The leader., 1905-03-08
LEADER.
AN EXCHANGE OF DELINQUENT LISTS.

AN EXCHANGE OF DELINQUENT LISTS.
It has been the custom ever
since the publication of newspa-
pers began for editors and pub
fishers to exchange papers with
each other, both as a matter of
courtesy and mutual interest; but
we believe we have never known
of publishers placticing the even
more important courtesy of pc
riodicalIy exchanging their lists
of dead-beat subscribers. Il
strikes US that this is something
which could be introduced to real
advantage, especially by the busi-
ness departments of newspapers
published in the same towns or
counties. During the more than
% years The Leader has been
published, it has been beaten out
of thousands of dollars by sub
scribers who would not pay the
paper the small amounts they
owed on subscriptions. These
beats have a way of getting the
paper started to them on prom
ise to pay. Then when they have
received it regularly for year or
two years and sometimes three,
and resisted all appeals to settle
up and the publisher strikes them
off his mailing list in despair,
they have been known in little
while to HE themselves to his
neighbor cotemporary, get started
in with him on a credit and re-
peat the performance there until
he has to unload. In a number Of
instances men who have beaten
the Leader out of two or three
years. subscription on credit
and whom we had good reason to
believe have then turned around
and beaten our local cotemporary
in the same way, until they had
worn out their credit and their
welcome, have come back to The
Leader with fresh, original air
and a word of contempt for the
eotemporary who refused to be
ridden any longer, and offer
to pay for short time in advance
to get their names enrolled with
The Leader again, but at the same
time studiously avoiding all ref
elence to the old subscription
they still owed. Then, if their
dates were not closely watched
and their names erased at the
proper time, they would sponge
on the paper for another long
term and make another bill which
they had no intention of settling.
During our twenty-odd years ex-
perience in publishing The Lead
er, few beats whose gall entities
them to diplomas, have tried to
work this program on US for the
third time.
There is another class of beats
who will subscribe for their local
paper, take it out of the post
Office and read it for two or three
years without settling up, and
when what little conscience they
have left begins to hurt, get the
postmaster to notify the publisher
that it is not wanted any longer,
but never say turkey" about
paying what they owe. Then
they are ready to bestow their
valuable patronage on our local
contemporary and work the same
program on him.
When the more loquacious and
prominent dead beats wear out
their credit and run the length Of
their tether with all the newspa-
pers in a town or county, they
speak with disparagement and
contempt Of such papers and are
ready to pledge their patronage
and influence to some one to start
a new one. IL is a wise man who
is not caught By such chat.
During its long experience The
Leader management has pretty
we'll spotted the newspaper dead
beats Of Lincoln county, bat We
have paid dearly for The knoWl-
edge, and would willingly share
it with brother publishers i
thereby We could save them from
being victimized ii the same way