Ashland weekly tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1919-1924, 1922-07-26
SCRIBE ESCAPES
UNSCATHED FROM
EDITORIAL BULL PIT
By BERT MOSES

Dl DERl MODED
went up to Corvallis last week
and talked to the Oregon editors at
their annual convention. The editor
of the Tidings asked me to write
something for his paper about the
trip, and | said | would. This is it..
All conventions are alike. They
consist chiefly of program and JOSH
A long list of subjects are chosen
for discussion, and while a great
deal is said, little is remembered
Each speaker has to tell a funny
story, give some statistics, quote
Shakespeare, and call somebody a
liar before he gets started on his
subject.
l did all these things in my speech
except call someone liar. | prefer
to do that by radio or long-distance
phone.
My story was about the fellow
who made a specially of doughnuts.
He figured out that he could save
money by making the holes in his
doughnuts larger. That is, he would
give his customers more hole and
less doughnut One day he sudden
ly realized that it takes more dough
to 90 around a big hole than around
a little hole, and he went crazy be-
cause he had made such a blamed
fool of himself.
For statistics, | gave some figures
compiled by experts on the pastime
of fishing. These figures showed
that 243,721,S62 pounds of fish are
lost every year because fishermen
jerk their poles too soon. l imag-
inc twice that many pounds are also
lost because they jerk their poles too
late.
This was my quotation from
Shakespeare: Some men buy ad-
vertising, others deadhead it, while
Henry Ford has it thrust upon him."
The subject of my talk was THE
Value of Newspaper Features" &"
These features are becoming more
and more popular all the time. A
feature" If you are not familiar
with that term, is something sup
piled daily to the papers by various
syndlcates TheI cover just about
everything there is. The comic strips
like "Mutt and jeff" Bringing Up
Father" "The Katzenjammer Kids"
and Polly and Her Pals" are illus
trated features, while other r2tures
are just plain reading matter. My
own stuff, "Sap and Salt" that you
see in the Tidings every day, belongs
TO the latter class. Many papers
subscribe for these various features,
and In this manner the work of the
well-known artists and writers can
be had at reasonable cost, and mil
lions Of readers are entertained and
amused by them. The small daily
can thus run the same matter as the
metropolitan dailies and get the best
there is in art and literature.
Features not only help editors to
get new subscribers, but hold them
as well. Readers become accustom-
ed to look every day for their favor
ite feature, and soon 1t is habit
that sticks. Some features seem so
silly you wonder why in the world
they are published. but readers have
different ideas Of what is interesting
and amusing. and what one likes
someobdy else doesn't, and there you
are. No feature can last IL it fails
to find a following. and no feature
can be "killed" II the public wants
It.
A large part OF the big Sunday
papers consists Of features. You se'
the same things in the Portland and
San Francisco papers, that you se'
in New York and Chicago. BY di
yiding the expense up between then
these papers all get the best ther'
Is TO be had, while no paper alon'
could afford TO employ all thes'
high-priced artists and writers.
About all ! remember now abou