The Coconino sun., 1921-10-28
THE COUNTRY PAPER
 GUARDS THE NATION
By Wright A. Patterson

Ifle DdCkDOIle OI t1c f1IlcIl- con nation. They are the communities to which the nation turns in time of distress and emergency. They are even more than the backbone of the nation. They are the bulwark of our modern civilization. Just at the close of the world war, Mir. Balfour, foreign min- ister of Great Britain, said to the writer in London that the entire civil ized world must look to the small towns of America to preserve for the world the civilization that it had taken centuries to build, because the small towns represented substantial solid ity that the tremendous upheaval of the war had not affected, and it was only such a foundation that would pre- serve the structure of civilization.
 The cement that keeps the people of these country communities together, working and thinking along uniformly sane and safe lines, that makes of them that substantial solidity" on which world civilization can rely for a foundation, is the country press the village, the small town and the small city newspaper.
 SOuntry P8per WnOleSOme
 The country newspaper goes to it's readers devoid of that sensationalism that is so prominent in the metropoli- tan papers. It carries to it's readers the news items that represent the joys and sorrows of their friends and neighbors, and keeps the hearts of the people of the community beating in unison. It goes to its readers with that sane and kindly advice on local, state, national and world problems; advice that is the result of thought and study beside the hearthstones of the nation, and not in the selfish marts of trade or the bright lights of city frivolity. It goes with the influence of known and respected member of the community--the editor back of it's every word, it's every opinion. It goes to a people, the people of the country communities and the farms, that are more capable of thinking along sane, unselfish and practical lines than are those who are surrounoed by the selfish and many times evil influence of the large cities.
 But the influence of the country newspaper goes far beyond the com munity in which it is printed. Ma lional legislators in the halls of con- gress realize that this influence is a power to be reckoned with. That when the country press speaks in uni son on any national subject it is but voicing the sentiments of that mighty force, the people of the country com munities, the people in whose hands, says Mir. Balfour, rests the destiny of world civilization.
 Fights for Entire Country
 The country press represents and fights for those things that are of value to the country communities, realizing that in doing so it is fighting for those things that are best for the nation and for the world. It works and fights to upbuild the country com munity, to prevent its falling a prey to the selfish greed of the cities. It champions the business, the social, the educational, the agricultural, the interests of the country community not from any selfish angle, but from the broader viewpoint of na- tional good.
 Some three or four months ago there was before congress bill on which the press of the country was divided. The magazines, the big na- tional weeklies, the farm press and the metropolitan daily papers were on one side and the country newspapers were on the other side. The passage of the bill would mean creating an op- portunity for greater centralization of the merchandising of the nation in a few large cities with consequent injury to the small cities and towns, and to the people of these cities and towns and the farms surrounding them. The country press fought for the defeat of the bill, and in the end the members of the committee in whose hands the fate of the bill rested listened to the country press because they realized that the welfare of these country communities represented the best interests of the nation as a whole, and the bill was killed.
 During our participation in the world war the country press stood stanchly and unselfshly back of the nation. It did nothing to create dis sension among the people during the time of emergency, but it did carry to it's readers a continuous message of patriotism and national unity. In each community, it wiped away much of factional lines, and created an atmos- phere of intense Americanism that welded the American people together of place of birth or an- cestry.
 Value Not Always Understood
 But the people of the cities do not always understand the value of the press. With the increased de- mand for war supplies there came demand for a decrease in the con of the ordinary needs of peace time. Among the things the of which must be cut was paper. A city man was at the head of the department that regulated the use of paper, and he felt it ad- visable to so limit the amount of pa- per available for the country press as to seriously cripple all of these pa pers, and to have entirely closed many of them. It was the privilege of the writer to present the case of the coun-