into a country of ideal opportunities the Herald has 

 hi id its finger squarely on the nub of the question, 

 and offers a solution in a straight-forward article 

 on which we cannot improve. 



\Yr an* printing the article in full with the prophecy 

 that when nine-tenths of the papers in the north 

 adopt the same attitude the land question in that 

 section will be solved and permanent prosperity as- 

 sured. 



"Newspapers and magazines of Minnesota are the 

 75 M. M. knockers of the state, when it comes to the 

 sensational forest fire stories," said a well-known im- 

 migration official who incidentally remarked that he 

 voiced the opinion of the state and railroad immigra- 

 ton officals and land men generally, who were ex- 

 pending hundreds of thousands of dollars in attempt- 

 ing to attract settlers to this state. "It will take 

 years to repair the damage done by these newspapers 

 and magazines in playing up sensational stories of 

 the Moose Lake disaster of 1918. It is almost im- 

 possible to pull a prospective settler in the cut-over 

 and peat land districts of Northern Minnesota." He 

 thought it was time for the newspapers to put a soft 

 pedal on forest fire news or 'suppress such news alto- 

 gether. He did not share the view that the news- 

 papers might possibly be doing great service for the 

 state in giving such disasters the widest kind of first- 

 page, black line publicity, that may be essential to 

 safeguard life, eliminate waste and suggest a remedy. 



Another Moose Lake disaster has been narrowly 

 averted in the biggest and best fought forest and peat 

 fire that ever started in Northern Minnesota. Warroad 



13 



