Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1919-10-02
Value of County Paper

in which he argues that no commune
ty can be what it ought to be with
out having a good local paper and
then rallying intellectually to its
support. In presenting his argument
Mr.. Strunk says:
"1p these days of economy the old
family question often comes up:
What can we do without in order to
save a little money? Can we co
without the old county paper, or had
we better economic in some other
way? Is the county paper a necessi-
ty like bread and milk and fuel, or
could we do without it just as we'll as
not?
Sure, any family in this commune
ty can live without a county paper
that is, they can live after a fashion,
exist, breathe, eat, sleep and work.
$50 can an animal live that cannot
talk, read, nor reason, but who wants
to be an animal? AS the fellow says,
"A camel can go sem days without
water, but who wants to be camel?
Listen: If you save all the money
you make and fail to find out how to
make what you save eaiser, with less
work and worry and with the use of
the experiences of others, you hav-
emit gained anything-you have lost.
The first requisite to acquiring wealth
or even a good living is intelligence
intelligence in spending the money
that is made and in making what you
get to spend with less painful effort.
"The county paper is the means by
which the common experiences of the
community are made public for the
use of all who read the paper. If the
bridge is out, the paper says so, and
an extra is saved. If the laws are
changed effecting the payment Of
taxes or the working of the roads,
you find it in the county paper, and
find it right, not as you get it word
of-mouth rumor.
"You pay $3.50 a month for tel
ephone. You use the telephone prin-
cipally to gain information, yet the
county paper gives you much more
information and much more reliable
information for $3.50 a year, one
twelfth as much as the telephone.
"Ycur life is influenced more than
you think by the lives of others. You
do not know it all, your neighbor does
not know it all, but all of you folks
put together know a whole lot, espe-
cially whole lot that appertains to
things right here. Things way off
somewhere are interesting but not es-
sential.
"The daily paper is interesting but
much less essential than the county
paper. 1t tells you whole lot of
things that tickle your love of ex-
element but do you no particular
coed, But the county paper gets
right down to your pocketbook. You
have to be part of the community
you live in whether you want to do
with the great world outside your
own neighborhood except in general
way.
"Then, again, the county paper af-
fects your life, wholly aside from the
material standpoint, from the stand
point of value expressed in money. 1t
is the county paper that recites the
very stirring events in your life and
the life of those who are near and
dear to you, that puts down in i'm
periishable print the vital personal
happenings which come into the life
Of every person.
"The births, marriages, and deaths
are faithfully recorded, the business
changes, the accidents and incidents
that turn the current of lif-eof these
things which each and every time the
county paper is published causes
something in its columns to be clipped
and laid away among the treasurers
and heirlooms of the family.
"The price of the county pper can
be honestly found by comparison with
the price of daily papers or maya
zines. 1t is fixed by the cost of pub
fishing it. 1t saves it's own price in
money to every family twice over ev-
cry year that it is published, and it
does more-it knits together the
whole community, taking larger po-
sition than even the school or the
church because of it wider scope and
more independent attitude. Would
you want to live here without the
churches and schools?"