ous
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 discharged from other service
during his incumbency. Instead of paying a salary to him, as in your
day, the subscribers pay the nation an ind