1853. 

49Daily  Morning  News,  24  October  1854. 

5(,Ibid.,  9  September  1854. 

i]D&\\y  Morning  News,  24  March  1855. 

"Patronage  from  the  U.S.  State  Department  in  the  mid- 1850s  went  to  two  other  Georgia  papers, 
the  Augusta  Constitutionalist  and  Columbus  Times  and  Sentinel.  Smith,  Press,  Politics  and  Patronage, 
270. 

"Miller,  Life  and  Works,  31-32;  Carl  R.  Osthaus,  "From  the  Old  South  to  the  New  South:  The 
Editorial  Career  of  William  Tappan  Thompson  and  the  Savannah  Morning  News,"  Southern  Quarterly 
14  (April  1976),  240-241.  In  becoming  active  in  political  circles,  Thompson  was  following  in  the 
footsteps  of  rival  editors  in  the  North  such  as  Henry  Raymond  of  The  Neiv  York  Times,  who  was  a 
Whig  activist  and  elected  lieutenant  governor  of  New  York  in  1854.  Francis  Brown,  Raymond  of  the 
Times  (New  York:  W  W  Norton,  1 95 1 ),  1 29- 1 52. 

5,,Holt,  The  Political  Crisis  of  the  1850s,  156-175;  Anthony  Gene  Carey,  "Too  Southern  to  be 
Americans:  Proslavery  Politics  and  the  Failure  of  the  Know-Nothing  Party  in  Georgia,  1854-1865." 
Civil  War  History,  (1995),  22-40;  Daily  Morning  News,  16  June  1855. 

"Potter,  Impending  Crisis,  199-224.  McPherson,  Battle  Cry  for  Freedom,  145-169;  James  A.  Rawley, 
Bleeding  Kansas  and  the  Coming  of  the  Civil  War  (Philadelphia:  J.B.  Lippincott,  1969),  79-92. 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  35 


56Daily  Morning  News,  25  May  1855;  24  August  1855;  9  October  1855. 

57Ibid.,  24  August  1855. 

5sIbid.,  9  October  1855.  Thompson  himself  became  one  of  the  leaders  of  a  local  committee  created 
to  raise  funds  for  pro-slavery  settlers  in  Kansas.  In  his  hatred  for  abolitionists,  Thompson  was  much 
like  James  Gordon  Bennett  who  regularly  referred  to  them  by  a  variety  of  names  such  as  "beastly 
radicals."  Douglas  Fermer,  James  Gordon  Bennett  and  the  New  York  Herald:  A  Study  of  Editorial 
Opinion  in  the  Civil  War  Era,  1854-1867  (New  York:  St.  Martins  Press,  1986),  62-72;  Crouthamel, 
Bennett's  New  York  Herald,  x. 

"Ibid.,  22  January  1856. 

'"'Ibid.,  29  July  1856. 

"Ibid.,  28  August  1856. 

wOates,  To  Purge  This  Land,  126-137;  Daily  Morning  News ,  19  August  1856. 

"Daily  Morning  Neivs,  1  October  1857. 

MIbid.,31  August  1858. 

"Ibid.,  27  December  1856. 

"Ibid.,  6  May  1858. 

67Ibid.,  15  June  1858. 

"Ibid.,  31  July  1858. 

MIbid.,  23  May  1857. 

7"Ibid„  5  August  1856. 

7lIbid.,  6  August  1857. 

72Ibid.,  7  February  1859. 

7,Ibid.,  15  August  1858. 

74Daily  Morning  News,  22  October  1859;  Oates,  To  Purge  This  Land  With  Blood,  290-358;  Potter, 
The  Impending  Crisis,  356-384;  Osthaus,  "From  the  Old  South  to  the  New  South,"  243. 

"Daily  Morning  News,  11  November  1859. 

7"'Letter  to  Salem  Dutcher,"  16  October  1866,  as  quoted  in  Miller,  Life  and  Works,  29. 

"The  Morning  News  changed  owners  and  acquired  a  new  name,  the  Daily  Herald,  in  1865  after 
Savannah  was  captured  by  the  Union  Army  in  December  1864.  The  papers  name  was  changed  back 
to  the  Morning  News  in  1868  and  it  maintains  that  name  today.  Griffith  andTalmadge,  Georgia 
Journalism,  400. 


36  Risley- Fall  1999 


"One  of  the  fine  figures  of 
American  journalism":  A  Closer 
Look  at  Josephus  Daniels  of  the 
Raleigh  News  and  Observer 

by  W.  Joseph  Campbell 

This  article  examines  the  prominent  yet  little-studied  role  of  Josephus 
Daniels — owner  and  editor  of  the  Raleigh  News  and  Observer,  who  has 
been  called  "one  of  the  fine  figures  of  American  journalism" — in  the  white 
supremacy  political  campaigns  in  North  Carolina  100  years  ago.  Daniels' 
newspaper  also  applauded  the  destruction  in  1898  of  the  leading  African 
American  newspaper  in  North  Carolina,  justifying  the  anti-press  violence  in 
the  name  of  white  supremacy.  Daniels'  advocacy  of  white  supremacy  and  black 
disfranchisement  has  been  consistently  overlooked  or  little-examined  by 
journalism  historians  who  have  typically  regarded  Daniels  as  a  progressive 
Southern  journalist  who  opposed  railroad  and  tobacco  trusts.  This  study,  in 
scrutinizing  Daniels'  militancy  in  favor  of  what  he  called  "the  elimination  of 
the  Negro  from  politics, " argues  for  a  fuller,  more  critical  assessment  of  a 
journalist  who  styled  himself  an  "editor  in  politics.  " 

The  greatest  folly  and  crime  in  our  national  history  was  the 
establishment  of  [N]egro  suffrage  immediately  after  the  [Civil] 
War.  Not  a  single  good  thing  has  come  of  it,  but  only  evil. 
— Editorial  in  Raleigh  News  and  Observer,  28  January  1900' 


W.  Joseph  Campbell,  formerly  a  newspaper  and  wire  service  reporter  in  the  United  States, 
Europe,  and  Africa,  is  an  Assistant  Professor  in  the  School  of  Communication  at  American 
University  in  Washington,  DC. 

Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  37 


One  hundred  years  ago  North  Carolina  was  locked  in 
successive  "white  supremacy"  political  campaigns.  They 
were  virulent,  often-violent  movements  that  shattered  a 
progressive,  if  brittle,  coalition  of  Republicans  and  Populists;  restored 
Democrats  to  what  became  decades  of  unchallenged  political  rule;  and 
denied  suffrage  to  nearly  all  black  residents,  relegating  them  to  political 
obscurity  in  North  Carolina  for  more  than  50  years.2 

A  powerful  leader  of  the  state's  white  supremacy  campaigns  in  1898 
and  1900  was  Josephus  Daniels,  owner  and  editor  of  the  Raleigh  News 
and  Observer,  then  North  Carolina's  largest-circulating  newspaper.3 
Daniels  and  his  newspaper  championed  the  white  supremacy  cause  in 
frequent  news  reports,  vigorously  worded  editorials,  provocative  letters, 
and  vicious  front  page  cartoons  that  called  attention  to  what  the  newspa- 
per declared  were  the  horrors  of  "[Njegro  rule."  Daniels'  News  and 
Observer  also  justified  in  the  name  of  white  supremacy  the  destruction  of 
the  leading  African  American  newspaper  in  North  Carolina  in  a  post- 
election race  riot  in  1898.  Daniels  also  kept  a  watchful  eye  for  challenges 
to  white  supremacy,  seeking  in  one  celebrated  case  the  resignation  of  a 
university  professor  who  criticized  the  racial  intolerance  of  Democratic 
party  leaders  and  their  newspapers. 

Despite  Daniels'  prominence  in  the  white  supremacy  campaigns  in 
North  Carolina,  his  race-baiting  rhetoric  has  scarcely  been  recognized  by 
journalism  historians  or  in  works  of  American  journalism  history.  Rather, 
Daniels'  reputation  in  journalism  history  is  that  of  a  progressive  Southern 
reformer,  a  tireless  crusader  against  railroad  and  tobacco  trusts,  a  "solid 
champion  of  decency,"4  and  "one  of  the  fine  figures  of  American  journal- 
ism."5 

This  study  seeks  to  direct  the  attention  of  journalism  historians  to 
Daniels'  militant  white  supremacy  advocacy  and  argues  for  a  fuller,  more 
critical  assessment  by  historians  of  a  Southern  journalist  who  was  closely 
aligned  with  the  Democratic  party  and,  as  such,  styled  himself  an  "editor 
in  politics."6  This  study,  which  focuses  on  Daniels'  News  and  Observer 
during  the  white  supremacy  campaigns  of  1898  and  1900,  also  offers 
revealing  insight  about  how  partisan  politics  infused  Southern  newspapers 
at  the  turn  of  the  century,  a  topic  which  has  attracted  only  limited 
scholarly  attention.7  The  US  press  near  the  turn  of  the  century  still  tended 
to  be  overtly  politicized  and  Daniels'  News  and  Observer  is  a  telling 
reminder  of  how  partisanship,  not  fair  play  or  tolerance  of  conflicting 
opinions,  often  shaped  the  journalism  of  the  times. 

The  study,  moreover,  demonstrates  the  importance  of  treating  with 
caution  the  characterizations  of  great  virtue  of  figures  in  American 
journalism  and  argues  for  the  importance  of  searching  far  afield,  beyond 


38  Campbell 'Fall  1999 


journalism  history,  for  insights  and  interpretations  about  prominent 
journalists  of  the  past.  There  is,  after  all,  a  small  but  growing  body  of 
literature — including  several  studies  of  the  politics  and  society  in  North 
Carolina  and  the  South  at  the  end  of  the  19th  century,  when  efforts  to 
disfranchise  blacks  became  widespread — that  points  to  Daniels'  central 
role  in  the  white  supremacy  campaigns. 

Daniels  Active  in  Partisan  Politics 

Daniels,  in  his  autobiography,  neither  conceals  nor  apologizes  for  his 
newspaper's  race-baiting  rhetoric.  "The  News  and  Observer  was  relied 
upon  to  carry  the  Democratic  message  and  to  be  the  militant  voice  of 
White  Supremacy,"  he  wrote,  "and  it  did  not  fail  in  what  was  expected, 
sometimes  going  to  extremes  in  its  partisanship."8  Like  many  Southern 
editors  of  his  time,  Daniels  took  an  active  role  in  partisan  politics.9  He 
was  a  national  Democratic  committeeman  and  achieved  a  measure  of 
national  prominence  in  1913  when  President-elect  Woodrow  Wilson 
appointed  him  Navy  secretary.10  Later  he  was  ambassador  to  Mexico 
during  the  presidency  of  Franklin  D.  Roosevelt,  who  had  been  an  Assis- 
tant Secretary  during  Daniels'  years  at  the  Navy  Department." 

Josephus  Daniels  was  born  in  1862  and  grew  up  in  Wilson,  in  the 
heart  of  North  Carolina's  Second  Congressional  District  which,  after  the 
Civil  War,  was  dominated  by  black  voters.  Journalism,  politics  and  race  all 
converged  for  him  at  an  early  age,  as  suggested  by  his  recollection  of 
attending  congressional  nominating  conventions  in  Wilson  as  a  boy: 

The  majority  of  the  delegates  were  [N]egroes,  with  a  mere 
handful  of  white  delegates.  As  soon  as  the  door  of  the  court- 
house was  opened,  the  [Njegroes  crowded  in  so  that  there  was 
no  room  for  white  participants.  A  few  seats  were  reserved  for 
reporters,  and  I  squeezed  into  one  of  these  even  as  a  boy 
before  I  became  a  regular  reporter,  for  I  sent  news  items  to  the 
Raleigh  and  Wilmington  papers.  Think  of  500  perspiring 
[N]egroes  packed  into  a  courthouse,  wrangling  and  fighting, 
on  a  red-hot  day!  It  was  stifling  and  the  odors  were  rank.12 

Daniels  became  editor  of  a  local  newspaper,  the  Wilson  Advance,  in 
1880  and  later  edited  the  State  Chronicle,  a  daily  newspaper  in  Raleigh. 
He  sold  the  money-losing  newspaper  in  1892  and  started  the  North 
Carolinian,  a  weekly  that  was  financially  supported  by  the  Democratic 
party.  The  newspaper's  readership  and  advertising  dropped  after  the  1892 
elections,  and  the  following  year  Daniels  moved  to  Washington,  DC,  and 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  39 


became  chief  clerk  in  the  US  Department  of  the  Interior.  In  1894, 
Daniels'  benefactor,  Julian  S.  Carr,  arranged  for  a  third  party  to  acquire 
the  Raleigh  News  and  Observer  on  Daniels'  behalf,13  and  Daniels  took  up 
the  editorship  later  that  year.  In  doing  so,  Daniels  was  expected  "to 
breathe  new  life"  into  a  demoralized  state  Democratic  party,14  which  in 
1894  had  lost  power  to  a  Republican  -  Populist  coalition  that  was  sup- 
ported by  black  voters.15 

As  editor  of  the  News  and  Observer,  Daniels  was  soon  to  take  a 
central  role  in  championing  the  white  supremacy  movement  in  North 
Carolina  politics — a  role  that  journalism  historians  have  overlooked  or 
sidestepped.  They  have  instead  focused  on  Daniels'  reputation  for  attack- 
ing railroad  and  tobacco  trusts'6  and  for  advocating  public  support  for 
education.17  While  they  have  tended  not  to  assign  great  national  impor- 
tance to  Daniels,  journalism  historians  have  praised  him  for  building  the 
News  and  Observer  "into  one  of  the  South's  leading  newspapers."18  Frank 
Luther  Mott — who  called  Daniels  "one  of  the  fine  figures  of  American 
journalism"19 — extolled  the  News  and  Observer  as  "a  fearless  opponent  of 
textile  and  tobacco  interests  of  the  region  in  certain  monopolistic  and 
anti-labor  activities."20 

Sidney  Kobre,  who  described  the  News  and  Observer  as  "one  of  the 
outstanding  liberal  Democratic  newspapers  in  the  South,"21  noted  that 
Daniels  had  "backed  a  white  supremacy  movement."  Kobre,  however, 
failed  to  explore  the  matter.  Instead,  he  wrote  that  Daniels  "advocated  .  .  . 
equal  educational  opportunities  for  Negroes  in  a  period  when  they  were 
neglected.  Pro-labor  in  policy,  he  urged  better  wages  and  shorter  hours 
and  urged  the  abolition  of  child  labor."22 

"Like  other  decent  white  Southerners" 

Daniels'  biographer,  Joseph  L.  Morrison,  could  hardly  overlook 
Daniels'  white  supremacy  advocacy  and  his  vehement  rhetoric  of  the  late 
19th  century.  But  Morrison  argued  that  Daniels  and  his  race-baiting 
should  not  be  judged  by  norms  of  the  second  half  of  the  20th  century. 
Morrison,  an  altogether  admiring  biographer,  wrote: 

It  is  difficult  for  today's  reader  to  examine  the  White  Su- 
premacy Campaign  files  of  the  News  and  Observer,  replete 
with  racist  talk  and  cruel  cartoons,  and  avoid  judging  Editor 
Daniels  by  today's  rules  rather  than  in  terms  of  the  values  that 
he  then  held  most  dear.  Like  other  decent  white  Southerners, 
Daniels  concluded  that  unless  the  [N]egro  were  removed  from 
politics — for  he  was  deemed  a  surpassing  temptation  to 


40  Campbell 'Fall  1999 


corrupt  white  politicians — there  could  be  no  communal  peace 
or  progress.23 

Such  views — akin  to  blaming  blacks  for  the  corrupt  election  prac- 
tices of  white  politicians,  and  reminiscent  of  the  belief  that  slavery  had 
been  beneficial  to  blacks24 — were  certainly  not  uncommon  in  the  South 
in  the  late  19th  century.  "The  majority  of  Southerners,"  C.  Vann  Wood- 
ward has  noted,  "were  taught  to  regard  disfranchisement  as  reform."25 

But  not  all  "decent  white  Southerners"  endorsed  the  tactics  that 
Daniels  championed.  He  had  contemporaneous  critics  who  placed  their 
careers  at  risk  by  raising  their  objections.  Notable  among  them  was  John 
Spencer  Bassett,  a  history  professor  at  Trinity  College  (now  Duke  Univer- 
sity) in  Durham,  North  Carolina. 

In  1903,  Bassett  became  the  target  of  withering  newspaper  criti- 
cism— led  by  Daniels  and  the  News  and  Observer — for  his  essay  criticizing 
the  state's  white  supremacy  movement  as  dangerously  expedient.  "This 
political  agitation  is  awaking  a  demon  in  the  South,"  Bassett  warned  in 
the  essay,  predicting  ever  "fiercer"  conflict  between  the  races.26  "The  duty 
of  brave  and  wise  men,"  Bassett  declared,  "is  to  seek  to  infuse  the  spirit  of 
conciliation  into  these  white  leaders  of  white  men."27  The  News  and 
Observer  excoriated  Bassett  as  "a  freak,"  unfit  "to  write  of  anything  that 
concerns  the  political  or  racial  questions  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
Southern  man."28 

The  White  Supremacy  Campaign  of  1898 

The  white  supremacy  political  campaign  of  1 898  was  the  vehicle  of 
the  Democratic  Party  in  North  Carolina  to  wrest  control  from  the 
coalition  of  Republicans  and  Populists  which  in  1894  had  won  nearly 
two-thirds  of  the  seats  in  North  Carolina's  General  Assembly.  The  interra- 
cial coalition,  a  shaky  and  ultimately  unstable  alliance  which  Democrats 
called  the  "fusion,"  enacted  among  other  reforms  an  electoral  law  regarded 
as  "perhaps  the  fairest  and  most  democratic  in  the  post-Reconstruction 
South."29  The  measure  allowed  illiterates  to  vote  by  using  colored  ballot 
papers  bearing  party  insignia,  and  limited  the  power  of  registrars  to 
challenge  and  disqualify  would-be  voters.30  Such  measures  enhanced  black 
participation  in  North  Carolina  politics.  An  estimated  87  percent  of 
eligible  black  voters  cast  ballots  in  1896,  compared  to  64  percent  in 
1892.31  Eleven  black  legislators  were  elected  to  the  North  Carolina 
General  Assembly  of  1897,  the  most  since  the  1880s,32  as  the  "fusionist" 
coalition  won  every  statewide  election  in  1 896.33 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  4 1 


Meanwhile,  the  administration  of  President  William  McKinley  was 
appointing  blacks  to  federal  patronage  positions  in  North  Carolina, 
notably  postmasterships — acknowledgment  of  the  importance  of  black 
support  in  securing  McKinley's  nomination.34  Such  appointments, 
historian  Joel  Williamson  has  noted,  were  particularly  distressing  to 
whites,  as  they  meant  "their  womenfolk  were  forced  to  do  business  with 
black  postmasters  and  clerks,  often  enough  with  their  political  cronies 
hanging  about  inside  the  post  office  .  .  .  Physical  contact  through  the 
mutual  handling  of  mails  and  monies  was  bad  enough,  but  even  more 
awful  was  the  prospect  that  black  men  in  office  would  make  all  black  men 
assume  themselves  more  powerful  and  be  led  to  approach  white  women 
sexually."35  In  the  counties  of  eastern  North  Carolina  in  particular, 
Williamson  noted,  "blacks  were  rising  and  whites  were  horrified."36 

Democrats  responded  to  the  prospect  of  what  they  termed  "Negro 
rule"  by  mounting  in  1898  the  first  of  what  they  called  white  supremacy 
campaigns.  The  efforts  were  unreservedly  intended — as  Daniels'  News  and 
Observer  declared — "to  restore  permanent  White  Supremacy"  to  North 
Carolina.37 

The  1898  campaign  was  a  violent  affair.  As  one  historian  has 
written,  paramilitary  units  calling  themselves  Red  Shirts  and  Rough 
Riders  "broke  up  fusionist  political  rallies,  disrupted  black  church  meetings, 
whipped  outspoken  blacks,  and  drove  black  voters  from  the  polls  ....  The 
cry  of '[Njegro  rule'  led  by  Josephus  Daniels'  Raleigh  News  and  Observer 
overwhelmed  any  public  discussion  of  the  economic  issues  involved  in  the 
campaign."38  Daniels  was  little  restrained  in  calling  attention  to  the 
specter  of  "Negro  rule."  His  newspaper  "led  in  a  campaign  of  prejudice, 
bitterness,  vilification,  misrepresentation,  and  exaggeration  to  influence 
the  emotions  of  the  whites  against  the  Negro."39 

One  especially  chilling  portrayal  was  an  editorial  cartoon  spread 
across  four  columns  of  the  News  and  Observer  in  late  September  1898. 
The  drawing,  by  Daniels'  editorial  cartoonist,  Norman  E.  Jennett, 
depicted  "  [Njegro  rule"  in  the  form  of  a  huge,  bat-winged  figure  trailing  a 
lizardlike  tail.  Looming  against  a  dark,  sterile  landscape,  the  creature 
clawed  menacingly  at  the  hapless  shapes  of  white  men  and  women.  The 
caption  was  "The  Vampire  That  Hovers  Over  North  Carolina."40 

The  prospect  of  "[N]egro  rule"  was,  however,  quite  far-fetched — 
more  a  campaign  scare  tactic  than  even  a  remote  political  possibility. 
Blacks  by  no  means  dominated  or  controlled  the  state's  political  life;  they 
after  all  had  never  occupied  more  than  20  percent  of  the  seats  in  the  state 
General  Assembly.41  Still,  Democrats  "publicized  evidence  of '[Njegro 
rule'  anywhere  a  Republican  organization  existed"  in  North  Carolina.42 


42  Campbell -Fall  1999 


On  election  day  1898,  Daniels  asserted  in  an  editorial  in  the  News 
and  Observer.  "Do  your  duty  today.  Stand  by  Anglo-Saxon  civilization.  It 
is  the  hope  of  the  State,  of  the  nation  and  of  the  world."43  Referring  to  the 
Democrats,  the  editorial  stated:  "The  White  Man's  Party  has  shown  that 
its  opponents  are  responsible  for  [N]egro  domination  in  a  large  section  of 
the  State;  that  as  a  consequence  life  is  insecure,  womanhood  is  endan- 
gered, property  is  unprotected  and  the  law  is  almost  a  nullity  as  a  punitive 
for  and  a  restraint  upon  crime."44 

The  Democrats  swept  to  power  in  North  Carolina  in  the  1 898 
elections,45  winning  two-thirds  of  the  seats  in  the  General  Assembly. 
Daniels  proceeded  to  organize  the  most  elaborate  of  the  many  victory 
celebrations  in  the  state.  As  he  later  wrote: 

Following  the  white  supremacy  victory,  there  were  celebra- 
tions all  over  the  state,  but  the  big  State  celebration  was  staged 
in  Raleigh.  A  meeting  was  held  there  to  arrange  for  the 
celebration,  at  which  I  presided;  and  at  that  meeting  the 
motion  was  made  to  thank  the  News  and  Observer  for  its 
leadership  in  the  fight.  I  said  that  this  ought  to  include  all 
Democratic  papers,  but  the  meeting  unanimously  overruled 
the  chair  and  the  motion  was  unanimously  adopted.46 

Despite  fears  that  such  a  gathering  would  be  an  invitation  to 
trouble,47  the  white  supremacy  celebration  in  Raleigh  went  off  without 
violence.  Daniels  wrote  later  of  the  victory  fete:  "Shouting  Democrats 
came  from  all  parts  of  the  State,  a  few  of  them  wearing  red  shirts,48  and 
they  were  welcomed  at  the  News  and  Observer  office.  Its  building  was 
illuminated  and  decorated  with  brooms,  emblematic  of  the  sweeping 
victory  ...  I  presided  at  the  meeting  and  speeches  were  made  by  distin- 
guished men."49 

Mob  Violence  in  Wilmington 

Fears  of  post-election  violence  were  not  at  all  farfetched  in  North 
Carolina  in  the  fall  of  1898.  Mob  violence  had  swept  the  state's  largest 
city,  the  southeastern  port  of  Wilmington,  in  the  immediate  aftermath  of 
the  1898  election.  At  least  1 1  black  men,  and  perhaps  many  more,50  were 
killed  as  a  white  mob  in  effect  "declared  war  on  black  residents"51  in  what 
has  been  called  "an  American  coup  d'etat."''2 

Black  and  white  Republicans  had  controlled  local  government  in 
Wilmington,  and  tensions  in  the  city  had  been  stoked  by  the  fevered 
1898  election  campaign,53  by  "rumors  of  blacks  arming  themselves,"  and 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  43 


by  a  provocative  editorial  in  the  city's  African  American  newspaper.  The 
editorial  impugned  the  moral  character  of  white  women  and  asserted  that 
some  of  them  used  the  charge  of  rape  to  conceal  "clandestine  interracial 
sexual  liaisons  when  they  were  detected."54 

The  editorial  was  published  in  August  1898  in  the  Wilmington 
Record,  a  daily  newspaper  founded,  owned,  and  edited  by  Alexander 
Manly,  the  son  of  Charles  Manly,  a  former  Whig  governor  of  North 
Carolina,  and  one  of  his  former  slaves.55  The  editorial  was  a  response  to  a 
much-publicized  appeal  to  whites  by  Georgia's  Rebecca  Latimer  Felton  in 
1897  "to  lynch  a  thousand  black  men"  if  necessary  to  protect  white 
women.56  White  supremacists,  including  Daniels  and  the  News  and 
Observer,  seized  on  the  editorial — portions  of  which  were  widely  reprinted 
in  North  Carolina  newspapers57 — as  "a  sensational  example  of  how  fusion 
rule  promoted  black  impudence."  Suffice  it  to  say,  one  scholar  has 
written,  "white  Democrats  fully  exploited  Manly's  editorial  as  well  as 
myriad  allegations  of  black  insolence,  crime,  and  sexual  misconduct  in 
order  to  mobilize  racist  sentiment  in  North  Carolina,  especially  in  the 
days  preceding  the  election."59 

The  reporting  in  the  News  and  Observer  no  doubt  helped  exacerbate 
tensions  in  Wilmington.  The  newspaper  called  attention  to  what  Daniels 
later  said  was  "the  result  of  [Njegro  control  in  .  .  .  Wilmington.  It  de- 
scribed the  unbridled  lawlessness  and  rule  of  incompetent  officials  and  the 
failure  of  an  ignorant  and  worthless  police  force  to  protect  the  people.  It 
gave  incidents  of  housebreaking  and  robbery  in  broad  daylight  and  other 
happenings  under  [Njegro  domination."60  Such  reporting,  Daniels 
maintained,  "finally  sealed  the  doom"  of  "fusion"  politics  in  North 
Carolina.61  (His  biographer,  Morrison,  asserted  that  the  "fevered  journal- 
ism" that  characterized  the  News  and  Observers  reporting  "did  its  unwor- 
thy part  in  paving  the  way  for  that  stepchild  of  sensationalism,  the 
Wilmington  race  riot."62) 

The  News  and  Observer  reported  the  violence  on  its  front  page  on 
November  11,  1898,  beneath  a  headline  exceptionally  large  for  the  then- 
typographically  staid  newspaper.  The  headline  read  in  part:  "A  Day  of 
Blood  at  Wilmington:  [Njegroes  Precipitate  Conflict  by  Firing  on  the 
Whites — Manly,  the  Defamer  of  White  Womanhood,  Escapes."  Inten- 
tionally or  not,  the  News  and  Observers  report  from  Wilmington  did 
make  clear  the  provocative  role  of  the  white  mob: 

Yesterday,  a  large  mass  meeting  of  business  men  was  held  and 
it  was  demanded  of  the  [N]egroes  to  have  the  plant  and  editor 
of  the  Daily  Record,  the  [Njegro  paper  which  recently  printed 


44  Campbell -Fall  1999 


the  vile  slander  of  the  white  women  of  the  State,  removed 
from  the  town  by  7  o'clock  this  morning.  The  demand  was 
not  acceded  to  by  the  [N]egroes,  and  at  8:30  o'clock  600 
armed  white  citizens  went  to  the  office  and  proceeded  to 
destroy  the  printing  material.  While  that  was  in  progress,  in 
some  unaccountable  way,  the  building  took  fire  and  was 
burned  to  the  ground  ....  Incensed  at  this,  a  number  of 
[N]egroes  assembled  ...  in  another  part  of  the  city,  and  a  clash 
between  whites  and  blacks  ensued.63 

By  day's  end,  the  Democrats  had  seized  control  of  Wilmington's 
municipal  government,  forcing  the  Republican-dominated  board  of 
aldermen  and  mayor  to  resign  their  elected  positions  "virtually  at  gun- 
point."64 Manly  eluded  the  mob  and  made  his  way  north.  Other  black 
leaders  in  Wilmington  were  arrested  and  taken  under  armed  guard  to 
northbound  trains  and  banished  from  the  city.  "The  citizens  cheered  as 
they  saw  them  going,"  the  News  and  Observer  reported,  "for  they  consid- 
ered their  departure  conducive  to  peace  in  the  future  .  .  .  This  is  but  the 
beginning  of  a  general  movement  to  rid  the  town  of  the  turbulent 
[N]egroes'  leaders."65 

The  violence  in  Wilmington  was  condemned  in  many  newspapers  in 
the  North,  prompting  the  News  and  Observer  to  assail  the  "villifers"  [sic] 
of  the  South.  "As  was  to  be  expected,  the  clash  between  the  races  at 
Wilmington  .  .  .  has  brought  from  a  certain  section  of  the  Northern  press 
a  flood  of  abuse  of  the  South,"  the  newspaper  asserted  in  an  editorial. 
"That  blood  should  have  been  shed  at  Wilmington  none  regrets  more 
than  the  white  people  of  that  town.  That  such  a  deplorable  climax  was 
not  of  their  seeking  is  evidenced  by  their  precedent  patience"  under 
governance  by  black  and  white  Republican  officeholders.66 

"To  garner  the  fruits  of  white  supremacy" 

Daniels'  focus  in  the  aftermath  of  the  1898  election  shifted  quickly 
from  the  violence  at  Wilmington  to  the  state's  General  Assembly,  which 
the  Democrats  now  controlled.  "The  big  duty  of  the  Legislature  of  1899," 
he  later  wrote,  "was  to  garner  the  fruits  of  the  white  supremacy  victory."67 
The  Democrats  moved  promptly  to  reverse  the  Republican  -  Populist 
electoral  reforms.  The  centerpiece  of  the  Democrats'  efforts  was  a  restric- 
tive suffrage  amendment  to  the  state  constitution.  The  proposed  amend- 
ment called  for  a  poll  tax  and  a  literacy  test  for  all  voters.  Illiterate  whites 
would  be  enabled  to  vote  given  the  provisions  of  a  grandfather  clause, 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  45 


which  permitted  descendants  of  any  citizen  who  had  voted  before  1867  to 
register  to  vote  by  December  1,  1908.68 

The  suffrage  amendment  was  debated  in  North  Carolina  against  a 
backdrop  of  similar  movements  across  the  South69 — movements  that 
Daniels  followed  closely  and  covered  for  the  News  and  Observer.  For 
example,  he  traveled  to  Montgomery,  Alabama,  in  May  1900  to  report 
about  a  conference  convened  by  leading  Southerners  to  examine  race 
issues  in  the  region.  Daniels  wrote  in  a  dispatch  published  under  his 
byline  in  the  News  and  Observer,  "The  question  of  paramount  importance 
in  Alabama  among  white  people  is  the  same  question  that  troubles  every 
Southern  State — how  to  be  delivered  from  the  body  of  death  to  which  we 
were  joined  by  the  imposition  of  unlimited  [N]egro  suffrage."70 

He  subsequently  traveled  to  New  Orleans  to  investigate  Louisiana's 
adoption  in  1898  of  a  constitutional  measure  that  curtailed  black  suffrage. 
"In  this  city,"  Daniels  wrote,  "the  adoption  of  the  constitutional  amend- 
ment, similar  to  the  one  pending  in  North  Carolina,  resulted  in  reducing 
the  [N]egro  vote  from  14,177  to  1,493  .  .  .  This  fully  answers  the 
question  as  to  whether  the  amendment,  if  adopted  in  North  Carolina, 
would  eliminate  the  [Njegro  from  politics."7'  Daniels  also  reported  from 
New  Orleans:  "As  far  as  this  city  is  concerned,  everybody  concedes  that 
the  amendment  has  done  everything  that  was  expected.  There  has  been 
no  friction,  no  jars,  no  trouble,  and  it  is  acquiesced  in  by  men  of  all 
parties,  except  of  course  the  few  Radical  politicians  who  wish  to  keep  the 
Negro  as  a  disturbing  element  in  politics."72 

Support  for  Disfranchisement 

The  North  Carolina  disfranchisement  measure — which,  Daniels 
said,  "was  a  clear-cut  issue  between  those  who  wanted  to  remove  the  great 
bulk  of  ignorant  [N]egroes  from  the  exercise  of  suffrage  and  those  who 
wanted  to  continue  them"73 — led  to  another  virulent  campaign  in  1900, 
which  the  News  and  Observer  covered  closely.  Its  front  page  regularly 
featured  appeals  to  support  the  disfranchisement  amendment  and  not 
infrequent  reports  about  the  threat  of  race-related  violence.74  It  regularly 
reported  on  the  fears  of  white  women  who  described  themselves  "terrified 
by  prowling  [N]egroes."75  One  letter-writer  to  the  News  and  Observer 
described  herself  as  a  daughter  of  a  Confederate  solider  and  implored: 
"Whatever  may  be  your  political  views,  whether  you  are  a  Democrat,  or  a 
Republican,  or  a  Populist,  you  are  a  white  man  .  .  .  Not  one  of  you  but 
scorns  the  taint  of  African  blood.  Not  one  of  you  but  would  die  for  the 
women  of  your  homes."76 


46  Campbell -Fall  1999 


Appearing  in  a  column  adjoining  the  woman's  letter  was  a  crude 
poem  that  carried  the  headline,  "Sambo  on  the  Amendment."  Its  opening 
stanzas  were: 

What's  de  use  of  kicking 
Agenst  de  white  man's  rule? 
Let  all  dem  kick  dat  want  to, 
Dis  nigger  ain't  no  fool — 
No  sun! 

De  white  man  pays  de  taxes, 
So  let  him  run  de  mill. 
He's  been  a  doing  of  it 
And  he's  gwine  to  do  it  still — 
Dat  he  is!77 

In  the  closing  days  of  the  1900  campaign,  the  News  and  Observer 
renewed  its  attack  on  Alexander  Manly  and  his  ill-fated  newspaper  in 
Wilmington  by  republishing  on  its  front  page  the  text  of  the  editorial  that 
had  proven  so  incendiary  in  1898.  "Let  every  white  voter  before  he 
deposits  his  ballot  remember  the  infamous  language  of  the  [N]egro 
Manly,"  the  News  and  Observer  said  in  reintroducing  the  editorial.  "No 
man  can  live  in  North  Carolina  and  print  such  slanders  against  the  good 
people  of  North  Carolina,  and  the  good  people  of  Wilmington  drove  the 
[N]egro  out  of  their  borders  and  destroyed  his  presses."78 

Daniels  urged  white  voters  to  "leave  no  stone  unturned"  in  turning 
out  the  vote  for  the  disfranchisement  amendment,  which  he  characterized 
as  "the  only  method  by  which  the  menace  of  [N]egro  rule  can  be  perma- 
nently removed.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  not  only  hundreds  but  thousands 
of  men  of  other  parties  will  unite  with  the  Democrats  in  the  great  struggle 
to  free  the  white  voters  from  the  peril  and  evil  of  a  large  Negro  vote  that  is 
always  cast  against  those  things  that  make  for  good  government  and 
better  conditions."79  On  voting  day,  August  2,  1900,  Daniels  published 
an  editorial  titled  "Finally,  Brethren,"  which  asserted  that  ratifying  the 
disfranchisement  amendment  "will  not  only  be  best  for  the  white  man  but 
will  be  best  for  the  thrifty  [N]egro.  It  will  do  much  to  break  down  the 
harsh  race  antagonisms  and  will  enable  the  white  man  and  the  [NJegro  to 
live  on  terms  of  friendship,  each  in  his  own  separate  sphere."80 

The  disfranchisement  amendment  was  approved  in  the  referendum 
by  about  55,000  votes,  or  a  margin  of  nearly  3-to-2.81  Daniels  cheered  the 
outcome  as  signaling  the  restoration  of  a  "united"  Democratic  party  and 
that,  he  said,  represented  "the  realization  of  a  long  cherished  dream."82 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  47 


The  consequences  of  the  referendum  were  soon  evident.  Nearly  all 
blacks,  and  many  poor  whites,  lost  the  vote.83  As  the  News  and  Observer 
reported,  the  registration  of  black  voters  fell  to  6,200  in  1902;84  in  the 
election  six  years  before,  as  many  as  120,000  blacks  had  voted.85  Indeed, 
as  Jeffrey  Crow  has  written,  "men  of  unquestioned  Democratic  pedigree 
once  more  held  the  reins  of  government  and  would  continue  to  do  so  for 
many  decades  to  come  .  .  .  Dissenting  voices  had  been  decisively  silenced 
and  opposition  to  the  solid  South  had  been  overwhelmingly  crushed. "86 

Daniels'  News  and  Observer  kept  a  wary  eye  on  the  periodic  if  feeble 
challenges  to  black  disfranchisement  and  reminded  readers  of  what  it 
called  the  enduring  lessons  of  the  crusade  against  "[Njegro  rule. "87  It  also 
published  periodic  notices  on  its  front  page,  reminding  white  men  of  the 
importance  of  paying  their  poll  tax  on  time.  Otherwise,  the  reminders 
said,  "YOU  cannot  vote."88 

Daniels  bridled  editorially  at  such  developments  as  President 
Theodore  Roosevelt's  invitation  to  Booker  T  Washington  to  dine  at  the 
White  House  in  October  1901.  About  that  occasion,  the  News  and 
Observer  declared:  "The  only  hope  of  peace  and  amity  between  the  races  is 
in  strict  separation  in  all  social  life  and  the  man  who  seeks  to  break  it 
down  is  the  worst  living  enemy  of  the  South  and  its  civilization.  He 
commits  the  unpardonable  crime."89 

That  chilling  phrase — "the  unpardonable  crime" — was  invoked90  in 
the  campaign  in  1903  against  Bassett,  the  Trinity  College  history  profes- 
sor whose  essay  in  the  South  Atlantic  Quarterly^  warned  that  measures 
such  as  disfranchisement  and  racial  segregation  were  aggravating  racial 
antipathy  in  the  South.  Bassett  s  essay  also  stated  that  Booker  T  Washington 
"is  a  great  and  good  man,  a  Christian  statesman,  and  take  him  all  in  all 
the  greatest  man,  save  General  Lee,  born  in  the  South  in  a  hundred  years; 
but  he  is  not  a  typical  Negro."92 

Daniels  and  the  News  and  Observer  led  the  denunciation  of  Bassett, 
disparaging  him  as  "a  freak"  and  ridiculing  his  characterization  of  Wash- 
ington as  "wanton  and  absurd  [N]egro  deification."93  The  furor  intensi- 
fied94 and  Bassett  offered  his  resignation.  The  Trinity  trustees,  meeting  in 
special  session,  voted  18-7  to  reject  the  resignation,95  saying,  "Any  form  of 
coercion  of  thought  and  private  judgment  is  contrary  to  one  of  the 
constitutional  aims  of  Trinity  College,  which  is  'to  cherish  a  sincere  spirit 
of  tolerance.'"96 

Bassett,  whose  later  work  included  a  seminal  biography  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  left  Trinity  in  summer  1906  to  accept  a  similar  position  at  Smith 
College  in  Northampton,  Massachusetts.  He  seemed  astonished  that  his 
essay  had  provoked  such  controversy,  writing  several  years  later:  "I  do  not 
think  I  was  responsible  for  the  fury  of  1903  .  .  .  If  the  article  had  received 


48  Campbell -Fall  1999 


the  treatment  usually  accorded  such  articles  [in  South  Atlantic  Quarterly], 
there  would  have  been  no  excitement."97 

For  Daniels,  the  Bassett  essay  posed  an  unambiguous  challenge  to 
black  disfranchisement.   "The  people  who  had  won  this  victory  at  such  a 
great  price  felt  that  Dr.  Bassett's  article  would  have  the  effect  of  reopening 
the  race  question,"  he  later  wrote,  "and  all  of  us  were  more  intemperate  .  .  . 
than  we  would  have  been  at  any  other  time."98 

Legacy  Contradicts  Reality 

Every  day,  at  the  top  of  its  editorial  page,  the  News  and  Observer 
publishes  the  following  excerpt  from  the  will  of  Josephus  Daniels: 

I  advise  and  enjoin  those  who  direct  the  paper  in  the  tomor- 
rows never  to  advocate  any  cause  for  personal  profit  or 
preferment.  I  would  wish  it  always  to  be  "the  tocsin"  and  to 
devote  itself  to  the  policies  of  equality  and  justice  to  the 
underprivileged.  If  the  paper  should  at  any  time  be  the  voice 
of  self-interest  or  become  the  spokesman  of  privilege  or 
selfishness  it  would  be  untrue  to  its  history. 

The  admonition,  while  grandiloquent,  is  utterly  at  odds  with 
Daniels'  race-baiting  militancy  in  the  white  supremacy  cause  in  1898  and 
1900;  it  ignores  that  the  newspaper  was  the  harsh  voice  of  the  self- 
interested  Democratic  party  in  North  Carolina  in  "eliminating"  the  state's 
black  citizens  from  political  life  by  stripping  them  of  the  vote.  The 
admonition  in  Daniels'  will  is  contradicted  by  his  newspaper's  record  at 
the  turn  of  the  century. 

Daniels'  central  roles  in  the  political  campaigns  of  1898  and  1900 
are  important  elements  of  his  record  that  have  been  largely  ignored  by 
journalism  historians.  His  white  supremacy  advocacy  also  has  been 
excused  by  his  biographer,  Morrison,  who  maintained  that  Daniels  and 
his  rhetoric  must  not  be  judged  by  contemporary  standards.  In  so  argu- 
ing, however,  Morrison  overlooks  Daniels'  contemporaneous  critics,  such 
as  Bassett,  who  warned  that  racial  intolerance  of  the  white  supremacy 
movement  risked  "awaking  a  demon  in  the  South."99 

Morrison  also  attempts — inaccurately — to  portray  Daniels  as  having 
regretted  his  racial  militancy.  He  quotes  Daniels'  autobiography  as  saying 
the  News  and  Observer  had  been  "too  cruel"  in  its  advocacy  .'00  But  the 
autobiography  contains  no  unequivocal  statement  of  regret  for  Daniels' 
prominence  or  vehemence  in  the  white  supremacy  campaigns.  Rather,  as 
this  study  has  shown,  the  autobiography  includes  many  favorable  recollec- 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  49 


tions  about  that  harsh  period,  the  consequences  of  which  endured  long 
after  Daniels'  death  in  1948.  Following  the  white  supremacy  campaigns, 
political  participation  of  African  men  and  women  was  an  "undebated 
issue  in  North  Carolina  politics"  until  the  1950s  and  1960s.'01  The  events 
of  the  late  1890s  effectively  "froze  political  thought"  in  the  state  "and  kept 
it  from  evolving  for  decades."102 

It  is  hard  to  know  just  why  Daniels'  turn-of-the-century  race-baiting 
rhetoric — and  his  condemnation  of  the  leading  black  newspaper  in  the 
state — escaped  the  notice  of  most  journalism  historians.  Perhaps  it  was 
because  Daniels  was  not  a  transcendent  national  figure  in  American 
journalism.  Perhaps  it  was  because  of  his  subsequent  association  with 
progressive  political  figures  such  as  Woodrow  Wilson  and  Franklin 
Roosevelt.103  Perhaps  "progressive"  is  an  entirely  misleading  label.  As  one 
historian  of  North  Carolina's  white  supremacy  campaigns  has  written,  "a 
'progressive'  was  a  white  supremacist  who  favored  black  disfranchisement 
and  even  minimal  public  support  for  black  schools;  a  conservative  was  a 
white  supremacist  who  favored  black  disfranchisement  but  did  not  believe 
public  funds  should  support  black  schools."104 

As  this  study  makes  clear,  journalism  historians  should  broaden  their 
assessments  of  Daniels  to  acknowledge,  and  consider  the  implications  of, 
his  role  in  crusading  against  black  suffrage.  Revisiting  the  white  su- 
premacy crusades  of  Josephus  Daniels  also  serves  to  underscore  the 
importance  of  injecting  balance  into  the  consideration  of  journalists  who 
gain  prominence  regionally  and  nationally.  Historians  are  certainly  well- 
advised  to  proceed  cautiously  in  anointing  such  prominent  journalists  as 
"fine  figures"  or  as  champions  of  decency. 


Endnotes 

'"Negro  Suffrage  a  Crime  and  Folly  When  Established  A  Sin  and  Disgrace  if  Longer  Endured," 
News  and  Observer  (28  January  1900):  12. 

2See  Paul  Luebke,  Tar  Heel  Politics:  Myths  and  Realities  (Chapel  Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina, 
1990),  7. 

3The  News  and  Observers  average  daily  circulation  in  1 898  was  4,800.  The  newspaper  was 
published  Tuesday-Sunday.  See  N.  W.  Ayer  &  Son,  American  Newspaper  Annual  (Philadelphia:  N.W. 
Ayer  &  Son,  1899),  616.  Notes  in  Josephus  Daniels'  papers  at  the  Library  of  Congress  indicate  that 
the  News  and  Observers  daily  circulation  climbed  to  5,700  in  1900  and  to  7,054  in  1902.  The 
circulation  was  1,800  in  1894  when  Daniels  took  control  of  the  newspaper.  See  untitled  note, 
container  683,  Josephus  Daniels  Papers,  Library  of  Congress.  The  Daniels  collections  at  the  Library 
of  Congress  and  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill,  although  extensive,  contain  little 
about  Daniels'  editorship  of  the  News  and  Observer  during  the  period  examined  in  this  article.  Many 
of  the  newspaper's  records  and  much  of  Daniels'  correspondence  in  the  late  19th  and  early  20th 
centuries  were  destroyed  by  fire  in  1913.  See  Joseph  L.  Morrison,  Josephus  Daniels:  The  Small-d 


50  Campbell -Fall  1999 


Democrat  (Chapel  Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina,  1966),  viii.  Cx» 

''Michael  Emery  and  Edwin  Emery,  The  Press  and  America:  An  Interpretative  History  of  the  Mass 
Media,  8th  ed.  (Boston:  AJlyn  and  Bacon,  1996),  225. 

Trank  Luther  Mott,  American  journalism,  A  History,  1690-1960,  3d.  ed.  (New  York:  Macmillan, 
1962),  576. 

The  second  volume  of  Daniels'  autobiography  is  titled  Editor  in  Politics. 

7Perhaps  the  most  ambitious  treatment  of  the  Southern  press  during  the  19th  century  includes  little 
discussion  about  the  regions  journalism  of  the  1890s.  See  Carl  R.  Osthaus,  Partisans  of  the  Southern 
Press:  Editorial  Spokesmen  of  the  19th  Century  (Lexington,  KY:  University  of  Kentucky  Press,  1994). 

"Josephus  Daniels,  Editor  in  Politics  (Chapel  Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina  Press,  1941),  295. 

''Another  was  Clark  Howell,  who  became  editor  of  the  Atlanta  Constitution  in  1897.  See  Wallace 
B.  Eberhard,  "Clark  Howell  and  The  Atlanta  Constitution,"  Journalism  Quarterly  60  (Spring  1983): 
118-122. 

'"Morrison,  Josephus  Daniels,  47-48. 

"Morrison,  Josephus  Daniels,  48-49,  168-170. 

12Josephus  Daniels,  Tar  Heel  Editor  (Westport,  CT:  Greenwood  Press,  1974),  175-176. 

"Daniels,  Editor  in  Politics,  86-89. 

,4Morrison, /<?.>•<»»/);«  Daniels,  25. 

l5Luebke,  Tar  Heel  Politics,  4. 

'There  was  a  keen  partisan  dimension  to  Daniels'  opposition  to  trusts.  On  the  eve  of  the  elections 
in  1902,  for  example,  he  declared  in  an  editorial  that  "the  trusts  are  pouring  money  into  certain 
counties  in  the  State  in  the  hope  of  buying  the  election  for  the  Republican  ticket.  .  .  .  The  people  of 
North  Carolina  did  not  go  through  the  fire  [of  the  white  supremacy  campaigns  of  1898  and  1900]  to 
rid  the  State  of  the  Negro  vote  to  foist  a  worse  evil  —  the  evil  of  permitting  the  trusts  to  rule  it  by 
debauching  the  voters  with  money.  That  would  be  like  jumping  out  of  the  frying  pan  into  the  fire.  It 
would  be  far  better  to  have  to  be  governed  by  an  ignorant  race,  whose  rule  could  soon  be  thrown  off, 
than  to  be  ruled  by  the  trusts,  which  always  use  power  to  secure  their  further  enrichment  at  the 
expense  of  the  people."  See  "Trust  Money  Trying  To  Buy  The  Election,"  News  and  Observer  (1 
November  1902):  4. 

l7Emeryand  Emery,  The  Press  and  America,  225. 

l8Emeryand  Emery,  The  Press  and  America,  225. 

"Mott,  American  Journalism,  576. 

2"Mott,  American  Journalism,  576. 

21Sidney  Kobre,  Modern  American  Journalism  (Tallahassee:  Florida  State  University,  1959),  172. 

"Kobre,  Modern  American  Journalism,  172-173. 

^Morrison,  Josephus  Daniels,  35. 

24As  Leon  E  Litwack  noted  in  his  study  of  black  Southerners  at  the  end  of  the  19th  century  and  the 
first  years  of  the  20th  century:  "The  notion  that  disfranchisement  and  segregation  benefited  both 
races,  that  placing  restraints  on  blacks  actually  protected  them,  resembled  the  antebellum  argument 
that  enslavement  had  been  the  best  possible  condition  for  black  people,  that  it  had  conferred 
incalculable  benefits  on  a  race  incapable  of  caring  for  itself."  Litwack,  Trouble  in  Mind:  Black 
Southerners  in  the  Age  of  Jim  Crow  (New  York:  Knopf,  1998),  245. 

2<iC.  Vann  Woodward,  Origins  of  the  New  South,  1877-1913  (Louisiana  State  University,  1951), 
348.  Woodward  also  noted:  "Disgraceful  scenes  of  ballot-box  stealing,  bribery,  and  intimidation  were 
much  rarer  after  disfranchisement.  One  effective  means  of  stopping  the  stealing  of  ballots  is  to  stop 
the  people  from  casting  them.  Elections  are  also  likely  to  be  more  decorous  when  the  electorate  of  the 
opposition  parties  has  been  disfranchised  or  decimated  and  the  election  becomes  a  formality  in  a  one- 
party  system." 

2f,John  Spencer  Bassett,  "Stirring  Up  the  Fires  of  Race  Antipathy,"  South  Atlantic  Quarterly  2,  4 
(October  1903):  304. 

27Bassett,  "Stirring  Up  the  Fires,"  302,  305. 

28"Stirring  Up  the  Fires  of  Race  Antipathy,"  News  and  Observer  (1  November  1903):  16. 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  51 


'''Jeffrey  J.  Crow,  "Cracking  the  Solid  South:  Populism  and  the  Fusionist  Interlude,"  in  Lindley  S. 
Butler  and  Alan  D.  Watson,  eds.,  The  North  Carolina  Experience:  An  Interpretative  and  Documentary 
History  (Chapel  Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina,  1984):  338. 

3"Crow,  "Cracking  the  Solid  South,"  338. 

3lCrow,  "Cracking  the  Solid  South,"  338. 

32Crow,  "Cracking  the  Solid  South,"  338. 

33H.  Leon  Prather,  "We  Have  Taken  a  City:  A  Centennial  Essay,"  in  David  S.  Cecelski  and  Timothy 
B.  Tyson,  eds.  Democracy  Betrayed:  The  Wilmington  Race  Riot  of  1898  and  Its  Legacy  (Chapel  Hill,  NC: 
University  of  North  Carolina  Press,  1998),  13. 

34Joel  Williamson,  A  Rage  for  Order:  Black/White  Relations  in  the  American  South  Since  Emancipation 
(New  York:  Oxford  University,  1986),  128.  The  News  and  Observer  railed  against  McKinley's 
appointments,  calling  him  "the  Negroes[sic]  candidate"  and  deploring  that  "many  of  the  best  places  in 
the  Federal  service  in  the  South  are  now  held  for  the  first  time  by  Negroes."  See  "What  McKinley  Has 
Done  for  the  Southern  States,"  News  and  Observer  (5  August  1900):  1. 

"Williamson,  A  Rage  for  Order,  128-129. 

3fiWilliamsonM  Rage  for  Order,  130. 

""Room  for  All,"  News  and  Observer  (1  May  1900):  4.  Rather  than  the  prospect  of  "Negro  rule"  in 
North  Carolina,  one  labor  historian  has  perceptively  noted  that  it  was  "too  much  democracy,  through 
the  fusion  of  Republicans  and  Populists,  [that]  set  off  the  white  supremacy  campaign"  of  1 898.  See 
Michael  Honey,  "Class,  Race,  and  Power  in  the  New  South:  Racial  Violence  and  the  Delusions  of 
White  Supremacy,"  in  Cecelski  and  Tyson,  Democracy  Betrayed,  170. 

3sCrow,  "Cracking  the  Solid  South,"  338.  He  further  noted,  340:  "Economic  issues"  such  as 
increased  taxes  on  railroads  arid  assistance  to  farmers  and  small  businessmen  "were  in  fact  at  the  core 
of  the  1898  election  in  North  Carolina,  but  the  campaign  was  not  fought  openly  on  those  terms." 

"Helen  G.  Edmonds,  The  Negro  and  Fusion  Politics  in  North  Carolina,  1894-1901.  (Chapel  Hill, 
NC:  University  of  North  Carolina  Press,  1951),  141. 

4""The  Vampire  that  Hovers  over  North  Carolina,"  News  and  Observer  (27  September  1898):  1. 
Daniels  said  in  his  autobiography  that  "the  feature  in  the  News  and  Observer  that  was  most  popular" 
at  the  time  "were  the  cartoons  drawn  by  Norman  E.  Jennett."  See  Daniels,  Editor  in  Politics,  147. 

4lSee  Honey,  "Class,  Race,  and  Power,"  170.  See  also  Janette  Thomas  Greenwood,  Bittersweet 
Legacy:  The  Black  and  White  "Better  Classes"in  Charlotte,  1850-1910  (Chapel  Hill:  University  of  North 
Carolina  Press,  1994),  187.  Greenwood  wrote,  190-191,  that  "the  cries  of  black  domination  and 
white  supremacy"  did  not  resonate  in  Charlotte  as  they  did  in  the  eastern  part  of  North  Carolina. 
Nonetheless,  "charges  of  black  rule  rang  true  to  the  Young  Democrats  who  had  rise  to  leadership  of 
the  local  Democratic  party  by  the  late  1890s.  .  .  .    [The]  Young  Democrats  viewed  white  supremacy  as 
their  birthright,  an  inheritance  bequeathed  to  them  by  their  fathers." 

42John  Haley,  "Race,  Rhetoric,  and  Revolution"  in  Cecelski  and  Tyson,  Democracy  Betrayed,  218. 

43"Do  Your  Duty  Today,"  News  and  Observer  (8  November  1898):  4. 

44"Do  Your  Duty  Today,"  News  and  Observer,  4. 

45Daniels  wrote  in  his  autobiography  that  the  state  "approached  election  day  with  nervousness  and 
anxiety.  ...  At  some  places  in  the  black  districts,  guns  were  fired  and  the  white  supremacy  people 
surrounded  the  polls  in  great  numbers.  They  were  directed  to  be  there  early  and  late.  In  the  places 
where  the  Negro  vote  was  large,  the  impression  prevailed  among  Negroes  that  it  was  not  safe  for  them 
to  make  any  show  of  resistance.  Many  of  them  did  not  go  to  the  polls  to  vote."  See  Daniels,  Editor  in 
Politics,  307. 

4f,Daniels,  Editor  in  Politics,  310. 

47Daniels,  Editor  in  Politics,  310.  He  wrote,  "Some  of  the  older  people  deprecated  the  holding  of  a 
big  celebration,  fearing  that  it  might  result  in  trouble,  but  the  News  and  Observer  took  the  ground 
that  the  celebration  ought  to  be  held  and  that  it  meant  no  harm  to  the  Negroes;  that  the  Democrats 
were  their  friends  and  not  enemies;  and  that  the  speeches  made  and  the  whole  celebration  would  serve 
to  bring  about  a  kindly  feeling  between  the  races." 

4SDaniels  later  said  of  the  practice,  "In  certain  parts  of  the  North  Carolina  the  advocates  of  White 
Supremacy  wear  a  red  shirt  as  the  insignia  of  freedom  from  Negro  domination  in  politics."  See  "Cant 
Intimidate  Red  Shirts,"  News  and  Observer  (19  July  1900),  4.  Red  Shirts  often  organized  themselves 


52  Campbell -Fall  1999 


into  paramilitary  units  that  disrupted  opposition  political  rallies  and  terrorized  would-be  black  voters 
during  the  white  supremacy  campaigns.  See  Crow,  "Cracking  the  Solid  South,"  340. 

4''Daniels,  Editor  in  Politics,  310. 

'"Estimates  of  the  death  toll  in  the  Wilmington  riot  range  widely,  from  1 1  (which  Daniels  offered) 
to  14,  20,  and  "100s."  See  Prather,  "We  Have  Taken  a  City,"  35. 

"Litwack,  Trouble  in  Mind,  313. 

52See  Dolores  Janiewski,  "'Waged  with  Such  Fury':  Wilmington  as  an  American  Coup  d'Etat," 
paper  presented  to  annual  conference  of  the  American  Historical  Association,  Washington,  DC,  8 
January  1999.  Daniels  in  his  autobiography  called  the  riot  "an  armed  revolution  of  white  men  of 
Wilmington"  who  sought  "to  teach  what  they  believed  was  a  needed  lesson,  that  no  such  defamer  as 
Manly  should  live  in  the  city  and  no  such  paper  should  be  published."  He  also  noted  that  his 
newspaper  had  asserted:  "'If  any  reader  is  inclined  to  condemn  the  people  of  Wilmington  for 
resolving  to  expel  Manly  from  the  city,  let  him  reread  the  libel  upon  the  white  women  of  the  state  that 
appeared  in  the  Daily  Record. "  Daniels,  Editor  in  Politics,  307-308. 

"Williamson  wrote,  "Given  the  extravagance  of  the  white  supremacy  campaign,  it  is  remarkable 
that  the  Wilmington  riot  occurred  two  days  after  the  election  rather  than  during  the  turbulent  weeks 
that  preceded  the  balloting."  Williamson,  A  Rage  for  Order,  132. 

54Litwack,  Trouble  in  Mind,  313.  The  editorial  read  in  part:  "You  [whites]  set  yourselves  down  as  a 
lot  of  carping  hypocrites;  in  fact,  you  cry  aloud  for  the  virtue  of  your  women  while  you  seek  to 
destroy  the  morality  of  ours.  Don't  ever  think  that  your  women  will  remain  pure  while  you  are 
debauching  ours.  You  sow  the  seed  —  the  harvest  will  come  in  due  time."  Wilmington  Record  (18 
August  1898),  cited  in  Crow,  "Cracking  the  Solid  South,"  349. 

"Prather,  "We  Have  Taken  a  City,"  23-24.  Prather  added,  24:  "For  anyone  not  acquainted  with 
him,  Manly  could  have  passed  for  a  white  man." 

5AQuoted  in  LeeAnn  Whites,  "Love,  Hate,  Rape,  Lynching:  Rebecca  Latimer  Felton  and  the 
Gender  Politics  of  Racial  Violence,"  in  Democracy  Betrayed,  149. 

57One  scholar  has  speculated  the  editorial  "might  have  escaped  state-wide  attention  had  not  the 
News  and  Observer  publicized  it."  Edmonds,  The  Negro  and  Fusion  Politics,  147 

5sCrow,  "Cracking  the  Solid  South,"  341. 

"Richard  Yarborough,  "Violence,  Manhood,  and  Black  Heroism:  The  Wilmington  Riot  and  Two 
Turn-of-the-Century  African  American  Novels,"  in  Cecelski  and  Tyson,  Democracy  Betrayed,  229. 

"'Daniels,  Editor  in  Politics,  285. 

slDaniels,  Editor  in  Politics,  285. 

"Morrison,  Josephus  Daniels,  34. 

f,3"A  Day  of  Blood  at  Wilmington:  Negroes  Precipitate  Conflict  by  Firing  on  the  Whites  —  Manly, 
the  Defamer  of  White  Womanhood,  Escapes  —  Building  of  His  Slanderous  Paper  Gutted  and 
Burned,"  News  and  Observer  (11  November  1898):  1. 

MCrow,  "Cracking  the  Solid  South,"  341. 

^'"Democratic  Regime  Strangling  Anarchy:  Wilmington's  New  Government  Bringing  Law  and 
Order  Out  of  the  Chaotic  Conditions  Brought  About  by  Negro  Domination,"  News  and  Observer  (12 
November  1898):  1.  The  report  also  cited  the  near-lynching  of  a  white  deputy  sheriff,  a  Republican, 
who  was  at  the  railway  station,  attempting  to  leave  Wilmington,  when  "a  rope  was  thrown  over  his 
head  and  several  strong  men  were  in  the  act  of  swinging  him  to  an  overhanging  beam  when 
influential  citizens  interfered,  and  with  difficulty  prevented  the  lynching." 

"'"Villifers  [sic]  of  the  South,"  Netvs  and  Observer  (13  November  1898):  4. 

"Daniels,  Editor  in  Politics,  324. 

r'sCrow,  "Cracking  the  Solid  South,"  341. 

^'Disfranchisement  measures  were  approved  or  enacted  in  Mississippi  in  1890,  South  Carolina  in 
1895,  Louisiana  in  1898,  North  Carolina  in  1900,  Alabama  in  1901,  Virginia  in  1901-1902,  and 
Georgia  in  1908.  See  Woodward,  Origins  of  the  New  South,  321.  Woodward  also  notes  that 
disfranchisement  movements  were  complex  and  often  masked  struggles  for  political  power  among 
whites:  "The  real  question  was  which  whites  should  be  supreme."  Woodward,  327-328. 

7"Josephus  Daniels,  "The  Race  Problem  of  the  South,"  News  and  Observer  (8  May  1900):  1. 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  53 


''Josephus  Daniels,  "It  Has  Eliminated  the  Negro:  But  the  Amendment  in  Louisiana  Guarantees  to 
Every  White  Man  the  Right  to  Vote,"  News  and  Observer  (10  May  1900):  1. 

7:Daniels,  "It  Has  Eliminated  the  Negro,"  4. 

7,Daniels,  Editor  in  Politics,  326. 

74See,  for  example,  "Negroes  Buying  Guns  and  Cartridges,"  News  and  Observer  (15  July  1900):  1. 
The  News  and  Observer  prominently  reported  the  New  Orleans  race  riot  in  July  1900.  See  "Rioting 
Continues  in  New  Orleans,"  News  and  Observer  (27  July  1900):  1,  and  "Negro  Desperado  Dies 
Fighting,"  News  and  Observer  (28  July  1900):  2. 

7,"Shot  into  the  House,"  News  and  Observer  (5  May  1900):  1.  Daniels  in  his  autobiography 
acknowledged  that  the  News  and  Observer  gave  special  attention  to  reports  of  ctimes  by  blacks. 
"Whenever  there  was  any  gross  crime  on  the  part  of  Negroes,"  he  later  wrote,  "the  News  and  Observer 
printed  it  in  a  lurid  way,  sometimes  too  lurid,  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  the  times."  See  Daniels, 
Editor  in  Politics,  253. 

7S<!A  Woman's  Earnest  Appeal,"  News  and  Observer  (22  July  1 900):  1 . 

"""Sambo  on  the  Amendment,"  News  and  Observer  (22  July  1900):  1. 

7s"What  the  Negro  Manly  Said,"  Neivs  and  Observer  (29  July  1900):  1. 

7''"Leave  No  Stone  Unturned,"  News  and  Observer  (29  July  1900):  4. 

"""Finally,  Brethren,"  News  and  Observer  (2  August  1900):  4. 

"'Cited  in  J.  Morgan  Kousser,  The  Shaping  of  Southern  Politics:  Suffrage  Restriction  and  the 
Establishment  of  the  One-Party  South,  1880-1910.  (New  Haven:  Yale  University  Press,  1974),  193. 

82"A  United  Democracy,"  News  and  Observer  (5  August  1900):  4. 

R,Luebke,  Tar  Heel  Politics,  6. 

X4"A  Majority  of  65,876,"  News  and  Observer  (4  November  1902):  1 .  The  newspaper  estimated  that 
the  Democrats'  statewide  advantage  in  registered  voters  exceeded  65,000. 

"'"Registration  by  Whites  is  Heavy,"  News  and  Observer  (26  October  1902):  1. 

s''Crow,  "Cracking  the  Solid  South,"  342.  He  noted:  "With  the  effective  removal  of  poor  whites 
and  blacks  from  the  political  process,  the  planter-industrialist  elite  assumed  the  garb  of  reformers  and 
set  about  modernizing  the  state  with  increased  government  services  in  such  areas  as  public  health, 
education,  and  road  building.  Freed  of  the  incubus  of  lower-class  and  Negro  support,  the  so-called 
Progressive  movement  in  North  Carolina  and  throughout  the  South  accelerated,  but  it  was  a 
movement  that  tended  to  enhance  the  interests  of  the  business  community  principally  and  to 
reinforce  the  existing  social,  economic,  and  political  order." 

87See,  for  example,  "Why  Not  Make  It  One  Hundred  Thousand  Majority,"  News  and  Observer  (2 
November  1902):  4.  The  editorial,  published  on  the  eve  of  state  elections  in  1902,  stated  in  part: 
"The  Republican  method  of  campaign  was  pitched  upon  this  idea:  The  Democrats,  having  over  our 
protest,  disfranchised  the  Negro,  they  ought  to  be  defeated  for  bringing  political  peace,  and  the 
enemies  of  the  [disfranchisement]  Amendment  and  White  Supremacy  should  be  given  power." 

ss"That  Poll  Tax,"  News  and  Observer  (25  April  1902):  1 . 

"""'Will  Soon  Blow  Over,'"  News  and  Observer  (23  October  1901):  4. 

'"'"Bassett  Committed  the  Unpardonable  Sin,"  News  and  Observer  (3  December  1903):  4.  The 
editorial  read:  "Once  let  the  ideas  in  the  Bassett  article  become  widespread,  and  then  the  civilization 
of  the  South  is  destroyed.  He  has  committed  the  only  unpardonable  sin." 

'"Bassett  was  the  journal's  founding  editor.  In  the  inaugural  issue,  Bassett  wrote:  "The  editor  .  .  . 
desires  to  make  the  journal  a  medium  of  encouraging  every  honest  literary  effort.  He  recognizes  that 
to  do  this  there  must  be  liberty  to  think.  He  will  not  close  the  review  to  opinions  with  which  he  may 
personally  differ.  .  .  .  He  will  consider  the  Quarterly  fortunate  if  it  succeeds  in  presenting  the 
problems  of  to-day  on  all  of  their  sides."  "Editor's  Announcement,"  South  Atlantic  Quarterly  1,1 
(January  1902):  3. 

''-'Bassett,  "Stirring  Up  the  Fires,"  299. 

'''"Stirring  Up  the  Fires,"  News  and  Observer,  16. 

'MSee  for  example,  "Kindle  a  Flame  of  Indignation:  The  People  Feel  That  Professor  Bassett's 
Utterances  on  the  Negro  are  an  Outage,"  News  and  Observer  (3  November  1903):  1. 

',5After  the  trustees  voted,  several  Trinity  students  hanged  Daniels  in  effigy  —  a  protest  the  News 


54  Campbell -Fall  1999 


and  Observer  reported  on  its  front  page.  See  "Hang  the  Editor  there  in  Effigy,"  News  and  Observer  (3 
December  1903):  1. 

"'"Eighteen-Seven  Thus  They  Voted,"  News  and  Observer  (3  December  1903):  4.  The  trustees' 
statement  also  read:  "We  are  particularly  unwilling  to  lend  ourselves  to  any  tendency  to  destroy  or 
limit  academic  liberty." 

',7John  Spencer  Bassett,  untitled  letter  to  the  editor  [Charlotte  Observer?],  (1 1  June  1909);  Bassett 
papers,  Library  of  Congress,  general  correspondence,  container  19. 

98Daniels,  Editor  in  Politics,  435. 

''''Bassett,  "Stirring  Up  the  Fires,"  304.  Bassett's  essay  was  remarkably  prescient.  He  wrote,  305: 
"Some  day  the  Negro  will  [be]  a  great  industrial  factor  in  the  community;  some  day  he  will  be  united 
under  strong  leaders  of  his  own.  In  that  time  his  struggle  will  not  be  so  unequal  as  now.  In  that  time, 
let  us  hope,  he  will  have  brave  and  Christian  leaders." 

"'"Morrison,  Josephus  Daniels,  35. 

""Luebke,  Tar  Heel  Politics,  7. 

"uPaul  D.  Escott,  Many  Excellent  People:  Power  and  Privilege  in  North  Carolina  1850-1900  (Chapel 
Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina  Press,  1985),  265. 

",3For  a  study  of  Daniels  as  a  Progressive  Era  figure,  see  Larry  G.  Gerber,  The  Limits  of  Liberalism: 
Josephus  Daniels,  Henry  Stimson,  Bernard  Barnch,  Donald  Richberg,  Felix  Frankfurter  and  the 
Development  of  Modern  American  Political  Economy  (New  York:  New  York  University  Press,  1983).  For 
an  appraisal  of  Daniels'  association  with  Roosevelt,  see  Carroll  Kilpatrick,  ed.,  Roosevelt  and  Daniels:  A 
Friendship  in  Politics  (Chapel  Hill,  NC:  University  of  North  Carolina  Press,  1952). 

"l4Haley,  "Race,  Rhetoric,  and  Revolution,"  216-217. 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  55 


Fall  1999 


56 


Family  Pictures:  Constructing  the 
"Typical"  American  in  1920s 
Magazines 

By  Carolyn  Kitch 

Beginning  in  the  1920s — in  the  midst  of  the  "Jazz  Age" — mass  circula- 
tion magazines  described  a  new  kind  of  lifestyle  based  on  shared  national 
values.  A  response  to  Progressive  notions  about  gender,  class,  and  race,  this 
ideal  was  profoundly  conservative,  conflating  the  American  identity  with  the 
suburban  nuclear  family.  This  study,  a  rhetorical  analysis  that  draws  on 
hegemony  theory,  considers  how  two  popular  periodicals,  The  Saturday 
Evening  Post  and Good  Housekeeping,  verbally  and  visually  constructed 
that  family  in  a  way  that  would  last  throughout  the  century. 

The  decade  of  the  1920s  has  been  preserved  in  the  American 
collective  memory  as  a  time  of  reckless  freedom  and  disillu- 
sionment, an  era  when  a  "lost  generation"  of  youth  searched 
for  escape  through  jazz,  liquor,  and  sexual  freedom.  Some  media  of  the  era 
reinforced  this  characterization,  supplying  images  of  gin-swilling  flappers, 
frat  boys  in  coonskin  coats,  and  world-weary  urban  sophisticates.1  Yet 
other  media,  especially  mass  circulation  magazines,  painted  a  very  differ- 
ent picture  of  the  1920s,  describing  a  new  kind  of  domesticity  based  on 
shared,  "typical"  values  and  defined  in  terms  of  the  nuclear  family.  At  the 
same  time  it  seemed  forward-looking,  this  picture  was  profoundly  conser- 
vative: the  typical  American  family  was  white  and  suburban,  the  typical 
mother  was  homebound,  and  the  typical  father  was  a  corporate  business- 
man. What's  more,  their  typicality  depended  on  their  income,  their  ability 
to  buy  the  goods  that  defined  the  modern  "lifestyle." 


Carolyn  Kitch  is  an  Assistant  Professor  of  Journalism  at  Temple  University. 

Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  57 


This  article  examines  the  initial  verbal  and  visual  articulation  of  20th 
century  family  values  in  two  popular  periodicals,  The  Saturday  Evening 
Post  and  Good  Housekeeping,  exploring  the  complex  intersection  of 
shifting  gender  ideals  and  political  conservatism  during  this  era.  It  echoes 
historian  Ruth  Schwartz  Cowan's  belief  that  the  "feminine  mystique" 
(generally  considered  a  phenomenon  of  the  1950s)  actually  dates  back  to 
the  1920s,  and  broadens  her  argument  to  include  fathers  as  well  as 
mothers.  It  contends  that  this  earlier  mystique — which  was  championed 
in  the  most  influential  mass  medium  of  the  day,  mass  circulation  maga- 
zines— constructed  an  American  identity  and  symbolically  erased  from 
that  identity  citizens  who  did  not  fit  the  family  ideal. 

Shifting  Cultural  Ideals 

This  study  adds  to  a  growing  body  of  cultural  history  on  the  role  of 
popular  magazines  in  the  emergence  of  20th  century  commercial  culture. 
It  was  during  the  century's  first  three  decades  that  media  became  "mass" 
in  a  truly  national  sense.  These  were  also  pivotal  years  in  the  history  of 
gender,  class,  and  race — a  time  when  women's  political  status  seemed 
about  to  change  dramatically,  when  massive  waves  of  immigration 
increased  the  country's  ethnic  diversity,  when  urbanization  resulted  in  a 
new  racial  mix  in  cities,  and  when  a  new  middle  income  group  became 
the  politically  and  economically  dominant  class  in  America. 

Richard  Ohmann  and  Matthew  Schneirov  have  considered  how 
changes  in  America's  class  structure  shaped,  and  were  shaped  by,  popular 
magazines;  Jennifer  Scanlon,  Ellen  Gruber  Garvey,  and  Helen  Damon- 
Moore  have  analyzed  the  gendering  of  consumer  culture,  including 
magazines,  in  the  new  century.2  This  article  draws  on  such  scholarship 
while  assessing  the  interplay  of  these  factors  in  shifting  cultural  ideals.  It 
also  adds  a  new  dimension  to  the  literature  by  considering  the 
intertextuality  of  visual  and  verbal  communication  during  this  era. 

Quite  a  few  studies  have  examined  either  the  editorial  content  or 
the  artwork  of  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  of  this  period,  including  Jan 
Cohn's  excellent  book  on  its  editor,  George  Horace  Lorimer,3  as  well  as 
works  on  the  early  years  of  the  career  of  artist  Norman  Rockwell.4  Since 
there  are  no  major  works  on  Good  Housekeeping  (aside  from  three  books 
on  the  cover  artist  discussed  here,  Jessie  Willcox  Smith3),  this  article 
argues  for  the  inclusion  of  that  magazine  in  studies  of  the  cultural  impact 
of  early  20th  century  mass  media.  It  further  supports  the  contention  of 
Jennifer  Scanlon  (writing  with  regard  to  The  Ladies'  Home  Journal)  that 
magazines  of  this  era  were  edited  for  an  "average"  reader  rather  than  the 
full  spectrum  of  their  broad  audiences.  In  its  focus  on  the  American 


58  Kitch*  Fall  1999 


family,  this  study  considers  gender  roles  but  argues  that  the  typical  family 
was  defined  primarily  in  terms  of  class  and  race — in  terms  of  what  editors 
and  artists  imagined  to  be  the  center  of  the  US  population's  changing 
demographics  in  a  time  of  significant  population  growth  and  economic 
mobility. 

During  the  early  20th  century,  a  new  national  advertising  industry 
financially  supported  mass  circulation  magazines  in  return  for  access  to 
growing  audiences  of  consumers.  Central  to  the  success  of  this  commer- 
cial formula — to  the  hegemony6  of  the  producers  of  mass  media  as  well  as 
mass  goods — were  the  ambitions  of  an  emerging  American  middle  class 
whose  social  and  economic  choices  would  determine  how  modern 
business  would  be  done.  Class  was  a  fluid  concept  during  this  era,  as  more 
and  more  people  thought  of  themselves  as  upwardly  mobile — whether 
they  were  immigrants  hoping  to  assimilate  or  native-born  Americans 
hoping  to  improve  their  social  and  economic  status. 

Magazines  fueled  these  aspirations.  "Their  pages  were  full  of  celebra- 
tions of  rich  and  wonderful  America,"  explain  journalism  historians  John 
Tebbel  and  Mary  Ellen  Zuckerman.  "The  magazines  that  dealt  with 
success  .  .  .  boasted  circulations ...  in  the  hundreds  of  thousands."7 
Editors'  assumption  that  readers'  identities  were  in  flux  was  suggested  in 
the  contradictory  messages  their  magazines  contained.  Articles  congratu- 
lated readers  for  being  similar  to  one  another;  Post  editor  George  Horace 
Lorimer  even  claimed  that  "the  prime  qualification  of  being  an  editor  is 
being  an  ordinary  man."8  At  the  same  time,  they  instructed  readers  in 
becoming  better  than  other  people,  showing  them  the  lifestyles  and 
behavior  of  the  rich  and  encouraging  what  Miles  Orvell  calls  an  "aesthetic 
of  imitation"  that  "became  the  foundation  of  middle  class  culture."9 

Cover  imagery  in  particular,  notes  art  historian  Susan  Meyer,  offered 
readers  "prototypes  after  which  they  could  pattern  themselves."10  This 
paradox — the  message  that  readers  could  achieve  a  desirable  common 
status  while  also  elevating  themselves — underlay  the  magazines'  increas- 
ingly conservative  definition  of  the  "typical"  American  of  the  20th 
century. 

As  a  rhetorical  analysis,  this  study  searches  for  not  only  what  was 
"said"  in  these  media,  but  also  what  (and  who)  was  left  out,  as  well  as  how 
certain  messages  were  emphasized  through  repetition.  It  further  embraces 
the  notion  that  imagery  as  well  as  words  can  be  read  as  a  kind  of  language, 
an  "iconology"  (to  use  E.  H.  Gombrich's  term)  in  which  images  have 
symbolic  meaning  that  is  culturally  shared  and  historically  grounded." 

To  combine  these  perspectives,  this  analysis  considers  cover  art, 
editorial  matter,  and  advertisements  that  appeared  in  Good  Housekeeping 
and  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  over  a  period  of  nearly  a  decade  and  a  half. 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  59 


The  relatively  few  specific  examples  discussed  here  were  drawn  from  a 
larger  study  of  both  magazines  during  the  1910s  and  1920s.12  Rather 
than  using  a  quantitative  method  of  content  analysis,  this  article  employs 
what  journalism  historian  Marion  Marzolf  called  a  "content  assess- 
ment,"13 a  selection  of  representative14  words  and  images  analyzed  with 
particular  attention  to  their  cultural  and  historical  context. 

Reshaping  the  American  Family 

In  the  first  two  decades  of  the  20th  century,  the  notion  of  a  "New 
Woman"  was  hotly  debated  and  widely  discussed  in  American  media.  A 
cultural  construct  that  had  emerged  in  the  1890s,  the  New  Woman 
represented  real  changes  in  women's  social,  educational,  economic,  and 
political  opportunities,  including  the  entry  of  an  increasing  number  of 
women  into  higher  education  and  the  professions15  and  culminating  in 
the  achievement  of  suffrage  with  the  passage  of  the  19th  Amendment  in 
1920.  Even  so,  women's  life  patterns  remained  relatively  consistent. 
Between  1890  and  1920,  the  marriage  rate  rose  steadily,  and  until  the 
Depression,  fewer  than  10  percent  of  US  wives  were  in  the  workforce.16 

One  thing  that  had  changed  was  the  set  of  expectations  Americans 
brought  to  the  institution  of  marriage.  The  works  of  Freud,  widely 
popularized  in  America  in  1913,  had  validated  women's  sexuality,  and  the 
"new  psychology"  suggested  that  spouses  should  be  emotionally  as  well  as 
sexually  compatible.  Marriage  became,  for  the  first  time,  the  primary 
relationship  in  both  women's  and  men's  lives. 

The  new  companionate  model  for  marriage  coincided  with  an 
increasing  interest  of  middle  class  men  in  home  life.  The  "domestic  man" 
spent  time  with  his  children  and  "made  his  wife,  rather  than  his  male 
associates,  his  regular  companion  on  evenings  out,"  writes  historian 
Margaret  Marsh.17  Yet  this  modern  father  took  his  sons  into  the  outdoors, 
where  together  they  could  experience  the  "strenuous  life"  that  former 
President  Theodore  Roosevelt  believed  was  essential  to  the  strength  of  the 
nation's  manhood— and  the  nation  itself.18 

Nature  was  also  the  backdrop  for  the  new  type  of  living  space  in 
which  this  family  made  its  home:  the  suburb.19  The  factors  of 
corporatization  (providing  stable  incomes  for  white  collar  men),  swelling 
urban  populations,  and  advances  in  transportation  combined  to  induce 
white  families  to  leave  cities  and  move  to  new  housing  developments  in 
outlying  areas.  This  trend  coincided  with  "the  emergence  of  residential 
covenants  that  prohibited  Jews,  blacks  and  in  the  West,  Asians,  from 
living  in  certain  suburbs,"  notes  Marsh. 


60  Kitch*  Fall  1999 


For  whites,  the  suburbs  were  part  of  a  middle  class  vision  of  "mascu- 
line domesticity  [and]  marital  togetherness,"  Marsh  explains,  yet  their 
greater  effect  was  the  isolation  of  residents  into  families  "centered  around 
the  demands  of  childrearing."20  Thanks  to  the  (limited)  availability  of 
birth  control,  parents  had  fewer  worries  about  overly  large  families,  so  the 
children  they  did  bear  took  on  new  status  in  the  middle  class  household. 
Children  were  treasured  and  coveted,  "becoming  almost  a  commodity,  a 
kind  of  consumer  good  that  symbolized  family  completion  and  marital 
success."21 

Not  insignificantly,  all  of  these  phenomena — companionate  hetero- 
sexuality,  white  families'  flight  to  suburbia,  and  the  idealization  of  parent- 
hood— followed  a  decade  of  immigration,  feminism,  and  labor  radicalism. 
During  the  early  1910s,  urban  intellectuals  joined  the  working  poor  in 
embracing  Socialism  and  demonstrating  for  the  rights  of  laborers.  As  they 
and  Progressive-era  reformers  drew  public  attention  to  the  immigrant 
presence  in  urban  America,  and  as  African  Americans  migrated  from  Jim 
Crow  states  to  find  work  in  northern  cities,  some  American  media  began 
to  acknowledge  these  parts  of  the  population.  New  faces  and  issues 
appeared  in  political  magazines  such  as  The  Crisis,  published  by  the 
newly-formed  National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored 
People,  and  the  Socialist  publication  The  Masses,  which  portrayed  and 
championed  the  immigrant  working  class  and  radical  feminists.  They  also 
appeared  in  more  mainstream  periodicals,  such  as  the  old  Life,  whose 
covers  featured  women  as  suffragists  and  as  dance  hall  sirens. 

Campaign  for  "Educated  Motherhood" 

By  decade's  end,  however,  such  media  images  appeared  less  fre- 
quently. The  Masses  became  a  casualty  of  political  conservatism  during 
World  War  I.  Eugenicist  writers  in  medicine  and  science  urged  native- 
born  whites  to  marry  and  have  children  in  order  to  balance  the  growing 
numbers  of  the  "lower"  races  arriving  in  northern  cities  from  Eastern 
Europe,  Russia,  and  the  American  South.  Membership  in  the  National 
Congress  of  Mothers  more  than  tripled  between  1915  and  1920,  and  in 
1924,  this  organization  evolved  into  the  Parent-Teacher  Association.22 
Much  of  the  new  campaign  for  "educated  motherhood"23  originated  in 
professions  such  as  psychology,  medicine,  and  media.  These  experts 
instructed  women  to  make  motherhood  their  first  priority  and  yet  not  to 
smother  their  children  with  too  much  attention.24 

Such  mixed  messages  produced  uncertainty  that  itself  became  a 
problem  to  be  solved  by  experts.  Promotional  material  for  the  new  Parents 
magazine,  launched  in  1926,  explained:  "Many  of  us  cringe  at  the 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  61 


revelation  of  our  inadequacies  .  .  .  educators,  psychiatrists,  writers  and 
social  workers  are  turning  their  searchlights  on  Parents .  .  .  [who]  realize 
that  instinct  and  tradition  are  not  sufficient  equipment  for  their  highly 
important  job. "25 

It  is  little  wonder,  then,  that  the  covers  of  mass  circulation  magazines 
of  the  late  1910s  and  the  1920s  depicted  women  and  men  as  mothers  and 
fathers,  and  increasingly  showcased  children  themselves.  The  turn  to 
domesticity  was  foreshadowed  in  a  mid-1 9 10s  paradigm  shift  that 
occurred  on  the  covers  of  both  Good  Housekeeping  and  The  Saturday 
Evening  Post.  Through  the  end  of  1915,  Good  Housekeeping  had  featured 
the  cover  drawings  of  Coles  Phillips,  an  illustrator  known  for  his 
"fadeaway  girls" —  slim,  stylish  young  women  whose  dress  patterns  melted 
into  the  background  color  or  design.  The  Post,  meanwhile,  had  been  a 
display  case  for  J.  C.  Leyendecker's  elegant  elites,  haughtily  beautiful 
women  and  debonair  men.  But  at  the  start  of  1916,  both  magazines 
began  long-term  relationships  with  very  different  illustrators  who  special- 
ized in  homey  scenes  of  family  life:  Jessie  Willcox  Smith  and  Norman 
Rockwell.  The  editorial  material  and  advertisements  that  appeared  inside 
these  periodicals  underscored  the  cover  artists'  visions. 

Maternity  and  Childhood  in  Good  Housekeeping 

When  she  became  Good  Housekeeping's  primary  cover  artist  (a 
position  she  would  hold  for  17  years),  Jessie  Willcox  Smith  was  already 
nationally  known  as  an  illustrator  of  mother-and-child  scenes  and, 
particularly,  child  life.  Her  advertising  work  for  Ivory  Soap  in  the  1890s 
had  led  to  assignments  from  Scribner's,  Colliers,  and  Century,  as  well  as 
covers  for  The  Ladies'  Home  Journal,  McClure's,  Collier's,  and  Woman's 
Home  Companion  featuring  children.  Smith  herself  never  had  children  or 
married,  yet  she  echoed  the  rhetoric  of  "maternalist"  Progressive-era 
reformers,  calling  marriage  and  motherhood  "the  ideal  life  for  a 
woman."26 

Good  Housekeeping's  typical  reader  was  indeed  married  and  was  likely 
to  be  in  her  late  20s  or  early  30s.  At  the  time,  notes  Mary  Ellen 
Zuckerman,  audience  surveys  rarely  reported  race,  "the  assumption  being 
that  readers  were  white."  The  magazine  ranked  highest  of  all  major 
women's  titles  in  a  1922  study  done  by  advertising  firm  J.  Walter  Thomp- 
son that  rated  the  quality  of  readership  by  (husband's)  occupation.27 

More  so  than  some  of  its  competitors,  Good  Housekeeping  cautiously 
embraced  the  women's  rights  movement.  Though  it  stopped  short  of 
supporting  the  drive  for  suffrage,  it  published  pro-suffrage  opinions,28 
and  after  women  gained  the  vote,  the  magazine  encouraged  its  readers' 


62  Kitch*  Fall  1999 


informed  participation  in  the  electoral  process.29  It  ran  a  regular  report 
from  Washington  by  Francis  Parkinson  Keyes,  a  popular  novelist  and  wife 
of  a  senator,  who  wrote  about  not  just  the  social  life  of  the  nation's  capital, 
but  also  political  issues  of  the  day.30 

Even  so,  Good  Housekeepings  editorial  pages  centered  on  home  care 
and  motherhood.  Beginning  in  the  mid-19 10s,  the  magazine  published  a 
monthly  advice  feature  called  "Mothers  and  Children"  by  Mrs.  Louise 
Hogan.  In  May  of  1916,  Mrs.  Hogan's  "Mother's  Day"  column  (referring 
to  the  holiday  declared  by  Congress  just  two  years  earlier)  advised  mothers 
on  how  to  avoid  mental  and  physical  exhaustion — not  for  their  own  sake, 
but  for  the  sake  of  their  children. 

Another  such  article,  illustrated  by  Smith,  provided  five  pages  of 
physicians'  advice  on  what  children  should  eat  so  they  would  not  grow  up 
to  be  "delicate  or  neurotic."31  Advertisements  in  the  magazine  similarly 
described  mothers'  duties  as  something  akin  to  science,  requiring  special- 
ized skills  linked  to  the  use  of  new  products.  An  ad  in  a  1916  issue 
explained  that  a  child's  health  was  "a  question  of  food,  hygiene  and 
exercise.  The  food  problem  is  easily  solved  with  Shredded  Wheat."32 

By  the  1920s,  motherhood  was  being  championed  in  Good  House- 
keeping by  none  other  than  Mrs.  Charles  Dana  Gibson,  wife  of  the  well- 
known  illustrator  who  had  created  some  of  the  first  visual  representations 
of  the  New  Woman  during  the  1890s.  Mrs.  Gibson,  then  heading  a 
foster-child  placement  agency,  urged  readers  to  adopt  if  they  were  biologi- 
cally unable  to  have  children.  She  told  the  story  of  "a  cultured,  well-to-do 
woman — the  kind  of  woman  about  whom  one  says,  'She  has  everything 
in  the  world'"  but  who  in  fact  "was  bored  and  lonely  and  purposeless." 
Her  husband,  "a  busy  executive,"  did  not  want  a  child,  but  to  please  his 
wife,  he  consented  to  adopt  a  daughter.  The  little  girl  charmed  him  and 
made  them  a  complete  family.  "She's  just  what  we  have  wanted  for  years, 
and  we  didn't  know  it,"  he  exclaimed,  speaking  of  his  daughter  as  if  she 
were  a  well-chosen  purchase.33 

After  January  1916,  such  cherished  children,  drawn  by  Jessie  Willcox 
Smith,  romped  regularly  on  the  magazine's  covers,  and  by  the  1920s,  they 
were  seen  by  a  million  Americans  every  month.  This  decade  was  a  turning 
point  for  the  publication;  its  circulation,  which  had  been  only  about 
300,000  in  the  early  teens,  would  reach  two  million  in  the  1930s.34  The 
nearly  200  covers  Smith  drew  for  the  magazine  between  1917  and  1933 
were  a  large  part  of  the  publication's  editorial  identity  and  success.  Good 
Housekeeping  further  marketed  reproductions  of  her  drawings  on  items 
such  as  postcards  and  china.  Through  these  collectibles — such  as  her 
Madonna-and-Child  plate  series,  offered  by  mail-order — the  magazine's 
idyllic  cover  imagery  was  saved  and  displayed  in  readers'  homes. 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  63 


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64 


Kitch»Fall  1999 


"Keep  that  schoolgirl  complexion" 

The  presence  of  children  in  almost  all  of  Smith's  cover  illustrations 
was  a  clear  sign  that  the  woman  accompanying  them  was  (by  virtue  of 
having  borne  a  child)  a  woman,  not  the  carefree  "flapper"  girl  of  the  Jazz 
Age.  Smith's  women  were  serious,  calm,  self-assured,  and  serene,  yet  they 
were  hardly  Victorian  matrons.  In  her  view,  the  20th  century  American 
mother  was  slim,  pretty,  and  fashionable,  a  youthful  woman  who  no 
doubt  followed  the  advice  of  a  1927  Palmolive  Soap  ad  in  the  magazine, 
which  reminded  readers  of  the  need  to  "keep  that  schoolgirl  complexion" 
long  "after  school  days."35  In  Figure  1,  for  example,  the  apple-gathering 
mother's  modernity  was  conveyed  by  her  knee-length  pleated  skirt,  the 
straps  of  her  stylish  shoes,  her  unselfconscious  display  of  leg,  and  her 
bobbed  hair. 

These  covers  presented  not  just  the  modern  woman,  but  also  the 
new  suburban  mother,  since  many  of  Smith's  cover  scenes  had  outdoor 
backdrops.  In  most  images,  the  woman's  body  was  angled  sideways  or 
downward,  directing  the  readers'  eyes  toward  the  child.  On  the  mass- 
circulation  magazine  cover  of  the  1920s,  motherhood  was  more  about  the 
child  than  the  mother.  In  fact,  many  covers  were  of  children  only,  usually 
shown  in  the  world  of  nature,  such  as  the  young  siblings  ice  skating  in 
Figure  2  (in  which  the  older  sister's  deferential  pose  imitated  that  of 
mothers  in  other  drawings). 

Smith's  subjects  could  be  overly-idealized,  but  many  were  shown  in 
activities  and  poses  that  were  universal.  Her  drawings  were  "so  representa- 
tive of  the  American  youngster  that  the  publication  received  numerous 
letters  from  concerned  mothers  in  all  parts  of  the  country"  who  thought 
that  Smith  had  somehow  drawn  their  children,  notes  biographer  S. 
Michael  Schnessel.36  Smith  saved  one  of  these,  sent  in  1926  by  a  Massa- 
chusetts mother  who  wrote,  "I  was  very  much  thrilled  on  seeing  the 
November  cover  of  Good  Housekeeping,  to  find  that  my  two  darling 
children  were  portrayed  thereon  .  .  .  Where  and  when  did  you  see  the 
children?"37 

The  fact  that  Smith  drew  primarily  toddlers  increased  her  subjects' 
typicality:  they  were  cherubs  rather  than  little  people  with  individuality. 
Her  favorite  cover  subject  was  Everychild.  The  same  device  was  employed, 
in  art  and  articles,  by  the  era's  top-circulation  magazine,  The  Saturday 
Evening  Post. 

Domestic  Manhood  in  "Americas  Family  Magazine" 

Though  Norman  Rockwell  is  now  best  remembered  for  his  Post 
covers  of  the  mid-20th  century,  his  affiliation  with  the  magazine  and  his 
signature  family  scenes  date  to  1916.  Like  Smith,  Rockwell  (already  a 


Fall  1999  •American  Journalism  65 


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Beginning  Faith  Baldwin's  NewNovel 

Ida  Tarbell  -Ruth  Suckow  -Norma  Patterson 
Vera  Connolly  -  Osa  Johnson  -  Bruce  Barton 


Figure  2 


66 


Kitch-Fall  1999 


contributor  to  Boys'  Life  and  Youths  Companion*1*)  preferred  drawing 
children,  who  were  the  subjects  of  90  percent  of  his  Post  covers  between 
1916  and  1919  and  half  of  all  his  covers  for  that  magazine  during  the 
1920s.39 

Christopher  Finch  notes  that  the  artist's  characters — "the  protago- 
nists of  his  little  dramas,"  which  centered  on  "the  small  crises  of  everyday 
life" — were  "familiar  icons."  Moreover,  "all  the  images  seem[ed]  somehow 
connected.  They  belong[ed]  to  the  same  world."40  Yet  the  artist's  scenarios 
only  seemed  familiar;  in  post-war  America,  Rockwell's  world  was  in  fact  a 
Utopian  construction,  what  the  artist  himself  described  as  "life  as  I  would 
like  it  to  be."41  Rockwell's  hopes  coincided  with  those  of  Post  editor 
George  Horace  Lorimer,  who  made  content  suggestions  for  many  of 
Rockwell's  covers.42 

Initially  edited  for  men,  the  Post  became  a  "family  magazine"  during 
the  1910s.  Lorimer  still  imagined  his  primary  readers  as  "the  ambitious 
young  men  of  the  great  middle  class  American  public"  but  thought  of  his 
broader  audience  as  "the  whole  of  American  mainstream  society."43  His 
editorials  honored  "the  desire  of  every  man  to  be  the  architect  of  his  own 
fortunes."  He  assured  readers  that  "there  is  still  room  at  the  top,  or  pretty 
near  the  top,  for  literally  millions  of  men  and  women  who  possess  the 
requisite  industry,  good  judgment,  frugality,  knowledge  of  human  nature, 
persistence,  intelligence  and  integrity."  Such  a  person  would  inevitably 
succeed,  "no  matter  how  humble  his  beginning,"  he  wrote  in  a  1920  issue 
of  his  five-cent  magazine.44 

The  notion  of  the  reader  as  "ambitious"  was  central  to  the  Post's 
editorial  identity  in  this  era,  and  upward  mobility  was  frequently  dis- 
cussed in  terms  of  family  life.  A  1923  ad  showed  two  little  girls  and 
proclaimed,  "In  10  years,  Mother,  one  of  these  children  will  be  enjoying 
social  advantages  which  the  other  can  never  hope  to  attain."  The  ad  copy, 
which  promoted  a  series  of  phonograph  records,  played  to  middle  class 
class  anxieties  and  ambitions:  "home  musical  training  is  all-important, 
inviting  that  subtle  advantage  of  personality  which  enables  some  persons 
to  advance  so  much  further,  in  the  keen  struggle  of  life  ....  [to]  take  their 
places,  without  embarrassment,  among  people  of  broad  culture."45 

In  editorials,  in  ads,  and  in  the  Horatio-Alger-like  profiles  common 
in  the  Post,  the  magazine  attempted  to  engender  "a  sense  of  nationalism 
strong  enough  to  override  America's  regional  differences"46 — a  seemingly 
classless  society  united  by  a  "typical"  family  ideal.  In  keeping  with  this 
mission,  writes  Post  historian  Starkey  Flythe,  Jr.,  Rockwell's  cover  scenes 
"made  America  home,  a  comfortable  sort  of  place  where  Main  Street  and 
Fifth  Avenue  exist  in  an  easy  truce  and  the  great  and  the  small  have  equal- 
sized  emotions,  pleasures  and  pains."47 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  67 


This  vision  reached  a  readership  of  more  than  two  million  at  the 
decade's  start  and  nearly  three  million  at  its  end.48  Yet  even  an  audience 
this  huge  was  not,  in  fact,  classless.  The  Curtis  Publishing  Company, 
which  owned  the  Post,  required  its  subscription  salesmen  to  work  accord- 
ing to  "control  maps"  that  identified  "the  better  residential  areas,"  and  the 
company  expressly  forbade  them  to  visit  black  and  immigrant  neighbor- 
hoods. 

The  magazine's  circulation  growth  in  the  1920s  thus  represented  the 
middle  class  white  families  advertisers  wanted  most  to  reach,  and  by 
1926,  annual  advertising  revenue  passed  $50  million.49  Weekly  issues  ran 
over  200  pages  and  included  political  commentary,  humor,  romantic 
fiction,  and  instruction — something  for  every  member  of  the  family.50 
And  every  member  of  the  family  appeared  on  Rockwell's  covers. 

Rockwell  drew  female  figures  quite  differently  than  had  his  main 
predecessors  in  magazine  illustration,  artists  such  as  Charles  Dana  Gibson, 
Harrison  Fisher,  and  Howard  Chandler  Christy,  who  specialized  in 
glamorous  young  debutantes.  "I  paint  the  kind  of  girls  your  mother 
would  want  you  to  marry,"  Rockwell  himself  noted.51  His  cover  women 
were  mothers  themselves — though  not  Smith's  modern  madonnas.  In 
Rockwell's  world,  the  mother  was  often  the  smothering  figure  experts 
warned  about,  something  to  be  resisted  by  the  child,  who  was  usually  a 
boy.  The  curator  of  one  Rockwell  collection  noted  this  theme  in  a  1918 
Post  cover  depicting  a  boy's  first  professional  haircut,  a  scene  in  which  the 
artist  "enable [d]  the  observer  to  see  the  boy's  glee  at  his  shearing,  suggest- 
ing that  his  life  ha[d]  moved  on  a  niche,  leaving  his  mother  behind  while 
he  enter  [ed]  the  world  of  men,  symbolized  by  the  debonair  barber."52 

Search  for  Masculinity 

The  American  boy's  search  for  masculinity  was  a  common  thread  in 
the  artist's  work.  While  a  well-groomed  barber  embodied  one  version  of 
that  ideal,  Rockwell's  art  even  more  often  emphasized  "a  youthful  mascu- 
linity constructed  around  physical  prowess,"  notes  scholar  Eric  Segal.53 
The  frowning  boy  in  Figure  3  suffered  the  taunts  of  his  athletic  friends 
not  only  because  of  his  own  "debonair"  appearance,  but  also  because  he 
was  saddled  with  the  unwanted  femininity  of  a  lace-capped  baby  sister. 
("The  best  part  of  the  gag  was  the  baby's  bottle  in  the  boy's  pocket," 
Rockwell  later  recalled.  "I  received  lots  of  letters  about  his  humilia- 
tion."54) 

In  this  era,  such  images  had  as  much  to  do  with  adults  as  with 
children.  Rockwell's  depiction  of  boyhood  was  only  one  example  of  a 
preoccupation  with  masculinity  in  the  larger  culture.  His  boy  athletes 


68  Kitch*  Fall  1999 


lJJJb  o/fi  UI%IJJi  x 

EVENING  POST 


THE  EMPIRE  BUIIJDEESHfeliMf  lifeftfcii*ta 


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Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism 


69 


were  visualizations  of  the  strenuous  life  to  be  led  by  boys  outdoors,  away 
from  the  corrupting  influences  of  the  city  and  the  feminizing  influence  of 
women.  Psychologists  saw  rugged  boyhood  as  the  solution  to  diminished 
white  manhood,  convinced  that  "it  was  the  innate  primitive  savagery  of 
young  boys  that  could  point  the  way  to  the  resolution  of  the  crisis  of 
masculinity"  and  that  adult  males  "should  learn  to  be  more  like  boys  and 
less  like  overcivilized  men,"  writes  historian  Michael  Kimmel.  In  this 
view,  "the  savage  child  could  be  father  to  the  man  and  reinstill  manly 
beh 


avior 


"55 


Rockwells  Post  covers  of  the  early  1920s  confirmed  this  desire  for 
masculine  transformation  while  also  poking  fun  at  it.  His  football  players 
appeared  stunned  at  the  moment  of  tackle;  a  scrawny  pre-adoloscent  lifted 
dumbbells  beneath  a  poster  of  a  circus  strongman.  Yet  these  boys  inevita- 
bly matured  into  men,  and  despite  their  childhood  chagrin  at  babysitting, 
they  eventually  married  and  raised  families  of  their  own.  Rockwell  drew 
fathers  not  in  the  world  of  business,  but  in  the  domestic  world  of  their 
families.  This  setting,  and  the  notion  that  it  was  natural  for  men,  was 
repeated  verbally  and  visually  inside  the  magazine. 

Though  he  was  still  Lorimer's  ideal  businessman,  the  modern  father 
portrayed  in  the  Post  made  the  most  of  weekends  and  vacations  and  found 
much  of  his  identity  in  his  family.  This  man  appeared  in  Post  articles  and 
even  in  advertisements.  One  1923  ad  (Figure  4)  showed  a  suited  man 
leaning  back  in  a  rocking  chair  and  holding  a  bowl  of  soapy  water  from 
which  a  young  boy,  seated  on  his  knees,  blew  bubbles;  the  discarded 
newspaper  at  his  feet  was  turned  to  the  comic  strip  "Bringing  Up  Father." 
The  copy  proclaimed  Palm  Beach  Suits  the  perfect  attire  for  "A  Summer 
Sunday  morning  when  you  drop  your  paper  for  a  romp  on  the  porch  with 
the  kids;  during  a  heat-prophesying  and  heat-generating  sermon;  [or]  a 
week-day  business  engagement  in  a  stuffy  office  .  .  ."56 

In  the  new  suburban  domestic  ideal  of  the  1920s,  Americans  were 
organized  into  family  units  that  negotiated  the  world  together  and 
symbolized  American  progress  through  clean  living.  Rockwell  drew  them 
eating  and  relaxing  at  home,  fishing  and  playing  sports  in  the  outdoors; 
though  they  might  look  exhausted  by  a  summer  vacation  (on  one  late- 
summer  cover,  literally  collapsed  together),  he  would  pile  them  right  back 
into  their  automobiles  to  go  out  and  explore  life  anew.  On  Post  covers,  the 
family  became  a  single  image  of  the  good  life  in  America. 

Inventing  Middle  America 

"People  like  to  think  that  Rockwell  painted  Middle  America,"  notes 
art  scholar  Tom  Sgouros.  "The  truth  is,  Norman  Rockwell  invented 


70  Kitch*  Fall  1999 


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Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism 


71 


Middle  America."57  So  did  Jessie  Willcox  Smith  with  her  modernized 
mother-and-child  tableaux  on  the  covers  of  Good  Housekeeping,  and  so  too 
did  the  writers,  editors,  and  advertising  copywriters  whose  visions  filled 
the  pages  of  popular  magazines  in  the  1920s. 

This  world  was  not  merely  prescriptive.  The  magazines'  focus  on 
domesticity  was  rooted  in  broader  developments  that  had  to  do  with  new 
views  of  urban  and  pastoral  life  and  changing  ideas  about  masculinity, 
femininity,  marriage,  and  childhood  in  the  new  century.  Yet  it  also  was 
rooted  in — and  in  turn  fostered — the  country's  shift  toward  political 
conservativism  and  economic  consumerism,  the  emergence  of  a  society 
defined  in  terms  of  an  ideal  lifestyle  to  which  all  readers  could  (and 
should)  aspire. 

The  typical  family,  a  concept  that  became  conflated  with  American- 
ism itself,  left  out  the  kinds  of  people — people  of  color,  the  working  class 
and  poor,  working  women,  political  radicals — whose  presence  had  been 
more  noticeable  in  public  life  and  popular  culture  of  the  early  1910s.  The 
soaring  circulations  of  both  magazines  in  the  1920s  suggested  that  such  a 
vision  resonated  among  white,  middle  class  citizens,  whose  consent  had 
indeed  been  won  in  a  hegemonic  political  and  commercial  process. 

This  picture  of  a  "new  family,"  transmitted  to  millions  of  Americans 
on  a  weekly  and  monthly  basis,  signaled  a  post-Progressive  and  postwar 
return  to  "normalcy"  even  while  it  defined  what  was  normal.  Though  cast 
as  modern  and  up-to-date,  the  new  family  of  the  20th  century  was 
actually  the  old  family  of  the  19th  century:  patriarchal,  child-centered, 
insulated,  and  exclusive. 

Media  producers  have  continued  to  describe  American  life  in  terms 
of  an  average  family,  following  a  model  that  was  set  in  place  three  decades 
before  the  better-recognized  media  celebration  of  mid-century  suburban 
domesticity.  Mass-circulation  periodicals  of  the  1 920s  created  a  "mys- 
tique" that  was  a  backlash  against  political  currents  of  the  century's  early 
years,  that  would  re-emerge  following  the  Depression  and  World  War 
II — and  that  would  surface  yet  again  in  the  1980s,  after  two  decades  of 
activism  centering  on  race,  gender  and  poverty  issues. 

At  century's  end,  even  as  diversity  is  widely  discussed  in  popular 
media,  the  representational  American  ideal  remains  quite  similar  to  1920s 
imagery:  a  suburban,  nuclear  family  which  is  most  often  white  and 
middle  class.  By  defining  this  modern  family,  magazines  such  as  The 
Saturday  Evening  Post  and  Good  Housekeeping  created  a  media  icon  with 
political  and  commercial  currency  that  will  last  well  into  the  21st  century. 


72  Kitch*  Fall  1999 


Endnotes 

'See,  for  instance,  the  old  Life,  The  New  Republic,  and,  at  the  end  of  the  1920s,  The  New  Yorker. 

-Richard  Ohmann,  Selling  Culture:  Magazines,  Markets,  and  Class  at  the  Turn  of  the  Century 
(London  and  New  York:  Verso,  1996);  Matthew  Schneirov,  The  Dream  of  a  New  Social  Order:  Popular 
Magazines  in  America  1893-1914  (New  York:  Columbia  University  Press,  1994);  Jennifer  Scanlon, 
Inarticulate  Longings:  The  Ladies'  Home  Journal,  Gender,  and  the  Promises  of  Consumer  Culture 
(London  and  New  York:  Routledge,  1995);  Ellen  Gruber  Garvey,  The  Adman  in  the  Parlor:  Magazines 
and  the  Gendering  of  Consumer  Culture,  1880s  to  1910s  (New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  1996); 
and  Helen  Damon-Moore,  Magazines  for  the  Millions:  Gender  and  Commerce  in  The  Ladies'  Home 
Journal  andT\\e  Saturday  Evening  Post,  1880-1910  (Albany:  State  University  of  New  York  Press, 
1994). 

3Jan  Cohn,  Creating  America:  George  Horace  Lorimer  and  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  (Pittsburgh: 
University  of  Pittsburgh  Press,  1989). 

''These  works  include  Rockwell's  autobiography,  My  Adventures  as  an  Illustrator  (New  York:  Harry 
N.  Abrams,  1988),  as  well  as  biographies  and  collections  of  his  work:  Laurie  Norton  Moffat,  Norman 
Rockwell:  A  Definitive  Catalog  (Stockbridge,  MA:  The  Norman  Rockwell  Museum  at  Stockbridge, 
1 986);  Thomas  S.  Buechner,  Norman  Rockwell:  A  Sixty  Year  Retrospective  (New  York:  Harry  N. 
Abrams,  1 972);  Donald  Walton,  A  Rockwell  Portrait:  An  Intimate  Biography  (Kansas  City:  Sheed 
Andrews  and  McMeel,  1978);  Norman  Rockwell  and  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  (1916-1928) 
(Philadelphia:  Rittenhouse  Press,  1976);  Robin  Langley  Sommer,  ed.,  Norman  Rockwell:  A  Classic 
Treasury  (London:  Bison  Books,  1993);  Christopher  Finch,  Norman  Rockwell:  322  Magazine  Covers 
(New  York:  Abbeville  Press,  1979);  Starkey  Flythe,  Jr.,  ed.,  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  Norman 
Rockwell  Book  (New  Yotk:  Bonanza  Books,  1986);  and  Arthur  L.  Guptill,  Norman  Rockwell,  Illustrator 
(New  York:  Watson-Guptill  Publications,  1946). 

5S.  Michael  Schnessel,  Jessie  Willcox  Smith  (New  York:  Thomas  Y.  Crowell,  1977);  Gene  Mitchell, 
The  Subject  Was  Children:  The  Art  of  Jessie  Willcox  Smith  (New  York:  E.  P.  Dutton,  1979);  and  Edward 
D.  Nudelman./cM/V  Willcox  Smith:  A  Bibliography  (Gretna:  Pelican  Publishing,  1989).  The  first  two 
are  essentially  coffee-table  books,  not  works  of  critical  scholarship. 

'The  concept  of  hegemony — first  articulated  by  Italian  political  theorist  Antonio  Gramsci — is  used 
here  not  as  a  synonym  for  dominance,  but  as  a  way  of  describing  the  relationship  that  exists  between 
leaders  and  followers,  or,  in  a  commercial  power  structure,  producers  and  consumers.  Gramsci  refined 
Marxist  theory  by  contending  that  the  consent  of  a  populace  is  not  enforced  by  some  monolithic 
power;  rather,  the  acceptance  of  certain  ideas  and  conditions  seems  to  be  a  choice  freely  made  by  a 
majority  of  people  {Selections  from  Prison  Notebooks,  trans.  Quintin  Hoare  and  Geoffrey  Nowell-Smith 
[London:  Lawrence  &  Wishart,  1971],  80,  182). 

7John  Tebbel  and  Mary  Ellen  Zuckerman,  The  Magazine  in  America,  1741-1990  (New  York: 
Oxford  University  Press,  1991),  76. 

"George  Horace  Lorimer,  quoted  in  Amy  Janello  and  Brennon  Jones,  The  American  Magazine  (New 
York:  Harry  N.  Abrams,  1991),  62. 

''Miles  Orvell,  The  Real  Thing:  Imitation  and  Authenticity  in  American  Culture,  1880-1940  (Chapel 
Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina  Press,  1989),  49-50. 

'"Susan  E.  Meyer,  Norman  Rockwell's  People  (New  York:  Harry  N.  Abrams,  1981),  20. 

1  'This  approach  is  based  on  the  theoretical  groundwork  of  visual  theorists  Erwin  Panofsky  and  E. 
H.  Gombrich,  the  latter  of  whom  maintained  that  imagery  "cannot  be  divorced  from  its  purpose  and 
requirements  of  the  society  in  which  the  given  visual  language  gains  currency" — in  other  words,  from 
its  social,  economic,  and  historical  context  (Erwin  Panofsky,  Meaning  in  the  Visual  Arts  [Garden  City, 
NY:  Doubleday  Anchor  Books,  1955];  E.  H.  Gombrich,  Art  and  Illusion:  A  Study  in  the  Psychology  of 
Pictorial  Representation  [Princeton,  NJ:  Princeton  University  Press,  1960],  9,  90). 

l2Carolyn  L.  Kirch,  "The  Girl  on  the  Magazine  Cover:  Gender,  Class,  and  the  Emergence  of  Visual 
Stereotypes  in  American  Mass  Media,  1895-1930,"  (Ph.  D.  diss.,  Temple  University,  1998). 

13Marion  Marzolf,  "American  Studies — Ideas  for  Media  Historians?"  Journalism  History  5,  no.  1 
(Spring  1978),  15. 

I4I  have  necessarily  selected  only  a  few  examples  of  a  vast  amount  of  material.  Yet  my  characteriza- 
tion of  "representative"  editorial  and  artwork  from  these  magazines  during  this  era  is  confirmed  in 
other  studies  of  this  work,  including  Cohn,  Creating  America;  Moffat,  Norman  Rockwell;  Schnessel, 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  73 


Jessie  Willcox  Smith;  and  Mitchell,  The  Subject  Was  Children. 

1 'Women  comprised  35  percent  of  all  college  students  in  1890  and  nearly  half  in  1920;  the 
percentage  of  professionals  who  were  female  rose  from  35  to  44  percent  between  1900  and  1920 
(Nancy  F.  Cott,  The  Grounding  of  Modern  Feminism  [New  Haven,  CT:  Yale  University  Press,  1987], 
148,  350n4). 

"'Elaine  Tyler  May,  Great  Expectations:  Marriage  and  Divorce  in  Post-  Victorian  America  (Chicago: 
University  of  Chicago  Press,  1980),  117,  167. 

l7Margaret  Marsh,  Suburban  Lives  (New  Brunswick,  NJ:  Rutgers  University  Press,  1990),  76. 

"Theodore  Roosevelt,  "The  Strenuous  Life,"  in  The  Strenuous  Life:  Essays  and  Addresses  (New  York: 
The  Century  Co.,  1901),  1-21. 

'''While  this  retreat  of  middle-class  whites  from  the  city  did  not  occur  on  a  significant  scale  until 
the  early  20th  century,  the  concept  of  the  suburb — and  the  word  itself — existed  in  American  culture 
as  early  as  1870  (Marsh,  Suburban  Lives,  192nl6). 

2"Marsh,  Suburban  Lives,  69,  129,  184. 

^'Margaret  Marsh  and  Wanda  Ronner,  The  Empty  Cradle:  Infertility  in  America  from  Colonial  Times 
to  the  Present  (Baltimore:  Johns  Hopkins  University  Press,  1996),  1 12-1 13. 

"'Molly  Ladd-Taylor,  Mother-Work:  Women,  Child  Welfare,  and  the  State,  1890-1930  (Urbana  and 
Chicago:  University  of  Illinois  Press,  1994),  44. 

23 1  am  borrowing  this  term  from  Sheila  M.  Rothman,  Woman's  Proper  Place:  A  History  of  Changing 
Ideals  and  Practices,  1870  to  the  Present  (New  York:  Basic  Books,  1978),  177. 

24Nancy  F.  Cott,  Introduction,  Root  of  Bitterness:  Documents  of  the  Social  History  of  American 
Women,  ed.  Nancy  F.  Cott  (New  York:  E.  P.  Dutton,  1972);  Rothman,  Woman's  Proper  Place,  211. 

"Quoted  in  Cott,  The  Grounding  of  Modern  Feminism,  170. 

2ftSmith  also  illustrated  several  well-known  children's  books.  For  more  on  her  background,  see: 
Schnessel,  Jessie  Willcox  Smith;  Mitchell,  The  Subject  Was  Children;  Nudelman,  Jessie  Willcox  Smith; 
Catherine  Connell  Stryker,  "The  Studios  at  Cogslea,"  February  20-28,  1976  (Wilmington:  Delaware 
Museum  of  Art,  1976);  "Jessie  Willcox  Smith,"  Good Housekeeping  (October  1917),  190-191;  Patricia 
Likos,  "The  Ladies  of  the  Red  Rose,"  The  Feminist  Art  Journal  5  (Fall  1976),  11-15,  43;  and  Christine 
Jones  Huber,  "The  Pennsylvania  Academy  and  Its  Women,  1850  to  1920,"  3  May -16  June  1973 
(Philadelphia:  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  1974).  The  quote  is  from  Stryker,  "The 
Studios  at  Cogslea,"  12. 

27Mary  Ellen  Zuckerman,  A  History  of  Popular  Women's  Magazines  in  the  United  States,  1792-1995 
(Westport,  CT:  Greenwood  Press,  1998),  133;  J.  Walter  Thompson,  "Analysis  of  the  Subscription 
Circulation  of  44  Magazines"  (1922),  quoted  in  Zuckerman,  134. 

28One  reason  may  have  been  the  fact  that  Anna  Kelton  Wiley — wife  of  Dr.  John  Wiley,  the  director 
of  the  Good  Housekeeping  Institute — was  a  member  of  the  militant  Woman's  Party.  In  February 
1918,  the  magazine  published  her  views  in  "Why  We  Picketed  the  White  House"  (beginning  with  an 
italicized  disclaimer  that "  Good  Housekeeping  does  not  believe  in  picketing  the  White  House")  (29, 
124-125). 

2Tor  instance,  Elizabeth  Frazer,  "Say  It  with  Ballots,"  Good  Housekeeping  74  (June  1922),  27-28, 
186,  189-190. 

3"In  1923,  Mrs.  Keyes  covered  the  International  Women's  Suffrage  Alliance  meeting  in  Rome  for 
the  magazine  (Frank  Luther  Mott,  A  Histoiy  of  American  MagazinesV  [1905-1930]  [Cambridge,  MA: 
Harvard  University  Press,  1968],  134). 

"Mrs.  Louise  Hogan,  "Mothers  and  Children,"  Good  Housekeeping  (March  1916),  321-325. 

"Advertisement,  Good  Housekeeping  (February  1916),  13. 

33Mrs.  Charles  Dana  Gibson,  "When  a  Child  Adopts  You,"  Good  Housekeeping  85  (July  1927),  79, 
133-134,  136,  139. 

34Mott,  A  History  of  American  MagazinesV,  133,  136. 

"Advertisement,  Good  Housekeeping  (November  1927),  n.  p.,  in  the  Alice  Marshall  Collection, 
Penn  State  Harrisburg  (Harrisburg,  PA). 

,f,Schnessel,/«w  Willcox  Smith,  124. 

37Constance  Bell  Pearson,  Beverly,  MA,  to  Jessie  Willcox  Smith,  c/o  Good  Housekeeping,  d.  October 


74  Kitch- Fall  1999 


28,  1926,  Jessie  Willcox  Smith  papers,  Archives  of  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts 
(Philadelphia,  PA). 

-'"At  the  start  of  his  career,  Rockwell's  work  also  appeared  in  American  Boy,  St.  Nicholas,  American 
Farm  and  Fireside,  Literary  Digest,  Life,  Judge,  Leslie's  Weekly,  the  American  Magazine,  and  Collier's. 

39Buechner,  Norman  Rockwell:  A  Sixty  Year  Retrospective,  52. 

4"Finch,  Norman  Rockwell:  322  Magazine  Covers,  8-11. 

4 'Rockwell,  My  Adventures  as  an  Illustrator,  34. 

42Laurie  Norton  Moffat,  "Norman  Rockwell:  Illustrator  of  America's  Heritage,"  American  History 
Illustrated 21,  no.  8  (December  1986),  27. 

43Mott,  A  History  of  American  Magazines  IV  (1885-1905),  688;  Damon-Moore,  Magazines  for  the 
Millions,  154. 

44George  Horace  Lorimer,  "Is  Success  Personal?"  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  (April  10,  1920),  30. 

45Advertisement,  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  (January  20,  1923),  86-87. 

4''Jan  Cohn,  Covers  <?/The  Saturday  Evening  Post:  Seventy  Years  of  Outstanding  Illustration  from 
America's  Favorite  Magazine  (New  York:  Viking,  1995),  2. 

H7Flythe,  Foreword,  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  Norman  Rockwell  Book,  vii. 

4SMott,  A  History  of  American  Magazines  IV,  696. 

"''A  Study  of  City  Markets,  1928-1929  (Philadelphia:  Curtis  Publishing  Company,  1930),  1,  quoted 
in  Zuckerman,  A  History  of  Popular  Women's  Magazines  in  the  United  States,  132;  Mott,  A  History  of 
American  Magazines  IV,  696. 

5"Cohn,  Creating  America,  165. 

''Rockwell,  My  Adventures  as  an  Illustrator,  34. 

52This  interpretation  is  from  Norman  Rockwell  and  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  (1916-1928),  27 '. 

53Eric  J.  Segal,  "Norman  Rockwell  and  the  Fashioning  of  American  Masculinity,"  Art  Bulletin  78, 
no.  4  (December  1996),  637.  In  his  study  of  the  artist's  work  during  the  1910s  and  1920s,  Segal 
divides  the  era's  "competing  versions  of  white,  middle-class  American  masculinity"  into  "sartorial 
masculinity  that  [was]  based  on  fashion  and  taste"  and  "corporal  masculinity,"  a  matter  of  "bodily 
fortitude"  (633). 

54Quoted  in  Guptill,  Norman  Rockwell,  Illustrator,  152. 

"Michael  Kimmel,  Manhood  in  America:  A  Cultural  History  (New  York:  The  Free  Press,  1996),  164. 
Kimmel  is  referring  to  claims  first  made  in  psychologist  G.  Stanley  Hall's  1904  landmark  study 
Adolescence:  Its  Psychology  and  Its  Relations  to  Physiology,  Anthropology  Sociology,  Sex,  Crime,  Religion 
and  Education,  2  vols.  (New  York:  Appleton,  1904).  The  outdoor  ideal  was  manifested  in  organiza- 
tions such  as  the  new  Boy  Scouts  of  America,  whose  annual  calendar  Rockwell  illustrated  for  53  years. 

"Advertisement,  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  (19  May  1923),  94-95. 

57Quoted  in  Verlyn  Klinkenborg,  "Pyle  and  Rockwell — Totally  American,  Yet  Not  at  All  Alike," 
Smithsonian  25,  no.  4  (1994),  93. 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  75 


Fall  1999 


76 


Conserving  Racial  Segregation  in 
1954:  Brown  v.  Board  of  Education 
and  the  Mississippi  Daily  Press 

By  Susan  Weill 

Every  issue  of  the  20  daily  Mississippi  newspapers  published  in  May 
1954,  when  the  Brown  v.  Board  of  Education  Supreme  Court  decision 
mandated  racial  integration  of  public  schools,  and  August  1954,  the  month 
before  school  was  to  begin  that  year,  was  analyzed  for  this  study.  From  1,200 
issues  of  the  microfilmed  newspapers,  62  editorials  and  353  news  articles  and 
headlines,  findings  show  that  the  consensus  among  editors  of  the  Mississippi 
daily  press  regarding  Brown  was  (1)  Mississippians,  black  and  white,  were  not 
ready  for  the  reality  of  a  racially  integrated  society,  and  (2)  national  civil 
rights  laws  supplanted  stateis  and  individual  rights.  According  to  the  vast 
majority  of  the  Mississippi  daily  press  editorials  examined,  the  notion  that 
blacks  and  whites  were  equal  as  races  of  people  was  a  concept  that  remained 
unacceptable  and  inconceivable.  The  study  also  found,  contrary  to  what  media 
critics  have  reported  about  the  promotion  of  violence  to  suppress  civil  rights 
activity  in  the  Southern  press,  that  Mississippi  daily  newspapers  never  encour- 
aged or  condoned  violence  during  the  time  period  studied. 

"We  shall  resist  by  every  legal  means  at  our  command" 

— Mississippi  Governor  Hugh  White. ' 

An  agricultural  economy,  a  socially  conservative  white  mentality,  and 
a  large  black  underclass  defined  Mississippi  in  the  1950s.  The  state  was 
largely  rural,  the  capital  city  of  Jackson  was  the  only  actual  metropolitan 


Susan  Weill  is  an  Assistant  Professor  in  the  Department  of  Communication  Studies  at  the 
University  of  Alabama  at  Birmingham. 

Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  77 


area,  and  the  racial  composition  was  unique  to  the  country.  In  no  other 
state  did  blacks  constitute  such  a  large  percentage  of  the  population  as 
they  did  in  Mississippi,  where  for  more  than  a  century  they  had,  as  the 
descendants  of  slaves,  comprised  a  majority.  In  1954,  the  lack  of  educa- 
tion, denial  of  involvement  in  the  political  process,  and  burden  of  poverty 
hung  over  them  in  the  dark  cloud  of  second  class  citizenship.2 

When  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  declared  racially  segregated 
public  schools  unconstitutional  with  Brown  v.  Board  of  Education  in 
1954 — a  mandate  considered  "a  sort  of  second  emancipation  proclama- 
tion" 3 — the  court's  1896  "separate  but  equal"  Plessy  v.  Ferguson  ruling  had 
been  the  law  of  the  land  for  more  than  half  a  century.  An  end  to  public 
school  segregation  had  become  a  goal  of  the  National  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Colored  People  (NAACP)  because  in  17  Southern  states 
black  and  white  students  attended  segregated  schools  that  were  definitely 
separate,  but  certainly  not  equal.4  As  Mississippi  historian  Neil  McMillen 
observed,  "Throughout  the  Jim  Crow  era,  the  single  greatest  impediment 
to  better  Afro-American  schools  was  white  fear  of  the  revolutionary  and 
economic  implications  of  educating  a  subservient  workforce."5 

Plessy  v.  Ferguson  had  been  ignored  in  Mississippi.  In  1950,  black 
students  constituted  nearly  60  percent  of  the  public  school  pupils  in 
Mississippi,  but  they  received  only  20  percent  of  public  school  funds.6 
Salaries  for  black  teachers  averaged  $1,109,  compared  to  $1,991  for  white 
teachers  (the  US  average  was  $3,605  ).7  Most  of  Mississippi's  black 
schools  in  1954  were  situated  in  privately-owned  buildings,  such  as  black 
churches,  and  consequently  not  eligible  for  public  funding  for  repairs  or 
improvement.  Most  of  them  had  no  water  supply.  One  school  official 
thought  them  "unfit  even  for  cotton  storage,"  while  another  described 
them  as  "hardly  better  than  cattle  sheds."8 

For  the  Mississippi  press,  as  well  as  the  Southern  and  national  press, 
the  social  and  cultural  repercussions  of  civil  rights  mandates  which 
threatened  the  status  quo,  such  as  Brown,  were  one  of  the  ongoing  sagas 
of  the  1950s.9  Whether  American  newspapers  have  ever  done  a  sufficient 
job  of  reporting  social  challenges  has  been  the  object  of  debate  for  more 
than  a  century.  The  Southern  press  has  often  been  the  target  of  scorn  in 
this  regard,  and  the  Mississippi  press  has  been  viewed  with  particular 
disdain.10 

Mississippi  press  reaction  to  the  civil  rights  movement  has  not  been 
studied  extensively,  although  several  researchers  have  addressed  the 
issue. ' '    The  purpose  of  this  particular  study,  therefore,  is  to  evaluate 
coverage  of Brown  v.  Board  of  Education  by  the  Mississippi  daily  press  and 
to  explore  the  manner  in  which  those  newspapers  fought  to  preserve  the 
traditional  Southern  way  of  life,  in  May  1954,  when  the  decision  was 


78  Weill -Fall  1999 


handed  down,  and  in  August  1954,  when  the  1954-55  school  year  began. 
The  Mississippi  press  declared  the  Brown  decision  an  unconstitutional 
and  illegal  action  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  an  assault  on 
states'  rights  that  threatened  the  fabric  of  Mississippi  society,  and  an 
affront  to  both  blacks  and  whites — all  of  whom  preferred,  according  to 
the  editors,  racial  segregation. 

The  Mississippi  newspapers  included  are:  Clarksdale  Press  Register, 
Columbus  Commercial  Dispatch,  Corinth  Daily  Corinthian,  Greenville 
Delta  Democrat-Times,  Greenwood  Commonwealth,  Greenwood  Morning 
Star,  Grenada  Sentinel-Star,  Gulfport  Daily  Herald,  Hattiesburg  American, 
Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  Jackson  Daily  News,  Laurel  Leader- Call,  McComb 
Enterprise-Journal,  Meridian  Star,  Natchez  Democrat,  Natchez  Times, 
Tupelo  Daily  Journal,  Vicksburg  Herald,  Vicksburg  Evening  Post  and  the 
West  Point  Times  Leader. 

Few  Brown  Editorials 

Wire  service  news  stories  announced  the  Brown  v.  Board  of  Education 
decision  as  front  page  news  in  all  20  Mississippi  daily  newspapers,12  but 
the  editors  responded  in  1954  to  Brown  with  less  than  half  the  editorial 
opinions  with  which  they  had  addressed  the  Dixiecrat  protest  of  President 
Harry  Truman's  civil  rights  re-election  platform  six  years  earlier  in  1948.'3 
Perhaps  words  seemed  futile  against  a  Supreme  Court  decision.  Or 
possibly,  the  lack  of  more  editorial  opinions  regarding  Brown  was  that  the 
editors  knew  Plessy  v.  Ferguson  had  not  been  enforced  for  50  years,  and 
Brown  may  have  been  viewed  as  simply  another  token  attempt  at  change. 

The  number  of  blacks  in  the  communities  served  by  the  Mississippi 
daily  newspapers  in  1954,  with  percentages  that  ranged  from  14  to  72, 
seemed  to  have  no  impact  on  editorial  opinion  regarding  Brown.  In 
Clarksdale,  where  the  Coahoma  County  black  population  was  the  highest 
in  the  state  at  72  percent,14  editor  Joseph  Ellis,  Jr.,  published  a  syndicated 
column  by  James  Marlow  denouncing  the  court  order  as  a  violation  of  the 
Plessy  v.  Ferguson  mandate.15  In  Corinth,  on  the  other  hand,  where  Alcorn 
County's  black  population  was  the  smallest  represented  in  this  study  at  14 
percent,16  the  Daily  Corinthian  also  utilized  Marlow's  opinion.17 

The  editorial  protest  to  Brown  was  supported  by  most  of  the 
Mississippi  daily  press.  In  Columbus,  the  Lowndes  County  population 
was  48  percent  black  in  1954,18  and  editor  Birney  Imes  mentioned 
Brown  only  twice  in  his  opinion  columns.  He  observed  without  explana- 
tion in  one  front  page  editorial,  "I  think  the  Supreme  Court  decision  was 
born  a  hundred  years  too  soon."19  An  understanding  of  what  Imes  meant 
might  be  to  note  that  he  lowercased  the  word  Negro  in  his  text,  which 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  79 


was  often  done  to  imply  inferiority.  The  headline  to  the  AP  story  an- 
nouncing the  decision  in  the  Columbus  Commercial  Dispatch  proposed  an 
alternative  to  those  opposed  to  Brown,  "Abolish  Public  School  System 
Declares  Sillers."20  Walter  Sillers  was  the  Speaker  of  the  Mississippi  House 
of  Representatives  in  1954. 

West  of  Columbus  toward  the  Mississippi  River,  the  Greenwood 
Commonwealth  and  the  Greenwood  Morning  Star  served  a  small  Delta 
town  that  would  become  the  site  of  the  national  office  of  the  Student 
Nonviolent  Coordinating  Committee  during  Freedom  Summer  in  1964. 
The  Leflore  County  population  in  1954  was  68  percent  black,21  and 
editor  Tom  Shepherd  of  the  Greenwood  Commonwealth  published  only 
one  opinion  pertaining  to  Brown:  "Abolition  of  segregation  required  by 
the  recent  Supreme  Court  decision  would  not  of  itself  remove  the  defi- 
ciencies in  our  schools  [lack  of  books,  equipment].  It  would  simply  mean, 
under  present  conditions,  that  some  negro  [sic]  children  would  go  to 
better  schools  and  some  white  children  would  go  to  worse."22 

Across  town,  editor  Virgil  Adams  of  the  Greenwood  Morning  Star 
viewed  Brown  as  inevitable  and  the  consequences  of  the  decision  detri- 
mental to  both  blacks  and  whites.  The  day  after  the  decision,  Adams 
voiced  his  fears  and  pleaded  for  calm  until  a  "solution"  could  be  found: 
"Unless  advocates  of  segregation  in  the  South  come  up  with  some  new 
angle  to  the  laws  regarding  segregation,  it  is  only  a  matter  of  months,  or 
perhaps  a  year,  until  enforcement  of  the  new  ruling  will  be  put  into  effect. 
This  means  that  the  South  must  adjust  itself  for  the  impact  of  the  mixing 
of  the  races  in  at  least  part  of  the  schools.  We  fully  expect  there  will  be  a 
greater  inter-marriage  of  the  races  and  some  other  evil  effects  which  are 
not  good  for  either  race."23 

The  next  day,  Adams  complained  that  the  high  court  had  over- 
stepped its  intended  purpose  of  interpreting  laws  and  had  cast  itself  as  a 
maker  of  laws  with  Brown.24  In  August,  Adams  tried  to  explain  his 
support  of  segregation,  "It  is  not  prejudice,  but  a  measure  which  has 
proven  itself  best  for  both  races."25 

East  of  Greenwood  in  Grenada,  where  the  last  school  desegregation 
riot  of  record  in  Mississippi  took  place  in  1966,26  the  Grenada  County 
population  was  52  percent  black,27  and  editor  M.M.  Grimes  of  the 
Sentinel-Star  offered  no  editorial  comment  in  May  1954  regarding  Brown. 
He  did  cover  the  decision  in  front  page  news  articles  from  UP  and  AP 
throughout  the  month,  however  headlines  emphasized  ways  to  avoid 
segregation  and  questioned  the  constitutionality  of  the  decision.28 

On  the  Mississippi  Gulf  Coast,  the  Gulfport  Daily  Herald  was  edited 
in  1954  by  Eugene  Wilkes,  whose  father  George  had  founded  the  newspa- 
per in  1884.  The  Coast  had  been  settled  by  immigrants  from  many 


80 


countries,  including  Lebanon,  Yugoslavia  and  Italy,  and  because  of  the 
ethnic  diversity  of  its  population,  the  area  has  long  held  a  reputation  as 
the  most  politically  tolerant  area  of  the  state.29  The  population  on  the 
Gulf  Coast  was  about  20  percent  black  in  1954,30  and  Wilkes  offered  a 
single  editorial  opinion  pertaining  to  Brown:  "In  spite  of  the  historic 
background  embodied  in  the  word  segregation,  we  feel  the  Negro  and  the 
white  desire  to  go  right  ahead  in  shaping  the  schools  of  the  South  into  the 
best  in  the  United  States  for  each  race  to  use  as  its  own."31 

In  Forrest  County,  where  the  population  was  28  percent  black  in 
1954,32  Hattiesburg  American  editor  Andrews  Harmon  attempted  to 
convince  his  readers  that  it  was  in  the  best  interests  of  everyone,  black  and 
white,  to  keep  the  schools  racially  segregated:  "The  truth  is  that  98 
percent  of  the  Negroes  in  the  South  do  not  want  to  attend  schools  with 
white  people.  One  of  the  South's  great  crises  can  be  lessened  if  the  honest, 
faithful  Negroes  resist  efforts  by  outside  agitators."33 

Harmon  made  no  reference  to  where  he  acquired  his  information 
about  what  blacks  did,  or  did  not,  want,  but  his  pronouncement  that 
most  desired  segregated  schools  was  certainly  contrary  to  what  the 
NAACP  reported.34  In  August  that  summer,  before  schools  opened  for 
the  1954-1955  school  year,  Harmon  encouraged  his  readers  to  act  on 
their  beliefs:  "If  all  the  people  of  Mississippi  want  to  retain  racial  segrega- 
tion in  the  public  schools,  they  can  do  it  simply  by  standing  together.  No 
power  on  earth  can  compel  more  than  a  million  people  to  do  something 
that  is  against  the  law  of  God  and  nature."35 

North  into  the  Piney  Woods  in  Laurel,  where  the  Jones  County 
population  was  26  percent  black,36  editor  Harriet  Gibbons  of  the  Laurel 
Leader-Call  was  the  only  woman  editor  of  a  Mississippi  daily  newspaper 
in  1954.  She  published  a  single  editorial  regarding  Brown  and  her  focus 
was  to  praise  the  state's  leaders  for  their  restraint  and  discretion:  "Nothing 
is  gained  by  politicians  taking  this  subject  as  an  opportunity  for  inflaming 
passion  and  arousing  prejudice."37 

Defending  the  "Anglo-Saxon  Way  of  Life" 

Northeast  from  Laurel  in  Meridian,  Lauderdale  County  was  36 
percent  black  in  1954.38  James  H.  Skewes,  a  Wisconsin  newspaperman, 
had  purchased  the  Meridian  Star  in  1922  and  was  firmly  at  the  helm  until 
1958.39  Skewes  had  no  qualms  about  making  his  editorial  opinions 
known,  and  although  his  prose  was  sometimes  difficult  to  comprehend 
because  of  his  erratic  writing  style,  his  ideas  came  across  loud  and  clear. 
There  was  no  uncertainty  that  strides  toward  civil  rights  were  viewed  in 
an  almost  paranoid  manner  by  Skewes,  as  stated  in  the  editorial  banner, 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  81 


"We  Rise  to  Defend  Our  Anglo-Saxon  Way  of  Life."40  Skewes'  staunch 
Southern  conservatism  was  played  out  in  his  editorial  pages,  although  he 
penned  only  two  editorials  regarding  Brown.  Two  days  after  the  1954 
decision,  the  Meridian  Star  published  Skewes'  opinion,  "We  violently 
disagree  with  Supreme  Court  school  segregation  politics  and  we  shall  by 
all  expedience  persevere  our  Mid-South  heritage."41 

Ten  days  later,  however,  Skewes  requested  that  the  Supreme  Court 
give  the  South  enough  time  to  adjust  to  the  new  law  and  actually  sug- 
gested that  the  region  was  willing  to  consider  abiding  by  the  mandate. 
"Most  Southerners  accept  high  court  ruling  with  good  grace  based  on 
provision  [that]  court  offers  time  aplenty  wherein  to  work  out  the  situa- 
tion," Skewes  wrote.  "Change-over  may  require  decade  or  less,  or  even 
more."  42 

Toward  the  Mississippi  River  in  McComb,  where  the  Pike  County 
population  was  44  percent  black,43  editor  Oliver  Emmerich  defended  the 
traditional  South  but  called  for  his  community  to  remain  calm  in  the  face 
of  Brown.  Emmerich  was  an  award-winning  editorial  writer  who  pub- 
lished and  edited  the  McComb  Enterprise-Journal  from  1924  until  his 
death  in  1978.  He  was  also  a  traditional  states'  rights  Southerner  who  was 
often  thought  to  hold  the  moderate  ground  on  the  racial  issue,44  but  as  a 
delegate  to  the  1948  Democratic  national  convention,  he  walked  out  with 
the  other  Mississippi  Dixiecrats.  Two  decades  later,  Emmerich  would 
claim  that  he  had  not  joined  the  Dixiecrats  because  of  the  civil  rights 
platform  of  Harry  Truman,  but  because  of  the  Democrats'  apathy  toward 
the  national  debt  and  the  erosion  of  the  individual  rights  of  the  states.45 
However,  in  a  front  page  editorial  following  the  convention,  Emmerich 
wrote:  "Many  minority  groups  have  taken  over  control  of  the  Democratic 
Party.  The  Negroes  of  the  East  have  far  more  influence  in  the  Democratic 
Party  than  do  all  the  white  people  in  the  South.  Naturally,  the  Southern- 
ers are  determined  that  this  situation  shall  be  corrected."46 

Emmerich  voiced  support  of  a  Mississippi  law  rushed  into  passage  to 
counteract  Brown  that  was  more  than  half  a  century  late  in  addressing  the 
"separate  but  equal"  demands  of  Plessy  v.  Ferguson.  "The  Negro  leadership 
that  is  opposed  to  the  separate  but  equal  plans  is  doing  its  people  a  vast 
disservice,"  Emmerich  wrote.  "The  Mississippi  plan  is  a  compromise 
which  helps  both  races.  It  would  be  a  serious  mistake  to  plunge  our  two 
races  together  in  our  schools  at  this  hour."47 

The  next  day  he  announced  in  a  front  page  editorial  column, 
"Neither  race  wants  an  integrated  school  system  in  Mississippi."48  Later  in 
the  month,  Emmerich  published  his  "5-Part  Plan  to  Help  Maintain 
Segregated  Schools  in  Mississippi,"  which  was  reprinted  in  the  Jackson 
Clarion-Ledger. ,49    In  what  seemed  a  desperate  last  effort  to  maintain 


82  Weill 'Fall  1999 


segregation,  Emmerich  proposed  that  Plessy  v.  Ferguson  be  finally  honored 
by  "equalizing"  the  black  and  white  schools.  Once  that  was  done, 
Emmerich  reasoned,  the  Supreme  Court  would  relax  the  demands  of 
Brown.50 

In  searching  for  rationalization  of  his  traditional  Southern  views, 
Emmerich,  like  most  other  editors  of  the  Mississippi  daily  press,  sought 
credible  black  allies.  He  found  one  in  Davis  Lee,  the  black  publisher  of 
the  Newark  (New  Jersey)  Telegraph,  whose  editorial  on  Brown  was  pub- 
lished on  the  front  page  of  the  McComb  paper:  "Southern  Negroes  may 
lose  a  lot  more  than  they  gain.  This  movement  to  integrate  the  schools  of 
the  South  is  loaded  with  more  racial  dynamite  than  appears  on  the  surface 
and  the  Negro  will  be  the  one  who  is  blown  away."51 

West  of  McComb  on  the  Mississippi  River,  where  the  Adams 
County  population  was  49  percent  black  in  1954,  there  were  two  daily 
newspapers,  and  the  Natchez  Democrat  published  one  of  the  few  Missis- 
sippi editorials  supporting  the  Supreme  Court's  decision.  Editor  Elliott 
Trimble,  or  an  unnamed  editorial  writer,  stepped  beyond  the  usual 
traditional  Southern  views  of  the  newspaper  for  one  brief  moment  in  May 
1954: 

A  very  great  many  people  have  been  convinced  for  generations 
that  segregation  was  inherently  wrong,  law  or  no  law,  and  a 
violation  of  national  morals.  But  they  haven't  known  what  to 
do  about  it  until  now  .... 

Certainly  there  can  be  pride  that  the  Supreme  Court  has 
finally  faced  up  to  what  has  obviously  been  the  law  all  the 
time.  Administered  with  goodwill,  it  may  prove  an  important 
step  in  clearing  up  the  whole  matter  of  segregation.  Children 
growing  up  together  can  hardly  maintain  the  deep  suspicions 
which  have  so  complicated  this  problem.52 

Two  days  later,  however,  a  different  voice  emerged.  It  seemed  as  if 
someone  else  had  taken  the  editorial  reins  of  the  Natchez  Democrat. 
"[Brown]  is  the  inevitable  fruit  of  the  nation's  gradual,  but  certain,  shift 
away  from  the  basic  concepts  of  American  Constitutional  government.  It 
is  our  considered  opinion  that  we  shall  live  to  regret  this  Supreme  Court 
decision — not  necessarily  because  formal  segregation  has  been  abolished, 
but  because  the  court  acted  without  due  regard  to  its  position  in  the 
division  of  power  among  the  three  branches  of  government."53 

Why  the  tone  changed  so  drastically  in  the  two  editorials  in  the 
Natchez  Democrat  may  never  be  known  because  Trimble  died  in  1997, 
shortly  before  being  contacted  by  the  author  of  this  study  for  an  inter- 


Fall  1999  •American  Journalism  83 


view.54  Perhaps  advertisers  pressured  the  newspaper,  or  threats  of  bodily 
harm  were  made,  or  white  community  outrage  was  overwhelming. 
Whatever  the  reason,  the  editorial  pen  at  the  Natchez  Democrat  was 
definitely  refocused. 

Defending  States'  Rights 

Trimble  continued  his  diatribe  against  government  interference  in 
the  Southern  way  of  life,  "When  the  power  of  the  government  is  used,  or 
sought  to  be  used,  for  the  purpose  of  changing  human  nature,  customs 
and  mores,  it  has  lost  its  American  characteristics."55  His  concerns  seemed 
to  focus  primarily  on  the  states'  rights  issue.  "Whatever  the  outcome  of 
events  following  the  anti-segregation  decision,  there  is  grounds  for  fear 
that  the  federal  government  is  daily  becoming  more  successful  in  its 
encroachment  on  the  rights  of  states,"  Trimble  wrote.56 

Across  town  at  the  Natchez  Times,  newly  founded  in  1949,  the  early 
mood  seemed  supportive  of  Brown,  as  had  been  the  case  at  the  Natchez 
Democrat.  Herman  Moore,  editor  of  the  Natchez  Times,  was  silent  in  May 
regarding  the  decision,  but  he  published  a  guest  editorial  by  Thomas 
Stokes  from  Washington,  DC  "It  is  surmised  that  most  Southerners 
expected  the  kind  of  decision  that  was  rendered  which  may  help  to 
explain  the  restrained  reaction,"  Stokes  wrote.  "It's  suggested  that  they 
foresaw  it  because  deep  in  their  hearts  a  great  many  of  them  feel  it  was  the 
right  decision."57 

An  anonymous  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Christian  Science  Monitor 
was  published  in  the  Natchez  Times  which  supported  Brown  but  warned 
that  black  children  should  not  be  made  to  suffer  to  boost  the  egos  of 
black  leaders.  "I  do  not  believe  it  just  or  right  to  pour  millions  of  ignorant 
Negro  children  into  our  white  schools  in  order  that  a  handful  of 
upperclass  Negroes  may  be  freed  from  a  sense  of  inferiority,"  the  anony- 
mous writer  said.58  By  August,  however,  Moore  was  suggesting  that  police 
power  and  redistricting  be  used  to  maintain  racial  segregation  in  the  state's 
schools.59 

Also  in  August  1954,  the  Mississippi  Supreme  Court  upheld  the 
decision  of  a  lower  court  finding  the  Natchez  Times  guilty  of  libel  and 
awarded  Mary  Dunigan,  a  white  woman,  $5,000  for  having  been  referred 
to  erroneously  in  the  paper  as  a  "Negro."60  The  case  was  the  first  of  its 
kind  in  the  state  and  the  newspaper  closed  its  doors  a  few  years  later. 

North  along  the  Mississippi  River  from  Natchez  in  the  southern 
region  of  the  Mississippi  Delta  is  Vicksburg,  where  the  Vicksburg  Evening 
Post  has  been  owned  by  the  Cashman  family  for  five  generations  since 
1883.  The  Warren  County  population  was  50  percent  black  in  1954,6' 


84  Weill  •Fall  1999 


and  the  Vicksburg  Evening  Post  voiced  support  of  traditional  Southern 
segregation.  "Basically,  we  disagree  with  the  decision,"  editor  L.P. 
Cashman,  St.,  wrote.  "We  do  not  believe  either  colored  or  white  Missis- 
sippians  will  ever  be  happy  under  a  system  of  non-segregation.  By  their 
very  natures,  the  races  are  apart."62 

Into  the  northeast  corner  of  the  state  is  Tupelo,  where  the  Lee 
County  population  was  27  percent  black  in  1954,63  and  editor  George 
McLean  of  the  Tupelo  Daily  Journal  was  a  conservative  Southerner  who 
advocated  a  calm  approach  to  societal  tribulations.  His  immediate 
response  to  Brown  was  no  different.  "The  South  will  no  doubt  respond 
with  a  gradual  reaction  to  the  Supreme  Court  ruling  rather  than  changing 
its  school  system  overnight,"  McLean  wrote.  "This  is  not  a  time  for  high 
emotion  or  thoughtless  action."  64 

Similar  to  the  other  editors  of  the  Mississippi  daily  press  in  1954, 
McLean  was  eager  to  publish  support  for  his  stance  on  segregation  by 
anyone  from  the  black  community.  Like  Emmerich  in  McComb,  McLean 
published  the  letter  from  Davis  Lee,  the  black  publisher  of  the  Newark 
(New  Jersey)  Telegraph,  who  wrote  that  desegregration  could  prove 
harmful  to  blacks.65 

South  of  Tupelo  in  West  Point,  where  the  Clay  County  population 
was  56  percent  black  in  1954,66  editor  WH.  Harris  of  the  Times-Leader 
was  an  outspoken  segregationist.  The  day  after  the  Brown  decision  was 
announced,  he  wrote:  "None  of  us  think  for  one  minute  that  we  are  about 
to  throw  white  schools  open  to  Negro  children  now.  Your  writer  firmly 
believes  that  he  will  some  day  see  non-segregated  schools  in  the  South. 
But  first,  we  must  pass  through  a  lengthy  period  of  equalized  school 
facilities  which  will  lift  the  Negro  onto  a  higher  level — mentally,  socially 
and  morally."  67 

Harris  was  vehement  in  his  denouncement  of  Brown.  "We  know  for 
certain  that  Negro  children  are  not  going  to  be  admitted  to  our  white 
schools  for  a  long,  long  time,"  he  wrote.68  Harris  truly  believed  that 
whites  were  the  superior  race  and  that  the  NAACP  was  up  to  no  good. 
"It's  a  pity  that  more  of  our  intelligent  Negro  citizens  cannot  see  the 
motive  of  the  NAACP,"  Harris  wrote.  "Integration  is  eventually  coming — 
even  here  in  the  deep  South — but  it  will  not  come  until  the  Negro  race  is 
lifted  onto  a  higher  plane."  69 

In  1954,  Mississippi's  capital  city  of  Jackson  had  a  population  that 
was  44  percent  black.70  The  city  was  also  the  home  of  the  two  most 
widely-circulated  daily  newspapers  in  the  state,  the  conservative  Clarion- 
Ledger  and  the  equally  conservative  Daily  News.  The  Hederman  family 
owned  and  edited  the  Clarion-Ledger.  They  despised,  and  were  despised 
in  return,  by  Fred  Sullens,  the  owner  and  editor  of  the  Daily  News.  In 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  85 


1954,  when  the  Brown  decision  was  handed  down,  however,  Sullens' 
Daily  News  and  the  Hederman's  Clarion-Ledger  stood  side  by  side  in  their 
support  of  the  maintenance  of  a  racially  segregated  Southern  society  and 
racially  segregated  schools. 

The  Clarion-Ledger,  with  the  largest  circulation  in  the  state,  was 
never  hesitant  to  proclaim  its  traditional  Southern  convictions,  and  so  it 
was  not  on  the  day  after  Brown:  "[S]  tunning  as  the  decision  is,  it  creates 
no  immediate  crisis.  May  17,  1954,  may  be  recorded  by  future  historians 
as  a  black  day  of  tragedy  for  the  South,  and  for  both  races,  but  we  can 
conduct  ourselves  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  cause  historians  to  record  that 
we  faced  that  tragedy  and  crisis  with  wisdom,  courage,  faith  and  determi- 
nation such  as  our  fathers  would  have  applauded."71 

Attacking  Sacred  Traditions 

Published  letters  to  the  editor  of  the  Clarion-Ledger  were  where  the 
actual  drama  was  played  out  concerning  Brown  in  1954.  Grover  Hewell  of 
Canton  wrote,  "The  Supreme  Court,  in  its  deadly  coil,  is  about  to  strike 
down  our  sacred  traditions,"72  and  Blanche  Gregory  of  Pickens  agreed: 
"Under  heaven  let  there  be  no  brother  and  sister  incestation  between 
races.  Sociology  informs  us  that  the  white  blood  of  the  South,  including 
that  in  the  black  belt,  has  a  higher  percentage  of  racial  purity  than  that  of 
any  other  section  of  the  country."73  Edwin  White,  a  member  of  the 
Mississippi  House  of  Representatives  from  Holmes  County,  concurred: 
"There  is  only  one  thing  in  the  whole  situation  which  the  white  man  asks 
for  and  that  is  the  privilege  of  his  children,  and  his  children's  children, 
continuing  to  be  white  people.  It's  God's  law."74 

To  its  credit,  the  Clarion-Ledger  also  published  several  letters  of 
support  for  the  elimination  of  racial  discrimination  following  Brown.  Jack 
Garellick  of  Vicksburg  wrote,  "We  are  all  God's  children  and  he  ignores 
the  distinctions  made  by  men;  segregation  was  man-made."75  Garellick 
was  supported  by  L.G.  Patterson  of  Jackson,  "There  are  those  of  us  who 
believe  that  the  Negro  will  act  and  behave  like  a  human  being  only  when 
he  is  educated  and  treated  like  one."76 

Evelyn  Riley,  a  black  woman  from  Itta  Bena,  was  allowed  to  express 
her  support  of  segregation:  "We  are  proud  of  our  race  and  do  not  want  to 
go  to  school  with  your  children  if  you  do  no  want  us  there.  Frankly,  I  feel 
the  same  about  the  whites  as  they  feel  about  me."77  In  response,  however, 
"A  Concerned  Taxpayer"  responded:  "If  the  whites  had  done  more  for  us, 
she  [Riley]  says,  we  wouldn't  have  to  go  to  the  Supreme  Court.  Why 
doesn't  the  Negro  do  for  himself?  No,  we  the  white  people  have  helped, 
pampered,  and  cared  for  this  race  for  so  long  they  have  become  like  a 


86  Weill -Fall  1999 


youngster  who  has  been  given  too  much.  Let  the  Negro  build  his  own 
schools  with  his  own  taxes,  let  the  white  man  build  his  with  his."7' 

Across  town,  the  Daily  News,  with  the  second  largest  circulation  in 
the  state,79  made  news  itself  in  August  1954  after  being  purchased  by  the 
rival  Hedermans  of  the  Clarion- Ledger. .80  The  Hedermans  had  begun 
secretly  acquiring  Daily  News  stock  in  an  attempt  to  take  control  of  the 
newspaper  and  when  the  plan  was  discovered  by  Sullens  he  took  the 
Hedermans  to  court  and  won  the  case.  But  he  also  went  broke  because  of 
accrued  legal  debts.   In  August  1954,  an  elderly  and  ailing  Sullens  finally 
sold  the  Daily  News  to  the  Hedermans  and  announced  the  decision  to  his 
flabbergasted  staff  by  saying:  "You  may  think  I  prostituted  myself.  If  so, 
I'm  the  highest  paid  he-whore  in  Mississippi."81 

The  Daily  News  had  acquired  the  vociferous  editorial  pen  of  Sullens 
in  1904,  and  for  the  next  half  century  the  Daily  News  was  Sullens' 
mouthpiece.  In  his  editorials  and  front  page  column,  "The  Lowdown  on 
Higher- Ups,"  politicians  and  federal  laws  were  often  the  object  of  his 
scorn.  One  local  legend  held  that  Sullens,  not  a  writer  to  hide  behind  his 
words,  confronted  Mississippi  Governor  Paul  B.  Johnson,  Sr.  (1940- 
1943)  in  the  lobby  of  a  Jackson  hotel  and  broke  a  walking  cane  across  the 
governor's  back.82    Sullens'  view  of  Brown  was  that  desegregration  would 
lead  to  "social  equality  in  all  its  uglier  forms."83 

Sullens,  who  continued  as  editor  after  the  Hederman  acquisition, 
voiced  his  interpretation  of  Brown  as  the  final  insult  from  a  Supreme 
Court  that  was,  in  his  mind,  determined  to  destroy  the  Southern  way  of 
life  regardless  of  the  confusion  and  carnage  it  left  behind.  In  his  page  one 
editorial,  "Low  Down  on  Higher  Ups,"  Sullens  vented  his  wrath: 

[The  decision  was]  the  worst  thing  that  has  happened  to  the 
South  since  carpetbaggers  and  scalawags  took  charge.  It  is  even 
worse.  It  means  racial  strife  of  the  bitterest  sort.  Mississippi 
will  never  consent  to  placing  white  and  Negro  children  in  the 
same  public  schools.  The  white  people  and  the  thinking 
Negro  people  do  not  want  that  to  happen.  Both  look  on  the 
decision  as  a  calamity.  White  and  Negro  children  in  the  same 
schools  will  lead  to... the  mongrelization  of  the  human  race.84 

Sullens  did  not  address  the  "mongrelization"  that  had  already 
occurred  during  the  generations  in  Mississippi  when  white  masters  had 
fathered  children  by  their  black  slaves. 

Similar  to  Harmon  in  Hattiesburg,  Sullens  had  suddenly  become  an 
insider  on  what  blacks  wanted  for  themselves  and  their  children  and 
according  to  him:  "An  overwhelming  majority  of  the  Negro  parents  in 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  87 


Mississippi  do  not  want  their  children  to  attend  white  schools;  they  prefer 
to  have  their  children  taught  by  teachers  of  their  own  race.  They  are  not 
seeking  any  form  of  social  equality."83 

Throughout  May  1954,  Sullens  continued  to  blast  the  Supreme 
Court  and  to  declare  that  Brown  would  be  ignored  in  Mississippi,  "There 
may  be  many  doubts  as  to  what  other  states  intend  to  do,  but  the  people 
of  Mississippi  have  always  had  the  intelligence  and  courage  sufficient  to 
manage  their  own  destiny."86  He  found  great  solace  in  the  fact  that,  "For 
the  58  years  the  mandate  of  the  Supreme  Court  was  on  the  books  declar- 
ing that  separate  school  facilities  must  be  equal,  this  was  never  enforced; 
how  much  harder  will  it  be  if  they  try  to  enforce  this  most  recent  ver- 
sion?" 87  Sullens  also  published  numerous  statements  that  are  partially 
responsible  for  the  negative  stereotype  of  the  Mississippi  press  during  this 
time  period,  particularly  because  the  Daily  News  was  one  of  the  two  most 
widely-circulated  newspapers  in  the  state,  "The  vast  majority  of  Negroes 
in  our  state  are  timid  or  inarticulate."88    Statements  such  as  this,  though 
often  flaunted  as  an  overview  of  the  Southern  press,  were  few  and  far 
between  in  the  issues  of  the  Mississippi  daily  newspapers  examined  for 
this  study.  The  Mississippi  editors  in  1954  may  have  agreed  that  blacks 
were  not  equal  as  a  race  of  people,  but  they  seldom  voiced  such  deroga- 
tory generalizations  in  their  newspapers. 

Later  in  the  summer,  as  the  beginning  of  the  1954-55  school  year 
approached,  Sullens  was  back  with  his  virulent  pen:  "As  the  thinking 
people  of  Mississippi  see  it,  the  Supreme  Court  decision  is  in  itself  illegal. 
It  is  a  flagrant  defiance  of  an  essential  and  firmly  established  social 
order."89  Also  in  August,  Sullens  attacked  the  NAACP  for  "misrepresent- 
ing" the  black  community,  and  he  praised  the  "thinking"  blacks  who 
supported  segregation:  "Thoughtful,  hardworking  peace-loving  Negroes 
prefer  their  own  schools,  churches  and  places  of  entertainment.  The 
thinking  colored  people  of  Mississippi  should  listen  to  the  sensible  and 
conservative  leaders  of  their  race  and  turn  deaf  ears  to  the  radicals  and 
strife-breeders.  The  insolent  and  impractical  demands  of  the  NAACP  will 
not  be  granted."90 

Letters  to  the  editor  of  the  Daily  News  in  May  and  August  1954 
were  of  an  intriguing  and  varied  assortment  pertaining  to  Brown.  Interest- 
ingly, Sullens  responded  to  his  own  threatening  approach  to  the  NAACP 
with  an  appeal  to  letter  writers  not  to  use  the  same  tactics.  In  late  May,  he 
had  published  a  front  page  warning  to  the  organization:  "[NAACP 
officials]  will  risk  trouble  rather  than  wait  for  the  Supreme  Court  to  find 
out  how  it  is  going  to  enforce  its  foolish  decision.  So  be  it.  Trouble  is 
never  hard  to  find."91  A  few  weeks  later,  Sullens  admonished  letter  writers 
to  calm  their  rhetoric,  "No  matter  whether  written  by  white  persons  or 


88  Weill -Fall  1999 


Negro,  the  Daily  News  will  not  print  communications  on  the  subject  of 
segregation  that  contain  violent,  abusive  or  intemperate  language."92 

The  Daily  Neivs  published  many  letters  regarding  Brown,  primarily 
those  in  support  of  segregation.   Since  black  support  of  racial  segregation 
was  heralded  in  the  white-owned  Mississippi  daily  press  in  1954,  one 
letter  from  C.W.  Falconer,  a  "Negro  teacher,"  was  published  on  the  front 
page:  "I  truthfully  believe  my  race  should  not  advocate  mixing  of  schools 
at  this  time  because  it  would  have  a  tendency  to  bring  disunity  between 
the  races,  a  thing  which  the  Communist  Party  desires.  We  must  not  cut 
our  own  throats  on  this  issue."93  Another  black,  Viola  Prine,  wrote:  "We 
know  that  they  [white  people]  have  taught  their  children  that  they  are 
superior  to  Negroes.  Why  put  our  black  children  through  this?"94 

Hodding  Carter,  Jr.,  Champion  of  Justice 

The  only  Mississippi  daily  press  editor  in  1954  who  took  a  consis- 
tently supportive  approach  to  civil  rights  issues  in  general  was  Hodding 
Carter,  Jr.,  of  the  Delta  Democrat-Times.  Located  on  the  Mississippi  River 
in  Greenville,  where  the  Washington  County  population  was  67  percent 
black  in  1954,95  Carter  advocated  the  racial  desegregation  of  the  school 
system — but  only  on  the  college  level96 — and  displayed  a  global  con- 
sciousness unusual  for  the  times.  Carter  gained  a  reputation  for  being 
"sensible  and  moderate"  on  the  issue  of  race  relations,97  and  made  a  name 
for  himself  as  a  champion  of  justice  for  all  people.  In  doing  so,  he  at- 
tracted the  wrath  of  a  wide  range  of  traditional  Mississippians,  from 
political  icon  Theodore  Bilbo  to  the  state  legislature,  who  actually  voted 
him  "a  liar  by  legislation."98  In  1946,  Carter  was  awarded  the  Pulitzer 
Prize  for  editorial  writing  and  his  glory  was  dampened  by  political  sour 
grapes.  He  wrote:  "Theodore  Bilbo,  then  running  for  re-election  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  told  a  group  of  listeners  that  'no  self-respecting 
Southern  white  man  would  accept  a  prize  given  by  a  bunch  of  nigger- 
loving,  Yankeefied  Communists  for  editorials  advocating  the  mongreliza- 
tion  of  the  race.'"99 

In  1954,  Carter  urged  his  readers  to  think  positively  about  Brown: 
"Whatever  the  South  thinks  of  [the  decision],  there  is  no  doubt  that  it 
will  raise  Americas  prestige  in  the  world,  and  especially  in  the  world  of 
brown  and  yellow  and  black  people.  And  to  us  in  the  South,  it  gives  a 
challenge  to  replace  trickery  and  subterfuge  in  our  educational  structure 
with  an  honest  realization  that  every  American  child  has  the  right  to  an 
equal  education."100  Carter  also  praised  his  community  for  their  "calm 
compliance  coupled  with  determination  to  work  things  out."101 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  89 


In  late  August,  as  the  public  schools  were  enrolling  students,  the 
Delta  Democrat-Times  published  Carter's  front  page  editorial,  which 
clearly  stated  his  views  regarding  public  school  desegregation:  "It  would 
be  tragic  if  in  the  deep  South  any  widespread  or  concentrated  effort  is 
made  this  fall  or  in  the  immediate  future  to  enroll  Negro  children  in 
hitherto  all-white  schools.  This  is  not  said  as  a  threat  or  warning,  but  as  a 
basic  fact.  A  majority  of  Southerners  are  not  ready  for  the  reality  of 
integration."102 

Mississippi's  politicians  had  a  field  day  with  Brown,  using  the 
mandate  to  illustrate  the  horrors  of  federal  encroachment,  but  most 
editors  of  the  Mississippi  daily  press  had  nothing  to  say  in  response  to 
their  elected  officials,  other  than  giving  their  wire  service  stories  front 
page  placement.  US  Senator  James  Eastland  said,  "The  South  will  not 
abide  by,  nor  obey,  this  legislative  decision  by  a  political  court."103  Paul  B. 
Johnson,  Jr.,  a  future  governor  of  Mississippi  (1964-1968),  who  would  be 
serving  in  office  when  the  state's  schools  began  to  desegregate,  said:  "The 
white  people  in  Mississippi  are  not  in  any  mood  to  accept  Negroes  in  our 
schools.  I,  for  one,  will  fight  against  that  to  my  dying  day.  The  whites  of 
this  state  want  no  colored  in-laws."104  Fielding  Wright,  a  former  governor 
of  Mississippi  and  the  failed  vice  presidential  candidate  of  the  States' 
Rights  "Dixiecrat"  Party  in  1948,  came  forward  with  a  plan  to  use  police 
force  to  maintain  segregation  in  the  state's  public  schools.105 

Unlike  the  other  editors  of  the  Mississippi  daily  press  in  1954, 
Carter  in  Greenville  could  not  resist  the  opportunity  to  take  a  crack  at  the 
state's  leaders,  with  whom  he  often  had  complaints.  "Every  responsible 
individual  with  whom  we  have  talked  about  the  matter  is  using  his  good 
sense  and  refuses  to  be  stampeded  into  making  damn  fool  remarks," 
Carter  wrote.  "This  isn't  so  of  our  politicians  and  state  observers."106 

McLean  in  Tupelo  went  even  further.  Though  he  did  not  support 
the  racial  desegregation  of  the  state's  school  system,  McLean  disapproved 
of  politicians  using  the  issue  for  personal  gain:  "Southern  politicians  are 
occupied  full  time  nowadays  denouncing  the  Supreme  Court.  But  when 
the  novelty  has  worn  off  this  sport,  they  will  seek  something  more 
spectacular  to  keep  their  names  before  the  public  as  guardians  of  Dixie 
education."107 

Another  political  ploy  had  raised  the  hackles  of  Carter  a  few  days 
after  the  Brown  decision  was  announced.  Mississippi  Governor  White 
attempted  to  convince  black  leaders  that  the  state's  schools  for  blacks 
would  be  upgraded,  or  "equalized,"108  as  had  been  mandated  by  Plessyv. 
Ferguson  in  1896  but  never  enforced  in  the  state,  and  that  it  would  be  in 
the  "best  interest"  of  the  black  community  to  support  this  "voluntary" 
segregation.109  The  proposal,  although  widely  supported  by  the  Missis- 


90  Weill*  Fall  1999 


sippi  daily  press,  did  not  receive  much  support  from  leaders  of  the 
Mississippi  or  national  NAACP,"0  whose  ideas  and  meeting  places  were 
suddenly  front  page  news.  Carter  found  the  governor  completely  out  of 
touch  with  the  black  community  to  even  suggest  that  they  accept  volun- 
tary segregation.  "Governor  Hugh  White  said  he  was  stunned  the  other 
day  when  he  learned  that  the  state's  Negroes  did  not,  in  fact,  plan  to  go 
along  with  his  plan  for  'voluntary  segregation'  in  the  public  schools," 
Carter  wrote.  "Granting  the  news  was  unpleasant  at  best,  for  the  governor 
to  be  'stunned'  indicates  that  he  hasn't  had  his  ear  to  the  ground."1" 

Should  Public  Schools  Be  Abolished? 

Within  a  week  of  the  Broivn  decision,  Governor  White  began 
committee  appointments  for  a  newly  created  25-member  Mississippi 
Legal  Education  Advisory  Committee  (LEAC)  to  investigate  ways  to 
maintain  segregation  in  the  state's  public  schools,  an  action  widely 
reported  in  the  Mississippi  daily  press.112  LEAC  appointee  Thomas  Tubb 
of  West  Point  supported  a  traditional  Southern  argument:  "Gradual 
integration  of  the  races  would  ultimately  lead  to  the  destruction  of  the 
white  race."113  Not  all  members  of  the  LEAC  shared  Tubb's  view,  how- 
ever, and  the  committee  was  described  as  "wildly  split  on  school  issues."114 

One  consideration  before  the  LEAC  was  a  recommendation  to 
abolish  the  public  school  system  and  organize  a  private  system  supported 
by  tax  dollars  through  an  amendment  to  the  state  constitution.  This  was 
an  amendment  worth  considering,  according  to  several  editors  of  the 
Mississippi  daily  press,  and  a  notion  akin  to  total  insanity,  according  to 
most  others.  Waldon  in  Corinth  was  particularly  vehement  in  his  de- 
nouncement of  the  idea:  "The  proposal  to  wipe-out  a  hundred  years  of 
educational  progress  in  this  state  would  set  us  back  to  pioneer  days  if  we 
allowed  it.  We  do  not  believe  that  the  proposal  to  abolish  public  educa- 
tion is  a  good,  well  thought-out  answer  to  the  problem  of  segregation  in 
the  schools."115 

Carter  in  Greenville  agreed  with  Waldon  that  the  public  school 
system  should  not  be  abolished,  and  based  his  decision  on  regional 
reaction,  "The  fact  that  none  of  the  other  Southern  states  is  now  consider- 
ing abolition  of  the  public  schools  would  certainly  indicate  to  us  that  the 
system  isn't  calculated  to  be  the  best  one."116  Emmerich  in  McComb, 
who  had  drafted  his  own  plan  for  maintaining  segregated  schools,  also 
thought  abolition  of  the  public  schools  was  ludicrous,117  and  Moore  at 
the  Natchez  Times  agreed,  "A  move  at  this  time  to  prepare  for  wrecking 
the  public  school  system  certainly  seems  ill-advised."118 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  9 1 


In  support  of  the  abolition  of  the  state's  public  school  system  to 
maintain  racial  segregation  was  editorial  columnist  Charles  M.  Hills  of 
the  Clarion-Ledger  and  Harris  of  the  West  Point  Times-Leader.  "The 
people  of  Mississippi  are  prepared  to  go  to  any  end  to  keep  the  Negro  out 
of  white  schools,"  Hills  wrote.119  Harris  concurred,  "[M]ost  of  us  would 
quickly  and  willingly  approve  the  abolition  of  our  public  schools  before 
we  would  permit  our  children  to  become  involved  in  any  bloody  integra- 
tion system."120 

As  the  Mississippi  school  year  began  in  late  August  1954,  none  of 
the  Mississippi  public  schools  was  racially  integrated  as  ordered  by  Brown 
v.  Board  of  Education.  Nor  was  the  Mississippi  public  school  system 
abolished  or  a  private  school  plan  amended  to  the  state  constitution. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  summer,  Governor  White  began  a  campaign  in  the 
Mississippi  legislature  to  pass  a  bill  "forbidding  anyone  from  stirring  up 
race  trouble  by  filing  lawsuits  against  schools,  except  for  relatives  of 
children  in  that  school."121 

The  manner  in  which  the  Southern  press  in  general,  and  the  Missis- 
sippi press  in  particular,  dealt  with  Brown  v.  Board  of  Education  and  other 
society- altering  civil  rights  issues  has  been  a  subject  of  extended  contro- 
versy. Some  media  analysts  have  condemned  Southern  newspapers  for 
their  erratic  reporting  and  inflammatory  interpretation,122  but  others  have 
determined  that  the  Southern  press  "did  an  adequate  job."123  One 
observer  noted  that  civil  rights  coverage  did  not  differ  substantially 
between  Southern  and  Northern  newspapers.124 

In  1954,  the  major  issues  of  concern  raised  by  editors  of  the  Missis- 
sippi daily  press  following  Brown  v.  Board  of  Education  were  (1)  that  black 
and  white  children  should  not  be  schooled  in  the  same  facilities  as  this 
could  lead  to  integrated  socializing  which  would  be  unacceptable  by 
traditional  Southern  standards,  (2)  that  black  and  white  children  should 
not  be  schooled  together  because  black  children  would  not  be  able  to 
compete  academically  with  the  white  children,  and  (3)  that  the  public 
schools  in  the  state  should  not  be  abolished  to  prevent  this.  According  to 
their  socially  conservative  editorials  during  May  and  August  1954,  the 
notion  that  blacks  and  whites  should  be  educated  together  based  on  the 
equality  of  the  two  races  was  a  concept  that  remained  unacceptable  and 
inconceivable. 

Did  Not  Advocate  Violence 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  contrary  to  what  media  critics  have 
observed  about  the  promotion  of  violent  suppression  of  civil  rights 
activity  in  a  small  sampling  of  Southern  newspapers,125  the  Mississippi 


92  Weill 'Fall  1999 


daily  press  in  1954  did  not  advocate  violence  to  maintain  segregation 
following  Brown.  Not  once  was  this  found  in  any  of  the  20  newspapers. 

Most  of  the  editors  did,  however,  support  other  means  to  undermine 
the  desegregation  of  the  public  schools  in  the  state,  such  as  recommend- 
ing that  their  communities  simply  refuse  to  comply  with  the  mandate. 

In  their  news  coverage  of  the  civil  rights  issues  pertaining  to  Brown  v. 
Board  of  Education,  the  two  most  widely-circulated  Mississippi  daily 
newspapers,  the  Jackson  Clarion- Ledger  and  the  Jackson  Daily  News,  were 
not  representative  of  the  Mississippi  daily  press.  Although  all  the  daily 
newspapers  subscribed  to  at  least  one  of  the  three  major  wire  services 
available  at  the  time,  AP,  UP  or  INS,  and  they  ran  the  copy  relatively 
unrevised,  staff-written  stories  by  the  Clarion-Ledger  and  the  Daily  News 
were  much  more  virulent,  for  the  most  part,  than  those  of  the  other 
newspapers.  The  editorials  of  Sullens  at  the  Daily  News  and  Hills  at  the 
Clarion-Ledger  certainly  earned  their  reputation  for  propagating  racial 
polarization  and  intensifying  the  opposition  of  Mississippi  whites  to  racial 
desegregation.126  Except  for  Harris  of  the  West  Point  Times-Leader  and 
Skewes  at  the  Meridian  Star,  this  blatant  "fire  breathing"  racism  was  not 
generally  true  of  the  other  editors  of  the  Mississippi  daily  press  in  1954. 

Whether  the  editorial  stance  of  Mississippi's  daily  press  was  represen- 
tative of  its  readers  in  1954  is  not  known.  The  fact  that  it  took  nearly  two 
decades  for  the  majority  of  the  state's  school  systems  to  comply  with  the 
Brown  order  would  indicate  that  many  of  the  readers — at  least  the  white 
readers  who  controlled  local  school  boards — did  not  agree  that  a  system 
of  racial  desegregation  was  the  preferred  educational  arrangement.   It  is 
also  important  to  note  that  in  many  Mississippi  communities,  the  estab- 
lishment of  private  academies  for  white  students  corresponded  with  local 
compliance  to  Brown,  another  indication  that  many  of  the  white  readers 
preferred  a  racially  segregated  educational  system. 

A  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Jackson  Daily  News  in  August  1954, 
however,  could  have  been  speaking  for  many  more  white  Mississippians 
than  is  generally  thought.  "I  hate  to  think  of  the  contempt  the  rest  of  the 
nation  must  have  for  the  South  if  they  have  read  the  front  pages  of  the 
Mississippi  newspapers,"  wrote  Mary  Taylor  of  Jackson.127 

Socially  responsible  editorship  of  the  Mississippi  daily  press  follow- 
ing the  1954  Brown  v.  Board  of  Education  decision  might  have  seemed,  to 
advocates  of  equal  rights,  an  editorship  that  would  have  endorsed  quality 
education  for  all  people.  But  to  most  of  the  white  editors  and  reporters  of 
the  Mississippi  daily  press  in  1954,  and  to  most  white  Mississippians, 
socially  responsible  editorship  during  that  time  meant  the  endorsement 
and  protection  of  Mississippi  society  as  they  had  always  understood  and 
defended  it — racially  segregated  with  blacks  in  subservient  roles  as 
second-class  citizens. 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  93 


Endnotes 

'James  Loewen  and  Charles  Sallis,  Mississippi  Conflict  and  Change  (New  York:  Pantheon  Books, 
1974),  256. 

'Harry  Holloway,  The  Politics  of  the  Southern  Negro  (New  York:  Random  House,  1969),  34; 
Loewen  and  Sallis,  202-210;  Neil  R.  McMillen,  Dark  Journey:  Black  Mississippians  in  the  Age  of  Jim 
Crow  (Chicago:  University  of  Illinois  Press,  1990)  156. 

'"South  Faces  Enormous  Problems  in  Ending  Segregation,"  AP,  Laurel  Leader-Call,  21  May  1954, 
12. 

"Loewen  and  Sallis,  247;  McMillen,  73. 

'McMillen,  90. 

"McMillen,  73. 

7Loewen  and  Sallis,  247. 

8McMillen,  84-85. 

''Roy  E.  Carter,  Jr.,  "Segregation  and  the  News:  A  Regional  Content  Study,"  Journalism  Quarterly 
(Winter  1957),  9;  Thomas  Clark,  The  Emerging  South  (2d  ed.,  New  York:  Oxford  University  Press, 
1968)  199;  Carolyn  Martindale,  The  White  Press  and  Black  America  (Westport,  Ct:  Greenwood  Press, 
1986),  passim. 

'""Belting  One  Down  for  the  Road"  Nation,  6  October  1962,  190;  Hugh  Davis  Graham,  Crisis  in 
Print:  Desegregation  and  the  Press  in  Tennessee  (Nashville:  Vanderbilt  University  Press,  1967),  314-316. 

"William  Lance  Conn,  "Crisis  in  Black  and  White:  The  McComb  Enterprise-Journal's  Coverage  of 
Racial  News,  1962-1964"  (Master's  thesis,  University  of  Mississippi,  1991)  ;  David  R.  Davies,  "J. 
Oliver  Emmerich  and  the  McComb  Enterprise-Journal:  Slow  Change  in  McComb,  1964"  Journal  of 
Mississippi  History,  February  1995,  1-24;  Robert  W.  Hooker,  "Race  and  the  News  Media  in 
Mississippi,  1962-1964"  (Master's  thesis,  Vanderbilt  University,  1971);  Gary  Lynn  Huey,  "P.D.  East: 
Southern  Liberalism  and  the  Civil  Rights  Movement,  1953-1971"  (Ph.D.  diss.,  Washington  State 
University,  1981);  James  T  Sellers,  "A  History  of  the  Jackson  State  Times:  An  Agent  of  Change  in  a 
Closed  Society  (Ph.D.  diss.,  The  University  of  Southern  Mississippi,  1992);  John  Ray  Skates,  Jr.  "A 
Southern  Editor  Views  the  National  Scene:  Frederick  Sullens  and  the  Jackson,  Mississippi,  Daily 
News"  (Ph.D.  diss.,  Mississippi  State  University,  1965);  Susan  M.  Weill,  "African  Americans  and  the 
White-Owned  Mississippi  Press:  An  Analysis  of  Coverage  from  1944  to  1984"  (Master's  thesis, 
Jackson  State  University,  1993);  Weill,  "'In  a  Madhouse's  Din':  Civil  Rights  Coverage  by  Mississippi's 
Daily  Press,  1948  -  1968"  (Ph.D.  diss.,  The  University  of  Southern  Mississippi,  1998). 

l:"By  Unanimous  Vote,  High  Court  Rules  Out  School  Segregation,"  AP,  Vicksburg  Herald,  18  May 
1954,  1;  "Court  Ends  Segregation,"  AP,  Meridian  Star,  17  May  1954,  1;  "Court  Overrules  Color 
Bar,"  AP,  West  Point  Times  Leader,  17  May  1954,  1;  "Court  Strikes  Down  School  Segregation,"  AP, 
Gulfport  Daily  Herald,  17  May  1954,  1;  "High  Court  Strikes  Down  School  Segregation,"  AP, 
Clarksdale  Press  Register,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Mississippi  Will  Adopt  Cautious,  Slow  Approach  to 
School  Segregation  Ruling,"  UP,  Greenwood  Morning  Star,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Nation's  Highest  Court 
Rules  Segregation  Unconstitutional,"  UP,  Tupelo  Daily  Journal,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Order  End  of 
Segregation,"  AP  Columbus  Commercial  Dispatch,  17  May  1954,  1;  "Public  School  Segregation 
Declared  Unconstitutional,"  UP,  Grenada  Sentinel-Star,  17  May  1954,  1;  "Public  School  Segregation 
Ruled  Out  Unanimously  By  Supreme  Court,"  AP,  Natchez  Democrat,  17  May  1954,  1;  "Racial 
Segregation  in  Schools  Ruled  Against  by  Supreme  Court,"  AP,  McComb  Enterprise-Journal,  17  May 
1954,  1;  "School  Segregation  is  Held  Illegal,"  UP,  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  17  May  1954,  1; 
"School  Segregation  Upset,"  AP,  Vicksburg  Evening  Post,  17  May  1954,  1;  "Segregation  Action  May  be 
Delayed  for  Years,"  Natchez  Times,  17  May  1954,  1;  "Segregation  Ended  by  Highest  Court,"  AP, 
Laurel  Leader-Call,  17  May  1954,  1;  "Segregated  Schools  Outlawed,"  AP,  Hattiesburg  American,  17 
May  1954,  1;  "State  Seeks  Answer  to  Adverse  Ruling  on  School  Segregation,"  AP,  Jackson  Clarion- 
Ledger,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Supreme  Court  Says  Segregation  Must  End,"  Corinth  Daily  Corinthian,  17 
May  1954,  1;  "US  Supreme  Court  Bans  Segregation  in  Schools,"  AP,  Greenwood  Commonwealth,  17 
May  1954,  1;  "Will  Not  Obey  Supreme  Court,"  AP,  Jackson  Daily  News,  17  May  1954,  1. 

''Weill,  '"In  a  Madhouses  Din':  Civil  Rights  Coverage  by  Mississippi's  Daily  Press,  1948-1968," 
24-70. 

'"•Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department,  Mississippi  Statistical 
Summary  of  Population,  1800-1980  (Jackson,  Mississippi,  1980). 

94  Weill -Fall  1999 


l5James  Marlow,  "Negroes  Will  Try  to  End  Segregation,"  Clarksdale  Press  Register,  19  May  1954,  4. 
"Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

l7James  Marlow,  "Negroes  Will  Try  to  End  Segregation,"  Corinth  Daily  Corinthian,  18  May  1954, 
4. 

'"Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

'''Birney  Imes,  Jr.,  "Supreme  Court  Decision,"  Columbus  Commercial  Dispatch,  18  May  1954,  1. 

2"'Abolish  Public  School  System,"  AP,  Columbus  Commercial  Dispatch,  17  May  1954,  1. 

^'Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

"Virgil  Adams,  "Schools  in  the  South,"  Greenwood  Commonwealth,  31  May  1954,  4. 

-3Virgil  Adams,  "A  Real  Test  for  the  South,"  Greenwood  Morning  Star,  18  May  1954,  6. 

24Virgil  Adams,  "Supreme  Court  Exceeding  Its  Intended  Role,"  Greenwood  Morning  Star,  19  May 
1954,4. 

25Virgil  Adams,  "The  Real  Stoty  of  How  Southerners  Treat  the  Negroes,"  Greenwood  Morning  Star, 
24  August  1954,  4. 

2r'Loewen  and  Sallis,  282. 

"Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

28"Public  School  Segregation  Declared  Unconstitutional,  South  Ponders  Racial  Problem  Now  in 
View,"  UP,  Grenada  Sentinel-Star,  17  May  1954,  1;  "Dixie  Readies  Fight  to  Preserve  Separate  Schools 
Despite  Ruling,"  AP,  Grenada  Sentinel-Star,  17  May  1954,  1;  "Slow,  Gautious  Moves  Planned  by 
Mississippi,"  AP,  Grenada  Sentinel-Star,  17  May  1954,  1. 

2''Loewen  and  Sallis,  25. 

'"Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

3IE.P.  Wilkes,  "Working  Together,"  Gulfport  Daily  Herald,  20  May  1954,  4. 

"Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

33Andrews  Harmon,  "Example,"  Hattiesburg  American,  21  May  1954,  2. 

34"Jobs,  Housing  are  Next,  Says  NAACP,"  AP,  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  18  May  1954,  1; 
"NAACP  Council  Speaks  in  Jackson,  Residential  Segregation  Blasted,"  Clarksdale  Press  Register,  7 
May,  1954,1;  "State  NAACP  Wants  Action,"  AP,  Corinth  Daily  Corinthian,  31  May  1954,1;  "State 
Negroes  to  Start  Drive  on  Segregation,"  AP,  Grenada  Sentinel-Star,  31  May  1954,  1;  "Will  Petition 
School  Boards  to  End  Segregation,"  AP,  Gulfport  Daily  Herald,  24  May  1954,  1. 

35Andrews  Harmon,  "Strength  of  People,"  Hattieshurg  American,  2  August  1954,  2. 

36Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

37Harriet  Gibbons,  "Take  It  Easy,"  Laurel  Leader-Call,  18  May  1954,  4. 

38Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

3>;"The  Meridian  Star,"  Mississippi  Press  Association,  1 2 '5'*  Anniversary  Report,  58. 

4"James  H.  Skewes,  "We  Rise  to  Defend  Our  Anglo-Saxon  Way  of  Life,"  Meridian  Star,  18  July 
1948,  p.  4. 

4lJames  H.  Skewes,  "Find  Way  or  Make  It,"  Meridian  Star,  19  May  1954,  6. 

42James  H.  Skewes,  "The  Will  and  the  Way,"  Meridian  Star,  29  May  1954,  4. 

43Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

44Davies,  passim;  Conn,  passim. 

45Hooker,  "Race  and  the  News  Media  in  Mississippi,"  46. 

46J.O.  Emmerich,  "We  Will  Win  Party,"  McComb  Enterprise-Journal,  15  July  1948,  1. 

47J.O.  Emmerich,  "A  Time  to  Cool,  Calm  and  Dispassionate,"  McComb  Enterprise-Journal,  17 
May  1954,  2. 

4SJ.O.  Emmerich,  "Highlights  in  the  Headlines,"  McComb  Enterprise-Journal,\%  May  1954,  1. 

4,,J.O.  Emmerich,  "Editor  Suggests  Ways  to  Maintain  Segregation,"  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  4 
August  1954,  4. 

5"J.O.  Emmerich,  "A  Suggestion  to  Solve  School  Dilemma,"  McComb  Enterprise-Journal,  2  August 
1954,  1. 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  95 


5 'Davis  Lee,  from  the  Newark  (New  Jersey)  Telegraph,  in  the  McComb  Enterprise-Journal,  9  August 
1954,  1. 

"Elliott  Trimble,  "Still  Much  Uncertain  on  Segregation,"  Natchez  Democrat,  17  May  1954,  4. 

"Elliott  Trimble,  "The  Supreme  Court's  Decision  on  Segregation,"  Natchez  Democrat,  19  May 
1954,4. 

54Mrs.  Elliott  Trimble,  unpublished  telephone  interview  by  Susan  Weill,  7  September  1997. 

"Elliott  Trimble,  "Alternative  to  Slow  Progress  is  Going  Backward,"  Natchez  Democrat,  26  May 
1954,6. 

^''Elliott  Trimble,  "From  a  Federal  to  a  Unity  Form  of  Government,"  Natchez  Democrat,  29  May 
1954,4. 

"Thomas  Stokes,  "Lack  of  Fire- Eating,  Ripsnorting  Defiance  From  the  South,"  Natchez  Times,  21 
May  1954,  4. 

^Letter  to  the  editor,  Christian  Science  Monitor,  in  the  Natchez  Times,  23  August  1954,  4. 

"Herman  Moore,  "Practical,  Not  Hast)',  Planning  Needed,  '  Natchez  Times  19  August  1954,  4. 

'""Mississippi  Supreme  Court  Declares  Erroneous  Designation  of  Race  Libelous,"  AP,  Clarksdale 
Press  Register,  24  May  1954,  1;  "Mississippi  Supreme  Court  Holds  to  Write  of  White  Person  as  Negro 
Libelous,"  Vicksburg  Herald,  25  May  1954,  1;  "Supreme  Court  Rules  that  to  Write  of  White  Person  as 
Negro  is  Libelous,"  AP,  Natchez  Democrat,  25  May  1954,  1;  "Uphold  Damages  in  Erroneous  Race 
Designation,"  AP,  Gulfport  Daily  Herald,  24  May  1954,  1. 

'''Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

r,2L.P.  Cashman,  Sr.,  "The  Supreme  Court  Decision,"  Vicksburg  Evening  Post,  21  May  1954,  4. 

'^Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

MGeorge  McLean,  "South  Thinking  Can  Find  Souths  Solution,"  Tupelo  Daily  Journal,  18  May 
1954,11. 

'''Davis  Lee,  "Negro  Editor  Asks  His  Race  to  Think  Twice,"  from  the  Newark  (New  Jersey) 
Telegraph,  in  the  Tupelo  Daily  Journal,  16  August  1954,  11. 

''''Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

''7WH.  Harris,  "The  Supreme  Court  Ruling,"  West  Point  Times-Leader,  18  May  1954,  4. 

6SW.H.  Harris,  "We  Know  for  Certain,"  West  Point  Times-Leader,  18  May  1954,  4. 

'''W.H.  Harris,  "The  School  Problem,"  West  Point  Times-Leader,  2  August  1954,  4. 

7"Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

7ITM.  Hederman,  Jr.,  "Segregation  Crisis  Faces  Us,"  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  18  May  1954,  6. 

7-Grover  Hewell,  letter  to  the  editor,  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  19  May  1954,  12. 

"Blanche  Gregory,  letter  to  editor,  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  28  May  1954,  8. 

7  ■*  Edwin  White,  letter  to  editor,  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  12  August  1954,  14. 

75Jack  Garellick,  letter  to  editor,  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  22  May  1954,  6. 

7''L.G.  Patterson,  letter  to  editor,  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  10  August  1954,  8. 

77Evelyn  Riley,  letter  to  editor,  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  5  August  1954,  12. 

"Concerned  Taxpayers,  letter  to  editor,  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  9  August  1954,  6. 

"N.W.  Ayer  and  Son's  Directory  (of)  Newspapers  and  Periodicals,  86'''  edition,  521. 

"""Clarion-Ledger  Buys  Daily  News,"  AP,  Hattieshurg  American,  9  August  1954,  1;  "Clarion-Ledger 
Buys  Daily  News"  AP,  Vicksburg  Herald,  8  August  1954,  1;  "Jackson  Daily  News  Sold  to  Hedermans," 
Columbus  Commercial  Dispatch,  8  August  1954,  1;  "Newspaper  Suit  Settled,"  Jackson  Daily  News,  8 
August,  1954,  1. 

"'"Revolt  in  Mississippi,"  Time,  8  November  1954,  60. 

"Frank  E.  Smith,  Congressman  from  Mississippi  (New  York:  Pantheon  Books,  1964)  41. 

s,Reed  Sarratt,  The  Ordeal  of  Desegregation:  The  First  Decade  (New  York:  Harper  and  Row,  1966), 
253. 

X4Fred  Sullens,  "Bloodstains  on  the  White  Marble  Steps,"  Jackson  Daily  News,  18  May  1954,  1. 

s,Fred  Sullens,  "The  Segregation  Decision,"  Jackson  Daily  News,  19  May  1954,  8. 


96  Weill -Fall  1999 


"''Fred  Sullens,  "We  are  Not  Acquiescent,"  Jackson  Daily  News,  23  May  1954,  10. 

87"Mississippi  will  not  be  Bound  by  Ruling  of  United  States  Supreme  Court  on  Segregation  Before 
Lawsuits  in  Each  District,"  Jackson  Daily  News,  24  May  1954,  5. 

""Fred  Sullens,  "Low  Down  on  Higher  Ups,"  Jackson  Daily  News,  5  August  1954,  1. 

"''Fred  Sullens,  "Yes,  We  Are  Defiant,"  Jackson  Daily  News,  8  August  1954,  8. 

'"'Fred  Sullens,  "It's  Time  for  Thinking,"  Jackson  Daily  News,  1  August  1954,  8. 

'"Fred  Sullens,  "Low  Down  on  Higher  Ups,"  Jackson  Daily  New,  25  May  1954,  1. 

l,2Fred  Sullens,  "No  Heat,  If  You  Please,"  Jackson  Daily  News,  9  August  1954,  4. 

93C.W  Falconer,  "Negro  Teacher  Asks  Dual  School  System  Remain  as  Best  Policy  for  South," 
Jackson  Daily  News,  2  August  1954,  1. 

'""Viola  Prine,  letter  to  editor,  Jackson  Daily  News,  19  August  1954,  2. 

'''Mississippi  Power  and  Light  Company  Economic  Research  Department. 

',f'Hodding  Carter,  Jr.,  "The  Moment  of  Decision  is  Here,"  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  12 
September  1962,  4;  See  also,  Harry  D.  Marsh,  "Hodding  Carter's  Newspaper  on  School  Desegrega- 
tion, 1954-1955,"  Journalism  Monographs  92  (May  1985). 

',7Hooker,  49. 

''"Hodding  Carter,  Jr.  Southern  Legacy  (Baton  Rouge:  Louisiana  State  University  Press,  1950),  5-7; 
Hodding  Carter,  Jr.,  First  Person  Rural  (Garden  City,  Nj:  Doubleday,  1963),  210;  See  also  Harry  D. 
Marsh,  "Hodding  Carters  Newspaper  on  School  Desegregation,  1954-1955,  "Journalism  Monographs 
92  (May  1985). 

'''Hodding  Carter,  Jr.  First  Person  Rural,  211. 

""'Hodding  Carter,  Jr.,  "The  Court's  Decision,"  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  18  May  1954,  4. 

""Hodding  Carter,  Jr.,  "Delta  Shows  Good  Sense,"  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  20  May 
1954,  3. 

",aHodding  Carter,  Jr.,  "What  Next  for  Our  Schools?"  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  22  August 
1954,  1. 

'"'"Congressmen  from  Mississippi  Blast  Decision,"  AP,  Vickshurg  Evening  Post,  18  May  1954,  1; 
"Congressmen,  Senators  View  Opinions,"  AP,  Clarksdale  Press  Register,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Decision 
Bitterly  Assailed  by  Southern  Solons,"  AP,  Grenada  Sentinel-Star,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Dixie  Congress- 
men React  to  Decision,"  AP,  Natchez  Democrat,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Dixie  Congressmen  React  Sharply 
to  Segregation  Edict,"  AP,  Vickshurg  Herald,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Dixie  Democrats  View  Ruling  with 
Alarm,"  AP,  Corinth  Daily  Corinthian,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Eastland  Declares  South  Will  Not  Obey," 
AP,  Jackson  Daily  News,  17  May  1954,  1;  "Eastland:  Won't  Abide  by  Ruling,"  AP,  Greenville  Delta 
Democrat-Times,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Many  Southern  Congressmen  Assail  Segregation  Decision,"  AP, 
Natchez  Times,  1 8  May  1954,  1 ;  "Mississippi  Congressmen  View  Ruling  with  Alarm,"  AP,  West  Point 
Times-Leader,  18  May  1954,  1;  "State  Leaders  Declare  Segregation  Will  Stay,"  Columbus  Commercial 
Dispatch,  18  May  1954,  1;  "State's  Congressional  Delegation  Views  with  Alarm  Segregation  Act,"  AP, 
Laurel  Leader-Call,  18  May  1954,  1;  "State's  Congressmen  View  With  Alarm  Anti-Segregation 
Ruling,"  AP,  Meridian  Star,  18  May  1954,  1;  "US  Supreme  Court  Decision  Draws  Bitter  Attacks 
from  Southern  Congressmen,  "  AP,  Tupelo  Daily  Journal,  18  May  1954,  1;  "White  Leaders  See 
Enforcement  Delay,"  AP,  Natchez  Democrat,  17  May  1954,  1. 

"l4"Paul  Johnson  Firm  in  Segregation  Stand,"  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  12  August  1954,  1. 

'"'"Fielding  Wright  Expresses  His  Opinion  on  the  Subject  of  Enforcing  Segregation,"  Jackson  Daily 
News,  2  August  1954,  1;  "Fielding  Wright  Would  Use  Police  to  Keep  Segregation,,"  AP,  Laurel  Leader- 
Call,  2  August  1954,  1;  "Former  Gov.  Wright  Backs  Up  Segregation,  Urges  Police  Power,"  AP,  Jackson 
Clarion-Ledger,  2  August,  1954,  1;  "Former  Gov.  Wright  Backs  Up  Segregation,  Urges  Police  Power  to 
Separate  Schools,"  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  2  August  1954,  1;  "Gov.  White  Says  State  Police  Will  be 
used  to  Ban  Negroes  from  White  Schools,"  AP,  Vickshurg  Herald,  3  August  1954,  1;  "Police  Powers  of 
State  Suggested  in  School  Issue,"  AP,  Grenada  Sentinel-Star,  2  August  195,  1;  "Urge  State  to  Use 
Police  Powers  to  Prevent  Any  Mixing  of  Races,"  AP,  Greenwood  Commonwealth,  1  August  1954,  1; 
"Urges  Police  Power  to  Block  Segregation,"  AP,  Meridian  Star,  2  August  1954,  1;  "White  Follows 
Wright,  Police  Power,"  AP,  McComb  Enterprise-Journal,  3  August  1954,  1;  "Use  of  Police  Powers 
Urged  in  Segregation,"  AP,  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  2  August  1954,  1;  "White  Urged  to  Use 
Police  Powers  to  Preserve  Segregation  in  Schools,"  AP,  Tupelo  Daily  Journal,  2  August  1954,  1; 
"Wright  Would  Use  Police  Power  to  Stop  Integration,"  AP,  Corinth  Daily  Corinthian,  3  August  1954, 


Fall  1999  •American  Journalism  97 


1;  "Wright  Urges  Use  of  Police  Powers  to  Maintain  Dual  Schools,"  AP,  Hattiesburg  American,  2 
August  1954,  1;  "Wright  Supports  Move  to  Use  Police  Power  in  Segregation,"  AP,  West  Point  Times- 
Leader,  2  August  1954,  1. 

"l6Hodding  Carter,  Jr.,  "Delta  Shows  Good  Sense,"  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  20  May 
1954,  3. 

"l7George  McLean,  "He  Guessed  Too  Wrong  to  Follow  Again,"  Tupelo  Daily  Journal,  20  May 
1954,11. 

'"""Equalization  Talks  Begin  in  Jackson,"  AP,  Clarksdale  Press  Register,  18  May  1954,  1;  "School 
Plan  Explained  by  Educators,"  AP,  Vicksburg  Herald,  19  May  1954,  1;  "School  Leaders  Talk  Cost  of 
School  Program,"  AP,  Natchez  Democrat,  19  May  1954,  1;  "School  Superintendents  Study  Equaliza- 
tion in  Face  of  Ruling,"  AP,  West  Point  Times-Leader,  18  May  1954,  1. 

'"''"Negroes  Refuse  Consent  Plan,"  Columbus  Commercial  Dispatch,  3  August  1954,  1. 

"""NAACP  Leaders  Will  Petition  Public  Schools,"  UP,  Tupelo  Daily  Journal,  24  May  1954,  1; 
"NAACP  Reveal  Intent  to  Fight  All  the  Way  on  School  Decision,"  AP,  West  Point  Times-Leader,  31 
May  1954,  1;  "NAACP  to  ask  Court  to  Hasten  Erasure  of  Color  Bar  in  Schools,"  AP,  West  Point 
Times-Leader,  24  May  1954,  1;  "NAACP  to  Seek  Enforcement  of  Ruling  in  State"  AP,  Gulfport  Daily 
Herald,  31  May  1954,  1;  "NAACP  to  Seek  Immediate  End  of  Segregated  Schools,"  UP,  Greenville 
Delta-Democrat  Times,  24  May  1954,  1;  "Quick  End  to  Segregation  is  NAACP's  Aim,"  AP,  Jackson 
Clarion-Ledger,  24  May  1954,  1;  "State  NAACP  Demands  Total  Desegregation,"  AP,  Hattiesburg 
American,  29  May  1954,  1;  "State  NAACP  Pledges  Unsegregated  Schools,"  UP,  Greenville  Delta 
Democrat-Times,  31  May  1954,  1;  "State  NAACP  Wants  Action,"  AP,  Corinth  Daily  Corinthian, 
"State  Negroes  to  Start  Drive  on  Segregation,"  AP,  Grenada  Sentinel-Star,  31  May  1954,  1;  "Supreme 
Court  Decision  Hailed  by  NAACP,"  AP,  Vicksburg  Herald,  18  May  1954,  1. 

"'Hodding  Carter,  Jr.,  "The  White  Proposal,"  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  2  August  1954,  2. 

'  ""Advisory  Group  Will  Get  Action  Soon  on  Ways  to  Dodge  Decision  on  Segregation,"  AP,  Laurel 
Leader-Call,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Eight  Men  Appointed  to  Legal  Education  Advisory  Commirtee,"  AP, 
Natchez  Democrat,  19  may  9154,  1;  "Gov.  White  will  Select  Committee  for  School  Study,"  Vicksburg 
Evening  Post,  18  may  1954,  1;  "Governor  Moves  to  Set  Up  Committee  to  Find  Ways  of  Retaining 
Segregation,"  AP,  West  Point  Times-Leader,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Governor  Names  Laymen  Members  to 
Advisory  Group,"  Jackson  Daily  Neivs,  18  may  1954,  1;  "Group  Plans  to  Keep  Segregation,"  AP, 
Greenwood  Commonwealth,  19  May  1954,  1;  "Group  to  Dodge  Court  Decision  will  Roll  Soon," 
Gulfport  Daily  Herald,  18  may  1954,  1;  "Legal  Parley  to  Meet  June  2,"  Meridian  Star,  20  May  1954, 
1;  "Pro- Segregation  Leaders  Plan  Quick  Action,  Southern  Chiefs  Seek  Ways  to  Maintain  Dual 
System,"  AP,  Columbus  Commercial  Dispatch,  18  May  1954,  1;  "Quick  Action  Promised,  Find  Ways 
to  Dodge  the  US  Supreme  Court  Decision  Outlawing  Segregation  in  Public  Schools,"  AP,  Clarksdale 
Press  Register,  18  May  1954,  1;  "South  Segregationists  to  Fight  to  Bitter  End  Against  Court's  Decision, 
See  No  Enforcement  Soon  in  Most  States,"  AP,  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  18  May  1954,  1; 
"Special  State  Group  to  Sidetrack  Segregation  Ban,"  Vicksburg  Herald,  20  May  1954,  3;  "State  Board 
to  Find  Ways  to  Dodge  Courts  Anti-Segregation  Decision  Appointed  by  White,"  AP,  McComb 
Enterprise-Journal,  19  may  1954,  1;  "State  Leaders  Plan  First  Conference,"  AP,  Columbus  Commercial 
Dispatch,  20  May  1954,  1;  "White  Appoints  Advisory  Board  in  Evasion  of  Segregation  Ruling,"  UP, 
Greenwood  Morning  Star,  19  May  1954,  1;  "White  Appoints  School  Advisors,"  Jackson  Clarion- 
Ledger,  19  may  1954,  1 . 

'""Segregation  Most  Vital  Issue,"  AP,  Columbus  Commercial  Dispatch,  5  August  1954,  1. 

'  l4"Slow  Action  Seen  on  Segregation  Ban  as  State  Legal  Advisory  Committeemen  Wildly  Split  on 
School  Issues,"  AP,  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  23  May  1954,  1. 

"'Jack  Waldon,  "Danger  is  Seen,"  Corinth  Daily  Corinthian,  9  August  1954,  4. 

'"'Hodding  Carter,  Jr.,  "The  White  Proposal,"  Greenville  Delta  Democrat-Times,  2  August  1954,  2. 

"7J.O.  Emmerich,  "A  5-Part  Plan  to  Help  Maintain  Segregated  Schools  in  Mississippi,"  McComb 
Enterprise-Journal,  24  May  1954,  2;  J.O.  Emmerich,  "A  Suggestion  to  Solve  School  Dilemma," 
McComb  Enterprise-Journal,  2  August  1954,  1. 

""Herman  Moore,  "Practical,  Not  Hasty,  Planning  Needed,"  Natchez  Times,  19  August  1954,  4. 

"''Charles  Hills,  "Affairs  of  State,"  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  15  August  1954,  9. 

I:"WH.  Harris,  "Cart  Before  Horse,"  West  Point  Times-Leader,  16  August  1954,  4. 

"'"Gov.  White  Plans  Law  to  Prevent  Race  Trouble,"  AP,  Vicksburg  Herald,  27  August  1954,  1; 
"White  Proposes  Segregation  Barrier,"  AP,  Hattiesburg  American,  27  August  1954,  1;  "White  Reveals 


98  Weill  •  Fall  1999 


Another  Plank  in  Program  to  Maintain  Segregation,"  AP,  Corinth  Daily  Corinthian,  27  August  1954, 
1;  "White  Reveals  Plank  in  Segregation  Program,"  AP,  Laurel  Leader-Call,  27  August  1954,  1. 

'""Belting  One  Down  for  the  Road"  ;  Charles  Butts,  "Mississippi:  The  Vacuum  and  the  System," 
in  Black,  White  and  Gray:  21  Points  of  View  on  the  Race  Question,  ed.  Bradford  Daniel  (New  York: 
Sheed  and  Ward,  1964),  104;  "Dilemma  in  Dixie,"  Time,  20  February  1956,  76;  "Dixie 
Flamethrowers,"  Time,  4  March  1966,  64;  "Moderation  in  Dixie,"  Time,  19  March  1965;  Ted  Poston, 
"The  American  Negro  and  Newspaper  Myths,"  in  Race  and  the  News  Media,  ed.  Paul  L.  Fisher  and 
Richard  L.  Lowenstein  (New  York:  Frederick  A.  Praeger,  1967),  63;  Pat  Watters  and  Reese  Cleghorn, 
Climbing  Jacob's  Ladder:  The  Arrival  of  the  Negro  in  Southern  Politics  (New  York:  Harcourt,  Brace  and 
World,  1967),  73;  Simeon  Booker,  Black  Man's  America  (Englewood  Cliffs,  NJ:  Prentice-Hall,  1964), 
15;  Roger  Williams,  "Newspapers  in  the  South,"  Columbia  Journalism  Review  6  (Summer  1967):  27; 
James  Boylan,  "Birmingham  Newspapers  in  Crisis,"  Columbia  Journalism  Review  2  (Summer  1963): 
30. 

li3Roy  E.  Carter,  "Racial  Identification  Effects  Upon  the  News  Story  Writer,"  Journalism  Quarterly 
34  (1957):  284-290,  and  "Segregation  and  the  News:  A  Regional  Content  Study,"  3-18;  William 
Peters,  The  Southern  Temper  (Garden  City,  NY:  Doubledayand  Company,  1959),  115;  Hooker,  240- 
241;  Hodding  Carter  III,  "The  Wave  Beneath  the  Froth,"  in  Race  and  the  News  Media,  ed.  Paul  L. 
Fisher  and  Richard  L.  Lowenstein  (New  York:  Frederick  A.  Praeger,  1967),  6;  Buford  Boone, 
"Southern  Newsmen  and  Local  Pressure,"  in  Race  and  the  News  Media,  ed.  Paul  L.  Fisher  and  Richard 
L.  Lowenstein  (New  York:  Frederick  A.  Praeger,  1967),  53. 

'-4Sharon  A.  Bramlett,  "Southern  vs.  Northern  Newspaper  Coverage  of  a  Race  Crisis — The  Lunch 
Counter  Sit-In  Movement,  1960-1964:  An  Assessment  of  Social  Responsibility"  (Ph.D.  diss.,  Indiana 
University,  1987),  vi. 

i:y'Dilemma  in  Dixie"  ;  "Dixie  Flamethrowers,"  64;  "Moderation  in  Dixie,"  Time,  19  March  1965, 
71;  Edwin  W  Williams,  "Dimout  in  Jackson,"  Columbia  Journalism  Review  IX  (Summer  1970),  56. 

l2f'"Belting  One  Down  for  the  Road";  Butts,  104;  "Dilemma  in  Dixie,"  76;  "Dixie  Flamethrowers"; 
"Moderation  in  Dixie";  Poston,  "The  American  Negro  and  Newspaper  Myths,"  63;  Watters  and 
Cleghorn,  73;  Booker,  15;  Williams,  "Newspapers  in  the  South,"  27;  Boylan,  30. 

l27Mary  Taylor,  letter  to  editor,  Jackson  Clarion-Ledger,  13  August  1954,  10. 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  99 


Fall  1999 


100 


Book  Reviews 


If  there  is  any  consistency  to  this  issues  offering  of  book  reviews,  it  is  the 
fact  that  all  deal  with  some  form  of  controversy.  Jon  Bekkens  review  addresses 
some  of  the  major  concerns  over  the  move  to  what  some  call  "public  journal- 
ism" and  others,  referring  to  same  thing,  call  "civic journalism." Louise 
Benjamin's  review  takes  a  look  at  some  of  the  current  issues  in  the  global 
combination  of  television  news  and  satellite  transmissions.  Her  work  makes 
the  point  that  it  is  far  more  difficult  covering  the  world  in  20  seconds  or  less 
than  it  is  to  cover  one's  backyard. 

Elizabeth  Burt  offers  a  review  of  a  collection  of  quite  good  essays  dealing 
with  the  sensitive  topic  of  how  the  news  is  treating  minorities.  The  issue  has 
been  around  since  before  the  D.  W.  Griffith  production  of  "Birth  of  a  Nation" 
and  currently  it  appears  that  the  issue  will  not  escape  us  soon.  Doug  Birkhead's 
review  summarizes  some  of  the  issues  that  are  being  debated  regarding  the 
quality  of  television  news  and  what  we  can  do  about  it.  To  give  a  historical 
backdrop  to  the  debate,  Stephen  Phipps  reviews  the  memoirs  of  Richard 
Salant,  one  of  the  major  players  in  the  development  of  television  news  at  CBS 
in  New  York. 

Carolyn  Kitch  reviews  a  book  that  explores  problems  arising  from 
developing  societies'  struggle  with  the  age-old  question  of  press  freedom.  And 
this  collection  of  reviews  concludes  with  Andrew  Osier's  review  of  an  in-depth 
look  at  Jean  Paul  Sartre  as  a  media  person.  And  I  should  note  that  the  editor's 
choice  this  time  around  is  a  new  collection  of  the  early  journalistic  writings  of 
Walt  Whitman. 

>  David  R.  Spencer,  Book  Review  Editor 

^Editors  Choice 

The  Collected  Writings  of  Walt  Whitman:  The  Jour- 
nalism, Volume  1: 1834-1846 

By  Herbert  Bergman,  (ed.),  New  York:  Peter  Lang  Publishing,  1998, 
590pp. 

Too  often,  surrounded  by  some  of  the  mediocrity  that  passes  for 
journalism  today,  we  forget  that  several  famous  literary  figures  in  the 
English  language  worked  as  journalists.  Immediately  the  names  of  Charles 
Dickens,  Mary  Ann  Shadd  Cary,  William  L.  Shirer,  Ernest  Hemingway 

Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  101 


and  William  Morris  come  to  mind.  The  list  is  by  no  means  exhaustive. 
But  any  list  that  claims  to  be  complete  must  include  the  name  of  Walt 
Whitman  whom  most  of  us  remember  as  Americas  leading  poet  of  the 
19th  century,  if  not  the  symbol  of  America  itself.  Whitman's  life,  as 
complicated  and  secretive  as  it  was,  was  the  life  of  a  writer,  one  which 
began  in  earnest  in  1834  and  only  ended  with  his  death  in  1892. 

Having  worked  for  years  in  newspaper  files  contained  on  bleary 
microfilm  or  in  rotting  originals,  I  can  appreciate  the  difficulty  of  the  task 
that  faced  the  editors  of  this  massive  volume.  If  little  else,  Whitman  was  a 
prolific  writer.  The  contents  of  this  book  are  spread  over  590  pages, 
covering  only  the  period  between  1834  and  1846.  The  researchers  covered 
no  less  than  14  newspapers,  some  continuations  of  others,  containing 
writings  by  Whitman.  Some  are  as  short  as  two  sentences,  others  exceed 
two  pages.  The  Appendix  contains  a  complete  list  of  source  locations  of 
items  in  the  book  as  well  as  a  list  of  missing  issues  that  probably  contained 
more  of  Whitman's  work. 

The  notation  begins  in  small  print  on  page  487  and  continues  until 
page  564.  I  bring  this  to  your  attention  to  give  you  a  detailed  example  of 
the  care  that  has  been  exercised  in  compiling  this  volume.  The  text  pages 
are  marked  every  five  lines  and  the  notation  system  records  any  anomalies 
in  the  text  by  reference  to  these  numbers.  The  notes  make  reference  to 
interpretations  of  Whitman's  work,  provide  historical  details  not  con- 
tained in  the  text  and  explain  factors  such  as  grammatical  and  spelling 
mistakes.  The  book  is  clearly  designed  for  researchers  and,  in  a  compli- 
ment to  the  editors,  they  make  it  easy  to  use.  Having  struggled  with 
newspapers  in  the  19th  century  that  were  not  indexed,  I  can  appreciate 
how  much  effort  it  has  taken  to  make  this  work  effective. 

Is  this  just  a  chronological  collection  of  Whitman's  musings  or  can 
we  learn  something  of  the  author  and  his  times  from  these  writings?  The 
book  provides  the  reader  with  insight  into  a  complex  and  creative  writer. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  Whitman  takes  great  pains  not  to  reveal  his  sexual 
preferences  in  any  of  the  works.  It  is  almost  painful  in  this  day  and  age  to 
read  of  his  views  of  the  sexuality  of  young  New  York  women  and  how  he 
pined  after  them,  at  least  in  print.  However,  to  his  credit  Whitman  never 
explained  his  lack  of  a  wife  in  these  volumes  and,  of  course,  it  is  too  early 
to  see  his  reaction  to  the  love  letters  of  Mrs.  Anne  Gilchrist. 

The  literary  power  that  emerges  in  much  of  the  work  contained  in 
these  volumes  is  that  of  the  descriptive  narrative.  At  this,  Whitman  was  a 
master  even  early  in  his  life.  Whitman's  journalism  was  not  the  journalism 
of  the  reporter,  but  of  the  observer  of  life,  of  the  columnist  and  of  the 

1 02  Book  Reviews  •  Fall  1 999 


reviewer.  A  classic  example  of  early  Whitman  is  contained  in  this  piece 
published  in  the  New  York  Aurora  on  April  23,  1842. 

Dreams,  to  the  pure  of  heart,  are  always  messengers  of  love  and 
beauty;  be  he  the  son  of  wealth  or  of  poverty,  they  are  to  him  a  gilding 
which  serves  to  adorn  and  beautify  the  roughest  deformities  of  life.  There 
are  the  dreams  of  the  day  and  dreams  of  the  night,  but  around  all  fancy 
twines  a  magic  wreath. 

Of  course,  one  must  keep  in  mind  that  the  newspapers  of  this  period 
of  Whitman's  early  life  in  New  York  was  quite  unlike  the  journals  that 
published  in  the  year  of  his  death.  In  this  respect,  Whitman  resembles 
many  of  his  colleagues  in  the  first  half  of  the  19th  century  who  brought  a 
strong  and  very  visible  personal  touch  to  the  press.  What  is  difficult  to 
find  in  the  Whitman  prose  is  a  sense  of  his  political  stance.  There  are 
frequent  outbursts  of  indignation  as  various  Boards  of  Education  in  the 
area  will  attest  to,  but  no  consistent,  well-argued  set  of  ideological  per- 
spectives. In  reading  these  works,  always  keep  in  mind  that  the  oldest 
piece  in  the  book  was  written  when  Whitman  was  only  25  years  old. 
Nonetheless,  what  we  do  get  is  an  interesting,  and  well-crafted  insight 
into  life  in  New  York,  Brooklyn  and  Long  Island  in  the  years  before  the 
Civil  War.  And,  if  one  were  to  accept  Whitman's  analysis,  it  was  a  much 
simpler  life  than  we  lead  today,  but  one  filled  with  far  more  dangers  of 
early  death  from  a  variety  of  diseases  that  have  long  since  been  eliminated. 

Is  this  a  book  for  bedtime  reading,  the  dedicated  journalism  scholar 
or  just  the  graduate  student  colony  looking  for  a  good  research  topic?  In 
many  ways,  it  is  all  three.  I  have  always  had  an  affection  for  Whitman's 
writings  since  he  lived  in  my  community  during  1880  as  a  guest  of  a  local 
physician,  Richard  Maurice  Bucke,  who  gets  a  couple  of  notes  in  this 
book.  However,  as  valuable  as  this  is  for  research  purposes,  as  a  general 
reading  book  it  needs  to  be  taken  in  small  doses.  Yet  anyone  who  appreci- 
ates the  skill  with  which  Whitman  wrote  will  say  a  thankful  prayer  to  the 
people  who  compiled  this  work.  It  is  a  tool  which  will  literally  save  days 
for  Whitman  scholars.  Peter  Lang  Publishers  has  already  listed  Volume 
Two,  although  it  has  yet  to  appear.  Hopefully,  it  will  have  the  strength 
and  imagination  so  prevalent  in  Volume  1. 

>  David  Spencer,  University  of  Western  Ontario 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 03 


Live,  Direct  and  Biased?  Making  Television  News  in 
the  Satellite  Age 

By  Brent  MacGregor,  London:  St.  Martin's  Press,  1997,  234  pp. 

Brent  MacGregor's  analysis  of  television  news  and  its  intersection 
with  technology  is  an  enterprising  and  thoughtful  account  of  how 
technological  developments  have  changed  broadcast  reporting  over  the 
last  decades  of  the  20th  century  and  gives  insight  into  how  current 
changes  may  alter  the  face  of  news  coverage  in  the  21st.  To  this  examina- 
tion, MacGregor  brings  a  background  as  both  an  academic  and  a  broad- 
cast news  producer,  which  makes  him  uniquely  qualified  to  bridge  the  gap 
between  practitioners  and  scholars  studying  electronic  news  formation. 

The  book's  focus,  as  MacGregor  notes  in  his  introduction,  "is  a 
study  of  the  changing  face  of  television  news,  examining  both  the  trans- 
mitted screen  product  and  the  news  gathering  and  reporting  process 
which  lies  behind  the  broadcast  bulletins  viewers  see  every  day."  In 
addition,  MacGregor  briefly  traces  the  history  of  electronic  news  gather- 
ing in  the  US  and  Great  Britain  from  the  telegraph  to  the  satellite.  He 
then  relates  how  the  information  map  has  changed  radically  in  the  late 
20th  century  with  the  introduction  of  dedicated,  24-hour  news  services 
such  as  CNN,  Sky  News,  Euronews,  CBC  Newsworld,  and  BBC  World. 

In  his  analysis  of  these  technological  developments,  MacGregor  uses 
several  case  studies  with  necessary  background  chapters  to  appraise  news 
technology  and  report  work  practices  which  have  led  to  significant 
changes  in  news  rules,  composition,  and  "grammar."  One  chapter  sum- 
marizes theories  of  news  production,  and  MacGregor  notes  his  analysis 
builds  on  Michael  Schudson's  approach  as  it  "examines  news  product  as 
text  in  several  detailed  case  studies,  paying  particular  attention  to  technol- 
ogy-" 

Another  chapter  briefly  reviews  news  coverage  of  1990s  events  such 
as  the  1991  Moscow  coup  attempt,  U.N.  intervention  in  both  Somalia 
and  Bosnia,  the  Oklahoma  City  bombing,  the  Rabin  assassination,  and 
the  O.J.  Simpson  "white  Bronco"  chase  and  subsequent  trial.  Two  other 
chapters  compare,  in  detail,  US  and  British  coverage  of  the  1991  IRA 
bombing  of  Whitehall  in  the  heart  of  London  and  international  coverage 
of  the  Gulf  War  and  the  bombing  of  Baghdad.  In  these  chapters 
MacGregor  takes  a  comparative  approach  by  analyzing  the  same  news 
story  as  presented  by  news  organizations  in  different  countries  and  makes 
astute  references  to  each  nation's  news  gathering  practices  and  the  result- 
ing news  product,  whether  news  story  or  program. 

In  the  final  chapters  of  the  book,  MacGregor  raises  the  question  "Is 
news  better  reported,  with  more  understanding,  as  a  result  of  the  new 

1 04  Book  Reviews  •  Fall  1 999 


technologies  and  the  working  practices  they  bring  with  them?"  His  answer 
revolves  around  decisions  made  that  affect  news  practices;  it  is  not  a  clear 
cut  "yes"  or  "no"  but  rather  a  consideration  of  technological  and  eco- 
nomic change  and  their  effect  on  the  ultimate  news  product. 

While  this  book  is  not  a  textbook /w  se,  it  will  be  exceedingly  useful 
in  classes  in  media  history,  broadcast  news,  media  and  society,  and  critical 
analysis  of  media.  Its  insights  and  perspective  will  challenge  students  to 
review  what  they  accept  as  objective  news  reportage.  This  work  also  will 
challenge  scholars  to  continue  investigations  of  how  news  gathering  and 
production  continue  to  change  in  the  21st  century  with  evolving  eco- 
nomic and  technological  concerns.  I  recommend  Live,  Direct  and  Biased? 
highly  to  all  individuals  interested  in  the  formation  of  news. 

>Louise  Benjamin,  University  of  Georgia 

Press  Freedom  and  Development,  Bibliography. 

By  Clement  E.  Asante,  Westport,  CT:  Greenwood  Press,  1997,  216  pp. 

Here  is  a  bibliographic  guide  that  offers  something  more:  the 
suggestion  that  scholars  who  study  the  relationships  between  governments 
and  their  countries'  news  media  should  also  consider  the  role  those  media 
play  in  national  development,  particularly  in  Third  World  countries.  In 
making  this  argument,  Clement  Asante,  whose  background  is  in  non- 
profit agency  work  devoted  to  improving  communication  as  well  as  living 
conditions  in  developing  nations,  contends  that  Western  models  for 
categorizing  press  systems  are  no  longer  necessarily  sufficient  in  under- 
standing how  mass  media  affect  the  political,  social,  and  cultural  condi- 
tions of  their  constituencies. 

The  guide  is  neatly  divided  into  two  parts,  the  first  surveying  the 
literature  on  freedom-of-the-press  issues,  and  the  second  surveying  work 
on  development  communication.  Each  listing  of  resources  is  preceded  by 
a  bibliographic  essay  that  identifies  major  writings  and  considers  the 
evolution  of  each  body  of  scholarship.  In  the  latter  section,  the  author  also 
comments  on  institutional  and  technological  changes  in  media  that  have 
transformed  the  possibilities  for  the  role  of  journalism  in  shaping  a 
nation's  growth.  His  brief  but  thoughtful  discussion  of  the  impact  of  new 
media  further  explores  how  "the  press"  is  now,  and  will  be,  defined. 

This  book  should  be  a  valuable  resource  for  scholars  in  either  of 
these  fields,  and  the  press  freedom  essay  will  serve  as  a  useful  and  succinct 
summary  of  theory  for  students  just  beginning  work  in  that  area.  Perhaps 
more  interesting  than  the  territory  the  author  does  cover,  however,  are  the 
unexplored  implications  of  his  combination  of  these  two  concepts,  press 
"freedom"  versus  media  as  support-building  tools  for  emerging  govern- 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  105 


merits  and  their  populations.  As  Asante  notes,  these  seemingly  opposition 
roles  of  the  press  are  in  fact  fluid.  It  would  have  been  even  more  helpful 
had  he  provided  a  third  essay  exploring  the  gray  areas  between  these  roles, 
and  the  ways  in  which  his  interesting  comparison  may  shed  light  on 
current  re-evaluations  of  what  journalism  is  and  whom  it  should  serve. 
On  the  50th  anniversary  of  the  Hutchins  Commission  report,  a  consider- 
ation of  the  intersection  of  freedom  and  development  issues  seems  the 
perfect  opportunity  to  discuss  larger  questions  about  press  responsibility, 
particularly  in  an  increasingly  global  media  system. 

Also  fascinating  is  what  is  suggested,  but  remains  unsaid,  in  Asante's 
explanation  of  the  emergence  of  "alternative"  models  for  development 
communications,  those  that  privilege  cultural  traditions  and  rely  on  grass- 
roots involvement  in  media.  Earlier,  top-down  models  for  mass  communi- 
cation in  developing  nations,  he  notes,  were  ineffective  because  they 
"failed  to  take  into  consideration  the  goals  and  aspirations  of  the  people 
engaged  in  such  programs.  In  short,  the  intended  beneficiaries  of  a 
development  program  should  have  a  voice  in  designing  and  implementing 
the  program  itself;  it  should  not  be  imposed  on  them  by  the  authorities  or 
the  powers  that  be."  Such  an  assessment  echoes  the  language  of  current 
debates  about  public  dissatisfaction  with  Western  journalism,  and  the 
alternative  development-media  models  Asante  approvingly  describes  are 
curiously  similar  to  Western  proposals  for  public  journalism,  a  new  model 
of  professional  practice  that  calls  for  a  reconsideration  of  objectivity  (the 
central  concept  on  which  "press  freedom"  traditionally  has  been  based). 

Indeed,  this  similarity  suggests  that  issues  of  both  freedom  and 
development  might  be  studied  not  just  in  terms  of  a  press'  relationship 
with  its  government,  but  also  in  terms  of  its  relationship  with  its  audi- 
ence. Another  theme  that  begs  discussion  is  the  impact  of  the  conglom- 
eration of  mass  media,  within  countries  and  globally.  Asante  devotes  only 
two  pages  to  ownership  issues  and  considers  them  as  merely  one  aspect 
(along  with,  for  example,  sourcing  practices)  of  the  balance  of  power 
between  government  and  the  press.  In  fact,  the  economic  dimension  of 
mass  media  may  be  transforming  the  definitions  of  both  "the  press"  and 
"government"  (particularly  in  developing  countries).  While  this  is  a 
bibliographic  guide,  it  is,  as  its  title  indicates,  selective,  and  more  atten- 
tion to  political  economy  scholarship  might  have  added  another  interpre- 
tive level  to  the  survey. 

Even  if  he  does  not  fully  discuss  these  various  questions,  Clement 
Asante  certainly  raises  them  by  combining  two  previously  separate  areas  of 
media  scholarship.  That  innovative  pairing,  and  the  more  than  500 
sources  it  lists,  is  a  service  to  journalism  scholars. 

>  Carolyn  Kitch,  Temple  University 


1 06  Book  Reviews  •  Fall  1 999 


Public  Journalism  and  Public  Life:  Why  Telling  The 
News  Is  Not  Enough  (2nd  Ed.) 

By  Davis  "Buzz"  Merritt,  Mahwah,  NJ:  Lawrence  Erlbaum  Associates, 
1998,  151pp. 

Public  life  is  generally  acknowledged  to  be  in  crisis  in  the  United 
States,  with  people  increasingly  disengaged  not  only  from  the  political 
process  but  from  the  broader  arena  of  civic  life. 

At  the  same  time  journalism  has  lost  much  of  its  credibility  as  a 
public  actor.  "Buzz"  Merritt  argues  that  these  two  phenomena  are  inter- 
related, and  traces  their  origins  to  the  Progressive  era  of  the  1920s.  The 
Progressives'  reliance  on  experts — in  government  as  in  journalism — 
encouraged  a  disconnect  between  governing  elites  and  citizens,  transform- 
ing citizens  from  active  participants  in  the  shaping  of  their  society  into 
spectators.  Journalism  has  followed  a  similar  trajectory,  with  journalists 
locked  into  a  reluctant  symbiosis  with  the  political  elites  whose  activities 
have  increasingly  come  to  dominate  our  sense  of  news. 

Journalists  have  developed  a  set  of  conventions  and  working  prac- 
tices that  reinforce  that  divide  and  render  journalism  increasingly  irrel- 
evant to  readers'  lives.  Episodic  coverage,  coupled  with  relentless  dead- 
lines, presents  civic  life  as  a  series  of  disconnected  events  and  problems. 
Journalists'  emphasis  on  conflict  leads  to  polarized  coverage  focusing  on 
extremes  while  neglecting  the  middle  ground  where  most  people  are  and 
where  solutions  can  be  worked  through. 

In  Watergate's  aftermath,  Merritt  suggests,  "killer  journalism"  feeds 
public  cynicism  while  journalists  look  for  new  figures  to  bring  down 
rather  than  seek  solutions  to  public  problems.  Aggravating  the  problem, 
corporate  ownership  has  transformed  journalists  into  careerist  transients 
with  little  stake  in  the  communities  their  news  outlets  fail  to  adequately 
serve. 

The  details  of  this  analysis  are  certainly  open  to  challenge.  While 
Merritt  claims  that  journalism  focuses  on  extremes,  much  recent  scholar- 
ship suggests  that  reporters  narrowly  concentrate  on  centrist  sources  and 
perspectives,  often  rejecting  as  too  extreme  to  merit  attention  perspectives 
that  actually  enjoy  substantial  public  support.  Similarly,  journalistic 
gypsies  have  long  been  with  us,  as  Merritt  acknowledges.  What  has 
changed,  I  suspect,  is  that  top  editors  and  publishers  have  joined  their 
ranks. 

Merritt  draws  on  40  years  of  journalistic  experience,  most  spent 
within  the  Knight-Ridder  chain.  He  is  a  practitioner,  not  a  historian,  and 
it  shows  in  his  lack  of  footnotes  and  skimpy  bibliography.  Since  1975, 
Merritt  has  served  as  editor  (and  since  1997  senior  editor)  of  the  Wichita 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 07 


Eagle.  This  has  given  him  the  opportunity  to  try  out  some  of  his  ideas, 
and  Merritt  briefly  discusses  his  efforts  at  public  journalism 

His  paper  has  demanded  that  candidates  address  "the  issues,"  and  he 
believes  that  had  something  to  do  with  increased  voter  turn-out  (even 
though  the  more  wishy-washy  candidate  won).  In  North  Carolina  several 
media  outlets  joined  forces  to  demand  that  candidates  speak  to  a  range  of 
issues  chosen  through  polling.  That  project  was  particularly  controversial, 
though  Merritt's  brief  discussion  strikes  me  as  unsatisfying,  especially  in 
the  way  it  accepts  issues  as  frozen  in  time  and  leaves  little  room  for 
candidates  and  the  public  to  enter  into  a  dialogue  in  which  new  issues 
might  come  forward. 

This  is  far  from  a  how-to  book.  Merritt  explicitly  refuses  to  offer 
prescriptions  for  how  to  undertake  public  journalism,  and  offers  only 
brief  descriptions  of  some  emblematic  projects  and  stories.  Rather,  this 
book  is  a  call  to  journalists  to  reconsider  what  journalism  is  about,  how 
their  stories  ought  to  be  framed,  and  what  responsibility  they  might  share 
for  the  civic  health  of  their  communities.  He  urges  journalists  to  explicitly 
articulate  the  policy  implications  raised  by  their  articles  and  point  to 
possible  solutions  to  problems  they  identify.  Journalism,  he  concludes, 
should  be  an  active  participant  in  a  long-term  project  of  civic  engage- 
ment, telling  the  news  in  ways  that  enable  and  encourage  citizenship. 

To  hear  Merritt  tell  the  tale,  journalists  have  been  invigorated  by  this 
approach,  and  readers  say  they  feel  better  informed.  However,  readership 
has  remained  stagnant  (despite  studies  which  show  that  civic  involvement 
and  newspaper  readership  go  hand  in  hand)  in  Wichita  as  elsewhere,  and 
there  is  little  evidence  here  of  real  public  engagement  in  civic  and  political 
life. 

Nor  is  it  clear  that  the  basic  approach  employed  in  most  public 
journalism  projects  in  any  way  addresses  the  fundamental  issues.  More 
promising  to  my  mind  is  Merritt's  brief  discussion  of  increased  coverage 
of  community  associations  and  what  he  calls  "tough  journalism" — that  is, 
journalism  that  asks  tough  questions — using  Barlea  and  Steele's  series 
(and  later  book)  on  the  destruction  of  middle  income  jobs  in  the  1980s 
seems  to  me  much  more  on  target. 

For  Merritt  this  is  all  of  one  piece.  The  main  point  of  this  slender 
volume  is  that  journalists  need  to  abandon  their  claimed  status  as  outsid- 
ers, and  commit  to  a  journalism  that  addresses  fundamental  issues,  that 
looks  for  ways  to  engage  readers  in  finding  solutions  to  public  problems, 
that  is  actively  engaged  in  the  work  of  rebuilding  a  democratic  culture. 
While  I  remain  skeptical  of  much  of  the  work  done  under  the  rubric  of 
public  journalism,  the  crises  in  journalism  and  public  life  it  seeks  to 
address  are  very  real. 


1 08  Book  Reviews  •  Fall  1 999 


And  while  this  is  far  from  his  intent,  journalism  historians  might 
find  that  Merritt's  argument  offers  a  useful  prism  through  which  to  re- 
examine the  emergence  and  implications  of  objectivity  and 
professionalization. 

>Jon  Bekken,  Suffolk  University 

Salant,  CBS,  and  the  Battle  for  the  Soul  of  Broadcast 
Journalism:  The  Memoirs  of  Richard  S.  Salant 

By  Susan  and  Bill  Buzenberg,  (eds.),  Boulder,  Colorado:  Westview 
Press,  1999,  326  pp. 

Shortly  after  his  retirement  in  1984,  Richard  Salant,  former  presi- 
dent of  CBS  News,  began  writing  his  memoirs.  Although  he  persisted 
with  the  project  until  1990,  he  died  before  converting  his  manuscript  into 
a  coherent,  well-organized  form.  As  he  expressed  it,  "Somewhere  buried 
deep  in  there  is  a  publishable  book."  It  remained  for  Susan  and  Bill 
Buzenberg  to  extract  that  publishable  book. 

For  those  unfamiliar  with  the  career  of  Richard  Salant,  he  was 
responsible  for  the  first  move  in  network  television  from  15-minute 
newscasts  to  a  half-hour  program.  Salant  replaced  Douglas  Edwards  with 
Walter  Cronkite  as  the  network's  nightly  news  anchor.  He  hired  Mike 
Wallace  and  Dan  Rather.  He  initiated  creation  of  what  was  to  become 
perhaps  the  most  controversial  documentary  ever  aired  on  network 
television,  "The  Selling  of  the  Pentagon."  Salant  also  gave  the  go-ahead 
(eventually)  for  creation  of  "60  Minutes,"  the  innovative  program  that 
demonstrated  network  news  actually  could  turn  a  profit. 

The  career  of  Salant  could  be  summed  up  in  one  word:  integrity.  In 
spite  of  the  book's  seemingly  trite  and  contrived  title,  his  memoirs  really 
do,  at  times,  reveal  a  literal  "battle  for  the  soul  of  broadcast  journalism." 
Salant  was  responsible  for  a  number  of  innovations  at  CBS,  not  the  least 
of  which  was  to  create  the  first  policy  manual  to  be  compiled  and  en- 
forced by  a  television  network.  In  his  dealings  with  his  staff  and  his  work 
with  controversial  news  topics,  Salant  was  clearly  a  person  who  lived  by 
his  principles,  and  it  was  largely  those  principles  that  enabled  CBS  News 
to  become  the  country's  most  respected  network  television  news  opera- 
tion. 

The  book  does  contain  its  fair  share  of  the  obligatory  items  we 
would  expect  in  any  published  memoirs  from  a  professional  career:  an 
introduction  by  a  distinguished  associate  (in  this  case,  Mike  Wallace), 
praising  the  author's  character,  numerous  accounts  of  what  "really" 
happened  in  various  legendary  social  and  professional  exchanges  with 

Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  1 09 


other  notables,  and  photographs  of  the  author  in  the  presence  of  other 
well-known  faces. 

Salant's  memoirs  do,  however,  succeed  where  other  such  published 
accounts  have  failed,  in  that  much  of  the  material  is  genuinely  fascinating. 
His  personal  involvement  in  coverage  of  some  of  the  most  noteworthy 
news  events  of  the  past  several  decades  gave  him  a  unique,  first-hand 
perspective  on  such  issues  as  Nixon's  attacks  on  the  media,  the  Watergate 
affair  and  the  subsequent  resignation  of  the  president,  the  social  unrest  of 
the  late  1960s,  and  the  furor  in  Congress  over  the  airing  of  CBS's  legend- 
ary documentary,  "The  Selling  of  the  Pentagon." 

The  book's  weakest  point,  unfortunately,  may  be  that  such  issues  are 
the  primary  focus  of  only  a  few  chapters.  Interest  level,  for  the  average 
reader,  may  wane  considerably  after  proceeding  from  a  frank  and  detailed 
discussion  of  heavy  and  heated  controversies  to  tamer  chapters  with  such 
titles  as  "What  is  Bias?"  or  "What  is  News?"  Even  within  these  latter 
chapters,  however,  Salant  supports  his  conclusions  with  ample  personal 
experiences  from  his  involvement  in  some  of  the  most  challenging 
controversies  of  his  day. 

Perhaps  the  book's  strongest  point  is  the  author's  unique  degree  of 
honesty.  This  is  not  simply  a  resume  of  his  accomplishments,  but  an 
honest  account  of  his  failings  and  shortcomings  as  well.  The  extremely 
candid  nature  of  his  recollections  enhances  the  interest  level  and  educa- 
tional value  of  the  book  in  a  manner  found  lacking  in  other  memoirs. 
Throughout  the  volume,  Salant  raises  questions  that  seem  to  demand 
answers,  questions  regarding  the  nature  of  news  and  its  relationship  to 
entertainment.  The  reader  gains  the  impression,  unfortunately,  that  with 
the  passing  of  Salant  something  has  been  permanently  lost  to  network 
television  news. 

>Steven  Phipps,  University  of  Missouri  at  St.  Louis 

Sartre  and  the  Media 

By  Michael  Scriven,  New  York:  St.  Martin's  Press,  1993,  194pp. 

Jean-Paul  Sartre  made  prolific  use  of  the  mass  media  over  very  many 
years,  but  there  was  a  missing  dimension.  Except  on  a  few  tangential 
occasions  he  rarely  used  them  as  vehicles  to  treat  before  mass  audiences 
the  concepts  in  philosophy  which  were  not  only  the  core,  but  the  entire 
substance  of  his  intellectual  life.  Sartre's  existentialism  led  him  naturally 
(some  have  suggested  with  mystical  intensity)  not  only  to  engage  passion- 
ately in  the  issues  of  his  time,  but  usually  as  well  to  order  that  engagement 
with  a  fine  and  existential  journalistic  detachment.  Yet  somehow,  he 


1 1 0  Book  Reviews  •  Fall  1 999 


always  kept  his  scholarship  at  arm's  length  from  his  public  journalism, 
held  it  separately  for  those  few  minds  that  might  be  trusted  to  appreciate 
and  understand. 

Unfortunately,  Michael  Scriven  does  not  deal  in  any  significant  way 
with  this  divide  between  Sartre's  journalism  and  his  scholarly  writing 
(with  which  one  includes  his  plays  and  novels).  This  constitutes  the  only 
important  frailty  in  what  is  otherwise  a  unique  and  welcome  accounting 
of  Sartre's  journalism.  It's  not  that  Scriven  fails  to  recognize  a  relationship 
between  the  scholar  and  the  journalist  in  Sartre.  He  notes,  as  others  have 
done  (including  Sartre  himself)  that  Sartre  enjoyed  a  certain  "transitional 
status"  in  French  intellectual  life  and  Western  letters  generally. 

The  best  understanding  of  this  concept,  and  of  the  inferred  elitist 
undercurrent,  derives  from  Sartre's  own  observations,  his  shifting  percep- 
tion of  media  technology  as  it  evolved  across  the  long  decades  of  his 
productive  life.  Before  WW  II,  for  Sartre  the  book  was  everything.  It  was 
only  later  as  he  engaged  first  with  newspaper  journalism,  and  still  later, 
and  always  much  more  tenuously,  with  radio  and  television,  that  he 
explained: 

Naturally,  we  must  silence  our  qualms  of  conscience:  the  book 
is  of  course  the  most  noble  and  oldest  of  forms;  we  will  always 
have  to  return  to  it,  but  there  is  literary  art  to  radio  broadcast- 
ing, to  film  making  and  to  news  reporting  ...  we  need  to 
learn  to  speak  in  images,  to  transpose  the  ideas  contained  in 
our  books  into  these  new  languages. 

He  adds  with  transparent  arrogance  that  it  is  not  proper  in  the  use  of  the 
mass  media  to  "lower  our  standards"  as  scholars,  "but  on  the  contrary,  we 
should  reveal  to  the  public  its  own  requirements,  and  gradually  raise  its 
sights  until  it  needs  (sic)  to  read." 

There  is  a  further  transparency  which  reveals  the  underlying  and 
ironic  necessity  which  Sartre  recognized  in  his  engagement  with  the 
public  media.  In  Scriven's  words: 

The  post- War  period  undoubtedly  witnessed  a  struggle 
between  intellectuals  and  media  magnates  for  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  the  French  people.  Progressively  the  influence  of  the 
intellectuals  declined,  and  that  of  the  media  increased.  The 
story  of  Sartre's  encounter  with  numerous  press  publications 
...  is  in  effect  the  story  of  this  progressive  decline  in  the 
stature  and  influence  of  intellectuals  such  as  Sartre,  and  the 
growing  importance  of  the  media. 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 1 


With  few  exceptions  (the  Cuban  series  of  I960  for  example)  Sartre's 
journalism  always  was  at  its  most  engaged  and  passionate  (and  usually  at 
its  best  as  well)  when  he  wrote  in  France  about  French  issues.  Arguably, 
his  finest  journalistic  work  was  also  his  first,  seven  articles  in  Combat 
between  August  22  and  September  4,  1944,  Sartre's  witness  to  the 
liberation  of  Paris.  Here  was  straightforward  reporting  at  its  finest: 
detailed,  economical  in  its  use  of  language,  and  with  that  personalizing 
degree  of  comment  and  analysis  which  the  existentialist  frame  of  mind 
enables  so  well,  and  which  European  journalism  generally  permits  more 
readily  than  does  the  North  American  tradition. 

Here  is  journalism  that  is  fair,  accurate,  precise,  rich  in  balanced 
comment  and,  most  importantly,  not  chained  to  any  canon  of  mechanical 
objectivity.  Un  Promeneur  dans  Paris  Insurged was  the  series  title  which 
Sartre  gave  to  these  articles;  in  them  (strolling  through  Paris  in  revolt)  he 
stood  as  detached  witness  to  the  liberation,  writing  not  only  about  the 
German  retreat  and  the  last  violent  acts  of  that  enemy,  but  also  the  soul- 
destroying  fury  of  Parisians  released  from  five  years  of  captivity;  of  the 
entrapping  and  slaughter  of  occasional  pockets  of  remaining  Germans. 
Scriven  appropriately  quotes  Sartre's  finest  line  from  this  remarkable 
series,  written  on  a  September  Saturday  during  the  last  moments  of  the 
liberation: 

A  few  more  gunshots  and  its  finished  .  .  .  finished  the  week  of 
glory.  The  next  day  will  be  a  very  bleak  and  deserted  Sunday,  a 
real  day  after  the  festival.  And  on  Monday  the  shops  will 
reopen.  Paris  will  go  back  to  work. 

Here  is  the  existential  journalistic  stance,  the  sort  of  thing  John  C. 
Merrill  took  as  an  ideal  ethical  basis  for  the  craft.  Merrill  might  well  have 
had  Sartre's  articles  on  the  liberation  of  Paris  in  mind  when  he  wrote, 
moving  away  from  the  false  canon  of  mechanical  objectivity,  that  "the 
kind  of  existential  journalism  that  is  realistic  and  meaningful  is  a  modified 
subjective  journalism." 

Striven  does  not  make  much  of  any  of  this,  but  chooses  in  the  main 
to  present  Sartrean  journalism  as  a  chronology,  beginning  with  Combat 
and  the  liberation;  ending  (in  any  important  sense)  with  stillborn  plans 
for  a  radical  television  series  in  1975  by  which  time  Sartre  could  no  longer 
see  to  write. 

In  November  of  1944,  just  months  after  the  Combat  series,  the  US 
Office  of  War  Information,  brought  Sartre  to  the  United  States,  where  he 
generated  some  30  articles  in  two  months  for  both  Combat  and  Le  Figaro. 
He  wrote  unremarkably,  for  the  most  part.  Scriven  chronicles  it  all,  and  is 


1 1 2  Book  Reviews  •  Fall  1 999 


charitable.  There's  the  lament  for  Hollywood,  which  Sartre  seems  rather 
to  have  sentimentalized,  and  which  he  saw  about  to  lose  its  vigor  in  the 
postwar  world;  a  rote  set  of  labor  pieces  including  less  than  informed 
speculation  on  a  possible  post- War  return  to  depression-era  labor  condi- 
tions; bits  on  such  mundane  matters  as  summer  heat  in  the  urban  Ameri- 
can apartment.  Scriven  also  allows  the  record  to  make  it  entirely  clear  that 
Sartre's  journalistic  visit  to  the  Soviet  Union  in  1954  was  even  more 
lackluster.  In  fairness,  there  was  the  1939  agony  of  the  Soviet  accord  with 
the  Nazis  which  left  Sartre  with  something  less  than  unbridled  enthusiasm 
for  the  Soviet  experiment,  but  that  was  now  1 5  years  earlier,  and  the 
invasion  of  Hungary  in  1956  (when  Sartre  finally  broke  his  always 
tenuous  relationship  with  the  Partie  Communiste  Franqais)  was  still  two 
years  away.  At  home  in  France,  Sartre  was  actively  and  creatively,  in 
journalism  and  other  genres,  devoting  much  energy  to  social  causes,  yet 
Scriven  rightly  speaks  of  the  1954  journalistic  product  from  the  USSR 
(published  in  Libdration,  and  mostly  transcriptions  of  interviews)  as  a 
"rather  glib  eulogizing  of  the  Soviet  state"  and  without  "genuine  personal 
insight  into  Soviet  society." 

Scriven  may  have  had  little  choice  in  this  first  important  accounting 
of  Sartre's  journalism  but  to  offer  it  all  up  mainly  as  a  chronology.  The 
detail  with  which  he  does  this  is  invaluable,  and  he  is  a  fine  writer  who 
presents  with  clarity.  The  price  he  pays,  however,  is  to  leave  incomplete 
our  understanding  of  the  influence  of  Sartre's  remarkably  private  intellec- 
tual life  on  his  very  public  life  as  a  journalist.  Useful  though  Scriven's 
work  most  certainly  is,  there  is  more  to  be  done,  and  one  hopes  that 
Michael  Scriven  may  turn  his  hand  to  the  task.  We  need  to  explore  the 
links  between  Sartre's  philosophies  and  his  journalism. 

>Andrew  M.  Osier,  University  of  Western  Ontario 

The  Troubles  of  Journalism:  A  Critical  Look  at  What's 
Right  and  Wrong  With  the  Press. 

By  William  A.  Hachten,  Mahwah,  N.J.:  Lawrence  Erlbaum  Associates, 
1998,  188  pp. 

William  A.  Hachten's  professional  experience  with  journalism  and 
journalism  education  spans  50  years.  In  this  compact  book,  he  reflects  on 
the  many  changes  he  has  witnessed  in  the  profession.  His  view  is  that  of  a 
newspaperman  whose  career  almost  precisely  coincides  with  the  rise  of 
television.  Television  proves  to  be  the  major  culprit  in  his  critique  of  the 
press,  particularly  for  dismantling  the  traditional  "fire  wall"  between 
journalism  and  entertainment,  and  trivializing  the  news.  Scarcely  less 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  1 13 


culpable  is  corporate  journalism  with  its  bottom-line  mentality.  When 
news  media  are  swallowed  up  by  giant  entertainment  companies,  the  press 
not  only  loses  its  aggressiveness  in  reporting  hard  news,  but  also  its  nerve 
in  pursuing  the  often  costly  responsibility  of  defending  press  freedom. 
Hachten  laments  the  decline  of  public  affairs  journalism,  "the  lifeblood  of 
democracy." 

These  evaluations  of  journalism  are  hardly  original.  What  Hachten 
brings  to  the  analysis  is  context  and  perspective,  including  an  eye  for 
historical  continuity.  The  discussion  ranges  from  the  theory  and  values  of 
the  First  Amendment  to  the  potential  of  the  Internet  for  the  21st  century. 
Hachten  argues  that  the  traditional  skills  of  journalism  are  as  much  in 
demand  today  as  ever  to  manage  the  responsible  flow  of  information  in 
cyberspace.  Hachten  has  a  particular  interest  in  foreign  affairs  reporting 
and  devotes  two  of  14  chapters  to  the  topic.  One  chapter  treats  the 
coverage  of  Africa  as  a  special  case,  probing  patterns  of  news  neglect.  The 
overall  conclusion  of  his  examination  of  international  news  is  that  an 
illusion  of  expansive  coverage  exists. 

Global  electronic  communication  gives  the  impression  that  all 
corners  of  the  world  are  as  accessible  to  us  as  our  television  remote 
buttons.  But  Hachten  observes  that  American  journalism  remains  dog- 
gedly provincial.  News  from  abroad  is  actually  on  the  decline.  New 
technologies  have  led  to  fewer  foreign  correspondents.  The  ability  to  get 
reporters  in  and  out  of  locations  quickly  has  led  to  "parachute  journal- 
ism." Journalists  hop  around  vast  international  news  beats,  no  longer 
living  among  the  people  or  cultures  they  thrust  into  the  news  spotlight. 

How  useful  is  Hachten's  book  to  historians?  There  are  no  historical 
revelations  here  for  the  scholar.  Only  one  chapter  is  devoted  directly  to  a 
history  of  the  press.  However,  teachers  of  media  history  and  their  students 
can  expect  modest  rewards.  For  one  thing,  Hachten  speaks  across  two 
generations  of  time  from  his  own  personal  experiences  of  the  craft.  A 
sense  of  lived  history  permeates  his  slant  on  the  contemporary  problems 
of  the  media. 

In  addition,  the  author  has  a  natural  proclivity  for  narrative.  His 
account  of  each  topic  invariably  has  a  historical  dimension.  In  his  chapter 
on  the  press  and  the  military,  for  example,  the  reader  learns  that  while 
only  500  full-time  American  reporters  at  any  one  time  covered  World  War 
II,  1,600  journalists  and  their  technicians  crowded  into  Saudi  Arabia  to 
cover  the  Persian  Gulf  War.  More  is  not  necessarily  better  than  a  few  good 
journalists,  especially  if  they  are  free  to  join  military  units  and  report  from 
the  soldier's  point  of  view. 

Hachten  has  a  similar  lesson  for  journalism  education.  He  calls  for 
fewer  and  better  journalism  schools  that  stick  to  the  basics.  "By  objec- 


1 1 4  Book  Reviews  •  Fall  1 999 


tively  and  dispassionately  gathering  all  the  important  news  of  the  day  and 
making  it  available  to  the  public,  journalism  performs  an  essential  public 
service  for  our  democracy,"  he  writes.  Advertising  and  public  relations,  he 
advises,  do  not  meet  the  professional  test  and  should  be  taught  in  the 
business  school.  Readers  will  have  to  decide  for  themselves  when  he  is 
drawing  insight  from  the  past,  and  when  he  is  merely  looking  back  with 
nostalgia. 

>Douglas  Birkhead,  University  of  Utah 

US  News  Coverage  of  Racial  Minorities:  A  Sourcebook, 
1934-1996. 

By  Beverly  Ann  Deepe  Keever,  Carolyn  Martindale,  and  Mary  Ann 
Weston,  (eds.)  Westport,  Conn.:  Greenwood,  1998,  408  pp. 

It  comes  as  no  surprise  to  the  reader  of  this  collection  that  main- 
stream news  in  the  United  States  has  typically  ignored,  stereotyped,  and 
distorted  racial  minorities.  From  coverage  of  European  -  Americans' 
earliest  encounters  with  Native  Americans  to  the  most  recent  reports  of 
Hispanic  or  African  American  life  in  urban  ghettos,  the  mainstream  press 
has  reflected  the  contemporary  ideology  of  white  dominance  as  well  as 
amplified  public  prejudices  about  racial  minorities. 

What  this  collection  does,  however,  is  provide  a  comprehensive  and 
compelling  picture  of  the  mainstream  media's  consistently  negative  and 
damaging  treatment  of  these  groups  over  time.  With  more  racial  minori- 
ties in  the  newsroom  today  and  conscious  but  sporadic  attempts  being 
made  to  present  minorities  in  a  positive  fashion,  one  would  expect  to  see  a 
substantive  change  in  coverage.  But  though  affirmative  action  has  come 
and,  alas,  gone,  and  the  words  "multicultural"  and  "diversity"  have 
become  a  regular  part  of  the  vocabulary,  it  is  clear  from  this  work  that 
racial  minorities  are  still  considered  outsiders  by  mainstream  media. 

As  the  editors  point  out,  American  journalists  are  influenced  not 
only  by  the  dominant  ideology  of  the  American  culture,  but  also  are 
bound  by  time-honored  journalistic  work  codes  such  as  "objectivity," 
timeliness,  and  crisis-  and  conflict-oriented  reporting.  "Old  news  habits 
die  hard"  and  the  onus  is  on  news  practitioners  as  well  as  journalism 
educators  to  consciously,  conscientiously,  and  consistently  promote 
coverage  that  reflects  accurately  the  multicultural  world  in  which  we  live. 

US  New  Coverage  of  Racial  Minorities  serves  as  a  valuable  resource  to 
scholars.  It  provides  a  clear,  concise  history  of  the  various  racial  minorities 
in  the  United  States  as  they  have  interacted  with  the  dominant  power 
structure  and  an  exhaustive  review  of  the  literature  on  how  the  news 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  1 1 5 


media  treated  those  groups.  It  also  identifies  areas  where  scholarship  is 
lacking  and  indicates  fertile  ground  for  further  research.  The  collection 
presents  individual  chapters  on  five  racial  groups:  Native  Americans, 
African  Americans,  Hispanic  Americans,  Pacific  Islanders,  and  Asian 
Americans.  Finally,  two  chapters  are  devoted  specifically  to  investigative 
reporting  and  the  FCC's  public  interest  mandate. 

Although  the  collection's  editors  chose  to  focus  on  the  years  1934- 
1996,  the  authors  of  several  individual  chapters  (notably  those  on  Native 
Americans,  Asian  Americans,  and  Pacific  Islanders)  fortunately  do  not 
always  follow  this  mandate  and  devote  considerable  discussion  to  earlier 
periods  of  importance  to  the  group  they  are  discussing.  In  their  chapter 
on  Native  Americans,  for  example,  Mary  Ann  Weston  and  John  M. 
Coward  discuss  early  press  coverage  of  Native  Americans  from  the 
colonial  period  to  the  Indian  Wars  in  the  19th  century.  Through  this 
discussion  they  identify  the  emergence  of  the  enduring  twin  stereotypes  of 
the  Indian  as  either  the  noble  savage  or  the  savage  brute.  News  about 
Indians  has  "too  often  been  forced  into  a  mold  that  does  not  fit  the 
people  or  the  event,"  Weston  and  Coward  conclude,  and  the  stereotypes  it 
perpetuates  have  driven  popular  perceptions  as  well  as  governmental 
action  with  devastating  results.  Today,  the  authors  point  out,  Native 
Americans  remain  near  the  bottom  of  indices  of  income,  employment, 
education,  and  health  and  suffer  from  chronic  institutional  neglect. 

News  coverage  of  African  Americans  also  is  dominated  by  two 
stereotypes — the  savage  who  is  a  threat  to  society,  or  the  happy-go-lucky 
irresponsible  Sambo  who  is  a  drain  on  society's  resources.  Authors 
Carolyn  Martindale  and  Lillian  Rae  Dunlap  find  that  both  stereotypes 
have  provided  a  convenient  rationale  for  the  denial  of  equal  rights  to 
African  Americans  from  the  days  of  slavery  to  the  present.  According  to 
the  authors,  newspaper  coverage  of  African  Americans  has  improved  since 
the  1920s  when  they  were  largely  ignored  and  the  1940s  when  only 
negative  news  was  printed  about  them.  Not  only  is  there  more  coverage  of 
African  Americans  today,  but  it  is  more  complete  and  representative,  due 
partly,  perhaps,  to  the  fact  that  more  African  Americans  are  working  in 
newsrooms  than  in  the  past.  But,  they  caution,  news  coverage  continues 
to  focus  on  black  pathology  and  to  ignore  serious  problems  facing  African 
Americans. 

Michael  B.  Salwen  and  Gonzalo  R.  Soruco  provide  a  comprehensive 
discussion  of  the  various  ethnic  and  national  groups  that  fall  under  the 
definition  of  Hispanic.  Despite  the  individual  roots  of  these  groups, 
however,  both  the  Anglo  public  and  the  mainstream  media  have  histori- 
cally failed  to  differentiate  among  them.  The  authors  find  that,  except  for 
periods  during  which  Hispanics  such  as  the  Mexicans  and  the  Cubans 


1 1 6  Book  Reviews  •  Fall  1 999 


were  in  conflict  with  the  United  States  (during  which  they  were  depicted 
as  cruel  and  bloodthirsty),  Hispanics  largely  were  ignored  by  the  media. 
Exploited  as  cheap  labor,  they  only  became  newsworthy  when  they 
challenged  the  system  or  became  a  threat  to  white  labor  or  the  status  quo. 
Then  the  media  once  again  typically  portrayed  them  in  negative  and 
disparaging  terms  with  often  devastating  results.  The  authors  find  that  far 
from  improving,  media  coverage  of  Hispanics  is  regressing.  Hispanics  are 
increasing  portrayed  as  foreigners  and  a  threat,  a  trend  that  seems  to  go 
hand-in-hand  with  the  "English  First"  movement  of  the  1990s  and 
persistent  efforts  to  restrict  immigration. 

The  same  types  of  patterns  can  be  found  in  news  coverage  of  Asian 
Americans  and  Pacific  Islanders.  When  Asian  Americans  are  not  portrayed 
as  traitorous  and  untrustworthy  (the  Japanese  in  World  War  II  and  in 
1990s  business  takeovers;  the  Vietnamese  during  the  Vietnam  War),  they 
are  depicted  as  "model  citizens"  who  work  hard  and  do  well  in  school. 
Pacific  Islanders,  instead,  are  innocent  primitives  who  have  conveniently 
faded  into  the  tropical  sunset  as  mainland  colonizers  confiscate  their  land 
to  build  their  towns,  farms,  and  resorts  for  mainland  settlers  and  tourists. 
Coverage  of  these  people  is  typically  weak,  misleading  and  insulting. 

In  his  discussion  of  news  coverage  of  Japanese  Americans,  Thomas 
H.  Heuterman  makes  an  observation  that  could  well  apply  to  all  the  racial 
minorities  discussed  in  this  book — that  such  coverage  too  often  serves  as 
an  unofficial  conduit  of  hostile  government  or  public  opinion.  "[The 
press']  failure  of  social  responsibility  and  its  silence  on  Constitutional 
issues  demonstrate  a  continuing  crisis  for  all  of  us." 

> Elizabeth  V.  Burt,  University  of  Hartford 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  1 17 


Fall  1999 


118 


American  Journalism 
Volume  16  Index 

Winter  (1),  Spring  (2),  Summer  (3),  and  Fall  (4),  1999 
Compiled  by  Timi  Ross  Poeppelman,  Assistant  Editor 

Author  Index 


Abrahamson,  David. 

Reviewed:  The  Electronic  Grapevine:  Rumor,  Reputation  and 
Reporting  in  the  New  On-line  Environment  by  Diane  L.  Borden  and 
Kerric  Harvey  (eds.),  16:3,  115-117. 

Allen,  Craig. 

Reviewed:  Masterpieces  of  Reporting:  Volume  1  by  Wm.  David  Sloan 
and  Cheryl  S.  Wray  (eds.),  16:3,  1 17-119. 

Antecol,  Michael. 

Reviewed:  Media  and  Public  Life  by  Everette  E.  Dennis  &  Robert  W. 
Synder  (eds.),  16:1,  147-149. 

Baldasty,  Gerald  J. 

E.W.  Scripps  Papers  Provide  An  Important  Journalistic  Window  for 
Scholars  (a  Great  Ideas  submission),  16:1,  133-141. 

Baldwin,  Tamara. 

Reviewed:  Rampant  Women  Suffragists  and  the  Right  of  Assembly  by 
Linda  Lumsden,  16:2,  130-132. 

Banning,  Stephen  A. 

"Truth  Is  Our  Ultimate  Goal"  :  A  Mid- 19th  Century  Concern  for 
Journalism  Ethics,  16:1,  17-39. 

Baylan,  J.  O. 

Reviewed:  Fleet  Street  Around  the  Clock  by  Gordon  Allan  London, 
16:2,  126-128. 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  119 


Bekken,  Jon. 

Reviewed:  Public  Journalism  and  Public  Life:  Why  Telling  the  News  is 
Not  Enough  by  Davis  "Buzz"  Merritt,  16:4,  107-109. 

Benjamin,  Louise. 

Reviewed:  Live,  Direct,  and  Biased?  Making  Television  News  in  the 
Satellite  Age  by  Brent  MacGregor,  16:4,  104-105. 

Birkhead,  David. 

Reviewed:  The  Troubles  of  Journalism:  A  Critical  Look  at  What's 
Right  and  Wrong  with  the  Press  by  William  A.  Hachten,  16:4,  113-115. 

Blackwood,  Roy  E. 

Reviewed:  Dispatches  from  the  Revolution:  Russia  1916-1918  by 
Morgan  Phillips,  16:2,  124-126. 

Burrowes,  Carl  Patrick. 

"In  Common  with  Colored  Men,  I  Have  Certain  Sentiments"  :  Black 
Nationalism  and  Hilary  Teage  of  the  Liberia  Herald,  16:3,  17-35. 

Burt,  Elizabeth  V. 

Dissent  and  Control  in  a  Woman  Suffrage  Periodical:  30  Years  of  the 
Wisconsin  Citizen,  16:2,  39-61. 


Reviewed:  US  News  Coverage  of  Racial  Minorities:  A  Sourcebook, 
1934-1996  by  Beverly  Ann  Deepe  Keever,  Carolyn  Martindale,  and 
Mary  Ann  Weston  (eds.),  16:4,  115-117. 

Campbell,  W.  Joseph. 

"One  of  the  fine  figures  of  American  journalism"  :  A  Closer  Look  at 
Josephus  Daniels  of  the  Raleigh  News  and  Observer,  16:4,  37-55. 

Chiu,  Herman  B. 

Power  of  the  Press:  How  Newspapers  in  Four  Communities  Erased 
Thousands  of  Chinese  from  Oregon  History,  16:1,  59-77. 

Cronin,  Mary  M. 

"Those  Who  Toil  and  Spin":  Female  Textile  Operatives'  Publications 
in  New  England  and  the  Response  to  Working  Conditions,  1840- 
1850,  16:2,  17-37. 


120  Index  •Fall  1999 


Davies,  David  R. 

Reviewed:  Darwinian  Myths:  The  Legends  and  Misuses  of  a  Theory 
by  Edward  Caudill,  16:3,  114-115. 

Dillon,  Michael  J. 

From  Populist  to  Patrician:  Edward  H.  Butler's  Buffalo  News  and  the 
Crisis  of  Labor,  1877-1892,  16:1,41-58. 

English,  Kathy. 

Reviewed:  Studies  in  Newspaper  and  Periodical  History:  1995  Annual 
by  Michael  Harris  and  Tom  O'Malley  (eds.),  16:1,  154-155. 

Ferre,  John  P. 

Reviewed:  PR!  A  Social  History  of  Spin  by  Stuart  Ewen,  16:1,  151- 
153. 


Reviewed:  Robert  Worth  Bingham  and  the  Southern  Mystique:  From 
the  Old  South  to  the  New  South  and  Beyond  by  William  E.  Ellis, 
16:2,  132-134. 

Garrard,  Ted. 

Reviewed:  Pragmatic  Fundraising  for  College  Administrators  and 
Development  Officers  by  Ralph  Lowenstein,  16:1,  153-154. 

Hamilton,  James. 

Common  Forms  for  Uncommon  Actions:  The  Search  for  Political 
Organizations  in  California's  Dust  Bowl,  16:1,  79-103. 


Reviewed:  Wireless:  Strategically  Liberalizing  the  Telecommunications 
Market  by  Brian  J.  W  Regli,  16:1,  156-157. 

Hamm,  Bradley  J. 

Redefining  Racism:  Newspaper  Justification  for  the  1924  Exclusion 
of  Japanese  Immigrants,  16:3,  53-69. 

Henry,  Susan. 

"There  is  nothing  in  this  profession  .  .  .  that  a  woman  cannot 
do":  Doris  E.  Fleischman  and  the  Beginnings  of  Public  Relations, 
16:2,85-111. 


Fall  1 999  •  American  Journalism  121 


Holman,  Andrew  C. 

Reviewed:  French  Newspapers'  Opinion  on  the  American  Civil  War 
by  George  M.  Blackburn,  16:  2,  129-130. 

Johnson,  Owen  V. 

Reviewed:  As  Long  as  Sarajevo  Exists  by  Kemal  Kurspahic,  16:3,  109- 
111. 

Kilmer,  Paulette  d. 

Flying  Around  the  World  in  1889 — In  Search  of  the  Archetypal 
Wanderer,  16:2,  63-84. 

Kitch,  Carolyn. 

Rethinking  Objectivity  in  Journalism  and  History:  What  Can  We 
Learn  from  Feminist  Theory  and  Practice?  (a  Great  Ideas  submis- 
sion), 16:2,  113-120. 


Family  Pictures:  Constructing  the  "Typical"  American  in  1920s 
Magazines,  16:4,  57-75. 


Reviewed:  Press  Freedom  and  Development,  Bibliography  by  Clement 
E.Asante,  16:4,  105-106. 

Lueck,  Therese. 

Women's  Moral  Reform  Periodicals  of  the  19th  Century:  A  Cultural 
Feminist  Analysis,  16:3,  37-52. 

Marrs,  John  Merton. 

Project  Chariot,  Nuclear  Zeal,  Easy  Journalism  and  the  Fate  of 
Eskimos,  16:3,71-98. 

Mueller,  Jim. 

Reviewed:  Joint  Operating  Agreements:  The  Newspaper  Preservation 
Act  and  Its  Applications  by  John  C.  Busterna  and  Robert  G.  Picard, 
16:1,  145-147. 

Osler,  Andrew  M. 

Reviewed:  Sartre  and  the  Media  by  Michael  Scriven,  16:4,  110-113. 


122  Index -Fall  1999 


Ostman,  Ronald  E. 

Reviewed:  American  Photojournalism  Comes  of  Age  by  Michael  L. 
Carlebach,  16:3,  106-109. 

Phipps,  Steven. 

Reviewed:  Salant,  CBS,  and  the  Battle  for  the  Soul  of  Broadcast 
Journalism:  The  Memoirs  of  Richard  S.  Salant  by  Susan  and  Bill 
Buzenberg,  16:4,  109-110. 

Poe,  G.  Tom. 

Reviewed:  The  World  According  to  Hollywood:  1918  to  1939  by 
RuthVasey,  16:2,  134-136. 

Rjsley,  Ford. 

The  Savannah  Morning  News  As,  a  Penny  Paper:  Independent,  But 
Hardly  Neutral,  16:4,  19-36. 

Russomanno,  Joseph  A. 

Reviewed:  Tombstone's  Epitaph  by  Douglas  D.  Martin,  16:2,  136- 
139. 

Smith,  Michael  R. 

My  Newspaper  is  Older  Than  Your  Newspaper!  (a  Great  Ideas 
submission),  16:3,99-101. 

Spencer,  David  R. 

Reviewed:  The  Black  Press:  Soldiers  Without  Swords  (Video)  by 
California  Newsreel,  16:1,  143-145. 


Reviewed:  BigTrouble  by  J.  Anthony  R.  Lukas,  16:2,  121-123. 


Reviewed:  Comic  Strips  and  the  Consumer  Culture:  1890-1945  by 
Ian  Gordon,  16:3,  103-106. 


Reviewed:  The  Collected  Writings  of  Walt  Whitman:  The  Journalism, 
Volume  1:  1834-1846  by  Herbert  Bergman,  16:4,  101-103. 


Fall  1999  •  American  Journalism  123 


Startt,  James  D. 

1998  Presidential  Address:  The  Historiographical  Tradition  in  20th 
Century  America,  16:1,  105-131. 

Streitmatter,  Rodger,  Guest  Editor. 

Conservative  Media:  A  Different  Kind  of  Diversity,  16:4,  9-11. 

Vipond,  Mary. 

Reviewed:  The  Carnivalization  of  Politics:  Quebec  Cartoons  on 
Relations  with  Canada,  England,  and  France,  1960-1979  by 
Raymond  N.  Morris,  16:3,  112-113. 

Weill,  Susan. 

Conserving  Racial  Segregation  in  1954:  Brown  v.  Board  of  Education 
and  the  Mississippi  Daily  Press,  16:4,  77-99. 

Wilhoit,  Frances. 

Reviewed:  Museum  of  Broadcast  Communications  Encyclopedia  of 
Television,  3  vols.  By  Horace  Newcomb  (ed.),  Cary  O'Dell  (Photo 
Editor),  and  Noelle  Watson  (Commissioning  Editor),  16:1,  149-151. 


124  Index -Fall  1999 


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