Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-01-30
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE ON REFORM

. u
roads yOu will get chance 10 see more
scenery TO the square mile when You
travel than you have been used TO OBJ
serving. If you tackle the politicians
they will start another paper which
won't hurt you particularly except as
il is a disgrace 10 the honorable pro-
fession in which you are shining. If
you whack away at Standard Oil there
| in danger of losing your mica axle
grease and paraffin candles advertising
and if you are for Sunday closing you
are in danger of losing your tobacco
and cigar and malt MURINE advertis-
| ing.
| People Demand Ii.
Yet you must reform something. The
don't get it they will stop the paper.
After long session of meditation and
prayer the Gazette has come TO the
conclusion that the only safe thing to
reform is the Russian navy. 1t needs
the reform, and the car only gets our
valuable papers through a clipping bu-
| reau, and If he should decide to bis
ter the varnish off several clipping bu-
reaus no one would care much. The
| thing for all true reformers TO do
| therefore, is to go after the car. Did
you notice that our beloved president
| the most exalted trust buster, the re-
| formeriSSimO, has passed a few hot
ones to the czar? That means that he
| is merely getting his breath. sparring
for position in the big home fight. He
knows is won't hurt the car. who is
always for peace anyway, and it will
give the president a chance TO get his
wind in the Panama matter.
The president is successful reform
err He has done many useful things
in fine way. He has had the big ma
| tional stage and has been under the
! limelight for Is years. He has won
the championship belt for four years
and has been in the heavyweight class
for long time. More than that, he
gets his gate money regularly. wheth-
er he wins or loses. but sometimes
when the telephone in the Gazette
| office is having a fit and the man with
| set mouth and naughty air is in the
| business office stopping his paper there
comes funny thought to the editorial
mind. What do you suppose Roosevelt
would do if he were running the Oys-
ter Bay Tribune? Would he go right
after the gamblers and saloon keep
ers and violators of the law who lived
| in his town? Would he print the item
that showed how the local banker was
gouging in his interest account? Would
he dare to go to the court house and
get the personal property tax list and
, run it? Or would he consider the larg-
er good and take his typewriter in hand
and blaze away at the practice of po-
| lygamy in Utah. the iniquity of the
fruit trust in California and the viola
ton of the game laws in Maine?
There Is N Difference.
1t is one thing to be president. with
$50. 900 year raining on the tin roof,
whether you work or not, and quite an
other thing to be the editor of a coun-
try paper in board sidewalk town, de-
pendent upon retaining the good
graces of the people for your board
and keep. There is something inspir-
ing in the sweetly solemn thought that
you don't fear Saturday night that
gives president the courage in bust
ing the trusts which country editor,
knowing that the boys are tired of TAX
ing orders for their weeks wages on
the clothing store, some way doesn't
feel. Roosevelt is brave man, but if
he were running country paper and
found that the chairman of the print
ing committee in the council was get
ting good many orders for pauper
groceries in his store, contrary to the
letter of the statute, do you suppose
the president would open up in the
next weeks paper and print all the
news?
Grover Cleveland did brave thing
in sending the troops to Chicago, but
if he had been running the Buzzards
Bay Weekly World do you suppose he
would have had the nerve to jump on
the druggist for illegal sales of liquor
whose wife came over to sit up with
The Cleveland children when they had
the scarlet fever? Joe Cannon is sup
posed to be Indifferent to public clam
or. but il he were running a little coun-
try daily down in Illinois, and lot of
advertisers came to the Office to tell
1im that they would order out their
ads If he didn't stop printing the
news about the smallpox and driving
trade from town, what would he do?
CheerfuIness Remarkable.
The eternal cheerfulness of Presi-
dent Roosevelt is remarked the world
over. A man can afford to be cheerful
who doesn't have to take anything out
in trade and gets all his salary in cash.
But, suppOsing after he had plugged
away for 20 years making the best
possible paper for Oyster Bay he
should find out that number of his
neighbors and best friends were Ell
couraging young man to come down
from New York and start bright,
snappy paper and were telling this
youngster that if some man would just
come to Oyster Bay with little enter
prise he would have no trouble in run
ming Roosevelt ont Of town I'm a wear