Leete, laughing. "In the first place, Mr. West, the newspaper press is
by no means the only or, as we look at it, the best vehicle for
serious criticism of public affairs. To us, the judgments of your
newspapers on such themes seem generally to have been crude and
flippant, as well as deeply tinctured with prejudice and bitterness.
In so far as they may be taken as expressing public opinion, they give
an unfavorable impression of the popular intelligence, while so far as
they may have formed public opinion, the nation was not to be
felicitated. Nowadays, when a citizen desires to make a serious
impression upon the public mind as to any aspect of public affairs, he
comes out with a book or pamphlet, published as other books are. But
this is not because we lack newspapers and magazines, or that they
lack the most absolute freedom. The newspaper press is organized so as
to be a more perfect expression of public opinion than it possibly
could be in your day, when private capital controlled and managed it
primarily as a money-making business, and secondarily only as a
mouthpiece for the people."

"But," said I, "if the government prints the papers at the public
expense, how can it fail to control their policy? Who appoints the
editors, if not the government?"

"The government does not pay the expense of the papers, nor appoint
their editors, nor in any way exert the slightest influence on their
policy," replied Dr. Leete. "The people who take the paper pay the
expense of its publication, choose its editor, and remove him when
unsatisfactory. You will scarcely say, I think, that such a newspaper
press is not a free organ of popular opinion."

"Decidedly I shall not," I replied, "but how is it practicable?"

"Nothing could be simpler. Supposing some of my neighbors or myself
think we ought to have a newspaper reflecting our opinions, and
devoted especially to our locality, trade, or profession. We go about
among the people till we get the names of such a number that their
annual subscriptions will meet the cost of the paper, which is little
or big according to the largeness of its constituency. The amount of
the subscriptions marked off the credits of the citizens guarantees
the nation against loss in publishing the paper, its business, you
understand, being that of a publisher purely, with no option to refuse
the duty required. The subscribers to the paper now elect somebody as
editor, who, if he accepts the office, is d