serious 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 un 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 organised 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 indemnity equal to the cost of his