When the cub reporter rushed in to his city editor with eyes sparkling he cried out enthusiastically:
"Gee, I've got a peach of a story! Old John Smith's daughter's eloped with the chauffeur. She's a movie fan and----"
But it did not get into the paper for the very good reason that "Old John" was the proprietor of the big departmental store which took a full-page advertisement in every issue the year around. The editor would have used it soon enough, but--the business office--!
Then there was the theatrical press-agent, a regular caller with his advance notices and free electros of coming attractions, his press passes.
"Give us a chance, old man," he pleaded, perhaps laying down a good cigar. "Say, that was a rotten roast you handed us last week."
"Yes, and it was a rotten show!" the editor would retort. "I saw it myself."
The telephone rings, maybe--the business office again.
"The Blank Theatre have doubled their space with us, Charlie. Go easy on 'em for awhile, will you?"
The floor around the editor's desk was scuffed by the timid boots of the man who wanted his name kept out of the paper and the sure tread of the corporation representative who wanted his company's name mentioned on every possible occasion. Business interests, railway corporations, financial institutions--many of these had a regular department for the purpose of supplying "news" to the press. Some American railroads finally took to owning a string of papers outright, directly or indirectly, and one big Trust went so far as to control a telegraphic news service.
In fact, to such a pass did things come in the United States that the exploitation of the press became a menace to public interest and a law was passed, requiring every publication to register the name of its proprietor; in the case of corporate ownerships the names of the shareholders had to be filed and the actual owners of stock held in trust had to be named also. This information had to be printed in every issue and the penalties for suppression or falsification were drastic.
No such law was passed in Canada, although the reflection of the situation in the United States cast high lights and shadows across the northern boundary. Partizan politics were rife in Canada and too often have party "organs" and "subsidies" dampered down the fires of independence in the past. A few journals, however, even in the days before the great changes of the War, placed a jealous guard upon their absolute freedom from trammelling influences and to-day they reap the reward of public confidence.