Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1923-09-13
An Editors Troubles

The experiences of a newspaper
man are rather varied. If he fails to
print something possessing interest
even when news is scarce, his paper
suffers and in time may prove an un-
profitable venture. If he prints SEN
sations he stands a chance of his
office or his person suffering bodily
harm, or he runs the risk of paying
out money in lawsuits. If he ex-
presses opinions that fail to please,
there is talk of stopping the paper
literally aiming to put him out of
business and starving him. Few peo-
pie stop their daily paper for similar
reasons. If he prints the name of
one man who is arrested and shields
another he runs the gauntlet of criti-
cism. II he fails to give as much
space to some ones favorite project
as that person likes, he again stands
chance of losing supporter.
We printed an article not long ago
to the effect that many Associated
! Press news dispatches were simply
wet propaganda, and few days af-
terwards received a calling" from
, the general manager of the Associ-
ated Press. We printed a criticism
of school history, and represen-
tative of the publishing house that
prints the book called on us a few
days later and wanted us to retract.
/ We printed an article expressing the
opinion that more fatalities and
Sunday comes from indiscriminate
automobile riding the first day Of the
week as there is in baseball game
on that day conducted in an orderly
manner. Some people seemed to
read between the lines that we favor
ed Sunday baseball and were likely
to patronize games on that day.
And we expressed doubt as to
whether Cadiz was really cleaned up
by the two Pittsburgh detectives,
and stated that many. offenders were
still at large, and it displeased some
people. But we had recently printed
rather long editorials entitled Boot
leg Whisky Kills, Boosting Booze"
and many other shorter articles, and
never a word of comment
Now, as to Sunday baseball, we
have considered refusing to adver-
tise or make mention of Sunday
baseball games, but we find that peo-
pie don't object to their daily papers
on that account, and Monday dailies
give literally of their space to Sun
day baseball. We have considered re-
fusing tobacco advertising, even if
our contract with our. best advertis-
ing agency gives them the right to
send us much advertising. We re-
fused an $50 tobacco contract sever
al years ago which all our exchanges
accepted, and they got the $86,
while we sold the space to home
merchants at lower figure. If we
refuse tobacco advertising, there
may be some who will want us to re-
fuse coffee and chewing gum adver-
,tising.
But going back to the matter of
printing certain kind of news, we
are always willing to have police
court news printed under these con-
ditions: When something happens
that we shy at printing, write it up,
sign your own name, which is to ap-
pear at the end of the printed arti-
Gle, and bring it to the office, to-
gether with an indemnifying bond
that will take care of any loss the
proprietor may suffer, material or
otherwise. One Cadiz editor paid out
about 81 900 for intimating that GER
tain officers of the law would not
live up to the oath they had taken.
He felt that he was speaking the
truth, but could not prove his as
sertion. Another Cadiz editor had
his office dumped out in the back
ward on one Occasion-CadiZ Repub-
lican.