Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1922-08-19
BY ANDREW w. HOPKINS,
Department of Agricultural Journal
ism University of Wisconsin,


Department of Agricultural Journal
ism, University of Wisconsin.
Agriculture needs the power and in
fluence Of the press. And just as GER
tainly the press needs agriculture.
In considering at the same time agri-
culture and the press, we all do the
very natural thing-lnk together two
very important, closely related and
more or less interdependent indus
tries.
Anyone at all familiar with present
conditions upon the average farm and
in many newspaper plants will be i'm
pressed particularly by the similarity
of conditions. Neither seems to be
making the returns commensurate
with the amount or Importance of the
service rendered. Too often In the
past, we will have to admit, both the
farmer and the editor have sold their
products at too low a rate and with
too little knowledge of the cost. An
other point of similarity is that in
both lines of business, forces are at
work which undoubtedly will result in
improving conditions and in increas-
ing compensation.
Country Weekly Has Future.
We are unable to join in some
what popular, but thOughtless, pas
time of deciding that the day of the
the small town daily is completely
outclassed by the metropolitan press
Occasionally we hear even men con-
nected with press associations vOicing
just such opinions. To prove their
case they call attention to the rapid
growth of the big city daily and to the
fact that many of these publications
are becoming rurally-minded
Such men lack the information
necessary for fair and impartial judg-
ment. Anyone familiar with the facts
will agree that the press of rural
America was never more needed than
it is today and that it's opportunity
was never greater. The paper whose
editor senses the situation and shifts
his plans to meet changed conditions
will compete successfully with either
the big city dailies or the county farm
journals.
Neither the country weekly nor the
small city daily which occupies it's
field will be supplanted by outside
publications. To be sure, 1t is not
unlikely that outside papers will be
read more and more by the residents
of many of our rural communities and
that the circulatiOns of such publfca-
tons will increase considerably, but
the papers which are sure to grow
apace and to meet successfully such
competition will be the ones engaged
in community building.
Some one has very wisely said: mo
greater calamity can happen to a
town, except destruction by fire, than
the loss of it's local newspaper" A
live community must have a spokes-
man and a builder. Such is the country
newspaper editor The modern news
paper man, whether running country
weekly or serving on the staff of city
daily. is seeking to serve and to
build his community, and, at the same
time, his publication and himself. 1t
requires no stretch of Imagination to
see that the newspaper which de-
velops local opportunities and which
encourages possible and legitimate in
dustries not only serves it's readers,
it's advertisers and it's community, but
it's editor as well.
Chance for improvement
The value of a newspaper to a COM
munity is fixed by its desire and it's
ability to build and serve. In the past
too many have been so concerned with
Industrial development that they have
had little time and opportunity to give
adequate consideration to the ques-
lions which so vitality concern the
country-those concerning the develop
ment of agriculture.
The day of treating fiippantly farm
questions is passing, and fortunately
so. The great majority of the Ameri-
can newspaper men have learned that
agriculture cannot be treated in
sighting manner and are seeing how
closely interlocked are the interests OF
the town and country.
Sometimes, too, the treatment OF
farm matters from both the reporter
ial and editorial points of view has
been much too academic and lacking
In sympathy with the men engaged in
the business. Articles from the pen
ellis or typewriters of the uninterested
have too little of the soil upon them
and of course fail in their influence
upon agriculture.
Community Leadership Needed.
The mortality among newspapers
lacking in community leadership Is
bound to be heavy. Competition from
city daiIies and country trade papers
will increase along lines of least re-
distance namely where fields are not