America 1929: John F. Kennedy, the Great Writer

By evening, only a few people remained in the editorial office of the New York Herald.

Isabella sat at her desk, a stack of orders and letters piled up in front of her. Her face showed fatigue, but her eyes gleamed with excitement.

"Arthur, look at these."

She pushed a stack of orders and letters in front of Arthur.

"Our switchboard has been ringing non-stop since this morning. So far, we've received over a hundred new subscription calls and dozens of emails requesting long-term subscriptions."

"That's not all. At noon, I sent people to visit several major newsstands, and the vendors all said that many people came specifically to ask where they could buy today's Vanguard newspaper."

"One vendor said he bought fifty portions, and they sold out in less than two hours. Some people even wanted to pay extra to buy them."

Arthur flipped through the orders, the papers rustling between his fingers.

Most of the orders were written in illegible handwriting, clearly hastily or excitedly. Some simply included a name and address, while others added a few words.

"Please continue to publish articles by honest people."

"We support newspapers that dare to speak the truth."

"Don't let those people succeed."

"The printing plant called at 3 p.m. They said they were out of stock in the warehouse, but two distributors were urging them to deliver. I've already told them to prepare overnight and print an additional 10,000 copies tomorrow."

"I told them that if sales are good tomorrow morning, we'll start the backup printing press in the afternoon, and we can print 15,000 or even 20,000 copies the day after tomorrow."

She stopped and looked at Arthur.

"Do you know what this means? We usually only sell three thousand servings a day, and even on our best day, we haven't exceeded four thousand. Today we broke the record, and tomorrow we might double that."

Arthur, however, was not very happy.

Isabella looked at him, and the smile on her face slowly faded.

"You don't seem as happy as I thought. Do you feel the result wasn't good enough? Or did I miscalculate something?"

Arthur waved his hand and quickly explained:

"No, you're right. The results are excellent, better than expected."

"In one day, we received over a hundred more subscription calls, the entire newspaper sold out, and we're printing another 10,000 copies tomorrow. This is a phenomenal leap forward. Any tabloid would be celebrating with champagne."

"But? Are you going to say 'but'?"

Isabella sensed the shift in his tone.

Arthur picked up where she left off, leaning forward slightly:

"However, the New York Daily News has a daily circulation of 100,000 copies. The other newspapers under Hearst combined reach hundreds of thousands of people every day."

"Even if we sell 10,000 copies tomorrow, it will only be one-tenth of theirs. The gap in influence cannot be bridged by a single viral article."

Isabella remained silent.

She picked up an order form, then put it down, thought for a moment, and tried to interpret Arthur's words using a metaphor.

"Are you trying to say that the discussion sparked by 'The Patron Saint of Moving House' is like throwing a stone into a pond; the ripples may be pretty, but they don't change the size of the pond. Once the ripples subside, everything will go back to normal?"

Arthur nodded, then shook his head.

"It's worse than that. We didn't just throw stones, we threw a challenge. Hearst and Walker must have seen it by now. They're not going to sit there and wait for the ripples to dissipate on their own."

"They'll throw bigger stones into the pond, or simply muddy the water. By the time they get involved, if we still only have this small pond, we won't be able to withstand even a single wave."

He paused for a moment, then continued to explain.

"Right now, everyone's talking about who the real 'honest man' is. But a reader might be cheering for a new article by an 'honest man' today, only to be drawn away by a bombshell headline on Hearst tomorrow. Loyalty is fragile, especially in the newspaper industry."

"We need something that can keep our readers hooked, something that makes them want to read The Vanguard first thing every morning when they wake up."

Isabella frowned.

"Keep readers engaged? You mean, like a cartoon column in The New Yorker? Or like a serialized novel in a magazine?"

"It's not entirely a comic book or novel. That doesn't fit the 'honest guy' character. Do you remember the idea I mentioned?"

"I think we need a strong series of columns, one a day, with a coherent theme, but each article standing alone. It must be based on the quality of 'honest people' expressing criticism with humor, making people think and also smile knowingly."

Arthur had this idea for a while, and today he had refined it considerably. He continued to explain it to Isabella:

"To guard against attacks from Jimmy Walker and Hearst, especially slander in the media, we can expose the absurd truths of their circle before they do, and establish the image of a fighter in the minds of our readers."

"The absurd truth about them? That sounds a bit abstract. Could you be more specific? For example?"

Arthur thought for a moment.

"How do you think New York City Hall, or the Tammany Institute, or any large bureaucracy, actually operates?"

"The mayor gives a speech and makes promises. Officials nod in agreement and write memos. Documents circulate among various departments. Committees convene and then disband..."

"But in the end, was the real problem solved? Most of the time, no. Why?"

"Because the design of the entire municipal system may not be for solving problems, but for maintaining the existence of the system itself, for distributing benefits, and for appeasing different groups of people."

"I want to write a series of columns set in a fictional American city, which we might call 'Ames City'."

A clear storyline gradually unfolds from Arthur's perspective.

He drew inspiration from the classic British dramas "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister," but localized them to the context of an American city in 1929.

Smuggling and corruption stemming from Prohibition, the lucrative distribution within the Tammany-style political machine, lobbying behind large corporations, the power struggle between unions and employers, and the media's sensationalism...

All of these can become material for the story of "Ames City".

"The story revolves around the newly elected mayor, Jim Hack, a long-time opposition politician who, in order to win votes, promised during his campaign to build an efficient and transparent government."

Isabella listened and nodded.

"Sounds like a good person. And then?"

"Then he met his city administrator, Humphrey Appleby. And a young secretary, Bernard Woolley, who still had some conscience."

"Before long, Mayor Harker discovered that the three of them together could accomplish almost nothing of substance, but they were perfectly suited to put on an absurd satire for the readers."