The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1932-02-19
FREE WHEELING
The Editor Takes His Foot
Off The Brake and Talks
Back to the Back Seat.

Counting carefully on my fingers
(which are among the few things
that still can be counted on)
find l began dallying with a re-
portorial pencil more than forty
years ago. But it was not until
twenty-five years ago that l sur
rendered, and openly, brazenly,
even joyously, devoted my whole
time to compromising material for
cold4blooded ~compOsitors, copy
readers and proof-read.ers to snort
over and convert into stuff stiff
enough to keep the column rules
erect.
Well, believe it or not, but dur
ing all those years every blessed
time 1 had occasion to use the
eternal editorial I'VE" I felt I'M
comfortably silly. A n of
guilt came over me at seeming to
drag in a mythical somebody to
hide behind. 1t was an impulse
just the opposite of egotism that
always made me want to use an
honest II" instead of trying to de-
lude readers into presuming a
large staff of editors had gone
into conference over the assert
ment of editorial remarks that is
sued from my typewriter.
In the editorial columns proper,
he time-honored ethics of the
profession can scarcely allow one
lone crank the license to break
over the rules. The readers in
the back seat might yell, Look
where you're going" Dean Stone
or Herman Roe might turn me in
and get me fined a couple of years
dues in advance. So eve" will
continue, submissiyely, to steal
the best editorial dope "We" can
find and print it with the broad in
situation it was born in Our"
brain.
But having stayed in the jour-
nalistic ring so long without tax
ing the count, and having held the
wheel of this particular vehicle OF
light and liberty for fifteen years:
Therefore be it resolved that, for
the purposes of this column, a
new declaration of editorial indie
pendence and unfermented per-
sonal liberty is nailed to the mast,
(if you like your metiphor mlxed).
And, now and hereafter, in this
department of this newspaper, the
out of date, wheezy I'VE" (applied
in the editorial sense) will be rele-
gated to the discard where the
effervescent but superf1ous "Mr."
should be. So much by way of
explanation and apology to the
fraternity. Probably few others
would ever notice the difference.
Running a newspaper, even an
obscure country weekly, is a great
game. At once fascinating and
gripping, exacting and ceaseless
and demanding constant patience,
ooise, judgment and a sense of
proportion. A lot Of mighty fine,
well-meaning, intelligent people
not, I'll bet, define proportion
II poise, judging by the stuff
some of them think should have
|. place in the paper-good night.
Three things an efficient editor
ihould have are a thick skin, a
ense of humor, and the tactful-
less to say no with a smile and
,eep it up. Alas! this editor does
lot possess all Of them.
For the long hours, the worri-
ONE responsibility and the drudg-
nv imposed by endless details, the
ash return is very small. The
,nly way to get even is to place
high value on the closeup, ring
ide seat an editor has. Once you
re possessed of the passion for
GLOWING up news-the moving,
peaking, living, never-ending SER
entitled Human Affairs, the
avs. the weeks and the years
ever fail to bring reaction n
brill that dispel the monotony ana
.rahness OF life. Never, IN the
alf century l have been ola
nough to observe and understand
u a measure, the happenings
round me, has the world peer
nore filed with surging, throp-
ing life and action. Never nave
here been so many marvellous
ids for those who seek to follow
the news day by day and gam
inkling Of understanding OF
THAT Is doing. Each community
: the hub of the world for its
WIN people. From there thelr
thoughts, their interests ana thelr
nowledge reach TO as wide a nor
ION as they care to attain. Dally
ewspapers, magazines in endless
,ariety and radios bring news. IN
ormation and entertainment to
he full extent the mind can take
n and assimilate. Not everybody
as all these wonderful aids but