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Show AT SOME TIME or other, every weekly newspaper editor ha? found himself In hot water because of some "story" he published or did not publish. E. W. Lauck, editor edi-tor of the Page Newt and Courier. Luray, Virginia, recently had such difficulties. This Is his editorial reply re-ply to his critics, entitled "Publishing "Pub-lishing the News": "If a newspaper could be run by publishing only the news meeting the approval of those concerned it would be wonderful. But unfortunately unfor-tunately a newspaper like that can't be run except into the ground. Its no wonder, therefore, that we find ourselves In somewhat of a predicament once In a while when we are requested not to publish a story which manifestly Is already public property. "We are an accommodating lot but not to the extent that we are going to set fire to the business structure in which we live. We know that there are many who don't care. But there is an obligation obliga-tion we have and this is to print the news wherever we find it and in the best way we know. That is . what we are paid for and this Is what we endeavor to do. "There are extenuating circumstances, circum-stances, of courses. There are times when a sensational story is not worthy of publication and there are times when a seemingly Innocent story deserves big headlines. head-lines. Much Is determined by the underlying implications and the story's relation to the general welfare. wel-fare. But in all cases where a business busi-ness transaction is In process of completion and where Us revelation revela-tion can do no harm, it appears ridiculous ri-diculous to leave the true facts to public gossip rather than to an authenticated au-thenticated statement. "Therefore we hope we do not make too many people mad when we publish the news as we see it. It is just that this is what we are paid for." I Haven't Got Time From the Herlnaiea Advertiser-Times, Advertiser-Times, Herington. Kansas: "How often do you hear the statement today that 'I haven't got time?' It is offered as an explanation explana-tion for failure to vote, for failure to attend meetings on governmental Issues, for failure to write to legislators legis-lators about Important bills. "This is a new excuse in our country, a development of recent years. In fact. If it weren't a new excuse, we wouldn't have a country. coun-try. There wouldn't be a United States of America for the first Americans somehow found time to form our nation and fight a war for Independence. They found time even though they were all busy men. "Benjamin Franklin was a printer print-er and scientist; Paul Revere, a silversmith; John Hancock, a merchant; mer-chant; Patrick Henry, a lawyer; George Washington, a surveyor and planter; Thomas Paine, a writer. These are Just a few examples. ex-amples. Most of the founding fathers fa-thers were farmers, businessmen or professional men. All of them could have said they were 'busy' and proved that statement If they had wanted to use such an excuse to avoid taking part In the American Ameri-can Revolution. "If they could find time to win freedom for us, we can surely find time to preserve this inheritance." |