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

full agreement to the justice Of our at
titude
The argument that church cannot
entertain proposition for adyertis-
ing without considering it improper,
can best be answered to the effect that
there is no church that does not adver-
tiSe in some manner or other, and the
distinction between some forms Of these
activities is so subtle that we cannot
ourselves see it at ALL
II we may be pardoned in chos-
ing current instance, we would cite
the fact that at this moment
the Congregational church is hav-
ing painted a large sign which is to
be affixed to its imposing ediice to in
dictate to pasSersby the name of the
church, the hours Of service the name
Of its pastor and its cordial welcome, to
those who are attracted in the reading
OF the sign, So far as we know this
sign is being ordered in a regular bust
ness way and being paid for by the
church The sign contains practically
the same announcement as is made in
The Register week after week and
year after year, 1t is one case proper
to pay for it, and in another improper
from the pastors viewpoint.
Such condition the newspapers
might always bear if it were not that
concident with the war there have
been some very largely increased bur.
dens which must be met in some legti-
mate manner and even more than met
! # the newspapers are TO show any i'm
provement 1t would naturally APP
pear from any individual church stand
point that this expense could be
met by the increase of subscribers
Only to a small extent is this true In
the country, however much the peo-
pie desire good newspaper, they have
comparatively little faith i'll subscrib-
ing to anything until it has been well
demonstrated as worthy of their pat
ronage. As the case stood year ago,
and still stands to some extent today,
there are on our books a large number
of bonaiide subscribers who have re-
ceived The Register and bills for the
same for periods of many years, with
out apparently feeling under any obi
cation that the bills must be met
Gradually through some improvement
Of the paper, and our effort to intro
duce better system into its manage
ment, considerable number of these
old subscribers are being moved to pay
for what the paper produces and pos
sibly to allow us the leaway which will
permit us to work still harder in get
ting and presenting the news OF Add
son County,
There is, however mistaken idea
among those outside of the newspaper
business that subscriptions, no matter
whether at Sl.00 or Sl.50 a year, repre-
sent any profitable income to a week
ly newspaper. At the recent State
Press meeting the publisher of a good
weekly in town little larger than Mid
dlebury testified to a thorough inves-
tigation of his books to the discovery
that he was selling his newspaper at
$l.50 a year while it cost him in cold
cash $206 per subscriber carried on
his books. He felt and every newspaper
editor does feel that many organiza-
tons which profit in one way or another
from the circulation of a good news
paper in their local communities should
bear portion OF the expense, so far as
they are interested in obtaining pub
licity that is of interest to those i'm i,
mediately concerned, rather than to the
majority OF newspapers readers.
Accordingly, hoping for the future
of The Register, rather than for the
chronicle of its failure, such as has been
the case in large number OF small |
towns since the war began, The Reg
lister has taken the attitude that it feels |
perfectly just to take.
In concluding their reply to The
Register, our friends, the ministers,
say they are at loss to know what the
editor of The Register means by sec
tarianism in their notices A newspaper
cannot be properly allied with any
church to the advantage of another in
the matter of giving one more public
ity than another, except as the editor
from a news point of view considers
certain publicity to be most deserving
in the interest of most readers. From
the time that the present editor of The
Register took charge we have referred
from time to time to the difficulty we
in acting perfectly fairly
in this respect Because we were so
possessed with this desire to be fair,
there are some of our friends who have
our desire to be an an