Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1917-09-21
FRIDAY, SEPT. 81, 1917.
..RIDING THE FREE HORSE TO DEATH

A VERY pronounced sentiment exists among
the newspapers of the United States that
they are not being dealt fairly with by the Gov
eminent in the matter of free advertising. The
question of the second issue of Liberty Bonds and
other Government securities, aggregating eleven
billions of dollars, has brought the matter promi
nently before congress- and the matter has been
the subject of much heated discussion on both
sides, without anything definite being arrived at
except the resolve to leave the selling of the bonds
and securities to Secretary McAdoo of the treas
ury department, who may use his own methods of
disposing of them. While the newspapers will of
course publish the news facts in relation to the
sale of the bonds, there is a general feeling that
unless the Government proffers to use certain
amount of paid space the issue will not receive as
much consideration at their hands as the last did,
The American Press, class organ which has
led the fight in the interests of the publishers OF
the United States, has paid out nearly $4,000 of it's
own money for page and double page advertise
ments in the leading Washington newspapers in
order to get the matter properly before the secre-
tary of the treasury and other high government
officials
The following is from its last weekly issue:
Country publishers in every state of the Union
have expressed themselves most clearly on the
matter of further free advertising for the liberty
loan
Judging from their letters, every one of them
realize the tremendous injustice of further re-
quests that they give their only source of profit
able revenue, and, in addition, they realize that
such publicity as can be obtained in the news col
umns of the papers of the country will be totally
inadequate to meet the government requirements.
"The selling to the people of more than eleven
thousand millions of securities is no mean task.
1t is the greatest financial undertaking in the his
tory of the world. And it is an undertaking that
must be tried in a country whose people are UNI
.,caI 10 abs w
know little of bond issues and indeed little of the
seriousness of the present situation to inspire
them to the purchase of government securities
The newspapers will publish the news of the
loan That is foregOne conclusion. But the nee
essary repetition if the bonds are to be quickly
sold will be lacking.
An idea of the general position of the country
press may be gained from the following editorial
PUBLISHED in the st. Marys CO., Leader.
"When Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo starts
out TO boost the next liberty bond sale he will run
up against circumstance, to speak. 1t will be
in the shape of demand on the part of the most of
the newspapers of the country that the federal gov
eminent pay for the space used for publicity When
the first liberty loan foated the newspapers
were asked for free publicity and they gave of it
in abundance. Most Of the publishers now feel that
they should be paid regular advertising rates for
boosting the next issue, and they will not hesitate
to so inform Mr. McAdoo 1t is more than
purely business proposition and the government
authorities should so consider it and act accord
ingly
"Outsde of the semi-news feature of the liberty
bond campaign, which feature could have been
fined to a very limited space, the newspapers actu
ally gave away a whole lot of their daily bread.
They did it ungrudgingly but there is such thing
"riding good horse to death" The publicity
parto the liberty loan sale of bonds is purely and
simply advertising matter without the least smat
terng of news value attached to it, The publishers
have to pay out good money to have the matter set
in type and it is injustice TO ask them to do it for