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1851-1921 By Elmer Davis Originally published 1921 |
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standards, and its organization had none of the intricacy of development essential for the paper of today. Nor were the ethical standards of the midnineteenth century as exacting as those of today. The modern newspaper has to find revenue, free from subvention of any kind and particularly in the shape of political patronage, to provide for the enormous expenditures for news. The history of the development of the business affairs of The Times in the past twenty-five years offers a good deal of instruction and interest; it is the story of the rise of a paper exemplifying certain principles from destitution to a degree of prosperity almost without parallel, and one which seemed to a good many newspapermen beyond the reach of a paper conducted on those principles.
Moreover, the editorial character of The Times has always been pretty much the same, in prosperity and in adversity. In 1851, in 1871, in 1884 and in 1921 it was a sober, conservative, dignified paper, always American, with its special position in the esteem of readers who valued sobriety of discussion and intelligent and balanced judgment. The principal interest in the history of the modern Times lies in the process by which this paper, which in its best days of old had seldom had more than 35,000 subscribers, came to appeal to more than ten times that number. Its rise surprised even its conductors; the best they hoped, twenty-five years ago, was that a paper conducted on the principles which they held might attain as large a circulation as 50,000.
The story of this astounding rise to prosperity and influence has been told by other writers, but only in
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