The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-14
HoW to ReddNThe Age-Herald
Ny RALPH R. SILVER
STATE NEWS

Reading maketh full man, con- ference a ready man. and writing an exact man.'-Bacon.
 There are three general grades of news matter according to the stand point of the reader-local, state and telegraph.
 On page three of The Age Herald Is grouped as much as possible the news of the state. excluding the local or Birmingham news. The resid ent of Bir- mingham ranks the state page as sec ond in importance but che other sub seribers throughout the state consider the state page as of the most interest When the latter receives his paper his first act Is to td4n to page three and then, through the rest of the paper. to look up the Story from his home town.
 The stage news of The Herald is gathered by mall and telegraph ev- cry day through the services of many paid Correspondents, located in every town and village of importance in the ssate. These correspondents work un- .'der the direction of a state editor whose duty it is to receive the telegrams and special news letters as they are deliv- cred all through the night. The cor respondents work under the direct su- pervision of the state editor. who han dies their copy" according to its inn portance and news value as fast as it arrives in the office. The correspond- ents from the larger and more import ant towns send regular daily letters, those from the smaller places send two and three times week and as often as "scmething breaks" which has a news value in it.
 The correspondent necessarily must write his mail letter from three to seven or more hours before it arrives in The Age-Herald office. Important events which occur after the letter leaves are then written as briefly as possible and rushed to the office by telegraph. Thus the state editor is kept in immediate touch with every point in the state up until the last edi- tion of the paper "goes to press"
 The article of this series last Sun day attempted to show any newspaper reader how to read local news in or der to receive benefit from so doing and the argument hinged on the state ment that the reader must be interest ed. Now isn't something interesting more liable to happen in the entire state of Alabama than in Birmingham alone? It must be admitted that such
  arrived at that since there are interest | ing Birmingham stories in the paper every day there necessarily must be as many and often more state stories ! that are interesting.
 In telling how to read the state stories of the daily .Se- Herald there is one class of readers that can be ex- cluded partly from consideration. That | Is the reader in the town from which there appears the regular daily state story. The way for tnIs reader to be- come interested and to like to read The lAge-Herald was told in the preceding article dealing with local news; for the story from this readers own city is local news to him.
 This article then has to deal with any subscriber of the oaily Age-H Herald and the news stories from other towns than his own.
 After mans home town or village or community. his state as a general rule always claims the largest part or his civic pride and patriotism. The state news of the Birmingham Age-H -Heral a lis chronicalling, every day. events in the lives of men and incidents in nature that will some day be the states history, events and incidents upon which will be based the prestige and reputation of the state in society and civilization in all parts of the world. Isn't an appeal to mans patriotism enough to interest him in the news of his state?
 Every day there are stories about the officials who have been chosen to control and manage rne state govern ment; every day there are articles on great improvements and enterprises in one or many parts of the common wealth; every day there are chonicled acts of the state officials which have either done some man or some set of right and proper.
 The state news of The Age-Herald is history. That sentence should be re- peated and all the emphasis placed on the last two words. History is facts and