Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1931-01-22

will attract large numbers Of settlers,
and .. this newspaper will collect
its just dues.
Politically" the editorial continues,
"the Western News will be republican
and will at all times stand for those
interests which are Of necessity in line
with the good name and sound financial
standing OF Montana and unequivocally
opposed to that aggregation of political
derelicts which has in tow the riff
raft and soreheads of all parties" 1t
was rather warm utterance for the
infant paper, but was only indicative
of what was to follow in the hectic poll
itical scrambies of that period.
The News Of this time was a seven
column, four page publication. Its front
page aspect was more that of metro
politan paper, bearing international,
national and state news items, which
showed date lines from cities the world
over This was evidently furnished to
the paper in the form Of ready print,
with all local news and advertising
coming on the two inside sheets
Headlines on this ready print ma
terial were, to large extent, of the
tabular type. Conservatism seemed to
be the essential keynote in the make
up, with small, one-line heads, hardly
more than subheads, serving as the
most common type Of headline.
The issue of June 16, 1904 contains an
interesting picture of the News press
room on press day. In that day when
the use of electricity was yet thing
unavailable to the town, the edition
of the paper was ground off by hand
each weekon the old Country, Campbell
Two other members of the staff be-
sides the pressman, appear in the pic
ture, while the editor, or as he charm
inalv terms himself, "the moulder Of
public thought and palladium Of the
PEOPLES liberties operates the camera.
The News editor at once began to
take exceptional interest in all pol
itical doings of county and state La
menting the democratic domination of
state politics, he closes one particularly
warm editorial thus: THE time has
passed when the people Of this state
are willing to any longer be blinded
with the peculiar hurrah methods of
democratic demagogues and the hero
worshippers and personal followers.
commonly referred to as the push, y
will be squelched by great majority
which is going to insist on whole
lot more principle and great deal less
personality in our political affairs :
(September IL, 1902
1t was at about this time that the
question concerning a national forest
reserve in this region had arisen. Ger
tain lands had been set aside in 1901
and no definite action had been taken
for three years. An editorial under date
of February 9, 1905, commented in this
manner on the situation: This failure
upon the part Of the secretary of the
interior to either declare the area res
ervation or throw it back again into
the public domain is little short OF
criminal negligence. Without govern
ment protection and denying settlers
the right to settle up the country that
whole area has been constantly ex-
posed to forest fires, the great DESTROY
or of timber" This EXCERPT typifies the
content Of many editorials which con-
cerned themselves with the forest res
ervation problem.
For seven years, Mr.. Faust was the
sole publisher of the Western News.
During this formative period. with the
town rapidly progressing from the
mining camp" class to that of the
large town. he played an important role