and on the other, comment on it, having only the public interest at heart. No purse would be equal to the strain of owning a newspaper as a personal or political organ to promote the fortunes of its owner. Nor could such a paper ever appeal to the public in a way broad enough to form a base on which to build real newspaper success!"
Service is the key to the door of opportunity for the newspaper. The better it serves, the greater the newspaper's success.
The most obvious way the newspaper serves is in telling the news truthfully and fearlessly, in commenting on the news fairly, and in printing only clean and honest advertising. Less obvious is the part the newspaper plays in community life as a pioneer in searching out ways of community development.
Just as the long-rifle pioneers of the early nineteenth century followed the game trails and blazed the pathway of settlement "from civilization to down," so the newspaper must be for ever in advance, spying out a way. A systematic policy of cummunity leadership is the newspaper's greatest service, in the last analysis the most valuable function it performs.
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
The Kansas City Star has long been in the forefront in urging and leading progress in Kansas City and in the great southwest. The activities of The Star, in finding the path for community progress, were listed by the Star's staff. The editor and owner, William R. Nelson, died April 13, 1915. One year later The Star printed on its editorial page a review of Mr. Nelson's achievements with The Star. Among other things, the editorial review said:
"After his death his associates compiled a list of things in which The Star became interested under Mr. Nelson's directions. It is a fragmentary and disjointed list, not made for publication, but perhaps it may give an idea of the continuing policies of Mr. Nelson's paper."
Here is the list in part:
Make Kansas City a good place to live in.
Good roads generally, but especially in Kansas City, Jackson County, Kansas and Missouri.
Honest elections.
Good street car service; rapid transit. Wider streets.
Free public baths.
Free justice; lawyers to be paid by the state.
Prosecution to get a "record of convictions" is dead wrong.
Commission form of government.
Government tariff aid to favored manufacturers a special privilege.
Workmen's compensation and allied measures.
All taxations should involve the principle that those who get should pay.
No term franchise for public utilities.
Municipal ownership wherever practicable, but not as an invariable theory.
Help the farm women—hot and cold running water, a bathtub and a furnace in every farmhouse.
Oiled macadam for residence streets and country roads.
No booze in amusement parks or home neighborhoods.
Payment by benefited districts for street-car extensions.
Honest work in building country roads.
The Square deal; no more, no less.
Water mains throughout Jackson county.
Discourage the patronage of the quack doctors and the fortune tellers.
Oppose the loan sharks.
Abolish grade crossings.
Better rural schools and churches.
