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Show H THE SALE 01T THE TELEGRAM. H Naturally, the alleged sale of the Telegram H raised a rumpus in Sail Lake. Tlio paper has H boon so good and so bad, it has so played ducks H and drakes with Opportunity, that any ohango H which promised an afternoon nowspapor in H Salt Lake was hailed with joyful acclaim. H I say "tlio alleged salo," becauso the papers n most vitally interested have as yet mado no m confession. Mr. Hale still is credited with an 1 option, and his purchase is rogarded as one B of the fixed and immovable facts for the peo- m pie of this matchless Salt Lake country. But B they don't say the word, as yet. H Which rominds mo that Tlio Big Man comes H in line and tells mo I am all wrong about Mr. H Hale's, backers. The Big Man tolls mo the baok- H ers really are William Randolph Hoars and H tho owners of the Donvor Post. And an- H other big man tells me the backers are the H brewery people, witli Joseph Lippman in the Hj star role as managor, author and finisher of the H new Telegram policy. H You see, tho reconl mooting of my other old H friend, M s. Shopherd with divors and sundry H tho W. G. 'J'. U., declared for a prohibition Utah H in 1915, or thereabout. And the phophooy is H that Mr. Hale has onlistod tho brewery inter- H est in tho purchaso of the Telegram. H One guess is as good as another. If you H don't like 0111101 of these, make one of your H own. H But don't make any mistako in tho matter H of price. Outside of its editorial pago, the H Tologram has been an apology, and nothing H more, for the past five years. And thai is H plenty long for a papor to oumbor tho earth H without a cliaracter of its own. They say Mr. H Halo has ongagod to pay sovonty thousand dol- H lars for tho Tologram. Meaning that he will H surrondor that much simoleon in exchange-for H tho afternoon Associated Pross franchiso, tho H more or loss inconsequential subscription list, H and such advertising contracts as tho Tribune H pormits the Telegram to carry. H Seventy thousand dollars is a good deal of H money, but it roally doosn't make so much difforonco what you pay for the Tologram as H what you are going to do witli it. If it is to H remain tho tonoloss echo of any morning paper H thon flftoon cents would bo oxtravagnnco as a H purchase price. If it is to bo a nowspapor, a hundrod thousand would be within tho bounds H of reason. H tBocausot here is a city of more than a H hundred thousand people. Tho Dosorot Evening H News is a cliurch papor first. After Hialr-if H there bo any after consideration it is a nows- M paper. But it is, first, last and all tho time, a H church papor. I am not critioiwng it, I only H am stating a fact. And there is demand here for an afternoon paper published on the lines of the Chicago News, and somo thousand other papers, the' dominant motive of which is news its securing, and ils workmanlike presonla-lion. presonla-lion. The Telegram holds an afternoon Associated Asso-ciated Press franchise. .It, witli tlio Doseret Evening Nows, can koep any othor post moridion papor out of town and they will. And thai, franchiso is tlio basis erf all any good man needs in tho making of a paper. . , Tho building, the presses, the mon who will write, and those still moro important gentlomeu who will got the advertisements, are details. The main thing is tlio franchise, the opportunity, oppor-tunity, tho very fair field to the public's favor. Salt Lake is an afternoon newspaper town because be-cause of tlio size of -it. It isn't far enough from homo to office to give tho morning papers any monopoly of the business. A man witli Mr. Hale's ability and knowledgo of the game can make ten per cent on two hundred thousand dollars' investment in an afternoon Salt Lake papor. But it will have to be a newspaper. It must not bo tlio organ of any church or any party. It distinctly must not bo the personal organ of any man or sot of men. It can not make ten per cent for its owners and ninety per cent for any bunch of politicians that ever wore hair. It can win as a newspaper, and it can sink a million of money and fail as anything else. So much for so much. |