Chapter XXXVII: Journalism in Orange County (5)

Mr. Wilson early displayed a liking for politics, his first inclination in that direction finding vent in the organization of a juvenile "Tippecanoe Club," which participated in the local parades of the Harrison campaign of 1888. Later he took part in the organization of a club of young voters known as the Union League Club. The one hundred and fifty members unanimously elected him president.

He has always been an admirer and earnest supporter of former Governor Odell. He was a delegate to the State convention at Saratoga in 1900, when Mr. Odell was first nominated for the governorship, and again in 1902, when he was renominated. He was also a delegate to the convention of 1904, which nominated Higgins, and to that of 1906, when Governor Hughes was nominated. He has himself never desired or held public office, but has been a factor in putting many of his friends in elective and appointive positions of trust.

Mr. Wilson enlisted in the Tenth Separate Company at the age of eighteen and served six years. He volunteered to return to the ranks at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War and was offered a commission, but the company was not ordered to the front.

He is active in social as well as business life, being a member of the Powelton Club, City Club and Newburgh Wheelmen, the Old Orchard Club of Middletown, and the Press Club and Republican Club of New York. He is a past exalted ruler of Newburgh Lodge of Elks; a member of Continental Lodge No. 287, F. and A. M.; Jerusalem Chapter No. 8, R. A. M.; Palestine Commandery No. 18, K. T.; New York Consistory, Scottish Rite, 32nd deg; Mecca Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; president of the Wilbur H. Weston Shriners' Association; president of the Newburgh Automobile Club, and a member of the New York State and American Automobile Associations.

Mr. Wilson resides in a handsome residence owned by him at 268 Liberty street, Newburgh.

RUTTENBER, J. W. F.--The editor of the Newburgh _Telegram_ is J. W. F. Ruttenber, who was born at Newburgh, N. Y., December 14, 1857. After receiving a good education in the public schools of his native city, he became associated in business for several years with his father, E. M. Ruttenber. Subsequently he embarked in several newspaper ventures, and finally started the Newburgh _Sunday Telegram_ in 1889. This is a non-partisan paper, and is especially devoted to local events and local characters, in the discussion of which a full opportunity is afforded the editor for the exercise of that wit and caustic humor, with which he is well equipped. The _Telegram_ was a success financially from the start and has now developed into a very valuable newspaper plant.

In Middletown the _Times-Press_ has as editor John D. Stivers; as editorial writer Alexander W. Russell, and as city editor Melvin W. Brown. On the _Argus_ the editor is A. B. Macardell, ably assisted by Henry P. Powers and Horace A. MacGowan as city editors. The _Signs of the Times_ is published by Gilbert Beebe's Son, with Elders F. A. Chick and H. C. Ker as editors.

On the Port Jervis _Union_ is Fred R. Salmon, business manager; Merritt C. Speidel, assistant and formerly city editor; W. T. Doty as editor, and Albert L. Stage, city editor. On the _Gazette_ is Evi Shimer, business manager; William H. Nearpass, editor; Mark V. Richards, city editor, and James Skellinger, assistant. The _New York Farmer_ is edited by Henry A. Van Fredenberg.

In Goshen Frank Drake is editor and manager of the oldest newspaper in Orange County, the _Independent Republican;_ and George F. Gregg, the editor and manager of the next oldest paper, the _Goshen Democrat._

At Warwick the _Advertiser's_ business manager and editor is Hiram Tate; while the _Valley Dispatch_ has George F. Ketchum as editor and business manager.

At Montgomery the old _Standard and Reporter_ has Lyman Taft as editor and proprietor, with Charles H. Miller as associate editor.

The _Walden Herald's_ editor and proprietor is Ward Winfield; and the _Citizen_ has a clergyman editor and publisher in the Rev. J. H. Reid.

At Cornwall-on-Hudson is the _Local-Press,_ with L. G. Goodenough editor and proprietor.

The _Pine Bush Herald's_ editor and proprietor is George W. Jamison, a former school teacher and an educated man and good writer.

Monroe has the _Ramapo Valley Gazette_ (started March, 1908), with J. B. Gregory as publisher and proprietor.

The _Orange County Record_ at Washingtonville has Montanye Rightmyer as editor and manager.

JUST A FEW REFLECTIONS.

Inspecting the field of Orange County journalism one sees the Glebe strewn with wrecks of ambitious effort, and sympathy goes out to the disappointed strugglers, they of tattered aims and ambitions; of immolated hopes and desires.

Looking at the files and samples of the papers of to-day and the relics of early journalism in Orange County, one's pride over progress in certain lines is mixed with humiliation. The old papers were printed with artistic ideals. The type was neat, the page was pleasing to the eye, and the printer showed evidence of intelligence. Words were divided at the ends of lines with some idea of method and reason; the break-lines were made neat. The old-time compositor who would have divided "campaign" on the "p" and run "aign" over, or worse yet, made a break-line of "ed," "ly," or a single or even two numerals, would have been laughed out of the office by his companions. The writer will never forget an incident in his own very early career at the "case," when he divided "Messrs," running the "srs." over into the next line. It was a long time before he heard the last of that break, and it was never repeated. To-day one sees all sorts of divisions--anywhere, everywhere; it matters not whether it is on the vowel or the syllable or between--it all goes. The outrage on neatness of a single numeral making a full break-line is no longer confined to the "blacksmith" who was aiming to gel a "phat line," but is seen in the work turned out from the marvelous Mergenthaler Linotype, the excuse being that it "takes too much time" to space and adjust the line neatly. This same excuse is given for a lot of other abominations--really intolerable and vexatious--that one sees in the machine-set newspaper. Really, if modern mechanical appliances are sweeping the "art preservative" back to the most crude and primitive specimens of workmanship, there is cause for deep regret. Neatness should go hand in hand with improved methods and aids.

The old-time newspaper was not a hand-bill. It was a model of taste and neatness. The idea of the average editor, publisher and printer today seems to be how he can make his paper the most hideous to the eye, and to the aesthetic senses. Big, black type for headlines, and glaring, sensational, spectacular, flaring "big heads" are the order of the day.

Compare these modern newspapers with almost any of those printed one hundred, fifty, forty, thirty years ago. The contrast is so markedly in favor of the papers printed under the old regime that one who really loves the art is disgusted with modern printers and printing as applied to newspapers.

This criticism, it should be borne in mind, is made with reference to newspapers, and not of "job work." The man who is getting out bill-heads, letter-heads, etc., is constantly striving for neatness, and his work is a great advance over that done by his predecessors in the "job department." This is as it should be.

The modern job printer is an artist; the modern newspaper printer a botch. The printer may blame the editor or publisher, but that does not excuse his vile distortions and caricatures on the art. The publisher or editor may blame the "popular demand" for his efforts to cater to the sensational and hideous; but that does not help the matter any, nor does it tend to elevate the art of newspaper printing.

Journalism, indeed, seems to have fallen, or wandered, into dangerous or demoralizing ways. This, also, is laid at the door of "popular demand," etc. The old-time editor had a personality, and this he infused into the columns of his paper. He was not always right, of course, but the general tendency of such journalism was to breed a spirit of independence, of character, of research. The consensus thus evolved by the masses was wholesome.

To-day the editor is a mere machine. His individuality is suppressed, and the effort is to keep him entirely under the thumb and rack-screw of the publisher, who manipulates the finances, the "business" end of the concern. This publisher generally gets his "cue" from his banker, who may be his backer, and, who, at any rate, sets the pace for editorials, news--and in fact the whole tone of the paper. In all this there is concert. From some great business center the word goes out, and the newspapers catch up the echo. In this way the individual, the great personality that once made the newspaper a power for good, is lost; instead, the press has become a mob--the most dangerous mob that ever existed, for it comes in the guise of instruction, of morals, of culture, of learning. Thus masquerading, journalism to-day is fast lapsing--or rather plunging--into a vortex that is positively appalling in its aspects. How and when the remedy will come is of grave concern. The mob may, in sheer desperation, rend itself, commit hari-kari; or it may go on until in frenzy, the long-deluded and outraged populace shall rise and revolutionize newspaperdom.