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Show YOUR NEWSPAPER STILL LIGHTS THE WAY TO FREEDOM So far as is known people have always been able to talk to one another. For untold centuries they apparently had no way of permanently recording- their thoughts, but had to rely upon memory to transmit happenings of one generation to the next. Without doubt many important events of early-day history have been lost forever. Others exist largely in the form of folktales folk-tales that cannot be logically substantiated. It is very likely that many of the miracles of ancient times could be explained scientifically if we had all the facts. Eventually some early day man discovered that he could draw crude pictures that conveyed his thoughts to others. These developed into the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians and finally into an alphabet that could be written. However, not many couM read or write, even when thought transmission advanced to this state. So, it was not until the process of printing from movable type was invented that man really began to make any great advance in civilization. That the printed word is an important adjunct to advancement advance-ment is easily discernible when one considers the fact that those continents and lands devoid of printing are still largely populated by primitive savages; or that countries inhabited by large numbers of illiterates are backward and possess few, if any, of the material comforts we know here in the United States. An associate editor of the largest daily newspaper in India a newspaper of 12 pages and 100,000 circulation tells of the squalor in which most of his people live; of the efforts being made to improve their lot; and of the difficulty in stimulating the masses to self-improvement because so few of them can read. Cities and towns he calls them villages of 50,000 and greater population had no newspapers, because there are not enough people in a community of that size that could read. The average American is the best-read individual the world ever has known. Some may challenge that statement, on the basis that to be "best-read" one must have a knowledge of the classics. That is not necessarily so. But even if true, Americans have acquired even that knowledge through the abundance of reading matter that comes their way each day. Seldom does one see a newspaper that does not have some reference to the so-called so-called classical works. What is more important, today's newspaper tells of today's contribution to the history of the world and usually ties it in with what has gone on before. In the dight of every day comparison, com-parison, some may be inclined to make light of the writing in the modern newspaper, but one can't be so certain that in centuries to come people will have a clearer understanding of today's events than we are able to get from the writings of those who preceded us two, three or four hundred years ago. Truly your newspaper is the key to better living. It tells of new and improved methods of eating, dressing, studying, traveling, and enjoying life. It creates a desire on the part of the readers to posess the many things they read about. Desire fosters ambition to improve earning capacities .... to the end that the desire may be satisfied. Satisfaction of that desire requires greater production; greater production requires the creation of more jobs; and more jobs mean more money to satisfy still more desires. This makes for a sort of squirrel cage chase between desire and satisfaction, and apparently one that cannot be resolved. Undoubtedly the continued growth of markets in the United States can be attributed to nothing more than the newspapers of this country and their story of what others possess and are doing. Some call it "keeping up with the Joneses." Actually it is that constant desire to improve our station in life and the knowledge that 'we can do it, because the newspapers tell of others who have done so that sparks American life today. American newspapers are not without competition in the dissemination of news and advertising, yet they are thriving on that competition and growing in size and circulation each year. . The importance of the part they play in better living the fact that people still like to read even though they can hear has been graphically demonstrated within the past year or two when newspapers in some of our larger cities were forced to suspend publication because of strikes. Although radio and telivision stations stepped up their news and advertising broadcasts in those areas people were like lost sheep without their newspapers. Sales of merchandise came almost to a complete stop. Department stores were bare of customers, even during the Christmas shopping season, and people lined up at newstands to buy out-of-town newspapers. Yes, people have always been able to talk to one another they still do and they listen to television and radio broadcasts, but word of mouth does not satisfy the desire to know what is going on in the world. It does not create the buying urge and thus unlock the door to better living that newspaper advertising does. Fneedom's key to better living is your newspaper. It, and it alone, can keep America strong, happy and ambitious. 30 Thought is the seed of action; but action is as much its second form as thought is its first. Emerson The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes the a-chievement a-chievement possible. Mary Baker Eddy |