The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1913-02-20
Men Who Aid
City's Papers
Metropolitan Publications Trust
Correspondents in Rural
Districts

ern daily. who said: ga good ed-
tor always has IA man on the spot
when hell breaks loose" Joe McCul.
Tough has been dead for more than
decade. but his advice has been fol
lowed by managing editors all over the
United States. In fact his advice has
been construed as meaning the having
IA man in every spot where anything
might happen by any possibility. The
result has been the small-tOwn CORE
spondent. He is an important but in
conspicuous cog in the vast and com
plcated machinery necessary to the
production of the metropolitan paper
Of today. Columns have been filled
with the records of famous beats
scored by clever reporters on big dai
lies. and there has never been any lack
of exploitation of the feats performed
in "landing' stories of thrilling inter-
est to thousands. No doubt many Of
these tributes to genius and enterprise
were deserved. No one however, has
ever spoken word of commentator
for that great army of humber news
paper men, whO situated in districts
outlying the cities. represent the larger
paper each in his individual terri
tory As essential to the city paper as
its trained editors and reporters are
the country correspondents. The man.
aging editors of these papers, if no one
else. appreciate the value of the out of
town representatives, and they pay al
most as much attention to the effective
ness of their corps of men in the
"conntry' as they do to the men and
women in the home offices. They are
quick to detect any signs of unrelia
bility or inefficiency, and are not slow
in making a change if there be reason
for it. They realize the fact that it is
the unexpected that is always happen
ing and that the unexpected picks out
of the-way places to happen in as often
as anywhere else. 1t is important to
managing editors that there he no weak
link in the chain of correspondents who
serve in the rural districts. For this
reason no time is lost in replacing an
incompetent, unreliable or careless cor
respondent with one who approaches
the standard thought necessary.
Ordinarily one correspondent is ap-
pointed in each county of the state i'm
mediately adjacent to the city where
the paper is located. The correspond
ent is required to handle all news in
his county and, in case an adjoining
county may have a doubtful represen
tative, to notify his paper of any inn
portant happenings in order that all
sections may be well "covered." The
correspondent who. besides taking care
of his own territory, is also able to
"tip off, big news events in contigu-
Gus territory comes closest to highest
esteem possibly for the managing edi-
tor to bestow. While it is rare for
live correspondent to receive a bit of
credit or a word of praise, as happens
occasionally to the city staff man, yet
he knows from the fact that his
"story' is given liberal space and
that he is well paid for it that he is
not altogether forgotten or entirely un-
appreciated The mere fact that he is
not "fired' shows that he is "making
good.'
The country correspondent is usually
invariably, almOst--a reporter on the
leading newspaper of the principal city
of his county. While some of the big
papers acquiesce in the employment OF
correspondent who has retired from
the newspaper field and yet keeps in
touch with the news enough to serve
his paper well, yet the majority insist
that correspondent be actively con-
nected with daily newspaper. The
evening papers of the cities naturally
prefer that their representatives be
employed on the evening papers OF
their respective towns, while the
morning daily papers desire their
correspondents on the morning sheets
of "down state.' The reason is very
plain. A representative of metro
politan evening sheet employed by a
morning paper in his home town cannot
give thorough attention to the morning
news for the reason that his night
work prevents him from reaching his
desk as early in the day as the report
ers of the evening papers do. On the
other hand, the men employed on the
afternoon papers are apt to miss impor-
tant happenings late at night, "stuff'
that would have been handled by the
men of the morning papers In the
smaller counties where big events are
few and good correspondents rare, the
big papers must take the best they can
get and risk getting "scooped' on big
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