The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-12-20

along withoue his business. The next
day printed the whole story Of his
stock interest in the traction COM
pany, the Withdrawal OF his adver-
Using from the Sun and his conver-
sation with me. ! sent to the capital
for copies of the reports of the trac-
ton company showing the list Of
stockholders. and filed them away
for use in case other advertisers who
held street railway stock objected to
orr Riverside Park fight Every day
for the rest Of the week demanded
action by the criminal judge, the
prosecuting attorney and tho sheriff.
sent Kite to interview them. and
he found them furiousiy mad. but
badly frightened. I served notice on
them. through the paper. that my
men would be on hand at Riverside
Park the next Sunday. and that every
infraction of the law would again
be faithfully reported. Saturday az
ternoon printed q first page edi-
torial. calling upon the governor to
remove the prosecutor and the sher-
III II they failed to enforce the law,
and on Saturday evening they got
busy.
The Suns campaign had aroused
widespread interest. We were get
ltfhH 4FoHi q u6GSh 10 iAIy icLleI1 u
day, applauding us and urging US
to clean up the park. Sunday after
noon and evening 1t seemed to us
that everybody in ST. James who
could do SO had gone to Riverside.
There must have been fifteen thous-
and or twenty thousand people at
tho park. / cent my whole staff
down and went myself. But our vigil
was in vain. although our weeks
work had not been. Not u glass Of
beer was sold: not a card was turn
were shut tight, Twenty depaRy sher-
IFS patrolled the grounds until mid
night. and for the first time in years
the day failed TO end IN a drunken
caprousal We had made Riverside
Park respectable. and We kept 1t re-
spectacle all that summer and the
next Several times attempts were
| made to reopen the saloons and
| gambling houses, but each time
Warner discovered 1t and promptly
stopped IL b. printing q story about
| X.
| The public appreciated our efforts
and we gained more circulation. but
we never got the Street advertising
back into the paper. Our loss on
| that business was two thousand DOL
| lars n year.
This campaign also cost us the
| street railway advertising. Besides
operating the traction system the
com pany sold electric light and pow
er. This department. Of the corpora
ton did considerable advertising. but
after we stopped drinking and gam
bling at Riverside Park 1t never gave
US another inch. This we also duly
] chroniolsd Tor the benefit OF our
| readerA
| The great bulk Of our energies was
deovted to the daily routine work
that carried NO dynamite. This had
its effect and. coupled with our az
gressiveness and independence in big
things. was rapidly gaining Us public
confidence and readers. Austin got In
q great deal OF new business for that
which We lost, and most of Our Old
customers renewed their contracts al
they expired. Our circulation kept
oil ling steadily. and on the first Of
October we sat down and took stock
Nell Butler and Ashmau approved
everything that I'd done IN the edi-
ltorfal department, even though It had
cost ue q lot Of business They Were
a. confident a. / that We would gel
circulation II we continued to make
1.-THE kind Of newspaper we had been
making. and that, once we had the
e4eealat1enr Ne would get the adxer.
tiGing, whether the advertisers them
selves liked or dis.iked our paper.
st. James waa city Of about one
hundred thousand population, but i
suffered from a superabundance Of
contentment 1t was q quiet. easJ
going. conservative town, the chief in
dustries OF which were tho stockyards
the shirt, overall. shoe and hardware
factories. the jobbing houses and the
wholesale dry goods establishments i
was . thrifty. wealthy city. but Il
had practically no transient popula-
ton. Most Of tho people who lvet
there had been born and REARED there
and everybody knew everybody else
In fact. st. James Was largo countr!
; town which had not been touched bJ
tho wave OF civic progress that wal
) sweeping through the middle Yves
J sale house allowed the employees o.
; other factories and Wholesale house,
} to buy goods for personal use .
J wholosalers' rates. and this made tn
! retail market narrow. Business gen
orally was conducted - It had al
J WAYS been conducted. Bill Smith
. bought his neckties-nfty-cento
: four times q year-from Jim Brown
because his father had bought from
Jlm'0 fatd9f, ana because Jun Away
bought his shoes from Bill. The per
: scnal element entered materially int
i. AL transactions.
. was not surprised to md that II
q city Of such character a few poll
! ticians were running things At tn
!. couFthouse and tho city halt. just q
q few Of the more, clever bushes
mon were running things In the com
} merciAl circles Neither was I sur
prised to md that the business an,
political circles overiapped. I dis
covered. for instance. that nearly al
tths banks were directly or iniirecti.
controlled by the Tuttle Corporation
which held properties and interes
worth from twenty million to thirt
million dollars. futile money was Il
tho banks and truxt companies, tn
shirt and overall factories, tho whole
sale dry goods houses. the principe
lrotel and pretty much everything els
:. In town. except the stockyards an,
the street car company. Much o
: the downtown business property wa
} held by the corporation. AZ wer