Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-06-23
The EVOLUTION OF NEWSPAPER men
Address Delivered by A. w. LEE at the Annual !
Convention of the National Editorial
Association, at Indianapolis.
Association, at Indianapolis.

pSSAASS
the idea of Johnny attempting to do
himself feels that he can do it and IL
he has the right stuff in him, he will
do it, If you give him chance Place
responsibility on his shoulders and he
will rise up to it in a manner that will
astonish you. When he does one thing
we'll, give him more responsibility;
pile it on, load him down, as it were,
and in nine cases out of ten he will
carry it magnificently, but mind you,
when you give boy or young man re-
sponsibility and authority. stand by
him in what he does, even If he knocks
the side of the building down. He will
make mistakes, of course, and you
should tell him about them. but do it
when nobody is around and with full
explanation and reasons. He won't
make the same mistake twice and if
you stand by him in his errors. so far
as the public is concerned, he will
work for you as he never worked be-
fore
| believe that employers should
take genuine interest in the welfare
and advancement of their employees
and should treat them with the utmost
sincerity. If find, after reasonable
trial, that young man in my employ
is not cut out for the newspaper bust
ness, frankly and kindly tell him SO
and help him to get started in some
other live to which he is by nature.
better adapted. This policy is not al
ways easy to carry out, but If consis-
tently adhered to, it invariably re-
bounds to the benefit IF all concerned.
I'm my judgment. an employer
should never stand in the way of a
man in his employ receiving a better
offer, or of availing himself Of an op-
portunity to better his condition. If the
value of mans services grows be-
yond the limitations of my business,
then I help him to reach out after big
ger things, greater opportunities and
larger compensation. But says some
one, suppose your competitor comes
in and tries to take good man away
from YOU We all know that this is
not always an easy matter to handle.
Generally speaking he will not be
worth more to my competitor than he
is to me. But, If he is worth more to
somebody else and somebody else can
really do more for him than I can,
then he should go to the other fellow.
| hold that an employer has no right
to stand in the way of any real ad-
vancement of his employees Those of
you who have read William Allen
Whites incompatible sketches of
country newspaper life, published I'M
der the title, In Our Town have
laughed with me over the Kid Re
porter and have recognized the pic
ture drawn. as true to life. I had his
exact counterpart on my paper, some
twelve or fifteen years ago-a green
boy whom | picked up behind a five.
cent lunch counter where he was sery-
ing as waiter. One day when | was
desperately short of Office help. | hir-
ed him just for the day to do the per-
sonals at the depot. He did that days
work so we'll, that kept him for seven
years until he became SO valuable that
I could not afford on country news.
paper to pay him what he was really
worth. | helped him to bigger things
and today in the city of ST. Louis,
where he has become one of the rising
men of affairs, he is doing a business
that is rapidly making him rich.
Another man Is today doing an an
nual business that has passed the mil
lion dollar mark, many thousands OF
which dollars go to the members OF
this association in payment for adver.
Using services rendered. | took this
man as q boy at IA, taught him the
first principles of bookkeeping, and
two or three years later | put him on
as city editor against the advice and
almost against the orders of his father
who was the editor Of the paper, and
who thought it preposterous that this
little fellow could do the city work
But he could and he did. And in few
years he went to the city to do vastly
bigger things. Both Of these men are
in turn training and developing other
young men for honorable and success
full careers.
81 am proud of the Lee Syndicate OF
Iowa Evening Newspapers, of which
am president, but I am prouder still
of the managers and part owners OF
these papers whom ! discover
ed and who have developed
under my training and instruc
ton. When / found them, one
was composition who learned
the trade in the Office Of
little German weekly in my
town; another was job printer. ana
the third a telegraph operator Once
started. their shoulders broadened ou1
under the responsibility that | placed
upon them and they have never waiv
cred or faltered unless cite one pos
sible exception. The job printer as
youth, trained to become Lightweight
prize fighter, though he never actual!
appeared in the ring but once o.
twice. A couple Of weeks after hi
was promoted into the business Office
an unreasonable advertiser came l:
late one day to insistently and almos
insultingly demand an advertisement
top column, next reading matter, or
the back page, where another ad. hat
already been promised for that day
Realizing that 1t would be contrary t
business office ethics for him to THRASH
the advertiser then and there, he cam.
to me and rendered his resignation. de
claring that he guessed SIS per weel
was about his size and he was goins
back in the job Office where they dit