The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-05-05
GEORGE ABE ON EDITORS
Humorlst Says Every Man Think
He Can Edit a Paper.

HeOFBe Aue WIS among lne speak
ers at the joint banquet of the AS
ISOLATED Press and the American
Newspaper Publishers association,
delivering a brief address on Help
ing the Editor" Mr.. AIDE said:
The Associated Press is a great in
stitution. Around newspaper Office
we always felt easy in our minds If
We knew that the A. P. was on the
job My out-of-town assignment was
usually given to me in the following
words: Send in good story. The
A. p will cover the facts.
Il respect the Associated Press be-
cause 1t has nothing to do with the
Sunday supplement The Associated
Press never sent in heavy editorial
at 1000 p. m. and marked it must
1t never ordered pictures to go with
the stuff and 1t never came around
the next day to inquire why 1t had
not been played up. The Associated
Press bears the same relation to the
modern American newspaper that the
solid business man does to the mod
en American family. 1t stands in
the background, provides the where
withal, 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 jubilee, father and
the Associated Press are behind the
potted palms with the orchestra
checking up the expenses
~ am glad to be here for several
reasons. Now that you may have for
gotten what you paid for it, am will
ing to meet the gentlemen who
bought my merchandise. sold you
m assortment of capital letters and
job lot of Chicago vernacular, and
you thought you were getting a new
brand of humor Very often | would
weaken when ii came time to sign the
vouchers. Then | would read some
of the other syndicate stuff and take
courage.
Every man who has not tried 1t
thinks that he can edit a newspaper,
write comic opera and manage a
hotel. | still believe that | know a
lot about the hotel business.
when | went to Chicago to help
Victor +. Lawson upllft community
that did not want to be uplifted, |
noticed every day, in going to the
roof-garden, large and well-lighted
apartment in which a number of mob
by gentlemen were seated at roll-top
desks talking about circulation. Most
of them were smoking and the more
they smoked, the more enthusiastic
they became about the circulation.
learned that these artistocrats of our
profession were what is known as the
buiness end OF the paper. About the
time we began to diagram the daily
murder they would put on their top
coats and dog-skin gloves and saun-
Ter over to the Auditorium hotel. In
those days II young man from some
wherr out in the corn-belt came to the
office and applied for a job. he was
asked II he had attended a first class
western college If he replied yes
and could produce a letter from the
professor of English showing that he
had written articles for the college
Ipaper, he was put into the editorial
department at SIS a week. II he
lfOulu UlONt that Ut ldh
not attended any college he was as
algned to the business department at
$40 a week.
Il learned upon investigation that
had made a mistake in taking up the
literary end of the game so / resolv-
I'd TO go in for advertising There
fore ! became an author and a play.
wright After 10 years in the rarefied
atmosphere OF dramatic art as prac
iced today at two dollars a seat oil
'our dollars on the sidewalk, fee
hat | am peculiarly qualified TO dis
,uss American newspapers. | car
| proceed with safety because If | say
anything complimentary. have 1
scrap book to prove that they begaT
IL.
Everybody wants to help the edi
tor. Not as regards cheaper WOO,
pulp or keeping down the pay roll bu
with suggestions for filling up tn,
paper. Most people still believe tina
every newspaper must hustle ever.
| night to get enough copy to separat,
the advertisements. Being a post
| graduate ! know that you are CON
| PEELED TO throw columns and column
| Of stuff on the floor. Very often, Il
glanclng over a long tariff editorial
wonder what was thrown on the floor
however, am not here to upset an
traditions, merely to offer a few hell
full hints.
In the first place the city newspf
per OF today as compared with the Ii
diana newspaper OF the seventies |
tame, invertebrate, colorless and apo
ogetic. The first newspaper wit
which I was associated came ou
every Thursday from a room over n
hardware store. The fires Of civ
war were still smoldering. Indiana
chief occupation was politics. Nea
| ~ every man as voting as he shot. an
some of them a good deal oftene
II our office equipment consisted of
Washington hand press, a footpowe
| Job press, a perennial towel and a fe'
fonts OF type. mostly italics. All. br
! we had an editor Those were tn
palmy days of journalism Of which "
hear so much at present. No tair
= OF commercialism, no subservience |
I the counting room because ther
wasn't any counting ROOM no CO.
wheels or card indexes. simply a mi
iestic lgurehead Of an editor who wa
l animated hv n hiVh and natriotfc y,