The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-07-26
Value of lhe Local Paper.

cious and public spirited OF the
business men in most communl-
ties do not seem adequately to APP
preciate the vaIue of the local
newspaper as an agency of adver-
Using of the city or town in which
Il is published There are to be
found in every town very consid-
cradle portion Of business men
. whcsare ready to give their time
and labor to the organization and
and maintenance of boards of
trade, OF any other movement for
the attraction Of outside eater
prise and capital, and whom it is
sa-4,-;:5lifiieult to in5aee to Subscribe
money for the establishment Of
promising enterprises, but never
theIess contribute little or nothing
to a means Of greater importance
and efficiency in the building up
of their town-the support and
improvement of its newspapers.
There is no question but that
the newspaper of any town or city
may be mace the most effective
possible agency in its development
and prosperity. The efforts and
influence Of either individuals or
organization are at the best but
spasmodic and transient, but the
newspaper works on necessarily.
The individual agitator of the
board of trade reaches only a com
paraiively limited field of opportu-
nity-only those to whom particu-
lar effort may be directed; but the
newspaper reaches out IN every
direction, and carries It's influence
to hosts of unknown and unsus-
pected watchers of opportunities.
Among shrewd, intelligent men of
affairs, the character of every COM
munity is measured more by the
standard of its newspaper than
perhaps by any other single indi-
cation. With little observation
and experience remarkable just
estimate of the characteristics Of
q town may be reached by an in
spection of its newspaper. If the
community Is a live, pushing, lib
eral one, columns of It's local news
paper viii be found crowded with
the advertisements of its manu-
facturers, merchants and profess
sional men. Ifthese announcements
are absent the investigator will
naturally set the town down as
containing a slow unambitious, un-
progressive community. And
without such support in a liberal
measure no newspaper can do
justice either to its town or to the
ambition Of its publisher.
It is quite safe to assert that
newspaper is rarely found made
quately representing the conse-
quence and enterprise of its COM
munity. The cases are exception
al indeed IN which a community
deserves a better newspaper than
It possesses. or in which local
newspapers do not fatteringly re-
fleet the actual character of the
community. But to do this-thus
to indulge alaudable spirit of local
pride-they are very often compell-
ed to make pecuniary contributions
to the public good, far exceeding in
volume what might reasonably be
expected by them at the hands of
scores Of business men, who seem
to feel that they have done all that
is incumbent upon them, as
public spirited members of
the community, if they give
the paper the support of a
subscription.
is a popular but probably fall
rs impression that newspa-
are Just what their publish
nd editors make them. They
not; they are to a very great
ut what tie business commu-
where they are published
1es them. They represent the
character and merits of the COM
mnnity far more exactly than they
do the energy and enterprise of
their publishers or the ability and
ambition Of their editors. It is
IN the power Of the business men
OF any community to push their
local newspapers forward to |
staFdard impossible Of attainment
by any effort Of the publishers
without their cooperation, and in
no other direction can an canal
measure of effort and experience
be applied with any like equal
effect in advancing the interest
not only of the community If
large, but of the individual busi.
ness man himself. Industrial
Journal
siuful man has only one friend among
ali the intelligent entities in existence.
He has no friend in his fellow man. be-