The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-04-25
PASSES AND NEWSPAPER

Taking a hand in a mild discussion
OF passes and editors between the
Times Union and the Brooksville Ar
gus, the Ocala Star says, in the course
of a long article commencing the anti
pass law, IF a railroad (now) wants
TO keep a newspaper quiet it is easy
TO give it a mileage book, and nobody
outside of headquarters can prove the
said book isn't paid for in cash. But
you won't notice that newspaper say
ing anything against that railroad"
which of course is all right from the
Stars standpoint. If that is their price
IL may be of interest to the railroads
TO know it. That this would not apply
nor work out with the great majority
os the editors of Florida newspapers,
is. however, well known and to their
credit-Times-U Union Short Talks
Well, Short Talks, passing over your
attempt to distort the Stars meaning
with no comment, except that it is
discordant to your usual fair and BEN
evolent spirit, and assuring you what
you probably already know, that we
have as much genuine respect for
Florida newspaper men as you have,
tho policy doesn't make US soft-soap
some and slight or slur others, we re-
spectfully submit that the pass system
is bad, from a business as well1as a
moral standpoint. Bad business is al
ways bad morals, and vice versa.
If a newspaper man can obtain four
or FIVE hundred dollars railroad trans
portation a year in return for a hun
dred dollars worth of advertising space
he is verv likely to stay on good terms
18th &c railroad. If a big Newspaper
can send it's reporters and cores
pondents all over the county in return
FOR tenth or twentieth of the value
# their tickets in space that it would
rave to fill anyhow, its to the interest
of it's managers to be friendly with the
railroad managers. On the other hand,
if a railroad hauls an editor and all his
family and his employees and some of
his friends all over the state in return
for advertising that it could pay for at
regular space rates with the price
sonnet mes of one ticket, it is hardly
to blamed if it expects the paper to
be lie. dly to its policy and silent to
its shortcomings. It's a mighty little
railroad that has no policy and there
never was one big enough not to have
shortcomir IS.
TwentL five years ago, there were
more papers III L 1OI ihcI III pa OpOA NAC'A
to the population than there are now.
They were not as good papers, and
some of them were very trifiing, but
few of them didn't carry railroad ad-
vertising in exchange for passes. And
the passes were out of all proportion
to the advertising. The writer was
personally acquainted with several ed
itors who obtained i'll transportation
more in a year than their newspaper
plants were worth. He had passes
himself, and tho he rode little for
pleasure, and not much in proportion
for business, his transportation would
have exceeded his advertising rates
two or three hundred per cent One
editor, who had half a dozen in his
family, whose newspaper plant would
have been dear at $500, and whose cir
culation was never over 800, had pass
es not only all over the state, but all
over the United States, and he and the
members of his family seldom rode less
than a thousand dollars worth a year
Two boys ran a little paper a few
months in a village on the j. t. Il K
w. Their paper was five-column
folio, and it's circulation consisted OF
it's exchange list and a couple of hun
bred copies that a wealthy orange
grower paid for to send to friends in
the north. Each of these boys had a
pass. 1t took them about two days &c
do the work on their paper; and most
of the other days in the week, they
rode on the railroad They would
board the morning train and ride &c
Jacksonville, stand around the union
station for awhile, take the evening
train and ride back home. Or they
would vary the performance by goins
to Sanford in the evening and return
ing home, or maybe going on to Jack
sonville the next morning.
These were sample cases, but there
were many like them. Under such cir
cumstances, the press couldn't be eX-
pected to be Independent, and any man
who remembers those days knows that
it was not On the other hand, the
railroad men. knowing that they were
giving the newspaper men great deal
more than they earned. justitiably re-
garded many of them not only as hire
lings, but as beggars.
The Star doesn't believe that a news
paper or a public man should attack a
railroad just because its a railroad.
But it thinks a newspaper should give
the news about railroad like it does
more particular about a railroad than
about individuals, because railroad is
a public affair, and if the newspapers
gave the news about the roads, they
would never need to give any opinion.
But the railroads VIGOROUSLY don't
want the news given about them. They
want puffs-they want glowing de-
scriptions of their virtues, but they
don't want a word about their failings.
They made that understood to the peo-
pie who carried their passes in those
days, and they would make it under
stood now If they could help it, they
would never have a void in print
about high rates, unsafe equipment,
slow trains, dirty ears or even fatal
accidents All newspaper reporters
VINO have dealt with railroad men
know this to be true. Yet the public
mas perfect right TO all such knowl-
edge.
1t didn't receive much of ii twenty
years or more ago The roads had the