The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1907-08-08
LOCAL PAPERS VALUE
No Modern Town Can Get Along
Without the Press.
REFLECTIONS OF A VETERAN.
Old Newspaper Man Hears of Town
Without Paper-He Calls the Local
Weekly the Pioneer of Prosress-lts
Value to the Public.

Weekly the Pioneer OF Prosress-lts
Value to the Public.
81 have just read a little item,' re-
marked the veteran newspaper man.
ito the effect that certain town ID
Texas is now without a newspaper.
The publisher of the local paper has
moved his plant to another town ana
started paper there. Well, I'm sorry
for the town that he left
"Oh, 1 reckon it can get along very
we'll without newspaper SAID the
cynical listener. Rome lasted several
centuries without any newspapers anu
grew to be a sizable city"
Every true" replied the veteran
Every true. But you must not forget
that Athens and other rival towns like
wise were without local papers. You
are talking of ancient times. l am dis
cussing the present. Just suppose that
the Greek metropolis, for instance, had
possessed thriving and progressive
neyspaper-the only one on earth. I'm
decidedly of the opinion that little OLD
Rome would have sat on one hill In
stead of seven, and Athens would have
spread out until the ancient RAPID
transit problem would have been the
biggest public question in Greece"
"But what has all this got to DO with
the little town In Texas?
"Well, just this. We are living now
In q newspaper. age. The local neWspa-
per is the great town booster. Ancient
Rome could grow without newspapers,
but any modern city would shrivei up
and leave only dry spot on the map
If all its newspapers should shut up
shop and move to rival cities. The 10
cal paper is the pioneer of progress.
No other agency has been so powerful
in the building up and development or
America. The great west and south
west and northwest have been built
largely by newspapers. Carpenters and
bricklayers and plasterers and plumb
ers do their part, but the newspaper
does more. ,
"A hundred years ago the United
States consisted Of fringe of popuia-
ton along the Atlantic coast and few
pioneers in the wildernesses farther IN
land. About that time the newspaper
began to make a showing. From year
to wear it has been coming more and
more into evidence, with improvements
in machinery, in paper manufacture IN
type casting and the like. Now the 10
cal paper is a public necessity. No
town can get along without at least
one paper. There are very few towns
now that are without their home week
". Take the map Of any state and
look It over closely. Get newspaper
directory and study it along with the
map. You'll find that any town big
enough to be on the map has its local
paper, with very few exceptions.
"As I say, the town paper is the pio-
neer. In many cases the paper has ar
rived even before the town. This ap-
plies particularly to Kansas, Oklano-
ma, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Texas.
I have had experience in some OF those
states in the newspaper line when they
were in what you might call the pio-
neer stage, and know what I'm talk
ing about. / now see telegraph news
items from towns in Kansas, for In
stance, which knew twenty years ago
as mere spots on the prairies, laid out
in town lots and waiting for popula-
ton. In several of these towns the
first building put up was a hotel. One
room was occupied by small printing
plant, and local paper was pub
lished. News? Why, plenty of It
While the town may have had only
half a dozen people, it had bright pros
poets. great possibilities, and the edi-
tor was continually writing about
those possibilities and prospects. New
citizens were coming in, outsiders were
buying lots, and that little newspaper
grew up with the town, being itself
the chief instrument Of the towns
growth. 1t circulated outside and let
the outsiders know the prospects and
possibilities. Now those towns which
started in that way have daily papers,
most of them, and a home circulation
that Is not to be despised.'
"I'm sorry for that Texas town be-
cause it doesn't seem to be living IN
this day and generation-in the news
paper age. 1t apparently didn't have
enterprise enough to keep the local
editor there. He has moved, no doubt,
to q town which knows a good thing
when it sees it and is disposed to help
push it along. When / call this the
newspaper age mean that it is the
age of advertising, Of publicity. Print
ers ink publicity is the kind that
counts. Every newspaper is big free
advertisement for it's community. 1t
talks. It blows the towns horn when
otherwise the horn would not be blown.
1t makes the town where it is publish
ed the center Of the ear:a for the peo-
ple who live there and for others whom
| it may induce to locate there. In these
days a town without gumption enough
to appreciate the public value Of a
, local paper is not worth map space,
~ YTT