© 1975 @ 1975 @ 1975 i ';; L'' ,,- , - :.._; ; ·;' - "'.,..,.._ ~.,.' -- '.. ,-,, --. ~ ·-.;,; _,,,, ,,,,_,_. '-·Ll.i'-- ~ .i'-..\•~-';,; R.FS FR. VtD VOlCES FROM THE SHORT GRASS COUNTRY: A HISTORY OF LAWTON NEWSPAPERS, 1901-1970 By L. EDWARD CARTER 7 Bachelor of Arts University of Oklahoma Norman, Oklahoma 1952 Bachelor of Arts University of Oklahoma Norman, Oklahoma 1953 Master of Science Oklahoma. State University Stillwater, Oklahoma 1970 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May, 197/,i, VOICES FROM THE SHORT GRASS COUNTRY: A HISTORY OF LAWTON NEWSPAPERS, 1901-1970 Thesis Approved: Thesis Advis Dean of the Graduate College ii OKLA.HON-A STATE UNIVERSITY UBRARY MAY 6 1975 PREFACE When frontier towns were established in Oklahoma during the various land openings, newspapers invariably were on the scene recording the news. These newspapers were typical of the press in the American West. Their editors were tireless boosters for their communities. They were constantly involved in personal journalistic battles with fellow news- mena These pioneer newspapermen established their papers as political organs, with hopes of winning the city and county printing contracts from the politicians in power. And the editors reflected their parti- sanship in the news columns and editorial pages. Gradually this stage of newspaper boosterism and political partisanship evolved into a one- man monopoly newspaper situation of unbiased news coverage relying on advertising for revenue. This process is evident in microcosm in towns within the Territory, and later the State of Oklahoma. In particular, this case study will show how this pattern worked in the town of Lawton, Oklahomae No important investigation ever has been made of daily newspaper operatio~s in Oklahoma, and little has been done on small town journalism anywhere. The standard histories of American journalism dwell extensively on stories of the metropolitan newspapers and of the famous "giants" of the press. Almost untouched in journalism history are the social-economic-politica\ roles of the small-town press in the American West. It is my hope that this study of these "voices from the 907118 iii Short Grass Country" will contribute to a better understanding. I was on the news staff of the Lawton Constitution for ten years, from December, 1957, to September, 1968. I worked on the copy desk as wire editor and news editor, and beginning in 1963 as city editor. On leaving the Constitution, I joined the journalism faculty at Oklahoma State University and also worked on advanced degrees. After deciding to pursue a doctorate in history, I gravitated toward the idea of writing a history of the Lawton newspapers. Because I was directly involved for several years with the editing of the Constitution, I hope there are benefits from this inside view. Yet this should be tempered with the realization of the hazards resulting from possible non-objectivity. The present management of the Lawton newspapers cooperated with me in every way I asked, but the newspapers have had no direct connection with this study. Also the management was not responsible for any opinions expressed. The results are entirely mine. Unfortunately, the Lawton newspapers' business records have not been preserved. However, approximations of advertising revenue were gained in interviews. Although this study ends in 1970, much of importance technologi­ cally has happened to the newspapers since that time. On Monday, December 31, 1973, printers permanently turned off the eleven linotypes at the Lawton Publishing Company, Inc., and from that day on the Lawton newspapers have been produced by computerized phototypesetting. Through this half-million-dollar investment, the Lawton papers have become part of the technological revolution which has swept the printing industry in the past decade: the conversion from "hot type" to "cold type." iv My deepest debt as a student is to Dr. Theodore L. Agnew of the Oklahoma State University History Department, who patiently and critically read this work chapter by chapter. His skills as an editor and his suggestions as to changes add much to this study 1 s improvement. The staffs of the newspaper collection at the Oklahoma Historical Society and Steve Wilson, director of the Great Plains Museum at Lawton, made the reading of decades of newspaper files much easier than it might have been. My wife, Susan, participated in every step of the work, and the final result is as much hers as mine. She had many helpful sugges­ tions, in addition to typing the final draft copy. I cannot fully express my appreciation to her and to our. daughters, Dana and Karen, for their patience. I also want to thank Miss Velda D. Davis and Mrs. Marilynn J. Bond, the author's typists, for their assistance with preparation of this thesis for publication. I am especially grateful to the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation, to its trustees, to its President, Harrington Wimberly, publisher of the Duncan, Oklahoma, Banner, and to the many people of Oklahoma who have donated to the Foundation. They acknowledged the value of this study through the Foundation's financial assistance in its publication. I sincerely appreciate their support. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. BEGINNINGS 1 II. THE BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY. 62 III. JOURNALISM IN THE TWENTIES. 122 IV. THE GREAT DEPRESSION YEARS 188 v. OFF TO WAR AGAIN • • • 24:4: VI. BOOM AMID A NEW WAR 307 VII. A DEVELOPING METROPOLIS 383 VIII. CONCLUSIONS Li:37 BIBLIOGRAPHY 4:4:2 vi CHAPTER I BEGINNINGS A Frantic Newspaper Race In the summer of 1901, a caravan of covered wagons carrying the heavy equipment of a daily newspaper plant wended its way across the prairie hills and vales of Southwest Oklahoma. J. T. 11 Bert11 Howard, a newspaperman, was guiding his prairie schooner expedition toward Lawton. The young editor recently had dismantled his printing plant equipment at Horton, Kansas 9 where he had published a weekly newspaper 9 The Headlight. Howard had decided to launch a newspaper at Lawton, one of three county seat towns in the newly opened lands of the Comanche and Kiowa Reservation. National attention had focused on the opening of this land in Oklahoma Territory9 one of the last Western frontiers in American history. Through a land lottery scheduled July 29, some 13,000 lucky homesteaders were to win the right to settle on 160-acre farms. The lottery was to be followed by the sale of townsite lots in Anadarko, Hobart, and Lawton, beginning August 6. Various newspaper accounts had described Lawton as the most attractive townsite in the opening, and it generally was believed Lawton would become the metropolis of the areas And Howard, similar to thousands of others seeking a new and perhaps a better life 9 had decided to try his luck in this "queen city" of 1 2 Southwestern Oklahoma. 1 A stiff breeze made the 100-degree heat somewhat bearable as the wagons followed ruts in the red dvst made by earlier pioneers. Howard's caravan was traveling the Short Grass Country9 the southern 9 high plains section of a grassy region some 500 miles in width stretching from Canada southward for 1 9 500 miles almost to Mexico. Still untouched by the farmer 1 s plow 9 the land was covered with an unbroken mat of buffalo grass, grama and mesquite 9 all short grasses rarely even six inches high. Although this Southwest Oklahoma section of the Short Grass Country is dominated by stretches of level land 9 it also includes country of a more varied character: wandering streams, usually dry, fringed with cottonwood, willow 9 and elm. Often the travelers had encountered broken hills decorated with red cedars. 2 The Short Grass Country presents much of the three dominant char- acteristics of the Great Plains environment. It is a comparatively level area 9 it is mostly a treeless land 9 and it has a climate that is sub-humid9 one that.is deficient in rainfall. In climate 9 the dominant feature is the lack of water. For all practical purposes 9 the Short Grass Country is almost a desert. The annual rainfall can vary from fifteen to more than fifty inches, but usually averages around thirty 1Howard described the details of his covered wagon journey from Kansas to Lawton in two accounts 9 one in the Daily Republican 9 July 26 9 1902 9 p. 4, 9 and the other in the Weekly Republican 9 August 6 9 1903 9 p. 1. Several stories said Lawton appeared to be the city with the most promising future in the land opening. See the Kansas City Star, June 7 9 1901 9 p. 1. The Star carried front-page stories almost daily for about a month prior to the August 6 9 1901 9 opening 9 from its reporter in Lawton. Also see the New York Times 9 June 9 9 1901 9 p. J, July 8 9 1901 9 p. 7; July 14, 9 1901 9 P• 1® 2 Stanley Vestal 9 .Short Grass Country ( 1st reprint; West.port1 Connecticut: Greenwood Press 9 1970) 9 pp. 6-7. 3 inches. And the country is characterized by long and awful droughts, dry spells of such intensity and duration that water supplies disappear and farming becomes impossible. The droughts usually are broken only by brief, torrential rains. Another characteristic of this plains country is the wind, which blows with a constancy unsurpassed elsewhere. In the summer 9 it can be a wilting furnace blast. In the winter, the "norther," or cold front, rages, dropping the temperature with incred~ ible speed and sometimes bringing blizzards.3 As the covered wagons neared the Lawton townsite, ·their occupants were astonished to see craggy mountains thrusting abruptly out of the plains.