The Press: East vs. West

A writer for Newspaperdom, journalistic trade-sheet, compared newspapers of the West and East, noted differences. He proposed that Eastern editors learn from Westerners: 1) “Greater local pride and booster spirit.” (Said he: “The booster spirit of the Far West is familiar to everyone.” ) 2) “Greater attention to school news.” 3) “Higher subscription prices.” That the West learn from the East: 1) “More attention to the man who writes to the papers” (i.e., cinema, sport, health, politics, joke fans.) 2) ” Better sporting departments.” 3) “Better first pages.” 4) “Snappier news and editorial writing.” The writer then closed, mellifluously: “Papers everywhere are splendidly good.” There are, obviously, exceptions to the rules thus laid down. What newspaper, save the Chicago Tribune, could “boost” its home town with more incessant ardor than the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Baltimore Sun, the Bridgeport Post, the Philadelphia Public Ledger or the New York World? What newspaper could, in fairness to its readers, carry more educational news than that earnest sheet, the Christian Science Monitor? What newspaper would dare charge more than five cents, as do the New York Evening Post and that earnest sheet, the Christian Science Monitor? Or, to face about, what could be ” snappier” news writing than: ” They’re digging up some of the wildest riding buckaroos that ever forked a Texas bronco right here in New Orleans.” —(New Orleans Item, in a story on an American Legion rodeo.) ” State’s Attorney Crowe and his staff of picked assistants, assigned to prosecute the murderers of little Bobby Franks, jumped into their fighting regalia last night and launched a double-fisted attack upon the defense.” —Chicago Tribune. ” There is one bootlegger in Oakland who will think twice hereafter before he calls prospective customers on the telephone. ” Chief McSorley answered his private telephone yesterday and was dumbfounded when a voice asked if he wanted those ‘two cases of real, old Scotch today.’ ” ‘This is the Chief of Police.’ ” ‘Suffering cats! I’ve been double-crossed again,’ the man on the telephone cried savagely, as he slammed up the receiver.” — San Francisco Chronicle.