Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1871-07-14
THE GAZETTE.
Iowa Journalism.

We doubt whether there mas been
anything, in which the changes have
been so marked within q few years
past, as in journalism, We can re-.
member when a dingy looking paper
two feet square, containing each
week an estray notice and marriage
or death as local items, was counted
first-c]ass paper, provided it had
plenty of long-winded editorials.
Now such sheets would not be toler-
ated-at least in Iowa. Only few
years ago prosy editorials, giving a
condensed summary of the rise and
fall of the Roman Empire, were read
with zest; now, you could not get
one reader in n hundred to wade
through them. The Eldora Ledger
remarks that "the field of the coun-
try editor is every day becoming
more circumscribed. Forty years
ago the country journal was all pow
erful and respectable. Most of the
United States depended upon them
for news, politics, opinions. Alas !
the mammoth metropolitan dailies
have got to circulating everywhere,
ard the originality, the strength and
profit Of country papeos are almost
gone. What is there left for the edi-
torof country ppper? Nothing but
to CLEAN patiently the country news,
pick up every scrap of local informa~
ton, and serve 1t up with the richest
sauce he can make. In doing this,
some one is sure to take offense, but
our motto is the news always, right
or wrong. Nothing else can give in
dividuality to local paper, and a
local paper without individuality is
dead in it's she'll"
No State in the Union has done
more than Iowa in journalistic pro-
gress. You see few sickly, weakly,
poorly printed papers among the
Hawkeye press. Short editorials,
scarcely beyond typographical limi-
tatiors, have succeeded the long
winded homilies, while the local
columns sparkle, each week, with
home items. For one we are proud
of the Iowa press, and perhaps, in
fulfillment of that old adage, that
misery loves company" we are
proud to count ourselves in the num-
Der. Iowa newspapers are doing
more for our great State than any
human agency. The editors as q
rule show more enterprise, work
harder, and in proportion to their
means, invest more and are paid less
than any other class of PERSONS
Few are rewarded for what they do.
Shakespeare said "There is time in
the tide of men which if taken ut the
flood leads to fortune" but editors
of country newspapers seldom get
into that boat. There is but one
course to pursue-work on earnestly,
faithfully, diligently and constantly
in the course which common sense
and selfevidence mark out. There
is lesson for country editors to be
drawn from an incident in the edi-
torial career of Ben. Franklin, who
was taken to task by noted politi>
clan for what he had said in his pa
per, and told to retraCt or he would
cut off his patronage. Franklin
heard him patiently and after he was
through requested him to come and
dine with him the next day. At the
appointed hour said politician ap-
peared and soon with Franklin was
seated around O table, on which
nothing but saw-dust had been pro-
vided. Indignantly the politician
asked what does this mean? Why,
sir, said Franklin, cit means that so
long as can live on such food as
this, will publish such q paper as /
please" This is the kind of journ-
alism Iowa in many instances,
possesses. The more Of it the better.
With the Improvements, typograph-
icalIy, let us have free press with the
stamp of editorial independence on
it.