 The National Broadcasting Company in conjunction with the Fund for Adult Education presents Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. In America, the press constitutes a single power so strangely composed of mingled good and evil that liberty could not live without it, and public order can hardly be maintained against it. It causes political life to circulate through all parts of the vast territory. Its eye is constantly open to detect the secret springs of political designs and to summon the leaders of all parties in turn to the bar of public opinion. It rallies the interests of the community around certain principles and draws up the creed of every party. In the United States, each separate newspaper exercises but little authority, but the power of the press is second only to that of the people. The Chief Instrument of Freedom, a study in the American Press. Item 11 in the series Democracy in America, prepared by the Division of General Education of New York University under the direction of George Probst, American historian. A series designed to bring to life the America of the 1830s, as recorded by Alexis de Tocqueville, and so to illuminate the image of democracy itself. A study in the American Press, the Chief Instrument of Freedom. When Beaumont and I left America in 1832, the American Press was on the verge of a great transition. While we were in America, daily newspapers cost six cents as a rule. This was too much for the working man. This six-panet press, as it was called, was edited in the main by and for business institutions and politicians. No one of the 55 newspapers in New York had more than a circulation of 2,000 copies. Then, suddenly, a year after we left, the great change took place. The penny press was started by the New York Sun in 1833, and what interested the sixth-cent public did not interest the penny public. Soon there was a newspaper in the hands of every man in the city and even of every boy old enough to read. These papers are to be found in every hotel, tavern, counting house, shop, etc. Almost every porter and grey man, while not engaged in his occupation, may be seen with a paper in his hands. Even after we left America, we were able to follow the American Press and to discover the inflated and bombastic claims of the self-confident editors of the penny press. Editors who collected all their own news and wrote the entire paper themselves, such as the celebrated Scottish born James Gordon Bennett. May 6, 1835. My first declaration of policy for the New York Herald, price one penny. In the views of this kind, many talk of principle, political principle, party principle, as a sort of steel trap to catch the public. We openly disdain all steel traps, all principle as it is called, all party, all politics. Our only guide shall be good sound practical common sense, applicable to the business and bosoms of men engaged in everyday life. We shall endeavour to record facts on every public and proper subject, stripped of verbiage and colouring, with comments when suitable, just, independent, fearless and good tempered. The editors of many of the other daily newspapers are heavy speculators in Wall Street and are truly unfit by nature to come to a right conclusion upon any subject. They pervert every public event from its proper hue and colouring to raise one stock and depress another. There is no truth in them. Every profession, of course, has its class spirit. The characteristics of the American journalist often consist in an open and coarse appeal to the passions of his readers. He abandons principles to assail the characters of individuals, to track them into private life and disclose all their weaknesses and vices. The first American newspaper over which we cast our eyes contained the following article on the President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. In all this affair, the language of Jackson the President has been that of a heartless despot, solely occupied with the preservation of his own authority. Intrigue is his native element. He governs by means of corruption and his immoral practices will read down to his shame and confusion. His conduct in the political arena has been that of a shameless and lawless game-star. And this sort of attack is perfectly usual. Any American journalist will tell you the same. We'll indeed boast of it. Why shouldn't I boast of it? In America, the press is a mighty power, and I share a little of that power. What, sir? Do you do exactly? I'm a correspondent of one of the New York papers. Oh, you write the letters from Washington for that paper. Precisely so. And it's a more difficult task to write a good letter than to make a bad speech. No doubt of that, sir. You may often be employed in making the best of a bad argument. What do you mean, sir? No, I mean by improving what has been said by a senator or representative. Not only that, but it is we that give the cue to every argument. The representatives in Congress take up a question as they find it stated in the papers. And it is you that govern the country. It's the press, sir, and nothing but the press which governs free people. But is not the press liable to error? All human institutions are. But we have such abundant means of correcting and preventing it that it's almost impossible for us to be in the wrong. In the first place, our press has the money by which it can secure the best talents, such as me. And secondly, our people are too cool to be easily wrought into a passion. We are a calculating people. But your papers are full of personal abuse. Do you think that an advantage? Not exactly, but it's unquestionably a great help, a seasoning of dull editorials. Our people have so much ordinary conversation the course of the day that if it were not for the slander contained in our newspapers, they would not be amused at all. Paper, sir, are the eating, drink, and fuel of the Americans. And on that account, they can never be too hot for them. But very high seasoning marks a bad taste. I should think the best papers on what is called the aristocratic side would scorn personal abuse. Quite the reverse, sir, I assure you. It's the only means of attracting notoriety and of pleasing our first people. Besides, it'd be useless to play the part of a gentleman in that respect when all the rest are blaggots. We want strength, sir, strength and nothing but strength. None of your milk and molasses productions of which a man can make neither head nor tail. If we give a man a beating, we do not want him to get up again. We go the whole hog. When we attack a man, we assail at once his moral, political, religious, and domestic relations. Every little helps you know. Give a dog a bad name and hang him, says the proverb, and it is just so with our politicians. Indeed, it is pitiful to see what course insults, what small vilifications and what important columnaries fill the journals which serve as party organ. I have always felt that whatever the divine providence permitted to occur, I was not too proud to report. To say nothing of the fact that an American newspaper chiefly prints whatever eccentric notion as entered the editor's head. The motto of the New York hawk can buzzard. Our gossip bird shall keep a bright look out and show the world what folly is about. I cannot support John Quincy Adams because he has introduced the billiard table into the president's house for the amusement of its inmates and visitors, thus holding out inducements to engage in a captivating vice, departing from plain Republican manners, imitating the court etiquette of regal power, and furnishing an example to the youth of our country which I conceive can be neither too generally nor too severely reprehended. I founded the Indianapolis Gazette 60 miles from the nearest post office in a buckeye log cabin of one room, part of which was occupied for family residents, and the ink was put on with balls of dressed deer skin stuffed with wool. An editor might have started as a lawyer, a preacher, or a self-educated printer. But as an editor, he's let himself in for an exciting life. If he doesn't speak his mind, people lose respect for him. If he speaks his mind too much, he's in danger of life and limb. Editors openly accuse one another of the most disgusting acts, and the pistol is an editorial accessory not infrequently used. I reckon that's why the hard-pressed newspaper man wears his hat at his desk so as to be able to make a hurried exit. The policy of James Gordon Bennett. I want to make the New York Herald the great organ of social life, the prime element of civilization, the channel through which native talent, native genius, and native power may bubble up daily. I shall mix together commerce and business, pure religion and morals, literature and poetry, the drama and dramatic purity, till the Herald shall outstrip everything in the conception of man. The age of trashy novels, of more trashy poems, of more trashy quarterly and weekly literature is rapidly drawing to a close. This is the age of the daily press. We live by our advertisements. Our advertising columns are open to the public, the whole public, and nothing but the public. We admit any advertisements of anything or any opinion from any persons who will pay the price. The way these American editors speak of the financing of their newspapers reminds us that in America writers are brain merchants. Literature is an industry. There is neither a classical school nor a romantic school. There is only the commercial school. Oh, campement! Well, you know very well, Tocqueville, these writers will edit newspapers, pamphlets, advertisements. They sell ideas as other sell cloth. Their desk is a counter. Their artistic shows are yard goods. Each article has its price, and they will tell you exactly what a printed inspiration costs. True, up to a point, but some of the editors of the penny press saw their newspapers as superseding all other institutions. What is to prevent a daily newspaper from being made the greatest organ of social life? Books have had their day. The theaters have had their day. The temple of religion has had its day. A newspaper can be made to take the lead of all these in the great movements of human thought and of human civilization. A newspaper can send more souls to heaven and save more from hell than all the churches or chapels in New York, besides making money at the same time. Let it be tried. This is the most extravagant view of the function of the press. But even in 1831, before the revolution of the penny newspapers, the American press was the general and universal literature of the country. In the whole of America, there were more than 1,200 newspapers. Twice as many as in France and England put together. In New York City, there were 55 newspapers, many of them weekly, but 11 of them were daily. A very remarkable thing for a city of little over 200,000 inhabitants. But in 1831, no one of these papers dominated the others. Not one sold as many as 2,000 copies. The ease with which American newspapers can be established produces a multitude of them. Each county has a newspaper. But as competition prevents any considerable profit, persons of much capacity are rarely led to engage in these undertakings. Such is the number of the public prince that even if they were a source of wealth, writers of ability could not be found to direct them all. The journalists of the United States are generally in a very humble position with a scanty education and a vulgar turn of mind. Not authors, really, but idea-mongers. The editor of the New York career and inquirer James Watson Webb was foolish enough yesterday to assault your editor in the streets. In the course of the scuffle, he gave me a smart wrap over the head. The fellow, no doubt, wanted to let out the never-failing supply of good humor and wit, which has created such a reputation for the New York Herald, and appropriate the contents to supply the emptiness of his own thick skull. He did not succeed, however, in rifling my ideas. My ideas in a few days will flow as fresh as ever, and he will find it so to his cost. My damage is a scratch about three-quarters of an inch in length on the third finger of the left hand, which I received from the iron railing I was forced against and three buttons for my vest which any tailor will reinstate for a sixpence. His loss is a rent from top to bottom of a very beautiful black coat which cost the ruffian forty dollars and a blow in the face which may have knocked down his throat some of his infernal teeth for anything I know. Balance in my favor, thirty-nine dollars and ninety-four cents, and the admiration of my vast public. This editor's report increased his circulation by nine thousand and was therefore satisfactory. The will of the majority is the most general of laws and it establishes certain habits which everyone must conform. An editor must always be with the people. Think with them, feel with them, and he need fear nothing. He will always be right, always be strong, always popular, always free. The world has been humbugged long enough by spouters and talkers and conventioners and legislators at a genius omné. This is the editorial age and the most intellectual of all past ages. Well, the claim of the press to be the prime element of civilization has some point to it. In ages of equality, every man naturally stands alone. He is easily got rid of and he is trampled on with impunity. At the present time, an oppressed member of the community has therefore only one method of self-defense. He may appeal to the whole nation and if the whole nation is deaf to his complaint, he may appeal to mankind. The only means he has of making this appeal is by the press. Thus, the liberty of the press is infinitely more valuable among democratic nations than among all others. It is the only cure for the evils that equality may produce. Equality sets men apart and weakens them. But the press places a wonderful weapon within every man's reach which the weakest and loneliest of them all may use. Equality deprives a man of the support of his connections but the press enables him to summon all his fellow men to his assistance. Yes, and every printer feels his responsibility. Do you remember the Fort of July celebrations in Albany? Part of the procession included wagons and floats and one of the most interesting and one of the most significant was the printer float. Well, this like is the wagon of the association of printers in Albany typographical society. At the front end, we got a guilt bust of Benjamin Franklin, one of the fathers of independence. And he spent a lot of time in France. We know something of the famous Mr. Franklin. But while recognizing that Franklin was a great man, why do you choose to carry his bust on the printer's wagon? Because he was a printer himself. That's why in this country, men can rise to greatness and still be proud of their old trades. Old Ben became a great man, but he was still a printer, trained. He got his education not in cloistered halls but in front of a type case. Very extraordinary. And Benjamin Franklin was also a very witty author. Well, that's what I'm telling you gentlemen. I can see you don't quite understand the situation of a printer in America. Evidently not. Well, I'm a printer. I set type. I do art printing jobs. But I bring out a newspaper. I collect the news. I write it up and I print it. I have my views about how things should be run and their pretty decided views. I write them down and I print them. So a printer is also an editor and a journalist. That's what he is. Here. Here's a copy of my own paper. Read over the editorials at your leisure. You'll find some of them pretty stinging, I reckon. I'm sure we shall. Oh, these announcements of wedding. Oh, that's a regular thing, don't you have them? Certainly. But what is this motto that you have placed at the head of the column? It's a pretty good motto, eh? The trap sprung another full call. My views on matrimony. I'm a confirmed bachelor. As you please, but don't your readers object? That's their right. An American editor is used to objections from the public. Favorite American pastime? Trying to horse whip the editor. And of course, in some parts of the country, a lot of editors have to fight duels. Haven't fought any myself, but I have had something to do with readers objecting. But this doesn't seem to worry you. Why should it? If a man objects real hard, he can go and start his own paper. In theory, yes, but can he really? Of course he can. What do you suppose I did? It only costs a few hundred dollars, and you're in business. The power of the press, gentlemen, is accessible to everyone. Now, let's have a look at this float of ours. The object in the middle is, of course, a printing press. It's a climber press, if you're interested in such things. And the bird flying over is... The American eagle. Ah, good for you. Who is he carrying in his clothes? It looks like a bust. It is a bust. Of Benjamin Franklin again? Ah, good for you, a second time. Now, you gentlemen being French, I shall have to tell you what the scroll says in the bird's mouth. Verité sans peur. Truth without fear. A noble sentiment. Very appropriate. But who are the figures that support all these splendors? On the right, the goddess of liberty. Supporting the American flag. Again. Very appropriate. And on the left, the figure of a slave bound in chains. You'll observe the slave has burst the shackles on one arm and is reaching, like, toward the press or emancipation. That's where it'll come from, you know. And behind is a crown, reversed and a broken scepter. All pretty much the point when you know where it's supposed to be hidden. All highly illustrative of the strength and universality of the power of the press. The freedom of the press in America began with Jefferson, who was himself roasted on what he called the gridiron of the press. In countries where the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people ostensibly prevails, the censorship of the press is not only dangerous, but absurd. Is it possible that the publication of facts or even rumors can have any tendency to defeat the general operation of justice? If this were true, the more utterly ignorant a man is, the fitter he is to sit as a juror. The honesty, the purity, the integrity of legal practice and decisions throughout the country are more indebted to the American press than to the whole tribe of lawyers and judges who issue their decrees. The press is the living jury of the nation. When the right of every citizen to a share in the government of society is acknowledged, everyone must be presumed to be able to choose between the various opinions of his contemporaries and to appreciate the different facts from which inferences may be drawn. The censorship of the press and universal suffrage are two things which are irreconcilably opposed and which cannot long be retained among the institutions of the same people. Not a single individual of the millions who inhabit the United States has as yet dared to propose any restrictions on the liberty of the press. Much of this became clear as we watched the press, both during our stay in America and later as the penny press began. Tocqueville and I were also instructed by Mr. J. G. Spencer, a most distinguished lawyer whom we met at Calendegua in the state of New York. We asked Mr. Spencer what the influence of the press might be on public opinion. Here in America we enjoy all the benefits and advantages of a vicious free press. Let me answer you, Mr. Beaumont. By telling you about an editor I know who always says he makes a moral distinction between telling lies in conversation and telling lies in the newspaper where everybody expects them. Then we must not believe what we read in a newspaper. No, you may be deceived. In the press there's a whole things may be different. Every point of view is represented so strongly that in the midst of the lies and abuse you can often make out the drift of the truth. Enlightenment through deceit, you could call it. And of these circumstances, Mr. Spencer, does the press have any influence? It has a great influence, but it does not exercise it in the same manner as in France. Thus we attach very little value to the opinions of the journalist. He obtains influence only through the facts which he makes known, and the turn he gives them. It's in this way that he sometimes succeeds in misleading opinion about a man or a measure. What are the limits that you put on the liberty of the press? Our principle in this matter is very simple. Everything in the realm of opinion is perfectly free. In America one could every day print that a monarchy is the best of all governments. But when a journal publishes Calumnes, when it gratuitously attributes culpable intentions, then it is sued and ordinarily punished with a heavy fine. What is, in your opinion, the way to diminish the influence of the periodical press? I am completely convinced that the most effective of all is to multiply the number of newspapers as far as possible and sue them only in extreme cases. Their power diminishes as they become more numerous. With us, interests are divided in a thousand ways. There are no great centers of action, as we have in Paris. With us it is almost impossible to agitate public opinion over a large area. The New York City newspapers have no more influence on us than those of the neighboring village. Another reason for the small influence obtained by journalists through the expression of their personal opinions is the ill-use they put them to in the first years of the Republic. At that time, it was proved that most of them were in the pay of England. And from that time on, public confidence was taken away from them. In some ways, then, the power of the press is greater in France than in America and more dangerous for us. After all, in America, the press is by no means all powerful, both Jefferson and Jackson, who is president at this very moment, were elected against the concerted advice of the press. And yet the press in America remains so free. Is there ever a prosecution launched against it by the government? By the government? Not since Jefferson. He instituted the freedom of the press. And it's reasonable, gentlemen. After all, it's logical. How so? Well, we Americans, having once admitted the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people, apply it with perfect sincerity. It was never our intention out of elements which are changing every day to create institutions that should last forever. And there is consequently nothing criminal in an attack upon existing laws, provided a violent infraction of them is not intended. We also believe courts of justice are powerless to restrain the abuses of the press without the loss of liberty. And that, as the flexibility of human language perpetually escapes judicial definition, offenses of this nature evade in some manner or other the long arm of the law. Newspapers, therefore, become more necessary in proportion as men become more equal. To suppose that they only serve to protect freedom would be to diminish their importance. They maintain civilization. In democratic countries, newspapers frequently lead the citizens to launch together into very ill-digested schemes. But if there were no newspapers, there would be no common activity. The evil which they produce is therefore much less than that which they cure. I think that men living in aristocracies may, historically speaking, do without the liberty of the press, but such is not the case with those who live in democratic countries. To protect every man's personal independence, I do not trust too great political assemblies to parliamentary privilege or to the assertion of popular sovereignty. All these things may, to a certain extent, be reconciled with personal servitude. But that servitude cannot be complete if the press is free. The press is the chief democratic instrument of freedom. You have just heard the chief instrument of freedom, a study in the American press, item 11 in a series based on Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. This series, presented by the National Broadcasting Company, was prepared by the Division of General Education of New York University under the direction of George Probst, American historian. Produced in the studios of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation by Andrew Allen, scripted by Lister Sinclair, music by Lucio Agostini. This series, Democracy in America, is made possible by a grant from the Fund for Adult Education, as part of a general course of study of the nature of American society. For information about the use of these de Tocqueville dramatizations for study or discussion, and how to secure these new materials about American democracy at a reasonable charge, right to the American Foundation for Continuing Education, Post Office Box 749, Chicago 90, Illinois. Now, this has been Grower inviting you to listen next week to the Aristocrats of Democracy, Item 12 on Democracy in America. This program was prerecorded and is an NBC Radio Network presentation. No matter where you shop, ask for brand names. Those featured on NBC Radio.