The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-11
IT WAS NOT PUBLISHED
The Tribulations of the Amateur
Contributor.
HE VALUE Of A NAME
An Interesting Paper From the Pen of
A. G. Botkin Read at the Meet
ing OF the Press Asso-
citation.

Among the papers OF interest read al
the recent meeting of the Montana Press
association was one written by A c. Bot
kin, formerly lieutenant governor of this
state. 1t is on the subject of Amateur
Contributors" and reads:
zone day during my present sojourn
in Washington / felt moved to enlighten
the public on some question of the period.
| Accordingly I wrote a communication
and sent it to the Post. 1t was a very
able article. CWho is telling this story p
/ signed my name, but with the request
4 that it should not be published 1t was
not published. Neither was the commu-
| nication. I got up the next morning, per-
I haps little earlier than usual and look
4 ed over every page of the paper, and
| am able to state without qualification that
the article did not appear in it's COL
| umns!
| II concluded that the editor was a mo-
nopolst and was unwilling to share with
his readers the delight that he had en-
| joyed in reading the contribution Later
l sent him another communication, and
| he reserved that also for his personal de-
| recitation. Then saw paragraph in the
| same paper stating that in Montana
| gambling was conducted openly and
without legal restriction. This led me to
| write communication stating the fact
| that no state in the union has a more
drastic anti-gambing law than Montana,
to which l signed my name without res
| ervation; and that communication was
| published.
I'm the meantime 1 had learned that 1t
was the unvarying custom of the paper
mentioned to publish no communication
without the name and residence of the
writer IN tull, and my present purpose is
TO convey to you my opinion that the
practice is most salutary one, and
worthy of limitation by all editors.
In the first place, it must have come
within your observation that the average
man has no actual reluctance to see his
name in print If, then. your contributor
has something to say that is deserving
OF publication and is actuated only by
good motives in making use of your coll
umns, he will not object to the insertion
of his name. Conversely, if he is trying
TO subserve some selfish or vindictive
purpose, he is sure to conceal his identity
II you will permit him; and it is to be
feared that three-fourths of the anony-
nous contributions that you receive must
be assigned to the latter class.
Again. when you publish a commune
cation, your readers have right to know
who is authority for the statements of
TACT that 1t contains or the opinions that
1t expresses. to the end that they may
judge of the weight to be given them.
But these are not the only, and per-
haps not the main considerations in sup
port of the practice that l am urging 1t
is due TO yourselves, for your own pro-
lection, that you should publish the
names of amateur contributors When
L was editor of a paper at Milwaukee a
gentleman presented communication
xlrh int, he oh ,,r;., "a -.
that would do SO witI, his name attach
ed. He protested that he could not think
of signing his name. But / said, you
are asking me to sign my name And
such is the fact. The reader holds the ed
itor measurably responsible for every I'M
signed article that appears in his coll
umns, and you need not hope to escape
that responsibility. The disclaimer that
we sometimes see at the head of the ed
itorial column fails utterly to effect that
purpose. The condition is illustrated in
hyperbole by the familiar anecdote of the
old farmer in Western New York who is
said to have died of a broken heart when
he heard that Horace Greeley didn't
write all of the advertisements in the
New York Tribune.
Il may be pardoned for reciting another
incident, though l am conscious of some
what overworking the personal pronoun
or the first person singular. For some
time | was connected with a Helena pa
per as an editorial writer. One day there
came to me a messenger with a para
graph and request that l should procure
its publication. IT referred to lamentable
events that had occurred many years
previous in the early lives of two promi-
nent citizens. If their connection with
these events was culpable, they had
atoned for their faults by years of UNI
exceptionable conduct. In the meantime
they had reared families and earned in a
high degree, the confidence and respect
of their fellow-ctizens, and it was the
dictate of common Lecency that the trans
be permitted to res. in the obavion to
which they had been consigned.
me author was a man whose promi-
nenee in the community, intelligence and
professions of high standards, with
much that is admirable in his public and
private life, should have restrained him
from so unworthy an act. The paragraph
was typewriter, so that the identity of
the writer might not be disclosed through
the penmanship, and as an additional
preeaution it was sent to me through a
third person. Suppose that I had pro-
cured its publication. No good purpose
would nave been served. Unspeakable
pain would have been visited upon the in
nocent families of the men assailed. The
editor of the paper would have suffered
serious material loss and would have be-
come an object of execration in the minds
of all right-minded citizens for his wan
ton assault upon private character And
all this time the dastardly and malicious
author would have remained secure in his
cowardly concealment to chuckle at the
mischief he had wrought.
Amateur contributors are not to he
discouraged. 1t is a fact that We NAV
whisper among ourselves, though no hint
of 1t should be permitted to reach the
profane public that editors don't know
everything; that they are neither omnis-
Gent nor infallible. The comments of in
telligent members of your respective con-
stituencies on current topics are an at
tractfve feature and worthy of the space
that they occupy. Blu as the writers
should have the credit, so they should
share the responsibility for their contri-
buttons, and those who have only COM
mendable objects in view will not hest |
tate to accede to this demand. And do