The Project Gutenberg EBook of Commercialism and Journalism, by Hamilton Holt

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Title: Commercialism and Journalism

Author: Hamilton Holt

Release Date: September 10, 2009 [EBook #29953]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_The Weinstock Lectures on The Morals of Trade_

THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PRIVATE MONOPOLY AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP.
By JOHN GRAHAM BROOKS.

COMMERCIALISM AND JOURNALISM.
By HAMILTON HOLT.

THE BUSINESS CAREER IN ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS.
By ALBERT SHAW.

COMMERCIALISM AND JOURNALISM

By

HAMILTON HOLT

MANAGING EDITOR OF THE INDEPENDENT

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
_The Riverside Press Cambridge_
1909

COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

_Published December 1909_

BARBARA WEINSTOCK
LECTURES ON THE MORALS OF TRADE

This series will contain essays by representative scholars and men of
affairs dealing with the various phases of the moral law in its bearing
on business life under the new economic order, first delivered at the
University of California on the Weinstock foundation.

COMMERCIALISM AND JOURNALISM

In the United States of America, public opinion prevails. It is an
axiom of the old political economy, as well as of the new sociology,
that no man, or set of men, may with impunity defy public opinion; no
law can be enforced contrary to its behests; and even life itself is
scarcely worth living without its approbation. Public opinion is the
ultimate force that controls the destiny of our democracy.

By common consent we editors are called the "moulders of public
opinion." Writing in our easy chairs or making suave speeches over the
walnuts and wine, we take scrupulous care to expatiate on this phase of
our function. But the real question is: who "moulds" us? for assuredly
the hand that moulds the editor moulds the world.

I propose to discuss thi