The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1922-08-04

Today the newspaper, large ana
small, is primarily business propo-
sition. A successful newspaper can
serve the public, it's advertisers and
its subscribers best when it is sue
cessful from financial standpoint.
And too, no matter how much empha-
sis an editor puts on his special fea-
lures, he knows that his live news,
the happenings of the day, must be
recorded. In the small town, it is the
purely local items that are given pref
erence. The editor knows that his
subscribers will overlook the fact that
he has failed to carry the news of the
revolution in China or the agitation
in Ireland, but they will never forgive
him for failing to print each day, the
small and interesting little items in
which they personally are interested.
How different from the small-town
newspaper of 40, 80 or 60 years agol
Politics was the rock on which
many a small-town newspaper was
founded and its success or failure de-
pended largely on the personality of
the editor and the cause which he es-
poused.
Rival factions in the same political
party sometimes would start newspa-
pers and when the purposes for which
they were organized were accomplish
ed, publication would be suspended.
Usually they were not money makers
and in many instances they were not
expected to be. AS an old printer put
it, they would "start out as dailies,
then issue semiweekly, then weekly,
then biweekly, then they would he too
weak to issue at ALL"
The editors of those early days
welded mean pen. They were not
afraid to call spade spade. Their
attacks were venomous and their
shafts were intended to hurt, and they
did hurt, and many a small-town ed
itor has had to defend his editorial or
his news with his fists.
In one of these small towns an ed
itor used an item about one of the
prominent citizens. No names were
mentioned but everyone knew to
whom it referred. The following day,
the man, a physician, accompanied by
two friends, entered the editorial
sanctum. They greeted the editor
very friendly and gradually sur
rounded him.
They laid him on the table and were
preparing to pummel him in decorous
and scientific style, when hardboiled
compositors interviewed in behalf of
their chief. The intruders left the
office quicker than they entered.
Time Not News" Element
News, as it is recognized in the
modern small-town newspaper office,
received scant attention in those ear
ly days. An attempt, of course, was
made to print the principal happen
ings of the town; but if either in the
daily or the weekly story was over
looked, nothing was said, unless by
chance it happened to relate to poll
tics. Then there was jacking-up all
along the line.
As far as telegraph news was con-
cerned, neither the editor nor the own
ers nor the subscribers seemed to
think it worth while to get. There
were telegraph offices in many of
these towns but none Of the newspa-
pers knew what it was to get news
there. They would subscribe for the
metropolitan dailies, clip what matter
they cared to print and call it day.
The fact that it was several days or
several weeks, and in many cases sew
eral months late made no difference.
But as the success of the newspaper
was built around the editor, it was on
~ natural that his editorials should
be given first rank. They were, and
whether he wrote of politics or his
hobby, if he happened to have one, it
made the paper, no matter what the
news Of the day might be. They were
proud of these editorials and would
send them throughout the country.
Some of these small-town editors had
national regulations and their sub