Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1922-10-19
With Our State
Contemporaries

viewpoint that it sets forth in the re-
lation of the newspaper to its COM
munity. Readers Of this publication
will find it of interest.
1--WE have learned that there are a
few community newspapers in the
state that are about to suspend pub
LEGATION because Of lack of local sup
port. Whether your local publisher
is near bankruptcy or is prospering,
he should have every encouragement
from his constituency.
''No one is perfect. No person is
doing all he possibly can DO were he
able to employ his talents to their
fullest extent. Further, each person
has his strong as well as his weak
points. Most people can do one sim
gle thing better than the majority Of
others. One man can swing an axe,
or milk a COW or talk or keep still
little better than his neighbor.
Now, speaking in a personal way,
it is just so with a local newspaper.
There is not single publication that
is doing everything newspaper
could possibly do in its neighborhood.
But it is hard, very hard, to find one
Of these sheets that is not function
ing in at least some one Of a score or
more or useful ways. The very ma
ture of its work and the very con-
dition for keeping such an institution
as the local newspaper alive pre-
sumes that a service is being render
ed. In fact, service is the only real
stock in trade that a newspaper can
have.
zone Of the things your local issue
does is to tell you of the happenings
Ground home. 1t interprets the acts
of the community for you and for the
other members of the town and the
surrounding territory. The good
things and the bad things, the refined
and the vulgar, the prosperous and
failures, the democrats and republi-
cans, the pious and the bosterous,
those to be emulated and those to be
despised, all these are here reviewed,
not on the stage made up and pow
dered for show, but in actual life.
Through this local sheet, the citizen
sees his community as a reality,
living, breathing, working thing.
"And it helps men to understand
themselves and their place in the
community How much better do
men know the workings of their own
mind and heart through reading the
accounts of various acts and thoughts
and aspirations of the men and wo-
|
on section twenty-three. Their eX-
treme ideas are modified and brought
down to where they can find common
ground upon which to build. The To-
cal newspaper has been a mighty
force in driving out ignorance and
superstition and replacing it with in
formation and confidence and hope in
mankind. And this, Notwithstanding
the fact that scandal, dishonesty
thieving, assaulting and murder are
here mirrored to the public which it
serves 1t is the great light that
shineth out to the communicative
light of publicity that makes hard
the life Of those cankerous germs Of
hatred and malice and revenge and
spite and jealousy. These unkind spir-
its cannot stand the light, they weak
en- under its searching rays.
"When doing this, the local news
paper keeps the community spirit
burning. It never allows the taper
of community interest to go out. The
merits of the local team, the
abundance Of resources of men and
materials, the local capacity for eX-
pansion and development are every
where reflected on the pages Of this
local sheet. Sometimes, yea. often,
there is aggregation, reinstatement,
much cry and little wool, but this en-
thusiasm keeps the Joneses and the
Smiths and the Browns a little more
on tiptoe for the home town. 1t just
balances the downward pull Of outside
attractions and the burden imposed
by the disgruntled and pessimistic in
dividuals who form a certain small
per cent of all progressive commun-
tiles.
Support such an institution as the
local paper? There is no alterna-
tive. No American could think
otherwise. The fundamentals upon
, which the fathers built our great
nation will give way without the free
: intercourse of ideas and the unhamp-
cred building of community ideals
, You may not like the editor, but for
! your own sake and the sake Of the
community YOU cannot afford not to
give every species of encouragement
to at least one of your local papers.
HOW ANARCHY CELEBRATED
Just II years ago an anarchist
named Leon Czolgosz shot President
Mckinley, the wound inflicted prov
ing fatal eight days later.
Fifteen years before, another an
: archist named Guitau fatally shot
President Garfield.
!. Several days ago Charles Uzlis
/ Joe Pepauritch, John Petrewski and
Adinia Alssio confessed to drawing
thlrty-seven spikes from a rail Of the
Michigan Central railway, near Gary