Omaha daily bee., 1909-10-10
NEWSPAPER CENTENNARIANS
Eighty-Two Found to Have Passed
the Century Mark.
ANCIENTs ENROLL IN A CLUB
Geographical and Political Lineup Of
the Bunch-COntinuity I'm Names
and Family Ownership
Is Rare.

The comparative youth OF this glorious
country of ours is emphasized in an i'm
pressive way by the fact hat only eighty
two have been found eligible to member
ship in the Century Club Of American
Newspapers.
The club or honorary roll Of centennar-
ians is the outcome of the publication Of
the centennial edition OF the st. Louis Re-
public, July u, 1908. AS a matter of his
toric interest, the Republic compiled a list
Of papers then known to have reached the
century. Investigation during the present
year raised the number to eighty-two,
which are thus classified by the Republic:
The eighty-two members Of the Century
club include fifty-five daily papers and
twenty-seven weeklles. or course, in some
cases the papers classified as dailies also
rave weekly or semiweekly editions, as in
the case of the st. Louis Republic, but
these have been ignored in making up the
roster. Twenty-Five are published in New
England, thirty-eight in the middle Allan
tic states, ten in Ohio and Indiana On
diana having one of the ten), eleven south
OF Mason and Dtxon's line, and one-the
st. Louis Republic-west of the Missis-
sippi. The relatively small number of hun
dred-year-old papers in the ~south-three in
Maryland, one in South Carolina, one in
Kentucky, one in Tennessee, one in Geor-
gia and four in VirRinia-is easily ac-
counted for by the disorganization which
accompanied the civil war. 1t is a re-
markable instance of tenacity of life that
four journals should have seen the dawn
of the one hundred and first year in the
state of Virginia, whose soil was the very
focus of the fires Of war. The geographer,
as he scrutinizes the list, will observe with
surprise that no community upon the ex-
tensive coast line Of the great lakes is
there represented although New York.
Pennsylvania and Ohio nave more than
half the century-old papers of the nation.
Delaware and North Carolina alone Of the
original thirteen states OF the union are
without members of the Century club.
state Divisions.
Pennsylvania has almost one-fourth Of
the membership within its borders, boast
ing nineteen. New York possesses nearly
one-fifth and Ohio one-ninth. The count
Of states shows eighteen are represented,
but It is worthy Of remark tina neither
the nations capitol nor the District of
Columbia has a paper whose biography
goes back to 1909.
One paper of the eighty-two is published
In a village OF less than 1000 people-New
Market, Va, the home OF The Shenandoah
Valley, has just 6S4 inhabitants. Eleven
make their homes In communities lumber
ing from 1000 to 5000; thirteen in towns
whose population is between 5000 and
10000, and twenty-four In little cities of
from 1000 to 5000. Communities whose
census totals run from the latter figure
to 1000 % boast eighteen Century club mem
bers, and cities OF more than 1000 have
fifteen. New York City is the home OF
three members Of the Century club, while
the towns that rave two are seven -
Keene, N. H.: Portland. Ne: Dayton, o..
and no less than four communities in Penn
sylvania-Philadelphia, Lancaster, Green
burg and Norrlstown. Here may be noted
the strange fact that while the merging Of
two or more newspapers in one is a COM
mon incident Of journalistic biology, Ben
jamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Weekly
Gazette reversed the process and produced
twins, both The Philadelphia North Amerl-
can and The Saturday Evening Post de-
irving from It. Were II not for this. PhIia-
delphia would appear upon the Century
club roster but once.
Political Complexion.
The political complexion Of these eighty
two papers is an interesting subject of
Inquiry. OF the fifty-five dailies, thirty
TWO are republican and eighteen demo-
cratic while five are independent in poll
tics. One OF the twenty-seven wesklies is
rellgious-rhe Dayton Herald OF Gospel
Liberty-and one-The Saturday Evening
Post-is literary. OF the remaining twenty
five thirteen are democratic, ten repub-
liean and two independent. Two of the
weeklies are published in ~German-The
Reading (Pa) Adler and The Lancaster
Pa-) Volksfreund and Beobachter. The
political complexion OF the German CEN
%tenarian press is bipartisan. The Adler be-
ing republican and the Volksfreund una
Bo~ebachter democratic. Without doubt
the democratic proportion Of the clubs
membership is smaller than would other
wise be the case on account OF the break
ing up OF the commercial and social life
OF the south by the civil war.
The newspapers beyond their one hundred
dred and nftieth year are: The Phlladel-
phia North American and The Saturday
Evening Post (which trace their lineage
to Franklin's Gazette OF IT'S. as noted;
Charleston News and Courier, founded In
i7S2; The Annapolis Gazette, 1745: The Ports
mouth Chronicle, 1856. and the Newport
Mercury. l75G The Annapolis Gazette. lel