USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 68
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Exempted from Taxation-Opened on Sundays .- At the session of the Leg- islature in 1889, an act was passed "Exempting from taxation all real and personal property of any public art gallery, or of any corporation ereated with- ont capital stock, for the sole purpose of maintaining, regulating and manag- ing a public art gallery ; provided the publie shall have access to such art gal- lery, free of charge, not less than three days in each week." This general act, so phrased as to apply to the Layton Art Gallery, was procured to be passed by the trustees, and under its provisions the corporation property has been exempt from taxation.
Qnoting from the foreword of the catalogue the following remarks occur on the subject of Sunday opening: "According to the by-laws as originally made, the gallery was opened to the publie without charge three days in each week, and on two days an admission fee of 25 cents was charged. It was not opened on Sunday. Later the usefulness and convenience of opening the gal- lery at least part of the day on Sunday, was urged in the public press and otherwise, with sneh effect that at a special meeting of the trustees, held November 2, 1891, called by the president for the purpose of determining the question of opening the gallery on Sundays, after full consideration, a resolu- tion was adopted that the gallery be opened to the publie, without charge for admission, on the afternoons of Sunday, for the period of one year, the pur- pose being to determine, by trial, the usefulness and convenience of the change. The result has been that the gallery has continued to be open on Sunday afternoons ever since."
Mr. Layton died August 16, 1919, at the age of ninety-two years. He came to Milwaukee in 1845.
Vol. 1-45
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THE IVANHOE COMMANDERY TEMPLE
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CHAPTER XLI
NEWSPAPERS, CLASS AND TRADE PUBLICATIONS
It goes without saying that the press is an indispensable factor in the social, civic and economic development of the community. Milwaukee has been fortunate in the charter of the men who have been behind its newspaper publishing enterprises. These men have not only produced newspapers as good as the town could afford to support, but they have in the main been actnated by honorable motives. They have always been loyal to community interests.
Beyond loeal circulation possibilities the Milwaukee newspaper field has had its limitations. The Chicago newspapers circulate quite liberally in South- ern Wisconsin while the St. Paul and Minneapolis papers enter the north- western part of the state. The North is as yet sparsely settled and the lake, as newspaper men have put it, offers no subscribers. Thus, the Milwaukee newspapers have been obliged to operate in what has seemed a restricted field.
For a time, too, the newspapers printed in the English language had to con- tend against a large foreign population. Forty years ago there were more dailies printed in the German than there were in the English language. Today the number of German dailies has been reduced to one, the Herold, and the English dailies number four, the Sentinel, Journal, Wisconsin News, and the Leader. Besides, the first three mentioned publish large Sunday editions.
The history of the Milwaukee newspapers from the time the first daily made its appearance, including those that have come and gone, or rather were absorbed by other publications, is largely embodied in the story of the Sentinel and the Wisconsin News. Their beginning dates back before the middle of the last century.
The newspaper which embodies no consolidations, and is still conducted by the man who founded the same is the Milwaukee Journal. It was established at a later period, but its founder, Lucius W. Nieman, has reared the enterprise into a large and influential newspaper. The Leader, which is the Socialist organ, is the youngest among the dailies.
With the inerease in population, of both city and state, and the gradual change from a foreign to an English reading constituency, the aggregate eir- enlation of the leading dailies has grown quite large. The newspapers, too, in size and content, compare well with the great metropolitan dailies of the country.
The publie demand for prompt service in the several departments of news, foreign, national, and state, besides a complete daily record of loeal happen- ings, with highly specialized columns on financial, sporting and social mat- ters, coupled with a largely increased cost of production, has rendered news- papers larger and somewhat more hazardous undertakings. The tendency has,
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therefore, been in the direction of fewer newspaper enterprises, whose daily prodnet is more bulky in size and enjoys a larger circulation.
In placing an estimate upon the press of Milwaukee an "editorial evening" was provided by the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, November 30, 1915, when William George Bruce advanced the following thoughts: "I have been requested to say something on this occasion about the public press, pre- sumably because I am frequently dubbed as an old newspaper man and be- ranse in my capacity as an association executive I am in daily touch with the newspaper representatives.
"Having been on both sides of the fence-a representative of the press and a patron of the press-I may approach the subject of the evening with greater sympathy and interest, but certainly with some appreciation of its scope and importance.
An Indispensable Medium of Intelligence .- "It is well conceded that, in the development of the American city, the modern press is an all powerful factor. A's a medium of intelligence it is indispensable. It not only connects the city with an outside world but it also keeps it in touch with itself. It diagnoses the body politie daily and hourly. It keeps the community informed on its own physical and moral condition. But, it goes further. It becomes the daily recorder of the deeds of an entire civilized world.
"The importance of the press grows with the enlargement of the com- munity, with the development of its industrial and commercial activities and with the advancement of its civic and social life. It records not only the cur- rent achievements of civilization but it also records its failures and short- comings.
"Many of the lessons which we have taken to heart and which have guided us in our course in life have been unconsciously imbibed from the daily press. If we have evaded pitfalls and errors it is because we have been told of those who fell into them. If we have been stimulated into wholesome action it is be- cause we have learned through the examples set by others. In the newspaper we have before us that daily picture of a striving and struggling world, with its story of actual life, with all its lights and shadows, its laughter and its tears, with soul stirring examples and its eternal lessons.
Intimate Part of Ourselves .- "The press is so much an essential part of our daily diet and of our routine life as to become an intimate fraction of our very selves. But, because it is all this it becomes more difficult for ns to dissociate ourselves for the time being and place an adequate estimate upon its value, its importance and its service. We note minor shortcomings and accept the larger service without comment. In going over the printed page we grunt more often than we applaud.
"And yet, in subserving our economie, civie and social wellbeing we owe a greater debt to the modern newspaper than is absolved in the mere pay- ment of a subscription bill. The press as a whole is always several paces in advance of the community its serves. It always expresses the ambitions and aspirations of the collective citizenship in a voice that rings louder and clearer than all other voices.
Press Supports the City .- " The press of Milwaukee has supported loyally
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every departure, project or enterprise looking towards the material, civie and moral welfare of the community. It has given unstintingly of its space, of its brains and of its efforts to keep the wheels of progress moving and to enhance the prestige, the power and the prosperity of the city.
"Every movement of a publie character affecting the material or moral progress of the city has had the support of the press not merely as a news making factor, but has also had its enthusiastic championship because of the laudable purpose involved.
"One among many instances of a high minded and unselfish tendeney on the part of the local press may be recorded here by recalling the recent con- vention of the Wisconsin State Teachers Association. The newspapers Were most lavish in the space they devoted to the cause of popular education. I am certain that the sale of extra copies would not pay for one-hundredth part of the extra expense involved in reporting the transactions of this convention. But, the publication of the addresses and speeches delivered at this great edu- cational gathering proved a splendid stimulus to the edneational activities of the city and the state. The press here made a magnificent contribution to the cause of popular education.
"Some one may here say that the newspaper owes its constitueney just such service. I agree that the newspaper must print the news of the day and to the end that its prints that news fully and accurately it meets its obligations. But, having met that obligation its service in promoting a great cause, in launching a laudable movement or in fostering desirable ends and purposes, the press confers something which the public has not paid for.
"The newspaper is essentially a community asset. It may make or mar that progress which depends upon a wholesome publie sentiment and upon unity of purpose and action. It wields an influence upon the industrial and commercial life of the city as it does upon the civic and moral life. As a fixed and indispensable institution, therefore, it deserves that popular support which may add to its efficiency, its usefulness and its prestige."
The Reporter as a Public Servant .- In disenssing the newspaper reporter Mr. Brnce wrote in November, 1915, in "Once a Year." published by the Press Club, as follows: "In discussing the subject indicated in the heading of this short article, I proceed primarily upon the thought that the modern newspaper reporter requires no defense. He is a fixed and recognized institu- tion. But, there is not a man or woman who has not, at some one time, ven- tured an opinion or formed a conclusion, as to his status, his character, his motives and his service.
"Such conclusions are usually based upon some long range experience, upon sins of omission and commission as reflected by the printed page or upon some general, unconsciously imbibed, impressions gathered through news- paper reading. The man who, once in a lifetime, comes in actual contact with a newspaper reporter is either charmed or alarmed by his presence or his mission because he is asked to establish either a pleasant or unpleasant truth.
"And here is the beginning of divergent viewpoints. The newspaper is constantly engaged in printing things you do not want to see and in omitting
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things you want to see. You differ radically on the question of inclusion and exclusion. The reporter must be to blame. He writes either too much or not enough about the things that coneern us ; he is either too darned fresh in telling how we were fined for speeding or too indifferent about that public function in which we figured so prominently. His sense of proportion is woefully lack- ing. In the ratio that we are pleased or displeased with him or his newspaper he is either a brilliant genius or a confounded ignoramus.
"As one who is interviewed by seven reporters seven days every week and routed out of bed by them every seventh night, subjected to all sorts of ques- tions -- some of which I answer, some of which I cannot answer, and some of which I will not answer-I am perhaps entitled to some expression of opinion upon them.
"To discuss the status of the reporter means to discuss the status of the press. This status is so obvious, so palpable, so plain, that any diseussion would seem superfluous. And yet confusing notions exist and manifest themselves constantly. The relation between the press and the public is frequently and grossly misinterpreted.
"When you buy a newspaper you buy recorded news matter. The pub- lisher has sold it to you and is morally bound to give it to you-namely. all the news. If you demand news, you are also, impliedly at least, bound to give news, if it is in your keeping. This obligation is multiplied into so many thou- sand-fold that the entire public is bound up in the bargain.
"Or, put it the other way. If the newspaper is under contraet with the publie to print the news then that same publie cannot consistently withhold the news. As a constituent part of the public, you are bound to this unwritten agreement. Thus, the reporter is not only the representative of the publisher, but also becomes the agent of the publie.
"The reporter then must be accepted as the aceredited representative of the publie who has the right to extraet from you the news in your possession. Ilis function is elear, his rights established. You may like him, you may loathe him ; he is there and will remain there at his post, day and night, to serve you and the whole public.
"The man who is in a publie or semi-publie position must expect to be ex- posed to that greatest of all interrogation marks, the newspaper reporter. Ile cannot consistently dodge him, nor ought he to dodge him. In fact, he ought to be absolutely frank with him to the end of being helpful to him.
"Experience has taught that the newspaper man is honorable, that it is wise to be Frank with him and that it is safe to confide in him. This has fre- quently been said by publie men. I can only repeat it. He will postpone the publication of matter or the editor may suppress it entirely if well grounded reasons for such course are presented. He will not betray a confidence. He aims to be accurate and truthful.
"In forming an estimate of the modern newspaper man it should be remem- bered first. that, primarily, he is human like yourself, and. therefore, subject to the failings of the average mankind, and. second, that he possesses the un- disputed right to get every vestige of news that is within his reach. That is
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his vocation, which rests upon legitimate motives and is designed to lead to proper ends.
"This does not preelude your right or mine to hold to our own notions regarding what a newspaper ought to be, what ideals it ought to foster and what manner and method the reporter ought to adopt. But, let us remember that time and condition shape all things. The modern newspaper is the prod- net of human desire, the result of an evolution and the fruit of a wholesome tendeney. It is an institution which is exactly what we, the collective indi- vidual, have made it. It is a daily reflector of ourselves and our activities, of our failings and shortcomings as well as of our virtues, our strength and our achievements."
The Milwaukee Sentinel .- The history of The Sentinel is well told by George Lounsbury, the present leading editorial writer of that publication, who says: The Milwaukee Sentinel, the oldest daily newspaper except one, in the North- west, was founded in 1837 by Solomon Juneau, first white settler, trader. post- master and the first mayor of the incorporated City of Milwaukee.
The first recorded history concerning The Sentinel is found in the Green Bay Intelligence of March 3, 1837, in the form of an announcement by John O'Rourke, a young printer chosen by Mr. Juneau to launch the new venture, of his intention to publish "in the town of Milwaukie on the fifteenth of June next or as soon as materials can be procured from New York, a weekly news- paper under the title of The Milwaukie Sentinel."
In accordance with this advertisement, the first issue of The Sentinel was given to the public on Jime 27, 1837. It was, for those days, a publication of high quality, printed on excellent paper in new and handsome type and was a worthy beginning of a notable career.
Mr. Junean did not figure publicly as the owner or backer of the new paper. Mr. O'Rourke's name appeared as the publisher and Philo White, who had obtained an interest in the new venture, was named as editor. White, however, does not appear to have been especially active, for shortly after the birth of the paper he went East remaining for several months, and leaving O'Rourke to discharge the duties of both positions.
The young publisher, however, was not spared long to enjoy the success with which The Sentinel was greeted on its appearance. A victim of tuber- culosis, he soon found his strength failing so that it was impossible to carry on the double task he had attempted. Harrison Reed was called in to aet as editor and Mr. O'Rourke confined himself to the business and mechanical do- partments of the paper, continuing this labor even after he had become so ill that he was forced to direct the work from a cot in the composing room.
On December 5, 1837, O'Rourke died, at the age of twenty-four years, and in February, 1838, Harrison Reed, who had continued to conduet The Sentinel after the death of the publisher, became the editor of the paper.
During the two years that followed, Mr. Junean withdrew his assistance from the paper and stormy relations developed between Reed and Philo White, culminating in the summer of 1840 in the purchase by Reed of White's interest and his accession to full ownership of The Sentinel.
From its inception The Sentinel had been a democratie paper, but on No-
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vember 30, 1840, Editor Reed announced that it would henceforth support the whig party. The following summer, in the midst of a congressional campaign, while Reed was absent from Milwaukee, certain influential democrats, by the foreclosure of a mortgage, obtained control of the paper and transformed it into a democratie organ, bitterly attacking the congressional candidate which had been favored by it up to that time. This caused intense bitterness of feel- ing and led to the establishment of a whig paper under the editorship of Elisha Starr, one of the vigorous and outstanding characters of early Milwaukee, who was afterward identified with The Sentinel.
Reed managed to regain control of The Sentinel in October. 1841, and turned it back again into the whig highway, but financial difficulties beset him and on May 7, 1842, he sold the paper to Mr. Starr, who made many improvements and instituted new methods which added largely to the strength and popular- ity of the paper.
Starr, however, had his troubles, including keen competition and lack of money, and in November. 1843, he was forced to dispose of the paper to David M. Keeler and John S. Fillmore, who really put The Sentinel on the map as an established institution of the community and of the Northwest.
On December 9. 1844, Keeler and Fillmore, with extraordinary faith in the future of their little community, established The Sentinel as a daily news- paper, the first to be published in the entire Northwest, with the exception of the Chicago Journal, whose first publication antedated the Daily Sentinel by a little more that eight months, and started it on its long career as one of the leading daily papers of the country, a career in which for four seore years not an issne of the paper has failed to appear, despite wars, financial troubles. political disturbances, fires and the other casualties of newspaper life.
On January 23, 1845, The Sentinel established a free reading room from which later developed the Young Men's Library Association to which is due the present Milwaukee Public Library of which Milwaukee is so justly proud. The establishment of this reading room was Mr. Keeler's final contribution to newspaper history in Milwaukee for shortly after he retired, leaving the paper in the hands of Mr. Fillmore and Jason Downer, a distinguished lawyer, who afterward became a justice of the Supreme Court. Mr. Downer assumed edi- torial charge, but soon found the work irksome. He absented himself from the city on business and professional trips and in those periods the paper was anonymously but brilliantly edited. While no historic record is available. the citizens of that day credited this admirable work to Increase A. Lapham and there seems to be excellent ground for the opinion that he was responsible. not only For the editorials but for a sprightly feature column which attracted wide attention.
Mr. Fillmore was a man of energy and vision and he did much to build up The Sentinel. It was he who introduced the street newsboy to Milwaukee. the first of these youthful business men making his appearance on June 30, 1845.
On April 30, 1845, the most important event in early Sentinel history is recorded when Rufus King, a distinguished journalist, who had been filling the editorial chair of the AAlbany Journal, arrived in Milwaukee to become the
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editor of The Sentinel, a position which he adorned until his retirement in 1861 to begin the career of national usefulness which gave luster to his name.
General King's influence naturally tended to improve The Sentinel greatly and it was not long before the newspaper in the little frontier town had estab- lished a national reputation. General King, early in 1846, became an owner of the paper in partnership with W. D. Wilson, under the firm name of Wilson & King.
Changes and improvements were rapid and constant under General King's administration. On October 28, 1846, the first power press in the Northwest was ereeted in The Sentinel press rooms, adding greatly to the appearance of the paper and to the mechanical efficiency of its equipment. A large exchange list became a feature of the paper and the news service was greatly improved and extended.
January 15, 1848, the first telegraphie dispatch received in Milwaukee was tieked off in The Sentinel offiee, in the presence of most of the notables of the city. November 21, 1851, marked the date of the first professional dramatic performance in the city, an event which was duly heralded in The Sentinel the following morning.
In 1848 Wilson and King dissolved partnership, and the latter became sole owner of the paper, which for some time had been known as The Sentinel and Gazette. In October, 1848, General King took in W. J. A. Fuller as a partner, the partnership continuing until July 28, 1851, when its dissolution was an- nounced. General King was again sole owner until October of that year when John S. Fillmore and William H. Watson became associated with bim. At this time the name Gazette was dropped from the title of the paper.
In 1854 The Sentinel embraced the faith of the new born republican party as did most of the whig papers of that day.
December 11. 1856, The Sentinel observed its twelfth anniversary as a daily and in its review of the business of the paper published on that day some inter- esting figures are given. It began with a circulation of from 300 to 400 as a small five-column sheet. In twelve years it had attained a circulation of 1,600 and the population of Milwaukee had increased from 7,000 to 40,000. The value of The Sentinel when the daily was established was said to have been about $2,000. In 1856 it was valued at $25,000 or $30,000, employing forty persons, with a weekly payroll of about $300 and total expenses of about $700 a week.
Mr. Fillmore sold his interest in The Sentinel to General King in 1856 and on July 8, 1857, Mr. Watson sold his share in the paper to T. D. Jermain and Horace Brightman, who became King's partners under the firm name of King, Jermain & Brightman. The following January King sold his interest to them, remaining, however, as editor. Jermain and Brightman were newspaper men of ability and energy. They increased the staff and introduced many innova- tions.
Soon after the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, in 1861, came news that General King had been appointed minister to Rome, and within a short time the distinguished editor who had been so long one of its most honored citizens, left Milwaukee. His departure was the occasion for a great publie reception
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at the Newhall Ilonse. As the world knows, however, General King did not go to Rome, but instead became an officer in the army serving with a gallantry and distinction which reflected its glory on his oldl home eity.
General King was succeeded as editor of The Sentinel by C. Latham Sholes, now known to history as the inventor of the typewriter, who condueted the paper throughout the exciting period of the Civil war. This period was one of great prosperity for The Sentinel, which met the exigencies of the time with extra editions and special news facilities which greatly increased its circulation and influenee.
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