nomic philosophy except that it presented it with an originality and punch and persuasiveness that made the editorial page alive and its owner one of the wealthiest men in Oregon? At least it used to be alive and full of pep a few short months ago, but alack! since the take delinquent tax list controversy raged through the legislature like a pestilence, the Journal has ceased coming to my desk and I see it, forsooth, no more. But alas, poor Yorick! I used to love to read it tho I hated every word it said and I merely pause here to drop a tear of appreciation on the cantankerous strenuosity that makes its editorial page alive and different and therefore brings money into the business office.
And that’s one way of answering the question “Does it pay?” Every newspaper office is divided into three grand divisions, the back end, the business office, and the writing staff. None of them can get along without the other, tho the business office always imagines that it barters and bargains and slaves and rushes advertising for the sole purpose of paying off a lot of loafers in the writing staff. The writing staff in its turn always knows that it is not appreciated and that it could make more money doing something else but it never does. The business manager has to be an unimaginative, stolid individual, but all good writers so far as I know are tempermental, flighty and erratic as a musician but not so tight. They are not only queer, eccentric and indifferent but they are glad of it.
Every newspaper man says that he leads a dog’s life yet every news paper man that sells out with a firm determination to live some other kind of a life nearly always sooner or later comes barking happily back to his newspaper kennel. Speak with an average bunch of men at this gathering and they will tell you that the business is “all right, but it doesn't pay anything,” yet not one of them could make as much money as he is making with twice the effort in any other profession and not all of them are putting any life into their editorial pages either.
And so, I quit the subject not knowing whether I have answered the program committee’s question. My own notion of it is that it pays to try. Not all success is measured by the cash register. The thing most of us are hunting for is happiness and it is the most elusive jade to hunt it you follow somebody else’s directions. In my own mind I am convinced that wealth and fame are the least important things in the scheme of existence, and yet I would enjoy having a modicum of both. The real way to be happy is to enjoy your work and it you enjoy putting “life” into the editorial page, or any other page, you will be happy doing it and therefore receive the very best possible pay.
Special Livestock Number
The Crook County Journal, published at Prineville, called attention to Prineville as a cattle center by issuing, July 12, a special live stock number of 32 pages. The edition, copiously illustrated, was tat with advertising, full of matter descriptive of Crook county’s cattle industry, and handled also its usual grist of live local and neighbor hood news. Guy La Follette has given a fine example of what a country shop can do when the owner tries.
For Permanent Improvement
The Bend Bulletin, as a result of its observation on July 4, again points out the necessity for a permanent rest room, for the use of visitors throughout the year. The temporary quarters supplied on the holiday served, in the judgment of the Bulletin, to emphasize the need for such an institution at all times.
