The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1919-05-15

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Big Business in order to encourage its
place it's business where the voters say
and it will get exact value received,
and not a shadow more.
The Ultimate Result
What will be the outcome? First,
when a newspaper becomes a candi.
date for official paper, 1t will and 1t
must assume the attitude Of a candi-
date for office. It must seek to gain
the goodwill Of the voters, to espouse
their aus and to placate their illwill,
If such has existed. How many news
papers will fail to desire the honor
and the emoluments' resulting from
having gained the designation Of Off
cial paper Of the county? Very few.
These newspapers, anxious to secure
that honor, will be more careful to &C
cord with the will of the majority and,
If defeated in n election, will shape
their course to the next so as to be in
position to gain votes. Thus we shall
have a more general desire to serve
the majority and that is true de-
mOcracy. j
Second, we shall have newspapers
freed from domination Of lawyers and
politicians. This "big gun" here has
in his hands the giving out Of a large
quantity of legal printing. If he
frowns upon an editorial e%ndeavor, we
know that the coveted printing will go
to the other fellow who has fawned
upon him better and who has known
how to -. l|
.... bend the pregnant hinges
of the knee
That thrift may follow .fawning."
That is true autocracy. Relieved of
that necessity, newspaper men may
stand erect and tell the helpless and
disarmed tyrants to go where the
kaiser has been consigned to by a
hundred million mouths.
What About the Casualties?
"But," say some timorous ones, IF
you pour all the official and legal
printing into n legal paper, you are
bound to kill off a good many Of the
country weeklies, for they have had so
hard a time to subsist, even when
they shared this business" There is
not much danger of such an eventu-
ality. The average country weekly,
aside from those used by Big Bust
ness to attack and Witty the majority
Of the voters of the state (and these
newspapers are generally situated in
county seats and have larger circula-
tions) will not perish from the earth.
The amount Of such legal printing
they now receive would not pay the
printers devil a months wages, on
the average. They are not powerful
or influential. enough to receive the
recognition Of the great and powerful.
They will continue to gain their sup
port where they always gained it,
from the merchants and the farmers
among whom they live, and, in addi-
ton, will have what few of them have
had before-a chance for election as
official newspaper.
The injustice Of 1t.
Yet some Of these newspapers, who
have never had even Lazarus share
Of the crumbs that fall from the
tables Of the rich, instigated by the
politicians, are crying aloud against
the injustice" Of a law that dictates
to a private person or corporation the
newspaper with which he must do
business. They do not seem to un-
derstand that the only business die
tated is that portion already required
by law to be published. If the people
have the right to require a notice to
be published, it must be just and they
have the right to go further and say
where it shall be published. For over
twenty years the farmers Of this state
have been required to publish the
notice Of an estrayed animal in an
official estray newspaper, designated
by the Governor. Yet no farmer felt
his rights interfered with, or cnm-
planned of the injustice of compelling
him to advertise and naming the
newspaper in which his advertising
must be placed. Is the lawyer, the
corporation or the banker more priv
ileged than the farmer? Not since the
farmer took hold Of the state govern
ment himself. Even were there an in
justice, to what slight extent 1t is,
compared to the injustice done hun
dreds Of times to the innocent and
ignorant, when legal notices, intended
for public information or for the
benefit Of some person, are ''buried"
or hidden in the darkest corner of
some obscure newspaper, and all un-
der the blindfolded eyes OF enlight-
ened justice. Is the right Of a few
men to 'place" their legal printing so
valuable Is to the federation Of
wrongs much greater?
Ii Means 4 Free Press.
Just as the printers saw the doom
Of their trade when the typesetting
machine came, and found that instead
OF doom" It meant "boom," so do the
newspaper men see s'gloom" in this
new law and will find the light Of
liberty under It. Once 1t IS tried, no
newspaper man will aver wish to re-
turn to the old political, pie-and-plum
scrambling game, but will stand erect
and glory In the independence it shall
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