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Show SECRETARY PORTE ON BIG RAMPAGE Says liah Publisher Lack Hackhone and an- Afraid to Tackle In- Alienees Ruining Stair. That the secretary of the Utah State Press Association, who is also tho secretary and and director of the franklin club at Salt Lain Cttjr, has rather a low estimate of the country newspaper fraternity in this state in general is quit evident from a letter just addressed to the members of the W Press Association and other publishers, publish-ers, fioni which the following are excerpts: ex-cerpts: "I have just returned from Denver, Den-ver, when. 1 attended the meeting of the Editorial Association of Colorado. The meetintr was an inspiration and a treat. The difference dif-ference between the treatment the editors receive in Colorado and in Utah is certainly marked, and it is no wonder the papers there ate boosters for the state. They could not be otherwise. "Hut, the editor! th-re are not afraid to say thine, and roust h 1 out of the politicians and grafters when occasion requires. They are not spineless creatures, and as n result they are treated with some deference. When the country newspapers of this state got ready to be a power, they will he, but not until they know how to say things, and nre not mere diahragl with nothing to say. "In other states the country papers are the big influence, while in Utah their influence is practically practic-ally nil, and always will be, if the papers are run as they are at present. "Let's show sonic backbone, get after things that are ruining the state, show up the cheap politicians, politic-ians, and have something to say Other papers do it, while we in Utah sit still and not one little peep "Get the Mlackfoot Republican of Idaho, and see how this editor speaks his mind. It will do some of you good. "You poor, craven creatures, with ndt one word to say, yet classing yourselves as editors! Get up and say something let the world know you are alive! Be something! "Let us have real journalism in Utah, and then you can get somewhere. Attend the meeting in Salt Lake in April, and get some more back-bone. You certainly cer-tainly need it now. Yours for real newspapers, K. T. PORTE, Sec'y. Ahem! Wonder what and who Mr Porte is driving at, anyhow. Could he be alluding to us? More back-hone? back-hone? Oh, no; it can't be us. If he suggested an extension of the waist 1 band and an amplification of the en tire super-structure, we might be included. in-cluded. Hut backbone -that's our "long" suit. Say, Porte, you certainly must have had an awful case of dyspepsia when yOU delivered yourself of the forero- ing. That is a terrific broadside to t v turn loose into the camp of your fellow fel-low workers and friends. If vou g would pour grape shot like that into your own ranks, what the h 11 would you do to your enemies, if you had real, honest-to-goodncss newspaper of r your own to load and shoot? Hut on the square, Hon. Scratch -etary, what is cramping you, anyhow .' We suspect that we can guess, and will take the first opportunity of telling tell-ing you when we see you. Ami it is not exactly because there is such an unprecedented amount of politicul graft and camouflage in this state, eithur. Now is it? There are any amount of people who can tell an editor how to run his newspaper, and the poor fool who tries to follow all the instructions and suggestions will find himself in very much the same predicament as tho man and his son did, who were taking home an ass which they had purchased as described in ASsop's fable. Soma , theoretical publishei - have the ides that in order to become eminent ed' tor-., all they have to do is to ro.tsl everybody ami everything in sight. It requires a very little real expor lence to discover that this Is neithe popular nor profitable And, on the other hand, there are editors, just SI there are people in other walks of life, who are moral cowards, or cringing -yeophants, who do nothing but pa lever, whether it is merited or not. un-J$ un-J$ til it be'otnes nSUSSatilUj We doubt not that we have some of this class of editors in Utah. Hut on the other I band, we have worthy men in the call ing wlio are just as outspoken an I courageous in their defense of right ! and their condemnation of wrong as can be found anywhere in newspaper-dom, newspaper-dom, Such publishers cannot but re-'. Seat the scathing wholesale denunciation denun-ciation of tin' entile profession In Utah. |