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

those curious phases of abnormal psy-
chology often found in men and wo-
men, wherein a dual or multiple per-
sonality speaks, are found often IN
communities where many newspapers
babble 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 aud the Ghib-
ellines in a score of guises that make
i for diSCord in town3-are slowly knit
| ting into the spirit of the place. So
! one newspaper in the smaller COM
munities communities under 49,
| 000 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 1t
| 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 cheTishes 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.
Of old in this country the newspa-
per was sort of poor relation in the
| commerce of 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 a tolerated person. He had
TO be put on the Craftsmanship OF some
| important committee in every COM
munity 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 editor
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 libe
suits and shooting scrapes, and when
most American towns were beset BY
a newspaper row as by a iendist
mania.
But those fine old homicidal days Of
, the newspaper business are past, Oh
are RELOCATED to the less civilized
, parts of the land. The colonel ant
: the major have gone CALAMITY tt
! dreams of glory, perhaps carrying
more buckshot with them to glor!
, than was needed for ballast on theil
Journey; but still they are gone, anC
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 you'll
r who pervades the country newspape
r office today. For this young man il
S first of all manufacturer! The shirt
S tail full of type and the cheese press
t which in times past were held as EN-
: plems OF the loathed contemporary
S plant, have now grown even in countr,
n villages to little factories. The smalles
g Offices now have their typesetting ma
t chimes. The lean, sad-visaged countr
S printer, who had tried and burned hi
- wings in the editorial flight, is NJ
t more. Instead we have a keen-eyed
\ dressy young man who makes eyes a
! the girls in the front office, and cal
] talk shows with the drummer at tn
i best hotel or books with the high
/ school teacher in the boarding house
Y This young gentleman operates tn
t typesetting machine. Generally he i
4 exotic; frequently he is a travele
4 from far countries, but he rides in tn
;, Pullman and the clay of no highwa
t ever stains his dainty feet. In tn
= country town, in the factory tina
S makes even the humblest of our coun
: try dailes, the little six and eight pag
l affairs, all unknown, unhonored, an
2 unsung, three or four and sometime
: half dozen of the smart, well-feC
l nattily dressed machine operators ar
= hired, and the foreman-the dear oil
: pipe-smoking, unshaven foreman VIII
prided himself in a long line of ap
prentice printers, the foreman VIII
edited copy, who wrote the TELEGRAPH
heads and ruled the reporters in tn
/ front Office with an iron rod of ter
: ror, the forman who had the power O
2 life and death over every one aroun
: the building but the advertising mar
! the foreman who spent his princel
| salary of SIS week buying meals TO
: old friends drifting through with tn
5 lazy ride of traffic between the grea
cities, the foreman who could boas
\ that he once held cases on the SUI
5 and knew old Dana-that foreman i
5 gone; in his place we know the sup
erintendent. And, alasi the superin