The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1910-09-01
SOME OBSERVATIONS.
BY joR G. UPTON.

| nave ullle cOnndent1al chat With my
readers. And the leading thought tha,
comes to me as I start this little talk i:
why is country newspaper. why
is the TANEY COUNTY REPUBLE
CAMP" I wish I knew the answer
knew what the people of the county
thought about it.
A lawyer in this town gave one an.
swer to the question the other day
He said the mission of a newspaper
in this county is to publish those no.
tees required by law to be published;
outside of this we have no need of a
paper in the county" In other words,
the paper is only an organ for legal
publications. Maybe the lawyer is
right. He is right if the people of the
county think he is right.
But that reminds me of a story. A
Frenchman who had been in this coun-
try but short time approached an
American friend and asked, What is
a polar bear2" "A polar BEAR" re-
piled the American, is big white
animal that sits in cage and has ice
water thrown on him." Il refuse to
serve, I refuse to serve," exclaimed
the Frenchman excitedly. Refuse to
serve as WHAT" asked his friend.
Why, they have asked me to serve as
polar bear at funeral this afternoon,
but I refuse to sit in a cage and have
ice water thrown on me-
Now I am somewhat like the French
man. If my whole mission as news
paper man here in Taney county is
simply to publish legal notices, I re-
fuse to serve. But before I quit serv-
ing I am going to take the case to the
people of Taney county. Is that all
you people of Taney county want with
a paper7 am pretty well aware that
that has largely been the status of
newspaper men who have preceded
me here. The average newspaper
business is usually divided about equally
between subscriptions, job work, legal
advertising and commercial advertising.
Here in Forsyth there is hardly enough
commercial advertising to wad shot
gun. The subscription list is not near
as large as it should be- This leaves
the newspaper to depend on the job
work and the legal advertising for a
living, with the legal advertising by
long odds the greater portion. Con-
fhe man or men who have
legal advertising to give out have had
The newspaper man by the throat at
east they have thought they had, and
t seems the newspaper men thought
hey had-and maybe they did. A /
newspaper man has to stand by those
Who stand by him. If the people
Won't stand by him, then he has to
stand by the men who have the legal
to give out and his paper
become, as the lawyer put it, simply
IN organ for the publication of legal
notices."
But as remarked before, refuse to
serve in any such capacity. I am go
ng to serve the people, and if the
people won't stand by me what?
Why, I've got no property in Taney
county but this printing plant and it
can be very easily loaded into box
ear and moved somewhere else. And
[ am not much afraid of having to
move. There was time when the
people would stand for dictation by
4 handful of bosses but that day is
past. If the bosses can get my taw,
they are welcome to it. I'll take my
stand with the people and risk results.
Jack Hicks has left. Those four
words mean a whole lot to Taney
county. He was elected county super
intendent of schools, served about
three -fourths of his term, has resigned
and gone to Oklahoma. Why? Sim
ply because Oklahoma pays her teachers
better than Taney county pays hers.
A teacher of any qualifications can get
so percent better salary in Oklahoma
.Lo,, bara M oood toocbar ctouc hera