The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-08-24

not taking, and the sale would be
legally made without their know,
ledge, and they would lose enough
money on one animal to pay the cost
of good daily paper for two OF
three years. Settlers sometimes lost
their canal rights in the same way
and so long as there was no central
lied place to find all legal notices, SO
long as some were posted on barn
doors and fence corners and some
were published in one county paper
and some in another, there was only
one sure way for man to protect
himself and that was to take all the
county papers and read all the no.
tices posted in the county. 1t was
a hopeless task and good many
people gave it up and kept track of
things in some other way and con-
demned newspapers in general. A
great deal was being said about high
taxes, and some people said they
ought to keep track of what the
county officials were doing and see
where the money went, but when
they tried doing that, they found
that the commissioners proceedings
were published first in one paper
and then in another, and sometimes
not for several weeks after the bust
ness was transacted, and 1t would be
too late to protest against anything
that people did not approve of. Much
of the reports were unintelligible
anyway, and many of the bills did
not show just what they were for.
Many bills were sold to the banks
and other spectators and were mere
ly listed as assigned accounts and
nothing was published to indicate
what the county got for its expendi-
ture. 1t gave officials opportunity
to manipulate lot of questionable
deals and it never gave the public
a chance to express their approval
or disapproval, so that the officials
could not know what their consti-
editors in the county was always
advocating consolidation of the
newspapers to improve conditions,
and used to insist that if there was
one central news service in the
county making an honest effort to
keep the people informed of. just
what was happening, there would not
be the temptation for the editors to
advocate the election of men of
doubtful character, or to uphold Of
ficers in doubtful transactions after
they were elected in order to protect
their business interests. That all of
the waste, all of the duplication of
labor, all of the useless expense on
the part of the people, and all of
the temptation to follow dishonest
methods would be wiped out at one
stroke when the consolidation was
made, and vastly improved service
would Immediately become possible.
One thing that was urged was that
the consolidation would have enough
income so they could have paid re-
porter in each community in the
county land that would make the
news service complete and at the
same time give employment to peo-
pie all over the county. The report
ers in the various places would be
selected more openly and would be
known to the public and would be
more responsible, while under the
system then existing the papers had
few country reporters and most of
their work was conducted in a half
secret manner that made good SER
vice rare thing.
Whenever two or more editors
would sit down and talk over these
things certain objections would be
raised. The question of who would
be acceptable as managing editor Of
the central concern to decide what |
should go into the paper and what
should not; who should be supported
for office and who should not;
dishonest advertising should
be barred or not; whether patent |
medicine advertising should be ac-
cepted or barred; whether prominent
people should be criticised for wrong
doing or just the poor, helpless guys.
Another question would be who
should be the bookkeeper and treas
urer among these four jealous edi-
tors, neither of whom would trust
the other. Who should make the
collections and who should audit the
accounts to see IL each man got his
share. Who should have authority
over the others in hiring and dis
charg help. How could four men
who were accustomed to regarding
each other with suspicion, come to-
sether and work in harmony. Would
ut it be better for the ablest one
n the bunch to demonstrate his
ability first, and then let him buy
,ut the others and build up his own
and operate to suit him
'elf. And even IL he did all of that,
Ifter he had them all bought out
Ind the business consolidated and
,oing we'll, what would there be to