The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-07-12
Paper Read Before The Upper Des
Moines Editorial Association. | wa
City, Iowa, July 8, 1910.

!. 1t was our esteemed contemnorar
/ and distinguished fellow citizen, Gee
AIDE. who declared that there was
tine when he believed he knew al
about three OF cur most delightful oe
equations editing a newspaper, writ
ing a comic cyera and running hotel
Mr.. Ado still believes he can run
hotel.
/ | venture to say tl.at the profession
.iof country newspapering contains
more chumps to the square inch thai
any other class OF citizenship, unles!
it is a barber who gives shave for
nickel and hair cut for fifteen cents
Ii you don't believe this, compare the
prices of job printing and advertising
maintained fifteen years ago with
those of today. You will find that
where the country printer used to get
! 81 for 500 envelopes. he is now glad
/ to beat his competitor to it by scaling
that price anywhere Yrom 90 cents to
dollar When entered the news
paper work the prevailing price for
800 noteheads was from S2.7o to 1925.
Now there is an unseemly scramble to
the job for nearly one-third less. The
same idiotic and ruinous reduction of
prices on job work has affected every
bid that comes into the office. and this
In spite of the fact that never before
was the Iowa printer compelled to pay
NH No
tations on paper stock. machinery,
type, inks, etc, have risen like Their
mometer in laundry The fiat rate
advertising farce has cut an even
deeper hole in the profits of the week
ly publisher. Think of a newspaper
1000 circulation and fiat rate of 10
cents an inch furnishing 2 half page
for $40. Under the old-fashioned
and much abused scale system, the
use of which built up newspaper prop
critics that made men independent
years ago, You couldn't buy single
column In a good paper for less than
the price of a half page today. But
the advertising agencies drove the
weekly papers to adopt the plan of
the big dailies, with their enormous
clrculations and jump scale adver-
using rates. with the result that adj
yertising profits in many offices in
this state have been almost cut in
TWO. for 1t must be remembered that
IN the majority of communities it is
possible to secure only about so much
advertising, one year with another.
Inc effect of this is that not one-ffth
of the weekly newspapers in Iowa
return anything like satisfactory
profit to their owners, who slave their
heads off year after year for the salts
faction of beating the other fellow ont
OF work which viii yield no profit
Ihese are some of the reasons why
the pig is mightier than the pen.
| am here to say that the man who
owns eighty acres of Iowa land and
who has brains enough to till II
makes the lot of the country news
Paper man look like the last sad
remnants of Dutch lunch The
farmer has the best of it all around
III.
He is as independent as the American
Express company He doesn't have
10 write soulful obituary over the
remains OF some peak-headed bloke
Who caFed his wife's ribs in with a
Grub stake and kept on display an ex-
fIbit OF cut plug profanity that would
maze the efforts of a steamboat mate
sound ike meeting OF the Epworth
league. He doesn't have TO 90 into
raptures over the beauty OF an
eFen-faeed bride with i cast of coun.
ieiance that would blow out the gas
ana ne can say what he DUN pleases
about candidate for congress-some-
thlng no newspaper ever dared to do.
unless ne had just lost the postonfca
The farmer isn't required 10 lie until
MS back teeth fall out about the ster-
Ing qualities of a groom with ears
ike caulifiower plant and the brain
power of a shoat. He doesn't have +,
run piano contest for tae most bean
THU young lady in the community
make everybody sore but the winner
and then print a IS cent half-tone AZ
the heauty that looks ike tlntvne
OF grandma al the age of thirteen
llere Is nothing II the farmers ep--
rcuium that obliges him to paint the
local soprano as a heayen-sent songs.
ter, When in fact SIC has a voice tba+
would make guinea hen weeD He
lsn called upon to paint the virtues
Of prominent citizen who earned HE
money BY collecting notes with a
draw shave and who would have an
attack OF heart failure if suddenly
separated from two bits ia real mon.
ey- The farmer can stand on tha
street corner and roar about smalInor
IN town until his whiskers curl nm Iika
lean man with the wind collie and
II tie newspaper man runs a three.
line item TO The same effect his al.
Eertisers viii land on him and make
MN resemble crushed fruit salad
i the printer opens his head ahor,
the presence of Slot machines. nennv
ante and holes-in-the-walI. every candi.
Date ne supports a. the primary elec.
tien VIII have about as much SOW !,
nomination as a one-legged man II
hurdle race. The farmer can Il, ~
/ his frcrF ria-cr or5 i,-...,