Show C T A N ODD form ot calamity befell f new lork city in the autumn jf V of 1023 it was neither fire flood nor famine there was neither rumor of war nor suggestion of riot yet into this peaceful picture there suddenly descended a kind of community paralysis that filled audes tudes with dismay what had happened merely that for the first time in two centuries new york found itself without its usual newspapers A pressroom strike had halted their publication on that day there was no paper on the doorstep the news stands were unnaturally bare why was this experience so discon because says a blouet issued by the bank of the manhattan company entitled news and ress it produced a feeling of isola alon it cut off the city from the out tide world not physically but men tally it even cut off the residents of the city from knowledge of each other because people have come to rely al most entirely on the papers for their local news one may be in a room with a number of others but it the lights go out one feels strangely alone when the newspapers suspended co operation became difficult in some cases impossible the newspaper Is in itself a remark able example ot voluntary co opera alon not only Is it a complex fabric woven of the labors and abilities of hundreds within its plant and of thousands on the outside but it ally Is a part of one of those great associations of newspapers through which the news of the world Is dally gathered exchanged and made avail able to all not less significant and quite as am Is the triangular operation cooperation co between publisher advertiser and public once it ceases publishing merchandising and buying all languish and the wheels of progress stop when it Is considered that there are copies of each issue of 13 newspapers entering every home office and workshop of the land we begin to realize the vastness of this operation cooperation co we begin also to sense the extent of the constantly renewed influence which brings our millions of people into continuous conscious touch each other it it be true that modern conditions of life have created the modern news paper it Is no less true that the nes paper has played a leading role in creating modern conditions of life this has been the case as to habits of thought political developments and matters of religion science and cul ture but it has been true in even greater degree in the field of material progress when a carrier leaves a paper on a doorstep it may not occur to him that he Is playing a part in the eco life of his town but so it Is for to each individual subscriber he Is really delivering the market place of ohp community follow a newspaper into any home bere are gathered the members of the family circle father mother and ahll dren within a few hours eacle will read it and for each there must be that which he Is most interested in reading to this wealth of information each member of the family will respond and each in his peculiar way only to one part of the newspaper will there be any degree of common response because that part has a versal appeal that part la the ad columns in these could the editor view the reception of the paper he would find that others the advertisers were supplementing his labors by tastes and needs oui acae his province there Is another important aspect of the newspaper as the market place of the community which Is often over looked that Is the saving of time instead of trudging from store to store in search of clothing shoes or any of the numerous other articles of modern commerce the consumer turn instinctively to the advertising columns of the newspaper for antor matlon to guide him by the most dl route to the desired product thus wasted time Is eliminated As the market place of the corn munley the advertising columns of the newspaper yield even greater values which while ultimately social in their outcome are founded upon a firm economic basis for example it america has become a nation of homeowners home owners it Is due in large measure to the persistence with which the desire for home ownership has been stimulated through per advertising A man with property to sell might rub elbows with several possible customers in the course of ten minutes walk but he could not buttonhole them one after another for busy modern life does not permit it but finally the real estate merchant awakened to the fact that all these unlabeled passers by were alike in one important respect they were news paper readers similarly in the field of banking ind in the promotion of individual thrift the advertising and news col dumns of the american newspaper have a magic transformation compare the atmosphere of the aver age bank today with that a quarter of a century ago before the banker hid come to reallie that the newspaper was a market the public utility field oters still another striking example of how the newspaper as the market place of the community has been utilized not only to sell goods and service but to pro mote popular understanding and good will it has been estimated that news paper advertising has shortened by one halt alie process of selling the services of such utilities As in the case of banks there has come a complete transformation in the attitude of alie public utilities toward the and in that of the public toward them the old time suspicions and antagonisms now rapidly disappearing have been replaced by a spirit of operation cooperation co this new spirit has found expression in many ways not least among them being the widespread and rapid growth ol 01 the cus tomer ownership movement the american newspaper Is by its very nature a local institution its own community s mirror voice mar let place and leader bat just as america Is a national corn posed of thousands of local centers so the american press as a whole la a unit formed by nearly 14 local pa pers which reflect the national life in this capacity newspapers together perform a nation wide economic ice compi rable to that performed by each for its own community con necked up for the transmission and exchange of news chev form a na market place in which knowl edge of the goods of any locality may be found how prodigious Is the volume ol 01 newspaper advertising in facilitating this process Is disclosed by the fact that of the used in such advertising in 1925 nearly one third was paid by producers of floods which are distributed throughout the nation isalt where he will the traveler will find in the show windows of almost any town the same makes of safety razors toilet powders cold remedies hand cameras men s hats and cloth ing women s wear shoes and other commodities with which he was faill lar in his home town indeed it may be hard for him to realize in the face of such display that he actually has traveled at all just as our newspapers have unified our thoughts alms and ambitions so have they made possible the alon and the sale of our national mer chandise chand lse in much the same manner that an important piece of news of interest to all ts in a single day broadcast to every corner of the land so can the message of a product be distributed by the advertiser and it Is now an accepted fact that this message also Is news kaleidoscopic as it appears to be our civilization Is a stable civilization nevertheless how can stability exist amid much diversity it could be destroyed t any large pait of the american people become deliberately perverse in this larger sense the amerlean Am eilean newspaper constitutes the nerves 0 our entire social system |