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Show I ABUSE OF THE PRESS B W7 ' w'" venuro to say that there is not anoth- er line of industry in the United States that is ahused and imposed upon as much as the press particularly the local press. Possibly no one is B so much to blame for this condition, too. as the B publishers themselves. While struggling might B and main for an existence and to make ends meet, the small newspapers are giving awa': more in I proportion to their resources, than anv other class B of workers in the country. They have become so H accustomed to contributing their services to the I public free of charge, that they scarcely expect I anything else. And the public, particularly pub-B pub-B lie men and institutions, have gotten to look upon B this as a matter of course, and think it is unrea-B unrea-B suitable and presumptious on the part of publish-B publish-B ers to ask or except pay for the principal part of B the service which they render. And we regret to B say that the various departments of the (Jovern-B (Jovern-B ment are among the greatest abusers of the coun-B coun-B try press. Scarcely a mail is received that does B not bring from one to half a dozen franked let-B let-B ters with material for free publication, much of B which savors strongly of political or other ad-B ad-B vertising, material which we have not requested, B and which to a county paper is practically void of B news value. Rut this is h minor matter, as we do B not have to publish this material unless we choose, B and the majority of it finds its way into the waste B basket. Rut there are many matters, such as the B floatation of government bonds, the conservation B of foods, the conscription of men for the army, B and a number of others which have been and are B being given the widest kind of publicity by the B press, merely as a "patriotic duty." B Space in our respective publications is the eom- B modity that the newspaper has to sell, it is what B we have to market in order to obtain bread and B butter for the family, wages for the help in the office, money for rent, power, gasoline, print pa- per and the hundred other items which go to make fl up our overhead expenses. The setting of type, the buying of paper, ink, power, etc-, are the items B we pay our money out for. They cost us money, B and must be made to yield money for expenses, or B we will be doing a losing business. B We hear of some of the wealthy philanthopists B of the country such as Henry Ford, who in the B generosity of their hearts (and we do not deny B that they are generous, as compared with the av- I erage wealthy manufacturer or business man) H have offered to turn thir plants over to the Gov- I ernment to operate free of charge, or foi the bare B expenses, during the war, and their names have I been heralded from one end of the country to the H other as philanthropists and patriots. I The majority of the country papers would be I quite willing to do the same, and either engage in I other work or accept of an ordinary salary for I their services. Rut in the case of the country H press the Government does not do this. It merely H furnishes patterns (copy) for the things it wants made (advertised), labels it "News" and shouts H patriotic duty, and the papers are expected to do H the rest. I Take for instance the recent Liberty Loan H Bond issue. It is conceded that the press of the H country contributed to the Government $10,000,- H 000 wortli of free advertising, which enabled the H bond issue to meet with a success far beyond the H most sanguine anticipations; that without the aid H of the press this would have been impossible; that H to have employed solicitors and sent them out to H have sold the bonds would have cost many millions H of dollars and that their service's would not have H been nearly so etlicac ions as was the work of the H newspapers. Yet the Government paid not one H cent for this service. H "Why," says some of our friends on the out- H side, "1 should think you would be glad to do this H to help the Government in a perilous time." And H so we are, but this does not pay our bills, nor put anything in the treasury with which to purchase a Liberty I)an Bond, which, you know, is also counted a patriotic service to the Government As we have already remarked: Our space is our stock in trade. To set type to fill our reading columns costs money. Now, what becomes of the money raised by the sale of Liberty Ronds? You know that it is paid to manufacturer of ships, guns, clothing and food products for the equipment equip-ment of our armies. Then why does not the Government Gov-ernment send these manufacturers its orders for munitions and all other supplies accompanied by a note to the management to the effect that they are wanted for patriotic purposes, and that while there has been no appropriation made to cover the purchase of same, their delivery promptly and in good condition will be considered a patriotic service serv-ice and will be greatly appreciated. This is about the tenor of the notes we receive under similar circumstances, cir-cumstances, when free advertising is wanted. Would the Government do this in the ase of the manufacturer? and if it did, how much attention would the manufacturer pay to it, do you suppose? Then why does the Government and other large interests presume to do this with the country press? Recause the average publisher of a country coun-try newspaper is a poor business man ; he under estimates the value of his own commodity, and cheapens it in the eyes of the public generally. If he was more discriminating in the use of his columns and insisted upon remuneration for the service rendered, he would be better respected and thought of in his community. Here is a specific illustration of how the country coun-try press is dealt with. We say country press, because be-cause the city dailies are usually paid by some one, if not the Government, for this sort of service. At the time the draft law was being put into effect a list of all the men registered in Iron County Coun-ty was delivered to this paper perilously near our hour for publication, with the instruction from the local Roard that they had been advised to publish pub-lish it and that it should get in that issue by all means ; that it was authorized by the war department depart-ment and would of course be paid for. We held our issue, did night work and managed to get it in- The next issue we were informed that the list would have to be republished, as it should bear a serial number opposite each name. Again we hustled and crowded out matters of local interest to get the list in, taking great pains to read it "by copy" in order to avoid all possibility of mistake, it being considered a legal notice. This time the list was published alphabetically and the serial number being given. In a week or two more we were advised by the Roard that the list was not acceptable to the Provost Marshal General, and would have to be republished, without regard to alphabetical arrangement. For the third time we published the list, but not before being reassured that the list was to be paid for. When the publications had all been completed we rendered our bill on a voucher furnished to us by the Roard, at our regular commercial rates of advertising. In due time all our affidavits of publication pub-lication and voucher were returned to as, accompanied accom-panied by the following letter: Salt Lake City, Utah, August 1, 1917. From: The Disbursing Officer and Agent of the United States for the State of Utah. To: Charles S. Wilkinson, Publisher, Iron County Record. Subject: Return of Voucher, disapproved. 1. By direction of the Chief Disbursing Officer, War Department, Washington, D. C, I am returning herewith, without my approval, your voucher claiming claim-ing $108.27, for publishing registration list for Iron county. This voucher, through error, was submitted to the office of the Provost Marshal General, Washington, Wash-ington, D. C, instead of to the office of the Disbursing Disburs-ing Officer and Agent of the United States for the State of Utah at Salt Lake City. 2. The letter from the Chief Disbursing Officer transmitting the voucher to this office contained the following instruction. "The enclosed voucher is not I good charge against the appropriation ;nd should not be paid by you." I). Both the Registration Regulations and the Rules and Regulations prescribed by the President for Local and District Boards provide that registration registra-tion lists shall be made available for the press with . . a request for publication. No appropriation is available avail-able from which to defray the cost of such publication, publica-tion, it being assumed that if such lists are oublished they will In- published as important news of especial interest to the readers of the publication. 1. The voucher is disapproved because it is not a proper charge under the law against ths appropriation appro-priation under the appropriation act of June 15, entitled en-titled "Registration and Selection for Military Service Serv-ice 1017 1018." S. V. FITZ GKRROI.D, Disbursing Officer and Agent of the U, S. for the State of Utah. The publisher of this paper holds, 1 That he is the judge of what shall be considered "important "import-ant news" for use in his publication, and that he is the sole judge as to time, place and arrangement of such matters as are inserted tor their news value. 2. That when the time, arrangement, and form of publication is prescribed and insisted upon by another person, such person should expect ex-pect to pay for the publication. (.J) That the fact that the local Roard acting in good faith for the Government plainly stated that such publications publica-tions were to be paid for, ami must be Inserted in certain prescribed forms of arrangement and on specified dates is evidence that the instructions to such board were of such nature as to lead any fair minded man to presume that they were authorized au-thorized to contract for such publication in the name of and on behalf of the Government, and that to their minds it was a just and reasonable charge against the Government. Then why do the publishers continue to be imposed im-posed on in this way? Merely because the major ity of them haven't the courage and sand to stand up for their rights. It is a "cinche" that as long as we submit to this sort of treatment we will have no money with which to buy Liberty Ronds, and not much respect from the balance of the community. The man who conducts his business along business lines and insists upon what is due him, will furnish the money for the bonds, and the publisher will be sneered at for his stupidity in continuing to work for the Government for nothing, and nay the fiddler, fid-dler, to boot, while the other fellows get pay for services rendered and own the bonds. And while they are pointed out as the benefactors of the country the country publisher may think himself especially fortunate if he gets even a "Thank you" for his toil and pains. |