Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-06-20

now, the great blanket sheets arc
white and beautifully printed, and
are sown broadcast daily from a
hundred business ccnters, in edi-
tions numbering tens of thousands
Then there were hardly as many pa
pers altogether in America as there
are dailics now; and nearly every
county town now boasts as good Il
paper as the great commercial me-
tropolis then supplied. Is not this
wonderful as the work of a little
more than half a century? Steam
has been the great producing pow
er, free schools have furnished the
constantly widening circle of read.
ers, and the magnetic telegraph has
stimulated the popular demand for
the daily intellectual repast.
+ AS evidence of the rapidity with
(which newspapers have multiplied,
4 we have bgt te. glance at their his.
tory in our young and thriving
ESTATE. III Lac thirty-thfee years
Fago, there were but four papers,
! and those published weekly, in all
iowa. In 1856 there were four
dailies and sixty-eight other than
Haily. Fourteen years later, in
1870, Ahc dailies had increased more
than five fold, numbering twenty
two, the whole number Of distinct
publications was two hundred and
thirty-thrce, and their aggregate
circulation 2l9,09O. In the Union,
at the same time there were 5,s7l
publications, of which 574 were is.
sued daily, 1922 weekly, and the
combined circulation of all, 0,s42,-
475 copies.
Demand and supply keep equal
pace, and both illustrate the remark
able age in which We live. Dis.
tance is now scarcely an obstacle to
travel, and space Is annih'lated in
communicating intelligence. The
rail car takes us to San Francisco,
two thousand miles away, iii less
time, and with vastly more comfort,
than the numbering stage" carried
our fathers from Albany to Buffalo,
three hundred miles, only fifty years
ago. The news logged along with
the passengers on the stage-coach,
and the only telegraphs were
the gossiping tongues of neighbors;
now, thought leaps across conti-
nent, or flashes along the bed of an
ocean, in an instant of time, to
elcctrifv the waiting ear on the
other side. Such progress is not
merely great-it is vast, well nigh
overcoming cur sense of the relation
of things; changing and transform
ing the methods of business, break
ing mp the old staid habits of men,
and inoculating society, from center
to circumference with the restless
steam and telegraphic energy and
velocity which gives scarcely time
for rest, little for reflection, and
none for Incidence.
THE EDITOR OF TO-DAY.
1t is on this theater, and amid
this whirl of thought and business,
that the editor of to-day must play
his part. How vastly more far
reaching, concentrating and intense
is his labor than ever before, even
in the recent past. Before the age
of steam and the telegraph the news
of a week could be mastered in an
hour; now it is almost impossible to
real the ne,es Of the day, to say
nothing of the discussions of public
affairs, the development of scientific
research, and the ever widening
sweep of popular literature. The
secret of this is, that since light
ming became a news carrier we are
every morning and evening brought
face to face with the civilized world;
its present thought is incorporated
with our thought--its enterprises,
its schemes, its ambitions, and even
it's casualties and accidents pass
under our eyes every time the sun
rises and sets. The whole swelling
tide OF humanity is thus brought so
near to us that it fairly breathes
into our faces! How is the editor
tc master all this, to keep the run
of the worlds affairs, and besides
this to deal with the problems ofthe
hour? In the great newspapers, by
division of labor, each editor ia
king u department; but all must
have an eye, more or less, upon the
whole, and this can only be accom-
plished by cconomising time, sys-
tematic study, and unfagging zeal
and industry.
CENTRALIZING TENDENCIES.
The tendency of all this is to con-
solidation-to give the monopoly of
news-vcnding to the great papers of
commercial centers, which enjoy
the best facilities of steam and tele-
graphic intercourse, and whose col
umns furnish the most instruction,
and afford the highest ordsr Of en-
tertainment--How to prevent this
monopoly, or to curtail itspower, is
the problem which not only this as,
sociation. but the great mass of cd
itors and printers, are most interes-
ed in solving. How shall thepress of
,{thc smaller cities, and younger
{towns, maintain themselves in the
struggle with their metropolitan
brethren? How shall their patron.
age and influence be increased, and
their prosperity be assured? How
shall the country editor keep his
place, and advance to higher mca-
sure of usefulness? What arc the
CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS?
The labor of editing u county
newspaper passably has quadrupled
in the past twenty years. Two or
three original items, "lcader" (of-
ten borrowed from city exchangci
and the skeleton of II story, then
constituted the bulk of the editorial
work performed on many country
journal. Now, from two to six col
umns of "locals," with n slight
straining after the sensational, II
close itemization of news, and more
pretension in the leading columns,
is the general practice. This is Il
great advance, for which the pro-