DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER. 197 



the liigliest otticci-s of the Government; but tlie time had come 

 when the people wanted the news, rather than individual opinions. 

 American genius and ingenuity responded promptly and adequate- 

 ly to the demand, and from the time of the civil war the develop- 

 ment of the newspaper has been a marvel of science and art. The 

 telegraph came into general use for the transmission of news, 

 correspondents and artists were sent to the front with all the 

 armies, the men employed in Washington to write their own views 

 of public questions were instructed to send to their pajDers only 

 a record of the great events then transpiring around them, and in 

 a month, or at most a year, American journalism was well ad- 

 vanced upon a new era of marvelous development. The time 

 when the opinions, the power in phraseology, or the individuality 

 of one man could alone make a daily newspaper a financial, liter- 

 ary, or political success had passed. The press had become an 

 institution, journalism a profession, and the publication of news- 

 papers a practical business requiring and rewarding enterprise and 

 sagacity. 



AVith the sudden demand for more papers came rapid progress 

 in the mechanical department of the business. Double cylinder 

 presses capable of printing twenty thousand papers an hour were 

 soon perfected, folding machines came into general use, stereo- 

 typing was employed to save time, labor, and wear of type, white 

 paper was made from wood pulp at greatly reduced cost, and the 

 progress in all departments of the business was by leaps and bounds 

 until every demand was more than supplied and new expectations 

 created. From that time forward invention kept pace with every 

 increase of circulation. As soon as one press was found inade- 

 quate or imperfect, the manufacturers were ready to set up a 

 faster and better one. As competition reduced the selling price 

 of the newspaper, invention supplied every demand for the mate- 

 rial of i^roduction at a reduced rate. The impetus to circulation 

 imparted by the civil war created a new reading public, which rap- 

 idly grew to include every person who could read and a demand 

 for all the news' of the world once created would not be denied. 

 The collection of news was quickly reduced to a system and per- 

 fected, until to-day no event of importance occurring in any part 

 of the world is omitted from the daily record of current history. 



The great cost of collecting news at the front and transmitting 

 by telegraph full reports of battles during the civil war caused 

 certain newspapers in New York city to enter into an arrange- 

 ment to receive reports in duplicate and share expenses. Then 

 the cost was further reduced by selling the news to i:)apers in other 

 cities. That was the beginning of the Associated Press, a plan 



