raze and the Japan war cry can
hardly be accounted for except on the theory that it has been for
somebody's interest to agitate them through the press. Whenever the
Naval appropriation bill comes before Congress, the Far-Eastern
war-clouds threaten in thousands of newspaper sanctums, while all of us
shudder at the danger of war, for the benefit of ordnance
manufacturers, battleship builders, and every incipient "Fighting Bob"
who hopes some day to command another American Armada on its
gastronomic voyage around the world.

Fortunately none of our papers are subsidized by the government itself,
as is so often the case with the semi-official organs of Europe. Nor
are any of our papers directly in the pay of foreign governments,
though the espousal of the infamous reactionary regime in Russia by
some of them is at least open to suspicion. The danger of manufactured
public opinion in this country comes not from governments. Even the
political parties are losing the allegiance of the press. The days when
the Republican organs told the people the worst Republican was better
than the best Democrat, and the Democratic papers said the same about
the Republicans, have happily passed, never to return again, though the
spirit still lingers in the organs of the Socialist, Populist, and
Prohibition parties. The growth of the great politically-independent
press is one of the most hopeful signs of the times.

But we have only jumped out of the frying-pan of politics into the fire
of commercialism, and the fight of the future will therefore be to
extricate ourselves from the fetters of commercialism, just as we have
already broken away from the bonds of party politics.

But the press agent has come to stay. Indeed, his business has now
assumed such proportions that the profession of anti-press agent will
doubtless soon come into existence. I know already of one gentleman in
New York whose aid has been invoked when people want things kept out of
the papers. On more than one occasion he has prevented good spicy bits
of scandal from seeing the light; though in his case I can aver that it
was his personal influence with the editors, rather than any improper
lubricant, that kept the papers silent.

Now let me turn from the press agent to the advertiser as a twister of
editorial opinion. Here let me say at once, and with all emphasis, that
the vast majority of advertisements are not only honest but dependable.
Leaving out of account a few