Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1918-04-05

NHNICH npllNtA w ! Nv N'klnNNl WIZ Wv
discontinued this week owing to the OK
pense and the difficulty Of properly pre-
senting them fairly to all concerned
There are doubtless a large number
OF our readers who will, as do we, re-
gret the abandonment OF these notices
and the necessity Of such action should
not pass without full explanation OF
the matter as it appears both to rs and
10 the pastors Of our churches,
The present issue marks the first an
niversary OF the present management
of The Register and during that year
every effort has been made, at consid-
cradle expense to Us, 20 improve The
Register as "A newspaper without in
CreaSing the. expense to our Subscrib-
ers In a measure we have met with
some success, and with the proper CO.
operation OF those interested in seeing
Addison County still better represented
in a newspaper way, we are prepared to
attempt much further improvement in
the ensuing year.
Moved by the necessity Of better or
ganization, and feeling that the matter
of church notices was one item in this
adjustment, The Register this week ad.
dressed to the pastors a plea for CO.
operation in the expense we bear in the
publication OF the church notices and
the difficulty we share in the presenta-
ton of such notices without any appar-
ent sectarian bias on the part OF The
Register,
In line with the plan adopted by a
large number of newspapers, The
Register proposed that the expense of
routine announcements should be borne
by the churches at a stated rate per
line, while The Register would welcome,
as usual, such news of the churches as
it deemed interesting to a majority of
our subscribers in the usual way, free
of charge,
The rate which The Register pro-
posed for the routine notices was much
less than that required for ordinary adj
vertisng, and it was proposed largely
in view of the difficulty, to which we
have already referred, Of publishing
church notices in perfect fairness to all
denominations without risking a tres
pass on our space and expensel
The reply which the Ministers As
ISOLATION addressed to The Register in
dicates that the plan is not at all well
received and that there Is feeling, very
regretably on our part, that the at,
titude OF the paper Is not fair one.
= The reply Of the churches was as fol
lows
We, the undersigned, pastors Of the
Protestant churches i'll Middlebury,
deprecate the attitude of The Middle
bury Register towards the churches,
as 1t appears in the recent commune
caton-in which, as it seems to us,
the churches are placed on the level
OF business concerns operating for a
profit
We have agreed that no church no
tees will be submitted to The Regis
ter by us unless there is a distinct
understanding that such notices are
not advertising, but rather news
such as is desired by a considerable
number of your subscribers.
We are at loss to know what the
editor of The Register means by sec
tarianism in our notices.
(Signed) Roy L. Whttemore
Ebert B. Holmes
G. M. Moody
Henry c. Newell
The Registers reply is that if the
churches are not interested in the mat
ter of their own publicity, to the ex-
tent of at least meeting some OF the
expense OF it, The Register cannot, in
view of business conditions, take the
whole burden upon itself.
1t appears from the argument OF the
pastors that our proposal places the
churches on the level of business con-
Germs operating for profit. There is no
such insinuation on our part, and there
is no good ground for contending that
payment for such church publicity does
in any sense reduce the church to a
business concern operating for profit.
The publication in The Register of
advertising of the Liberty Bonds does
not put these patriotic securities on the
same level with a cheap mining stock
The publication in our columns of an
advertisement of high class musical |
entertainment under the auspices of |
our Woman's Club does not pull that
entertainment down to the level of a |
visiting minstrel show.
At recent meeting of the State
Editors here the matter Of payment
of church notices was brought up and
discussed in the same light that The
Register presents it, and though we did
not take part in the discussion, our