The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1907-07-26
A Turn in the Tide of the County
Editor.

When Mr.. Hepburn got the bill thru
congress which prohibits railroad COM
panies from giving free transportation
TO newspaper men, or even contracting
to give a certain amount Of transporta-
tation in exchange for advertising space,
if he thought about the matter at all,
he did not think that his bill would
prove a blessing to newspape men, at
least country newspaper men, farther
than this latter distinction the depon-
ent will not venture his judgment. He
dares to assert, tho, that his own expe-
rience has been that of two-thirds OF
the members of the country press. The
old saw goes, confession is good for
the SOUL" and he can honestly sub
scribe TO the truth of it by saying that
it gives his soul much ease TO confess
that in the beginning he looked upon
Mr.. Hepburn's bill as a drastict and
sweeping prohibition and an outrage
upon personal liberty and the right to
contract.
Well, the bill'' has been in force
some eight months and he has taken
account Of stock and money on hand
and finds that he is ahead in cash just
about two hundred dollars over any
previous eight months in the past
three and one-hah years, and has not
done any advertising for the railroad
companies except such as was given
gratuitously When he has had occa-
sion to use the railroad company's ser
vice, which has not been quite so free
quent as in the past, he has paid for it.
The business which made the use of
the railroad necessary also enabled him
to pay his fare. Before the passage OF
the bill, =" when he had unused trans
portation in the desk, paid for with
transportation that would have been ex-
cluded from newspaper having the
principles OF the Topeka Capital dur
ing the week the Rev. Mr.. Sheldon ed
tied it, he felt as tho an asset that cost
as much as railroad transportation ought
to be made use Of, and he often took
trips on the Great Northern with no
other end in view than to get some
ting for his valuable advertising space.
Possibly he may also have had in mind
taking refuge in the plea OF quantum
meruit if he was ever charged with
printingmisleading advertisements about
the beauty of the scenery, the speed
and safety of the trains, the luxury Of
coaches and the prompt arrival and de-
parture OF trains. To save a mileage
book from expiring, invariably cost him
from frty to one hundred hard earned
dollars.
Since the bill has gone into effect
he has been spared the worry incident
TO allowing mileage book go to
waste and raising the funds to make its
use possible.
The Hepburn bill marked the turn in
the tide OF the affairs of the country
editor. From now on there is no rea-
son why he should not grow rich and
influential.
Under no consideration would this
country editor return to the old order
If railroad company wants TO use the
advertising columns of The Echo the
proprietor will be glad 10 treat with il
on the same terms and the same rate
that it makes to its other patrons. In
cidentally he will also state that pat
ent medicine vendors will receive the
same impartial treatment. The coun-
try editor is not consulted when the
passenger tariff is fixed or a price put
upon patent medicine Can anyone
give a valid reason why the railroads or
patent medicine people should govern
the rate OF advertising7 If the rail
road manager and the foreman OF a
patent medicine foundry assert that
the country editor knows nothing about
the cost of conducting their business
the editor can al least retort in kind.
BY way of good measure he may also