payments for the paper be the only element of the transaction. There are a few Kansas newspapers which still give premiums for payment of subscription. This practice has decreased materially, however, and the oldfashioned newspaper subscription contest is also a rarity in Kansas.

FOR THE PUBLISHER

IN ESTIMATING

Definition. Estimating is the science of computing costs. Its conclusion is the price.

Basis. We do not favor the establishment of a minimum rate card for advertising which would be uniform among publishers, but we do favor a more thorough understanding of the subject of costs and commend to our members the labors of the American Printers Cost Commission of the First International Cost Congress recently held in Chicago. Let us learn our costs and then each establish a rate card based upon our investment and the cost of production, having no consideration for the comparative ability of the advertisers to pay, or the semi-news nature of the advertisement.

Quantity Discount. We consider it unwise to allow discounts greater than 10 per cent from the rate of first insertion for succeeding insertions.

The material advance in the business methods of computing possible costs has been the result of self-interest on the part of publishers; the Code, here, is merely a statement in favor of methods which will allow a fair profit.

FOR THE PUBLISHER

NEWS

Definition. News is the impartial report of the activities of mind, men and matter which do not offend the moral sensibilities of the more enlightened people.

Lies. We condemn against truth: (1) The publication of fake illustrations of men and events of news

interest, however marked their similarity, without an accompanying statement that they are not real pictures of the event or person but only suggestive imitations.

(2) The publication of fake interviews made up of assumed views of an individual, without his consent.

(3) The publication of interviews in quotations unless the exact approved language of the interviewed is used. When an interview is not an exact quotation it should be obvious in the reading that only the thought and impression of the interviewer is being reported.

(4) The issuance of fake news dispatches, whether the same have for their purpose the influencing of stock quotations, elections, or the sale of securities or merchandise. Some of the greatest advertising in the world. has been stolen through the news columns in the form of dispatches from unscrupulous press agents. Millions have been made on the rise and fall of stock quotations caused by newspaper lies, sent out by designing reporters. condemn against Injustice. We condemn

justice:

(1) The practice of reporters making detectives and spies of themselves in their endeavors to investigate the guilt or innocence of those under suspicion.

Reporters should not enter the domain of law in the apprehension of criminals. They should not become a detective or sweating agency for the purpose of furnishing excitement to the readers.

No suspect should have his hope of a just liberty foiled through the great prejudice which the public has formed against him because of the press verdict slyly couched in the news report, even before his arrest.

We should not even by insinuation interpret of facts our conclusions, unless by signature we become personally responsible for them. Exposition, explanation, and interpretation should be left to the field of the expert or specialist with a full con

sciousness of his personal responsibility. (2) The publication of the rumors and common gossips or the assumptions of a reporter relative to a suspect pending his arrest or the final culmination of his trial. A staff of reporters is not a detective agency, and the right of a suspect to a fair and impartial trial is often confounded by a reporter's practise of printing every ill-founded rumor of which he gets wind.

Indecencies. Classification: for the sake of clearness and order, crimes with which we will be concerned may be divided into those which offend against the PUBLIC TRUST (such as bribery, defalcation, or embezzlement by a public official); those which offend against PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS OR EMPLOYERS (which are also often defalcations and betrayals of confidence); and crimes which offend against PRIVATE MORALITY most often centering around the family relation.

(1) In dealing with the suspicions against PUBLIC OFFICIALS or trustees we urge that ONLY FACTS put in their TRUE RELATION and records be used in the news reports.

(2) In dealing with the suspicions against agents of private institutions facts alone put in their true relation should again be used.

(3) In dealing with the offenses against private morality we should refuse to print any record of the matter, however true, until the warrant has been filed or the arrest made, and even then our report should contain only an epitome of the charges by the plaintiff and the answers by the defendant, preferably secured from their respective attorneys.

No society gossips or scandals, however true, should ever be published concerning such cases.

However prominent the principles, offenses against private morality should never receive first page position and their details should be eliminated as much as possible.

Certain crimes against private morality which are revolting to our finer sensibilities should be ignored

entirely; however in the event of their having become public with harmful exaggeration we may make an elementary statement, couched in the least suggestive language.

In no case should the reckless daring of the suspect be lionized.

(4) Except when the suspect has escaped his picture should never be printed.

Naturally the news element has the greatest public interest.

In regard to the condemning of untruthful statements, there has been an advance since the adoption of the Code. There is now practically no use of fake illustrations and fake interviews. However, interviews are still published in Kansas, just as in other states, which violate the requirement in the Code that only exact quotations be used in quotation marks.

In the matter of injustice in the handling of news, the Code has a comprehensive statement. I believe that the small-town newspapers have less of a tendency toward injustice in forming public opinion regarding a criminal than a large city newspaper. I believe it fair to state that the effect of the Code has been to call attention of editors to their responsibility in the matter of justice in a way that has brought favorable results. The condemning of the practice of reporters' making themselves detectives in connection with criminal cases, is sweeping. There are reporters who will justify themselves in limited activities in aiding the police in crime detection. The Code discusses the matter from the publisher's viewpoint, which calls attention to an interesting comment made by Governor Allen of Kansas, who is proprietor of the Wichita Beacon. In a recent letter to Miss Armstrong, he states:

It always remains a problem to secure from one hundred individuals united in

the preparation of a newspaper, the sort of reaction that makes the paper an expression of all you would have it be.

The human element in a newspaper frequently prevents the living-up to the Code, even though the publisher so wishes.

There are members of the family of reputable newspapers which do not meet all of the requirements of the Code regarding so-called indecency. In the publication of uncertain crime material it is doubtful whether much progress has been made since the Kansas Code was written. In the opinion of the writer the rather upset conditions following the War have probably lowered standards of newspapers. Two specific suggestions of the Kansas Code are interesting: One is that the picture of a suspect should not be published except to aid in apprehension; the other, that doubtful crime material be kept off "page one position" when published.

FOR THE EDITOR

VIEWS

Definition. Views are the impressions, beliefs, or opinions which are published in a paper, whether from the editorial staffs of the same, outside contributors, or secured interviews.

A Distinction. We hold that whenever a publication confines the bulk of its views to any particular line of thought, class of views, or side of a mooted question, it becomes to that extent a class publication, and inasmuch ceases to be a newspaper.

An Explanation. You will note by our definition of news that it is the impartial portrayal of the decent activities of mind, men and matter. This definition applied to class publications would be changed by replacing the word IMPARTIAL with the word PARTIAL.

In this section we will deal with IMPARTIALITY in the presentation of the

decent activities of the mind of the community-with the views or editorial policy of a paper.

Responsibility. Whereas a view or conclusion is the product of some mind, or minds, and whereas the value and significance of a view is dependent upon the known merit of its author or authors, the reader is entitled, and has the right to know the personal identity of the author, whether by the signature in a communication, the statement of the reporter in an interview, or the caption in a special article and the paper as such should in no wise become an advocate.

Influence (editorial). We should avoid permitting large institutions or persons to own stock in, or make loans to our publishing houses if we have reasonable grounds to believe that their interests would be seriously affected by any other than a true presentation of all news and a free willingness to present every possible point of view under signature or in

terview.

Influence (reportorial). No reporter should be retained who accepts any courtesies, unusual favors, opportunities for self-gain, or side employment from any factors whose interests would be affected by the manner in which his reports are made.

Deception. We should not allow the PRESUMED knowledge on the part of the interviewed that we are newspaper men to permit us to quote them without their explicit permission, but where such knowledge is certain we insist upon our right to print the views unless directly forbidden.

Faith with Interviewed. An interview or statement should not be displayed previous to its publication without the permission of the author.

Bounds of Publicity. A man's name and portrait are his private property and the point where they cease to be private and become public should be defined for our association.

The Kansas Code takes up a vital problem for every editor. As a general

rule the Kansas editor has made favorable progress along the lines outlined by the Code. The whole matter of editorial views simmers down to the personal responsibility of the editor in charge to be the spokesman of public interest. The requirement of the Code that editors keep free from financial influence is logical. Especially is this true of a few of the Kansas newspaper publishers and editors, as Mr. Miller was undoubtedly

aware.

Scores of Kansas newspapers have been financed by banks, sometimes to the embarrassment of the editors, and some cities have been fortunate enough to see two newspapers as spokesmen for two opposing bank factions. It is the natural desire of every editor to become free from such influence and this freedom is gradually being achieved. Likewise, the better class of bankers are realizing more and more that their financial interest in the newspaper does not carry with it the right of editorial influence unless the banker himself is the editor.

The statement of the Code that a man's name and portrait are his private property must meet limitations from the newspaper man's standpoint. The Kansas State Editorial Association has not taken upon itself to define the point at which the rights of the private individual to prevent publication of facts concerning him, extends. Every individual has the right of the protection of the law of libel against injustice by a newspaper, but it is a commentary either on the high standard of Kansas newspapers or the inadequacy of the law that libel suits are very rarely successful.

Individual planks of the Code from the standpoint of the editor are undoubtedly violated; for example, reporters, to the personal knowledge of the writer, are not immune from

special courtesies given by interested persons with selfish interests. Part of this is the fault of the publisher who winks at such practices or pays a low wage.

It is difficult to judge the influence of the Kansas Code of Ethics except in a very general way. It has had its influence in the profession; it has turned the thoughts of its practitioners in the direction of the ethics to be adopted in the conducting of their business. On the other hand, the Code, as a code, is not studied with any frequency by individual editors and publishers. Miss Armstrong, in conducting her investigation, received letters from scores of editors over the country in answer to her queries. Six of the most prominent leaders in the Kansas editorial profession discussed the ethical phase of their business without mentioning specifically the code which their editorial association had adopted. However, the answers stating the individual opinions of the editors, lived up to, in every respect, the requirements specified by the Code.

The statement by William Allen White, publisher of the Emporia Gazette, to Miss Armstrong is particularly illuminating:

Generally speaking, I do not print any advertising in the Gazette which I could not

personally guarantee. That means that I won't use any patent medicine, travelling doctors, unregistered oil stock, or any unregistered stock, travelling fire sales, slaughter sales, and any sort of travelling merchandisers, and I refuse to print any advertisement to lure girls to the city for employment. We also refuse matrimonial agencies, and all that sort of thing. In the news end we have just one rule; the subscriber runs the paper and the advertisers have no right the subscriber is bound to respect, and in that way the subscriptions are kept up and the advertiser, in the long run, profits.

the publishing of that type of class periodicals known as industrial papers has grown to be a business of large proportions. While exact statistics are not available, the volume of annual business is at least $50,000,000 and more than 1,400 publications are issued. These are mainly of two varieties: trade or merchandising papers and technical papers, but there are others of a more general character while still lying within the industrial field.

relation must be maintained if the efforts of their publication are to succeed. He and his associates are active and occupy leading positions in the industrial organizations in the field of their paper, and they spend much of their time in visiting the important centers of activity in their specific industry. As a result they are personally acquainted with large numbers of their subscribers, including practically all of those who are leaders of thought and action among them.

The relation of the business paper

PUBLISHING

The publishing of business papers differs in many particulars from newspaper publishing. While their essential functions of gathering, disseminating and interpreting information are the same, the relation between the publishers on the one hand, and their subscribers and advertisers on the other, is not the same. The industrial publication reaches a class of readers who have special trade or technical interests, and it serves them along the lines of these interests. The newspapers are addressed to readers of many kinds and with a wide range of interests. Every worthwhile industrial publication, therefore, occupies a position as teacher and leader to a group of specialists, which is small in number compared with the subscription lists of the newspapers and general magazines of similar standing.

Because the clientele of the business paper is small, the range being roughly two thousand to twenty times that number, the publisher and his staff can maintain intimate contact with

intimate one. The publisher is in a position to sense the marketing and even the production problems of the advertisers, due to the necessarily wide scope of his vision of the particular industry which they are trying to serve with their products. He thus can advise as to the form and matter of advertising copy, as well as the general features of advertising campaigns and detail plans.

The intimate relation which exists between the business paper publisher and his clientele has rendered desirable, and in fact necessary, a special code of ethics to cover his case. Not only is this true for the reasons already explained, but also, and particularly, because there is a close relation between the editorial and advertising columns of his paper. The editorial and advertising departments are fundamentally addressed to the same people, for the same purpose. This is to enable the subscribers to do their work better and more economically. Thus, when a highway paper explains editorially how to build a satisfactory roadway,