No elaborate deductions are to be drawn from these figures. They help
merely to make somewhat more concrete our notions of the effort that
goes day by day into acquiring the data of our opinions. The
newspapers are, of course, not the only means, but they are certainly
the principal ones. Magazines, the public forum, the chautauqua, the
church, political gatherings, trade union meetings, women's clubs, and
news serials in the moving picture houses supplement the press. But
taking it all at the most favorable estimate, the time each day is
small when any of us is directly exposed to information from our
unseen environment.
CHAPTER V
SPEED, WORDS, AND CLEARNESS
1
The unseen environment is reported to us chiefly by words. These words
are transmitted by wire or radio from the reporters to the editors who
fit them into print. Telegraphy is expensive, and the facilities are
often limited. Press service news is, therefore, usually coded. Thus a
dispatch which reads,--
"Washington, D. C. June I.--The United States regards the question of
German shipping seized in this country at the outbreak of hostilities
as a closed incident,"
may pass over the wires in the following form:
"Washn i. The Uni Stas rgds tq of Ger spg seized in ts cou at t outbk
o hox as a clod incident." [Footnote: Phillip's Code.]
A news item saying:
"Berlin, June 1, Chancellor Wirth told the Reichstag to-day in
outlining the Government's program that 'restoration and
reconciliation would be the keynote of the new Government's policy.
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