discover two facts such as these. They floodlight a vast murky 
area of the press-world, and illuminate the role of telephone as 
seen through another culture. The American newspaperman in 
large degree assembles his stories and processes his data by 
telephone because of the speed and immediacy of the oral 
process. Our popular press is a near approximation to the 
grapevine. The Russian and European newspaperman is, by 
comparison, a littérateur. It is a paradoxical situation, but the 
press in literate America has an intensely oral character, while 
in oral Russia and Europe the press has a strongly literary 
character and function.

     The English dislike the telephone so much that they 
substitute numerous mail deliveries for it. The Russians use the 
telephone for a status symbol, like the alarm clock worn by 
tribal chiefs as an article of attire in Africa. The mosaic of the