The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-12-25

| II uO6Su uldII0T LOT one copy VI
a thousand, but when the govern
ment transports carload every few
days it means difference, and some
OF, the big newspapers in the United
States have been filling cars and
shipping at government expense, I'M
til congress has enacted law to
make them pay according to the
zones they cross. 1t looks pretty
blue for many, and especially for all
of the newspapers that ship much
of their product across state lines.
But for almost every calamity in
business there is recompense of
LsIk3aH 11fhV Liberty m o o r
T1Y KIk8SlGAejl has been built to
-iNN drive airships as
they never travelled before, and the
big newspapers and magazines of
the country will establish printing
plants and branch houses across the
continent, and do much of their
printing in the localities where the
papers and magazines are to be read.
The type for all but the news of the
day will be set In one central office,
and molds of the different pages will
be carried by airships to all the
branch houses, where they will be
cast into forms for use in those
branches and all they have to do is
to print and mail them from there.
These molds are very light, being
made of papier-mache, which does
N OF weigh much more than a sponge
and the molds for fifty or one hun
dred pages can be placed into a
mall package and scooted across the
continent in day. Plans are al
ready being formed for trans-con-
tinental mail service by airships and
the big publications will ship their
white paper to the branch houses in
freight cars and mail the finished
product out locally, whereas they
have been shipping the same papers
on fast mail trains almost in car
load lots at slight expense as COM
pared with freight charges, the gov
eminent paying the difference. This
applies also to the smaller news
papers Of the country and the little
newspapers, who have been am
bilious to follow their example, but
now things are going to be equalized
and publishers have to get down on
q sound business basis, furnishing a
sound service to the community or
get out of business. The city papers,
like the Salt Lake Tribune, for in
stance. will have to decide what ter
ritory they are going to serve, how
many zones they can AFFORD to pay
the postal rate across and then fur
nish thoro service in that, territory.
The day is past for spreading them
helter-skelter over many states at
government expense. The little
newspaper will freeze out in the pro-
cess or they will. find a sphere of
service in certain territory, cover
that therritory thoroly and satisfac-
torly or go to the wall in failure.
There will not be much more of this
helter-skelter newspaper business.
There will not be much more of the
hit and miss circulation. A paper
will either cover it's territory thoroly
or it will fail. People will not stand
for a duplicate service in the news
paper line any more than they will
stand for a duplicate service in cleo
trio light plants, or by having two
or three different telephone systems
in the house. They are going to find
out which one furnishes the service
they want, and then they will Danish
those that fail to come up to their
standard. Insurance companies have
to take out license in Idaho or quit
business, and only those that come
UP to certain standard can get
license. The newspaper business may
come under government regulations
in the same way or it may not. But
in any event the sweeping changes
brought about by the war will have
that affect upon newspapers, whether
administered by the government or
by the people. The tremendous
waste of material and man power
in variety of ways, by Implications
of the newspaper business in this
country, is receiving the serious at
tention of the great students in
economy and somebody like Mr..
Hoover, the food economist, will lay
his hand on the newspaper business
and bring about changes that will
be so marked and such a vast i'm
provement, such. great economy in
| every way, such an improvement in
/ the service that people will look
back upon the present newspaper
business as upon a nightmare from
which they have happily escaped.
I do not know how soon these
l changes will come about any more
than you know when and how the
war is going to end, but | predict
that the trend of the newspaper
business will be to the affect I have
just described There will be sweep
ing changes in the mechanism used
to produce newspapers, and perhaps
the changes will come about sud
denly just as the changes in motors
come about suddenly by the inven-
ton of what is known as the Liberty
motor, which is the product arrived
at by mechanical engineers who put
all of the good points together Of
all of the motors ever built and all
that had been designed to be built
and made one motor superior to
everything else. That is expected to
put all, or nearly all, Of the motors
now in use into the discard and to
do it within few years.
When the mechanical engineers
and experts in the printing business
come together and are locked up In
a convention hall, as were the motor
IL RI n-