The first effect of the war was a general curtailment of newspaper advertising, a rise in the price of paper, and a greatly increased cost of the news of the day owing to excessive cable charges for foreign dispatches. Thus the newspapers suffered a rapidly diminishing revenue, and they found it necessary to discharge many of their employees and to reduce the salaries of others. With the Stock Exchange closed, naturally the salaried financial writers were among the first to feel this hardship.
Those whose services were retained throughout this crisis were confronted with divided responsibilities. It was their duty to interpret a mass of more or less fantastic rumors at a time when nerves were overwrought and points of view magnified and distorted. They wished to prevent the publication of anything of an incendiary nature, while at the same time a necessity arose for presenting to the public the news to which it was entitled. Placed in such a position there was a very natural impatience here and there to have the Exchange reopened, while now and then a tendency became manifested to publish certain news of the day which, while interesting to the public, tended to handicap the efforts of those bent only on reassurance and calm counsel. At times it became somewhat difficult to prevent the publication of some of these matters, particularly of the prices made in the so called "gutter" market which sprang up in New Street. And yet on the whole nothing could have exceeded the fairness and the spirit of coöperation of these gentlemen in this trying time. One newspaper even went so far as to cease the publication of a remunerative page of small advertisements having to do with dealings in outside securities. This was done at the request of the Committee without hesitation. Others coöperated in the suppression of advertising on the part of questionable people, while correspondents of out of town newspapers, both foreign and domestic, cheerfully acceded to requests to suppress all disturbing financial reports. In a word, the financial department of the whole newspaper press accepted the situation philosophically, bearing their losses without complaint and supporting without cavil the restrictive measures which it was necessary to employ.