The first ten years of the new century were for the CRIMSON a period of constructive conservatism, P. M. Henry '09. President of the CRIMSON during the last half of his Senior year, writes interestingly of the paper at this period. "On the whole we got out a pretty good paper. We were certainly conservative, both as to makeup and contents, but at least we treated the English language with some degree of respect. We were very much afraid of imitating the yellow press. It was not until 1907 that we permitted ourselves a triple head over a news story or a caption of any kind over an Editorial. . . The paper was indispensable because of its notices, but I don't believe it was generally read, except by the editors. . . . .
"A college paper, however, should be judged by comparison with its contemporaries, and as I remember the daily exchanges received from Yale, Princeton, and Cornell, I think we made a respectable showing.
"The paper was published in those years in the basement of the Union and printed by McCarter and Kneeland, whose long suffering patience is gratefully remembered. The candidates did most of the news gathering, and their period of servitude was too long and gruelling. It almost always meant probation for the successful. One of the three Assistant Managing Editors put the paper to bed, the Manager Editor supervised the job, the President wrote the editorials with the assistance of an editorial board, and the 'busy end gathered the ads.' In many respects the management of the CRIMSON has not different to this day, although now there is an Editorial Chairman in charge of the editorial column and the competitions are not as long as they use to be."
In 1912 the work of the business department made itself keenly felt when the size of the paper suddenly increased. In 1911-12, most of the papers, 140 to be exact, were four-page journals, with 54 "sixes" and nine "eights." In 1912-13, however, the number of "fours" decreased to 81 with the "sixes" numbering 104.
With the increase of prestige and financial strength came action on the long talked of new building. The lot on Plympton Street was purchased, and by 1914 plans for the building were completed.
On November 19, 1915, the business and editorial board moved into the new building, and the first paper published at 14 Plympton Street was the Yale Game number of November 20, 1915. A news story that day said: "The ownership of its own building by the University daily sets a precedent for all other colleges and universities throughout the country."
From the peak of its prosperity symbolized by the erection of the new building, the CRIMSON, like the rest of the world, fell upon dark days. After the United States declared war in 1917, the University was turned completely topsyturvy, but somehow the CRIMSON managed to continue publication until the fall of 1918, when the very small number of men returning to college forced the suspension of publication on October 4.
Many of the older graduate editors, however, felt so strongly that the continuing of regular issues should be preserved, in some manner, that on October 24 publication was restored on a weekly basis.
On January 2, 1919, daily publication was resumed, and progress again began to be made. The first important step was the purchase of the Harvard Illustrated Magazine and the election of its editors to the board of the CRIMSON. The purpose of the purchase was to secure for the CRIMSON the necessary mechanical equipment for the publication of a bi-weekly pictorial supplement, and more important, a nucleus of editors who could perform the technical work involved. The first supplement appeared the same spring, but it was not until the following autumn that the pictorial work was organized on the sound footing it has since maintained. So far as is known the CRIMSON was the first college daily to issue such a regular illustrated supplement.
There appeared, too, two departments. "The CRIMSON Playgoer" and "The CRIMSON Bookshelf." Last year special editors were assigned to cover these fields, and the "Bookshelf" which has originally been a column in the paper, became a monthly tabloid supplement.