The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1859-02-12
Country Newspapers.
From lhe Yermonl PatrIol.

I
State Is not duly appreciated.
Country printers do not attempt to get up
their papers as cheap as the city wedklles,
which are simply re-hash Of some half doz.
en- dailiea, because they can't do H. The
cheap city weeklies arc made up Of matter
that has been used iu daiiy, frequently q
|trl-weekly, and a sem-weekly aud paid for
three times before Il goes into the country,
They can well be afforded at a nominal price
Country printers can't compete with such pa
pers, any better than our country tradesmen
can compete with the city craftsmen, and they
don't attempt H. Yet, after all, We don't see
how We nre to get along without s0mo ooun-
try. Al city, won't do, and people who stop
their country and take city papers, because
they are few cents cheaper should reflect
that the system upon which they act, would
ruin oil sorts Of business. The country can
only be prosperous by mutual UterchUge
Of business mfcresis, The farmer raises his
beef, his pork, his butter his potatoes and
cannot rely upon the city as a market for Il
aH He must live in some sense, at home,
and in order that he may live, other interests
about him must prosper One man, one in
tercst does not make a community. The
Farmer, the Merchant have their products
and their merchandise TO sell The printer
has his paper 10 sell, aud It Is for the inter
est Of each that each may prosperi and in
order that each may prosper, each should
sustain the other. We put il TO the people
Of the State, IL they would not consider Il q
calamity, II every paper in the State were
obliged to suspend for want Of patronage
Would il not be considered an unmisthkahe
evidence that the State was going to seed P"
And yet, look at il how immense proper
ton Of all TIM people Of the State do all in
their power to bring about that calamity
Not town in the State that has is paper
would part with IT, II there we're roal ability
and business TO sustain Il. Still, how little
is done to keep Il alive! Newspapers are
necessary to the business Of the place, Stop
all the papers In Montpelier! employing con-
s,antly some forty or fifty individuals, and
connected with whom are not less than an
/ hundred who Rrc fed and clothed In the place,
and making q home business Of s2j 600 to
I $4,000 at least. Still, how many rrc there
among us who never think Of sustaining this
! large interest who take not one Of our four
/ papers, and who expect the patronage Of
those connected with them, without dollar
| in return! We mention Montpelier, only,
because the newspaper interest is the largest
. here. of any town in the State.
Newspapers, it is true, must take their
chance In one respect Where there is no
work for a slteet.s-4 aFr tAste ~i!l be 40 shoe
makers, and where there is-no- work for a
/ printer, there will hc no printer, but where
/ there is a co immunity able 10 support news
I5sT'gTi fairly, and uit4,FF't ts,,feis TiI,,rts
ought it not to be doncs and above all, this
dropping respectable country papers for no
/ better city papers, because they come a hHle
cheaper should be abandoned It is pre-
ciscly as shortsighied as Il would be for all
the people dependent upon the printing Off
ccs in Montpelier, to send to Boston for their
necessarics, because they could procure them
a few cents cheaper. 1t is for the interest
Of the newspaper publishers that the mcr-
chants and mechanics in Montpelier should
prosper, and it as much for the interest OF
the merchants and mechanics that the prin-
ters should prosper so with any other vii
lage, so with the State.
or what interest to Montpelier, TO any
place any county, State or individual in the
State is the success Of a paper in Boston,
New York or Philadelphia ? Do the men
who publish them purchase any Of our goods
do anything for US Yet, it is not ut all
uncommon to see n mechanic who is largely
indebted to the printers Of his own place for
patronage, sweating about the streets, getting
up a club for some city paper, by which ope-
ration he gets has for nothing! Neither is it
at all uncommon to see n Postmaster, a re-
spectacle portion Of the income of whose Of.
fee, COWS from the newspapers in his village
or county, engaged in the same business by
which re gets a few cents postage
Now, we should like to know what the
shsemakcrs, for instance, Of Montpelier
would say if lce were to get up'a club Of
people for the purpose of procuring guam
tity Of boots OF a dealer in Boston, represent
ing that by taking a quantity they would
come cheaper than they could purchase them
here, and by which arrangement we should
get pair for nothing ?
To any mans right to go where he pleases
Tor his newspaper, of course we make no OBJ
lection, but the simple question is, while all
other interests talk about home patronage and
sustaining home industry" whether the
newspaper interest Of the country is not suf-
otter interests as one that ought 10 be sus-
tanned and encouraged instead Of being neg
lcctcd and left to shin for itself as no CON
sideration whatever.
IL OF. intnr..t crnaLi..- IL ...-La.......-