The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-06-10
RAILROAD. NEWS
Relations Between Railways
and the Newspapers.
Discussion in Age-Gazette At
tracts Attention.
ARE THEY DOING ANY GOOD?
Question on Value of Publicity
Agent to Roads.
Other Items of Interest in
Railroad Circles.

Through the columns of the Railway
Age-Gazette, the most well known and
best informed railway publication in
the country, has been started a series
of arguments on the relation between
the railroads and the newspapers of
this country. Samuel o. Dunn, editor
of the publication. has published con-
tributions from Charles Frederick Car
ter an able writer on railway sub
jects with a national reputation, and
N Y. Cobb, editor of the Freeport
Journal The writer of this column iE
the State Journal, also, has given his
ideas on the subject.
The Age-Gazette controversy was
launched when the editor of the Free
port journal stated in an open letter
to the magazine that railway publici-
ty agents were distributors of bunk"
to the newspapers of the country. The
Freeport editor stated that railroad
officials were tight in their news and
absolutely "fireproof'' when it came to
Information on the details of wrecks
and accidents. He fayed the railway
publicity agent and declared that nine
tenths of their stuff was without news
value. He marveled at the railroads
expecting so much free advertising
from the pens of their press men.
Dunn Knows the Game.
Editor Dunn, of the Railway Age
Gazette answered the Cobb letter in
q way that has brought favorable COM
ment from newspaper men and railway
officials all over the country. In To-
peka. for instance, officers of the Santa
Fe and Rock Island talk freely on the
fair and unbia Sed opinions expressed
by the Age-Gazette's editor And here
is the text brought out by Mr.. Dunn:
''Newspa per men have much to learn
about the railway business and railway
men have much to learn about the
newspaper business before they will al
ways give each other fair deal"
Samuel O. Dunn, as editor OF
technical railway magazine, is not
speaking from one side of the ques-
ton. The fact that his magazine pub
fishes matter concerning railroads does
not force him to climb the railway side
of the fence. For many years Mi.
Dunn was handling railway news on
the Kansas City Journal and the Chi
cago Tribune-one paper treating the
rail lines with every courtesy ana the
other peppering them on all sides. he
is known by a number of oftlc1als IL
Topeka.
The controversy is being watched |
with interest by western railway men,
In the last few years publicity agents
have become a fad on railroads II
this territory. The Santa Fe, the MIS-
souri, Pacific, the Frisco, the Denver q
Rio Grande, the Union Pacific, and
many other roads have tested ana
adopted the publicity agent PLAN Nat
urally they are anxious to know the
sentiment of newspaper men and news
papers.
Success in Topeka.
In Topeka the publicity agent pro-
position has been accepted as a sue
cess by the officials of the Santa Fe
and bv the newspapers. ]. F. Jarrell
an old Kansas newspaper man, mas
worked I'D a wonderful revolution in
railway news through his association
hn
tails of railway business that never be-
fore were given out by the heads have
been printed everywhere. With conf
dence in a man who will write right
the details given him and with the as
surance that their interviews and facts
will not be garbled and featured sem
sationalIy they have looked upon news
paper publicity in a different light.
In his latest editorial on the sub
iect Mr.. Cobb says:
ION the whole, the relations between
the railways and the newspapers in the
west are probably closer than they are
4n the east. This is largely because the
western press has commonly been more
to hammer the roads anc
thereby taught many railway mer
that it is best in a democratic country
for the managers of large businesses tc
get down from their pedeStals and keep
in touch with their fellow citizens both
personally and through the press"
|
served his newspaper experience in the
west as well as the east-newspapeI
men of this garden spot of the world
thank heaven that railway conditions
in Gotham and the east do not exist
here.
And here is a chip of irony from
Charles Frederick Carriers contribu-
ton to the Railway Age-Gazette:
Something should be done about
these railway press agents. II they
would only bring us around hot stuff
of genuine interest to our readers, to-
wit, the gentlemen who devote six az
ternoons a week to watching the base
ball bulletin boards, the kind furnish I
ed by press agents of the prize fighters I
and leg shows, we might give them the
regulation daily allowance of two pages 1
of free space. But when they try tc '
work us for a few lines about an ed
ucational train to teach farmers how {
to make more money by increasing /