was political pamphleteering, and that day had not gone by in the period of Horace Greeley and Thurlow Weed. News was usually secondary. Editorial expression was violent, vituperative, partisan, and in a large sense false. The public did not expect the paper to take anything but a partisan view. There has since been a rise of judicial consideration of all questions.
“I think that the newspaper which seeks faithfully to enlighten its public on public questions has the respect and confidence of the public in a degree wholly lacking to Greeley and Raymond. Nobody took the Tribune who didn’t want his partisanship stimulated. Now there is a different time, a different view. If the newspaper has lost the influence of those days, it has done much to soften the asperity of those times and is doing much more to enlighten the public than in those old days. The papers today have a more enlightened conception of public questions than the papers of fifty years ago. I believe the newspaper service of today is on a far higher plane than the papers of 25 or 50 years ago pretended to occupy. . . .”
Mr. Piper proceeded to the consideration of the ideal editorial page. “That paper,” he said, “is the most instructive, entertaining, and respected which gives, first, evidence of sincerity in its attempt to enlighten, instruct and to lead the readers of the paper in right ways of thinking.
“I have no opinion whether the editorial should be short or long. If it is efficient, it may be short. The editorial has an opportunity to be entertaining, earnest, honest, and interesting.”
THE WEEKLY PAPERS OF THE NORTHWEST AND THE FARMER READER
By GEORGE N. ANGELL, Editor Oregon Farmer, Portland
IT IS with some hesitation, as editor of a “mere” farm weekly, that I come before the state press with a suggestion for its improvement which, while it has the appearance of being altruistic, nevertheless is prompted also by selfish motives. It appealed to the program makers as being worthy of passing on. however, and that is my sole reason for being here.
For the selfish _motives I make no apology. Nor do I make any pretense of overcoming financial or mechanical objections to the improvement I propose. I have had no experience whatever with country weeklies, and only editorial experience with a country daily and a farm paper, hence suggestions I make might be highly impracticable. There may be some good reason for existence of the condition I would improve, but it struck me as being worth while to find out, at least, whether there is or not.
During the two years that I was in charge of editorial for the Washington Farmer in western Washington, I saw many of the country weeklies of the state. Since coming to Oregon two years ago, naturally I have been studying those here, particularly with regard to" what they offer of interest or instruction to the farmer reader along lines that he is following every day, that make his life. Out of them all I have picked what in my estimation is the best country weekly, all things considered, in the Northwest, and from an account of its experience you may draw your own conclusions.
The Bee-Nugget of Chehalis, Washington, owned and published by Clarence Ellington, formerly president of the Washington Press association, beats them all when it comes to news service for country readers, and with Ellington’s assistance I shall try to show how he does it and that doing it pays.
Pick up an average copy of the Bee-
