| editor

“ The record of a back-yard flock, the profit from a family cow, the crop from a patch of corn or berries, the activities of agricultural high school students, the yearnings of city residents for the farm, all furnish possibilities without ever crossing the city line; and once he goes beyond that the man with a nose for country news will find stories staring him in the face at every turn. ”

“ There is only one real good excuse that I can think of just now for lying to an advertiser, and that is when a pointed question is put to an advertising man about his competitor. Even though you are justified, it is better not to form bad habits. For my part, I am afraid to lie, for when you mix a bunch of lies and truths up together and they begin spilling back you are apt to misread the labels on them and not know one from the other. Always tell the truth and solve your problems as you go. ”

“ I believe the people are going to demand more and more responsible newspaper leadership, and the editor who refuses to accept that responsibility is going to run an increasing danger of being forced to the rear by the editor who does accept it. I hold no brief for the swashbuckling scribe, nor for the journalistic Don Quixote who is forever attacking windmills and rests under the painful delusion that you can't run a newspaper without trying to run,—and reform—the world. The editor who can do nothing but fight is of little more use than the editor who can do nothing but straddle. ”

“ And no man, particularly no newspaper man,—can perform a greater service to his community,—and to the world for that matter,—than to spend a lot of time,—all his time, provided he can do so and still meet his weekly pay-roll, in studying the problems of our present and somewhat disordered civilization and giving the public the truth as he sees it, the dangers as he sees them, and directing them toward the right as he sees the right. ”

“ And so with the compulsory school bill. "Don't you believe in the American public school system; don't you believe in inculcating in all young Americans the same American standards and ideals; aren't you opposed to injecting religion into education: aren't you opposed to manufacturing loafers and snobs in private schools?" Sure! The wonder is not that the school bill passed in Oregon by 10,000 majority, the wonder is that with the half-hearted campaign carried on against it by the press of the state as a whole, the majority was not 50,000. ”

“ But I have about come to the conclusion that that one editor is the only one who has the right idea. He takes the job seriously. Well, who will take it seriously if he doesn't? And who will say it should not be taken seriously?
The editorial is really the mind and soul of the newspaper. It is what the newspaper is. And every community needs today as it never needed before intelligent leadership. It needs information,—information about everything, particularly itself. It needs above all, in this world of organized propaganda and partisanship,—the truth. ”

“ The newspaper that has news but no opinions, is of little more use in the field of journalism than the newspaper that has opinions but no news. News without opinions is a body without a soul; opinion without news is a soul without a body. ”

“ For too many years the so-called ex-service man’s magazine has been a vehicle of graft and inefficiency, fulfilling no particular need and seeking advertising which has been thinly veiled donations. This condition still prevails in some quarters, and the purpose of my little talk today is merely to point out that illegitimate tactics are not necessary, and that it is possible for the veteran to uphold the best publication traditions and ethics. ”

“ I fail to see how any newspaper man can deny that this is, to say the least, a very unusual situation. In my judgment the introduction of the Ku Klux Klan in Oregon has been the most sensational, the most dramatic, the most picturesque development in Oregon politics, in the history of this state. It has been nothing short of a political revolution. The more one studies the situation the more amazing and incredible the entire performance becomes. ”

“ The minister must be a man among the business men of a community, and his work is vastly different from what it was in years past, for the demands of the age are different. This sterling, dignified, masculine sort of Christianity is appreciated by the business world, and if church advertising does nothing else, it begets confidence in the church and in the ministry on the part of the business world. It takes the church out of the sphere it has occupied for so many years, that of a benevolent institution only, into the field of big, broad, business achievement. ”

“ While an advertising man is on the payroll of the newspaper, in reality he is working for the advertiser.
If he puts forth the right effort for the advertiser his paper will take care of itself. Many times I have been scooped on my own copy in page and half-page spreads, and I have yet the first time to see where I have lost anything by this method. One who is going to put selfishness and pride first, has no business in the game of advertising salesmanship. Remember that the advertiser’s interest must have first consideration. ”

“ Every newspaperman has been thrilled by the record of Astoria’s fire and its aftermath of heroic endeavor. An emergency thrust itself upon us on the morning of December 8. While flames were devouring building after building and gradually swelled a fire into a conflagration, Portland slept peacefully beneath a soft blanket of new-fallen snow. My telephone rang long before day-break and the news was given to me. My first act was to wire our correspondent at Astoria, asking him to call by long distance telephone with all available facts. ”

“ The real upsetting, unstabilizing force in the world of industries is selfishness. So long as the persons who work in an industry, invest their money in it or have other connection with it insist on getting out of it for their own individual benefit every possible dollar, you may not expect stability nor much of normalcy in that industry. ”

“ Many of you may not be connected with a publication that directly touches some industry of size and importance. Whether you are or not your intelligence and experience tell you that your welfare is inextricably bound up with theirs. If, then, you do not have it directly in your power as an editor or publisher to work for stability and normalcy in our industrial and commercial life you may at least carry with you a certain sympathy for any such movement. ”

“ An advertising man must be more than a copy-chaser; he must be a salesman as well as a copywriter to get the best results.
The most effective way to prove to an advertiser the value of everyday usage of space is to induce him, if possible, to take out a contract for a period of not less than three months. It is not a matter of how often should he advertise, but how often can he advertise. Of course his appropriation must be taken into consideration. If it will stand every-day insertions, then by all means encourage him to hit the ball every day. ”

“ Church advertising should be timely. The preacher who greets his friends on the street with “Is it well with your soul?" or “Are you prepared to die?” and kindred questions is very untactful and soon becomes the joke of the community, but his action is no more untactful and uncalled-for than that of the minister who in his publicity campaign uses grotesque and unseemly methods in advertising his dignified work. If a man’s soul is worth saving, and if his salvation depends upon his hearing about Christ and obeying him. ”

“ The advertiser with an appropriation set aside for advertising will make a definite plan and carry it out, while the one who is using the "hit and miss" method will continue to hit and miss, and usually he misses even though he hits. Altogether too much ammunition is wasted in this way, and I believe you will agree with me when I say that unless the budget system is used, the merchant will let his personal feelings enter into his actions in advertising. If he feels good, he's ready to write a page, and not for any other reason than that he feels like writing. ”

“ Space is paid for on an inch or a line basis. This is a method adopted by the publisher to get pay for the service. In reality, the advertiser is buying circulation, for without the circulation of his message the space will buy him nothing. He pays for this circulation in proportion to the size of his story. Sometimes it requires a page. Is it fair to him to misrepresent the size of your circulation?
It is a question in some territories whether the field is handled by the advertising man or the field handles him. To be successful you must win every argument pertaining to advertising. ”

“ It would be foolish for me to declare that the people of Oregon in the mass are better citizens than you will find in the other states west of the Mississippi, but I venture to say this, that there is a larger number of men and women in Oregon, in proportion to the whole population, imbued with the pioneer spirit than in any other section of the United States. ”

“ While here the Oregon newspaper folk will be transferred from the plane of the motorist de luxe to that of the strenuously inclined nature-lover who seeks to commune with the mountains and the trees out in the wild and mighty places. ”

“ A building, for example, costing $100,000 often spends little or nothing on advertising. What would we think of a business concern that did such a thing? The assistant advertising manager of a Portland department store told me less than a month ago that they spent in the year 1922 $400,000 for advertising, and big business spends $600,000,000 annually, in the United States alone, in advertising. If the church would spend a little money in advertising the great work it is doing, it would bring tremendous results. ”

“ A great opening program that can be announced to the city at large and that will interest a great number of people should be planned and much space should be used. It directs the attention of the people toward the church and brings the greatest number there. I think I suggested that the church and the preacher should be sure they have something to advertise and that they should be very sure they do not disappoint the public. "You can fool all the people a part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time," surely applies to advertising. ”

“ More than that,—and here I come to the crux of the whole business.—in my judgment, the newspaper that meets every important issue that comes up, not militantly necessarily, but squarely, is not only an example of better journalism from a moral standpoint but from a business standpoint. In other words I believe that in the long run, in spite of necessary sacrifices and set-backs, a vigorous and clear-cut editorial policy pays. ”

“ No one would doubt that our age is a new age. We have said that so many times that it has become commonplace, vet it is true. New because of new conditions that have confronted us since the great war; and the days of reconstruction always bring new problems. It is a new age for the church, hence new methods of work must be employed. There is a song with considerable jingle to it, and with little music, but with no truth, that some folks in the church delight to sing today. ”

“ We know of numerous cases where in the presence of a calamity the spirit of friendly cooperation has asserted itself, and business rivals or political enemies have for gotten their differences and fought one another’s battles. Time after time, in various parts of the country it has been recorded that where a newspaper has been burned out or has suffered some other disaster its most active opponent has offered full facilities for use until the unfortunate one has been able to restore its own equipment. ”

“ Today newspaper advertising stands alone. It is the greatest and most forceful factor in public enlightenment at the command of our merchants, and they know how to use it. The experimental stage has long since passed, and the space-user is reaping his reward. Let us continue to build and make our publications far more effective for the men who make our business possible. ”

“ There are few merchants who are not sold on newspaper advertising. This fact is partly due to salesmanship but in the main to the results that accrue from advertising. I do not feel that I have accomplished any more than any other average man could in this territory. The medium I represent covers the Eugene trade zone so completely that the advertiser measures by results, and results are responsible for the success I have made in handling the advertising field in Eugene. I have tried to make my paper brief and to the point.
The very backbone of the newspaper business is the advertiser. ”

“ And is it not patent that if I, one interested in farm ing merely in the abstract, week after week read the papers which I have found by experience contain matter that holds my attention, then he whose entire existence, and that of his family, depends upon agriculture, will choose by preference those newspapers and periodicals which devote at least a portion of their space to subjects that are nearest his every-day living? ”

“ However, he never sacrifices real news for any particular interest. He feels that the front page belongs alike to all readers, and news display there must take precedence according to its general importance. He does not hesitate to make news displays and special articles of happenings and developments in the county seat, but he feels that he should give out-of-town interests within his field the same consideration, while at the same time cultivating the interest of these rural dwellers in the news of their trade center, which is the place of publication of their paper. ”

“ Church bells, tower chimes, steeples, and physical equipment were the methods of advertising in the past, and many who have accepted these ancient methods without a word, criticise the modern plans of church publicity. In a certain church in the city of San Francisco, great consternation was caused a few years ago, when certain members led by a progressive minister, proposed the placing of a large electric sign on the front of the church. If advertising brings results to the business firm, it is certain that it will bring benefit and uplift to the church. ”

“ Forget your newspaper and work for him, for without him there wouldn't be any job for you, or any need for the newspaper. He’s the fellow that makes the newspaper possible. He makes your job possible. He is the He is the creator of business, and in sending his messages to the home of the reader, he creates an added interest in your publication. Help him in every way possible to handle his advertising in the most effective way for he measures by results. ”

“ Stivers, who told the Newspaper Conference delegates in the course of discussion of his most interesting paper, that he does not care personally for the title Reverend, expressed a growing modern sentiment toward the best means of bringing the church into touch with the life of the community. He is a firm believer in plenty of dignified advertising for the sale of the biggest thing in the world and regards the columns of the newspapers as the best medium for that advertising. ”

“ In answer to that I have but one sentence to give, and that is that an empty church cheapens the cause far more than any consistent publicity that fills it. It is true that some unwise form of advertising may bring reproach upon the church just as the same kind of publicity cheapens a business. I read some time ago, where a certain man by the name of Pray was the owner of a men's furnishing store. He took advantage, as he thought, of his peculiar name to advertise his business and used the slogan, "Pray for Men." ”

“ We need in the church that high business sense, the application of business methods which we find in the commercial world. Where Christianity has gone, honorable business has always followed.
There is but little business carried on between the tribes of Africa, but give them the message of the gospel and in a decade the business standard is raised. Church advertising is nothing more nor less than business methods applied to the work of the kingdom of Christ on earth. ”

“ Americans are prone to go to extremes. Newspaper men are not exceptions. There was a time when the newspaper man had to be a sort of ink slinging plug-ugly. A six-shooter and vial of vitriol were as necessary in the editorial sanctum as a pair of scissors and a paste pot. If the editor wasn't committing editorial assault and battery on some fellow citizen, he had to be rolling in the gutter with his competitor. The editor of the old school not only had to be fearless, he had to be fearful. To conduct his business as other men conducted theirs was to be namby-pamby. ”

“ YOU may be asking yourselves why a man who has passed most of his working years in Portland would presume to speak of Oregon, outside of Portland, as an ideal field for the country newspaper. To plunge into my topic, I make bold to say that Oregon is the best field I know for a daily or weekly whose editor wants to shoot straight always. ”

“ In other words, I hold a brief for the editor who while he admits that the most important problem with a newspaper is to make it pay, there is such a thing as over-emphasizing this importance until rewards of his profession which can't be measured in dollars and cents are sacrificed. There is, in short, a happy medium between fire-eating on the one hand and time-serving on the other, avoiding the point where militant methods become merely destructive and also avoiding the point where pacific methods become merely negative ”

“ Let every citizen unite with the common purpose to advance, to grow again; let none lag; let none be dismayed. . . . ’Let’s Go.'"
Typewriters set up on packing boxes in temporary editorial quarters rattled “Let’s Go.” Linotypes rescued from the flames took up the command. A press utilized in the shop of a foreign language newspaper did its best to heed the exhortation, and every man of the staff of the Astorian obeyed the editorial dictum even before it was uttered.
The Budget staff attacked its problems with like ardor. Last October the Budget went into a new building on Exchange street. ”

“ I will illustrate by specific experience In the recent editorial which brought down upon me this topic I pointed out what a highly desirable thing it would be in the apple-growing industry of the Northwest if prices were stabilized so both producer and consumer would know what to expect from year to year. No one thing would more quickly place the orchardist in a position of security, contentment and prosperity than the mere stabilization of prices at a figure which insures him an equitable profit. ”

“ It is not that the newspaper editors of Oregon are cowards, that we are not willing to meet any issue which we believe it is our duty to meet, but it is rather the fact that we as a whole have become convinced that no newspaper is under obligation to support any cause if such action clearly involves an injury to business.
Safety first. That, it seems to me, was the watchword of the Oregon press as a whole in the last campaign. Be fearless, of course. All editors must be fearless. But don't be foolish. If you conduct a Republican newspaper, bang the Democrats ”

“ There comes a time in the experience of every newspaper editor when he must take a definite, uncompromising stand regardless of the immediate consequences, when he must forget his personal popularity, his subscription list, even his advertising, and with his eye only on one thing,—what he believes to be best for his community,—take ofi his coat and go to it, and such a time came in the last election. ”

“ A vital, forceful, clear-cut editorial in Oregon today is the exception. There are more syndicated editorial services being sold in this country now than ever before in history. The militant editor as a type has abdicated; the Pollyanna space-filler and the business manager are in control.
There is only one country newspaper editor in Oregon, I believe, who spends—or did spend before Uncle Sam rewarded him—his entire time writing editorials. ”

“ ASTORIA publishers, editors and reporters gallantly upheld one of journalism’s traditions when they refused to be put out of business by the recent fire which destroyed the business section of the city. The Astorian and Budget were burned out, but neither suspended publication, even temporarily. Quick to adapt themselves to a difficult situation, editorial and business staffs worked long hours and with tireless energy in order that there would be no break in publication. ”