The Glenwood post., 1922-10-05
Colorado Editor Recognizes Great
Good to Communities Through
Industrial Corporations
EDUCATION ALTERS SENTIMENT

Mr. Chairman and Members of the
Colorado Electric Light, Power and
Halfway Association and the National
t'ec,:ie Light Association:
One OF your honorable members, W.
G. SterLe, very kindly invited me to
say few words before your conven-
ton on the subject of "The Relation
of the Public Utility and the News
paper. feel it a great privilege 10
represent the state press before a body
of men governing such vital elements
IN our progress.
The positions of the public utilities
and the public press are very closely
allied as to the performance of their
duties. In both cases it is a constant
flow of service, a permanently devel-
oped delivery of commodity demand
ed by the public. They are, however,
little different in their natures and
utilities are selling product or service
and the newspapers are selling informa-
tion about those products or services.
First, we are to deal with the vari-
GUS agencies which make the use of
publicity necessary.
In the past it has been considered
that the competitor Of utility was one
dealing in like commodity. Although,
in most cases, they were amicable COM
petitors, yet the human instinct was
that of survival and therefore they
thought that it was necessary to make
every effort to direct the greatest vol
ume of business toward each one 8 own
irllvidual company. The present day,
however, has proven to us that the real
CONSERVATION and the one to be most
persstently battled or conciliated is
public opinion. 1t is the worst form OF
competition and one that can be han
died only by publicity.
There is not man or woman present
who has not at sometime, and probably
many times, heard curbstone orators
and small group agitators extolling the
murderous assault on the pocketbooks
of the community by the utilities and
giving out supposedly superior knowl
edge of conditions conditions that
never in the world could have come
from a source of positive truth. They
say, 1.-THE utilities are getting rich, .
"they are charging too much for theil
product" "They have made money
enough to build a new building; "let' 's
have public ownership and cut down
our taxes;" "the utilities ought to be
made to charge less; "they are rob
bing u.s." and so on ad nauseum. You
have all heard outbursts like that and
you have boiled under the collar wher
listening to someone airing his sup
posedly superior knowledge, especially
when you know Of the conditions under
which the utilities of the present day
are forced to operate.
You good people well know that suct
talk never comes from anyone who
knows conditions as they actually ex
ist. Then how does it happen that ir
the past the name Of public utility ha'
not had the standing it should have
hand and is gaining today' The answer
is a lack Of truthful publicity.
There is no question about the public
believing the newspaper. Neither il
there any question as to whether o
not the newspaper is read, and especial
ly the weekly community, or hom'
town, papers. It is therefore apparen
that the bulk Of your information Il
the public should pass through tn
newspapers. There are two ways Il
reach the public in the press, that o
paid advertising and that Of new
matter. We recognize that there 1