Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/149

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
140
HISTORY OF OREGON NEWSPAPERS

a week. Mr. Byars acted as editor as well as manager for a time between the terms of Mr. Lockley Sr. and Clare B. Irvine, formerly of the Statesman, later of the Sentinel, in editorial charge. Going away on a surveying trip, Mr. Byars turned the direction of the paper over to his young pressman, instructing Lockley that all he would have to do would be to select from "a bushel basket of clippings for editorials, write an occasional local editorial, rustle what advertising I could, and keep all employees satisfied by paying them as promptly as possible." The young manager never missed a payday although he had to do some close figuring and get some of the subscribers to pay a year ahead in order to provide the needed cash.

The typesetters were Elsie Goodhue, Minnie Foley, Carrie Hass, Luella Cary, with Will Torey as "devil."

The paper was purchased in 1892 by Ernst (Col. E.) and Andy Hofer.

A later owner of the Capital Journal was Charles H. Fisher, who purchased the paper from the Hofers in 1912, built it up tremendously, and sold it in 1919. In December 1934 the newspaper emphasized its prosperity by moving into its own palatial Gothic fireproof building, 100×50 feet and two stories high above a basement 12 feet deep. The building is air-conditioned, has modern lighting, deadened noise, and every modern facility for small-city newspaper production.

The special edition celebrating the new building carried pictures of all the staff members as of 1934:

Editorial staff—George Putnam, editor and publisher; Harry N. Crain, managing editor; Don Upjohn and Stephen A. Stone, staff writers; Rovena Eyre, women's editor; C. K. Logan, editor valley news; Fred Zimmerman, sports editor; Ruby Laughlin and Margaret Burdette, copy desk. (Crain has a reputation as a political seer Upjohn does a smart column, "Sips for Supper.")

Business department—E. A. Brown, advertising manager; W. A. Scott, circulation manager; Helen Yockey, treasurer; Frank Perry, mechanical superintendent; John Whitehead, classified advertising; Charles R. Morrison, display advertising; Mary Arthurs, bookkeeper; Addison Lane Jr., mail clerk; Hackley Burton, pressman.

The Salem Sentinel, of Republican politics, was started by C. B. Irvine, a former editor of the Statesman, as a Saturday weekly December 4, 1897. It was an eight-page five-column paper, neat looking, with headlines modern in form but written without action. The paper carried 16% columns of advertising out of a total of 40, and the advertisers were allowed to place their ads, apparently, wherever they wished. An odd feature in the third issue (December 18) was a sensationally played story with a four-column streamer head in 48-point type (two-thirds of an inch deep) on