Centenary

Time, passing on over the heads of men, nations, newspapers, brought the end of a century* upon the Springfield Republican. On Sept. 8, 1824, its first issue "was printed on a crude hand press in a straggling country town [Springfield, Mass.] marked by running brooks and ill-drained marsh land where now are well-paved streets and steel-framed buildings."

Time was when the "S. R." stood out as one of the distinguished newspapers of the U. S. Its editorial page was notably independent, forceful, judicious. Today, it carries better news than ever, its editorials haye not changed in character, it is still distinguished; but it does not "stand out." There are so many newspapers in the U. S. now that the best of them, like good men in a crowd, are lost to the general sight. Save in Springfield and adjacent towns, people no longer ask: "What did the 'S. R.' say?"

As any centenarian would, the Republican told its life history, ran a large birthday cartoon and birthday editorial, received congratulations from its friends (including President Coolidge, Chief Justice W. H. Taft, Speaker Gillett, Governor Cox of Mass.), gave a birthday party to which all "alumni" of the paper were invited. Among those who might have attended:

Solomon Bulkley Griffin, who retired in 1919 after a service of 47 years, for most of which time he had been Managing Editor; Ernest Howard, editorial writer on The New York World; Talcott Williams, Prof. Emeritus of the Pulitzer School of Journalism; Thoreau Cronyn, Managing Editor of Collier's Weekly; Col. George B. M. Harvey, Editor of the North American Review; J. F. Bresnahan, Business Manager of The New York World; Herbert L. Bridgman, publisher of the Brooklyn Standard-Union; Louis A. Coolidge, Treasurer of the United Shoe Machinery Company and candidate for the U. S. Senate; Robert Lyman of The New York World; Walter I. Robinson, Managing Editor of the Cleveland Times and Commercial; Archer H. Shaw, editorial writer of the Cleveland Plain Dealer; George K. Turner, novelist; B. R. Stevenson, Editor of the Waterbury Republican; Professor W. B. Maulsby of the department of journalism at the University of Iowa; John T. Winterich, Managing Editor of the American Legion Weekly; E. S. Burrows of the department of journalism at the University of Michigan; Malcolm W. Davis, Associate Editor of Our World; Henry R. Luce, President of TIME; Thomas E. Steward of the department of journalism at the University of Minnesota; Prof. Frank T. Murray of Marquette College, Wis.; Walter Hoff Seely, publisher of Success; J. Oscar Simmons of the department of journalism, Syracuse Univ.; Prof. Frank R. Thayer of the department of journalism in North western Univ.; Walter S. Ball of the Providence Journal; E. T. Shurter of the Hartford Courant; Arthur Sweetser for several years a member of the permanent Secretariat of the League of Nations.

The story of the century is told in a book* by Richard Hooker, President of the Republican Co.

Samuel Bowles I, in 1824, with a total borrowed capital of $400, founded the Springfield Republican, weekly, in a river village which had within the memory of man been demolished by Indians. He printed no local news whatsoever. He lifted articles from London papers five weeks old and from Washington papers a week old.

Samuel Bowles II had the audacity to wheedle his father into a daily edition in 1844. Bowles II was the family genius, for he it was who began to tell the Springfield villagers about themselves. He printed local news and more and more of it, thus sounding the key-note of American small-town papers. Bowles II also rose to commanding eminence in national life. So well did he succeed in annoying two prominent New Yorkers, Jay Gould and Jim Fiske, that a crooked Tammany judge jugged him.

Came Samuel Bowles III, the business man, at the beginning of our new era, wherein the primary function of a newspaper is to make money. On the morning of Sunday, Sept. 15, 1878, a well-known Springfield citizen ap peared on his front porch, clad in dressing gown and carpet slippers. In his hands were the family tongs. With these he carefully picked up a tainted object which lay before him. Marching around, instead of through, the house, to avoid the possibility of contagion to holy precints, he deposited the object in the garbage can by the kitchen door. With crisis met and duty done, he resumed the day's meditations.

"The cause of offense thus bravely plucked from the eye of the world was a copy of the first issue of the Sunday Republican."

Bowles III, founder of the Sunday, acquired also an evening paper. He made money, but he likewise set standards of commercial honesty which made his paper unique. The third Bowles died with honor not many years ago.

His nephew, Richard Hooker, his son, Sherman Bowles, have since controlled the paper.

But Mr. Hooker's book is much more than a Bowles biography. It is a brilliant resume of the history of the U. S. From the Whig revolt to the election of Gov. Calvin Coolidge on a League of Nations platform, Mr. Hooker deftly recalls to one's imperfect memory the great political organizations of this nation. Rarely has so much history been so judiciously set forth in so few words.

*Others with whom time has dealt similarly: Hartford Times (founded 1817), Hartford Courant (1764), New Haven Register (1812), New Haven Journal-Courier (1766), Hampshire Gasette (1783), Pittsfield Eagle (1789), New York Evening Post (1801).

*THE STORY OF AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER-- Richard Hooker-- Macmillan ($2.00).