| Show ABOUT since last STANDARD discussed the relation of ogden to its newspapers several journals of or less un warth have gone to their lone rest in this city death has all seasons for bis own among the newspapers of ogden some he carries off in the jocund springtime when yellow are shining like star dust upon the verdant fields bome ho takes to his chill embrace in the scorching summer when life is one gorgeous flame of hope some ho tears away from harvest gains juat as the fruit of reward seems ready for the garner and some he mercifully calls after expectation has been frozen by alio winter of disregard and when to go benco is a blessed relief most of his victims are buried in tho potters field no marble shaft to perpetuate alie memory of misfortunes and names many of them have passed so completely from tho recollection of men that title and lineage is forevermore unknown except to the dust delv ing antiquarian it is a ead reflection that after toil and struggle alter ambition and sacrifice these better parts of men should have gone to bo remembered no more among mankind nearly fifty of journals have joined alio innumerable caravan if the popular judgment of their brief fleeting day was correct they arc now making anguished atonement in the dialls of torment for their wild career of sin in mortality but let us bo merciful and believe that they are measured by their intent of good and not by the performance which fated them to failure As alicy were sad and all too in life so they were unsung and unwept in death nearly every hand was ready to cast a clod with cold disdain upon coffin lid and even now when most of alie lowly hillocks are sunk to the level of the surrounding soil it may awaken a feeling of general harshness to ask did the now vanished ones of newspapers live and labor in vain the question is not without its value because it leads to an examination of a force so potent for good or ill in community affairs that it should be either cheerfully and generously sustained as a giver or abolished as a costly nuisance many men have felt that ogden needed alie help of newspapers and in giving overt expression to that feeling have parted last dollar ogden lier self haa expended annually for fifteen years in advertising patronage and newspaper subscriptions a sum sufficient to have maintained two or three daily journals as largo and I 1 as costly as the salt lake tribune how is it that the newspaper publisher and the mass of newspaper patrons liere have not been able to get together alio printer continues to fail and alie town continues to squander vast sums Is it not time to indulge in a moment of contemplation let us speak first of the publisher lie sees in ogden the natural point for a successful venture it is true others have failed but he will succeed he be atna his publication with somo flourish and with some favor ho is far from perfection and makes many blunders which exaggerated and multiplied by a set of constituted self critics who measure everything at home by tho tribune editorial yardstick yard stick disheartened by an apparent lack of moral as well as financial support tho local publisher curtails expenses and loses interest in his paper and alio town he curses ogden and then dies the chapter is very homely one but it lias its pathetic feature cormany for many a promising career has been ruined many a comfortable fortune lost and many a family distressed and scattered by the misfortunes of tho journalistic business hero next to mention the city Not liing that ogden has ever had in the newspaper line has been equal to her deserts the business men subscribe liberally to the local paper at first but it does not come up to their ideal and they send away for hundreds and thousands of salt lake journals paying these bills cheerfully whenever presented and at the same time turning the local collector or canvasser away with empty hands the merchant thinks that lattio foreign tor advertising since they seem to be cheap are entitled to as of his patronage as the home journal he docs not like the home editor or manager and so declines to sustain the local paper he gives tho cream away freely to foreigners and doles out the skimmed milk to bia town printer and then he wonders why the ogden paper doca not present a more creditable appearance soon and too often justly he becomes ashamed of the paper he curses it and it dies this chapter is as homely as the other and yet it too has its sentimental side for scores of business men leave contributed generously to tho support of local newspapers and have received nothing but ingratitude in return and the only community benefit which was desired that of the permanent foundation of alie journal has been lost and with it tho patrone investment aa well as the publishers until the town and alio publisher can occupy one common ground of interest tho evil state of newspaper failure and inefficiency must continue are the people of ogden ready to join THE STANDARD today for mutual advantage this paper ia prepared to do ite share as fully as lies in tho power of its publishers will the business men do their share and help us to make a paper ay which shall be a credit to and worthy of the best town in tho mountains |
