An anonymous writer in The Independent tells the following story as illustrating Mr. Hearst’s belief that “money will buy the fruit of any man’s work”:
Some time ago a young writer applied to him for employment on his New York newspaper, and was engaged to fill a position which would become vacant at the end of a week, but in the interval the fact came to the attention of a university professor who had always taken an interest in his advancement.
“I am sorry,” said the good man, “that you should have chosen that particular school of journalism for your professional start.” And he proceeded to descant upon the responsibility a journalist owed to society, the influence of one educated youth’s example upon others of his class, the tone a writer inevitably took from the character of the journals he worked for, etc. “And your untarnished sense of self-respect, my young friend,” he concluded, “will be worth more to you, when you reach my time of life, than all the salaries an unprincipled employer can pour into your purse.”
So imprest was the neophyte with this lecture in morals that he called upon Mr. Hearst the next morning and announced that he had changed his mind about accepting the proffered position. The editor scanned his face shrewdly, and then inquired the reason. After much hesitancy the young man told him the whole story, and started to leave.
“Ah,” said Mr. Hearst. “Be seated a moment, please!” And, turning to his secretary, he added: “Write a letter at once to Professor X. Y., present my compliments, and say that I should be pleased to receive from him a signed article of five hundred words—subject and treatment to be of his own choosing—for the editorial page of next Sunday’s paper. Inclose check for $250.
“Now,” he remarked, with a cynical smile, as he bade his caller good-by, “you can see for yourself what comes of that.”
He did. The Sunday issue contained a signed article, which gave the paper the reflection of a good man’s fame, and spread the influence of his example among other university professors, and—did what to his self-respect?—all at the rate of fifty cents per word! (Text.)
(1574)
See [Injustice].
INCONSPICUOUS WORKERS