EDITOR WHO PRINTS ALL THE NEWS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 311, 8 June 1945, Page 14

EDITOR WHO PRINTS ALL THE NEWS

"Literally Everything That Happens In Town’’ OME demand more truth in the newspapers, some less. Very few who realise what the demand means ask for the whole truth, but there is one newspapet that ,.supplies it-the "Democrat," of Lamar, Missouri.. Here is the evidence, as supplied by John R. Cauley, in New York "Life."

owner of the Democrat in Lamar, Missouri, has for 44 years operated on. the simple theory that the function of a newspaper is to print all the news. Unlike most country editors, whose papers reflect their own native caution and orthodoxy, Editor Aull believes it is his duty to tell literally everything that happens in his town. So far Mr. Aull has been sued three times, umsuccessfully, and assaulted only once. A typical and actual item in Mr. Aull’s Democrat is this one: "John Jones was divorced from his wife, Ella, at the courthouse, Tuesday. Mrs. Jones ran off with her brother-in-law while her husband and children were at the Baptist Church." Editor Aull defends the publication of such items on the grounds of integrity and necessity. In a town the size of Lamar (3,000 pop.), he points out, the most carefully guarded secret is eventually discovered and bandied about. It is the editor’s job to set the gossip-mongers straight. "I could have smoothed the whole thing over," explains Mr. Aull, "or omitted the ‘article entirely. But what would have happened? My readers would begin to lose confidence in my newspaper. They'd say: ‘Aull has quit printing the news.’ They know Jones and his wife are going to be divorced. Chances are they know why, too. And they depend on/the Democrat to tell them the facts." ¥. é : Mr. Aull’s forthright editorial -approach has won subscribers for the Democrat in‘every State in the Union. A ower AULL, editor and

Items from the Democrat have been reprinted by the New York Times, the New York World-Telegram. Time, The New Yorker, and The Journal of the American Medical Association. But despite this wide coverage Aull insists that "the Democrat is strictly a home town paper" (circulation: 1,450 for the daily edition; 2,150 for the semi-weekly edition). Editor Aull doesn’t even bother to subscribe to a press association service. He is his own ace reporter and his wife writes all the club and social news, plus a weekly column of book reviews, cooking recipes and poems. "The Most Sensational Story" To the out-of-town readers of the Democrat, Lamar seems to. be an extraordinary place where everything happens. Perhaps the most sensational story ever to appear in the Lamar Democrat was the following, reprinted in its entirety from the July 7, 1939, issue: "At 7.30 p.m. Monday an 8¥lb. son was born to Miss Jennie Wirts, book-keeper, of the Lamar Trust. At 9 o’clock Don O’Neal, cashier of the bank, stood by. her bed and they were married by the Rev. Martin Pope. Miss Jennie had been at her work. in the bank every day untit Monday, when she was detained by symptoms she did not understand. No one in the bank who daily worked side by side with her suspected she was in a condition of expectant motherhood. This included the cashier, Don O’Neal, the father of the child. The bride is 33, the groom 53. None of the folks at the bank where Miss Jennie worked day after day suspected. There apparently wasn’t a whisper from the sharp-eyed gossips. Mr. O’Neal was plainly taken by surprise, but he never wavered in his decision to make no attempt at concealment or evasion. Don and Jennie, fine couple thet they are, will stand forth soon with their little son, secure as ever in public esteem. We could have said they were married secretly, say a year or two ago, Don told a friend, but it wasn’t that way, and we're not going to lie.

"Well, true enough, there never was a better girl than Jennie and we all know Don is a grand old boy, but God, it was badly managed." Subscribers Supply the Climax The people of Lamar have become resigned to this journalistic invasion of their privacy ever since Arthur Aull gave up school-teaching back in 1900. at the age of 27, and bought the .Democrat. They know it is useless to try to keep a story out of the Democrat, but anyone in Lamar who has a grievance is welcome to use the columns of the Democrat to air it. In fact, the climax to some of Editor Aull’s liveliest stories is often supplied by the letters of annoyed subscribers. Take the example of the Prairie View box-social and Mrs. Wilma Bogart’s reply. On April 3, 1944, the Democrat; printed this story on page 1: "There was a lively box supper at Prairie View School -Friday night. The gross proceeds were $51.50, which was considered good, but as the ladies will probably have to pay for the plastering that was ‘kicked off the school during the supper it might cut in on their profit. "Delbert McWilliams was present at the supper. He had brought his sister, Mrs. Wilma Bogart, with him. She was accompanied by a friend, Miss Maine, who is visiting her from Arkansas. The three young folks came in a buggy. The horses which were hitched to the buggy ran off twice on the way, but they didn’t tear up the buggy, so Delbert and. his party got in all right. "It wasn’t long afterwards that ‘Delbert, who was in a very boisterous mood, began to kick the plaster off the walls of the school-house." Wilma Gives the Lowdown Several days later the Democrat was happy to print this sequel to its boxsocial story under the headline: "Wilma gives us the lowdown on the excitement at Prairie View School." Dear Sir,- » I am writing an answer to the exciting piece you had in the paper about the three boisterous hammerhéads who attended the Prairie View box supper. . .. I will acknowledge my brother was intoxicated, but we three seemed to be having a good time, including Miss Maine and myself. (You) mention the horses running away twice. There is one lie. They only ran away once. . Well, thank God, none of the three was ‘hurt, but as I was making a mad rush to get out of the buggy I hung the seat of my pants on a nail and they were torn to bits when I landed. I wouldn’t have cared for a little thing like that, but it was the last pair I had which | had elastic in... . (Signed) Mrs. Wilma Bogart. "Sometimes It Hurts" Editor Aull is often bewildered by all the commotion some of his stories create, but he is quite modest about his success. "Any country editor can do what I have done," he says, ""But if he wants to keep from being lynched he’d better know his people pretty good before he stdrts anything. I know and understand these people and I’m giving them what they want. Sometimes it hurts, but they keep on reading the Democrat." Only once has the editor of the Democrat been in serious trouble for printing the facts as he found them. This was when his paper announced that a certain Lamar lady was circulating. a petition urging two wayward young folk to hurry and get married. The lady promptly. assaulted Aull with a club, splitting open his forehead and _ spattering blood all over his shirt front. Next day the Democrat carried a blow-by-blow description with this philosophic comment: "Fortunately, we wore our old straw hat, which was some protection, and .we have a rather heavy head of hair, Which protected us some. It certainly would have ruined a bald-headed guy with no hat."