. Andrew Carnegie can doubtless testify. There would be many
advantages, however, of having several great endowed papers in the
country. The same arguments that favor endowed theatres or universities
apply equally to papers. We need some papers that can say what ought to
be said irrespective of anybody and everybody, and which can serve as
examples to other papers not so fortunately circumstanced. But
manifestly the periodical industry as a whole is much too large to be
endowed, and the few papers that may be endowed by private capital, or
by the Government, would have only a limited influence on the industry
as a whole. Our government now publishes a weekly paper in Panama,
which takes no advertisements, and is furnished free to every
government employee on the Isthmus. It is a model paper in many
respects, but manifestly its example is not apt to be followed
extensively before the dawn of the Cooeperative Commonwealth. It may be
that the practice newspapers conducted by the schools of journalism
connected with our great universities will raise the standard by making
their chief object the publication of accurate and reliable news.

Third. The papers can combine in a sort of trust. Take the Theatrical
Syndicate, for instance, whose theatres could not be kept open a week
without newspaper publicity. The Theatrical Syndicate's policy seems to
be to single out any paper that becomes too critical and give it an
absent-advertisement treatment. At the present moment this medicine is
being prescribed in several of our large cities. But let all the
publishers form a publishers' trade union as it were, and whenever an
advertisement is withdrawn, appoint a committee of investigation, and
if the committee reports that the withdrawal of the advertisement was
done for any improper reason, then let all the papers refuse to print
an advertisement of the play, or allow their critics to mention it
until the matter is satisfactorily adjusted. This would bring the
advertisers to their knees in a moment.

The papers have the whip hand if they will only combine, but they are
all so jealous of one another that probably any real combination is a
long way off. Still there are indications of a gentleman's agreement in
the air, for all other interests are combining and they will be forced
to follow suit.

And what will the public do then, poor thing? A newspaper trust will
certainly be as inimical to the public welfare as any other combinatio