Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1910-05-04
ABE APPLAUDS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FAMOUS HoosIER HUMoRIsT
AND PLAYWRIGHT TALKS
TO EDITORS.
EXPOSES SOME OF THE PoPu-
LAR BELIEFS REGARDING
NEWSPAPER WORK.
LETS FALL A TEAR OF REGRET
AT THE PASSING OF DID,
TIME METHODS.

N6N Ofh, April 29.-GeOrge Ade
VS. among the speakers at the joint
ban he = this city last night of
r. he Associated Press and the Amer
ican Newspaper Publishers Associa-
ton. delivering a brief address on
z,e,p;ng the Editor
Tn Associated Press is great
institution" said Mr. AIDE. Around
a newspaper Office we always felt
easy in our minds if we knew that
the Associated Press was on the job.
My out-of-town assignment was usu-
ally given to me in the following
words: Send in a good story-the
Associated Press will cover the facts.
81 respect the Associated Press be-
cause it has nothing to do with the
Sunday supplement- Tine A. P. never
sent in a heavy editorial at 10 p. m.
and marked it must 1t never or
dered pictures to go with the stuff
and it never came around the next
day to inquire why it had not been
played up The A. P. bears the same
relation to the modern American
newspaper that the solid business
man does to the modern American
family. 1t stands in the background,
provides the wherewithal, keeps out
of the spotlight, takes all of the
blame and gets mighty little glory.
Respected but not featured on the
front page When there is a grand
81 10 r. N6
Press are behind the potted palms
with the orchestra checking up the
expenses.
L am glad to be here for several
reasons. Now that you may have
forgotten what you paid for it, am
willing to meet the gentleman who
bought merchandise. l sold you an
assortment of capital letters and a
Job lot of Chicago vernacular, and
you thought you were getting new
brand of humor. Very often ] would
weaken when it came time to sign
the vouchers. Then / would read
some of the other syndicate stuff
and take courage.
Every man who has not tried it
TANKS that he can edit a newspaper,
write a comic opera and manage a
hotel ! still believe that l know a
lot about the hotel business.
when | went 10 Chicago to help
Victor F. Lawson uplift a commun-
ity that did not want to be uplifted,
I noticed every day, in going to the
roof garden large and well-lighted
aps tment in which number OF
nc ~ gentlemen were seated at roll
tip desks talking about circulation.
I learned that these aristocrats OF
our profession were what is known
as the business end of tine paper.
About the time we began to diagram
the daily murder they would put on
their top-coats and dog-skin gloves
and saunter over to the Auditorium
hotel. In those days If a young man
from somewhere out in the corn
belt came to the Office and applied
for job he was asked if he had
attended first-class western col
lege. If he replied yes and could
produce a letter from the professor
of English showing that he had
written articles for the college paper
he was put into the editorial depart
ment at SIS week. If he could
prove absolutely that he had not at
tended any college, he was assigned
to the business department at $40 a
week.
Il learned upon investigation that
had made a mistake in taking to
the literary end of the game so l re
solved to go in for advertising. There
fore I became an author and play
wright. After ten years in the rare
fed atmosphere of dramatic art as
practiced today at two dollars a seal
or four dollars on the sidewalk,
feel that I am peculiarly qualified
to discuss American newspapers.
can proceed with safety because II
say anything uncomplimentary,
have scrap book to prove that they
began it.
Everybody wants to help the edi
tor. Not as regards cheaper wood
pnIp or keeping down the payroll
Int with suggestions for filling uI
the paper. Most people still believe
that every newspaper must hustle
every night TO get enough copy tc
separate tine adve ~tisements. Being
post-graduate l know that you are
compelled to throw columns and col
nmns of stuff on the floor, Very
often. in glancing over a long tarlf
editorial I wonder wa was thrown
on the fioor.-how sve., l am not here
to upset any t'aditions-merely Z
OFFER a few help ii hints
In the first place the city news
naper of today as compared with tn
Indiana newspaper OF the seNeh'ie