he
limelight; dispose of Cabinets; nominate absurd Ministers.

But the particular, vivid, concrete instances that specially move men
to action were hidden from them. Only a small number of people were
acquainted with such particular truths. But that small number knew
very well that we were thus in reality governed by men responsible to
no one, and hidden from public blame. The determination to be rid of
such a secret monopoly of power compelled a reaction: and that
reaction was the Free Press.

XII

Such being the motive powers of the Free Press in all countries, but
particularly in France and England, where the evils of the Capitalist
(or Official) Press were at their worst, let us next consider the
disabilities under which this reaction--the Free Press--suffered.

I think these disabilities lie under four groups.

(1) In the first place, the free journals suffered from the difficulty
which all true reformers have, that they have to begin by going
against the stream.

(2) In the second place they suffered from that character of
particularism or "crankiness," which was a necessary result of their
Propagandist character.

(3) In the third place--and this is most important--they suffered
economically. They were unable to present to their readers all that
their readers expected at the price. This was because they were
refused advertisement subsidy and were boycotted.

(4) In the fourth place, for reasons that will be apparent in a
moment, they suffered from lack of information.

To these four main disabilities the Free Papers in _this_ country
added a fifth peculiarly our own; they stood in peril from the
arbitrary power of the Political Lawyers.

Let us consider first the main four points. When we have examined them
all we shall see against what forces, and in spite of what negative
factors, the Free Press has established itself to-day.

1

I say that in the first place the Free Press, being a reformer,
suffered from what all reformers suffer from, to wit, that in their
origins they must, by definition, go against the stream.

The official Capitalist Press round about them had already become a
habit when the Free Papers appeared. Men had for some time made it a
normal thing to read their daily paper; to believe what it told them
to be facts, and even in a great measure to accept its opinion. A new
voice criticizing by implication, or directly blaming or ridiculing a
habit so formed, was necessa