The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-17
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFOR M ALTON
Blu RE AU
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. D. G.
THE "CoMEBACK."
Washington. D. G

Washington, D. c., Jan. IA
newspaper that prays for speedy
end, and longs for the day when u
For Rent sign will be hung on the
editor-in-chiefs office door, is new
thing in the newspaper game. But
the Comeback, the paper published by
the wounded soldiers at Walter Reed
Military hospital, announces this de-
sire as it's editorial policy.
The first of chain OF similar
newspa pers to be established in the
reconstruction hospitals of the country,
the Comeback will live just as long
a 1t is necessary for the government
to support a reconstruction hospital
for the men who have made their sac
rifice "over there"
THE Comeback announces its pur-
pose to carry on for while" the
editorial in the first issue states. IF
the advertising and circulation holds
out, we shall be here until the last
reha biiitated soldier has settled down
on one of Secretary Lanes soldier
farms or married beautiful heiress,
whose father dabbled a bit in war
stocks"
Written and printed by the wound
ed men themselves and sold by the
Red Cross nurses who have borne the
burden of the war with the men, the
paper tells the story of the men who
are asking a chance to comeback.
Don COQQle Is their message
to the too sympathetic public. I'VE
have made our sacrifices like men and
now we ask for a square deal and
chance to stand on our own feet. Put
ting a lily in our hands and calling
us heroes isn't going to take the place
of the job we need to support our
selves and our families.
I'VE are not objects of charity or
pity Give us your advertising and
subscription and we will take care of
the rest
The Comeback is confronted with IS
many responsibilities ever faced a
newborn newspaper or magazine. tThe
editor, in the first edition, declares
that the paper will have as many du-
ties to perform ''as soldier in France
has cooties.''
First the little paper is to uphold
the morale of the wounded men, eX-
planning the various plans of the gov
eminent for their welfare and train
ing. 1t is to keep alive the spirit of
carry on which upheld these vet
Grams of Chateau Thierry, Argonne
and the Marine, in the midst of the
fighting
Many of the men come back to the
hospitals in this country entirely I'M
aware that their Uncle Sam has made
any preparations for their futures, be-
yond the meager pension granted the
veterans of other wars. Despondent,
the men are convinced that their
handicaps in the form of missing arms
or legs, will bar their forever from
active participation in the affairs of
the world.
To these Comeback explains that
the government has determined that
not one man from lover there" shall
go back into civil life less fit to sup
port himself than he was before he
| enlisted in the service.
You have lost your right arm, Mr..
| Machinist,' the paper says. "Well,
your Uncle Sammy has a new arm for
| you that will enable you to go on with
your trade or enter new line of bust
ness. Write to us and we will tell you
| all about it, 20
| Secondly. the Comeback must serve
as a model for the dozens of other
papers to be published in reconstruc-
| ton hospitals in other sections of the
/ country. Even the hospital at
| Walter Reed stands as a model of its
kind, the paper published by the Wal
| ter Reed men will blaze the trail
along which the other hospital publ
cations will follow.
| Already two other reconstruction
hospitals have established weekly
| newspapers, similar in policy and
makeup to the Comeback. The New
! York hospital has it's "Righta bout, ~
and the hospital at Newport News
| has established a paper as yet I'M
| named.
The naming of the paper is left to
| the men of the hospital. The Come
| back received its title from Private
Earl Barrows. a veteran of Argonne
forest, now learning to play baseball
with a specially designed artificial
| arm invented for him at the hospita
] When he is mustered out, Private
I Barrows expects to study engineering
at a technical school in New England
The responsibility of its position as
the first paper of its kind rests heav-
lily on the shoulders of the infant
| journal, four weeks old on the fourth
of January.
"a noncom officer has to cut his
notches pretty straight" the editor
| laments. THE job of being a non.
com newspaper to a hayfoot-strawfoo
dignity, but it is certainly also a re
sponsibility.''
AS its fourth duty, the paper mus
serve IS a practical school of journal
ism for the wounded men with lean.
ings toward newspaper careers.
| For example, Pvt. Stewart L. Evans
I1S-year-old veteran of twelve months
hard fighting over there. came bacl
to the Walter Reed hospital with on,
arm gone. lost under barrage fire a
Chateau Thierry and a Discrimination
. to go back to his old trade as a ma
chiniSt. One weeks service in tn,
advertising department of the Come
back has convinced him and his cnIe
that he was intended to be the adver
Using manager of some metropolitan
daily a few years hence. and in tn
meantime he loses no time receivin.
/ his practical training on his hospita
: pa per.
From the typesetter's case to tn
imposing stone, and from cub report
: err to editor-in-chief. the paper de
| clares, every job will be filled by
Yank they couldn't kill. The fellow
who wants to learn journalism will
have an opportunity to learn an,
phase of it for which his ability fit
him
: IF these doughboys ever learn t
: fwrite,' the paper prophesies, "ther
will be more real stories of the wa
written after the war than while 1
, was being fought Suppose the Come