The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1930-02-21

cused of bad taste, and you must
not be surprised if, in other parts
of this letter, you are accused OF
other things.
What's eating you, Taylor?
What do you think you are trying
to do? What is the matter with
the Producers News? 1t used to
be a newspaper; now look at i'll
You used to be lucid as well as
lurid; intelligent as well as bellig-
erent; clear-cut as well as hard
boiled.-the Northwest's chief
-fconoclast in journalistic circles.
Now you seem to deal chiefly in
hokum and smutty, smelly, back
alley politics. You once took ME
to task for indulging in petty
squabbles with unworthy oppon-
ents; but have you really risen so
far above that, yourself, then,
friend Editor?
Can you conceive of the disap-
pointment one suffers when one
reads in the style of ones favorite
sham-smasher a glowing exhorta-
ton to the firm of Fleecem and
Letemdown and pay four dollars
for a two-dollar pipe wrench, on
the ground that the money will
then stay in the community, tho
both writer and reader know that
Fleecem & Letemdown themselves
must send two dollars to a firm in
distant city before they can car
ry such a pipe wrench in stock at
their store; that the reader could
buy the same wrench from Sears
Roebuck for the same two dollars;
and that in the end the only diff
ference is that under the plan adj
vocated by the erstwhile sham
smasher, the two dollars which the
wrench-buyer saved and which
now repose in his pocket, would be
in the joint possession of Fleecem
and Letemdown,-can you, ask
you, conceive of that? Can you
imagine ones dismay when on.
sees the same writer catering to
the cheapest and most contemp-
tible of small-town prejudices: the
prejudice against a stranger SIM
ply because he is a stranger,-in
this case invoked against the edi-
tor of rival paper? Since when
has it been customary for sensible
people to consider a man dishon-
est or immoral merely because he
has not always lived in Sheridan
County. You have not always liv-
ed here, yourself.
AS l said before, the Producers
News used to be a newspaper. I
repeat, what is it now?
l pick up a copy of the News
and read an item to the effect that
Burley Bowler has been deported.
Is that news? 1t is not. 1t is a
lie. I know that it is a lie, and
you know that it is a lie, and /
know that You knew it was a lie
when you printed it. I read an
item to the effect that the PLENTY
wood Herald has offered to sell
out TO the Producers News. That
may be news and it may not; L
don't know. But l strongly sus-
pect that it is another lie. By the
time | reach those sections of the
paper which are really true, am
so fed up on fish stories that II
do not believe word | read. The
stuff has lost its value to me; r
feel that it is not dependable. j
can still enjoy the editorials be-
cause they consist of opinion, and
are to be taken as such. But while
the rest of the paper may be good
propaganda (which I doubt) II is
damned poor news.
do not know Burley Bowler. /
am willing to believe that he
ought to be deported. But he
hasn't been deported yet. I do
NOT know L. s. Olson or the other
neople connected with the Herald
whom you are always flayfnr. III
have seen Olson and Lowell. and
have spoken with the latter. III
rather like Lowell. do not care
for Olson. I am willing to believe
that the Plentywood Herald ought
~ sell out TO the Producers News