2

It is still more difficult to guess how the time is distributed. The
college students were asked to name "the five features which interest
you most." Just under twenty percent voted for "general news," just
under fifteen for editorials, just under twelve for "politics," a
little over eight for finance, not two years after the armistice a
little over six for foreign news, three and a half for local, nearly
three for business, and a quarter of one percent for news about
"labor." A scattering said they were most interested in sports,
special articles, the theatre, advertisements, cartoons, book reviews,
"accuracy," music, "ethical tone," society, brevity, art, stories,
shipping, school news, "current news," print. Disregarding these,
about sixty-seven and a half percent picked as the most interesting
features news and opinion that dealt with public affairs.

This was a mixed college group. The girls professed greater interest
than the boys in general news, foreign news, local news, politics,
editorials, the theatre, music, art, stories, cartoons,
advertisements, and "ethical tone." The boys on the other hand were
more absorbed in finance, sports, business page, "accuracy" and
"brevity." These discriminations correspond a little too closely with
the ideals of what is cultured and moral, manly and decisive, not to
make one suspect the utter objectivity of the replies.

Yet they agree fairly well with the replies of Scott's Chicago
business and professional men. They were asked, not what features
interested them most, but why they preferred one newspaper to another.
Nearly seventy-one percent based their conscious preference on local
news (17.8%), or political (15.8%) or financial (11.3%), or foreign