The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-03-08

| There is an Old expression which
! the public have long been using wher
they are talking about printing, thai
| has always got Oh nay nerves more
or less, and in these days of hig
cost of print and labor it is more
absured than ever. | want to say
tho, that for every foolish or mis-,
taken idea which the public entertain
about printing and publishing, some
IL ol-printer or alleged newspaper
man is responsible, for they have put
those tool-ideas into the people S
| heads.
Mistakes of the People
Ever since cheap paper and rapid
| tire printing presses have been in
| use, people have been gathering the
! idea that printed matter did not cost
hardly anything, and especially after
the first hundred" there was little
or no expense for all the rest of that
was printed, Stand in the average
newspaper office and listen to the
remarks of customers as they come
and go all day. ordering printed mat
ter, and they will ask the price OF
one hundred, and then they usually
remark that OF course it will not cost
any more or not much more for the
next few hundred, and they expect
five hundred or a thousand to be
almost given TO them if they only
pay for tile first hundred. They get
at it from different angles, but in
some manner they slip you the idea
that they know it doesn't cost much
after the first hundred Even tho
there is mighty task of setting type
and adjusting of forms to get rea-
dy to print, they say, "Oh, we'll, it
is no trouble to print lot of them
after the type is set
Getting a Gold Mine
There is where the rub comes in
setting the type. People have
got the idea that it is almost hold
up to have to pay for printed mat
ter. They might as we'll say that it
is no trouble to make a fortune by
mining when once you get good
gold mine. Prospectors usually
spend their whole lives getting the
gold mine, and some of them do
worse than that-they never sue
coed in the preliminary.
When the linotype came into gen
eral use, printers did another fool
iSh thing, telling people how won
derfully easy it was making the task
of setting type. They forgot to men
no ,l,t ;pr
of life time under the old way of
doing, to buy linotype, and then
it took the income of two ordinary
citizens to keep it operating. After
having educated the public to the !
idea that the task of typesetting had |
been successfully disposed of, peo-
pie began to expect that not only |
would printing be mere pleasure |
and a pastime after the type was
set. but that the type would set it.
self and therefore printed matter
should be almost free.
Publishers Got Gold Brick
After the newspaper people had
educated the public to this line of
industry, the publishers got hostile
and pessimistic because people re-
fuse to pay living prices for printed
matter, either in commercial print
ing or newspapers. They try to
supply the public with newspapers
nearly free because the public have
believed the publishers when they
old what great inventions they have
n their shops to dispense the prod
let of voorhees, laboor.
In addition to all this, the pub
ishers have told the public another
half-truth, and thereby made for
themselves more trouble. They say
hat the amount of money they re-
,eive for subscriptions does not
amount to drop in the bucket in
the business, and that it
s the advertising that supports the
newspaper Therefore the public &C
,epts the situation and expects the
advertiser to support the newspa-
yer and to see that the public get
heir copy, having been told that
he subscription money does not
amount to anything, they do not con-
'ider it just debt that they are in
luty bound to pay, and publishers
lave grown to hate the public for
,eating their subscription bills, when
was really only taking the pub
Usher somewhat at his word. The
.verage publisher has sent some
mean letters to his delinquent sub
cribers, and there is discord be-
ween patron and publisher when
here should be none but the best
# feelings if they had only under
TODD each other
Newspaper Unreliable
There has been added to this, an I
Their annoyance. 1t is we'll known
hat dozen eyewitnesses of crime )
nay be called to the witness stand
o tell the jury about it, and they
viii nearly always tell varying l
tory about it, and all feel that they
re right. The newspaper gets it's
ews in the same way that the court
cts it's facts" and most of the
ewspaper reports are modified by
he viewpoint of the person report
lg the items to the paper. There !,
ore there is a chronic acceptance
f the unreliability of newspaper re-
orts, due partly to the unreliable q
" of the public and partly to the Z