The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-08-22
LOCAL PAPERS VALUE.
No Modern Town Can Get Along
Without the Press.
REFLECTIONS OF A VETERAN

Local Weekly the Pioneer Of
Progress-Its Value TO the
Public.
81 have Just read a little item," re-
marked the veteran newspaper man,
ITO the effect that certain town In
Texas is now without newspaper.
The publisher of the local paper has
moved his plant to another town and
started paper there. Well, I'm sor
ry for the town that he left"
"Oh, reckon it can get along very
well without a newspaper" said the
cynical listener. Rome lasted sew
eral centuries without any newspa-
pers and grew to be a sizable city"
Very true" replied the veteran
very true. But you must not for
get that Athens and other rival towns
likewise were without local papers.
You are talking of ancient times. /
am discussing the present. Just sup
pose that the Greek metropolis. for
instance, had possessed a thriving
and progressive newspaper-the only
one on earth. I'm decidedly of the
opinion that little old Rome would
have sat on one hill instead of sew
en-, and Athens would have spread
out until the ancient rapid transit
problem would have been the big
gest public question in Greece"
But what has all this got to do
with the little town in Texas?"
We'll, just this. We are living
now in a newspaper age. The local
newspaper is the great town booster.
Ancient Rome could grow without
newspapers, but any modern city
would shrivel up and leave only
dry spot on the map If all its news.
paper should shut up shop and move
to rival cities. The local paper is
the pioneer of progress. No other
agency has been so powerful in the
building up and development of
America. The great West and
Southwest and Northwest have been
built largely by newspapers. Car.
penters and briclllayers and plaster
ers and plumbers do their part, but
the newspaper does more.
"A hundred years ago the United
States consisted of a fringe of popu.
lation along the Atlantic coast and
few pioneers in the wildernesses far
ther inland. About that time the
newspaper began to make showing.
From yea- to year it has been com
ing more and more into evidence,
with improvements in machinery, in
paper manufacture, in type casting
and the like. Now the local 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 weekly. Take
the map OF any State and look II
! over closely. Get newspaper di.
| rectcry and study 1t along with the
map. You'll find that any town big
| enough to be on the map has its
local paper, with very few ezcep.
tions.
"As | say, the town paper is the
pioneer. In many cases the paper
! has arrived even before the town
This applies particularly to Kansas,
Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Dakotas
and Texas. / have had experience in
some of those States in the newspa.
per line when they were in what you
might call the pioneer stage, andI
know what I'm talking about. | now
sec telegraph news items from towns
in Kansas, for instance, which knew
twenty years ago as mere spots on
the prairies, laid out in town lots
and waiting for population. In sew.
eral OF these town the first building
! put up was hotel. One room was
occupied by small printing plant,
and a local paper was published.
News? Why, plenty of It. While the
town may have had only half dozen
people, ii had bright prospects, great
possibilities, and the editor was con-
tinually writing about those possibil-
tiles and prospects. New citizens
were coming in, outsiders We're buy
ing 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 home circulation
that is not to be despised.
I'm sorry for that Texas town
because 1t doesn't seem to be living
in this day and generation-in the
newspaper age 1t apparently didn't
have enterprise enough to keep the
local editor there. He has moved,
no doubt, to a town which knows a
good thing when it sees it and is dis
posed to help push 1t along. When
/ call this the newspaper age / mean
that 1t is the age OF advertising, of
publicity. Printers ink publicity is
the kind that counts. Every newspa-
per is big free advertisement for
its community. 1t talks. 1t blows
the towns horn when otherwise the
horn would not be blown. 1t makes
the town where it is published the
centre of the earth for the people
who live there and for others whom
1t may induce to locate there. In
these days town without gumption
enough to appreciate the public value
OF local paper is not worth map
space, and II won't cucumber the
sround very long"
Had Enough Toothpicks.
a we'll known sculptor tells the fol-