The Washington herald., 1913-09-07
Made Friends with Gov. VIII
son at Seagirt and Sc
cured the Appointment Of
His Colleague, Frederick
l. Siddons.

ened life and regained his birthright OF
perfect health he went to Beaumont as
city editor of the Beaumont Enterprise.
and in the Autumn OF that same year
became city editor OF the San Antonio
Express, and. afterward, covered the
Legislature at Austin during the winter
of 1904 and 1905.
1t was the irresistible lure OF his ma =
tive land, together with the political edi-
| torship of the Des Moines News, that
called him back to Iowa, where he wrote
the campaign for Commission Form Of
Government in Des Moines, and the
"Cummins campaign" for the Iowa
Idea"
During the time that Mr.. Newman was
editor of the Sioux City News. the St
Joseph Star, and finally the Lincoln Star.
until he came to Washington as the chief
editorial writer Of the Washington Times
he specialized in his study of municipal
government, and wrote extensively on
the subject, which was his greatest
ethical and practical interest
Thus it happened that when he COW
cred the preconvention campaigns for the
Scripps newspapers, particularly the
Democratic candidates, and after the
Baltimore convention, was the first man
to reach Sea Girt, he was not unknown
to Gov. Wilson, the Democratic nominee
for the Presidency, who had read many
Of Mr.. Newmans discussions OF munich
pal government.
Tells of Appointment.
my appointment as one of the three
Commissioners of the District of Column
bia came about in an interesting sort
OF way" Mr.. Newman said, land was
as great a surprise to me as anything
that has ever happened in the thirty-six
years of my life Wit
son constantly from July 3, 1912, until
March 4, 1913, when went back to my
regular reportorial work in Washington
for my newspapers. In the meantime,
Gov. Wilson and 1 had occasion to say
lot about political things in general.
and much in particular regarding the
government in the District of Columbia.
The President-elect had rarely been to
Washington and was intensely interested
and deeply concerned about everything
pertaining to its needs and requirements
and what was wanted in the form OF
legislation One day, weeks after the
! ina auguration, in the midst OF those count
less demands that always roll in upon
the new President in an overwhelming
flood, Secretary Tumulty asked me il
l would accept the office OF District Com
missioner.
Il promptly said I had my profession,
in Washington. and whereas I appreci-
ated the honor tremendously, could not
become Commissioner OF the District
of Columbia.
Suggested SiddOns Name.
Then he asked me if could suggest
the man who. from my point OF view,
would best serve the interests OF the
District, and instantly mentioned Fred
erick Lincoln Siddons, and, so far as l
was concerned, the subject Of Commits
sioners ended there for all time. l never
heard thing about il again until June
2, when the official news was borne to
me that had been appointed. as well as
Mr. Siddons, TO serve with Col Harding
on the board of District Commissioners
Two years ago there appeared in the
Saturday Evening Post a story called
The Fortunes of the Sum-" with the
subtitle, An Experiment in Printing All
the News"
According to the story, there were five
men who knew the newspaper game
from the ink rollers to the editorial
page who had plenty of nerve and a
little money" and who believed they
could print the truth regardless of the
advertiser, and succeed with a news
paper that gave a man the straight. un-
tuAllleu Information he was entitled to
when he paid a penny for the paper.
That was really the most interesting
and thrilling experience of my life" said
Mr.. Newman. because I was the editor
Of that so-called Honest-to-God' news
paper.
Il was one of five men," thus the story
Of the experiment began, who ran a
newspaper that made no concessions to
anybody. Everything that went into the
paper went in on the basis of what the
reader was entitled to get for the one
cent piece that he paid for each days
issue.
Settle every question pertaining to
news strictly from the standpoint of the
rights of the reader who is buying the
information were the directions to the
staff of the st. James Sun. When a
story comes over your desk you are to
decide whether to print it or not, accord
ing to your opinion of the readers right
to the facts it conveys. If you think the
man who is going to pay penny for
your paper is entitled to the facts, print
the story. If not. don't print it
4 Successful Failure.
"Of course" said Mr.. Newman, there
was all truth and no fiction in what some
Of the subscribers said in the story when
they protested. You're always raising
sand with something or somebody AT
first We were demonstrated with, good
naturedly, as dreamers of Utopian
dreams must be reasoned with, and day
by day, as We gave the reader the in
formation which in our judgment he was
entitled to, regardless of the advertiser.N
We became involved in every kind OF
trouble that can spring up in the fourth
estate. When advertising was with
drawn we published the fact, and told
the reason why; there was more adver-
tising came our way, and for two years
the paper lived.
The paper lasted two years. Com
missioner Newman was quoting his own
story Of the experiment, and ate all of
the receipts, and $4,000 more, when it
suspended publication. We call it sue
cessful failure
The story tells that honest Journal
ism pays in money profits: that the way
we tried to establish the st. James Sun !
is the right way to establish a newspa-
per, and that the theory held by so many |
publishers-that a newspaper
cannot be absolutely honest to it's read
ers-will not stand the acid test"
ChIna's "Altar of Heaven"