by Mr. Nevin, of Pittsburgh, and has grown yearly in favor among musicians and artists.

D. E. Northam has joined the staff of the Chicago Inter-Ocean, and will be connected with the automobile department.

Chas. Hopkins Clark, editor of the Hartford (Conn.) Courant, has been elected delegate-atlarge from Connecticut to the National Convention.

Channing Falsom, a member of the editorial staff of the St. Louis Star, has been doing Texas for a short time.

Fred Le Roy, editor of the Streatorville (Ill.) Times, is running for State Committeeman from La Salle County, on the Democratic ticket.

Ed. Howe, former editor and publisher of the Atchison (Kans.) Globe, contributes to the current issue of the American Magazine an article entitled, "When the Circus Comes to Town." It's an interesting story for children of all ages.

James Hogan has resigned his position on the San Francisco Call to become City Editor of the Petaluma (Cal.) Courier.

Lon A. Warner has been appointed city editor of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) News. Mr. Warner has been connected with Chattanooga daily papers for some years.

Chas. H. Meiers, a special sporting writer on the Los Angeles Examiner, has become telegraph editor of the Ogden (Utah) Evening Standard.

Homer Davenport, America's foremost newspaper cartoonist, lecturer and writer, is dead. Mr. Davenport had been jockey, circus man and railroad fireman before gaining fame as a drawer of cartoons and a writer of newspaper stories. His first work in the newspaper line was with the Portland Oregonian. In 1892 his work attracted the attention of the San Francisco Examiner, which paper he immediately became associated with. Later he was transferred to the New York Evening Journal and did excellent service for the Hearst papers through numerous political campaigns.

The Winchester (Ky.) Democrat has resumed publication following a serious loss sustained through fire.

The New York Globe has inaugurated a new system of payment applying to certain portions of its classified columns. Under the heading of Barter and Exchange, advertisements of from two to five lines are inserted free for three consecutive days, on calling for the replies which the advertiser can have addressed either to up-and-down-town office of the Globe. He pays for the replies at five cents each. Results are not guaranteed but this comes very near doing it the advertiser pays for replies only.

J. M. Light, one of the owners of the Springfield (Ohio) Times, has purchased the South Charleston (Ohio) Sentinel.

Macey Wasson, formerly political writer for the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, is now connected with the staff of the Louisville Times.

James A. Durkin, famous for many years as head office boy of the Chicago Tribune, was married in Chicago a few months ago and the current number of the American Magazine contains a very interesting sketch of his career and his eighteen years' faithful service as office boy in the office of the Tribune.

The Hartford (Conn.) Times will in future be represented both east and west in the foreign advertising field by C. F. Kelly & Co., 220 Fifth avenue, New York City, and Peoples Gas building, Chicago.

The Union City (Pa.) Times and Enterprise have been consolidated and will hereafter appear as a semi-weekly.

The Minneapolis News now publishes a "Sunday paper on Saturday evening." In addition to the regular Saturday issue of the News subscribers now get a comic section, a double-page of illustrated sports, special pages of Drama and Society and other popular departments of Sunday papers. The Saturday Evening News claims to have at least 10,000 more circulation than the other evening issues of the paper. C. D. Bertolet, foreign advertising representative, Boyce building, Chicago.

G

OD made Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. He told them to be "fruitful and multiply and replenish

the earth and subdue it."

This may be news to many of you, but it is true, just the same. I do not claim this as a scoop. I refer to it here because that occasion was the dawn of agriculture. At that date the land which they were to till must have been fine, for after careful examination and inspection the Creator Himself announced that “everything that He had made was very good."

And what a sorry mess they made of it. Eve inclined to horticulture. There are no records to show what branch of farming Adam took up. One of the boys went into the livestock end of the game. The other, into plain farming. Not one of them seems to have made a howling success of his or her work and a battle was fought at the first county fair that was ever held in the world in which possibly twenty-five per cent of all the inhabitants of the earth were slain.

I refer to this recent, and to many of you new, incident, to show what may happen and how things may go wrong when there are no agricultural papers to keep them in their right channels and to tell those who have to subdue the earth just how to do it.

The historian of the agricultural press of this country who would go back more than half a century would have to draw on his imagination quite a good deal to have a very interesting story to tell. It is true that some farm papers were published more than fifty years ago, and some have survived the storms of the ages and are living today. But the agricultural paper of fifty years ago and the really, truly agricultural paper of today are no more alike than day and night. One merit, however, must be conceded to the pioneer publishers of farm papers. They were sincere and honest. Their whole souls were in their work and their efforts were for the betterment of those whom they served. Their heroic efforts to be helpful

to their fellow man should be the greatest heritage and inspiration to those who have taken up and are continuing their grand work.

Pardon a personal reference. I have been actively engaged in agricultural journalism for more than thirty-one years. If I live until 2478 I will be 626 years old. I have seen the dark side as well as the bright side of the game. Steadfastly devoted to what I considered my calling in life, I have studied the proposition from every angle. In all that time I have never seen a publisher of a farm paper who adhered strictly to the Golden Rule who did not succeed. Some may not have made fortunes. Others may not have attained honors. But what is money or fame compared with that feeling, down deep in your heart, that assures you that you have been helpful in making the burden of this world lighter and the joys greater for your fellowman and those dependent upon him?

By nature and environment the readers of farm papers are the most susceptible to influence of any people in the world. Their lack of opportunity to discuss their work and their business interests with those engaged in the same pursuits makes them anxious for information and knowledge that will aid them, and woe unto him that would deceive them. The condition referred to gives editors and publishers of farm journals opportunities to wield a greater influence over their readers than the editors and publishers of any other class of publications. No other class of readers appreciate so much honest, sincere advice, helpful suggestions or information of value. To be able to contribute all these things to its readers, an agricultural paper must not be a mere money-making machine. The man who goes into honest agricultural journalism merely to make a fortune could well turn his efforts into different channels where the prospects for quick returns are better and fewer innocent people would suffer if he betrayed the trusts that were imposed in him. Within the past thirty or forty years many so-called farm papers

have been established by promoters, exploiters, plungers or gamblers, who have but one idea in view-to make money. Some of these have soon, as Bill Nye would put it, foundered. Others have existed, or subsisted or persisted in eking out a living. It is a deplorable fact, but I make it without fear of successful contradiction that the genuine, absolutely worthy farm papers of today can almost be counted on the fingers of your two hands.

Without question the greatest function of the farm paper is the business end of agriculture and its various adjuncts. Making the farm pay brings happiness to the country home, contentment, higher ideals, peace, prosperity. In this the farm paper has done more than all other influences combined. Its duty is to carry the message of the scientist to the most remote and humble home. It translates that message into language that the uneducated can understand and apply. Better farming, better crops, better live stock, is the slogan of every true farm paper, and it does not only encourage these things but tells in a practical way how to attain them. The market value of every product of the farm is a very important thing for the farmer to know. There was a time not long since when the farmer bought at the price established by the seller and sold at the price offered by the buyer. The farm press has changed all this and put the farmer on the same business basis as the merchant or any other busi

ness man.

By environment and training the farmer is unable to cope with the trained lawyer or professional man. Our legislative bodies all over this country are too often made up of lawyers, doctors, business men or trained politicians. The percentage of farmers in places of public trust has always been small. It seems to be growing smaller each year. The matter of influencing the enactment of laws beneficial to the rural classes is a problem hard to solve. This involves a duty upon the farm papers that should not be shirked. While the farm papers cannot always fight the legislative battle for its constituents it can put the weapons into their hands and point the way. It can encourage and enthuse its readers until some sweet day, and may it come soon, when the most worthy class of people in the world will come into its own as far as the laws which govern it and affect its material welfare are concerned.

Another duty of the farm papers is to wield & healthy, wholesome, and I might say, holy

influence in every household it enters. The implicit confidence placed in every copy of the paper, which is considered in a certain sense his Bible by the head of the family, is shared by every member of that family. The household Department and the Youth's Department should be edited with as great care as any other de partment of the paper. The plain duty of the publisher is to carefully avoid placing before the young readers of his paper anything that he should object to having placed before his own children. The farm paper is essentially a home paper, and without question wields a greater influence on every member of every house it enters than any other class publication.

There are many other functions of an agricultural paper that might be touched upon, but the short time allotted for this talk forbids. The last and most important duty I wish to discuss would require many hours to treat it properly. I refer to that wholesome self-respect which every man should have for himself and what he does. The publisher who thinks merit, quality and appearance do not count among rural readers makes a fatal mistake. Merchants have learned that the neat package makes a good impression and increases trade. The appearance of a man gives a cue as to his character. This is true in regard to a paper. The day of the cheap farm paper is fast passing away, and every progressive, upto-date farmer in this country is ready to say Amen. Half the battle is in looking the part. A good product at a fair price is what farmers want, and they are better able to pay for it than any other class of people in the world. Reduction in the subscription price of a paper is prima facie evidence that the publisher knows that his paper is not worth what he has been asking for it and that he is going to make the advertiser pay the deficit. Premiums offered as an inducement for patronage is still a greater evidence of the low estimate the producer has of his product; and the man who forces his paper on a friend who has been kind enough to take and pay for it for a specified time is the greatest sinner of them all. These fects may not apply strictly to the topic, but they do apply to those who create and distribute the farm press and are, therefore, relevant.

In closing, a few words as to the influence of this mighty force that is quietly revolutionizing the agricultural interests of this country. It

would be as easy to try to compute the influence of the sun's rays on the earth as to try to estimate what the farm papers are doing for the farmers. They are making the waste places blossom as the rose! They are giving to their patrons more than they receive-thus fulfilling a divine command. They are making those who follow their teachings prosperous, happy and contented. They are teaching other publications morality by eliminating immoral matter and advertisements. They are aiding the honest merchant, manufacturer and breeder in distributing their products into the remote corners of the earth. They are giving the isolated farmer and his family an opportunity to supply their needs in the best markets of the world at competitive prices. They are creating demands for every article of merit that comes from our shops and our factories and thus producing labor and profit for those who live in villages and cities. They are not only helping to feed and clothe the world by assisting the farmers in raising better crops and better live stock, but by and through their influence the farm papers are contributing their full share to the prosperity and happiness of every man, woman and child in the world.

As to the influence of farm papers as advertising mediums many things could be said. The publisher who has spent years, or perhaps a lifetime, in building up a paper and a reputation cannot afford to accept every class of advertisements that is offered. The confidence and friendship established by the publication is

shared by everyone whose advertisements appear in its columns. The acceptance of an order means the endorsement of the advertiser, his goods and his methods. No publisher can afford to fritter away his birthright for a mess of pottage. Few are doing it, for no other class of publications is so clear of fraudulent propositions, and the number is getting smaller each year. For the honest, upright advertiser Lo other mediums offer more profitable publicity than farm papers. The results may not be as startling as in another class of mediums, but the confidence established in the minds of the reader, by the advertiser being in good company, has more intrinsic value than any short-lived boom.

Farmers are just coming into their own. Prices for every product of the farm with one or two exceptions were never higher. The tastes of farmers have been educated toward better things. Their needs are many and they have the money to supply them. The luxuries of a few years ago are the necessities of today. Having been accustomed to the best the market affords they will never be satisfied with less. They can afford to cater to their tastes better than any class of people on earth, because they have earned the right to do so by their labor, and they have the money to pay for it. As all these conditions have been brought about in a great measure by the influence of the agricul tural press the farm papers of this country have unquestionably qualified as the mediums through which every honest advertiser can reach the best buyers on earth.

The Chicago Advertising Fraternity, will give its ninth annual benefit baseball game in behalf of the Off-the-Street Club, Saturday, July 13, at Comiskey Park (White Sox). This is the seventh year Mr. Comiskey has donated the use of his park for this worthy children's charity. The membership of the club is now about 450 boys and girls, and the aggregate attendance during the past year was about 33,353 children.

The ball game is to be between the teams of the Chicago Advertising Association and the Advertising Agencies and Publishers' Repre

sentatives, but there will be many added attractions given in the grand stand. The Committee is hard at work to make this a most novel event as it is intended to raise at least $5,000 this year. They are asking the co-operation of all, and especially making an appeal to those who do not reside in Chicago. The committee particularly desires contributions that may be used as Crackerjack prizes and money donations for the benefit of the Advertising Men's kiddies.

Address Frank H. Thomas, Marquette building, Chicago.