Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 321 



Now, a great many of us disagree as to what a country news- 

 paper should contain. I suspect every farmer present thinks he 

 could conduct any newspaper he reads a great deal better than the 

 editor does. Doubtless all of us agree, though that the country 

 newspaper ought to be the news vehicle — the mirror, as it were — 

 of the community in which it is published ; that is to say, it should 

 give the news that is fit to print of both the town and country 

 which it tries to serve. I think it ought to do more than this, but 

 if it does this it will help to lift the isolation which shrouds farmer 

 folks, thereby bringing them into closer touch with their neigh- 

 bors and broadening their outlook on life. Accordingly the farmer 

 and the country newspaper are brought into a very intimate rela- 

 tionship, and since the relationship is intimate, it should be in- 

 spired by sympathy and confidence. 



You are aware, as I am aware, that there is much distrust in, 

 the world. Possibly, because I am the editor of a country news- 

 paper and sometimes am forced into personal contact with it, I 

 feel there is too much distrust of the purposes of newspapers and 

 newspaper editors. Candor also compels me to say that there are 

 country newspapers which deserve distrust, though that is not a 

 reason why all country newspapers should be distrusted. The 

 man who is able to select seed corn, or to judge of the beef- 

 producing possibilities of a calf, ought to be able to discriminate 

 between the newspaper which is entitled to respect and confidence, 

 and the one which should be considered with suspicion. The news- 

 paper which is entitled to respect and confidence is the one which 

 makes an intelligent effort to get the news, prints the truth, re- 

 jects fake and disreputable advertising, does business on a busi- 

 ness basis, and which is too strong and too fearless to be controlled 

 by selfish interests, and too large to be the personal organ of its 

 editor. Let me tell you, too, that you farmers, you who are a part 

 of the reading public, are as much or more to blame for the exist- 

 ence of the wrong kind of newspapers as any other agency, for if 

 you would withdraw your patronage from them they would cease 

 to exist. 



Now, let me tell you that the great majority of the country 

 newspapers in Missouri are entitled to your respect, confidence and 

 patronage. The great majority of them are published by men who 

 have high purposes and who are animated by unselfish motives. 

 Some of you may not know it, but it is true that the country 

 newspaper business is respectable. More than that, most of 



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