The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-02-19
Country Weekllea.

| One Of the notable speeches made
at the meeting of the Vernon press
association in Burlington was by
CORTLAND Smith Of the American
Press association, representative OF
over 1000 country weekly newspapers
According to Mr.. Smi h the coun
| try weekly is the one indispensab z
newspaper adjunct of our civilization
both from the standpoint of commun
ity service and advertising.
THE country Weekly" he said, is
the only genuine cash-in sales medium
in the Uni ed States, the one medium
through which the advertiser can ac-
tually trace sales and see that the adj
vertising is selling the goods"
AS to service, Mr. Smith said tina.
nothing In community could begin
to render the service to that com
munity that is rendered by the week
ly newspaper.
"There .sn't merchant In that
community" said Mr.. Smith, who
doesn't owe the country weekly more
than he can ever pay. His bills for
advertising and printing don't begin
to represent what he owes Communi-
ties and merchants are &C nally made
by the newspapers, and yet most
country weeklies are just living and
that's al. Every country weekly
ought to make a least $4,000 year
instead of being up against it all the
time"
Entirely apart from the business
aspect OF the country weekly's prob
lems 1t is a fact that every great
movement, political or social, owes a
tremendous impetus and power to the
country newspaper-in which term
might now be included the country
daily as well as he country weekly.
All that NJ Smith said about the
country weekly's value and service is
true enough, but of course the dai y
in the smallgtown renders
the same valuable service six days
a week instead of once week. In
the service rendered by the country
daily in Vermont is exactly the serv-
ice rendered by the weekly, multipli-
ed by six.
The weeklies, however. render 4
special and particu ar service in some
towns where the dailies don't really
penetra e. Vermont weekly newspa
pers like the Island Pond Hera d.
North Troy Palladium, Groton Times,
Sitter, Wilmington
Times and the local editions OF the
Morrisville, Mortified,
Randolph, Essex Junction and Yer
gennes newspapers are in very &C
tive and genuine sense the on posts
Of civilization. They ho'd aloft the
torch OF truth under conditions thai
represent real construetiyeness . and
of en- real sacrifice.
Vermont and every state of scat
tered populations owe more to ne
weeklies of the small towns than they
are apt 10 repay in The present gen
Grafton. Often not even respect
able living is the reward of such eff
forts, and always, practically without
exception, the country edi or and the
country printer are the worst paid
type of skilled labor in their com
munity.
Few people realize the value of the
reiterated 6 ogan in prin, yet the big
fortunes made by advertisers in the
past are a standing tribute to the
potency Of the repeated injunc ion
mostly in the columns of the country
weeklies. If the advertiser can sell
his goods by iteration and reiteration
through such mediums. certain Y then
the government can sell good citizen
ship in the same way.
The Herald believes that the time
Is coming when the menace of Boil
shevism, of labor radicalism, of con-
ascatlon, of socialism, will be nulli-
fed, not on'y by the able and pa r.
0tic service of the country press as
individuals, but by means of we'll
and effective publicity,
sent out and paid for by the govern,
ment as a matter of ma donal insur.
lnce and inserted in the country news
papers as the best medium Tor &C !
the ends of citizenship.
There is no reason why the news
papers should do all such patriotic
service free-although they do lot
If it-and plan for such national
advertising, using mostly the country
yeeklies and dailies, would tie things !
Up for old-fashioned Americanisn so
ighty that the newer, more vicious
SINS would soon perish.
More power 70 the country weekly !
md his ooadjutor in citizenship, the |
ountry daily. -Rutiand Herald.