Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-05-26
Bv William Allen White

tendent is not interested in preserving
the romance of day that is past. He
is not bothered by the touch of a van
ished hand. When the vanished hand
tries to touch the superintendent of
the country newspaper Office today. a
ticket to the associated charities
wood yard is his dull response. The
superintendent is interested largely
in efficiency. The day of romance is
past in the back room of the country
newspaper.
But in the front room, in the editor
ial offices, in the business Office even,
there abides the spirit of high adj
venture that is incarnate in these
marvellous modern times. Never be-
fore were there such grand doings in
the world as we are seeing today.
Screen the great war from us, and still
we have world full of romance. full
of poetry, full of an unfolding prog
ress that is like the gorgeous story OF
some enchanter's spell. Where in all
the tales of those Arabian Nights En-
tertainments is anything so wonderful
as wireless telegraphy, so weird and
uncanny as talking over the seas with
out wires? What is Cinderella and her
romance compared with the Cinderella
story today-the story that tells us
how the world is turning into her
prince, shortening her hours of work,
guaranteeing her living wage, keep
ing her little brothers and sisters
away from the factory and in school,
and pensioning her widowed mother
that she may care for her little flock!
How tame is the old Cinderella story
beside this. And Sinbad is losing his
load, too-slowly, as the years form in
to decades, Sinbad is sloughing off the
old man of the sea; the 12-hour day is
almost gone, and the eight-hour day is
coming quickly; the diseases and &C
cidents of labor are falling from his
shoulders, being assumed by his en-
ployer; his bank savings are guaran-
teed by his government his food is
no longer poisoned; his tenement is
ceasing to be a pit of infection; his
shop is no longer place of torture.
And every day the newspaper brings
these great stories to their readers.
Stories of progress are the magnifi-
cent tales of sorcery and wizarding that
come cleaning in celestial light across
the pages of our newspapers every
day. And in our country papers We
rejoice in them, because we know the
heroes. We know Cinderella: she
works in our button factory. We knew
her father, who lived on Upper Mua
the sixties. We know Sinbad; he is
our neighbor and friend. He is not 4
mere member and wheeltender to u.s.
We played with him as boys; we went
to school with him in the lower grades
and before he had to leave, when his
father died, to support the family. We
see Cinderella and Sinbad every day,
and when we read of their good for
tunes we feel kindly toward the paper
that tells US of these fine things. We
open the country paper and say.
How blessed on the mountains are the
feet of them that bring glad tidings,'
and so we read it, every line. 1t is the
daily chronicle of the doings of our
friends.
OF course our country papers are
provincial. We know that as we'll as
any one. But then, so far as that goes, J
we know that all papers are provin- |
3ial. How we laugh at the provincial |
SINS of the New York and Boston and |
Chicago papers when we visit the |
cities! For the high gods of civiliza-
ion, being jealous of the press, have |
put upon all newspapers this spell: |
hat every one must be limited in in |
crest to its own town and territory. |
There can be no national daily news
PAPER, for before it reaches the nation |
is news is old and dull and as clammy |
is a cold pancake. News does not
Keep. Twelve hours from the press it |
S stale, fiat, and highly Improbable.
However the trains may speed. how
'ver the organization of the subscrip-
ion department and the press-room
nay perfect itself, the news spoils be-
ore the ink dries, and there never
nay be in our land a COSMOPOLITAN
'ress. So the cities papers find that
hey must fill up those spaces, which
n nation wide paper should be filled
With the news from the far corners of |
'ur land, with city news. Thus in ev-
ry country paper we have the local
gossip of its little world. And our
country papers are duplicated on a
ather grander scale in the cities.
What we do in six or eight or ten or
welve pages in the country, the city
apers do in twenty or forty pages.
What they do with certain prominent
itizens in the social and criminal and
financial world, we do also with our
prominent citizens in their little
7orlds.
And in the matter of mere circula-
ion, our American country newspa-
ers are feeble folk, yet they do as
natter of fact build their homes upon
he rock. The circulation of daily