The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-11-21
IsBOILER PLATE" AND "PROPA.
GANDA."

UhNDEhs
While The Citizen congratulates
its contemporary across the street for
showing a contingent of Wayne
county teachers it's web perfecting
press, we note with sorrow that it
was not possessed with enough of
the spirit of fairness to add that
those same teachers came right over
to The Citizen office to join larger
lot of teachers where conjointly they
witnessed the operation of a REAL
type-setting machine, the Linotype,
which is as far in advance of the
contraptions the Independent is
using as a modern flying machine is
ahead of hot air balloon.
We are compelled to note, also,
that there is a sign of uneasiness in
the web perfecting in'ards of our
self-satisfied contemporary. That
boiler plate ghost will not down, and
mixing up a few columns of that
class of plates with a liberal use of
it's stock expressions of "propagan-
da." gang" liars thieves"
"grafters," "boodlers," 'taxeaters,"
and then some, it uses a large lot of
space in trying to convince the
people" that all the honesty, all the
virtue, all the power to live right
up to the plain, everyday wording
of the Ten Commandments is wrap
ped up and carried in stock in that
wonderful journal that never, oh!
never uses ''boiler plates"
Now, what is propaganda"
And, what are "boiler plates?"
Let us take the independents own
definition. Here you are:
:" propaganda
was established in Harrisburg which
for months sent out literature to all
editors of the state"
Therefore, propaganda" is not
a new kind of confectionery, or
clothing, or dental powder, but it is
an establishment, and it sends out
literature. So, that's settled.
AS to boiler plates" the Inde-
pendent says they are
matter already
set up so that newspaper editors
would not have to cudgel their
brains writing anything or set any
type. 1t was all ready to place in
their columns, having been gotten up
by experts at the business"
So, that's settled, or it was settled
until last Fridays Citizen took up
the subject with few remarks, after
which the Independent amended the
definition of boiler plate" by adding
a word of its own, the word editor
ial."
Next it will be in order for the
Independent to define editorial" If
The Citizen were to venture defni-
ton along that line it would be that
an Independent editorial is some
thing that the Philadelphia North
American has said first. (The train
from the Quaker city will be late
some day, and our contemporary will
be forced to use all stereotype
plates, like "all first class metropoli-
tan and provincial newspapers
To boil it down here is the way
the Independent looks at it:
A propaganda" is an establish
ment that is back of a movement,
and "boiler plates" are it's literature
in stereotype form, which are fur
nished free to lazy and impecunious
editors, who in using them become
members of "the gang" and all the
rest of it.
Suppose, for instance, the w. c. T.
U. of Wayne county made an ar
rangement whereby that society
could offer certain amount of Tenn
perance literature in plate form to a
newspaper, no cost for plates If the
editor accepted those propaganda"
plates, would he be one of those aw-
full tax eaters" or member of "the
gang?"
Was it because of such fear that
the Independent refused to use the
plates the good women of Wayne
county wanted to use in its pages?
If yes, then our neighbor was con-
sistent in turning down the w. c. T.
U. offer of "boiler plates"
AS The Citizen accepted them,
and is publishing them from week
to week, reasoning along the same
line, we, too, are consistent, ac-
cording to the Independents defini-
tion, and that act puts us in "the