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Show Country Newsaper: Symbol of Democracy AN EDITORIAL Keprinted from The Saturday Lvtuiiif Fist by Special Permission Permis-sion if A dlotinctivly American iastitu-ilon iastitu-ilon is pictured in the painting and sketches by Norman Rockwell m this issue of Hie Saturday Even ing Post. The country weekly newspaper news-paper Is about the brst symbol of democracy that we have. It has jeen said, and not derogutiwly, that "only in its colunuis do the oridinary event and the ordinary individual attain the Stature ot news." in according them this prominence, pro-minence, the country newspaper is simply living up to its responsibility, respon-sibility, which is to print the most interesting news in its sphere of the small town surrounding countryside. coun-tryside. As a irsult, everybody in the :ommunity enjojis the privilege of frequently seeing his nam in print, his birth, the honvtown paper takes In fact, from the time it reports i watchful and benevolent Interest n the progress and d"stlny of each moniber of llts community. And, in printing its own kind of news, the country newspaper becomes one of the most faithful mirrors of American life. Yet, for all its devotion to community com-munity affairs, the country newspaper news-paper Is among the least standardized standard-ized of all our products. It is usually us-ually a oiK-man proposition, so far as ownership or direction goes. This allows a lot of opportunity for the editor to be himself and to make his newspaper an expression of his own personality and ideas. Of course we have heard of country coun-try editors who play strictly for the county advertising and never leave the shelter of the political machine, but It is to the credit of country editors that so many of them use tlvlr opportunity for th? good of their communities. The re-ord re-ord of he editor pictured in Norman Nor-man Rockwells paintings Is fairly typical. The country editor's readers know him personally, which can b an advantage or otherwise. It is a situation sit-uation that works inexorably against again-st self-seeking, hypocrisy and 'plnelessnrss, and gives an Influence Influ-ence to the country newspaper that has an editor and his newspap-r become more or less Identical in the view of its readers. This synonymy syn-onymy serves more than one use, as a country editor, Granville Bar. rere. of the Hillsboro, Ohio, News-Herald, News-Herald, illustrated in explaining the rise of the columnists n the big city mewspanrs. "The great metropolitan editors, whose newspapers news-papers were Identified with themselves, them-selves, have mostly passed," he pointed out. Somebody with a personal viewpoint liart to take their place, and that was where the columnists came In. People wanted someone to quote or to cuss. The readers of the News-Herald and other good country papers j never feel that lack." The editorial pages of tlie country coun-try press reflect this Individually. Some of the best paragraphers la the country are found among the ranks of country editors, and there is an occasional one who can haul off and write an editorial that will take the varnish off the courthouse dome. But there Is a particular quulity that lends pungency to their writing. In the raher intimate inti-mate life of the small town a smart country editor gets to know human nature pretty well. He recognizes that it mills about the same grade In he halls of the mighty as it does in his own community. The precarious days have passed for most of the country weekly press. The editor who exchanges subscriptions for a load of cord-wood cord-wood or a mess of spareribs exists ex-ists now only In Jest. Nor does the country editor feel under any compulsion to write something nice about the county commissioners and their families in order to get the county printing. Mergers have reduced the number of newspapers to the carrying capacity of most communities. The local businesses have learned the value of advertising, adver-tising, and the country newspaper itself has become one of the leading lead-ing enterprises frcm a financial standpoint. Something of plcturesqueness may have been lost with the passing pass-ing of the newspaper wars that marked the old days of instability. But these only divided the community, com-munity, while the modern country newpr.per knits it together. The new attitude Is well cxpress-d In a recent Issue of the Webster, South Dakota, Reporter and Farmer, which had Just bought the other paper In town. Telling Its readers thnt It had invited the once rival editor to conltlnue his column on its own editorial page, It said: "VV have done so because we fel that the Democratic viewpoint should be represented on our editorial pnge. Whether you agree or disagree dis-agree with his opinions is for you to decide, Just as we accord you the same privilege concerning the views in our editorial column. If occasionally there ore varying thoughts expressed In adjoining columns, Just remember that this Ls America." |