USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial history of Grant County, Indiana, 1812 to 1912 : compiled from records of the Grant county historical society, archives of the county, data of personal interviews, and other authentic sources of local information > Part 49
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There is no question about the loyalty of eighth grade graduates to the high school nearest them, and there is an educational army on the forward march in Grant county. Reformers like to gain the attention of the pupils in the public schools, since in only a few short years they will be the citizens, and as the twig is bent the tree is inclined, certainly holds good along educational lines, childhood impressions influencing the after life of most citizens. Since Grant county is at the head of the column in so many respects, it is a pleasure to chronicle the fore- going facts with reference to its public school system, and "The child is father to the man" when it comes to creating sentiment as lasting as time itself.
XLVI. GRANT COUNTY NEWSPAPERS-HOW THEY ARE PRODUCED
Among the factors of civilization-the forces that make for righteous- ness -- the potency of the great American daily newspaper is recognized by thinking people everywhere, and it is true that the press controls the destiny of the Republic-has made presidents, senators and judges -- has inaugurated national policies, solved problems of finance and inter- national law, but narrowed down to local newspapers, there is reason for pride in them. Some one writing in the Chronicle in connection with its twenty-fifth anniversary as a daily says :
The origin of the Chronicle as a weekly dates back to Civil war times. The Chronicle is indeed the outgrowth of the war days. His parent paper
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was founded by a returned soldier who, though rendered unfit for service in the field, used his pen in promoting the cause of the union.
Jonathan Jones, as is recalled by J. W. ( Betsey ) Eward of Converse, enlisted in the army at the outbreak of the war, but because of ill health he was soon compelled to return home. Unable to longer serve as a soldier he established a newspaper, The Grant County I'nion, in order that he could continue the fight for the preservation of the union. After three months, however, he was compelled to surrender publication of the paper because of continued ill health. It was then that " Betsey" Eward was called upon to take up the fight that was being conducted through the use of printer's ink. The paper cost Mr. Eward $250. He made his first' payment of $50 from his earnings as a school teacher. lle gave his note for $200 to cover the remaining amount. As a boy in his 'teens Mr. Eward had learned to set type, so that he was able to serve both as editor and printer.
In those stirring days, Mr. Eward's life as a newspaper publisher was a most strenuous one. In promoting the cause of the Union he "stepped on the toes" of persons not in sympathy with the cause, and threats of destroying his press, which was a small affair in comparison with present day newspaper perfecting presses, were frequently uttered. Mr. Eward recalls that he slept in his print shop, with a gun at his side, several nights to prevent enemies from carrying out a threat to throw his press in the river. Editor Eward, with George Ammon, raised a company of soldiers in Marion in 1862, it being understood that Mr. Ammnon was to be a captain and Mr. Eward a lieutenant. After they had gone into camp at Indianapolis, Mr. Eward appeared before Governor Morton to get his connmission as a lieutenant. Hle then learned that Judge John M. Wal- lace had told the governor that he was, in joining the army, discontinu- ing the publication of a newspaper that had done much good in champion- ing the cause of the Union.
"I believe you are needed at home more than in the army. We want that paper to contime its fight for us. I would rather have you return home and resume the publication of that paper than to issue you a com- mission as a lieutenant," said Governor Morton to Editor Eward.
So it was that Mr. Eward, over his own protest, was sent back home to take up his pen rather than the sword. Mr. Eward continued to pub- lish the paper until the close of the war, and he also became an organizer for the Union League.
"The Chronicle was the outgrowth of the Grant County Union. I bought out the Journal and consolidated it with the Union. Then I sold the paper to John Sohn a year after the war closed and he sold it in later years to M. F. Tingley. Mr. Tingley sold it to E. L. Goldthwait." said Mr. Eward recently in recalling the early history of the Chronicle.
The development of the Chronicle as a newspaper speaks for itself. It is recognized not ouly as the leading paper of Marion, but as one of the leading and influential papers of the state.
The Chronicle is essentially a home newspaper-the wholesome home newspaper of Marion and Grant county in full touch and sympathy with home interest and ambitions to play its part in the development of Marion into a bigger and better city.
Few people appreciate the part taken by a newspaper in the develop- ment of a city or community, or that a newspaper is in itself an industry that contributes not a little to a community. The amount of money ex- pended by Marion newspapers annually for labor alone is no small item, reaching as it does about $70,000. Employes of the Chronicle, exclusive of carriers, number more than twenty.
The Chronicle from its very beginning has stood for what it believed
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to be best for the people, the home and the community at large. A ref- erence to the files of the Chronicle shows that this paper had its part in the development and growth of the city and country in the early " boom" days, and that it has continued to do its full share of boosting.
Newspapers are always on the job of boosting. They boost when individuals often are devoting their time to "knocking." And the news- papers come in for their share of "knocks." It is not an uncommon thing to hear "knocks" on the local newspaper, the people who indulge in such practice failing to stop to reflect that when a public enterrise needs boosting it is the newspaper that is depended upon to do most of the boosting and that it never fails to do its full share. A newspaper's stock in trade is its space, yet it devotes thousands of inches to the promotion and boosting of public enterprises and various matters by which the public benefits without receiving or expecting compensation.
Although the newspaper, delivered at your home at teu cents per week, without question represents the best value for the money known to modern times, and although it is the most common of any commodity in which the people deal, it is perhaps true that there is nothing entering into the life of the present day generation of which the individual knows so little as pertains to the process by which it is made. How many people have any idea of how the white paper on which the newspaper is printed, is made ? Not one, perhaps, in a thousand. How many do you think realize the item of expense such represents? The low cost of newspaper to the public cheapens it in the estimation of the subscriber and it will come as a great surprise perhaps to many to learn that the white paper alone which went into the Chronicle during the last year, exclusive of waste paper, cost between $7,000 and $8,000.
The working organization of a newspaper naturally separates itself into five general divisions. First comes the business office allied with which is the advertising department. Then comes the editorial depart- ment, which is by far the most important clement entering into the making of the paper -- it is the paper. Then comes the composing-room, where the type is set. Then the press room, and, lastly, the circulation department, which means prompt delivery and proper mailing.
The primary function of the editorial department is to gather news. The reporter gets the facts-"The Story" as it is universally known in newspaper parlance-and writes it. It is the editor's duty to censor these stories, for, after all, it is the editor who is responsible for what gets into the paper. Right here let it be known the success of any news- paper hinges more on the ability of its reporters than on anything else. Good editors may be made. Good reporters are born, not made. In the first place, the reporter must have what is called, "a nose for news." That is to say, his faculties imust be so trained that he will "seent" a story when any other man would pass the circumstance unnoticed. Hle must be trustworthy as to his facts. Hle must have a broad and liberal comprehension of affairs in general. He must have conrage, and last, but not least, he must in this day and age of newspaper making, be able to thump a typewriter at the rate of forty words a minute or better if he measures up to the demands of his position.
The editor, to be successful, should have served an apprenticeship as a reporter. Ile umst be better in his judgment than the average l'e- porter. He must know men and affairs thoroughly. He must be invent- ive and resourceful and have an abundance of expentive ability and confidence to say right off the reel what shall be done in emergencies. The atmosphere of the editorial departments of all newspapers is heavy with emergencies, and the man in charge who hesitates is often lost.
Above all the editor must have a clear grasp of men and affairs. He
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must intuitively be able to detect the truth and separate such from non-essentials. It is he who dietates the policy of the paper. It is he who direets the drift of the publie mind. If incompetent, radical and careless, the paper suffers; if careful, painstaking, honest, courageous and conscientious in his work, the paper will profit in the increased prestige which such qualifications bring.
J. Sterling Morton, the only newspaper man whom the late President Cleveland ever recognized officially, being a member of his cabinet, once made a speech at a banquet. In his speech he gave utterance to the fun- damental truth underlying the success of all newspaper men. He said that the friends of a newspaper man were his greatest liability. That his enemies were always his best assets.
This means that the very nature of a newspaper man's work isolates him in a great measure and bars him from many of the pleasures which men in other vocations may legitimately enjoy. He dares have no close associates. He can have no chums, for how does he know how soon it will be before he will be called upon to prepare for publication a story which will of necessity be unfriendly to the interests of these friends. A good newspaper man is by virtue of his vocation unpopular. He can not day after day recount the things which go to make up a newsy paper without treading upon many toes. "To err is human." Therefore the majority of the doings of humanity do not look well in print. Fights, theft, divorces, arrests for all violations of law, gobbling of franchises, in fact innumerable transactions which go to make up the burden of the real newsy news, offend those whose interests are at stake. To print means unpopularity For the writer of the story. Therefore it appears that Morton's famous utterance is truth untarnished and that the real reporter-he who has the interests of his paper really at heart -- must go way, satisfied solely with the very joy of his work and content to be deprived of many of the pleasures which legitimately come to others. But few men indeed possess the peenliar tempermanent which fits them for effective work in the reportorial department of a newspaper, and, as a consequence, real reporters are rare.
A daily newspaper, is different from the average manufactured product in the particular that such is made outright in virtually eight hours while under no riremmstances can the time be extended over 24 hours. Therefore every department works at high tension and the in- terior of the editorial department, with from four to six typewriters clicking away at the rate of 30 to 40 words per miunte, turning out the narratives which are to interest the public next day, is well worth seeing.
But it would do no good to secure the advertising copy and the news stories unless such were set up in type, and this brings us to what is known as the composing room. Just why it is called "composing room" nobody knows. The ordinary individual would better understand what goes on in this department if such were called "typesetting reom, " but nevertheless this article dealing as it does with printer's products, will call it composing room.
It is in this department that equipment has made great strides during the past fifteen years, Fifteen years ago there were no linotype machines in printing offices in Marion. Today there are eight. Each machine is capable, with one operator, of doing the work of five type-setters work- ing at the old-style ease. Every person in Grant county should avail himself of the opportunity to see a linotype in operation. Especially should school children have this opportunity, and the Chronicle extends herewith an invitation to all to come in at any time and learn how modern type is set. These machines are almost human in their capabili- ties. One operator, if he be an expert, may easily set 40 words per minute
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the day through. The type is molded as needed from metal insuring a perfectly clean, sharp Face and there is no after distribution-an op- eration which originally took up much valuable time.
Then there is the "Ad. Alley" where advertisements are arranged, after a portion of the type for such has been set on the machines. The large black type appearing in advertisements, is yet set by hand, and, with all the advantages of the type-setting machine, many printers must still be employed on the ads.
Not one reader of a newspaper in a thousand understands what is meant by the term "stereotyping." Yet every line of type appearing in the local papers has undergone this process. Briefly, stereotyping means taking an impression of the type as set on the machines and by hand, after such has been made into the page, or form, on soft paper, hardening, or drying this paper after the impression has been made by heat, and then remolding from this matrix (as the hardened paper is then called ) either in flat easts or eurved plates. No up-to-date daily newspaper is now printed from type direct. On the contrary the actual type is used solely as a means of impression on paper after which the cast forms the printing surface. Many tons of metal are used yearly in the Chronicle office to this end. The stereotyping machinery constitutes a material portion of the equipment, and the efficiency of the stereotyper means much to the appearance of the paper.
Now the plates. sizzling hot from the hands of the stereotyper, go to the pressman and the tinal mechanical operation begins. Years ago, newspapers in Marion used flat-bed presses, which printed from actual type and which ran at a speed of 1,500 per hour, if the feeder was on the job. Now the Chronicle uses a perfecting press which will produce 8, 10, 12 and 16 pages at a speed of 10,000 per hour. These papers are printed from one continuous roll of paper and come complete, pasted and folded-even counted-ready for delivery.
Simply because the eirenlation department happens to be mentioned last does not signify that it is of least importance, for were it not for proper systematization here you would not get your paper after it is printed. The Chronicle is delivered every evening to hundreds of single individuals in the city of Marion. To accomplish this it uses on an aver- age twenty-tive boys and to the eternal credit of these youthful paper merchants who brave the elements every evening, in heat or cold, in rain or shine, it may be said that complaints as registered often run less than one per thousand per day.
There is no place in the world where the word "Hurry" is so com- pletely personified as in the mailing room of a newspaper. There are traction cars to catch at certain hours, There are certain steam trains which must be made on the minute or not at all that day. There are the rural routes, papers for which must be addressed to each subscriber on a mailing machine which is operated by hand but with marvelous dex- terity. There are the carrier boys who must be gotten off, and all in all it is a very busy and a very important place about 4 p. m., when they are waiting for their papers.
The Leader- Tribune is issued in the morning, and all that has been said of the evening paper applies at the Leader-Tribune plant. Since the middle of March, 1912, there have been only two daily papers printed in the county, the Daily Leader having taken over the News-Tribune which had been in the morning field for several years. Marion business men and advertisers have long favored the idea of only two papers, although along in the early '90s there were four for a time-the Chron- idle, Leader, News and Bulletin. The Leader was formerly the Marim Democrat, and "Democrat Row" was a series of frame buildings on the
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west side of Adams street that disappeared when the boom struck the town, the Democrat being published there. While it was published in the Wallace family it attained a strong personality that always remained with it. As a weekly newspaper the Democrat was established in 1812, by Jeremiah Harvey and until its combination with the Sars-Tribune the Leader had a weekly edition. Samuel Sawyer was once connected with the Democrat-a Republican himself, educator and minister, and after the Wallace brothers came C. P. Kile, T. W. Overman and W. J. Houck before W. B. Westlake came into Marion journalism, the plant finally getting into litigation and going into the hands of E. H. JJohnson, who still controls it.
The first morning paper in Grant county-The Morning Nous-was published November 11, 1894, issued by a stock company, and it under- went a number of changes, combined with The Chronich, The Tribune and the present Leader-Tribune is the result. These papers are romem. bered by most citizens, but reference to the 1877 Atlas develops the fact that the following newspapers have had their part in molding public opinion in Grant county: The Marion Democrat-Herald; Grant County Democrat ; Marion Telegraph ; Rough and Ready; The Western Union ; The Whig Thermometer; Marion Journal-Democrat : The Winfield Scott ; The Marion Journal ; Grant County Republican; The Mississipara Gin- Bitte; The Marion Record: The Republican (The Marion Journal seems to have been a popular name for early day newspapers as several dif- ferent publishers used it. There are newspaper readers still living who talk about Howard Coe. an early publisher in Marion-took such and such a paper from Howard ('oe); The Grant County Republican: The Grant County Union ; Marion Chronicle : Journal and Monitor ; Marion Democrat ; Marion Register, and Marion Star. There has always been a Ilcould in Jonesboro, and Fairmount has had two papers The Notes and Journal-only The News being permanent ; Gas City Journal ; U pland Monitor; Van Buren News-Eagle; Matthews Messenger; Swayze Press, and recently The Economic Intelligencer and The Observer have entered the weekly newspaper field in Grant county. Years ago The Child's Golden Voier was published in the county, and there was a Galatia Messenger when that town was in existence.
There was a time when The Marion Chronicle was issued weekly and twice a week, that no solicitors were needed-everybody read The Chronicle, but by and by competition became stronger, and everybody knows the effort made nowadays by Grant county newspapers to main- tain their circulation. While metropolitan papers are sold in the county, there is splendid loyalty to home periodicals. The advertisers want to reach the reading publie, and in order to increase their cirenla- tion great effort is made to cover all the departments of news-north, east, west. south, and with the advent of rural free delivery-August 15, 1902-when farmers had an opportunity of daily papers, the "plow editor" came along-a veritable " Farm Agent" one full decade in ad- vance of the 1913 Indiana legislation provision, although like other pioneer adventurers, he had rough sailing and was often stranded by the "wayside." The occupation of farming is as old as the world itself. and there are those to whom the brindle cow is of as much interest while she lives as after she becomes a fossil. While att of the papers annonnce prospective marriages, tell of births and of funerals, and almost every man and woman in town is mentioned in the course of the year, how about the rural happenings? Why not say something about the fat hogs that are sold, and the amount of corn or wheat that is shipped from the local market ? Why not mention the brinde cow as well as the rest of society? Man made the town while God made the country.
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and yet all effort toward news from the farm fails from want of inter- est in it.
There are farmers who do not read the sporting page because it does not interest them, and of course, there are many who would not read the "Countryside and Wayside" column just as others pass by the society or religious features. While some do not care to read about the brindle cow, they have access to other columns the same as farmers skip the parts that do not interest them -- and yet cirenlation managers say that premiums offered increase the rural cirenlation faster than news from the farms. However, it has been gratifying to know that some have turned to " Countryside and Wayside," during its ten years of more or less successful existence, and read about their neighbor's prod uets with as much interest as others read about weddings and recitals. It is said to be the province of a newspaper to teach its readers to know themselves by giving them the news, and the patrons of a paper have a right to select their literary menu. An editor once said: " We are run- ning a literary restaurant, and those who want soup may have it." in defense of some of the drivel finding place in it. There is no question about the newspaper readers being responsible for its attitude, as their support is what enables it to advocate anything at all. Discerning pub- lishers study the features that attract most readers and cater to the wants of the majority in such things.
A newspaper is the history of yesterday, and the modern newspaper is becoming nearer and nearer word of mouth as a story that is told. The editor dictates and his words are converted into type alnost before the reverberation of his voice dies away, and since paper, ink and print- ing have become so cheap the circulation of the newspaper has reached almost every home in Grant county, and every day the events of all the word are heralded to the different hearthstones through the agency of the press associations. There is no other ageney when properly con- dueted to be compared with the newspaper in the spread of good influ- rnees in a community. It is a blessed trinity-book, platform and pulpit, all in one and those who read it have it in their power to control its utterances by the sort of moral sentiment with which they surround it. If the church going and moral people of the community-farmers as well as city folks -- wouht lock arms as complacently and as frequently with the newswriters and sometimes tell them of it when some sentiment has been expressed of which they approve, it would be the best possible censor, and they might then reasonably expect as much space in the columns of the daily papers as do sport loving people who so frequently walk and talk with them, and give to them the impressions which in then they spread upon the pages of the journal they send into the homes of the community.
The press is truly a great institution, and next to the Bible is the newspaper-swift winged and everywhere present, flying over the fener from the hand of some belated newsboy, tossed into the counting room or store on his hurried rounds, shoved under the door of your suburban home, laid on the work bench in the busy shop, delivered by rural car. riers to country patrons and read wherever sold-the newspaper adds character and lustre --- shapes the family history. Let the reader take the witness stand for a moment. Now make an honest mental examination of yourself. You open the newspaper and there are three columns of splendidly written editorial matter recommending some moral senti- ment, or evolving some scientific theory, while the next column deals with a miserable, contemptible divoree case-and pansing to weigh the matter, which item do you read first ? When newspaper publishers know which you most cheerfully pay your money for, they will supply it. Vol. 1-22
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Supply and demand is a law in the world. The newspaper is such an integral factor in comnumity life, and people have become so dependent upon it that a delayed paper demoralizes the whole householl and every family knows the impatient feeling while waiting for the arrival of the newsboy.
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