E.S.C. quarterly

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The E. S.C. Quarterly
VOLUME 9, NO. 1-2
Own
WINTER-SPRING, 1951
North Carolina Newspaper Publishing Has Developed Into
Important State Industry; Printing Business Expanding
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Photogi^aph of part of front page first newspaper published in North Carolina (See in^ le cover)
PUBLISHED BY
Employment Security Commission of North Carolina
RALEIGH, N. C.
PAGE 2 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1951
The E. S. C. Quarterly
(Formerly The U.C.C. Quarterly)
Volume 9, Number 1-2 Winter-Spring, 1951
Issued four times a year at Raleigh, N. C, by the
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION OF
NORTH CAROLINA
Commissioners: Mrs. Quentin Gregory, Halifax; Dr. Harry D.
Wolf, Chapel Hill; R. Dave Hall, Belmont; Marion W. Heiss,
Greensboro; C. A. Fink, Spencer; Bruce E. Davis, Charlotte.
State Advisory Council: Col. A. L. Fletcher, Raleigh, chair-man;
Mrs. Gaston A. Johnson, High Point; W. B. Horton,
Yanceyville; C. P. Clark, Wilson; Dr. Alphonso Elder, Dur-ham;
Corbett Scott, Asheboro; L. L. Ray, Raleigh; Joel B.
Leighton, Rockingham; J. A. Scoggins, Charlotte.
HENRY E. KENDALL Chairman
BROOKS PRICE __ .Deputy Commissioner
R. FULLER MARTIN Director
Unemployment Compensation Division
ERNEST C. McCRACKEN Director
North Carolina State Employment Service Division
M. R. DUNNAGAN Editor
Informational Service Representative
Cover illustrations represent typical North Carolina
industries or business activities under the Employ-ment
Security Program.
Cover for Winter, 1951—Photograph shows part of the front
page of the North Carolina Gazette, not the first issue, but
the oldest known issue of a North Carolina newspaper. It
was published by James Davis in New Bern and is dated
November 15, 1751. Davis was the first printer in the State
and published the State Laws for many years.—Photo by
Miss Dorothy D. Reynolds, Dept. of Archives and History.
Sent free upon request to responsible individuals, agencies,
organizations and libraries. Address: E. S. C. Informational
Service, P. 0. Box 589, Raleigh, N. C.
CONTENTS ^7e
North Carolina Publications 2
Press Association Active in Promoting State Papers 3
By Henry Belk
Organization and Early Days of N. C. Press Association 4
By Clarence Griffin
Journalism Foundation, UNC, Aids School in Training 6
Personal Journalism, Editor Feuds, Half Century Ago 7
By H.E.C. Bryant
Personalities of Past Among North Carolina Editors 10
By Roland F. Beasley
Yesteryear Editors More Vigorous Than Today's Crop 12
By Dr. Oscar J. Coffin
Description of State Newspapers Written 28 Years Ago 13
Editor Daniels Distinguished State Citizen 15
Printing Industry of the Carolinas, Effective Group 16
By Henry L. Weathers
Press Notes: Interesting Items of People and Papers 17
N. C. Has 41 Daily Newspapers; 7 Morning; 34 Afternoon .... 22
Thirty-Three Semi-Weekly Papers Published in State 29
North Carolina Is Well Supplied with 133 Weekly Papers..— 33
Blum's and Turner's Almanacs Still Printed in State 36
'Yellow Jacket', Rural Republican Paper with a Sting 37
John D. Gold Long Publisher of Wilson Times 38
Heavy Articles, Wit and Humor in College Publications 41
Religious, Professional, Trade and Special Publications 44
N.C. Newspapers Fine Training Schools for High Posts 47
J. Hampton Rich, Editor, Adept Promoter and Ink Hound—48
Incident Relating to Press Institute, Carolina, Duke 48
Progressive Farmer, Notable Magazine 49
Officers, Meeting Places and Times, N. C. Press Association__..49
Study Labor Resources for N. C. Industrial Expansion 50
By Hugh M. Raper
Amendments Extend Coverage of Social Security Act 51
By M. D. Dewberry
Analysis of Unemployed Worker Who Exhaust Benefits 53
By E. Stanhope Dunn
Employment Security Compared; 11 Months, 1949 & 1950 .....54
By E. Stanhope Dunn
Index to Volumes 7 and 8, 1949-50 ____57-62
Note: Articles not credited, with by-line, written by M. R. Dun-nagan,
Editor.
NORTH CAROLINA PUBLICATIONS
North Carolina boasts of considerably more than
300 periodical publications, about 100 of which are
classed as trade, church, professional, college, or-phanage,
labor and other miscellaneous publications.
More than 200, our count 207, are classed as news-papers.
Of these, 41 are in the daily field, including
seven morning and 34 afternoon papers; one is a
tri-weekly; 33 are semi-weeklies, and 133 are weekly
papers. The State's papers, generally, are in fine
condition, prosperous going concerns, but beset by
the frequently experienced shortage of newsprint.
Printing firms in the State are equally prosperous
money-makers.
The ESC records reveal that 139 firms, in the sec-ond
quarter of 1950, engaged in printing, publish-ing
and allied activities are subject to, covered by,
the Employment Security Law, meaning, normally,
with eight or more employees. Of these, 66 were
newspaper publishers, who employed an average of
3380 workers and paid wages for the quarter of
$2,778,189. This was an average of $63.23 a week,
considerably higher than the State average of $45.27.
Commercial printing firms numbered 67, employing
an average of 1756 workers, with a quarterly payroll
of $1,210,581, or an average wage of $53.21 a week.
In other classifications are three engaged in pub-lishing
periodicals, including two in publishing books
and one classed as miscellaneous.
For the year 1949, the last for which complete fig-ures
are available, the record shows that 132 firms
engaged in publishing and printing were subject to
the Employment Security Law, while for the second
quarter of 1950, the number was 139, an increase of
seven. Also, the 1949 figures showed average em-ployment
of 5010 workers, against 5268 for the sec-ond
quarter of 1950, a gain of 258 workers. This is
a sizable increase, indicating the increase in the
number and size of firms and the numbers of work
ers employed. Gross wages in 1949 amounted to
$15,644,590, an average weekly wage of $60.05.
As is generally known, the maximum in payroll
tax is 3 percent for unemployment, of which the
State collects 2.7 percent and the Federal Govern
ment 0.3 percent. Under the Employer Experience
Rating Plan, employers may earn reduced rates after
three years of experience. It is interesting to note
that 12 firms had not operated long enough to be
considered for a reduction in rates, and six firms
failed to earn reductions. On the other hand, one
firm was paying the lowest rate, one-tenth of 1 per
cent and one was paying two-tenths of one percent.
Between these rates, 14 firms had earned the 2
percent rate; 10 the 1.5 percent rate; 26 firms, 1
percent ; 47 firms, 0.8 percent ; 12 firms, 0.6 percent
and three firms, 0.4 percent. It is also interesting
to note that in the second quarter of 1950, the aver-age
rate paid by the liable publishing and printing
firms was 0.99 percent, slightly less than one percent
as against 1.55 percent for all liable firms in tht
State for that period. It is likely that the rate wil
remain close to one percent for the full year.
Less than one-third, 66 out of 207 of the news
papers in the State are subject to the ES Law. Tha'
means that about 140 newspapers operate shop;
employing less than eight workers, exclusive of th<
owner (if sole owner, and not a corporation) an(
partners or minor members of the family.
Winter-Spring, 1951 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 3
Press Association Active in Promoting State Papers
By Henry Belk, President, N. C. Press Association and Editor, The Neivs-Argus, Goldsboro
What is the North Carolina Press Association ?
It is an association whose members are newspa-pers
of North Carolina. Associate members are
members of allied fields.
Membership in the Association is made up of daily
and non-daily publications. Currently each of the
daily papers of North Carolina is a member. The
100 percent mark for dailies was reached recently
when the Kannapolis Independent joined. Mem-bership
in the non-daily field is at a high mark.
The Association holds two meetings a year. The
annual meeting is held in the summer, generally
early in July, at the mountains one year and at the
becah the next. On a few occasions over its long
history the Association has held its meetings during
a sea trip. Some of the long-time members still re-call
a friendly game a bunch of the fellows started
during a convention at sea only to have a dear sister
aboard claim the total fund for her Community Chest
back home.
The Press Institute is held annually in January
with the University of North Carolina and Duke
University as co-sponsors. Duke annually entertains
the Institute at a dinner meeting on Friday evening
of the Institute. The Institute was started 27 years
ago and each of the succeeding sessions has featured
timely programs with special sessions for shop talk.
The Associated Dailies of North Carolina regularly
have a session at the Institute and the non-dailies
have a separate session at the same time. Each pre-sents
a program of interest to its particular group.
High spot of the Institutes is the award of prizes
for outstanding newspaper writing or pictures of
the past year. Prizes are awarded both in the daily
and non-daily fields. This year a new high in entries
in the daily contests has been reported with more
than 400 submitted. It is traditional that the Gov-ernor
of North Carolina make the presentation at
the dinner at Duke.
The Association is greatly indebted to Miss Bea-trice
Cobb of Morganton for services she has ren-dered
as secretary. Many state press associations
hire an executive secretary. Miss Cobb, always com-petent
and gracious, has given the Association with-out
cost a quality of devotion and service which
money could not buy. She edits the "North Carolina
OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF N. C. PRESS ASSOCIATION—Scene at Grove
Park Inn, Asheville, July 8, 1950, as retiring President R. E. Price, Rutherford County
Neivs, turns over gavel to new President Henry Belk, Goldsboro Neivs-Argus. Others,
seated, I. to r. are: Miss Beatrice Cobb, Morganton Neivs-Herald, secretary-treasurer for
SO years; Mr. Price, Mr. Belk; B. Arp Lowrance, Mecklenburg Times, vice-president.
Back row, I. to r.: J. F. Hurley, Salisbury Post, and T. J. Lassiter, Smithfield Herald,
directors; Clarence Griffin, Forest City Courier, historian; W. Randall Harris, Asheville
Citizen-Times, and Holt McPherson, Shelby Daily Star, directors. Directors not in group:
left, Leslie Thompson, News Reporter, Whiteville ; right, Weimar Jones, Franklin Press.
PAGE 4 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 195
Press," monthly publication of the Association, and
attends to multitudinous details with an unusual
application. She gives her job as unpaid secretary
of the Association the same capable and outstanding
attention that has distinguished her as publisher of
The News-Herald, in Morganton, and in many fields
of State progress.
Big project before the Association now (and
should be for some years ahead) is the raising of a
$100,000 fund for the Journalism Foundation. The
response to the drive for the Foundation among
papers of the State got a good start last year. A
number have signified intention to make annual con-tributions.
The Foundation will supplement funds
for the School of Journalism at Chapel Hill. Idea
is to raise the School to accredited status as soon as
possible. Holt McPherson, of Shelby, heads the
Foundation and D. Hiden Ramsey, of Asheville, is
its treasurer.
Already the Foundation has proved its worth by
making funds available to secure the services of Jack
Riley for the Journalism School. A special appro-priation
of $500 to supplement Prof. Riley's salary
was made. The Journalism School funds from State
sources were not sufficient to secure this needed
addition to the School.
As President of the N. C. Press Association for
the year, I wish to extend thanks to "Mike" Dunna-gan
for compiling this newspaper issue. For the
first time it brings together a great wealth of mate-rial
about newspapers and newspaper people of
North Carolina. I predict that future researchers
into the history of the North Carolina press will
make use of material in this edition.
Organization and Early Days of N. C. Press Association
By Clarence Griffin, Forest City Courier, Historian, N. C. Press Association
Although the North Carolina Press Association
was founded in 1873, there were no printed session
minutes of the Association until 1888. A few years
ago a pamphlet, giving proceedings of the Associa-tion
from 1873 to 1887, as copied from contempo-rary
newspapers, was prepared to supplement the
annual session proceedings, which have been pub-lished
each year since.
The organizational meeting of the North Carolina
Press Association or "Association of Editors", was
held in Goldsboro on May 14-15, 1873, with repre-sentatives
present from 29 of the State's newspapers
and one represented by proxy. After completing a
temporary organization, the need for an association
was discussed extensively, and on the second day it
TWO RECORDS OF EARLY ACTS
OF N. C. PRESS ASSOCIATION
The committee, evidently named by J. A. Sharpe or J. F.
Hurley, one of which was president when the decision was
reached to compile the earlier records of the N. C. Press
Association, included J. B. Sherrill, Concord, secretary for
3 2 years; Josephus Daniels, Raleigh, and Francis D. Win-ston,
Windsor. The record, compiled from newspaper re-ports
by Mr. Sherrill, was printed in 1920, a book of more
than 100 pages. This is in short supply now, although
copies may be found among the books of members active 30
years ago.
When the association held its 50th anniversary celebra-tion
July 26-28, 1922, at Cleveland Springs Hotel, Shelby,
with President Sherrill presiding, Mr. Sherrill, J. A. Rob-inson,
oldest member of the Association; T. B. Parker, State
Department of Agriculture; Dr. Edgar W. Knight, of the
State University; M. L. Shipman, Association historian;
Josephus Daniels, Raleigh News and Observer; David Clark,
of the Southern Textile Bulletin, Charlotte; H. B. Varner,
Lexington Dispatch; Wade H. Harris, Charlotte Observer
(read by J. A. Parham) ; John Paul Lucas, Duke Power Co.,
Charlotte; Governor Cameron Morrison, and others address-ed
the meeting, largely on the 50 years of development since
the association was formed. Clyde R. Hoey welcomed the
guests to Shelby.
Record of this meeting, the speeches and proceedings, was
compiled by Miss Beatrice Cobb, Morganton, then and for
30 years secretary of the Association. This anniversary
record is in larger supply, but also limited.
was voted to form the association. A permanent
organization was set up and a constitution and by-laws
was adopted. Despite the fact that the con-stitution
has been in use more than 75 years, it is
basically the same as adopted on that May day in
1873, with exceptions of a few amendments, made
from time to time to meet exigencies of changing
conditions.
The members were faced with substantially the
same problems in the early days as they are faced
with today. The main concern in those early years
was advertising rates, prices charged for job print-ing,
governmental charges for postage and ethics
in general.
One of the primary purposes for organizing the
N. C. Press Association was to improve ethics among
members of the fourth estate in North Carolina, and)
the association has perhaps had greater succes
along this line than any other.
RESOLUTION ON ADV. RATES
At the first meeting it was urged that all publish-ers
adopt a published list of advertising rates, anc
that each one adhere strictly to this published rate
or else "this convention will discountenance anj
editor who may deviate from the same". They als(
condemned any deviation from published rates foi
national advertising; and disapproved of any dis
crimination "in favor of any advertising agency
North or South". They also made preparation fo:
publishing the first newspaper directory of Nort
Carolina, showing name of paper, publisher, adver
tising rates, size of page and classified rates. The
condemned the practice of newspapers having "pat
ent insides or outsides . . . containing advertising
printed outside the State, and urged that it be aban
doned. The practice of accepting subscriptions oi
credit was discountenanced. A resolution was adopt
ed favoring more immigration into North Carolim
WINTER-SPRING, 1951 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 5
A representative group of newspaper editors and
publishers attended the second meeting held in the
State Capitol in Raleigh on May 13-14, 1874. Forty-five
newspapers were represented and several new
members were taken in at this meeting. A resolution
was adopted appointing a superintendent to investi-gate
the various advertising agencies of the country,
and report back giving information on which of the
agencies were solvent or reliable. A number of
agencies had "swindled and defrauded the member"
newspapers by placing advertising and failing to
pay for same. Steps were taken to systematize rates
for legal advertising, define legal advertising and
determine which should be published. Committees
were appointed to go before the General Assembly
and secure passage of laws defining legal advertis-ing,
an object which was not accomplished until
many years later.
CENSURES GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The matter of sticking by published rates again
came up. In defense of cutting rates, one member
remarked that "we cannot always stick by them, for
many of our people advertise in our weeklies from
which they realize but little, and it is done by them
to sustain their paper in order to get the weekly
current news." In the matter of agency advertis-ing
it was decided that "if we favor anybody, let's
favor our own North Carolinians . . . We will get
as many advertisements and just as many dollars
from the outside." A visit was then made to the
office of Governor Todd R. Caldwell, where His Ex-cellency
"Unearthed his best North Carolina drink-ables
and toasted the Press."
At the third annual convention held in Wilming-ton
on May 11-12, 1875, a resolution of censure of
the North Carolina General Assembly was adopted.
Couched in rather strong terms, the resolution con-demned
the General Assembly of ignoring their
committee on legal advertising, and at the same time
spending several thousands of dollars for advertis-ing
in New York, London and Scottish newspapers,
setting forth the advantages of North Carolina, and
ignoring North Carolina newspapers.
It was at this session that Scott D. Pool, Jr., urged
a resolution which would make North Carolina news-papers
free and independent in politics. His rous-ing
speech pointed out that any progressive news-paper
was not dependent on the small stipend of
legal advertising, and that the old system of "offi-cial"
newspapers be abandoned. He advocated each
publisher putting out a newspaper for the develop-ment
of his own community. He stressed commun-ity
service above politics. This was the first radical
departure from the idea that a newspaper must de-pend
on legal advertising as an official newspaper,
to survive. Consideration of his resolution was
postponed, as too many editors of that day still
looked to the court house ring for sustenance when
the going was hard. But later in the session the
question was revived, and it was adopted by three
votes majority, but still later, after much parlia-mentary
skirmishing, it was laid on the table. The
AFTERNOON DAILIES ASSOCIATION
MAINTAINS RALEIGH NEWS BUREAU
The North Carolina Association of Afternoon Dailies, Inc.,
is an organization of the afternoon newspapers in North
Carolina, the primary purpose of which is to maintain a
news bureau in Raleigh to supply them with news develop-ing
in the Capital City of State-wide interest, as well as
localized news stories. Members pay dues which are de-voted
almost entirely to maintaining the news bureau in
Raleigh. G. Lynn Nisbet has been correspondent and man-ager
of the bureau for several years.
The members usually hold a breakfast meeting in con-nection
with the summer and winter meetings of the N. C.
Press Association and at such other times as is necessary
to handle the business of the association. The association
was organized about 25 years ago, and was incorporated in
1931.
Officers elected at the January meeting in Chapel Hill
are: David J. Whichard, Jr., publisher, the Daily Reflector,
Greenville, president; J. F. Hurley, publisher, Salisbury
Evening Post, vice-president; J. P. Huskins, Statesville
Daily Record, secretary-treasurer; Additional directors are:
Holt McPherson, Shelby Daily Star, and Floyd Hendley,
Greensboro Record.
resolution condemning the use of patent insides or
outsides was revived, and the original motion was
killed.
The meeting of 1876, scheduled for Goldsboro and
New Bern, was a failure, due to the appearance of
only four newspaper representatives. The conven-tion
was re-scheduled to meet in Raleigh on June
14th, but developed into a social gathering.
FIRST WESTERN CONVENTION
The meeting of 1880, held in Asheville, the first
western North Carolina convention, was marred
somewhat by a general protest of the churches of
that town over the scheduled ball, which was part
of the program. Hon. W. W. Holden, former Gov-ernor
of North Carolina, and a former Raleigh news-paper
editor, the only Governor to be impeached,
was elected the association's first historian. His ap-pointment
met with little approval throughout the
State, and the NCPA was highly criticized for his
appointment.
Substantially the same subjects continued to come
up for the next few years and were discussed at
length at each meeting. By 1887, when the conven-tion
met in Hendersonville in July, evidences that
it was becoming a social organization were already
apparent.
However, despite the fact that the annual conven-tions
now largely represent a social meeting, with
its attendant good fellowship of other editors and
publishers, the North Carolina Press Association,
across the years, has justified itself. Many of the
improvements in the profession, the high standards
of ethics and the daily performances of newspapers
in North Carolina owe to the NCPA their inception.
Today, unlike 1875, the NCPA bears weight, and its
representatives receive a quick and considerate hear-ing
among the lawmakers of North Carolina. Down
the years the association has done much to improve
ethics among its members, and non-members as
well. It is the voice of the fourth estate in North
Carolina, and that voice is one which few newspapers
dare to disobey.
PAGE 6 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1951
Journalism Foundation, UNC, Aids School in Traininj
{Requested Contribution)
Not long ago D. Hiden Ramsey, general manager
of the Asheville Citizen-Times, who serves also as
treasurer of the School of Journalism Foundation
of North Carolina, Inc., received from an anonymous
donor a check for a thousand dollars as a tribute
to Oscar Jackson Coffin, dean of the School of Jour-nalism
at the University of North Carolina.*
It came from a former student of "Skipper" Cof-fin,
who took that way to articulate his interest in
the Foundation and the School of Journalism head
who, working together, are seeking to advance the
Chapel Hill journalism school to a foremost position
in journalistic educational ranks of the country.
Established in 1947, the Foundation is gathering
an endowment of $100,000, income from which will
be used to supplement University funds available to
the School of Journalism for teaching salaries and
other needed expenses.
TRIBUTES TO NEWS-PEOPLE
The tribute gift to Skipper Coffin was the third
such, the North Carolina Press Association having
launched the fund with a gift of $1,000 as tribute
to its long-time secretary, Miss Beatrice Cobb, of
Morganton, and The Hickory Daily Record having
contributed $1,000 as a memorial to Miss Sara Lee
Gifford who was fatally injured in an automobile
accident two years ago. The late W. C. Dowd, Jr.,
who was publisher of The Charlotte News many
years, left in his will a bequest in excess of $5,000
to the Foundation, and there have been numerous
gifts in lesser amounts to help lift the total, but many
more are needed before the $100,000 minimum fund
will be complete and the Foundation's usefulness
developed as its projectors hope will prove the case.
The Foundation was launched as a child of the
North Carolina Press Association with 15 charter
members, including many of the leaders of the news-paper
and radio business, principally in North Caro-lina,
but with many from other states. The U. S.
Treasury approved gifts to the Foundation as de-ductible
for income tax purposes.
Already efforts have paid off by advancing from
status of a department in English to its own School
with Coffin as dean. Plans are shaping by which
it will before much longer be adequately housed in
its own building, where expanded facilities will en-hance
its usefulness.
OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS
Holt McPherson, Shelby newspaper and radio ex-ecutive,
is president of the Foundation, which has
Leslie Thompson, editor of The Whiteville News
Reporter, as vice-president; William C. Lassiter, of
Raleigh, as secretary and general counsel ; D. Hiden
Ramsey as treasurer; Roy Parker, of Ahoskie, as
•'Another check for $1,000, also anonymously presented, was announced
at the meeting of the chartering members of the Journalism Foundation in
Chapel Hill January 19, honoring Professor Phillips Russell, of the UNC
school of Journalism faculty for several years. The total receipts then
amounted to $14,505.—Editor.
assistant secretary, and Dr. Clarence Poe, of Raleigh,
as assistant treasurer.
Directors, in addition to the officers, are Miss
Beatrice Cobb, J. E. Dowd, Jr., J. L. Home, Jr., W.
K. Hoyt, Richard H. Mason, Frank A. Daniels, John
W. Harden, William E. Horner, Thomas J. Lassiter,
Steed Rollins and Ed M. Anderson. (Mr. Anderson
CHARTERING MEMBERS OF THE
UNC JOURNALISM FOUNDATION
Founding members of the Journalism Foundation, UNC,
are: E. H. Abernethy, Atlanta; Walter S. Adams, Asheville;
Ed M. Anderson, Brevard; Dr. C. W. Armstrong, Salisbury;
W. J. Arthur, Jacksonville; J. W. Atkins, Gastonia; J. M.
Bryan, Greensboro; F. Grover Britt, Clinton; Henry Belk,
Goldsboro; Mrs. James Boyd, Southern Pines; G. W. Brad
ham, Greensboro; H. Gait Braxton, Kinston; *P. H. Batte,
Charlotte;
H. C. Bennett, High Point; C. H. Crutchfield, Charlotte;
Miss Beatrice Cobb, Morganton; H. A. Cecil, Thomasville;
Staley A. Cook, Burlington; Lenoir Chambers, Norfolk, Va.
;
Miss Addie Cooke, Murphy; *Curtis B. Johnson, Charlotte;
Douglas Coxe, Lumberton; C. C. Council, Durham; E. C.
Daniels, Jr., London; H. A. Dennis, Henderson; O. J. Coffin,
Chapel Hill;
Frank A. Daniels, Raleigh; Jonathan Daniels, Raleigh;
M. R. Dunnagan, Raleigh; J. E. Dowd, Charlotte; C. A.
Eury, New Bern; Gordon Gray, Chapel Hill; Louis Graves
Chapel Hill; Paul Green, Chapel Hill; Dr. F. P. Graham,
Chapel Hill; L. C. Gifford, Hickory; B. S. Griffith, Char-lotte;
John W. Harden, Greensboro; Clyde R. Hoey, Shelby;
W. K. Hoyt, Winston-Salem; J. F. Hurley, Salisbury; W.
E. Horner, Sanford; Mrs. W. C. Hammer, Asheboro; P. T.
Hines, Greensboro; A. W. Huckle, Rock Hill, S. C; Ray
Hull, Concord; J. L. Home, Jr., Rocky Mount; J. P. Huskins,
Statesville; John B. Harris, Albemarle; WT
. R. Harris, Ashe-ville;
Gerald W. Johnson, Baltimore; C. O. Jeffress, Greens-boro
;
*Louis I. Jaffe, Norfolk, Va. ; Dr. T. C. Johnson, Raleigh;
Weimar Jones, Franklin; E. Z. Jones, Burlington; H. W.
Kendall, Greensboro; Mrs. Rena Lassiter, Smithfield; J.
Spencer Love, Washington, D. C; H. F. Laffoon, Elkin; B. Arp
Lowrance, Charlotte; T. J. Lassiter, Smithfield; R. M. Lam
beth, Greensboro; J. D. Langston, Goldsboro; Isaac London,
Rockingham
;
Stahle Linn, Salisbury; J. Paul Lucas, Charlotte; W. W.
Neal, Atlanta; Lynn Nisbet, Raleigh; W. M. Oliver, Reids-ville;
R. B. Page, Wilmington; John A. Park, Raleigh; Tal-bot
Patrick, Rock Hill, S. C; Edwin Pate, Laurinburg;
W. T. Peacock, Washington; Roy Parker, Ahoskie; Drew
Pearson, Washington, D. C; Charles J. Parker, Raleigh.
Dr. Clarence Poe, Raleigh; R. E. Price, Rutherfordton;
C. Knox Massey, Durham; Holt McPherson, Shelby; Mrs.
E. F. McCulloch, Elizabethtown; Richard H. Mason, Ral
eigh ; Spencer Murphy, Salisbury; Mrs. O. C. McQuage,
Mocksville; John H. Mebane, Atlanta; Santford Martin
Winston-Salem; G. C. Munden, Morehead City; Dr. Fred
Morrison, Washington, D. C; R. W. Madry, Chapel Hill;
Steed Rollins, Durham; Phillips Russell, Chapel Hill; D.
A. Rawley, High Point; E. A. Resch, Siler City; D. Hiden
Ramsey, Asheville; K. Craige Ramsey, Salisbury; W. Curtis
Russ, Waynesville; James Street, Chapel Hill; Don Shoe-maker,
Asheville; Walter Spearman, Chapel Hill; Forrest
H. Shuford, Raleigh; Mrs. E. G. Swindell, Wilson; Joe S.
Sink, Lexington;
J. A. Sharpe, Jr., Lumberton; W. E. Smith, Albemarle;
Bill Sharpe, Raleigh; Leslie Thompson, Whiteville; R. B.
Terry, High Point; John W. Umstead, Chapel Hill; Larry
Walker, Charlotte; Miles H. Wolff, Greensboro; A. L. M.
Wiggins, Hartsville, S. C; Capus M. Waynick, Managua, Nica-ragua;
Tom R. Wolfe, Albemarle; Henry Lee Weathers,
Shelby; Lee B. Weathers, Shelby; Robert M. Wallace,
Shelby.
Deceased.
Winter-Spring, 195 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 7
was elected at the January meeting to succeed Curtis
B. Johnson, deceased. All other officers-directors
were re-elected.)
The Foundation has tremendous potentialities for
usefulness. Already it is supplementing the salary
of a much-needed teacher who wouldn't otherwise
be available to the school, and it is the purpose to
use income from the endowment in succeeding years
to draw to the School of Journalism staff the best
available men for its faculty. The program is and
will continue to be adaptable to current needs. Its
purpose is to strengthen the training of young people
to carry on the newspaper and allied radio work of
North Carolina and general area.
BETTER TRAINED JOURNALISTS
Everything that contributes to better training of
men and women for journalism helps the business.
Gifts to the Journalism Foundation have a greater
significance than mere assistance to individuals. A
gift to the Foundation means a contribution to the
training of those who will operate and control the
press of the future. Those trained adequately in a
good journalism school will be the best insurance for
the continuance of a free and responsible press serv-ing
the state and nation. Likewise, a free and re-sponsible
press will be the safeguard, not only for
public education in the future, but also for all the
other advantages which we enjoy under our demo-cratic
form of government. To that end the Jour-nalism
Foundation will help in every way within its
means to advance the cause of journalistic training —the years will write eloquent testimonials to wise
giving thereto.
Personal Journalism, Editor Feuds, Half Century Ago
By H. E. C. (Red Buck) Bryant, Route 1, Matthews, N. C.
Asked to contribute a story for the magazine of
the Employment Security Commission of North Caro-lina,
I was told : "It would not be bad to compare
newspapers of 50 years ago with those of today."
That would be a difficult task. Yet, I do not mind
pointing out some differences as I see them.
When I commenced my reporting career with The
Charlotte Observer in the summer of 1895, under its
able editor, Joseph P. Caldwell, a capable man or
woman with a few hundred dollars could have estab-lished
a paper and maintained it by industry and
good judgment. He or she could have purchased a
few cases of type and a press and started in busi-ness.
But, today, it would require thousands upon
thousands of dollars to provide the machinery for
a single issue of a paper ; the cost of production has
increased tremendously. As a result, a majority
of newspapers are run from the business office, not
the editorial sanctum.
Fifty odd years ago readers knew more about
ditors than they do now, and editorials, today, are
not as important as they were then.
Personal journalism has taken a back seat.
Once I wrote a letter to the old New York Sun,
after its remarkable editor, Charles A. Dana, had
passed away, and asked who had written a certain
editorial. The response was : "The Sun." Now-adays,
there is very little curiosity about authorship
)f editorials. The Danas, Greeleys, Pulitzers, Henry
Wattersons, J. P. Caldwells, J. C. Hemphills, and
others of their day are gone. Here and there a
weekly paper has an outstanding editor whose opin-ions
attract and influence readers, but they are few
and far apart.
Training for my life work came from a grand man
who believed that "Nothing but the truth endures!"
His guidance proved a blessing to me. Throughout a
ong and interesting career I have never had to un-earn
what he taught me. Today, as a reader of
papers, if I find that a writer colors news to suit the
editorial policy of his employer, I lose faith in him
and hesitate to read after him.
PAPERS MUST WIN ON MERIT
Mr. Caldwell studiously refrained from putting
himself or his paper under obligations to anyone, not
even a friend. Once, when his business manager
went out and rounded up an extraordinary group of
advertisers by an appeal that they owed The Ob-server
something for its great service to the com-munity,
the boss said : "No, you have done a good
job, but that will not do; we cannot afford it. We
must win on merit."
The spirit of absolute independence was instilled
into me and all other members of The Observer staff.
Fifty years ago it was customary to single out
newspapers and newspaper representatives for spe-cial
favors, give them lower rates at hotels, free
tickets to shows, and railroad passes. In Washing-ton,
where I labored for the greater part of my life,
there were public men who thought it proper, or
actually necessary, to give gratuities. One Congress-man
did not like it because I declined to attend an
annual dinner he had for "representatives of the
EASTERN N. C. ASSOCIATION
HOLDS SEMI-ANNUAL MEETINGS
The Eastern North Carolina Press Association is the
larger of the three area groups organized under and as units
of the N. C. Press Association. It covers fully half of the
area of the State, from Raleigh eastward, and was organized
three or four years ago. Meetings are held twice a year,
fall and spring. The last meeting was at Wilson.
Officers elected at that meeting include Mrs. Elizabeth
Gold Swindell, Wilson Daily Times, President; Sam Ragan,
News and Observer, Raleigh, vice-president; Mayon Parker,
Parker Bros., Ahoskie, secretary-treasurer (permanent).
Other directors are: W. C. Manning, Williamston Enter-prise,
immediate past president; Grover Britt, Sampson In-dependent,
Clinton, and Josh L. Home, Rocky Mount Tele-gram.
PAGE 8 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1951
WESTERN N. C. NEWSPAPER GROUP
MEETS MONTHLY IN ASHEVILLE
The Western North Carolina Press Association is an
active unit in the mountain area of the North Carolina
Press Association, meeting monthly, usually in Asheville,
but occasionally at other points in the area. This group has
been organized for several years.
Present officers of the group are: Miss Addie Mae Cooke,
Cherokee Scout, Murphy, president; Noah Hollowe.ll, West-ern
Carolina Tribune, Hendersonville, vice-president; Mrs.
J. A. Gray, Sylva Herald, secretary; W. Curtis Russ, Waynes-ville
Mountaineer, reporter.
press who had to write about him." After I had
turned down several of his invitations, he asked me
why I did not accept.
I responded : "In the first place, I have a good din-ner
at home every day; in the second place, you do
not owe me one, and, in the third place, you may do
something tomorrow or next day that might make
a story you would not like to see in print, and I could
not write it as I should with my stomach full of your
food."
That viewpoint was difficult for my would-be host
to see. I told him that, if he would invite me to his
home with others than reporters, who had to call on
him daily for news, I could accept and get pleasure
out of being his guest, but something to be exclus-ively
eaten by members of the press on his beat did
not appeal to me.
In the old days owners of papers had to take all
sorts of things for pay. A cord of wood, a gallon
of home-made molasses or liquor, or some corn for
the livestock was given for subscriptions. But, that
day has passed. Money rolls in now. Laws prevent
the presenting of railroad and other passes.
FREE RAILROAD PASSES
I recall an editorial written by Mr. Caldwell on
the subject of such means of transportation. It
read : "A sub-committee, representing forty railroad
systems, has agreed to recommend to their roads the
abolition of the free pass system, and it is stated
that there is reason to believe that the recommenda-tion
will be adopted and that after the first of Jan-uary
next the pass will go. It should. It is both an
injustice and an evil. Passes are generally to be
found in the pockets of those who are best able to
pay fare, and they are not there without reason, but
to influence those who hold them. The railroads haul
an immense number of people free. If all who ride
free were made to pay, railroad fares could be re-duced,
the railroads still make as much money or
more, and they would discharge with more equity
their function as common carriers. The pass is not
just, and it 'grinds' a poor man or one of moderate
means, who has paid for his ticket to see a money-bags
across the aisle pull one on the conductor—
a
money-bags who has no claim to free transportation
beyond the fact that he is supposed to have 'influ-ence.'
The railroads ought to put everybody on the
same level, and if this is ever done it must be done
by the roads themselves, for it has been demonstrat-ed
that statute law is inadequate to reach the free
pass evil. There are all sorts of ways of evading
such laws."
I rode all over North Carolina on assignments
from The Observer, but never on a free pass; Mr.
Caldwell saw that my way was paid. Two interest-ing
experiences during my active newspaper service
convinced me Mr. Caldwell was right in his desire
for independence. It was intimated, in a hot State
campaign, that my stories from Washington were
biased in favor of Senator F. M. Simmons. I was
able to deny that with emphasis. I had never accept-ed
as much as a cigar from him. The intimation was
withdrawn, and an apology extended. There had
been a veiled suggestion that I was paid to help the
Senator. That could have resulted in the spilling of
blood. Senator Simmons might have favored some
newspaper representatives but not me. All I asked
of him was news, and he was fair about that.
MANY EDITORIAL CONFLICTS
Controversies, or feuds, between editors seem to
have ceased. In my early days there were sharp
conflicts over prohibition, the Gold Standard and
Free Silver, and other subjects. Now and then one
editor would call another a barroom bum, a liar, or
worse. Nowadays newspaper owners frown on that
sort of thing; they do not think it helps a paper to
succeed. In fact, the editorial writers of one paper
ignore those of a competitor. One struggling for
existence gets no free advertising from its more suc-cussful
rivals. In the old days Mr. Caldwell, of The
Charlotte Observer, and Mr. Josephus Daniels, of
The News and Observer, were in conflict much of
the time. Vile names were used, and personal en-counters
threatened. A castigation Mr. Caldwell
gave the Rev. A. J. McKelway, then editor of a lead-ing
church paper, resulted in a law suit. No more
scathing article has ever been written in the State
than the one directed at Mr. McKelway. It attracted
more than State-wide attention because of its fierce-ness,
and, even today, requests for copies of it are
made. There have been duels over editorial com-ment
but such bitter conflicts are unheard of now.
An interesting feature of newspapers in the nine-ties
was the use of clippings from well-known writ-ers.
That sort of enlightenment is of the past. Just
one paper I see, The Laurinburg Exchange, devotes
space to worthwhile stories from other publications,
Papers today are crowded with all sorts of matter,
and have no room for bright squibs from the othei
fellow's print shop.
During my employment by the Washington Bureau
MID-WESTERN N. C. NEWSPAPER
ASSOCIATION MEETS MONTHLY
The Mid-Western North Carolina Press Association, one
of the three area units of the N. C. Press Association covers
roughly, the Piedmont area of the State. It has been or
ganized for several years. Recently the group came to life
again after a period of suspension. Meetings are held ai
various points monthly in the area.
Present officers are: Gordon Tomlinson, Mocksville Enter
prise, president; Richard H. Byrd, Valdese News, secretary
treasurer; J. P. Huskins, Statesville Daily Record, vice
president.
Winter-Spring, i 95
1
THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 9
N. C. PRESS ASSOCIATION HOLDS
SESSIONS FOR DAILIES—WEEKLIES
During the meetings of the North Carolina Press Asso-ciation,
both the summer convention and the winter Press
Institute members divide into daily and weekly field groups
for sessions to deal with problems relating to their respect-ive
fields.
At the January meeting in Chapel Hill, Mrs. Elizabeth
Gold Swindell, of the Wilson Daily Times, presided over the
daily paper session. D. J. Germino, Durham Herald-Sun,
has been secretary-treasurer of this group for a decade or
more.
In the weekly group meeting Bill Arp Lowrance, Meck-lenburg
Times, Charlotte, vice-president of the State Asso-ciation,
presided. Usually the president or the vice-president
of the association, whichever is in the non-daily group, pre-sides
at these sessions.
of the old New York World, I often heard it said
a half hundred columns or more were thrown away
late at night to give space for more interesting
news. A telegram that our bureau chief got once or
twice a week read like this : "Cut copy to bone—we
are crowded !" I have seen good stories of a thou-sand
words reduced to 200. In 1912 I was sent
through Southern States to get affidavits from col-ored
delegates to the Republican National Conven-tion
to show that Theodore Roosevelt and Howard A.
Taft supporters had offered money for votes in the
contest for the nomination of the Republican party
for President.
REAMS OF COPY THROWN AWAY
The day I left Washington on that assignment a
leading gambler was killed in New York City. That
proved to be one of the most sensational murders in
the history of that great city, and the newspapers
were full of stories about it for weeks. I went as
far as Natchez, Miss., and wired a story of a thou-sand
or more words every night. The trip cost The
World approximately $1,500.00, and the only story
of mine used contained 500 words, and that was sent
in the first day out. Later, as the day of the elec-tion
approached, with Roosevelt running as the big
Bull Moose, I was asked to revise my stories and
hurry them over. On the way to the station to put
them on a train I saw that Mr. Roosevelt had been
shot and severly wounded.* Again, my affidavits
were held up ; they never were published.
A frequent saying that I heard in my cub-report-ing
days ran like this : "Here is something for your
paper—it may not be news, but it will help to fill
up!"
Now, my only concern is over the use of the blue
pencil or a pair of scissors. With bigger things hap-pening
than those I can recall, one of my yarns may
be cut as short as the tail of one of my fast hounds
who lost part of his because the screw worms at-tacked
it. Space fillers are not needed.
I often wonder what some of the leading maga-zines
of today would do if it were not for the liquor
advertisements they carry; they must have them to
prosper.
*Thcodore Roosevelt was shot by a crank and slightly wounded (con-tinued
his campaign) at Milwaukee, Wis., October 14, 1912, less than a
month before the election in which Woodrow Wilson was elected President.
There has been a wonderful improvement in the
news features of the weekly papers of the State.
Such local publications are remarkable for their
appearance and the character of their printed mat-ter.
The daily papers are so large that I like to get
a weekly with its brief summary of the news. North
Carolina must have more than a hundred good week-lies,
some of them twice-a-week papers.
I often think of a request I had forty-odd years
ago to return from Washington for help to start a
new weekly in a fine old county. A prominent mer-chant
of the county seat wrote to ask me to join him
and others in the establishment of a paper that stood
for progress. He was evidently very angry at the
editor of the town paper. He said he was more in-terested
in tearing down than building up ; his reason
for that statement was a story printed of a building
under construction which had fallen down. The
merchant had announced a three- or four-story build-ing
for his town, and at that time his structure would
have been the "sky-scraper" of the place. No such
pretentious building had been contemplated before
that. Plans were drawn and erection commenced,
and after the walls had been put up one of them fell.
My friend said the local paper had a column or more
about the collapse of the wall; whereas, he had just
an inch about the announcement of the project.
I was told that a committee would meet me at the
train if I would consent to come and help them with
their proposed enterprise. The man had my sym-pathy
but I am afraid had I been on the job when
the wall tumbled, I might have made more of a story
than the editor did. New buildings are erected daily
but new ones seldom fall.
GREAT TALKER—POOR WRITER
Some weekly newspapers were very sorry in
former years. Their editors were great talkers but
indolent workers. News features were neglected, or
actually ignored, but editorials were caustic. If the
editor happened to be a bitter partisan, he spent
much time going about the streets abusing fellow
editors. I knew of a case of that kind.
The owner and editor of the local paper took great
pride in denouncing my chief. He was a Bryanite
when Grover Cleveland was concluding his last year
in the White House. He denounced Mr. Caldwell
daily to people who would listen to him. He rarely
devoted time to his office. His paper evidenced his
lack of industry in the sanctum. Finally, he decided
to blow the "old Gold Bug" of The Charlotte Observer
to bits with a two-column editorial. Busy for days
on his masterpiece, he could not resist the tempta-tion
to sally forth several times a day to warn people
he met on the streets of the surprise he was prepar-ing
for his contemporary. "Thirty" written to his
piece he turned it over to his printer. It appeared
in due time full of mistakes, framed in poor type,
and errors in spelling. But, the punch was there.
Seeing it, Mr. Caldwell chopped it out and published
it word for word, mistake by mistake, just as it ap-peared,
and wrote this line of comment at the bot-tom
of it: "When you hear nothing, say nothing!"
PAGE 10 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1951
The irate editor had not prepared his friends for
that terse comment. He had purchased an Observer
daily for a week to see if he had smashed Mr. Cald-well.
To make a long story short, he sold his paper
and hired himself out.
As a Washington correspondent, I kept in some
sort of touch with the State, and was always inter-ested
in its newspapers. Fifty or more years ago
press correspondents had a free hand. Good papers
took special pride in their representatives there.
They were anxious to keep track of their own public
men in that capital city. Good feature stories were
sent in from writers of ability. Political news was
far more important than it is today. If a member of
Congress made a mistake, the fact was published.
Now, Southern papers are more like those of the
North—they pay very little attention to their Con-gressmen
; a good member gets little credit for what
he does and a questionable one can get by with mur-der
without being found out. Of course, weekly
papers were not expected to be able to pay much for
their Washington news service. Some of them were
fooled into employing Tom, Dick or Harry. One
Democratic paper of fine reputation had for its cor-respondent
a man in the employ of the Republican
National Committee. That sort of hireling if a good
news man would be all right if fair, and the readers
would never know about his political faith.
ASKED TWICE TO COLOR NEWS
Twice in my life I was asked to color news to fit
the editorial, or perhaps the financial policy, of the
paper I was working for. I was never asked by Mr.
Caldwell to leave out news, or doctor it. News was
news with him.
After the first world war, Secretary of the Treas-ury
Andrew W. Mellon proposed a plan to cut taxes.
Big taxpayers were for it, hook, line and sinker. A
feature of it would have reduced the surtax very
substantially—that suited all men of great wealth.
Our special tax reporter was being scooped daily on
that important story. I was asked to take it. I
wrote seven front page stories for my paper—The
New York World—after I canvassed the field thor-oughly
for facts and sentiment. I said the Mellon
plan would have to be changed—a compromise would
be the result. That was not my opinion but that of
the members of Congress who would have the fram-ing
of a bill to be enacted into law. Our bureau got
a wire saying my stories were "running contrary"
to the editorial policy of the paper. That was the
first and only suggestion of the kind that ever came
to us in my twenty years with the World. My chief,
Charles Michelson, ignored the telegram, told me to
proceed as I had been doing. We had not been scoop-ed.
I wrote three additional stories and was then
taken off the job by instructions from the New York
office. I resigned in a huff. Later, when the paper
realized that my stories stood up, I was rehired, and
remained with the bureau until the paper was sold.
After Mr. Caldwell died, I was asked to refrain
from suggesting in my Observer reports that there
might be a candidate against one of our Senators.
Several names were being mentioned. To my way
of thinking, that was a suppression of news. That
took place before the present owners bought the
paper—it had been floundering about a little, and
was uncertain what course to pursue.
No other North Carolina newspaper ever made
such a suggestion to me.
Personalities of Past Among North Carolina Editors
By Roland F. Beasley, Editor, The Monroe Journal
My entrance into the field of journalism, or as I
still prefer to call it, newspaper work, was accidental
and by way of the back door. In 1881 my brother,
G. M. Beasley, then under twelve years of age, be-came
a printer's devil. And it was a devil of a job
then. No genuine printer's devil now exists. I
heard much about the printing office from him and
by the time I was in the middle teens I found myself
writing "pieces for the paper." I never learned the
printer's side. My brother stuck to that, and I con-tinued
to try my hand at writing.
In 1894 while I was graduating at Wake Forest,
he and I jointly started the Monroe Journal. We
are still .both working on it. At that time Mr. Jose-phus
Daniels was coming home to Raleigh to take
over the News and Observer and "save the State,"
as Dr. Columbus Durham, the belligerent Baptist
leader of that time, said. Josephus and Durham
were on different sides of the controversy about the
support of the University and the supposed injury to
the denominational colleges.
Joseph P. Caldwell had not long been come to
Charlotte to take over The Charlotte Observer. He
had left his former printer, R. R. Clark, to take over
the Statesville Landmark, the weekly on which Mr.
Caldwell had made his reputation. Mr. Clark be-came
a most able editor. The Charlotte News was
N. C. ASSOCIATED PRESS CLUB
INCLUDES AP STATE MEMBERS
The North Carolina AP Club, composed of representa-tives
of newspapers in the State which are members of The
Associated Press and thus receive its news services, has
been organized in this State for 10 or 15 years and holds
its meetings in connection with the meetings of the N. C.
Press Association. The chief of the Carolinas Bureau of the
AP, located in Charlotte, serves as secretary of the club.
Officers elected at the meeting held in connection with the)
Press Institute at Chapel Hill in January follow: Steed
Rollins, executive editor, Durham Herald-Sun, president; 1
Claude S. Ramsey, executive news editor, Asheville Citizen-
Times, vice-president; Paul Hansell, chief of the AP bureau
in the Carolinas, Charlotte, secretary. Additional directorsH
are: Mrs. Elizabeth G. Swindell, business manager, Wilsor|
Daily Times; Carl O. Jeffress, general manager, Greensborq.
News-Record; Staley Cook, editor Burlington Times-News
1
Winter-Spring, 1 951 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 1
then a little four-page paper gotten out by Wade
Harris pretty much all by himself. Carey Dowd had
not appeared. However, he did appear shortly,
bought the Mecklenburg Times from Jerome Dowd,
and in a short time, The Charlotte News, from Mr.
Harris. The Charlotte Observer was a four-page,
seven column, paper, just putting in the first linotype
machine in the State.
In Greensboro Joe Reece and Harp Elam were
running the Daily Record, which sometimes had
some news items in it but only after there was room
to get in all the ads. Clem Wright was about to
establish the Greensboro Telegram with C. P. Sapp,
a very brilliant man, as editor. Asheville, Durham,
and Winston-Salem were in about the same condi-tions
as to newspapers. None were getting any tele-graphic
news except a little snatchy pony service
of a few paragraphs. No paper in the State had
over 2,500 circulation. In Goldsboro Col. Joe Rob-inson
was running the Goldsboro Argus like Joe
Reece was running the Greensboro Record, a few
items of local news, if they were not crowded out by
the ads. Joe Caldwell said that Col. Joe Robinson
was the cleverest man in North Carolina and had the
sorriest newspaper. But I never thought he beat Joe
Reece and Harp Elam in Greensboro.
In Wilmington, The Star, which had been started
right after the Civil War by Maj. William H. Ber-nard,
was still going as a seven column four page
paper. William H. Bonitz, who had successfully
operated the Goldsboro Messenger as a weekly and
made money out of it some way, had gone to Wil-mington
and started a second or third daily. He
started the Wilmington Messenger and hired Dr.
T. B. Kingsbury, who was considered the leading
editor and scholar in the State, to edit it. He had
been with The Star.
Charles A. Dana said when William R. Hearst
began to sweep things with his New York Journal,
that its success was due to the fact that Hearst had
hired all the World's best liars. When Bonitz hired
Dr. Kingsbury, it was supposed that The Star was
done for. But it wasn't. It kept right on shining as
brightly as it had and eventually outlived the Mes-senger.
While these two dailies were operating in a
town that could not support one to any extent, there
was a third paper. This was the Wilmington Re-view,
operated by Mr. Josh James, who must have
been as clever a man as he was a sorry editor. The
Review was four pages, five or six columns. I have
seen many copies of the Review and I would make,
oath that I never saw two news items come out in
the same issue.
Dr. Kingsbury was a scholar in the classics, in
history, and theology. I think everyone around Wil-mington
agreed that he was the greatest editor at
all, but I doubt if many read what he had to say. It
is said that in times of political or other excitement
the doctor was so detached that his leading editorial
the next morning might be a discussion of who wrote
the Junius letters. He was a staunch Southern
champion and always had plenty of ammunition to
shoot at the Yankees. I was told years ago that his
salary was $18 a week, which was considered lib-eral.
I always thought—following J. P. Caldwell
—
that the test of whether a man was an editor or just
a writer was whether he stayed in the office 'til the
paper was "put to bed." According to that test Dr.
Kingsbury was not closely attached to the paper,
for he left the office about 4 o'clock in the afternoon
and went home and enjoyed himself in his library.
Such was the newspaper world into which I was
born. Joseph Pulitzer was at his zenith ; Charles A.
Dana, "old vitriol" as Mr. Caldwell called him, was
spitting brilliancy and venom; James Gordon Ben-nett
was still running the Herald as a personal organ
that would never print the name of a person Mr.
Bennett did not like; W. R. Hearst was just coming
upon the scene and Adolf Ochs had just acquired the
New York Times. Henry Watterson was still thun-dering
loudly in the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Jour-nal.
Henry Grady was dead but he left hundreds of
boys in North Carolina and all over the South with
his name. The Atlanta Constitution was the leading
paper of the South and Frank L. Stanton, its poetic
and humane genius, filled his column of verse daily.
Most of the weekly papers still used Franklin hand
presses and I myself was fairly efficient in pulling
the lever of one. I considered it easier than the job
of the man who rolled the ink over the forms. When
you became skillful enough to run off one hundred
impressions in 22 minutes, you were doing right
well. Then the papers had to be turned and run
through again to print the other two pages. Thus
two men turned out 100 completed four-page papers
in 22 minutes, if everything went well.
The dailies and some of the weeklies were printed
on the old Campbell cylinder presses, and along in
the nineties the dailies began to get duplex presses
such as the weeklies now use.
H. E. C. Bryant and I began writing about the
same time, he on The Charlotte Observer and I on
my own paper in 1894. I am now writing more than
I ever did. - Mr. Bryant, though having retired from
regular employment, writes for his own amusement
and the enjoyment of thousands of friends. For
over ten years he has been writing a column weekly
for the Monroe Journal, several for other weeklies,
and a Sunday article for The Charlotte Observer.
He has an inexhaustible fund of incidents and obser-vations
running from the grass roots of Providence
township to the strongest characters in the United
States Senate for the last 50 years.
In the early days of the century when Bryant,
Banks, Avery, McNeil, and Abernathy were inspired
and directed by Mr. Caldwell, they made what might
be called the Periclean age in the Observer history.
Something of the same thing had taken place with
the News and Observer under Mr. Daniels, except
that his staff was devoted to politics exclusively,
while The Observer boys roved over the whole field
of human interest.
The creation of rural mail service gave the week-lies
their first impulse to growth, and the motor
PAGE 1 2 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1951
vehicle later did the same thing for the dailies. Along
with this, of course, was the general increase of
trade and industry and the necessity for advertising.
Newspaper publishing now is little more than a
mechanical industry. With the general trend to-wards
consolidation and centralization, newspapers
have lost their individuality and become more and
more alike. If there were any geniuses left they
would be smothered in the oceans of mediocrity and
rubbish with which the papers are crammed. But
newspapers, like radio, colleges and pulpits, run
more and more to rubbish as a means of attracting
numbers. There are no intellectual standards which
have any weight and newspaper editorials have be-come
little more than a part of the hue and cry for
the moment's fad.
Yesteryear Editors More Vigorous Than Today's Crop
By Dr. Oscar J. Coffin, Dean, School of Journalism, University of North Carolina
My arm having been twisted by one M. R. (Mike)
Dunnagan, I fumblingly set about a bit of a survey
of newspapers in North Carolina as they were when
I first met them eye to eye and how they appear now.
Some 45 years ago when I was busy overcoming
the objections of the late William Cicero Hammer to
the employment of what he was wont to refer to as
"an honor graduate of the University of North Caro-lina"
at $8 a week, Charlotte had three daily news-papers
with as many editors, Greensboro as equally
well supplied, and Raleigh was just recovering from
the loss of a third one. There were two papers in
Asheville, Durham, Winston-Salem and Wilmington
under separate management. Salisbury, Tarboro,
High Point, Fayetteville, Greenville, Kinston, Wilson
and Goldsboro had one each. I recall three semi-weeklies,
one at Statesville, two at Monroe, and there
may have been another one or so that I have over-looked.
What with the number of small towns pub-lishing
dailies—there are two at Statesville, for in-stance—
the number of dailies has increased although
there's no longer a city with three, and the ownership
has been consolidated save in Raleigh and Charlotte.
The number of weeklies is approximately the same.
For though several towns have them which didn't,
a large number have ceased publication.
EARLIER EDITORS AND REPORTERS
The largest circulation of any daily newspaper
was not above 10,000, but I'm inclined to think that
the editors were more widely known than at present.
Journalism was much more of a personal and parti-san
affair. Josephus Daniels, Joseph Pearson Cald-well,
Carey Dowd, and Colonel Joe Robinson figured
far more prominently in public and private conver-sation
than current editors of the News and Ob-server,
Charlotte Observer, Charlotte News and
Goldsboro Argus. Indeed, Judge Rufus R. Clark of
the Statesville Landmark; Old Man Rights, local
editor of the Union Republican ; Henry Blount, Wil-son
correspondent, and Colonel Risden Tyler Bennett
of Wadesboro were as often spoken of as any of the
State officials or prominent bankers in the State.
Red Buck Bryant for the Charlotte Observer and
Tom Pence of the News and Observer as Washing-ton
correspondents were known to all who pretended
to read the papers, and the public was becoming
acquainted with Tom Bost and Col. Fred Olds at
Raleigh. Al Fairbrother had Everything ; Don Laws
with his Yellow Jacket was stinging at will ; D. Scott
Poole was providing Facts and Figures ; and B. Clay
Ashcraft and Roland Beasley at Monroe and J. W.
Noell at Roxboro were in stride. Of these are left
Roland Beasley, D. Scott Poole, Tom Bost and J. W.
Noell.
Their publications were, in the main, poorly print-ed
but far better spelled. They placed as much em-phasis
on murder although they were no psychia-trists.
There was no sex to speak of, but all hands
were reasonably content with gender. Weddings
and funerals were less frequent but perhaps more
thoroughly enjoyed. Certainly no latter-day bride
received the tributes accorded her by Henry Blount,
and no patriot is gathered to his reward with as
eloquent a tribute as those done by Col. Bennett.
Divorces were left to the courts pretty much and
were not taken lightly. Mention of those in the
family way was confined to members of the family.
HAND-TO-MOUTH PUBLISHERS
Newspaper men more or less just happened. They
laid no more claim to altruism, but they talked more
about trade at home. Many of them expected a sub-sidy
from the party, although the total given the
whole press of the State probably would not equal
the advertising receipts of a present daily today
from the friends of a gubernatorial or senatorial can-didate
in one Democratic primary. Editors were
perhaps held in greater respect, but publishers who
lived hand-to-mouth and met payrolls by weekly
collections were thoroughly disesteemed.
Now the editor is written to inform him how little
he knows and how poorly he thinks, but while he is
not made a member of the Governor's staff, all the
civic clubs offer him membership, and a successful
publisher is almost as much admired as the proprie-tor
of a drycleaning establishment or a funeral home.
Reporters, when I began reporting, were suspect-ed
of not having the with or willingness to engage in
gainful endeavor. Most of them became reporters
much after the fashion in which Randolph's Rufe
Betts made a sale of a coon dog.
"I tried him for possum," said Rufe, "and he run
rabbits. I tried him for foxes and he wound up in
the hog pen. I tried him for squirrels and there was
nothing doing. I 'lowed any danged dog ought to
Winter-Spring, 1 95
1
THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 3
be good for something, so I sold him for a coon dog."
I don't at the moment recall any reporters of my
vintage who actually starved to death, but I never
met one whose wife was wearing a 3-carat diamond.
Many of them—perhaps the majority—found some-thing
more lucrative, and some of them even became
respectable and were elected to public office.
REPORTING MORE OBJECTIVE
They all had one thing in common, however, which
I wish more of their current successors had inherit-ed—
they believed in the papers they worked for,
swore they were better than their competitors, sel-dom
looked at the clock, and wouldn't have accepted
a wristwatch from Santa Claus. Too, I think re-porting
of the yesteryears was more objective. To
be sure, the reporter on a partisan paper was not
always fair to the political opposition. There may
have been more unfounded charges made, but there
was less space given to rumors. The political re-porter
usually spent his time trying to get a politi-cian
to say something quotable rather than explain-ing
how he himself shaped the rough-hewn destinies
of incumbents of office.
Way back yonder there were few news photos. A
live country-seat semi-weekly nowadays will print
more news pictures in a month than any daily in
North Carolina produced in the year of 1910.
Are we getting better ? I wouldn't know. A news-paper
meant more to the subscriber than now. I
think it meant more to the newspaper men, but a
bank will oblige publisher or reporter much more
quickly than aforetime, and newspaper wives more
frequently patronize shoe store and hairdressser.
This, I think, is about as it should be.
Writing for publication is done for two reasons:
pleasure and profit. Doggone little pleasure if there
ain't some profit.
Description of State Newspapers Written 28 Years Ago
Since the day on which James Davis, appointed
postmaster of New Bern by Benjamin Franklin,
started the North Carolina Gazette, first issued in
1751, newspapers in the "Tar Heel State" have had
rough sailing and many of them have perished in
shallow waters. Davis made four attempts to estab-lish
newspapers, with indifferent success. His first
was published for about seven years. In 1784 he
made a second attempt with "The North Carolina
Magazine or Universal Intelligencer", which soon
stopped. He again revived the Gazette in 1768 and
published it "intermittently" for over ten years.
Then, with Robert Keith, he established "The North
Carolina Gazette or Impartial Intelligencer and
Weekly General Advertiser" in 1783, because "there
has not been a newspaper in North Carolina for sev-eral
years".
Andrew Stewart, a native of Belfast, Ireland, and
for some time a printer and bookseller in Philadel-phia,
was the second man to establish a paper in this
colony, at Wilmington, in 1763 (or '64). His bluff
of "Printer to the King" worked for a time and se-cured
for him some of the public printing, but his
paper was suspended in 1767 "for lack of support".
He named it "The North Carolina Gazette and Week-ly
Post-Boy". Later, with Stewart's equipment,
Adam Boyd began, in 1769, publishing "The Cape
Fear Mercury", which, although a poor paper from a
typographical point of view, lasted until the Revolu-tion.
These early efforts are related for a purpose—to
show that the ups and downs of North Carolina
journalistic efforts have continued through the years
and that these ups and down are based on the pecu-liar
condition of the population of the State, which
also explains many other circumstances in its his-
Note: This article was prepared early in 1923 as an assignment in a
course in "Development of Modern Newspapers" by M. R. Dunnagan, then a
student in the Pulitzer Sehool of Journalism, Columbia University, New York
City.
tory. Without seaport facilities, as a sand bar ex-tends
from the northern to the southern boundaries
of the State, cutting off the shore, except for occa-sional
breaks, direct settlement was impossible, so
North Carolina was settled by migration from other
states, largely in groups of many nationals.
POPULATION SCATTERED—CLANNISH
Among the early settlers were the English around
Wilmington ; the Swiss around New Bern ; the Mora-vians
around Salem; the Quakers in Guilford; the
Scotch Presbyterian in Mecklenburg, and numbers of
other groups in various sections, each with its own
modes and methods and each a law unto itself. Most
of these settlers were clannish and lived for many
years within the limits of their territory without
intermingling with their neighbors. Later scattered
home-seekers sought intermediate localities and
established homes in mountains or coves in the west-ern
section, on the plains in the center or the sands
of the east. As a result, there was little in common
and for many years a glaring lack of homogenity,
the welding process having covered a long period of
years.
As a result of this condition, schools, except for
those able to provide private teaching, were un-known
in the early days, because of the scattered
and thinly settled population. After the start for a
public school system made by Calvin H. Wiley, the
movement was taken up at the turn of the century
by the State's "educational governor", Charles B.
Aycock, whose campaign was made on the slogan of
placing "a schoolhouse within reach of every boy and
girl in the State," and his allies, Alderman, Mclver,
Graham and other practical school men. Their ef-forts
are bearing a rich fruit, as may be seen by
the census reports, which placed the illiterate whites
in the State in 1920 (over ten years old) at 8.2 per
cent, as compared with 12.3 per cent in 1910, and
PAGE 1 4 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1951
illiterate Negroes at 24.8 per cent, against 31.9 per
cent ten years ago.
This background, which also is responsible for
lack of development of large towns, explains the un-stable
careers of newspapers. It gives additional
insight to state that less than one-fifth of the popula-tion
lives in towns of over 2,500, and that 2,068,753
are classed as rural and 490,370 as urban. Only
two of the largest towns can be placed in the 50,000
population class. (1920 census).
PAPERS LOCAL IN TYPE
It will be seen readily, therefore, that newspapers
are restricted in circulation and that, until the past
decade, such a term as "state papers" could not be
applied. To revert again to statistics, it is seen that
there are 290 papers and periodicals published in the
State. Included in the daily list are 40 papers, all
of which, except about a dozen, are afternoon papers,
largely in towns having from 8,000 to 20,000 popu-lation.
Twenty-nine semi-weekly, 176 weekly, 28
monthly and nine quarterly papers complete the list,
except for a few odd-period publications.
All of the papers in North Carolina, broadly
speaking, have been conservative and devoted largely
to the interests of the immediate communities in
which they are published. Since the State still holds
fifth place in the nation as an agricultural State
(value of agricultural products) much space has
been devoted to the farmers and their interests. The
past decade has seen such a rapid industrial growth,
in which North Carolina has taken first place in
number of cotton mills and is second only to Massa-chusetts
in value of textile products, and has taken
first place in tobacco growing and manufacturing,
trade papers have been established. As a result of
industrial development, also, and the subsequent or-ganization
of the workers, labor papers are now
published in eight or ten of the largest industrial
centers. These changes have been reflected in the
straight newspapers, likewise ; in fact, have followed
the lead of the papers.
WEEKLY PAPERS SUFFICIENT
Weekly papers have played an important part in
the life of the State, because the agricultural pur-suits
have had the effect of retarding extensive read-ing
and the weekly survey of the news was sufficient
for the farmer. The oldest of these, which has since
become an afternoon daily, is the Fayetteville Ob-server.
Among the weekly and semi-weekly publi-cations
that should be noted in passing are the Eliza-beth
City Independent, "all that the name implies"
and edited by a very clever writer, W. O. Saunders
;
the Western Sentinel, the Robesonian, of Lumber-ton;
the Lexington Dispatch and the Union Repub-lican,
which is the nearest approach to a party organ
in the State. (Later reference will be made to party
organs).
Before leaving the weekly field, it is worth while
to note an unusual situation. At Moravian Falls, far
back in the mountains of Wilkes County, miles from
a railroad, has developed a condition unique in the
SAVORY LOVING CUP AWARD WON
BY 13 N. C. WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS
The Savory Loving Cup, a trophy presented to the N. C.
Press Association in 1922 on the occasion of the 50th anni-versary
of its organization by Walter H. Savory, for many
years a regular attendant at the conventions as Southern
representative of the Mergenthaler Linotoype Co., was
awarded to newspapers in the weekly field for 13 years,
until all vacant space on the cup was occupied by the names
of the winners.
Mr. Savory, popular with all of the members, decided to
offer the cup in North Carolina only for general excellence
of newspapers. The award was made at each annual con-vention
by a secret committee named by officers of the asso-ciation.
The cup was kept by the winner during the ensuing
year and was returned to the convention for re-award each
year. The cup is now proudly displayed in the School of
Journalism at the University of North Carolina.
The Hertford County Herald, Ahoskie, won the cup for
two years in succession and The Elkin Tribune won it twice,
with an interval between.
Inscription on one side of the cup, dashes (—) indicating
ends of lines, reads as follows:
"Savory Loving Cup—presented by—Walter Harriman
Savory—honorary member—of the—North Carolina Press
Association—on its—Fiftieth Anniversary—July, 1922
—
awarded for excellence of typography—make-up and general
effectiveness—of publication—1 9 2 2'."
Inscribed on the other side are the names of winners and
years won, headed by the word "Awarded", as follows:
The Smithfield Herald
—
1922
The Pilot, Vass, N. C.—1923
Hertford County Herald, Ahoskie, N. C.—19 24
Heltford County Herald, Ahoskie, N. C.—1925
The Sun, Rutherfordton, N. C.—1926
The Roxboro Courier, Roxboro, N. C.—1927
The Wilkes Patriot, Wilkesboro, N. C.—1928
The Albemarle Press, Albemarle, N. C.—19 29
The Cleveland Star, Shelby, N. C.—1930
Lenoir News-Topic, Lenoir, N. C.—1931
The Elkin Tribune, Elkin, N. C.—1932
Rutherford Co. News, Rutherfordton, N. C.—1933
The Elkin Tribune, Elkin, N. C.—1934
(Thanks to Miss Beatrice Cobb, Roy Parker, and Prof.
Jack Riley for data.)
newspaper field. Many years ago R. Don Laws, a
brilliant writer and bitter partisan, started a small,
four-page weekly which he named "The Yellow
Jacket". It is a Republican paper with a sting for
the opposition in almost every line. Although not
circulating largely in the State, it built up a mailing
list that ran up to a hundred thousand or more. So
successful was the paper that at the village is found
one of the best equipped newspaper plants in the
State. Special trucks carry each issue about five
miles to the nearest railroad station. At the same
place and developing later, is "The Lash", also a
weekly paper of somewhat similar proportions,
which is classed as an independent, but also has the
sting. Its circulation, scattered over a wide terri-tory,
is given as 30,000.
DAILY PAPERS DEVELOPING
In the afternoon field, passing mention should be
made of half a dozen of the papers published at the
larger towns, including the Twin-City Sentinel, Win-ston-
Salem, considered the most attractive paper in
the State in make-up and typographically ; the Ral-eigh
Times, edited by an exceedingly brilliant, versa-tile
and, at times, sarcastic young man ; the Charlotte
News, one of the best financial successes in the State
;
the Asheville Times; the Greensboro Record; the
Winter-Spring, i 95
1
THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 5
Durham Sun and the Wilmington Despatch, the lat-ter
of which has recently changed hands. These
papers are all published in towns that have morning
papers also, some of them suffering from the compe-tition
and others from limited territory in which to
circulate.
The morning field is more restricted, but the
papers offer a more interesting study. Eliminating,
for the present, the three leading morning papers, it
is proper to mention half a dozen others that are
developing rapidly, in most instances, although all
have passed through their perilous stages. The Win-ston-
Salem Journal, published at the largest city in
the State ; the Asheville Citizen, issued in one of the
greatest resort cities of the nation ; the Durham
Herald, in the city made famous by the Dukes and
other tobacco manufacturers, and the Wilmington
Star, published at the State's only seaport town and
at the place at which the State's second paper was
started, are included in this class.
THREE LEADING DAILIES
And now comes the "triumvirate", the three pa-pers
that have come to be known as State papers,
having circulations which cover the entire State,
even though thin in places. These are the Raleigh
News and Observer, the Charlotte Observer and the
Greensboro News, all having the progress and de-velopment
of the State as their watchwords, but all
pursuing different lines, going about it in different
ways, each jealous of the other and frequently taking
advantage of opportunities to "strike out" at the
others. While, as stated before, all are for progress
and development, if "hobbies" may be selected, the
News and Observer stands for the common people,
as against the "interests" ; the Charlotte Observer
stresses industrial development; the Greensboro
News tends toward the commercial and, as an inde-pendent
in politics, serves as a check on the others.
A paragraph on each of these papers is needed to
complete the story.
The News and Observer is Josephus Daniels,
former Secretary of the Navy. After running a
weekly paper in a smaller town, he, as a young man,
went to Raleigh and became associated with the late
Walter Hines Page in publishing the State Chronicle.
Later he took over the paper and through combina-tions,
his News and Observer, in the early '90's
resulted. Located at the State capital, this paper
has entered into the fights and controversies that
have developed, fighting for prohibition and white
supremacy in the notable campaigns around 1900,
education, opposition to class control and against
the "interests", including the big tobacco and cotton
manufacturers, power companies and other "big
business" activities. Recent fights have been against
legislation exempting stocks in corporations outside
the State from taxes and against issuing bonds for
completing the State highway system. The paper
claims that the latter fight was based on a desire to
"see the end" of heavy bond issues, while it has
brought forth the criticism that the newspaper is an
obstructionist and is playing politics. Needless to
say, the News and Observer is a strongly partisan
Democratic paper.
THE OBSERVER CONSERVATIVE
The Charlotte Observer has been classed as a con-servative
newspaper practically all through its more
than half a century's history. Up to a dozen or more
years ago, it was edited for many years by the late
J. P. Caldwell, a virile and able editor of the old
school, who was both admired and feared. He was
"wet" and one of the bitterest fights in the history
of North Carolina journalism was between him and
Mr. Daniels, into which personality was injected,
without check. Passing from his hands into those
of business men, not newspaper men, this paper suf-fered
a relapse, until it was taken over a few years
ago and put on a business basis. Incidentally, it is
probably the best paying newspaper in the Carolinas
today. This paper plays up as much as it will bear
all news relating to industrial, educational, agricul-tural
activities and good roads news and devotes its
editorial columns largely to such progressive move-ments.
Politics, of course, is not neglected, this
paper also being in the aggressive Democratic col-umn.
EDITOR JOSEPHUS DANIELS WAS
DISTINGUISHED STATE CITIZEN
Josephus Daniels, who became one of North Carolina's
most distinguished citizens, was a newspaper man for al-most
70 years, from the time he was 16 until his death at
8 5. This is probably a record in span, although Mr. Daniels
was away from his editorial desk for some 18 years. As a
result, numbers of North Carolina newspaper men have had
longer continuous and unbroken spans at the desk than did
Mr. Daniels.
Mr. Daniels started a little paper, The Cornucopia, at
Wilson in 1878 and two years later acquired an interest in
The Wilson Advance, control of which he purchased a year
later and operated for four years. It was while here, in
1884, that he was elected president of the N. C. Press As-sociation,
when 22 years of age. He attended his first press
meeting at Catawba Springs in 1879 as one of half a dozen
"boy editors" or amateur editors. His attendance was con-tinuous
after that.
In 1885 Mr. Daniels moved to Raleigh as editor of The
State Chronicle. He had his ups and downs and in 1892 he
was appointed chief clerk in the Interior Department. After
two years he returned to Raleigh and bought, with the help
of 100 friends who took stock with him, the News and Ob-server,
at auction for $6,8 0. Here he remained and re-turned
from periods of public service, until his death, early
in 1948.
Mr. Daniels was a fighter, slugging away with his stubby
pencil in editorials against privilege and the money barons,
corruption in high or low places, fighting for the common
people, for education, for church, for temperance and for
the Democratic party. It was his political activities that
resulted in his first clerkship in Washington; his service for
eight years as Secretary of the Navy under President Wilson;
his service under his former assistant, F. D. Roosevelt, as
Ambassador to Mexico for seven years; his post as national
committeeman for North Carolina for 20 years.
He was the stub pencil author of close to a dozen books,
among them "Life of Ensign Worth Bagley"; "The Navy
and the Nation", "Our Navy at War", "Life of Woodrow
Wilson", "Tar Heel Editor", "Editor in Politics", "The
Wilson Era" (in two volumes), "Shirtsleeve Diplomat", and
had started "Life Begins at 7 5", promising another book
on the 10 0th anniversary of his birth.
Mr. Daniels was a Methodist Church lay leader, and a
leader of the dry forces in the State. He studied law at
the State University around 1885 and was one of its trustees
for 46 years.
PAGE 16 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, i 951
The Greensboro News is a later addition to the
trio. Started some 25 years ago as a Republican
State organ, it was not many years before it found
itself "on the rocks". Later reorganization placed
it in the "independent" category and, as such, with
progressive and forward looking policies, it has
reached a place of importance in the State. Many of
the leading Republicans of the State are supporters
of this publication, while it finds its way into the
homes of many of the Democrats who are not strong
in their partisanship. One feature, which is passing
off the page of so many papers, is the editorial para-graph,
which proves an attractive feature of this
paper.
EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING
The effect of the new era in North Carolina jour-nalism
may be seen in no better way than to give two
instances, one illustrating the value of news-pub-licity;
the other of advertising. Six months before
the meeting of the General Assembly of two years
ago, (1921), T. L. Kirkpatrick, president of the
Citizens Highway Association of North Carolina,
suggested and began a fight for a bond issue of
$50,000,000 to construct a hard-surfaced system of
roads connecting every county seat and principal
town. He was laughed at, called a fanatic and even
a plain fool. He perfected his organization and
delegated the writer to get out a weekly news letter
—propaganda—four months before the General As-sembly's
meeting. From 25 to 100 papers received
this service weekly, most of them played it up and
added to it and before the Legislature adjourned, it
had done what was considered impossible. More-over,
at the session just ended, (1923), it added
$15,000,000 to complete the highway system. Coun-ties
in the State have added probably $40,000,000
more for developing the roads within their boun-daries.
The other instance. About the same time, two
and a half years ago, (1920), the institutions of
higher education realized they were not keeping pace
with the development of the common and high school
systems of the State and were unable to accommo-date
more than half the students seeking admission.
A loose organization was formed and a propaganda
fund of several thousand dollars was raised by
alumni and friends. This was used to give, in page
advertisements in all of the leading daily and weekly
papers in the State, the status of the institutions.
The institutions asked for $47,000,000, approxi-mately,
for seven-year building programs. The legis-lature,
which had sadly neglected these institutions
in the past, gave its proportional part of the amount
asked, for a two year program, leaving later legis-latures
to make the appropriations for succeeding
years.
Printing Industry of the Carolinas, Effective Group
By Henry L. Weathers, Shelby Daily Star, President, Printing Industry of the Carolinas, Inc.
The Printing Industry of the Carolinas, Inc. is
serving effectively the printers of North Carolina
and South Carolina today because, about a score of
years ago, far-seeing and persistent members of the
industry had the vision of what such an organization
could mean. Though the association comprises two
states, this article primarily concerns the North
Carolina industry and trade organization.
The history of the association goes back many
years, to the early part of 1900, when the heads of
several of the larger printing firms met informally
on occasions to discuss their mutual problems. In
late 1931 and early 1932, necessity for cooperation,
the depression of 1929, and the days that followed
with NRA, brought the printers together in an organ-izational
meeting. An association was formed in
which they could exchange information and opinions
on better ways of accomplishing their aims and thus
help the industry as a whole. At that time, the vol-ume
and prices of printing had dropped to a low level
in the State: In October, 1932, the first meeting of
the Carolina Master Printers Association was held
in Greensboro. Mr. A. G. Gordon of Winston-Salem
was elected president.
The first Board of Directors meeting was held in
March, 1933, consisting of such outstanding indi-viduals
as Banks R. Cates, C. G. Harrison, Jos. H.
Hardison, Fred E. Little and W. H. Fisher. These
men personally subscribed sufficient funds to get the
association financially established. Through the
years many others have contributed to the growth
and progress which is responsible for the present
strength of the group. Among some of these are
W. M. Pugh, who served the association for four
years as secretary-treasurer, and later as president
for three years ; Norman Foust, who served as presi-dent
for two years during the second World War;
Jos. J. Stone, who in 1941 was made an honorary
OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF THE
PRINTING INDUSTRY OF CAROLINAS
Present officers and directors of The Printing Industry of
The Carolinas, Inc., abbreviated to PICA, composed of
printing firms of North and South Carolina, are as follows:
Officers: Henry L. Weathers, Star Publishing Co., Shelby,
president; Frank R. Kuhn, Jr., Williams Printing Co., Spar-tanburg,
S. C, vice-president; Guy B. Bphland, Alamance
Printing Co., Burlington, secretary and treasurer; James
P. Furlong, John J. Furlong & Sons, Charleston, S. C, ex-officio;
Eugene H. Salmon, Graphic Knoll, Columbia, S. C,
executive secretary.
Directors: Charles E. Stone, Crowson-Stone Printing Co.,
Columbia, S. C; Jord H. Jordan, The Herald Press, Char-lotte;
Robert A. Little, Wilmington Printing Co., Wilming-ton;
F. P. Earle, Greensboro Printing Co., Greensboro; A.
M. Beck, The Graphic Press, Raleigh; J. Wilbur Little,
Electric City Printing Co., Anderson, S. C.
Winter-Spring, 1 95
1
THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 7
member for life, the only such North Carolina mem-ber
(In 1945 Mr. Charlie Band of Spartanburg, S. C,
was made honorary member) ; and many more that
space does not permit naming.
In 1934 the trade group was incorporated into the
"North Carolina Master Printers Association, Inc."
under the leadership of W. H. Fisher. During the
next few years interest in the association began to
lag and in September, 1939, it found itself with only
20 members and a bank account of less than $100.
Seeing the necessity for strengthening the organiza-tion,
the directors then approved inviting paper and
supply firms to become associate members.
The State was divided into four districts, with a
vice president in each. A drive was started for new
members, and by the annual meeting in July, 1940,
at Wrightsville Beach the membership had grown to
fifty and a budget of $8,000 was adopted and raised.
An executive secretary was employed, and new life
and interest in the association was manifested.
In 1943 the membership approved an amendment
to allow South Carolina printers in the association,
and the name was changed to the "Carolinas Master
Printers Association, Inc.", including both states.
It was called this until 1946 when the name was re-vised
making it what it is today—the "Printing In-dustry
of the Carolinas, Inc." A plan was approved
setting up several regional meetings to be held dur-ing
the year in key cities, throughout the Carolinas.
J. C. Keys of South Carolina offered it, saying it
would take the association to the people who were
not able to attend the annual meeting. This plan
has been in use for several years with splendid suc-cess.
The association has continued to grow and develop
until today there 116 firms which are members and
about 30 which are associate members. The latter
are paper houses, ink companies, and machinery
manufacturers.
PICA has done much to promote the industry and
help both small and large printers. Since World
War II, many of the printers have greatly enlarged
their facilities and improved the type and quality of
their work, and it is estimated the volume of printing
in North Carolina within the last ten years has
tripled. There are a number of large and outstand-ing
printing firms doing work that goes into every
one of the 48 states.
North Carolina should be proud of this industry
and the growth it has made. It continues to bring
new printing orders to the State and our organiza-tion
is recognized as one of the best in the South. As
an industry, it is on top in its wage scale, and from
an unemployment standpoint it is close to the bot-tom.
The records will show that there is very little
labor turnover, and that the percentage of unem-ployed
printers and claims for unemployment com-pensation
is as low as any industry in the State.
In 1947 the association employed a paid executive
secretary. He was Eugene Salmon, who continues
in that capacity. He is widely experienced in print-ing
and its allied branches. This year the PICA be-came
affiliated with the Printing Industry of Amer-ica,
a national organization. This gives all North
Carolina printers the benefits and services of the
national trade group, which is one of the best
national trade associations in the country.
The association has a monthly dues schedule, based
on the individual firm's volume of business, and today
is financially very stable. The Board of Directors is
composed of the officers, plus six directors.
PICA has grown and strengthened so that today
the commercial printers of North Carolina can face
the future with more confidence than ever before,
and with security and assurance of solving its prob-lems
and benefiting its members.
The following have served the association as
officers
:
Year President Secretary-Treasurer
193 2'—A. G. Gordon '__ Noble R. Medearis
1933—W. H. Fisher C. G. Harrison
1934—W. H. Fisher C. G. Harrison
1935—W. E. Seeman W. M. Pugh
1936—Owen G. Dunn W. M. Pugh
1937—J. A. Kellenberger W. M. Pugh
1938—W. B. Hall W. M. Pugh
1939—W. M. Pugh Wallace Seeman
1940—W. M. Pugh George Moore, Jr.
1941—W. M. Pugh Robt. C. CarmichaeJ
1942—Norman W. Foust E. M. Preston
1943—Norman W. Foust Vander Liles
1944—Paul Robinson W. B. Hall
1945—J. H. Hardison Frank Bynum
1946—Claude Rhodes James P. Furlong
1947—Robt. C. Carmichael Robt. M. Allgood
1948—Hanes Lassiter Norman W. Foust
1949—James P. Furlong Claude Rhodes
1950—Henry L. Weathers Guy B. Ephland
a.
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Press Notes: Interesting Items of People and Papers
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Publisher Lee B. Weathers, of the Shelby Daily Star, has
gathered one copy each of at least 12 papers that have been
published in Cleveland County since its formation 110
years ago, has them framed and will present them to Gard-ner
Webb College Library at Boiling Springs.
The Thomasville Tribune, operated by H. A. Cecil, Sr.,
formerly with The High Point Enterprise, and H. A. Cecil,
Jr., moved into a modern new building last year, at which
time they purchased The Thomasville News-Times and merg-ed
it with The Tribune. The firm also operates a large
office supply and equipment store.
WILLIAMSTON MANNINGS
The Williamston Enterprise has been operated by the
Manning family since 1908. W. C. Manning was editor and
publisher until his death in 1938. Since then W. C. Man
ning, Jr., and F. M. Manning have operated with W. H.
Booker as a partner. This firm also publishes The Weekly
Herald, Robersonville, and The Roanoke Beacon, Plymouth.
W. C. Manning, Jr., was last year's president of the Eastern
N. C. Press Association.
The Shelby Daily Star probably has another record: only
one former employee has filed a claim for unemployment
compensation since the Employment Security Law was enact-ed
in 1936.
AGED WILMINGTON STAR
The Wilmington Morning Star was established about two
years after the Civil War in 18 67 by Major William H.
Bernard as an afternoon newspaper, becoming a morning
O
PAGE 1 8 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-spring, 1951
paper a month later. It has the distinction of being the
oldest or second oldest continuous daily newspaper in North
Carolina with the original name. Since 19 29 The Star has
been operated by R. B. Page, who acquired The Wilmington
News and established the Sunday Star-News.
BEASLEY-BRYANT-NOELL
Roland F. Beasley, editor of the Monroe Journal, and
H.E.C. (Red Buck) Bryant, Route 1, Matthews, retired (but
still writing) Washington newspaper correspondent, were
the center of attraction at the Press Institute at Chapel Hill
and Duke University in January. Mr. Beasley, 80, has edit-ed
the Monroe Journal for more than 57 years. Mr. Bryant,
78, has been writing about as long, first for The Charlotte
Observer, for many years in Washington, and now for fun.
Many old-timers, Ralph Graves, Oscar Coffin, Bob Madry,
your reporter, and many others sat at their feet for hours.
But even they take off their hats to J. W. Noell, editor
of the Roxboro Courier-Times, 8 9, who was too busy to
enter into the Press Institute frivolities, but he "sent a
hand," his daughter, Mrs. Lee B. Weathers, of Shelby.
W. Thomas Bost, dean of Raleigh correspondents, is the
youngest 70-year-old man to be seen. Coming from the
Salisbury area, he worked in that city, in Durham, in
Greensboro, and for around one-third of a century he has
been racing around Raleigh as correspondent, sermon writ-er,
"blockade" preacher, anti-prohibition teetotaler, candy-maker,
debunker, and constructive promoter.
E. A. Resch, Siler City; John B. Harris, Albemarle, and
Carl C. Council, Durham, were named by President Henry
Belk, of the N. C. Press Association, at the Chapel Hill meet-ing
as the Nominating Committee, to present a slate of offi-cers
at the summer press meeting.
Dr. Samuel M. Holton was named early in 1951 as editor
of "The High School Journal," published at Chapel Hill, to
succeed Dr. W. Carson Ryan.
Harry Wild Hickey, 47, telegraph editor and editorial
writer, with the Fayetteville Observer since 1942, died
Feb. 14, 1951. In the 1920s he had been with the Asso-ciated
Press in the Raleigh and Columbia, S. C, bureaus.
HONORS NEGRO PRINTER
Robert S. Jervay, who founded the R. S. Jervay Printing
Co. in Wilmington 50 years ago as a job shop and printed The
Cape Fear Journal until his death in 1941, was honored recently
by the Wilmington Housing Authority when a new Negro
housing project was named Robert S. Jervay Place. One
of his sons publishes The Wilmington Journal and another
publishes The Carolinian, Raleigh, and The Carolinian,
Winston-Salem.
Santford Martin has been editor of The Winston-Salem
Journal, and later of The Twin City Sentinel, since 1915,
continuing his editorial writing even while private secre-tary
to Governor T. W. Bickett. He was president of the
N. C. Press Association, 1917-18.
The Wilkes Patriot, Wilkesboro, was established in 190 6
and edited for several years, until consolidated with The
Journal in North Wilkesboro as The Journal-Patriot, by
Charles H. Cowles, former Congressman, State Senator and
State Representative. Publisher A. N. Critcher, of the
Oxford Public Ledger, was with The Patriot for a time
until the consolidation in 1932.
The Biblical Recorder, Raleigh, was established in 18 35
by Thomas Meredith as The North Carolina Baptist Inter-preter,
started by Dr. Meredith in 1833 in New Bern. The
publication was moved to Raleigh in 1838 and is said to be
the oldest corporation in Raleigh, and has a circulation of
around 42,000. It is the organ of the Baptist State Con-vention
but was owned privately until 1939. Former prom-inent
editors were Senator Josiah W. Bailey, Dr. Hight C.
Moore and Dr. Livingstone Johnson.
The Carolinian, Raleigh, published by P. R. Jervay, is
one of the three North Carolina newspapers in which this
publisher is interested. The Winston-Salem Carolinian is an
affiliated publication, and the Raleigh print shop prints The
Wilmington Journal.
North Carolina Education, Raleigh, organ of the North
Carolina Education Association, was founded in 1906 by
Dr. E. C. Brooks and H. E. Seeman, for the State Department
of Education. Former editors and publishers have been
Dr. Brooks, W. F. Marshall, Dr. A. T. Allen, M. R. Travue,
M. L. Wright, Jule B. Warren, Fred W. Greene and Mrs.
Ethel Perkins Edwards, present editor. John Bikle has
been business manager some 2 5 years.
The State, Raleigh, is an unusual type of publication,
established in 1933 and still edited and published by Carl
Goerch, former Washington, N. C, newspaper publisher.
This magazine, with a circulation exceeding 21,0 00, carries
the usual as well as unusual incidents, past and present, of
the State of North Carolina.
The Raleigh Times, established in 1879 as The Evening
Visitor, has been connected with several other Raleigh pub-lications,
including The Daily Press, The Press-Visitor, The
Tim'es-Visitor and The Raleigh Evening Times. John A.
Park has been editor and publisher since 1911. Three sons
are now on the staff, John, Jr., Ben, and Albert Park.
W. E. Rutledge has been editor and publisher of The Yad-kin
Ripple, Yadkinville, for 41 years. He is now assisted
by his son, W. E. Rutledge, Jr. Mrs. Mattie Johnson Hall,
who established the paper at East Bend in 1892, died last
January in Winston-Salem, age 88.
Miss Beatrice Cobb, secretary, N. C. Press Association,
assumed publication of The Morganton News-Herald when
her father, T. G. Cobb, died in 1916. She established The
Valdese News in 1939.
SHARPES OF LUMBERTON
The Lumberton Robesonian, established in 1870 by W. S.
McDiarmid and later edited by his brother, W. W. McDiar
mid, for many years, was published for 40 years by J. A.
Sharpe until his death in 1947. J. A. Sharpe, Jr., is the
present editor. An asosciate editor in its earlier days was
Hamilton McMillan, who helped get the Pembroke Normal
School for the Indians of Robeson County. One of the old
est businesses in Robeson County, The Robesonian has been
a weekly, semi-weekly, tri-weekly and became a five-day
daily in 1940.
J. B. Benton, former legislator, published The Benson
Review for more than a quarter of a century until his deatb
last year. His daughter, Mrs. Margaret B. Smith, continues
the publication.
Duke University Archive (Trinity Archive) is said to be
the oldest continuous literary publication in the South. In
1943, due to war conditions, it was consolidated with The
Duke and Duchess, humor magazine, but the two were sep
arated again in 1945.
Todd Caldwell was connected with The Moore County
News, Carthage, The Benson Review, The Kannapolis Inde-pendent
and The Dunn Dispatch before establishing The
Independent at Fuquay Springs in 1935.
Allen J. Maxwell, late State Commissioner of Revenue and
candidate for Governor, worked on The Wilmington Star
around the turn of the century and purchased and operated
The Columbus News (now News-Reporter) at Whiteville
for several years.
D. M. Spurgeon, publisher of The Avery Scenic Press
Newland, with Carl D. Osborne as editor and manager, has
installed one of the most complete and modern small prinl
shops in the State. Mr. Spurgeon publishes two other news
papers, one in Virginia and one in Mountain City, Tenn.
A. C. Huneycutt, Albemarle, established The Kernersville
News as successor to The Leader in 1937 with Fred P. Cartel
as managing editor. Soon afterward Mr. Carter purchased anc
has since published The News. Mr. Huneycutt is a forme)
president of the N. C. Press Association but abandoned nub
lishing to practice law. He formerly published several week
ly papers.
The Dunn Dispatch, established in 1914 by L, Busbe<
Pope, former legislator, has published this paper as a week
ly, semi-weekly and tri-weekly. During the past four year;
it has been published by his sons, L. B. Pope, Jr., and Wil
liam H. Pope, and Hoover Adams, under lease from th<
owner.
TRAINS AD. EXECUTIVES
Furniture South, High Point, is the only Southern pub
lication devoted to the important manufacturing and re
tailing furniture interests. It was purchased in 1947 b:
N. I. Bienenstock, publisher of Furniture World. Formei
editors include Noble T. Praigg, executive secretary of As)
sociated Industries, Inc., High Point; Harold C. Bennett
president of Bennett, Inc., High Point, handling the State':
advertising program; and C. B. Houck, head of Houck Ad
vertising Agency, Roanoke, Virginia.
NEW MOUNTAIN RATTLER
Game Fowl News, Asheville, devoted to game chicken:
and circulated over North America, was sold recently b;
Winter-Spring, 1 95
1
THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 19
R. S. Meroney to northern interests and will be published
elsewhere. However, Mr. Meroney has plans for a small
unusual publication starting early this year to be known as
The Mountain Rattler, described as a non-profit enterprise
without advertising, with no subscription price, "Agin' ev-erything
and everybody." A rattlesnake adorns the mast-head.
The Southern Pines Pilot is edited and published by Mrs.
Katharine Boyd, distinguished widow of the distinguished
author, James Boyd. Other noted former editors were Bion
H. Butler, Nelson A. Hyde and Carl Thompson.
The Jones County Journal, Trenton, is a new weekly pub-lication
established in 19 49, edited and published by Wilbur
J. and Muriel G. Rider.
American Newspaper Boy, Winston-Salem, is an unusual
monthly publication established by Bradley Welfare, its
editor and publisher, in 1927. It is sold in bulk to approx-imately
200 daily newspapers in the United States and Can-ada
and is distributed free by them to their carrier boys.
Asheville News, formerly West Asheville News, estab-lished
in 1926 by Oscar Barrett as The Asheville Advocate,
now is operated by Frederick Severance as a Republican
newspaper. Walter A. Ward was publisher for several
years, and an earlier publisher, Harold Thorns, is now presi-dent
of Radio Station WISE, Asheville, and WAYS, Char-lotte.
The Carolina Quarterly, U.N.C. College literary publica-tion,
was established in 1948 by students, as a successor to
The Carolina Magazine, established in 18 44. Local area
sponsors include John Sprunt Hill, Betty Smith, Paul Green,
Dr. Norman Foerster, Josephina Niggle, William M. Prince
and others. Faculty advisers include Dr. Lyman Cotten,
Walter Spearman, Charles Eaton, Phillips Russell and Dr.
Harry Russell.
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER LARGEST
The Charlotte Observer in 1916, when it was purchased
by Curtis B. Johnson and Walter B. Sullivan, had a circulation
of about 13,000 daily. Last year the circulation was 138,000
daily and 145,000 Sunday—the largest in North Carolina.
James A. Parham has been managing editor and associate
editor for 34 years. Mr. Parham, Ernest B. Hunter, man-aging
editor since 19 41, and Rupert Gillett, both with the
paper since 1929, form the editorial board. Former noted
editors were Joseph P. Caldwell, Wade H. Harris and Dr.
Julian S. Miller.
The Carolina Journal of Pharmacy, Chapel Hill, establish-ed
in 1915 by the N. C. Pharmaceutical Association, was
edited from its beginning until 1940 by the late Dean John
Grover Beard and since that time by W. J. Smith. Miss
Alice Noble produced most of the copy used for 20 years.
1920-40.
PROMINENT PEOPLE ON N. & O.
The News and Observer, Raleigh, established in 18 65 as
The Sentinel, by William Pell, has had many prominent
names associated with it since that time. Josiah Turner
succeeded Mr. Pell. The News was established in 1872 by
Jordan Stone and W. H. Uzzell; The Observer in 1876 as a
successor to The Sentinel. It became The News and Ob-server
in 1880 with Captain Samuel A. Ashe as editor and
Fred A. Olds as assistant editor.
Josephus Daniels, who came to Raleigh from Wilson as
editor of The Chronicle in 1885, bought The News and Ob-server
in 18 94 and was editor and publisher until his death
54 years later in 1948. His son, Jonathan Daniels, has since
been editor. Other papers absorbed by The News and Ob-server,
or dropped, included The Conservative, The State
Chronicle, The Intelligencer, The Farmer and Mechanic,
The North Carolinian, The Daily Call and The Carolinian.
Distinguished people connected with the paper were
Leonadus L. Polk, Walter Hines Page, Edward A. Oldham,
Hal W. Ayer, Randolph A. Shotwell, D. H. Browder, Thomas
R. Jernigan, John Wilbur Jenkins, Ben Dixon McNeill,
Frank Smethurst, John Livingstone, and numerous others.
William E. Horner, editor and publisher of The Sanford
Herald for 20 years, has represented his county in the Gen-eral
Assembly and was twice candidate for Congress. He is
a former president of the N. C. Press Association.
SHELBY STAR STARS
The Shelby Daily Star has set some kind of a record for
prominence of its staff. It was established as a weekly
paper by the present U. S. Senator Clyde R. Hoey. Its pub-lisher,
Lee B. Weathers, has been State Senator for four
consecutive terms. Its managing editor, Holt McPherson,
is president of the Journalism Foundation of the U. N. C.
School of Journalism and a director of the N. C. Press Asso-ciation.
Its business manager, Henry Lee Weathers, son
of the publisher, is president of the Printing Industry of
the Carolinas, Inc., (two states). Earlier staff members have
included Johnny and Pete McKnight; H. W. Kendall, editor,
Greensboro Daily News; O. L. Moore, publisher, Laurinburg
Exchange; Ben Roberts, Durham banker; Cameron Shipp,
noted writer, and others.
THAT LASSITER FAMILY
Lassiters have been connected with the operation of The
Smithfield Herald for 55 years. T. J. Lassiter, Sr., became
a partner in 1895, was editor for 25 years until his death in
19 20. Mrs. Lassiter continued in the partnership. Her two
sons entered the plant as they grew up and are now partners
with their mother. W. C. Lassiter is Raleigh city attorney
and attorney for the N. C. Press Association. T. J. Lassiter,
Jr., editor and publisher, is a former president of the East-ern
N. C. Press Association and former instructor in jour-nalism
at Carolina.
Mrs. Stella H. Anderson, associate publisher and editor
of the Skyland Post, West Jefferson, and the Alleghany
News, Sparta, is president of the State Federation of Wo-men's
Clubs.
Victor Meekins, former sheriff of Dare County, is pub-lisher
of The Coastland Times at Manteo, The Hyde County
Herald at Sv/an Quarter, and The Belhaven Pilot. Mrs.
Meekins was the daughter of the late Harry P. Deaton, for
many years publisher of The Mooresville Enterprise.
The Atlantic Publishing Co., Tabor City, owned by W.
Horace Carter and Mark C. Garner, publishes The Tabor
City Tribune and two South Carolina papers, The Myrtle
Beach Sun and The Ocean Beach News at Ocean Drive, print-ing
these papers in the Tabor City shop.
The Reidsville Review has been in the Oliver family since
it was established in 1888 by R. J. Oliver, Manton Oliver and
John T. Oliver, all deceased. Present editors of the second
generation are C. R. and W. M. Oliver.
The Rockingham Post-Dispatch has been published since
1917 by Isaac S. London, who bought and consolidated The
Post, established in 1909, and The Dispatch, established in
1916, and, the editor admits, is still going strong. Earlier
he published the Siler City Grit.
The Rocky Mount Telegram was established in 1910 as
The Morning Telegram, but after four months shifted to the
afternoon field. Josh L. Horne, Jr., is editor and president
of The Rocky Mount Publishing Co., owner. The paper
started on a seven-day schedule with a Sunday morning
paper in 1949.
NOELL EDITOR 65 YEARS
In 188 6 the two Noells, J. A. and J. W., purchased The
Roxboro Courier, established five years before. J. W. Noell
purchased the interest of his brother, John A. Noell, in 1920.
The Roxboro Courier and The Person County Times were
consolidated in 1944. So J. W. Noell has been dishing out
information to the Person County citizenship for 64 years.
He has also represented his district in the State Senate.
The Rutherford County News, established by R. E. Price
and associates, celebrated its 25th anniversary last year
and the fifth year of the full ownership by Mr. Price. He
served as president of the N. C. Press Association for the
year 1949-50.
J. F. Hurley, who established The Concord Tribune in
1900 and sold it to John B. Sherrill ten years later, pur-chased
The Salisbury Post and was editor and publisher
until his death in 1936. Since that time his son, J. F. Hur-ley,
Jr., has been publisher and Spencer Murphy has been
editor.
WHEREVER THE SUN SHINES
The Sanatorium Sun, published monthly by the Extension
Department of North Carolina Sanatorium and devoted to
tuberculosis and health, has subscribers in Ireland, Europe,
Canada, South America, Mexico, China and Hawaii, in addi-tion
to many of the United States.
John M. Gibson, former editor, is director of the Division
of Public Health Education in Alabama and author of "Phy-sician
to the World: The Life of General William C. Gor-gas,"
published by Duke University Press last November.
North Carolina Law Review, Chapel Hill, published quar-terly
by the University School of Law, was established in
PAGE 20 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1951
1923 by Dean Maurice T. VanHeck, who was its first editor.
Since 193 9 it has been edited by top ranking law students
with faculty advice.
GOLF WORLD GOES PLACES
Golf World, weekly, established in 1947 by Robert E.
Harlow at Pinehurst, has a circulation of more than 7,000
copies going to leading golf players in every state and more
than 30 foreign nations and territories. This year the pub-lication
will go on news stands for the first time. Mr. Har-low,
publisher of The Pinehurst Outlook for 15 years, sold
that paper and plant last year to devote full time to Golf
World, setting up a new plant to print it. He was former
manager for Walter Hagen, nationally known golfer, and
worked for newspapers and news agencies for several years
and has been publicity man for Pinehurst, Inc.
Gordon H. Greenwood, editor of The Black Mountain
News, is a graduate of the University of Illinois School of
Journalism and was formerly with The Champaign (111.)
News-Gazette. He was a psychologist with 96th General
Hospital in the European Theatre in World War II.
NEWS FOR WALDENSIANS
The Valdese News, published by Miss Beatrice Cobb and
edited by Richard H. Byrd, is the semi-official publication
of the Waldensian people who migrated from the Cotian
Alps (Italy) in 1893 and formed the settlement at Valdese.
The Valdese News is probably one of the most localized
papers in the State, devoted almost entirely to the interests
of the Waldensian community it serves. A former editor,
Marcel Tron, was a native Waldensian and the paper is
replete with Waldensian names and reflects the native ways,
manners and thoughts of the Waldensian people.
Alfred E. Whitmore, who published the Williamston En-terprise
for 18 years around the turn of the century, and
who brought the first two-revolution flatbed printing press
to Martin County, patented the coupon book system for
charge accounts. He died not long ago in Virginia.
The Mr. Dail who established the Williamston Enterprise
in 1889 is said to have cut the masthead of the paper out
of a piece of hardwood.
The composing stone used in publishing The Outlook at
Yadkinville, started in 1886 by a Mr. Henry and later sus-pended,
was made into a headstone, properly engraved, and
still marks the grave of Mrs. Spencer, a cultured woman, in
the Yadkinville cemetery.
OUR "MOTHER OF THE YEAR"
Mrs. E. F. McCulloch, editor of The Bladen Journal, Eliza-bethtown,
last year was selected as "Mother of the Year"
by the Golden Rule Foundation on recommendation of a
State committee, of which Mrs. Stella H. Anderson, editor
of The Skyland Post, West Jefferson, and president of the
State Federation of Women's Clubs, was chairman.
Edward J. Hale, publisher of The Fayetteville Observer,
the State's oldest newspaper, served as Ambassador to one
of the South American countries for several years around
the turn of the century.
Weimar Jones, publisher of The Franklin Press, was
State director of the Office of War Information for a year
or two during World War II. Previously he had been on
The Asheville Citizen for 18 years.
Robert L. Gray, Jr., for several years editor of The Fay-etteville
Observer, is now in service in the Korean area. He
also served in World War II.
The Weekly Southerner, Tarboro, is described in "Non-nulla,"
a book written in 1930 by Bishop J. B. Cheshire and
published by Edwards and Broughton, Raleigh.
W. J. McMurray, publisher of Racing Form for many
years, purchased The Durham Sun and The Fayetteville
Observer in 19 23 for his son-in-law. Soon after the pur-chases
the son-in-law was killed in an accident.
BIG BOYS ON THE DISPATCH
The Lexington Dispatch has been owned, edited, pub-lished
and written for by many prominent citizens. T. V.
Eldridge, who established it, was later mayor of Raleigh.
H. B. Varner, its publisher for many years, also published
a magazine, "Good Roads," and served as State Commis-sioner
of Labor and Printing for two years. Col. A. L.
Fletcher, Raleigh; S. R. Winters, later radio special writer,
Washington, and George B. Cochran were editors. Gerald
Johnson, noted author, was a reporter. E. E. Witherspoon
has been editor for some 3 5 years. Fred O. Sink and his
sons have been publishers for more than 30 years.
The name Myrover has long been associated with The
Fayetteville Observer. John R. Myrover and George G.
Myrover, Sr., were publishers before the turn of the cen-tury.
George G. Myrover, Jr., is now managing editor.
Parker Brothers, J. Roy, former UNC Journalism pro-fessor,
and Mayon, perennial secretary of the Eastern N. C.
Press Association, operates one of the real modern news-paper
and printing plants in the State at Ahoskie. Here are
printed their four weekly papers: Hertford County Herald,
Ahoskie; Bertie Ledger-Advance, Windsor; Northampton
County News, Jackson, and Gates Index, Gatesville; also
the North Carolina Farm Bureau News, for N. C. Farm
Bureau, and a lot of commercial job printing.
Thomas Wolfe, author of "Look Homeward, Angel", etc.,
was editor of the Daily Tar Heel at Chapel Hill while a
student there. So was Orville Campbell, owner of the
Colonial Press, who has written several songs, including
"All the Way, Choo Choo" (Charlie Justice). Rolfe Neill
is managing editor.
The 1300 issues of the UNC News Letter constitute the
greatest body of knowledge about North Carolina to be
found in any State in the Union, Dr. S. H. Hobbs, Jr., editor,
believes. It goes to about 11,000 persons fortnightly.
LOUIS GRAVES AND WEEKLY
Louis Graves, Chapel Hill native, for a number of years a
successful reporter on some of the larger New York news-papers,
returned home around 19 20 and after a few years
as head of the Journalism Department of the University,
started the Chapel Hill Weekly March 1, 192"3.
The Weekly, a folksy, down-to-earth community sheet, is,
as the New York Times once said: "unique in American
journalism". The New York Herald-Tribune said: "What
this country needs is more papers like the Chapel Hill
Weekly". Louis Graves decided not to wear himself out in New York reporting and editing, but gets a whale of a kick
out of his Weekly—as do all of his many readers.
David Clark, Charlotte, editor and publisher of the Tex-tile
Bulletin, also publishes The Knitter, and the Clark-
Smith Publishing Co. publishes Southern Hospitals and
Southern Optometrist.
Bill Arp Lowrance, Charlotte, editor and publisher of the
Mecklenburg Times, is also publisher of the Belmont Banner
and the Mount Holly News, both edited by Bill Barrett.
SOUTHERN MEDICINE AND SURGERY
Southern Medicine and Surgery, Charlotte, established in
18 56 by the N. C. Medical Society as the North Carolina
Medical Journal, is probably the oldest such organ in the
State. It absorbed the Wilmington Medical Journal and
the Charlotte Medical Journal along the way. For the past
30 years it has been the official journal of the Tri-State
Medical Association of the Carolinas and Virginia, during
which period Dr. J. M. Northington has been editor and
publisher.
Former editors have been Dr. Thomas F. Wood, Dr. Rob-i
ert Jewett, Dr. W. H. Wakefield, Dr. E. C. Register, Dr. J.|
C. Montgomery and Dr. M. L. Townsend; and Department
Editors: Dr. E. J. Wood, Dr. J. K. Hall, Dr. H. J. Crowell,
Dr. Wingate M. Johnson, Dr. Hubert A. Royster, Dr. Robert!
F. Lafferty, Dr. Paul Ringer, Dr. William Allan, Dr. O. L.
Miller, Dr. C. C. Orr.
The Cherryville Eagle has been in the same family 45
years, L. H. J. Houser, editor and publisher until his death,
and then his son, Fred K. Houser.
The Caucasian, edited by Marion Butler, later U. S. Sena-tor,
was a noted paper published in Clinton many years ago.
It later moved to Raleigh and was suspended.
The Sampson Independent, Clinton, has been published
by F. Grover Britt for around a quarter of a century. O. J.
Peterson, long well-known newspaper man, and L. A. Be-thune
were former editors.
The Concord Tribune was established 50 years ago by
J. P. Hurley, who later established The Salisbury Post. In
1910 The Tribune was acquired by J. B. Sherrill, for 32
years secretary-treasurer and for two years president of the
N. C. Press Association, who published it until his death
His son, William M. Sherrill, was editor for several years
A. W. Huckle, a South Carolina publisher, but well-known
to N. C. newspaper folk, is now publisher.
The Danbury Reporter, established 78 years ago by Dr
John Pepper, is now in its fourth generation of Peppers
never having missed an issue. N. E. Pepper, long publisher
Winter-Spring, 1951 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 21
and E. Vance Pepper, are editors and publishers now.
The Durham Sun, established in 1889 by James Robin-son,
was consolidated in 1929 with the Durham Herald,
established in 18 94 by E. T. Rollins, long its publisher, and
J. H. King. Carl C. Council, a former carrier boy, is presi-dent
of the company and Steed Rollins is vice-president and
executive editor.
The South Atlantic Quarterly, literary and historical,
established in 190 2 at Trinity College (Duke University),
has had some distinguished editors, including John Spencer
Bassett, Dr. Edwin Mims, Dr. W. P. Few, Dr. W. H. Gleason,
Dr. W. K. Boyd, Dr. W. H. Wannamaker, Henry R. Dwire,
and for many years now, Dr. W. T. Laprade.
The Elizabeth City Independent, made famous years ago
by the colorful W. O. Saunders, was published as a weekly,
semi-weekly and as a morning daily (in 1948-49) by George
W. Haskett. It was sold by his son, W. F. Haskett, UNC
Journalism graduate, who started the Albemarle Star in its
place in April, 1950. About six months later Mr. Haskett
joined the armed forces and A. J. and Maud McCleland are
general manager and editor, respectively .
ED ANDERSON PAPERS
Ed M. Anderson, former president of the N. C. Press As-sociation,
is publisher of five weekly newspapers in the
mountain area. These include Transylvania Times, Brevard,
with John Anderson in charge; Forest City Courier and
Spindale Sun, Clarence Griffin editor and general manager,
and the Skyland Post, West Jefferson, and the Alleghany
News, Sparta, Mrs. Ed Anderson, associate publisher and
editor.
Associates of Col. Joseph E. Robinson in founding the
Goldsboro Argus in 1885 were Charles B. Aycock, later
Governor, and B. W. Nash. Col. John D. Langston and
associates founded the Goldsboro News in 1922, consolidated
with The Argus to form The News-Argus in 19 29 by Talbot
Patrick, publisher.
The Henderson Gold Leaf, weekly, established in 1881
by Thad R. Manning, deceased, was published for many
years by the Henderson Dispatch Co., Henry Dennis, editor,
has been suspended, at least temporarily.
The Hendersonville Time-News is the successor to all
papers published in that city for the past 75 or 80 years.
Specifically, it was a consolidation of The Times and The
News, weeklies, semi-weeklies and then dailies, consolidated
in 1926 by J. T. Fain, still editor. A newer weekly is The
Western Carolina Tribune, published by Noah Hollowell.
Capus M. Waynick, now ambassador to Nicaragua, former
chairman of the State Highway Commission and first acting
director of President Truman's Point Four Program, is a
former editor of the High Point Enterprise, established in
1885 and becoming a daily in 1905.
The Daily Independent, Kannapolis in a modern home
and with 50 employees, was started in 19 27 by James L.
Moore, present publisher, with an investment of $37.50 on
credit—for a typewriter. It became a daily in 1938.
The Kinston Daily Free Press was established in 1882 as a
weekly by the late Josephus Daniels and his brother, Charles
C. Daniels, and was issued from Wilson for a short time.
H. Gait Braxton, a former president of the N. C. Press As-sociation,
has been editor and publisher since 1914. It
became a daily with the start of the Spanish-American War
in 1898. (C. C. Daniels, 86, died March 20, 1951.)
Archibald Johnson, for many years noted editor of Char-ity
and Children, Baptist Orphanage paper and father of
Gerald Johnson, widely known writer and author, was
editor of The Laurinburg Exchange before the turn of the
century, while it was owned by R. D. Phillips, father of
Judge Donald Phillips, Rockingham. O. L. Moore, several
times legislator, has been editor and publisher since 1919.
LEAKSVILLE NEWS CARRIERS
The Leaksville News, published and edited by J. S. and
Richard Robertson, for the textile communities of Leaks-ville-
Spray-Draper and environs, is delivered primarily by
carrier boy, plus newsstand sales, with a portion by mail,
of the 4,500 copies weekly. The News is printed in a mod-ern
new plant with an up-to-date print shop, which also
prints three periodicals: The Mill Whistle, each two weeks,
house organ of Fieldcrest Mills; Cub Reporter, monthly, for
Leaksville High School; Th