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- Description:
- This 5-page letter was handwritten in black ink on slightly yellowed paper by James Schermerhorn who was the Editor of the TO-DAY newspaper. The newspaper letterhead is printed in black text at the top and each page and has the watermark, "Persian Bond." The text of the letter has been transcribed as follows: "New Year's Eve, Dec. 31, 1900. The press of 1901 salutes the "fourth estate" of 2001. The newspapers of the present time speak for themselves even as the public prints of that distant day when these words shall be read, will speak for themselves. They must bear their own testimonies of the times through the printed words and the testimonies of their own traits and merits. In the Free Press and the Tribune, of the morning field, the News, Journal and To-Day, of the evening field, and the Abend Post and the Volksblat, of the German evening field, Detroit has better than the average specimens of American daily newspaper making. The Free Press, the pathfinder of Michigan newpaperdom, found glory and distinction formerly through its humorous sketches and other literary features. Late years, like all the once flourishingly journals of light vein, it has been happy to put aside the reputation of being a funny paper and has aspired to the higher rank and influence of the great and serious newspapers of the times. The Tribune - once the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day to the faithful Republicans of the state - no longer essays political leadership or claims party followers. The decline of partisan newspaper-making is revealed in the situation in Detroit at this writing, one daily paper only being an out-and-out exponent of a political faith. Happily the thick-and-thin party organ appears to be passing away. The German papers have their appreciative constituencies - not very large, but very loyal. The Evening News led the way into the two-cent newspaper field twenty eight years ago and achieved a great success. The Journal has followed it through many vicissitudes to prosperity. "To-Day," the latest comer, has received a welcome in the closing weeks of the nineteenth century that presages permanency and prestige. The last is least in price, selling for one cent and foreshadowing that twentieth century day when the smallest coin will be the universal newspaper price. One hundred years hence will see the newspapers mightily increased in number, but reduced in size. In good time the daily prints must take on more compact and manageable form. There must needs be increasing discrimination in the selection of news as the country grows older, and the business of printing the happenings of the passing day will absorb all of the daily paper's energies and resources. Twentieth century newspapers will be compelled by the necessities of the situation to devote themselves exclusively to the chronicling of the weightier facts of the hour, leaving to other publications the mission of serious discussion of pending problems and the moulding of public opinion. Prophecy: The twentieth century newspaper will be a newspaper and nothing else, and there will not be so much of it. James Schermerhorn, Editor, TO-DAY."
- Date Issued:
- 1900-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Detroit Historical Society
- Description:
- This 4-page letter was handwritten in black ink on slightly yellowed paper by James E. Scripps who was the President of the Evening News Association. The letter is printed with light blue lines and a double red line for the left margin. The text of the letter has been transcribed as follows: "Detroit December 31st 1900 Hon. Wm. C. Maybury My dear Sir You invited me to indulge in a prophecy for Detroit as a Metropolis. By metropolis you mean I presume a chief or leading city to which all others for a long distance around will be more or less subordinate and tributary. I fully believe in such a distinction for Detroit in the century upon which we are entering. I base my belief upon certain historical precedents and upon peculiar advantages which the location possesses favorable to a great concentration of population. With all the civilized world open to him the Emperor Constantine the Great in AD 324 chose as the site for the capital of the Roman Empire a precisely analogous location on the banks of the Bosphorus. The advantage of location enjoyed by the City of Constantinople has been universally conceded, and yet the Black Sea of which it forms the key can never for a moment compare in its commercial possibilities with the great lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron with their rich mines of iron and copper, their vast tracts of valuable timber and their numerous natural outlets for the grain crops of the richest and most productive country upon earth. If a great metropolis were possible at Constantinople how much more so at Detroit. When in the 17th century the famous French explorers LaSalle, Tonty, Hennepin, DuLuth, Cadillac and others penetrated to every part of the wild northwest they shrewdly hit upon the Detroit River as the most peculiarly advantageous point for the location of a colony with view to French domination of the entire region. It had previously been the favorite gathering place of the indians and Cadillac found no difficulty immediately upon his founding the post of Detroit in collecting around it a native population which made it at once one of the most populous cities on the continent. I have no doubt that the same influences still govern and that the vicinity of the Detroit River possesses at once strategic advantages for the domination of a wide extent of country and also attractions for the concentrating of vast population. I believe in no other in the entire country are greater advantages for homes offered. The climate in winter is far less bleak than that of Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland or Buffalo owing to our remoteness from the great ice fields which cover the larger lakes and chill the breezes which sweep over them. In summer there are few cities which enjoy such advantages for boating, yachting, extended excursions by water, fishing and hunting. The sources of amusement are unsurpassed. With adequate drainage and abundance of pure water there should be no healthier city than Detroit. The locality which possesses such natural advantages for homes must ultimately attract a great population. No other city on the whole chain of lakes enjoys so perfect a harbor as Detroit. Never exposed to storms from any quarter, with a practically unvarying depth of water and depth sufficient for the largest vessels, and with a shore line for wharves and docks sufficient for all the commerce of the world superior commercial advantages would be possible. With the experience of Manchester an inland city being made a sea-port by means of a ship canal and with the certainty of a system of ship canals of the largest size being constructed in the near future connecting the great lakes with the Atlantic there can be no doubt that a few decades will see ocean vessels loading and unloading at our wharves. Detroit will become as distinctively a seaport as Boston or Philadelphia. Detroit's decennial increase of population for the past forty years has averaged nearly sixty per cent. At this opening of the 20th Century it is without doubt growing faster than ever before. Suppose for the next 50 years the decennial increase to be but half what is has been in the past 40 years and we shall have in 1950 a population of 1,077,000 souls. Halving this ration again for the second half of the century and we shall have in the year AD 2000 a population of over two millions, a larger population than any American city has today except the consolidation known as Greater New York. I think it far more likely that the population of AD 2000 will be greater rather than less than this estimate, and if no war, pestilence, or other destructive influence intervenes I think it not improbable that the ration of 30 percent decennially will be kept up through the century in which case Detroit will enjoy a population of fully four millions. I prophesy that a century hence the belt embraced between the 38th and 43rd degrees of north latitude and extending from the Atlantic sea board to the Mississippi will be the most densely populated region in the world. Very sincerely yours James E. Scripps"
- Date Issued:
- 1900-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Detroit Historical Society
- Description:
- This 2-page letter was handwritten in black ink on both sides of a slightly yellowed piece of paper by Frank I. Cobb who signed the letter as the "Leading editorial writer, Detroit Free Press." His letter is entitled, "The Newspapers of Detroit," and the text of the letter has been transcribed as follows: "The Newspapers of Detroit. At the beginning of the Twentieth Century there are seven daily newspapers published in Detroit - five in English and two in German. Of the English newspapers the Free Press and the Tribune are printed in the morning, The Evening News, The Evening Journal and Today in the afternoon. The Abend-Post and the Volksblatt, German, are published in the afternoon also. The principal owner of The Free Press is William E. Quinby; of The News and The Tribune, James E. Scripps; of The Journal, William Livingstone; of Today, James Schermerhorn; of the Abend-Post, August Marxhausen; of the Volksblatt, A. Niederpruem. Of these The Free Press, independently Democratic in politics, is the most influential and the worst edited. Little attention is paid to the manner in which news matter is written for it. It is very susceptible to "respectable" influence, and always aims to voice the opinions of so-called better-element. It has no opinions of its own. It is eminently clean - and steeped. The News is the best-edited and most readable, but the least reliable - due largely to its habitual recklessness of statement, and its desire to be "clear" regardless of the facts. The Tribune is a colorless morning edition of The News; but better edited on the whole than The Free Press. It is without editorial influence. The Journal is statistically Republican in politics and is one of the few remaining types of the bigoted partisan newspaper. It is fairly well-edited, and is clean. It, too, is very susceptible to Detroit club influence. Today is a puny monstrosity, printed on cheap paper. It prints news in bulletin form under heaving black head-lines. It has no merit except cheapness. The Abend-Post is the "organ" of the German Republicans and the Volksblatt of the German Democrats. As the old German population dies off, their field is gradually becoming smaller. Detroit newspapers compare favorably with those of other cities of the size. If anything they are above the average. Like all newspapers published at this time, they are unreliable; but seldom maliciously so. Economy explains the maul of accuracy. Good salaries must be paid to good reporters; so as few as possible are hired. All reporters are so overburdened with work that they have little time to verify statements. None of the Detroit newspapers wields great influence editorially; but all more than they deserve. Being expected to prophesy, I venture to predict that the Twentieth Century's chief reform in newspaper making will be in the direction of improving the quality of the news - having it better written, more intelligently written, and more accurately written. If the Twenty-first century has newspapers and those newspapers are reliable - one who will these be dust, would wish to be resurrected long enough to glance over the head lines of one of them. Frank I. Cobb Leading Editorial Writer, Detroit Free Press."
- Date Issued:
- 1900-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Detroit Historical Society