Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1915-03-12
ONE PAPER ENOUGH

ONE PAPER ENOUGH
Orofino is one-paper town. Two
papers may exist, but from the stand
point Of the citizen interested only in
the welfare Of Orofino, and even in
the growth of the county, the situa-
ton is worthy of serious considera-
ton. From business standpoint
one good paper is all Orofino needs,
and all the town can support. That
will not be questioned. Here we
have double advertising load for
such merchants as patronize both pa
pers, an expense none of our business
men can afford. But there is more
serious side to the issue here in Oro-
fino, as some business men look at it.
Orofino is a promising little village
with big future. Clearwater
county is new county with vast un-
developed resources that needs adj
vertising, and the job is big enough
to demand the best efforts of any
editor, backed by the united support
of the community.
Two papers exit in Orofino be-
cause of conditions that to many
were unbearable, and with two pa
pers in the field it is going to be
a finish fight for it is hardly prob
able either side will quit till ex-
hausted, and God alone knows on
what slim picking a country editor
can, when necessity compels, exist.
But Orofino and Clearwater county is
not generally interested in this phase
of the situation. There is need of
devoted, consistent boosting, of news
paper publicity, of just the peculiar
kind of boosting a good local paper
can give community, when all the
time, ability, energy and means of a
local paper is devoted to the material
upbuilding of a town or county.
So far as Oronfio is concerned the
citizens should not support two pa
pers. The business men should get
together and settle the matter once
and for all time. So far as the
Clearwater Republican is concerned it
will gladly submit the matter to a
vote Of the people, and let them de-
eide which paper, in the judgment of
the people, is best able to serve Oro-
fino and the county, not politically,
but as newspaper. We know what
the town needs in the newspaper line,
could deliver the goods if the town
would get together and back one pa
per.
Experience has demonstrated the
folly of two papers where there is
room for only one, and special empha-
sis should be placed on the folly of
burdening any community as small as
Orofino with two small partisan pa
pers.
May we look at the others side for
a moment, the side Of community
needs? Consider the good one we'll
supported paper could do if energy
and means, now expended in bitter
fighting, were expended along lines
that will suggest themselves. This
is the position the Republican has
maintained for the past several
months and it is gathering force.
Just word as to how one paper
should be run in a county seat, where
Of necessity there is more or less poll
ties. Just this Run it independent,
opening the columns to all parties on
equal terms, but making politics
secondary consideration. The bust
ness of the independent paper is news
and boosting. The Lewiston Tribune
and the Spokesman Review are not
able and excellent examples. Would
it pay Spokane or Lewiston to divide
the business and instead of single
large paper have two or three little
ones? Not in a thousand years.
And Orofino business men should
get together and settle the matter,
not for the benefit of any newspaper,
gang, ring, clique or political party,
but FOR THE GOOD OF OROFINO
AND CLEARWATER COUNTY.
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