The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1896-09-24
A WORD WITH THE "ROANOKE
NEWS"

Two weeks ago the Roanoke News
made the statement that its circulation
is double that of any other paper in the
county. The statement was made as
matter of fact, while it was purely a
guess The editors of the Roanoke
News had no means OF knowing our cir
cuIatiOn any more than we had of know
ing theirs. However, we could not be-
lieve that the statement was true, but
we did not wish to get into any contro-
versy with our neighbor, 50 we wrote
to the News three times. We first ask
ed if the types made them say what
they intended TO say, and they replied
In the affirmative, and declared that
they honestly thought their circula-
ton was double that of any other paper
in the county. We answered the News
stating that we should contest the
statement unless it was backed up by
proof, stating at the same time that for
the circulation OF the News to be double
that of THE COMMONWEALTH it must be
at least 2, 100 every week. Mr.. Stain
back replied that if the circulation of
THE COMMONWEALTH is what we
'clalmed' of course he was mistaken.
He added that he thought our circula-
ton was about 600.
We wrote the News again and asked
the editors to make the correction nee
essary, and we stated that inasmuch as
they had gratuitously opened up the
question of our relative calculations, We
thought it fair for them to state the ra-
ito of the circulation of the two papers,
We further stated that they could |
make the ratio by basing the circula-
ton of THE COMMONWEALTH at ,O5O, !
adding that the ratio could be given |
without stating the circulation of eth
er paper. We left it for the News to
make the proper correction according
to its own Idea of right.
we wrote three times to avoid any
controversy over a matter which con-
cerned no one except the News and
The COMMONWEALTH, supposlng that
our nelghbor's idea Of right would
cause the proper correction to be made.
The News idea of right is found in
the following paragraph which was
printed down in the Southwest corner
Of its local page last week:
"a CoRREcT1oN-Last week we stat
ed that the Roanoke News had double
the circulation of any newspaper pub
llshed in this county, and we honestly
believed we were correct, but since that
time, Mr.. Hilllard of TIE COMMON
writes and says we were mis-
taken. He claims 1850 circulation
and that being the case our circulation
does not double that of The COMMON
WEALTH. We based our calculations
on THE COMMONWEALTH having about
6OO''
It will be observed that we gave our
to our neighbor in conf
dence, and it publishes our circulation,
but says not a word about its own, ex-
cept this: 1--WE based our circulation
on THE COMMONWEALTH having about
6OO."
Now, why did not our neighbor give
its own circulation alongside of the fig
ures for the circulation of THE CON-
We gave cur circulation in conf
dence but the News has seen fit to pub
lish our circulation and leave every
body else to guess its circulation as it
guessed OF THE CoMMoSwEA1rH's.
We did not give the News our circu-
lat'on for publication, and any reasona-
bic construction of our letter will show
1t. We simply gave the News our fig
ures in order that it might intelligent
ly calculate the ratio of our circula-
ton. 1t had unqualifedly declared It's
circulation double ours and we thought
1t right that the ratio should be given
as a proper correction.
Can't our neighbor calculate ratio?
If not, it ought to have given its own
circulation when it published ours. |
And now The COMMONWEALTH puts |
the plain question to the Roanoke |
News: How much is your weekly cir
on1ofion9