The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-04-16
Atlanta Constitution.

y
Town to Support Good Newspsper.
Atlanta Constitution.
A word once more to those COM
munities that seem to think an edi-
tor ought to be willing to publish a
paper just for the fun of seeing his
name at the head of the columns and
being invited to an occasional pic
mic.
Some time ago the Constitution re-
produced a complaint from the
Clarkesville Advertiser about the
grand jury presentments OF Haber-
sham county having been ordered
printed in that paper at a price not
to exceed $3. Think of it-three
whole dollars! Not enough to pay
for setting the type, except where the
editor sets his own type, has his own
garden and let's his wife take i'm sew
ing.
Now comes the Winder Democrat
and complains that the city council
Of that town is "hard hearted" be-
cause it has stopped the custom of
publishing the council proceedings
and paying therefor at a nominal
rate; in addition to levying for the
first time a special tax on newspa-
pers.
No, it isn't hard-heartedness that
prompted the Winder council to do
this-but simply short-sightedness.
1t may be none of the Constitutions
business to make suggestions to Win
der's councilmen, or to the grand
jurymen OF Habersham county about
how they shall run their local affairs;
but it is our business to protest
against such mistaken public policy
as this
The average weekly editor usually
has his all invested in his newspaper
property. That investment gener-
ally represents from one to two
thousand dollars But it is worth
more to the town than five times the
amount invested in any other local
enterprise AS a rule the newspaper
represents to the outside world the
town itself. Poor paper, poor town,
is the usual verdict.
1t is, therefore, to the interest of
every town to support good news
paper. Not through local pride alone
but for practical business reasons. A
newspaper is constantly doing ten
times as much for its town as itcould
ever hope to get pay for-more than
it could charge for, if it would.
The more prosperous paperis the
more it is able to do. Show us a
good weekly paper, full of live local
ads, with general circulation
throughout the county and we will
show you an up-to-date, prosperous,
progressive community.
And we will also show you a paper
that is worth five times as much to
that community every year as the
editor manages to make for himself.
Show us a community that persist
emily proceeds on the idea that the
editor of the home paper can live on
the "pi" that accumulates in the
Office; whose official bodies think it a
waste of public money to throw him
a bit OF public printing occasionally
at living prices; whose citizens have
come to regard it as one of their in
alienable rights to work him forlong-
winded obituary notices and Sin me-
moriams," with three inches of
hymn book poetry at the end, to say
nothing of an occasionalnoticea about
a lost COW or some cotton seed for
sale. and we will show you u COM
munity that is living from hand to
mouth and is always on the ragged
edge of adversely.
People ought to stop to think
about these things. 1t is an impor-
tant matter 1t is their own good
that is involved-the welfare and
progress of their community; there
fore of themselves individually.
A local newspaper is absolutely
necessary to anycommunity. Itmay
be that the daily papers, with their
larger news service and quicker facil-
tiles, may have overshadowed the
weeklies; but the weeklies continue to
fill a place that the dailies can never
fill. If they keep the people of COM
munity in touch with each other by
giving them the news of their town
and county, for that alone they are
of value and are worth far more than
the dollar year that is usually
charged for them. If they merely
chronicle the progress Of the CON-
munity and keep the local pride and
progressive spirit aroused they are
worth still more-far more, il fact,
than the town ever spends on them.
Bear this in mind: No merchant,
no grand jury, no town council that
spends every year all that they can
afford with the home paper-whether
that expenditure is actually neces-
sary or not-makes a wiser, more
profitable investment. They are
not giving" the home paper some
/ thing. On the contrary it rs earning
every cent it gets and more-prO-
vided it is a paper that is worth pick
ing up in the road. And if it isn't
that sort of paper, it is usually the
| fault OF the town in which it is pub
4 1:.l,o1