The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1905-10-05
The Country Weekly.
Irriqon lrrigator.

The country weekly
Irrigon Irrigator.
The country weekly as we see it to.
day came into existence about AZ
years ago, when the patents" were
first placed at the disposal OF the pub
fishers, and during these four decades
the rural newspapers, as rule, have
deteriorated rather than progressed.
In other words the country press has
not kept step with the march of learn
ing and intelligence.
On the second day of the present
month out Of about 30 country week
| lies which came to the lrrigator oiilce,
q had patent insides or Outsides, and
the articles in these patents bore date
lines princially Of August %, q and
%, with now and then a so-callod
Special dated August %.
We find then that the So called nCTs
was from seven to ten days old, which
would have been fair record for the
days of the civil war, or for an earlier
date when il took letter two days to
20 from New York to Philadelphia,
| five days TO Boston and six months to
San Francisco.
In the meantime our postal and tel
oprapb facilities have been so eXpe-
dited that these days between New
York and Boston and Philadelphia
have been cut down to hours, and the
months between New York and 'Fris-
co have been reduced to loss than
lays.
And during these 40 years the rural
population has grown to be an eager
army of readers-of intelligent readers
who want the news, and they have
learned to rely upon their home town
papers for local news only and to go
to the city dailies, semi -weekllcs and
weeklies for the general news Of the
world.
The country publishers have tried
to see how large paper they could
give their readers, regardless Of the
quality of the matter it contained
and the publishers or furnishers Of the
patents have met this demand at low
figures by filling large portion of
their space with noXious and perni-
cious advertisements notably Of the
ratent medicine and get et-richquick
ads.
So today we find the intelligence Of
the average country publisher below
the intelligence of his readers, for
they send forth each week a great
mass of stuff which has been read
days before by their subscribers, and
the result Is that only that portion of
their columns devoted to home or To-
cal news is of any interest to them.
There is n place for the little coun-
try weekly, just as there is a niche for
the big city daily; there is work-a
useful work-for the village publisher
as we'll as the city publisher The
work of each Is to give the news Of
his field, and the field Of the one is
his little local, or at most county com
munity, and the field of the other,
who is in touch with the cable and
overland telegraph, Is the world.
So we say that for country pub
Usher to send out this patent" stuff
week after week il an insult to the in
telligence of his subscribers, and the
sooner this IL learned and aGknowl-
edged the better it will be for the ru-
raj newspaper fraternity of the cOun-
try.
In this state we have few notable
exceptions. Three of these we noticed
on our exchange table, and there are
probably others. Their fearless pub
fishers are content to fill the place al
lotted them and leave the broader field
to be covered by the press Of Port
land, Seattle and Spokane.
,ts,.r 70, lVtttt
we have noticed lately that many of
our good friends have said in their
columns that the lrigator is differ
ent. " They say we are conducting our
paper along new and peculiar lines,
aud that We are making it win along
those lines.
We do not cite the lrrigator az an
example of all that n good country
weekly should or could he. Each
week when we grasp the first copy
that comes from the press we see it
lacking here and far below our ideal
there; and each week we resolve that
we will do our level best to improve it
the following week. And if we do our
"level best" we are doing our whole
duty.
We feel that the Irrigator has a
work to do, and that work il to edu-
cate our people along the lines Of in
ttnsive farming ON small tracts Of ir-
rigated land, and, incidentally to
build up our town and community.
70 that end we fill our two outside
pages with choice excerpts along the
lines of actual irrigation and high
class fruit and garden culture, to do
which we take nearly every good farm
paper in the United States, and CLEAN
from these thousands of columns of
matter which we think is the best to
show our readers what can and has
been done along the lines they are
treading.
And then we havo what many-wo
will say most-country wooklios do
not havo-an editorial page, upon
which we print from week to week
articles written in our own office
And, by the way, in one of our eX
changes, published in this state, we
noticed In the last issue an article of
nearly two columns about the Russo
Jap war, under the editorial head
and not IA line of original matter on
that page, not lire of editorial in
the whole sheet.
Then comes our local page, which
enumerates such news as those who
are absent would like to learn of our
home doings-and a little "stuH" to
fill up and make people talk about us
and our town.
The day of patents is past. The day
when you can buy box of boiler
plate in January to do tho balance Of
the year-that day is also past. The
difficulty Is the "boys" are not wise
to the fact, although their readers all
are and have been for 10 these many