USA > Iowa > Polk County > Des Moines > Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume I > Part 75
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On March 8, following, Hon. George E. Roberts, Director of the Mint, was the guest of the club. He spoke on "The influence of the new gold supplies." The banker members of the State Legislature were the Club's guests.
On the evening of January 3, 1908, ex-Secretary Shaw appeared before a large audience in Foster's opera house, on invitation of the Bankers' Club, to give his view on the recent financial panic and its lessons. He outlined his plan of an elastic currency permitting an expansion of perhaps four hundred million in emergency-currency guaranteed by the government, differing in no way from an ordinary issue except that it would bear five or six per cent tax, thus automatically inclining the holder to present it for redemption as soon as safety would permit.
On May 12, 1908, at the Savery Hotel, Group 6 of the State Bankers' Asso- ciation were again the guests of the club. Hon. George E. Roberts addressed the assemblage, presenting the advantages of a central bank.
On the evening of November II, 1909, the club gave a dinner at the Savery Hotel in honor of Hon. Nelson W. Aldrich, who delivered an address on the investigations made by the Monetary Commission, of which he was chairman, the trend of which was toward a federal system of bank exchange which would prevent a repetition of the financial embarrassments of 1907. More than three hundred guests were in attendance.
The members of the club did much individually to cooperate with the Clear- ing House Association in making successful the meetings of the State Bankers' Association, in Des Moines, June 16-17, 1910. They kept open house at the Chamberlain Hotel and assisted in the entertainment of visitors at Hyperion Club.
On the 12th of October, 1911, Prof. J. Laurence Laughlin, of Chicago, Chairman of the National Citizens' League, addressed the club, urging com- bined efforts to secure legislation preventing a recurrence of the disaster of 1907. The club elected H. S. Butler, president; A. O. Hauge, vice-president; C. S. Barr, secretary and treasurer.
Vol. I-35
BOOK III. DES MOINES.
PART X. JOURNALISM. 1857-19II.
CHAPTER I.
JOURNALISM AND JOURNALISTS.
Taking up the story of pioneer journalism where it was dropped-with the disappearance of "Fort Des Moines" from the map of Iowa and the appear- ance of "Des Moines" in its stead-we enter upon the second stage of journal- istic development in the Capital city-the period in which the newspaper began to be recognized and reckoned with as an exponent of local pride and individual ambition, and to a greater degree than in the first stage, the molder of public opinion. In this second stage the newspaper continued to be a party organ, with a generally recognized claim on the party for patronage in the shape of official advertising and elective and appointive offices, state and national.
William, better known as "Will" Porter,1 the sole survivor of the journalism of the pioneer period, had bought the Iowa Statesman, moved it over on the West side, and christened it the Iowa State Journal. The first number of the weekly Journal was issued in February, 1857. The paper continued under Porter's management, with Robert Hedge as an associate, until late in 1858, when Stilson Hutchins and George M. Todd acquired it, rechristening it the Iowa Statesman.
On the 13th of January, 1858, Will Porter issued the first number of a tri-weekly Journal, published in connection with his weekly. It was planned especially to cover the new legislative field. In his salutatory, the editor ex- presses his deep obligations to members of the legislature, to citizens of Des Moines, and others, for subscriptions, and frankly announces his policy of reciprocity, naïvely saying: "We will remember especially those who have re- membered us!" Having, at heavy expense, placed able reporters in both houses of the legislature, the editor throws himself upon the generosity of his friends, saying: "And we certainly look with confidence to the legislature for an appro- priate response to our efforts to give to the people of the state a correct, reliable and early report of the actions and sayings of their representatives."
In his initial number the Journal editor gives battle to the editor of the Citizen, his republican rival in the legislative field, apologetically informing his readers that he has tried to be kind and courteous to him, and to keep on good terms with him, "but," he adds, "it appears the little fellow is deter- mined to keep us at a distance." While he cares little about what his neighbor may say of him, he assures the Citizen that he will stick by its editor closer than a brother-"closer by far than his assumed cloak of piety will stick to him!" Editorially the irreverent Journal editor was wont to refer to his brother editor as "Johnny of the Citizen," and as "owned, body, soul and breeches" by one of the candidates for the senatorship. On February I, sickness compelled the omission of the Saturday debate, and the Journal acknowledged obligations to the Citizen office for favors rendered. Evidently Editor Teesdale was heaping coals of fire upon his rival's head! A reminder of old Fort Des Moines days is kept standing in the Journal's editorial column, which reads: "We will take wood, coal, flour, potatoes, provisions, anything we can eat or use, in payment of subscription or bills due the office. Send them on."
1 Author of History of Polk County, 1904.
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The tri-weekly Citizen came out January 12, a day ahead of its rival for legislative support. John Teesdale, candidate for re-election as state binder, was its proprietor, with J. M. Dixon his associate editor. The Citizen did not hesitate to intimate editorially that it expected a substantial response from the general assembly. Referring to the anticipated completeness of its legislative reports, and the "very considerable outlay for the labor thus expended," its editor and publisher feels "assured that the legislature will make a fitting ac- knowledgment of the effort to meet its wishes!" This first issue sharply re- plies to the Journal of the Saturday before, claiming a third more subscribers than the Journal has, and referring feelingly to the attempt of its patronage-fed rival to take from it the little "patronage conferred by a republican legislature upon a republican editor." In the main, Editor Teesdale held himself well in check; but once in a while, as in his issue of January 28, he contributes to the "amenities" of journalism by showing up his esteemed contemporary as a "con- temptible representative of ignorance and locofoco vulgarity," "cousin german" to Balaam, etc. He squelches Porter (until the next issue of the Journal!) by the remark that his "shriveled intellect" has vainly attempted to cover up the depleted condition of Polk county finances !
Editor Teesdale loses his equilibrium on returning from Iowa City and find- ing that the Dubuque Tribune has impugned his motives and questioned the value of his services as a public official. He styles the attacking party "Old Dishonesty," and pathetically remarks: "Twenty years' consistent political serv- ice ought to give us immunity from assaults from one who, however old he may be in sin, has not been remarkable for anything but an intense selfishness, that would prompt him to sacrifice the best cause for a consideration."
With the adjournment of the legislature on the 23d day of March, 1858, the tri-weekly Citizen closed its career, the weekly Citizen continuing "its wonted . variety, adapted to the wants of the family circle as well as the political readers."
On the 29th of July, 1858, Messrs. James A. Williamson and Will Tomlin- son announced the revival of the Iowa Statesman, a democratic weekly, to be published in the interest of East Des Moines. The editors had no disposition to interfere as a rival of any other paper. "Our fields of operation," they say, "have been selected in such a locality that no collision need be anticipated with anything democratic. Locally we have a mission to accomplish." They "solicit the cooperation of every citizen of Polk county desirous of having an economical and honest administration." Mr. Williamson relies on his experienced partner to do most of the work. In a card of "special thanks" to their friend Porter, of the Journal, for use of type, etc., they offer the prayer "that every imaginable blessing attend him," and they add, "may the young Porters all be as handsome as their papa !"
Journalism in 1859 was decidedly personal. "The amenities of journalism" is a phrase of later origin! In his issue of July 21, Porter resents Teesdale's attack on Judge Cole, then democratic candidate for the Supreme court, pro- nouncing the editor of the Citizen "just as culpable a liar as if he had known it was false." He assumes the aggressive, charging Teesdale, as State Printer, with "taking paper belonging to the State and selling it" for his own pecuniary profit. Teesdale claimed his right to the common courtesies of life; but Porter insisted that a man who steals cannot well be outraged when he is called a thief. With a reiteration of the charge he tosses "the little scamp" aside for the present !
In 1860, Stilson Hutchins, a native of New Hampshire and a Harvard gradu- ate, became sole proprietor of the State Journal. Mr. Hutchins was only twenty- two years old at the time, a man of powerful brain, commanding presence and dominating will. Notwithstanding the prevalence of the war spirit and the un- popularity of the democratic attitude toward the war, he made his paper a power to be both courted and feared. Finding the Des Moines of the early Sixties too republican for him, in 1862 he sold the Journal and bought the Dubuque Herald. In 1866 he founded the St. Louis Daily Times. During the eleven years of his
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stay in St. Louis, he saw service in the Missouri legislature. In 1877, he founded the Washington Post and made it the leading journal at the national capital. He sold the Post in 1889, and exploited the Mergenthaler Linotype. He was suc- cessful in all his undertakings and became one of the leading capitalists in Wash- ington. He died early in the year 191I.
The purchaser of the Journal was George M. Todd, former business asso- ciate of Hutchins. Todd came from New York in 1856, and with others erected a large manufacturing establishment in Des Moines. The enterprise was un- successful, and he took up newspaper work. Continuing the publication for some time, he then bought into the Burlington Gazette, and later removed to St. Joseph, Mo.
The Commonwealth was the next. It was founded late in 1860, by Andrew J. Stevens and William H. Hoxie. The Commonwealth was not long-lived. Stevens, through Seward's influence obtained a consulship in Canada which he held for several years. He then removed to Nebraska where, as banker and land agent, he finally came to grief. Broken in health and fortune, he removed to California where he died.
In 1861 Hoxie turned over the Commonwealth to J. B. Bausman and S. W. Russell, one a pioneer surveyor and the other a compositor. They soon wearied of the burden and were glad to consolidate with the Journal and turn a con- trolling interest over to Dr. D. V. Cole. Both newspaper names were dropped and the result of the consolidation was the Times. Dr. Cole was, in 1855-56, Polk county's agent for the sale of intoxicating liquors; or, as Porter puts it,. he kept what was commonly termed "the County Grocery." Russell went over to the Register office where he worked for many years, and Bausman became a surveyor and land agent in Minneapolis.
Late in 1862, William H. Merritt bought the printing material of the Times and that of the Commonwealth, and revived the name of the Statesman. He put into the paper a degree of ability and force which soon made it one of the leading democratic papers in the State. With a record of success in public life and in the Civil war, Colonel Merritt brought to his task a reputation which lifted the paper above the level of a mere purveyor of news. After nearly four years in the editorial harness, he sold the Statesman to Staub & Jenkins, who soon turned the burden over to G. W. Snow. Snow's health failed and at his death the paper suspended.
Early in the Seventies appeared upon the scene a young man from Muscatine who resurrected the defunct democratic organ and, giving it a new name, started it on a career which forms no unimportant part in the history of Iowa. Possessed of a good education and a mind of unusual power and lucidity, and backed by the Barnhart Brothers, of Muscatine, W. W. Witmer soon made the Des Moines Leader an effective force in Iowa public affairs and politics. Mr. Witmer was deeply imbued with the fundamental principles and policies of the democratic party. To him free trade-or, as practically applied in governmental affairs, "tariff for revenue only" was not a mere clap-trap; it was fundamental; and for years he fought it out on that line with a degree of consistency and ability which commanded the admiration of even those who most keenly felt the force of his logic. For ten years he labored night and day, not only to make the Leader a success, but also to make converts to his views. During this decade, there were associated with him some of the keenest writers of the time, among them, George W. Parker, years afterwards the authorized biographer of Grover Cleveland, and Henry Philpot, the famous free trade doctrinaire. Among those Mr. Witmer drew about him during these ten strenuous years, all more or less contributory to the success of the Leader, were Joel W. Witmer, Phil S. Kell, W. H. Andrews, John Olsen, Charles Painter, George McCracken and Will Porter.
Lowry Goode succeeded Mr. Witmer as editor and publisher of the Leader- a man of editorial ability-a journalistic optimist, as distinct from the melioristic
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views of his predecessor. While Mr. Witmer worked and prayed for better conditions, Mr. Goode "saw golden ages coming," by several years anticipating the glad day! He made of the Leader a better paper than even the fast-growing Capital city would warrant. Mr. Goode finally turned the Leader over to Frank Garrity and became a real-estate boomer, soon thereafter making and losing several fortunes in quick succession. He has since resided in Paris and New York, engaged in promoting a variety of extensive enterprises. Mr. Garrity is said to have lost considerable money in his endeavor to make the Leader a state- wide morning daily. The failure to accomplish this result brought W. H. Welch, W. W. Witmer, John Watts and others to his relief. The most marked of the new company's improvements was the issuance of a paper seven days in the week. The new company removed their printing house to a large brick build- ing on Court avenue between Third and Fourth, and put in an extensive book and job printing establishment. Two fires in succession seriously crippled the company, and they were glad to turn it over to John F. Olsen and A. F. H. Zeigler, who induced Judge L. G. Kinne, of Vinton, former democratic nominee for governor, to become the Leader's editor-in-chief. Judge Kinne undertook the task with energy and ability, but the failure of liis business associates to finance the concern compelled an assignment. Phil. S. Kell was the assignee.
At the assignee sale, Henry Stivers became the purchaser. For five years Stivers bravely continued the struggle. Then, when Samuel Strauss, son of Moses Strauss, a wealthy wholesaler of Des Moines, and Allen Dawson, a bril- liant editorial writer on the Sioux City Journal, became fired with an ambition for a journalistic career in Des Moines, they found Stivers quite ready to sell.
Under the control of Messrs. Strauss and Dawson, the Leader reached its high water mark of journalistic enterprise,-a degree of excellence which should have yielded rich returns; but the era of extensive advertising on a systematic basis as a feeder for business, was not yet fully come. The "standing ad" was still there, and the extensive displays in the advertising columns of today were rarely, if ever, seen, and advertising space was at a discount.
The first number of the historic Iowa State Register appeared on Monday, January 9, 1860, with John Teesdale, formerly of the Citizen, as its editor and publisher. It was an unpretentious four-page sheet, with only five columns to the page. Its reading matter was chiefly legislative proceedings, political, edi- torial and clippings. It gave slight attention to local happenings. It was born with a very small silver (or triple-plate) spoon in its mouth, having been desig- nated at birth "the official paper of the State." On the date of its first issue, the Eighth General Assembly began its sessions. It announced a tri-weekly legis- lative issue in connection with the daily.
An editorial confession in this first number must cause a smile on the face of the twentieth century free-lance journalist: "The editor had promised and meant sacredly to perform friendly offices for several worthy gentlemen who are candidates for offices to be disposed of in the organization of the legislature. His inability to fulfill these promises, arising from causes already known, is to him a source of profound but unavailing regret."
In its second issue the editor explained the change in the name of his paper. The old name Citizen never seemed to him appropriate. In its stead, he had chosen the title of a submerged paper in Black Hawk county, as one "peculiarly appropriate to a journal at the capital of the State." Mr. Teesdale was at the time confined to his home with a crippled arm, preventing him from giving much attention to editorial duties. He acknowledged timely editorial aid re- ceived from John A. Kasson, Esq., and placed reliance upon other friends for temporary help.
REGISTER & LEADER
DAILY CAPITAL
DAILY NEWS
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January 21, finds the editor still confined to his house half the day. In five weeks he hasn't once walked to his office. "Such facts," he thinks, "ought to be deemed a sufficient apology for many short-comings." In its issue of Febru- ary 7, its editor makes a pathetic appeal for a continuation of patronage in the form of legal notices-a large item in the calculation of the pioneer publisher. In 1861, Editor Teesdale was appointed postmaster. After holding the post- office for two terms, Teesdale removed to Mt. Pleasant. In 1872, through Senator Harlan's influence, he took editorial charge of Forney's Washington Chronicle. Later he returned to Mt. Pleasant and there died.
The advent of "Frank" Palmer as editor of the leading newspaper at the State capital, in 1861, was an event in the history of Iowa journalism. Palmer was then thirty-three years of age. Like his whig and republican predecessors he was a graduate of "the poor man's college,"-the printing office. Like them he had taken a post-graduate course in the editorial department of that college. During the eight strenuous years of his double service as State Printer and editor he evinced much force as a journalist and success as a politician. He early enlarged the Register; but, not content with mere enlargement, in Janu- ary, 1862, he issued the first regular daily printed in Des Moines. From January 12, '62, down to date, the daily edition inaugurated by him has not failed to make its visits to the homes and business houses of the Capital city. During the exciting war period on which he entered there was on his part enthusiastic sup- port of all war measures and of the republican party as "the only war party." Palmer gathered around him a group of able and ambitious young men. Of these, Thomas F. Withrow, J. M. Dixon, John S. Runnells and the Clarkson brothers were the most prominent.
In 1866, Mr. Palmer sold the Register to Mills & Company, the pioneer printers and publishers of Des Moines. By agreement he temporarily retained editorial control of the paper. In the congressional campaign of that year, he led the forces arrayed against Congressman Kasson, compelling the temporary retirement of Kasson from national politics. Gen. G. M. Dodge, of Council Bluffs, succeeded Kasson, but after a single term voluntarily withdrew, leaving the field open for Palmer. After two terms in congress, Palmer became editor- in-chief of the Chicago Inter-Ocean, retaining that position from 1873 to '76. His position brought him the postmastership of Chicago. This position he held from 1877 to '85, during a portion of which period he directed the editorial policy of the Chicago Herald. In 1888, President Harrison appointed him to the responsible position of public printer. He was retired in 1894, by President Cleveland, and again appointed by President McKinley, in 1897. He held the office until 1905. He died in 1907.
The Mills brothers, J. W. and Frank M., were well equipped for the task they had undertaken. They further improved the Register, reaching out after the best available news-gathering and editorial talent. When they obtained con- trol of the paper it was a six-column folio. They enlarged it several times dur- ing their management. After Frank Palmer retired, J. W. Hills assumed the editorship, assisted by a corps of special writers.
It is remarkable that at this time, 1866, there were employed in the Register composing room, three young printers who were destined to become famous in Iowa history, --- James S. Clarkson, about twenty-six years old; "Al." (Albert W.) Swalm, twenty-three years; and "Lafe" (Lafayette) Young, twenty. These three soon evinced capacity for journalism and were severally graduated from the composing room to the editorial office.
The foreman and night editor of the Daily Register under the Mills regime was L. F. Andrews, author of a valuable work entitled "Pioneers of Polk County," and still-at the age of eighty-three-a vigorous and picturesque special writer for the Sunday edition of the Register and Leader. On Mr. Andrews' arrival in Des Moines in 1863, to take the foremanship of the Register office, he found every printer in the establishment in arms against him. The younger
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of the Mills brothers had a certain old-fashioned notion that a man should run his business his own way, and he so informed his men. To help the publishers over the crisis, the veteran "Lamp" Sherman, Barlow Granger, Will Porter, Duane Wilson and other ex-printers pulled off their coats, rolled up their sleeves, filled their cases and "stuck type" with a dexterity scarcely expected of men who had been so many years out of college! The one objection raised against the new foreman was that in another office he had put two women at work at the case !
Mr. Andrews gives an interesting picture of Senator Lafayette Young, when he was a boy in his teens, a printer's apprentice in the office of Mills & Com- pany. "I recall an instance when Lafe Young one day very gently informed Frank [Mills] that a boy of his caliber, superior ability, and large experience -- less than a year-was worth more than three dollars and a half a week ---- it was too small pay entirely. Frank solaced him by telling him that too much money was bad for a boy ; that to succeed in business, he must learn the business, prac- tice economy ; that then was the time to acquire habits of economy. He [Young] graduated from the establishment as the city editor of the Daily Register and is now [December 4, 1904] the publisher of the Des Moines Daily Capital, with a circulation of over 46,000."
The inference is that "Lafe" took the unselfish (?) advice of his employer ; and if so, the credit of his after-successes must be shared with Frank Mills.
One day in May, 1861, a tall, lean, brainy looking young man, twenty years of age, came to Des Moines from Grundy county, Iowa, and applied for work in the composing room of the Iowa State Register. He was told by Frank Palmer, to take off his coat and go to work. For several months he was em- ployed as a compositor. One day in October of that year, he threw down his composing stick, pocketed his printer's rule, walked out and enlisted in the Twelfth Iowa Infantry. We next hear of him at the battle of Shiloh, where he was captured with his regiment while making a brave but unequal fight. For seven months he was an inmate of a Confederate prison. On being ex- changed, he returned to his regiment, remaining with it until the close of the war. In 1866, a younger brother of the young man from Grundy found em- ployment as a printer in the same office. In course of time, he was promoted from the composing room to the editorial room, ---- first as local editor and then as editorial writer. It was not long before it became evident to every reader that a new force was behind the printed page of the Register. In 1870, the father of the two young men, himself an old printer and editor turned farmer, following "the boys" to Des Moines, joined with them in the purchase of the Register. The union of the three Clarksons in the purchase and management of the Iowa State Register was an event in the history of Des Moines, and of Iowa as well, the beginning of an era of aggressive, expansive journalism in the Des Moines river valley. The father, Coker F. Clarkson, had printed and edited a weekly newspaper in Brookfield, Indiana, and there had taught his sons, Richard P. and James S., the printer's trade, and, incidentally, some of the ins and outs of editing and publishing. With brains and experience at the head of the firm, and brains, energy, ambition and practical knowledge as the chief working capital of the junior partners, here was a combination to be reckoned with in all questions affecting the future of Iowa and of her Capital city. The father's intimate knowledge of practical farming soon made his page of the Register invaluable to thousands in the new State who were. struggling with problems and details of farm management which "Father" Clarkson had wrought out on his Grundy county farm. His intimate knowledge of politics and public men in two states, his rugged honesty, unaffected simplicity and courageous frankness in approaching public questions made his editorial utter- ances so many key-notes to new situations and occasions, teaching new duties and suggesting new opportunities. His part in supporting the farmers in their contest with the Barb Wire trust was important and was keenly appreciated.
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