Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-05-26

those curious phases of abnormal psy-
chology often found in men and wo-
men, wherein dual or multiple per-
sonality speaks, are found often in
communities where many newspapers
babhle the many voices arising from
the disorganized spirits of the place,
For 10 years and more the tendency
in the American country town has
been toward fewer newspapers That
| tendency seems to show that the spirit
of these communities is unifying. The
disassociated personalities of the COM
munity-the wrangling bankers, the
| competing public utilities, the vets
and the drys, the Guelfs and the Ghib-
ellines in a score of guises that make
/ for discord in towns-are slowly knit
ting into the spirit of the place So
one newspaper in the smaller COM
munities--in communities under 15,-
! 600. let us SAYS becoming the town
genus, And in most of the larger
| towns-so long as they are towns and
not Cities-one newspaper is rising
| dominant and authoritative because it
interprets and directs the community
| The others are merely expressions of
vagrant moods; they are unhushed
voices that are still uncorrelated, still
unbridled in the community's heart.
1t is therefore the country newspa-
per, the one that speaks for the town,
that guides and cherishes the town,
that embodies the distinctive spirit of
the town, wherein one town differeth
from another in glory-it is that coun-
try newspaper, which takes its color
from a town and gives color back, that
shall engage our attention at present
That newspaper shall be our vision.
Or old in this country the newspa-
per was sort Of poor relation in the
commerce of a place. The newspaper
required support. and the support was
given, somewhat in charity, more or
less in return for polite blackmail, and
the rest for business reasons. The
editor was tolerated person. He had
10 be put on the Craftsmanship of some
important committee in every COM
munlty enterprise TO secure his help.
In times of social or political emer-
gency he sold stock in his newspaper
company to statesmen That was in
those primeval days before corpora
tons were controlled; so the editors
trusty job press never let the supply
Of stock fall behind the demand.
Those good old days were the days
vixen the editor with the "trenchan.
pen" stalked to glory through libel
suits and shooting scrapes, ard when
most American towns were beset by
newspaper row as by a tiendish
mania.
But those fine old homicidal days of
the newspaper business are past, or
are relegated to the less civilized
parts of the land The colonel and
the major have gone CALAMITY to
dreams of glory, perhaps carrying
more buckshot with them to glory
than was needed for ballast on their
journey; but still they are gone, and
their race has died with them. The
newspaper man of today is of another
breed. How the colonel or the major
would snort in derision at the youth
who pervades the country newspaper
oftlce today. For this young man is
first of all manufacturer, The shirt
tail full of type and the cheese press,
which in times past were held as en-
plems OF the loathed contemporarv's
plant, have now grown even in country
villages to little factories. The smallest
offices now have their typesetting ma
chimes. The lean, sad-visaged country
printer, who had tried and burned his
wings in the editorial flight, is no
more. Instead we have keen-eyed.
dressy young man who makes ewes at
the girls in the front office. and can
talk shows with the drummer at the
best hotel, or books with the high
school teacher in the boarding house.
This young gentleman operates the
typesetting machine. Generally he is
exotic; frequently he is traveller
from far countries, but he rides in the
Pullman and the clay of no highway |
ever stains his dainty feet. In the
country town, in the factory that
makes even the humblest of our coun- |
try dailes, the little six and eight page
affairs, all unknown, unhonored. and |
unsung, three or four and sometimes /
half dozen of the smart, well-fed. |
nattlly dressed machine operators are
hired, and the foreman-the dear ole |
pipe-smOking. unshaven foreman who |
pr1ded himself in a long line of ap-
prentice printers, the foreman who |
edited copy. who wrote the telegraph |
heads and ruled the reporters in the |
front office with an iron rod of ter
ror, the forman who had the power OF |
life and death over every one around !
the building but the advertising man,
the foreman who spent his princely
salary of SIS a week buying meals for
old friends drifting through with the
lazy ride of traffic between the great
cities, the foreman who could boast
that he once held cases on the Sun
and knew old Dana-that foreman is
gone; in his place we know the sup
And. alas, the superin-
!