The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-21
From the American Press.


 1 HE difference between the real
 \0 newspaper man and the capi-
 talist who invests in newspaper property for the returns he expects to get on his money is strikingly illustrated in letter from R. H. Edmonds, pub fisher of the Manufacturers Record. Baltimore, to Charles H. Grasty on his retirement from the Baltimore News.
 Recalling that he had induced Mir. Grasty to go to Baltimore and join the staff of the Manufacturers Record, MT. Edmonds tells of an interview he witnessed be- tween Mr. Grasty and Governor Jackson when MT. Grasty had decided to go back to daily journalism and was endeavoring to induce Governor Jackson to put up the money to buy the News. MT. Ed Inonds says The interesting incident, however, in connection with the matter was that, while you were seeking at that meeting to induce Governor Jackson to provide the large amount of money need ed for the purchase of the News and its development you said to him that it must be distinctly understood that, even ic he decided to provide the capital he could not under any conditions have any voice whatever in the management or pol icy of the paper. You laid before him your views as to the absolute independ- ence necessary for the success of such a publication and that, while it might ap- peal to him as a business venture, he must understand that the only basis on which you would be willing to have his cooperation would be simply as an in vestor of money interested in the upbuld- ing of the city, but Without any more voice or control in the policy of the paper than if he had never known you or had a dollar invested therein. 1 was very much interested in the discussion and before it was over Governor Jackson agreed to provide the necessary capital if the paper could be purchased at the price you had in mind.''
 s Here is your genuine newspaper man. He may not always have money, but his independence is unpurchasable. He suf- fers no dictation from the man who is merely an investor, realizing that the best way to earn dividends in a newspaper, even if 1t had no other purpose, Is to merit the confidence of the public by pre- serving the papers integrity.
 The success of the News amply justified MT. Grastys position. When he sold it the large number of letters from readers show the place 1t held in the publics teem as a great journal, not as a money making enterprise, though it was very profitable. One of the writers said:
 Those who thoroughly understand that 10 nf ia ;c al factor in the life of a republic as to make its insurance an absolute necessity will regret to learn that ...e very success l.iat has followed an independent and unpur- chasable management should be made an object of barter and that the community whose responsiveness to the ideals for which it fought must now witness the ad- vent of a stranger to the control of the property, from the standpoint of an in vestor, and the surrender of the services of man like MT. Grasty, whose merits as a journalist have been seldom equaed'
 The story of the News itself under the management of MT. Grasty is extremely interesting" sixteen years of square fighting" it is called. When MT. Grasty and his associates acquired the paper "a political machine as interruptions as any that ever cursed g. community''-we are quoting the language of the News-"held absolute sway In Baltimore and was so strongly intrenched that the people had grown hopeless of ever crushing it. This hopeless task the News undertook. | It smashed the machine. It drove l policy upon which the political organi- l zation fattened, out of the city. When a | get-rich-quick concern opened in Balti-
 more in sumptuous offices in the financial l district the News exposed the scheme so | effectively that the concern left the city and the state. Wherever the public good 1 was threatened the News was found in l the front ranks fighting the battle of the l people. The News has been independent | not only in the editorial rooms but In | the business department, all advertisers l being treated alike.
 | The News has been a great paper. It | was made great not by the corporation which owned it or by the capitalists who