newspapers of to-day is, or professes to be, the work of specialists.
Many of the larger newspapers, indeed, pay retaining fees or salaries
and give staff appointments to such specialists. Thus, the _Daily
Telegraph_ has as its literary specialist Mr. W. L. Courtney, its
musical specialist Mr. Robin H. Legge, its business specialist Mr. H. E.
Morgan.

It is the practice, then, of newspapers at the present time to make
personally responsible for the opinions they express those who write in
their columns on subjects which, though of great interest and
importance, can of their nature only concern certain classes of the
community. It should be noted, however, as perhaps the most curious
anomaly among the mass of anomalies which constitute modern journalism,
that the newspapers do not insist upon this personal responsibility of
the writer in their treatment of those matters which concern not one
class but every class of the community. What the newspaper insists upon,
on the ground, presumably, that it is right and natural, in the minor
affairs of life, it entirely ignores in the major matters of life. While
it insists, for example, that the writer who expresses an opinion in its
columns on the ludicrous inadequacy of the Promenade Concerts shall
accept personal responsibility for that opinion, it allows views and
opinions on such vital matters as the sovereignty of Parliament, the
invincibility of Capitalism and the immorality of Trades Unionism to be
expressed anonymously.

This practice is now firmly established. These anonymous opinions are
the "opinions of the paper." But what does that phrase mean? A newspaper
itself, as a mere material object, is incapable of forming or holding an
opinion. Some person, or group of persons, must form and hold and be
ready to accept the responsibility for the expression of these "opinions
of the paper." And since the ultimate responsibility can fall on nobody
but the proprietor or proprietors of the papers, these anonymous
opinions must properly be regarded as the opinions of the capitalist or
syndicate owning the paper in which they appear. In other words, the
opinions anonymously expressed in the leading articles of the _Daily
News_ can only be the opinions of Messrs. Cadbury: of the _Daily
Telegraph_ of Lord Burnham or the Lawson family: in the _Manchester
Guardian_ of Mr. C. P. Scott and his fellow-proprietors: in the _Morning
Post_ of Lady Bathurst: in the _Daily Mail_ of Lord No