The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-17


the Typographical Union is great
institution. established and maintained
upon good principles and with the
highest standards 1t does fine things
for its men and women. takes care OF
it's sick and disabled, keeps up a
national home for the latter at Col
| orado Springs, buries the dead. PEN
sions the living when they are too old
for active service and gives the widow
and orphans a liberal fund. We were
never good enough at type-setting and
never worked at it long enough to
qualify for membership-else we
should have joined-that's one of the
regrets. We believe in their eight
hour regulation. thoroly-for the
printer; but the proprietor has to
| break it, for himself; for instance on
this trip and at home sometimes.
have heard this story told concern
ing Mr.. Bennett Once a Texas edi-
tor was hobnobbing with Bennett in
Paris when the latter stopped to file
long cable about the Grand Prix race.
| The Texas editor, not to be outdone,
ordered the operator to duplicate the
story to the Lone Star Signal. The
Texas paper. upon receiving the cable.
went into the hands of the sheriff, who
attached the property to cover the
cable tolls.
| Attic living in Paris, Bennett was
strenuously American in his ideas of
government. He liked a long range
view of his dailies but worked labor
| iously daily in conduct of his papers.
He was intensely patriotic and detested
the kaiser.
This aversion, apparently, never
left him. 1t was natural from Mr..
Benefits residence in France and
| from his understanding of European
affairs that his newspapers should
have been most active in support of
the allied cause, from the minute war
broke out in 1914. But about their
antagonism to Germany there was
from the first bitter intensity which
came to other American publications
later when German atrocities became
known.
A writer in a New York paper. says:
He foresaw that America would get
into the war as soon as the Germans
opened their submarine policy, and he
did his utmost to bring America in
sooner. One illustration showing how
deeply he felt about the matter was
the way in which he forgave Colonel
Roosevelt. a thing that was very hard
for him to do.
He was so much pleased with the
vigor of the ex-president's pro-war pol
icy that he personally dictated the edi-
torial, cabled from Europe, in which
the Herald expressed sorrow that Col
onel Roosevelt was not president.
Bennett was courageous to the limit,
never showed to better advantage
than in the way he stuck to Paris dur
ing the advance of the Germans from
the Marine. The government moved to
Bordeaux, and most of the Paris pa
pers moved away. but Bennett would
not bulge. He ran so short of print
ers that he was reduced to getting out
a two-page paper. He said he would
keep on getting out the paper as long
as he had printer in his employ.
He declared that there was no danger
| of losing Paris, said that French were
gathering strength and that Germans
were falling into a trap.
| When attempts were made to induce
him TO leave Paris, he lost his temper
and said he would keep on printing
his paper until the Germans got there.
and if they ever did get into Paris he
would keep on printing it if they
would let him. His example had a
fine effect on the courage of the peo-
pie and gave them a hearty respect
for Americans. His paper became the
rallying point for patriotic Americans
The French loved him.
There are lively stories that could
be written in this chapter about Ren,
nett. but the mail must be caught for
Fridays paper.
From almost every angle Benefits posi-.
unique Upon the death Of his father. who
was founder OF the Herald, the younger
the largest newspaper fortune accumulated
BY any American publisher up to that time
He applied it toward achievements to
startle the public and thus rebound to the
credit of his newspaper In many in.
stances these achievements became Import.
ant items in the worlds history,
Such was the policy he inaugurated
when as managing editor in 1870 he order.
ed Henry M. Stanley into the heart Of Africs
to find Livingstone; such when he Sent
the Inflated Jeanette expedition to discover
the North Pole; such when he Joined in
the laying of the commercial cable-al
typical instances of enterprise to make
news or further its transmission.
I'm contrast to the personal journalism
of the elder Bennett and Greeley type the
younger Bennett was one of the first IL
sound the impersonal note. He declared
that his paper should become a sort OF
republic of which no man or party shouIf
have control. From the first he refused
to recognize celebrities" az compared witt
workers on his starr. and 1t is related
his triumph in Africa, young Bennett re
warded him with the mean assignment o.
covering" the Tenderloin police distric
in New York.