The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1910-10-06
That Editorial Eve"


from an old subscriber last week:
In a recent issue of your paper you
came down off the rostrum and had
heart to heart talk with your patrons,
on Why is Country Newspaper"
| lived in Taney county quite awhile
and am pretty:well acquainted with its
people. The general opinion seems
to be that the Country Newspaper is
an institution that draws its support
from somewhere which does not con-
Germ us and that it should voice our
sentiments, expose Graft, go after the
Forsyth ring' always without gloves,
but must incur no expense or respon-
sibility on our part. AS to whether
these people will stand by you and
support you as they should, look over
your paper and find out. According
to it, there is not dry goods or a gro
cery store in the county. The peo,
pie want you to tell the outside world
what place fancy county is for
health, but when the outside world
looks over your paper, it finds the Doc
tor, the Drug Store and the patent
medicine institutions we'll advertised
(these are not local Industries and to
put finishing touch on their conclu-
sions they read "CASKETS and COZ
FINS, complete line of all sizes always
in stock, Burger Bros, GARRISON,
MO-" Aside from a few business
cards that pay the editor but little,
this is the sum of your advertising pat
ronage. A natural conclusion would
be that it is a healthy place for the
doctor, the druggist and the under
taker.
I think that the country newspaper
should rank with the school and the
church, should be supported bv the
people, and should not have to cater
to the whims of any person or set of
persons, in order that the editor may
get good living and reasonable
profit out of his investment. The ed
itor and proprietor of country news
paper is just like the rest of US poor
mortals; he wants to eat three square
meals day and sleep in a good bed
at night, and if he can't accomplish this
by publishing the best and noblest
sentiments of his own and the people
among whom he lives and being a
teacher to the people, well, he is 60
ing to eat and sleep just the same.
AS to that er-er- lawyer, I believe
that is what you called him, who said
that the country newspaper was for the
sole purpose of publishing legal no
Joe, be kind to him and
protect him all you can, and the first
chance you get just take him by the
buttonhole and lead him into some
quiet place and confdentially advise
him to never venture out Of the hills,
and that Forsyth is the best place in
the hills for him, for. perhaps, the peo-
pie there know him to be harmless.
Now, as to the schools, your re-
marks were to the point as far as they
went. 1 always keep in touch with
the schools in the community in which
I live, and am sorry to say that I at
tended more up-to-date schools forty
years ago than many of the fancy
county schools Of today. The teach
ers are not to blame for this condition,
for the greater part of them are hard
working, honorable lot of young peo
pie who earn more than they receive,
and have been educated in the anti
Quated schools of the county, and
since they began teaching, their salar-
les would not justify their going out of
the county to get new and up-to-date
ideas. The history of the nation is
similar to the history of the schools; as
long as they can both absorb new
blood and brains they will progress.
Teachers everywhere are paid better
salaries than they are in Taney county,
so there is only one way to get better
schools, and that is to pay the teach
ers more and require greater. efficiency.