The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-04-15
A PUSSY COMMUNITY

The town of Bull is expanding it's
energies in fuss, and paying dearly
for the exercise. 1t hurts the reputa-
ton of the place and but for the
value it has as an object lesson to us
we should not pass the word along to
others. The substantial advantages
of a community being united even
though differing in individual opin-
ions is shown in the case of Bull in
it's present perdicament
Last fall the Press club received an
invitation to hold their May meeting
at Bull, and certain things were
spoken of that the people there would
have the Newspaper men see and en-
Joy. Of course that locality would
expect to receive lot of free public
ity in consequence of the visit and in
that they would not be- disappointed.
Now they are in a fuss among
themselves and it develops that if the
Press club received an invitation to
meet there it was not properly au-
thorized invitation, and, in order to
discredit the man who was active in
the matter 1t was brought to the sur
face with the result that the officers
of the club very properly cancelled
the meeting and accepted an invita-
ton from Bellevue.
1t matters not who is at fault. nor
how much nor how little thev sacri-
flee, the conduct that leads up to such
embarrassing situations is to be thought
out and avoided, and it reads like
this:
Bull was a new town on "the
tract" and it wanted a newspaper.
An energetic fellow wanted to estab-
lish paper, although he lacked both
money and experience. He had just
little of each and established an Of
fee to put out newspaper ION the
cheap" He was a brilliant fellow
but considered irregular in his habits
and disposed to extremes. He tried
to give the people so much for so lit
tie money that the Office was periOdi-
cally closed by the sheriff, pending
the negotiation of loan. The un-
certainty of the paper coming out on
time prevented its getting the bust
ness it needed for its support and
that made other ventures necessary.
Spicy editorials and sharp criticisms
of the management of canal company
and school board, town council and
other bodies, brought the paper into
demand, but also made individual
enemies as we'll as individual friends.
Worse than that it started fueds and
cliques in the community, and people
became involved in one way or an
other and sought opportunity for re-
taliation. Some backed the news
paper loyalty because it was fighting
their battles, and others opposed 1t
because 1t was opposed to them or
was considered unjust in its represen-
tations. This made demand for an
other newspaper to offset the first,
and after it was established each set
had it's organ throu IN which to knock
the other side. When molehill of
difference comes, it is made to ap-
pear as a mountain, and destructive
effort takes the place of constructive
effort in the community. 1t amounts
to the difference between daylightand
arkness-between success and fail
ure-and all springing from bad
judgment and bad policy in conduct
ing the local paper.
A newspaper that does not labor
earnestly for the good of the COM
munity to harmonic its differences
upon plan that is mutually the best,
paper that makes unjust attacks up
on people or things in the community
for the purpose of discrediting some
body or building up itself at their
loss, paper that criticises without
making any allowance for the frail-
ties of humanity and the conditions
governing at the time, is just as like
ly to permanently inJure commun-
ity as 1t is to permanently benefit the
place.