Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1918-02-01
SECRETARY PORTE
ON Big RAMPAGE
Says Utah Publishers Lack Backbone
and are Afraid to Tackle In
iluences Running State.

That the secretary of the Uta
State Press Association, who is ais
the secretary and and director of tn
Franklin Club at Salt Lake City, ha
rather low estimate of the countr
newspaper fraternity in this state i
general is quite evident from a lette
just addressed to the members of tn
Press Association and other publish
ers, from which the following are eX
cerpts:
81 have just returned from Den
yer, where | attended the meeting
of the Editorial Association of
Colorado. The meeting was an
inspiration and treat. The diff
ference between the treatment
the editors receive in Colorado
and in Utah is certainly marked,
and it is no wonder the papers
there are boosters for the state.
They could not be otherwise.
"But, the editors there are not
afraid to say things, and roast
hi out of the politicians and
grafters when occasion requires.
They are not spineless creatures,
and as result they are treated
with some Difference. When the
country newspapers of this state
get ready to be power, they will
be, but not until they know how
to say things, and are not mere
dishrags with nothing to say.
ain other states the country
papers are the big influence, while
in Utah their influence is practic-
ally nil, and always will be, if the
papers are run as they are at
present.
LETS show some backbone, get
after things that are running the
state, show up the cheap polite
ians, and have something to say
Other papers do it, while we in
Utah sit still and not one little
peep.
"Get the Blackfoot Republican
of Idaho, and see how this editor
speaks his mind. 1t will do some
of you good.
"You poor, craven creatures,
with not one word to say, yet
chasing yourselves as editors!
Get up and say something-let
the world know you are alive! Be
something!
LET us have real journalism
in Utah, and then you can get
somewhere. Attend the meeting
in Salt Lake in April, and get
some more backbone. You GER
tainly need it now.
Yours for real newspapers,
r. T. PORTE, Sec'y.
Ahem! Wonder what and who NJ
Porte is driving at, anyhow. Coul
he be abiding to us? More back
bone? Oh, no; it can't be us. If h
suggested an extension Of the waist
band and an amplification of the er
tire super-structure, we might be in
Guided. But backbone-that's OH
"long" suit
Say, Porte, you certainly must hav
had an awful case of dyspepsia whe
you delivered yourself of the forego
ing. That is a terrific broadside {
turn loose into the camp of your fe
low workers and friends. If yo
would pour grape shot like that int
your own ranks, what the h-ll woul
you do to your enemies, if you had
real, honest-to- goodness newspaper {
your own to load and shoot?
But on the square, Hon, Scratch
etary, what is cramping you, anyhow
We suspect that we can guess, an
will take the first opportunity of tel
ing you when we see you. And it
not exactly because there is such a
unprecedented amount of politics
graft and camouhage in this stat
either. Now is it?
There are any amount of peop
who can tell an editor how to run h
newspaper, and the poor fool WI
tries to follow all the instructions al
suggestions will find himself in vel
much the same predicament as Il
man and his son did, who were takir
home an ass which they had purchase
as described in Ksop's fable. Son
theoretical publishers have the i'd
that in order to become eminent &c
tors, all they have to do is to roa
everybody and everything in sigh
1t requires very little real expo
fence to discover that this is Meth
popular nor profitable And, on t
other hand there are editors, just
there are people in other walks of III
who are moral towards, or cringi
sycophants, who do nothing but P
laver, whether it is merited or not, u
I'll it becomes nauseating We dou
not that we have some Of this ella
of editors in Utah. But on the 9th
49,. ,,,o,, l., ba an