The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-01-15
A PApE1ps pnroE.
The Opinion Of the Yorkviiie Enquirer
The G~reenvi,le News pian--gvans Keeps

~Ao SAoonsEA0 NeWs Fian-6fahs Aeeps
Quiet.
COLUMBIA, Jan. IL.
Among the hosts Of friends of the
ADVERTISER are some who think that
the price OF the ADVERTISER should
not be raised. Numbers have APP
preached the proprietor with the sug-
gestion that they be given the paper
another year at the old time figure.
price has been maintained and it is to
be regretted that q few of the papers
staunchest friends have ordered their
papers stopped. At the same time
new subscribers have been coming in
as usual.
The price OF the ADVERTISER was
increased because the experience of its
publisher was identical with that of the
most competent newspaper men of this
State, TO get u a creditable paper at
one dollar a year and earn a decent
living out of it is not practicable.
The whole cas- Is clearly and CO.
gently put by the the Yorkville, 8. c.,
Enquirer, whose editor and owner, MI.
l.. M. Grist, is one of the most expe-
~rienced publishers OF county newspa-
pers in all this country and one who
among them is recognized as an au-
thority. Here Is what he says:
"The Columbia Register
a raise in the price of it's weekly edit
ion from one to two dollars a year, and
makes the statement that to furnish
the paper at one dollar q year is equiv
alent to giving 1t away. We are not
surprised at this new step On the part
of the Register. The fact is, that it is
just what we have been looking for all
along. Tt is possible, in the more in
telligent and thickly settled white Sec
I fInno NJ tho Mouth on1 NNncf 10 tn1n
lish q first class weekly paper for one
dollar; but in this section the feat can
not be accomplished. The reasons arc
obvious. The population is too sparse
n there is too great @ percentage of
ignorant people who do not read. Say
that the expense of publishing q first
class newspaper is $50 a week. 1t is a
pretty sorry paper that costs much
less than that. If there was only one
subscriber, the price of the paper
would have to be $50, to insure ex-
penses. Two subscribers would reduce
the cost to $25 each, and it would take
1000 subscribers to reduce the cost to
five cents each. The county paper in
this State hat manages to secure as
many as 900 paid subscribers-and of
course that is the only kind that helps
to liquidate eXpenses-is doing u re-
markedly good business. The Column
~ WY loUCIy Will IL WholC oUdOC lOG
its field, claims only 5000 subscribers
at 81 each, and at that rate can hardly
make a living. Taking everything
advertising and all into consideration
when the average Southern weekly
reduces its price below So q year, it is
getting pretty near the dead-line. In
our opinion 50 is q reasonably fair
price; but to make both ends meet, it
takes pretty lively hustling even at
that"
The ADVERTISER undertakes to give
to it's subscribers as good q paper as a
be furnished for a dollar and q half a
year. There was no intention by the
increase in price to wiring money out of
its subscribers. At the present price
there is no "big money" for the AD-
vERTISER's publisher. 1t is q hard
struggle to obtain reasonable compen-
sation for the work bestowed upon it
and with collections what they have
been for the present winter that has
not been obtained.
Now the ADVERTISER is not begging
or asking favors. If you are too poor to
take q paper at its price, it is your
duty to get along without onc If you
can get some other Laurens paper as
good as the ADVERTISER for less
money, why do so. But when it is re-
membered that the cost of printing
Ulc pdpcF Has DOl DcSu lCSScncu WlUn
the hard times and the conditions are
understood from the publishers stand
point as explained above not even q
dozen or two friends of the paper, we
believe, will permanently abandon it.
However, the people who make a pub
lisher's life miserable are not those
who when they can't pay say so and
| quit, u those who insist upon taking
the paper and never can or will pay.
Have you citizens of Laurens a.
ranged about sending the delegates to
the constitutional conventions? In Or
der to have good sensible men in tho
convention n at the same time to
avoid a dirty scramble and scufle be-
tween the factions the Grecnville
News has suggested that each county
agree to send both Tillmanite and
Conservative delegates in proportion
to the strength of each faction in the
Sheppard-Tillman fight of '92. If this
plan were adopted Laurens would send
about -four Tillmanites to one Censor
%vative. The News plan further pro-
vides that the Tillmanites select 25 of
their best men and the Conservatives
an equal number of theirs. Then let
the Conservatives in convention or
otherwise select from among these
Tillmanites those who should be can
uluateS Tor delegates ana inc I1llman-
ties in like ANN select the candi-
dates from the % Conservatives. This
is in the opinion of the News the best
method Of obtaining members for the
convention who would not be partisans
and extremists. The News is very
correct. 1t is practicable and fair and
would be found an admirable method
to avert a contest which cannot but
bring more trouble. But the plan
will not be adopted, not q bit of danger
of that. In the first place nothing will
be adopted which emanates from an
Anti-Tillman source or from anything
save Ben Tillman's brain. In the
second the Tillman leaders do not wish
to see a quiet, peaceful campaign, they
would be forgotten but for their roar
ings n the return of times when peo-
pie go about their business in q sober,
respectable would prove the
ruin of the school of demagogues who
now hold sway.
By the way, Governor John Gary
Evans is demeaning himself in a style
which amounts to a direct reputation
of Tillman. He is going along in a
modest way attending to the duties
of his Office and not once has he sworn
q mighty oath for the entertainment of
the public, not once has he gritted his
teeth to the terror of his enemies and