The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-07-08

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But to return to the other end OF
the bridge-the bridge that carried
us over when we wanted 90 go into
the newspaper business for ourselves
You can understand the desire of a
publisher to lift a few paeanS OF
praise in this presence for the press
association that granted him life, lib
erty and the pursuit of his chosen
calling at a time when these inalien-
able rights were more or less oDso-
lete.
was writing editorials on morn
ing paper in Detroit in 1899 when the
popularity of its Spanish-American
evening war extras convinced me that
the field offered an opening for a one
cent evening paper, and / proposed
that the extra be continued as reg
ular edition.
Ny employers did not share my en-
thusiasm, but they gave me permits
sion, in the words of the business
manager, ito take my matches and
have my own little hell"
did So Henry Ford got his in
while working at a stationary en-
CINE. / got my prompting to go into
the publishing business on my own
account while working at station
airy salary.
I discovered forthwith that while
the constitution vouchsafed free
press and free speech, it did not pro-
vide a free press association. The
four newspapers in Detroit served by
the Associated Press formed mas
sive human chain across the door Of
opportunity
No restraint of trade. mind you;
just working agreemene--"Me and
my wife; my son John and his wife:
Us four and no more"
This was rather mystifying to a
poor but aspiring young man. My
father had founded country weekly
in southern Michigan in 1858 and we
had kept it in the family half cen
tury, with no one to challenge us or
make US afraid; so I thought il was
legitimate to set ny for myself.
AS the hart panteth after the water
brooks, SO longed my soul for daily
paper OF my own: but the local Asso-
ciated Press contingent, not content
with fixing a definition of news. de-
creed that its distribution should be
confined to the mediums already
adjoining the field
Enter at this juneture E. W. Scripps
and NJ. A McRae, violators-in-chief of
the temple OF exciusiveness erected
by the Associated Press. Working
under a long-forgotten clause of the
Declaration of Independence, they
had invaded divers officially-closed
fields with their sprightly evening
prints Touching the gathering of
news, domestic and foreign, they had
proceeded under the shibboIeth, IF
there's a press service TO be had
well find it; if there isn't, well
make one" They made the Scripps-
McRae service for the west and
middle-wast. linked it with the Pub
fishers Press in the Atlantic states.
and developed the dominant evening
newspaper in many cities and served
all the others that applied for their
facilities.
Messrs Scripps and McRae not
only placed their service at the dis
posal of the publisher who rushed in
where angels were warned not to
tread in the first year Of the TWEEN
tieth century, but they personally
conceded his right to emulate their
temerity and enlist youth and auda-
city in an independent newspaper en-
terprise.
Was 1t not as a shadow OF rock
in a weary land that the United
Press. through one Of it's virile pre-.
cursors. came to your speaker? And
If he ever forgets its guarantee OF
the open door. may his tongue cleave
to the roof of his mouth and his right
hand forget her cunning.
In a little while it developed that
the United Press was not only the
only way but preeminentiy the bet
ter way for an evening paper dedi.
Gated "to the average man, who is
too often the forgotten man in our
social and industrial arrangements.
The Associated Press was In the sad
pradicament of the servant with two
masters on his hand. 1t had to hate
the evening paper and love the morn,
( ing paper after p. n, or hold to
. the former and despfse the latter.
( It little rocked that there was a
sound OF the going in the mulberry
trees, socially and economically. The
dawn of progressiveness made no i'm
preston upon it's devotion to the old
I order. 1t still continued to be the
lineaI descendent of the conservative
who might have shouted at creation
stop, You're monkeying with chaos
/ The United Press, in chroniciins
&
the thoughts Of men politically were
widening with the process Of the
suns; and 1t set its own house In
order that it might be the consistent
and untainted historian of the revolt
against ancient wrongs. You ge
freedom of trade and protection
against price discrimination with THU
public servitor without invoking thu
Clayton antitrust act You get as
free will Offering what electorate
have lashed themselves into terrible
passion to secure, to-wit, the militia
tive, referendum and recall, otherwis'
the inaIienable prerogative to hir,
and fire even press association
The whole process being strict.
commercial. the United Press ellen
escaped the plague OF mutually.
the euphcmistic term for letting tn
favored group work out their owl
. sweet will and give you each da.