(2 of 3)
PAYNE : "There wouldn't be any Progressives if it were not for the Times. They have to read the editorial page to find out all the reactionary things to which they are opposed ... the Times, in its news columns, is the only paper that will print what they have to say. . . . The New York World represents the middle class, but it is a little ashamed of it. The Times represents the middle class, but it doesn't know it. The Times succeeds because it is a great newspaper; the World succeeds because it is a great magazine."
GONEGAGA: "But doesn't the World print any news?"
PAYNE : "Oh, yes. When the editors of the World dine out, any confidential communication at the dinner is printed the next day in the front page of the World as news."
GONEGAGA : "I hear a great deal about Mr. Munsey, but I do not see him."
PAYNE: "Very few see him. ... He is still an exclusive Progressive, he excludes all Progressive views ... he comes nearer to being the great Monarchist leader."
GONEGAGA: "This is new. I did not know. . . ."
PAYNE : "It isn't so much a political party as it is a dinner party."
GONEGAGA: "If the Moncharists should ever succeed, whom do you think Mr. Munsey has in mind?"
PAYNE: "I have never grasped what was in Mr. Munsey's mind, but offhand I should say Frank the First."
"Largest Piece"
The Literary Digest, because of its gigantic circulation, is compelled to begin its regurgitation of a week's events and opinions expressed thereon, a good fortnight before the magazine presents its ponderous bulk upon the newsstands. Hence, the Digest is void of "news," strictly speaking. Here size is a handicap. But size has its compensations. Through its vast organization, the Digest is enabled to manufacture an occasional piece of news so important and exclusive as to warm its creators' editorial cockles to a high degree.
The last such piece of news manufactured by the Digest was a "straw" ballot of over two million people taken last January on the Mellon plan for tax reduction. In the Digest for Sept. 13, it was announced that another "straw vote", among 15 million people, had been set in motion to anticipate "the largest piece of news of the year, or of several years," to wit, the name of the next U. S. President.
The 15 million addresses were alleged to be "more than 50% of the probable voters" in November. A tabulation of their votes was heralded, reasonably enough, as "a true criterion of the public will." The significance of the tabulation was to be augmented by including a record of the swings and shifts of party allegiance.
On Sept. 20, the Digest announced the first trickle of returns: Coolidge 16,071; LaFollette 5,596; Davis 3,792.
Barber Press