| OCR Text |
Show NO LEGAL NEWSPAPERS Before the advent of newspapers, those who wanted to give public notice no-tice on any matter posted the notices on the gates of the city, or in front of the church or other public buildings. Here were posted many historic documents docu-ments in the early days, j As newspapers came into existence, it was discovered that greater pub-I pub-I licity could be obtained by printing the notices in them. At the time of the civil war, most of the advertising in newspapers consisted of public notices, no-tices, auction sales of slaves and run-away run-away notices, and the time of arrival j and departure of trains and steamers. I In many states there are strict laws j guarding the publication of official I notices that are for the benefit of the ! public at large, and also laws compelling com-pelling the publication of matters that the general public may be interested inter-ested in. In all these states the newspapers must be of a certain char-! char-! acter, and officially designated as j "legal papers" befure they are en-! en-! titled to publish legal or authorized I advertising. In most states rates are ' made covering the charges that news-i news-i papers can make for this service, the ! same as for filing various documents, , or the attesting of an oath by a notary no-tary public. The issuing of an affidavit of publication, pub-lication, swearing to same, stating ' that the paper was a legal paper, and giving the amount charged for publication, pub-lication, made the publication of a notice legal, and if not so done, the publication of the notice was illegal. Strange to say, there is no such law in Utah. There is no such thing as a legal newspaper in the whole state. Anybody can get up a handbill, hand-bill, give it a name, send it through the mails, or not, print "legal(?) no-' no-' tices," charge any old price, and get : away with it. The time has come when the legitimate legit-imate papers of the state should have the same protection as other states give the public and real newspapers, and the legislature should pass a law-defining law-defining legal papers, and make a legitimate le-gitimate rate for legal advertising, and surrounding it with all the precautions pre-cautions necessary. This is the second article on the needs, ideals and welfare of the country coun-try newspaper. The next article will appear in an early issue of the Progress. |
