USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > Kansas City, Missouri : its history and its people 1808-1908 > Part 28
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sant energy and business ability gave him a comfortable fortune which he afterward lost, and, when in 1880, he came to Kansas City to found a news- paper, he was far from being a wealthy man.
Mr. Nelson concentrated upon the development of The Star extraordinary resource in the form of energy, foresight, practical knowledge and courage, qualities which have been conspicuous throughout the whole career of the paper. Kansas City, in the early '80s, was prosperous and confident, but uncouth and unattractive. Land speculation was feverishly active and real estate was bought and sold at jumping advances in prices, but there was almost no thought given to the permanent form and character of the city. Raw, unpaved, unarchitectural, crude, Kansas City nevertheless had caught a glimpse of its destiny and was engaged in trading upon that vaguely re- vealed future, for the immediate profits of the trade: The time was oppor- tune for the intervention of an influence, which throwing a light beyond the mere days' transactions, should bring thought to bear upon the city that must remain when reckless real estate speculation had run its course.
With this thought in mind, Mr. Nelson, full of faith in Kansas City's future, yoked his Star to the cause of the City's betterment, a cause which has constantly been a foremost consideration in all of the policies of the paper, broadening its range as the city grew. Paving, architecture, transporta- tion, city beautification, civic pride, public entertainment, parks, art galleries, clean politics, the water supply, home-owning, playgrounds, hospitals, hy- giene, cleanliness, good government-these are the things upon which The Star has continuously expounded, advised, exhorted, iterated and reiterated, tirelessly and without discouragement. It has been a power of immeasurable magnitude in the development of the beautiful Kansas City of to-day-a city of homes, which, be they cheap or costly, large or small, individually seek to add to the harmonizing sightliness of their neighborhoods.
The greatest single achievement of The Star-one for which it is un- hesitatingly awarded the credit, but for which it labored against violent op- position for years-is the system of parks and boulevards, which, within fif- teen years, has become a marvel for visitors and an object lesson for all American cities.
Complete political independence has characterized The Star from the first. It supports only such candidates as it considers suitable and worthy and supports them with conspicuous energy, but is never seriously disheart- ened by defeat at the polls, holding that principles survive though candidates may fail. In 1904 The Star supported a Republican for President, a Demo- crat for Governor and a Republican for Mayor, and had the unique grati- fication of seeing all three elected and all three carry Kansas City.
MISSCUM BUILDING,
STAN
KANSAS CITY STAR BUILDING.
THE STAR'S PAPER MILL
KANSAS CITY STAR'S PAPER MILL.
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The Star was the first newspaper in America to successfully manufacture its own white paper. When The Star established its paper mill in 1903 only two or three other newspapers in the world owned paper mills. The Star's paper mill in Kansas City, in a single day, makes enough white paper to stretch in a strip nearly nine feet wide for a distance of 250 miles.
In the fourteen years of its occupancy of the building at Eleventh street and Grand avenue, which now (1908) it is preparing to vacate for new and larger offices, The Star's circulation increased from a daily average of 55,- 611 evening and Sunday, to an average more than 140,000 twice a day and Sunday. The circulation of the Weekly Star has increased from 101,723 to 254,871.
R. HOE & CO.
NEW YORK & LONDON.
OCTUPLE HOE PRESS, KANSAS CITY STAR.
In the last full year (1893) before The Star moved from 804-06 Wyan- dotte streeet to Eleventh street and Grand avenue, it consumed a little more 1,300 tons of white paper. In 1907 it consumed a little less than 13,000 tons-500 tons more than the displacement of the United States battle ship Missouri. In 1893 The Star was printed on three single perfecting presses with a total capacity of 36,000 eight-page papers an hour. In 1908 it was printed on seven Hoe quadruple perfecting presses, with a combined capacity of 168,000 eight-page papers an hour. The number of persons employed in The Star's building in 1908 was 539, four hundred more than were employed in 1893. For postage and express carriage, The Star paid $107,829.80 in 1907, about seven times the amount of that expense in 1893. It is estimated that an average of 2,600 persons a day visit the offices of The Star for the transaction of business. The pay roll and the white paper expense of
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The Star combined made an item in excess of one and one-fourth million dollars in 1907.
The subscription price of The Star never has been changed. At the be- ginning the price was 10 cents a week for six days' issues. When the Sunday edition was added fourteen years later, the price remained the same. When, in 1901, a morning edition was added, and thirteen papers a week were fur- nished to readers, the price remained at 10 cents a week.
James B. Runnion, an author and critic of distinction, was one of the early managing editors of The Star. He was associated with Wilbur F. Storey on the Chicago Times, and with Horace White and Joseph Medill on the Chicago Tribune. Mr. Runnion came to Kansas City in 1884 and became identified with The Star. He and Mr. Nelson had been fellow students at Notre Dame college.
When Mr. Runnion came to Kansas City he had passed his fortieth year. He displayed in his daily work on The Star the fine qualities of his earlier labors. Mr. Runnion lived in Kansas City twelve years. He died at the Coates House May 6, 1897.
Aside from Mr. Runnion, the men who have assisted Mr. Nelson most in making The Star a great newspaper are: Thomas W. Johnston, and Alex- ander Butts, associate editors; August F. Seested, manager, and Ralph E. Stout, managing editor. Mr. Stout formerly was city editor of the old Kansas City Times. Mr. Johnston came to Kansas City at the solicitation of James Steel Whitney, an early editorial writer on The Star.
These were the heads of the other departments of The Star in 1908: Henry Schott, night editor; Charles I. Blood, night city editor; Howard B. Huselton, musical editor and editor of the Kansas City Weekly Star; Herbert Grissom, Sunday editor, employed by The Star at different times as writer and illustrator; H. L. Nicolet, commercial editor; Miss Eleanor McGee, so- ciety editor; W. A. Taylor, exchange editor; J. W. Morrison, day telegraph editor; Marvin H. Creagor, night telegraph editor; Harry E. Wood, head of the art department; Claude Johnson, sporting editor; Austin Latchaw, dra- matic critic and editorial writer. The other editorial writers are, H. J. Has- kell, formerly city editor; Dante Barton and F. C. Trigg.
The Star announced in July, 1908, that it had purchased a building site at 1713-1735 Grand avenue, where an immense publishing plant would be built. The present Star building has been inadequate for the newspaper's business for several years.
It was as a member of the staff of The Star in 1892 that a "young fel- low from Willow Creek," William Allen White, began to win a reputation as a newspaper writer. About six weeks before Mr. White was to have been graduated from the University of Kansas, he was offered a place as manager
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of the El Dorado Republican at $18 a week. The salary was sufficient in- ducement for him to leave the university. He had had experience as local reporter, printer and editorial writer. His work on the El Dorado Republi- can attracted immediate attention. A few months later, the Kansas City newspapers began to take notice of the new writer and he was offered posi- tions by The Journal and The Star at about the same time in 1891.
He decided to accept the offer of The Journal. Mr. White's department on The Journal was the Kansas editorials and Kansas politics. The confining work was not to his liking and for one year Mr. White lived at Topeka as the political correspondent of The Journal. When the campaign of 1892 closed, Mr. White was employed by The Kansas City Star, as editorial writer. In 1895 he bought the Emporia Gazette, which he published as a daily and a weekly.
While Mr. White was on the editorial staff of The Kansas City Star, the Sunday edition was established in April, 1894. The members of the staff were asked to contribute a local feature story for the Sunday edition. Mr. White knew his characters and simply wrote short stories and placed them in typical Kansas City localities. In the two and a half years he was em- ployed by The Star, he wrote twenty-four local fiction stories. These stories laid the foundation for Mr. White's first book, "The Real Issue," published in New York in 1899, The "Court of Boyville," another book of short stories, was published the same year.
"Stratagems and Spoils," from the printing press of Scribner's in 1901, is a book in which the author speaks for the West with intimate knowledge and with unbiased understanding. Mr. White's book, "In Our Town," pub- lished in 1906, is considered his most artistic work. He writes of people known to the residents of Emporia with such marvelous insight, such sin- cerity and with such literary finish as to appeal to a large number of per- sons. Real fame did not come to Mr. White until after the publication in the Emporia Gazette of the sarcastic editorial, "What's the Matter With Kan- sas?" in the presidential campaign of 1896. The Republican national com- mittee had the editorial reprinted and spread broadcast through the country as campaign literature. The editorial was especially pleasing to Mark Hanna who was managing William McKinley's campaign for President. This is the editorial published in the Emporia Gazette of August 15, 1898, that made William Allen White famous:
"Today the Kansas department of agriculture sent out a statement which indicates that Kansas has gained less than 2,000 people in the last year. There are about 225,000 families in the state, and there were about 10,000 babies born in Kansas, and yet so many people have left the state that the natural increase is cut down to less than 2,000 net.
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"This has been going on for eight years.
"If there had been a high brick wall around the state eight years ago and not a soul had been admitted or permitted to leave, Kansas would be a half million souls better off than she is to-day. And yet the nation has in- creased in population. In five years ten million people have been added to the national population, yet instead of gaining a share of this-say half a million-Kansas has apparently been a plague spot, and in the very garden of the world, has lost population by the ten thousands every year.
"Not only has she lost population, but she has lost money. Every moneyed man in the state who could get out without loss is gone. Every month in every community sees someone who had a little money pack up and leave the state. This has been going on for eight years. Money has been drained out all the time. In towns where ten years ago there were three or four or half a dozen money lending concerns stimulating industry by fur- nishing capital, there is now none or one or two that are looking after the interests or principal already outstanding.
"No one brings any money into Kansas any more. What community knows over one or two men who have moved in with more than $5,000 in the past three years? And what community cannot count half a score of men in that time who have left taking all the money they could scrape to- gether?
"Yet the nation has grown rich, other states have increased in popula- tion and wealth-other neighboring states, Missouri has gained over two million, while Kansas has been losing half a million. Nebraska has gained in wealth and population while Kansas has gone down hill. Colorado has gained every way while Kansas has lost every way since 1888.
"What's the matter with Kansas?
"There is no substantial city in the state. Every big town save one has lost in population. Yet Kansas City, Omaha, Lincoln, St Louis, Denver, Colorado Springs, Sedalia, the cities of the Dakotas, St. Paul and Minne- apolis and Des Moines-all cities and towns in the West, have steadily grown.
"Take up the Government Bluebook and you will see that Kansas is virtually off the map. Two or three little scrubby consular places, in yellow fever stricken communities that do not aggregate $100,000 a year is all the recognition Kansas has. Nebraska draws about $10,000; little old North Dakota draws about $50,000; Oklahoma doubles Kansas; Missouri leaves her a thousand miles behind; Colorado is almost seven times greater than Kan- sas-the whole West is ahead of Kansas.
"Take it by any standard you please, Kansas is not in it.
"Go East and you hear them laugh at Kansas, go West and they sneer at her, go South and they 'cuss' her go North and they have forgotten her.
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Go into any crowd of intelligent people gathered anywhere on the globe, and you will find the Kansas man on the defensive. The newspaper col- umns and magazines once devoted to praise of her, to boastful facts and startling figures concerning her resources, are now filled with cartoons, gibes and Pefferian speeches. Kansas just naturally isn't in it. She has traded places with Arkansas and Timbuctoo.
"What's the matter with Kansas?
"We all know yet here we are at it again. We have an old Mossback Jacksonian who snorts and howls because there is a bath-tub in the state house; we are running that old jay for governor. We have another shabby, wild-eyed, rattle-brained fanatic who has said openly in a dozen speeches that "The rights of the user are paramount to the rights of the owner'; we are running him for chief justice, so that the capital will come tumbling over itself to get into the state. We have raked the old ash heap of failure in the state and found an old human hoop skirt who has failed as a business man, who has failed as an editor, who has failed as a teacher, and we are going to run him for congressman at large. He will help the looks of the Kansas delegation at Washington. Then we have discovered a kid without a law practice and have decided to run him for attorney general. Then for fear some hint that the state had become respectable might percolate through the civilized portions of the nation, we have decided to send three or four harpies out lecturing, telling the people that Kansas is raising hell and let- ting the corn go to weeds.
"Oh, this is a state to be proud of! We are a people who can hold up our heads! What we need here is more money, less capital, fewer white shirts and brains, fewer men with business judgment, and more of those fellows who boast that they are just ordinary clodhoppers, but they know more in a minute about finance than John Sherman; we need more men who are 'posted,' who can bellow about the crime of '73, who hate prosperity, and who think because a man believes in national honor, he is a tool of Wall street. We have had a few of them, some 150,000-but we need more. We need several thousand gibbering idiots to scream about the 'Great Red Dragon' of Lombard street. We don't need population, we don't need wealth, we don't need well dressed men on the street, we don't need standing in the Nation, we don't need cities on the fertile prairies; you bet we don't. What we are after is the money power. Because we have become poorer and onrier and meaner than a spavined, distempered mule, we, the people of Kansas, propose to kick; we don't care to build up, we wish to tear down.
" 'There are two ideas of government,' said our noble Bryan at Chicago. 'There are those who believe that if you just legislate to make the well- to-do prosperous this prosperity will leak through on those below. The Dem-
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ocratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up and through every class and rest upon us.'
"That's the stuff! Give the prosperous man the dickens! Legislate the thriftless man into ease, whack the stuffings out of the creditors and tell the debtors who borrowed the money five years ago, when the money 'per cap- ita' was greater than it is now. that the contraction of the currency gives him a right to repudiate.
"Whoop it up for the ragged trousers; put the lazy greasy fizzle who can't pay his debts on an altar, and bow down and worship him. Let the state ideal be high. What we need is not the respect of our fellow men, but the chance to get something for nothing.
"Oh, yes Kansas is a great state. Here are people fleeing from it by the score every day, capital going out of the state by the hundreds of dol- lars, and every industry but farming paralyzed, and that crippled, because its products have to go across the ocean before they can find a laboring man at work who can afford to buy them. Let's don't stop this year. Let's drive all the decent, self-respecting men out of the state. Let's keep the old clodhoppers who know it all. Let's encourage the man who is 'posted.' He can talk and what we need is not mill hands to eat our meat, nor factory hands to cat our wheat, nor cities to oppress the farmer by consuming his butter and eggs and chickens and produce. What Kansas needs is men who can talk, who have large leisure to argue the currency question while their wives wait at home for that nickel's worth of bluing.
"What's the matter with Kansas?
"Nothing under the shining sun. She is losing wealth, population and standing. She has got her statesman and the money power is afraid of her. Kansas is all right. She has started in to raise hell, as Mrs. Lease advised, and she seems to have an over-production. But that doesn't matter. Kansas never did believe in diversified crops. Kansas is all right. There is abso- lutely nothing wrong with Kansas. 'Every prospect pleases and only man is vile.' "
Alfred Henry Lewis, "Dan Quin," began his literary career as a writer for The Star. Long before he went East he used to lean back in his chair in his law-office and plan his "Wolfville" stories. Lewis gave up his law practice to write for The Star in 1892. He was formerly police attorney of Cleve- land, Ohio; he was driven. West to seek a more healthful climate. Lewis lived an out-door life with the cowboys in New Mexico. It was there that he made the acquaintance of the "Old Cattleman" and other characters made famous
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in his "Wolfville" stories. Other eminent authors who were employed by The Star were Noble L. Prentis, Colonel Henry Inman and Roswell Field.
The Kansas City Post was founded as an afternoon newspaper, March 14, 1906, by A. F. Brooker. The newspaper had remarkable success from the beginning, in two years gaining recognition as one of the leading Dem- ocratic dailies of the West. Starting with a circulation of 6,000, The Post in two years gained a circulation of 65,000. In its brief career, The Post has assisted in winning several important victories for the local Democratic party. The Sheridan Publishing Company, which took charge of the news- paper, December 1, 1906, was incorporated under the laws of Missouri, No- vember 24, 1906. The first anniversary of The Post was celebrated March 16, 1907, by a forty-page edition. The first Sunday edition of The Post was issued, November 3, 1907. The following are the heads of the various edi- torial departments of The Post: Arthur La Hines, city editor; Mrs. Lillian C. Hutton, society editor, L. H. Mitchell, telegraph and dramatic editor; David D. Downing, commercial editor, and Frank Ellis, sporting editor.
The Kansas City World was established January 11, 1894, by the World Publishing company, incorporated under the laws of Missouri. Hal K. Tay- lor, an Ohio capitalist, was the controlling spirit in the organization. He selected L. V. Ashbaugh, later manager of the St. Paul News, as business manager and Nain Grute, later with the New York Herald, as managing editor. The management believed that there was an open field for an inde- pendent daily newspaper without encroaching upon any of the other pub- lications. In 1895 Bernard Corrigan and Dr. W. S. Woods secured control- ling interest and the late Arthur Grissom became managing editor. The name of Arthur Grissom is well known in the literary world as a writer of verse and the author of many clever short stories. Mr. Grissom was editor of the Smart Set in New York City when he died in December, 1901. The Scripps-McRae league acquired the plant, January 5, 1897, and made The World one of its string of newspapers. Arthur M. Hopkins was the manag- ing editor. Shortly after the new owners assumed control, the building later occupied by The World was erected at 1116-1118 Oak street and the plant moved there.
Several years later the control of the plant passed into the possession of the Clover Leaf league of papers, which company published it for about one year, when it again was controlled by E. W. Scripps and his son, J. G. Scripps, beginning January 5, 1907. The World was suspended April 11, 1908.
The first issue of The Independent appeared March 11. 1899, with Arthur Grissom and George Creel as its editors and owners. It was during
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an intimate association in the New York newspaper field that these writers conceived the idea of a high-class Western weekly that would stand for a cultivated public taste and make for social advancement. Kansas City, their home town, was quite naturally selected as the community for the experi- ment.
The Independent, selecting the style, size and general appearance since made famous by the Saturday Evening Post, aroused national, as well as local interest from the very first issue. Politics, society, literature, art, the drama, and all the varied activities of the town were crisply commented upon, and a reputation for cleanness and absolute honesty was soon estab- lished. By reason of their literary standing and New York association, Mr. Grissom and Mr. Creel were able to enlist the services of famous writers and well known artists; and competent critics were not backward in pronoun- cing the paper "one of the best in the country."
Mr. Grissom returned to New York in December, 1899, to accept the editorship of the Smart Set, just launching, and Mr. Creel took over his interested itself in state, as well as local, reforms. Carefully avoiding parti- Independent grew in circulation and power, and boldly declaring that the "day of wielding influence by pandering to partisan prejudice" had passed, interested itself in state, as well as local reforms. Carefully avoiding parti- sanship and neutrality, the truth was told about men and measures without recourse to sensationalism.
The Independent was the first newspaper to cry out against the "state ring," and hail the rising star of Joseph W. Folk, and its support contrib- uted to the whirlwind change in Missouri's political conditions.
The Independent, in March, 1908, was selected by a group of thinkers and reformers as the best medium for the exploitation of certain ideas con- nected with widespread social and political reforms. This group, including such men as Edwin Markham, Julian Hawthorne, Gerald Stanley Lee, Charles Ferguson, Brand Whitlock and Charles Zueblin, dreamed of a chain of weekly newspapers from coast to coast, and a great quarterly that would give a more permanent expression to the thought of the weeklies. Plans were carefully laid, a giant corporation made ready for the launching, prom- ises of money having been secured.
As a first step, The Independent changed its name to The Newsbook, and also changed the character of its contents. It was at this time that the full force of the financial depression commenced to be felt, and the rich men behind the movement were compelled to defer their contributions. The idea of a "chain" had to be abandoned, likewise the quarterly expression, so that the whole burden of the propaganda's expression fell upon the one weekly. Mr. Creel, realizing the inadequacy of this, and believing that it
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would be best to "quit and wait," rather than to drag along until the time should again be ripe, severed his connection with the group, and the news- paper appeared under its old name. Encouraged by the success of his news- paper in Kansas City and Missouri, Mr. Creel plans its enlargement both in size and field, believing that the West is ready for a weekly magazine all its own.
The Daily Record was first issued November 18, 1888, and was pub- lished by Ernest E. Smith and W. C. Winsborough until 1895, when Mr. Winsborough disposed of his interest and retired. In the meantime a cor- poration was formed known as the Law and Credit company. Ernest E. Smith was chosen president and general manager, which position he has held continuously since that date. Following the retirement of Mr. Wins- borough in 1895, Elbert E. Smith was made secretary.
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