The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1913-02-27
COUNTRY NEWSPAPERS RE.
LATION TO THE Bust
NESS COMMUNITY.

gon, ILL.,
It's singular thing that the
business man who doesn t believe
in adv ertising, is the self-safe in
,dividual who is always seeking |
to crawl into ones news columns
through subterfuge. Your coun-
try editor may lack acute bust
ness sense, but he has a nose rare
ly tuned for discriminating be-
tween news proper and advertis-
ing. And the publisher who is
over trained in the notion of what
his paper owes the public welfare
will usually in his lucid intervals,
make struggle against individual
jayhawkers of this description.
One Of the confirmed infidels to
advertising doctrine in my town,
is the business man who requested
as a favor that in news mention
Of trips to a neighboring city by
Oregon people, we eliminate the
qualifying adjective shopping. :"
He thought the suggestiveness of
the mention might lead others to
do likewise and thus hurt business
for the home merchant. He was
right, but you see he don't believe
in advertising.
And this suggests factor active
in the wrecking of rural COM
munity business life, and invites
reference to a subject really ger
name to my topic, because it de-
picts one of the public veal cru
sades that enlist the activity Of
the daring country publisher. Per-
sonally, l entered upon it with
zeal and still occasionally make
editorial forays in behalf of the
that undertakes to search--light the
charge, / invariably find that |
am far in advance of the picket
line and exposed to ruthless fire
from our mutual friend the far
mer. Let's be perfectly frank
about the mail order evil. The
farmer is mighty frank in refer
ring to the policy of a newspaper
trade with him. He buys his
evil. His language is somewhat
thus: "You d better cut out that
stuff you've been printing about
the mail order business if you
want me to keep on taking your
paper. It's nobody's business
where 1 spend my money. l sell
my hogs and my cattle on the Chi
cago market. Why shouldn't
deal where l get my money. Be-
sides, all the town business man
gets is his profit, even if / dc
trade with him. He buys his
goods in the city and the bulk OF
the money goes there anyhow"
And SO on. Well, quite a BIZ
of the commercial printing of a
town that I'm familiar with, il
done abroad. Three banks in tina
town have all their printing done
away. Not one-third Of the bust
ness men of that town are adver
tisers, save when they permit some
silver-tongued fakir from Chlca
go to mulct them to the aggregate
tune of several hundred dollars
for some worthless advertising
stunt. The farmer is clear regard
ing his attitude toward the paper
that criticizes him for mail order
house dealing. He makes gooo
his threats, too. Let us look 8
little farther.
A conservative estimate made
by one of the directors of thu
commercial association of the town
in which | live, shows that tn
business men of that town, ant
their families, spend about $75,
600 annually in shopping trips t.
neighboring cities. Now you
business and professional mel
with their families are the people
who set the standard of good
for your town. If the normal crl
terions of the store stocks OF
town, buy their goods elsewhere
who is going to maintain the stor
stocks standard of that town? Ma
turally the standards degenerate
And then your business man, VIII
is an infinitely worse offende
than the farmer, in diverting mon
ey from the home channel, find