Here's how the matter stands.

A newspaper syndicate is like any other trading company, composed for the sole end and object of making as much profit out of the public as possible.

The lion's portion naturally goes to the heads of the concern--then come the shareholders' dividends.

The actual workers in the business, such as the 'editors,' are paid as little as their self-respect will allow them to take, and as for the other fellows _under_ the editors--well!--you can just imagine they get much less than the little their self-respect would claim, if they were not, most of them, so desperately poor, and so anxious for a foothold somewhere as to be ready to take anything.

I took the first chance I could get, and hung on to it, not for the wretched pay, but for the experience, and for the insight it gave me into men and things.