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Show II THE ftOUOLUIS I RELATION THEY BEAR TO PUB. L LI8HER AND PUBLIC. IDEALISM IS IMPRACTICABLE Editor Wells Declare Ho Never Yet Refuted an Advertisement That Wat Decent and Accompanied Accompa-nied by the Cash. By W. C. Edwards, Editor Record and Chronicle, Denton. (Pnptr read At Texas 1'rcss association's associa-tion's twenty-ninth annual meeting, Miners) Min-ers) Wells, Tnx.) Mr. President, Ladles nnd Gentle' men: I novor refused nn advertisement advertise-ment In my llfo that was decent and accompanied by the cash. That Is probably tho reason this BUbJect was assigned to mo. Indeed, wo feel that It might hava been much moro profitably profit-ably given olsowhore, for whllo to mo It Is a subject ns baro of possibilities ns the top of Jim Lowry's head, to somo of our brethren who decline to accept certain kinds of business It might bo as fruitful of Ideas as tho gulf was supposed to bo full of antl-Halley antl-Halley editors aftor tho recent unpleasantness. un-pleasantness. Tho truth Is, aftor studying tho subject sub-ject up one side and down tho other without finding n great den) to hang my words on, I thought of a schomo to sccuro somo other nnd superior assistance assist-ance Two of tho others present, Messrs. Dnlloy and Hardy, woro assigned as-signed to discuss tho papor; and, In an attempt to securo somo of their thunder thun-der to lend off with, I wrote them, very shrewdly as I thought, to know It there woro any pnrtlcular points they would like to have brought out. Doth gentlemen refused to rise to-tho bait. One stated ho had no Ideas and by Implication Im-plication that ho had nono to lend. Tho other simply didn't Btnto. I am confident, therefore, that you and I will learn something about this subject sub-ject from tho discussers who aro to follow and that you will pardon this effort as simply a prelude to tho gonu-Inoly gonu-Inoly good Ideas which they will undoubtedly un-doubtedly present. It will bo somo solace, anyway, to know that, presenting present-ing fow Idena, tho best feature nbout this paper wll bo Its brovlty. No Preaching of Idealism. I might get up hero and try to pic-turo pic-turo nn Ideal newspaper run by an Ideal newspaper man, In which only Ideal business firms nnd Ideal businesses busi-nesses wero mentioned. Likewise nn Ideal nowspapor, In which only Idcnl newB Items wero published. Or nn Ideal world In which only Ideal events woro permitted to happen. But I tako pjj. It that wo aro horo to deal with con-fi con-fi crete facts instead of pretty theories, tX and this paper will bo along tho lines ( on which wo havo been publishing a !) newspaper with fair success. Speaking seriously, this subject Is j not one which appeals to many coun-j coun-j try newspaper men, of whom I nm ' ono. Somo of tho larger periodicals, ; especially tho magnzinos, affect a very close scrutiny over their adver- tlslng columns. Somo of them decry fj patent medicine ads, but publish H grafting mining announcements. Soma decline whisky nnd beer nds, but froo-M froo-M ly accopt tho most nauseating of tho patent modlclno displays. Somo that docllno whisky, beer flnd patent medicine medi-cine ads most decorously are absolute-i absolute-i ly Indecent In publishing tho revolting details of tho latest "popular" crlmo. Some accept beer nds, but turn down whisky, Somo proudly point to their declination of tho udvqrtlslng of all patent modlclno ads, but publish must bo either harmless at worst or bonoflclal nt best or thoy could not havo attained their success, but accept ac-cept advertisements of cigars, cigar-ettes cigar-ettes and tobacco. And yet ono will find persons who urge that cigars and tobacco and cigarettes aro almost as vllo as whisky and far worse than beer. Incontlitenclei. There Is some Inconsistency In th'e practices of most of them. With somo U Is a moro affectation bocnuso others havo lod tho way, popularized tho Idea and been successful. With others It Is n matter of advertising themselves as "holier-than-thou" In a way that will appeal to certain people, Hut, tit tho ! same tlmo, thoro nro, I know, somo which conscientiously refuse to accept certain classes of advertising as a matter of conscience nnd of principle, and no man can havo any criticism of those. Again, thoro aro somo which rcfuso not only to accept certain classes of advertising, but, also, nny . kind thoy nro not perfectly suro nbout. 'With tho soveral exemplifications of this idea, however, tho nccoptanco depends de-pends as much upon tho character, reputation and responsibility of tho ndvortlsor himself as upon that which i ho ndvertlses. Having tin announce- ment In such publications as these thoy aro fow and not necessary to I name hero Is llko having n good V rating In tho commercial agoncles. For I It moans that tho responsibility of tho i advortlser has been Investigated and his claims looked Into. Ho must bo willing nnd nblo to fulfill his ndvertls-I ndvertls-I Ing jromlses beforo his advertising Is I accopicd. And, if ho falls to muko fid tho publisher will rclmburso his subscribers for nny loss Incurred. Ono m publisher recently paid out $1,500 to his renders who had lost money a through ono of his ndvortlsors. This would bo nn Ideal way woro we I Wp to follow It. Hut, for us Binallor I newspaper men, It Is nltogethor Im-I Im-I practicable If not wholly Impossible, 1 for that Is nn oxtont to which nono of us could go. Anolhor thing which Is apt to lower somowhnt our Ideals of responsibility Is tho fact that few of us can afford to bo too careful, and probably most of us havo at times published pub-lished advertising In tho effort to mako both ends meet that wo would have preferred to omit. It can also bo said that, ns n mattor of fact, tho country coun-try newspaper man has neither opportunity oppor-tunity nor any great causo to exorcise any such close supervision over his advei tlslng columns. His advertising comes chiefly from his home business men whom ho knows personally. Ho gols some general advertising, which Includes patent medicines, but what ho gets Is usually fairly clean and can be mado fairly remunerative. For in stance, the Kccord nnd Chronicle's general business runB from $1,200 to H.C00 a year. Whllo we may publish somo advertising adver-tising that were better omitted, I ho-llovo ho-llovo our readers are qulto capabto of looking after their own Interests. I bellevo that nono of our subscribers would go naked did wo decline dry goods advertising, nor nny of them starvo by reason of us having no gro-cory gro-cory ads. No man was ovor polsonod or escaped being poisoned simply bo-cause bo-cause his homo paper contained no drug storo nds, and thoro would be many deaths due to lack of medical attention at-tention did everybody dlo but who had seen a physician's ad In his local paper. And, to touch a moro vital point, I bellevo no man has ovor lacked for a drink because, his homo paper declined de-clined whisky nds, Advertising, of course, pays. Hut, excopt with absolutely abso-lutely now articles, It pays chiefly by taking away from tho firm which does not advertise. As I se6 It, a newspaper newspa-per Is a business Just llko any other business. It Ib somewhat more, somo will contend, nnd that a nowspapor Is really a quasi-public Institution. To nn extent that Is true. Hut the only business l'vo ovor known dry goods nnd grocory stores turn down Is that popularly known ns "poor pay." But, bolng a quasi-public business, tho newspaper should go a bit further and decline not only tho "poor payors," but as well all announcements that aro Indecent, In-decent, suggestlvo or prurient, not so much as a mattor of policy ns on tho same principle that It should rofuso to publish Indecent, suggestive or prurient pruri-ent news matter. Impossible to Pleate Everybody. Wo should not, however, lot our "responsibilities "re-sponsibilities to tho public" fall too heavily upon our shoulders and bo guided wholly by all tho dear public sayB. If wo undortook to plenso every subscriber, either In our advertising or our newB columns, wo should wind up by pleasing none. In n news wny tho women folks nro largely interested In their church news, tho women's column, col-umn, tho Bociety events nnd tho llko. Tho baseball fan probably cares as little about tho horses as tho race horso tout does about baseball. Tho men want tho markots and tho goncral and local nows. Thoro aro somo who want a paper to publish no sporting nows, Just as thoro nro somo sports who want nothing clso. It wo consulted con-sulted any ono class alono wo would run to that class's extreme, nut, by consulting all classos and handling all kinds of news, we Interest thorn all and, better, hold their subscriptions. You may bo wondering what this has to do with tho subject, but to n large oxtont tho samo holds truo of tho advertising ad-vertising column. Somo of our readers read-ers would havo us accept no liquor ads. Some no tobacco or clgaretto ads. Somo no patent modlclno ads, Somo no foreign nds at all. And there nro a great many who would really prefer that wo publish nothing but reading mattor, and no advertising nt nil. You simply cannot plenso all of them nil of tho tlmo nnd you had just as well not try. Hut If you can pleaso soma of them all tho time and all of them somo of tho tlmo, both In your advertising and In your nows columns, you aro doing pretty well and may go up to tho head of tho class. Texas nowspapor men will, wo bo-Hove, bo-Hove, admit tha impracticability of inhering in-hering very closely to nn Ideal In the class of advertisements wo permit In our columns It the Ideal Is really an Ideal. Tho members of this association associa-tion aro, I bellovo, practically n unit upon tho classes of advertising thoy accept with ono exception. That Is liquor ads. Somo docllno this class of buslnoss ns a matter of policy and bo-causo bo-causo It might offend somo of their readers, Especially Is this truo In the dry counties. Hut, ns with tho magazines, maga-zines, thero aro somo who refuse It ns a matter of conscience nnd principle nnd did so long before It becamo n' matter of popular policy. Speaking for tho Kecord nnd Chronicle, wo accept ac-cept such advertising simply as a mattor of business and becauso we have nover, It maybo, seen tho error of our ways. Whllo wo havo had some protests nnd possibly have lost a few subscribers on nccount of It, wo do not bellovo thnt our advertising liquor has increasod tho aggregato consumption, consump-tion, but has only increased tho local sales of tho firm that has advortlsed with us, Tho newspaper In a small town has responsibilities onough nnyway, good ness knows. What with furnishing our readers with their dally or weekly pabulum; with keeping beforo our citizens tho need of better sldownlkr and better roads In bad weather and moro street sprinklers In dry weather; wllh stating our honest convictions on tho different public and political Issuos that may come up and thoreby nover fnlllng to ofTond somo of our rcadors with all Iheso wo aro kept pretty woll laden with responsibilities without with-out adding further to them, To sum It nil up: Our responsibility over our advertising columns Is, as I see It, very similar to and no greater than that we oxerclso or should oxer-else oxer-else ovor our news columns. A groat editor nnco said that anything that God almighty let happen was worthy of publication In his paper. A great publisher onco said that anything tho laws permitted to operate was good enotiRh to buy spneo In his paper. But whllo both statements may havo been truo In their day, and gonornlly truo to-day, wo all know thnt nowaday nowa-day tho Supremo Being permits many things to hnppen thnt few newspapers would enro or daro to publish. Wo all know, too, that many businesses are permitted to operate under present-day laws whose announcements aro not fit for publication In nny self-respecting pnper. To got back to tho subject, I bellevo we should close our columns, both advertising nnd nows, to Indo-cency, Indo-cency, graft, pruriency nnd suggcstlve-ncsB. suggcstlve-ncsB. Beyond that I rather lncllno to tho doctrlno of lalssoz falro, accepting all that Is good, somo that Is doubtful, some that by abuso may be mado bad, and rejecting only that which Is directly di-rectly nnd In Itself harmful, Injurious and corrupting. |