“Yes; every trial in this life is an opportunity to prove that there is no evil,” she said. “Listen; you have been trained as a publisher. Very well, the world is waiting for the right kind of publications. Oh, I’ve seen it for a long, long time. The demand is simply tremendous. Now meet it!”
Haynerd looked confusedly from Carmen to Hitt. The latter turned to the girl. “What, exactly, do you mean, Carmen?” he asked.
“Let him publish now a clean magazine, or paper; let him print real news; let him work, not for rich people’s money, but for all people. Why, the press is the greatest educator in the world! But, oh, how it has been abused! Now let him come out boldly and stand for clean journalism. Let him find his own life, his own good, in service for others.”
“But, Carmen,” protested Hitt, “do the people want clean journalism? Could such a paper stand?”
“It could, if it had the right thought back of it,” returned the confident girl.
Haynerd had again lapsed into sulky silence. But Hitt pondered the girl’s words for some moments. She was not the first nor the only one who had voiced such sentiments. He himself had even dared to hold the same thoughts, and to read in them a leading that came not from material ambitions. Then, of a sudden, an idea flamed up in his mind.
“The Express!” he exclaimed.
Carmen waited expectantly. Hitt’s eyes widened with his expanding thought. “Carlson, editor of the Express, wants to sell,” he continued, speaking rapidly.
“It’s a semi-weekly newspaper, printed only for country circulation; has no subscription list,” commented Haynerd, with a cynical shrug of his shoulders.
“Buy it!” exclaimed Carmen. “Buy it! And change it into a daily! Make it a real newspaper!”