The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-10-08
A POLICE REP0RE:

Since the establishment Of Out. paper |
in Adrian we have refrained from men-
tioninR the Occa ional rows that have
Occuri I'd here, believing, rs 4 majority |
of our business men did, that such |
things were disgraceful enough with |
out publishing them to the world, but |
the frequency with which they have |
occurred Of late, and the open defiance |
Of law and order, has caused change |
in public opinion, and now our mer-
chants. business men and village officers |
request that We depart from our accMs-
tonedrule, and hereafter give y police
report weeklY-pnblishing the names
Of all persons arrested for disorderly
conduct. AS unpleasant as the duty
will be to Us, We shall certainly comply
with that request unless those in the
habit of ind"lging in such unlawful
actions show a little more respect for
themselves ~ well ~ their neighbors.
The authorities are determined to put
u stop te lawlessness, and il publishing
If nxmrs Of parties is necessary to that
end. We shall not hesitate to do our
duty in the matter. "A word to the
wise," etc Adrian Guardian.
Bravo, Bro. Guardian. And why
notP People take paper to get the
news, and a paper which systematically
suppresses one kind of news because It
''sounds bad" or will offend somebody,
is not newspaper. It may be a
''puffer'' or \ ''real estate paper"
gotten up to induce settlement and sell
lands, etc., but it is not a newspaper
and fair mirror and exponent Of the
community.
From the start, the ADVANCE in
sisted on being @ewspaper, publishing
police reports and showing up lawless-
ness when it did not get into the police
court. For this we "had 'em on our
backs" for years. The cry Of "injuring
the community" ,""we can't send your
paper abroad" etc., was continually
raised. We were bounded and threat
ened, and about everything else, be-
cause we would publish an honest,
independent paper, telling the bad as
well as the good, about our own peo-
pie. What is the resultp The AD-
VANCE and the better element won.
For some years Worthington has been
probably the most orderly town in the
state. People can sleep nights, and
there is rarely any carousing or fighting
on our streets. A vast deal of this
state of affairs is due to the long, per-
sistent fight which the ADVANCE made
in behalf of law and order. Many of
the people who used to join with the
disorderly element are now ashamed of
themselves, and others long since said
We were right.
Now word to the Guardian and our
sister town of Adrian: For a long
time we have been asked why the
Guardian never said anything about
the police record and the disorders in
Adrian. Rumors have come to Wor-
thington time and again of rows,
assaulting officers, and ''painting the
town red." Recently the talk has
been on cur streets that Adrian was
the worst little town in the state for
disOrderly conduct. People. it is said,
have left the town because they could
not sleep at night, and home men are
afraid to do police duty. We have en-
deavored to get the facts for puhlica.
tion, hut have not been able to get
more than the top rumors. Nobody in
Adrian would write US the facts for
publication. We have therefore re-
Trained, as a rule, from publishing the
rumOrs.
| Moreover, there is an element in tile
West End which is working mp feeling
betw the West End and the East
End, and this we have always deplored.
In all our political matters, and in all
business matters. the ADVANCE has
stood by the West End as much as by
the East End. believing that the whole
county was to be worked together, and
that petty local rivalries and jealousef
should be kept down as much as posi-
BILE. This is another reason why w
have refrained from publishing the
rumors about the disorders IN Adrian
Now, if the Guardian will do it,
duty, we shalt not only get at the facts
but disorder in Adrian can be sup
pressed to \ great degree. 1t may tak'
some time, as it did here, but deter
mined newspaper and few resolut(
citizens of the better class can do it.
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