The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 24, 1918, Page 14

How Farmers Are Freemg Thelr Press Country Editors Fighting Progress and Suppressing the Truth Now Have to Reckon With Newspapers Conducted Co-Operatively ARMERS in North Dakota, Min- nesota and Montana have made a beginning toward community- owned newspapers which prom- ises to take an important part in the new cultural develop- ment of the Northwest. The local newspaper sore spot in many communities. It is usually owned by some individual who is either in debt to the local banker or whose inter- ests are bound up with thé money-lending crowd at the county seat, or with the interlocking polit- ical machines that control the offices and the poli- tics of the county. Often it is without an editorial policy but contents itself with the personal gossip of the neighborhood. What public sentiment it is responsible for is aroused by biased news réports of the things in which the editor and his associates are interested. As a leader in the community the local news- paper has not been a conspicuous success, par- ticularly in later years. In the formative period of journalism in this country this branch of en- deavor called to its service many able and rugged men of strong individuality, who left their im- press on the community in which they resided. But the country press has been commercialized of late. It has became a business enterprise and an instrument solely for making money, directly or indirectly. This changed condition has brought with it a change of viewpoint of the newspaper. Once it catered to its subscribers, for from them came the sustaining funds with which it was able to pay the devil and the paper bill. Now the newspaper caters to the advertiser. The wish of the sub- scriber is secondary, for all he can do is to stop the paper and thus be out of touch with his local world. If he does that, the members of his family, who may not have any interest in editorial poli- cies, resubseribe and so support from that quar- ter goes on. TIRED OF ABUSE BY NEWSPAPERS The movement in North Dakota, which promises to be so far-reaching, did not start from a desire to reform the press. It was a defensive measure. North Dakota farmers on organizing into the Nonpartisan league found the local press, whlch they had been supporting, was a'most solidly against them. It not only refused to tolerate their new point of view but the is a_ THE NEWSPAPERS AND A LAMO COUNTY ONGHOLD, unr. urn"%uoil'omrfirflkammdfimm “”'"“““‘thw Ehgvleg Ml oo | ..-...—..- ..._,:-..-.—-...-- GRANT COUNTY LEADER ,‘-_-——. Contoatun of Toe Mebith okt Owend vy et vty Bormers @bz farmm_ fimfiucl LT WA e et PX _THE 'CROSBY REVIEW - %) RUGBY FARMERS NEWS [z] A MOKPASTRAN MEWSPAPCR GUNED AMD CONTROLLED Y NEARLY B FRCACE COUNTY FARSERS Nn!v-&-ql-w'lisflhv-—qdhwlm _WEL—-WY_____.L@@_@S_ Ehe EL rmers firmmfit_ ____.._...-.- o2 .= 1e _Bottin Qhel?.@!ln.ez@._comnt THE McHENRY TRIBUNE A Meagurin Newesmper Owend tad Pblied By 18 Focmin OF T Virhry 1 Here are a few of the country newspapers that are owned by the farmers of their communities. Once more the farmers of North Dakota are leading the way. By having their own press, they are sure of getting the truth without distortion or suppression. which meant so.much for themselves, their fami- lies and the state at large, found the organs of expression at their county seats devoting their energy to abuse and slander that seemed at times to be actuated by nothing short of blind fury. CO-OPERATION THE WAY OUT Out of this condition arose a movement that was almost spontaneous for a farmer-owned press. They had their daily at Fargo and their weekly the Leader—but they wanted local papers that came into their homes to give expression to their aspirations. Then the farmers got together and formed stock companies at several points. Then the Nonpar- tisan league stepped in and organized the North- western Service bureau for the purpose of giving plan and system and uniformity to ‘this movement. In a few months O. T. Rishoff, who had been editor and manager of one of the most successful of these farmer papers, the Bottineau Courant, was placed-in charge of the bureau. After a few months it was removed to St. Paul that it might be JUST PEACE in a better position to respond to the entire field. By the first of the present year 30 newspapers had been organized under the Northwestern Service bureau in North Dakota. Since that time many others have been organized or are in process of organization in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana and several other states. These papers have been able, by this means, to throw off the shackles of the advertisers. Their editors breathe as free men once more. The dif- ference is apparent. The neglected editorial page has been reborn, and breathes the spirit of the new democracy. Here is expressed the ideals of the great movement of the common people of which the Nonpartisan league is the exponent. ON A THOROUGHLY BUSINESS-LIKE PLAN These newspapers are organized with preferred and common stock issues. The common stock draws no dividends until after all expenses have been paid and the preferred stock has 'drawn a dividend .of 7 per cent. So a dividend of the com- mon stock 1s not probable, neither is it desired, for the plan is to improve the paper as it ‘makes more money, rather than to make it pay dividends. editors did not seem to try to comprehend it. They-started to. defeat it -by scoffing and from * that went to misrepre- sentation and ‘abuse.- Two -ele- ments could not have: been found more opposite to each other in thought—the editors -and their farmer readers. The reason for this-was that in former years the farmer had not taken dn interest in politics. lic sentiment the policies that were really of interest to the small clique of :politicians and money lenders who had been using the - political orgamza- tions to further their own-ends’ The blind fury of the edi- tors against the Nonpartisan league can only be explained by assuming that- the editors and the small group in touch with them felt that their spe- cial privileges were being “threatened. The conditions became in- tolerable. Men who were giv- ing time -and: money to for- ward the cause of a movement He had accepted it as he found it, taking for pub- * It is well to consider with gravest concern any power the reactionaries ... may possess to counteract the accomplishment of the peace aims for which" we are giving the.blood of our veins.and the blood of our economic:lives. The chief mental food of ‘“the average mass of struggling. men and women?” - is ‘that predigested provender which they get from the newspaper. The people pay their pennies, won through toil, to contribute to the powerful circulation of dailies of great capitalization, owned and controlled by forces which they can not see, but which they can duly feel. These newspapers, hostile to the well-being and happiness of humanity, will frustrate the sin- cerest attempts of the friends of humanity. unless they are curbed. . This distrust of the powerful press of this and other countries is not without foundation. It is well to consider?the matter of taking over the daily press of this country in exactly the same fashion that we have taken over the railroads. It is far more important: government administration of the railroads permits greater and more economical transportation facil- ities; government. administration of the press would -protect the public * mind from farther- -corruption by lies and misrepresentation and give that ° —.mind a chance to-reach the real issues of this war by the only means within its pecuniary, mental and physical reach. Moreover, if this is a people’s war, as Wilson and his vanguard insist it shall be, the peace must be a people’s peace. For the people to be kept in daily touch with peace pro- .ceedings in which are involved the future of their souls and bodies; the “truth must be carried to them through other channels than the present, which have for long been seeking to discredit the administration for other than partisan or patriotic motives, and which, with their great volume of polluted ‘waters have recently sought to break that -great bulwark which staunchly protects those who are draining their veins and their purses “to make the world safe for democraey.”—Edward ‘Payl in The Pubhc.. man : qunfx'm - = -ting hold of. the paper, ! “ it is assumed that ‘enough of ° “the preferred This common stock, repre- senting a third of the issue, is sold to the service bureau -.for a nominal sum and in:cen- sideration of service rendered and to be rendered. This gives the service bureau a voice in ~the management of:the news- paper but not a controlling in- terest. It is a _protection against -a.-hostile. gtoup get- would always be in harmony with the purpose for which the ~paper was organized. THE BENEFIT OF EXPERT ADVICE The service bureau gives general business and editorial supervision of the newspapers, requiring from the managers monthly financial reports; so . that the stockholders know at - all times just what their prop- erty is doing. It is assumed -that the new owners of the ‘papers do mnot understand the details of the newspaper busi- (Continued on page 22) because . stockholders S