HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AHD DEVELOPMENT of ARIL.ONA llli\/SPAPEH PUBLISHING

By Mulford Winsor

Phoenix, Arizona February 12, 1946

HISTO1UCAL BACKGROUND AJ;'LJ DEVELOPMENT OF ARI2,ONA 1'EvuSPAPEH PUBLISHING

l A . ' / An addressAdeliverea at a breakfast meeting of the Repub­ lic and Gazette Executives Club, bela at the Adams �-Botel, Phoenix, Arizona, February 12, 1946, �

Mr. chairman, frlbends, executives of' the Hepublic and Gazette: When the newspaper virus gets a good hold in one's system it is hara to eradicate. It is some tbirt)-five years now since I was connected with newspaper work in any capacity, yet to this day I find myself appraisine the newspapers that come to my attention, not merely from the standpoint of reader interest but in a technical sense, wivh respect to format, typographical style, news and eaitorial policy, the character and quality of' special features, and all that goes to charac­ terize a newspaper, to distinguish one from another and the new�paper of today from that of my day and earlier days. , Nor is this all that reveals a lingering trace of the newspaper virus in my veins. It is about fifteen �ars since I retired from the fiela of political activity and engaged in a service the claims of which upon my time and nervous energy were such as to oblige me to deny myself the pleasure of in­ dulging ln speech-making.· But when Charlie Stauffer gave me a bid to talk to you executives of the Republic and Gazette the tempt&tion was too gre&t. I could not resist the oppor­ !- tunity to spend an hour or so with so aistinpuished a �roup of representatives of the profession in which I �as once priv- .., ileged to play a minor and inconspicuous part. It will not be wonaered at, however, that in accepting

tJ •• OCT 2 the invitation I was seizea with serious misgivings. After so many years of separation from the Fourth Estate, what coula I say that would prove of interest, much less of profit, to you men and women who are making Arizona's greatest news­ paper duo? But when a subject was sug�ested--"The Historical Background and Development mf Arizona Newspaper Publishing 11-­ which gave me the broadest sort of a field, it ctia seem that I shoula be able to fird enough to say to fill the time. Now the fear may well be that I shall not know when nor where to stop. rieverting to the newspaper virus in my system, which, next to Charlie Stauffer, is responsible for my presence at your breakfast table, perhaps you will indulge me while I give you a little account of how it got there. It may lend a degree of authenticity to my remarks which � fear they wi ll otherwise lack. The inoculatior occui:;_ed--as you no doubt have inferred from the chairman's vague but suggestive allusion to my age-­ a long, long time ago. Its locale was a small frame house in a small county-seat village way out on the blizzard-swept plains of northern Kansas, where the winter temperature--and the incident 1 shall relate occurred auring one of those winters--hba no compunction against falling to 32 or more below, and it was no unusual experience to awaken in the morninr to find the snow banked on the winaward siae clear up to the eaves,- with a streamlined norther of incalculable speed anu fury screaming around the co1�ers. � e house to which 1 have referrea wa� the office of the Jewell County rlepublican, anu at one ar.d the same time the residence of its editor and publisher, my father--a pioneer, frontier country

-2- newspaperman. The office and printshop of tne Hepublican were in the front part of the house, the residence in the rear. To complete this picture of pure pioreering I mieht add that my father built the house with his own hands. At tre moment to which I would ask your attention a huge base-burner stove--the favorite heating device of that period and part of tne cour,try--occupiea the center of the printing office. Its rounded sides were aglow, its interior loaded to capacity, with what--coal?--oh, no, with corn--corn on the cob, if you please--an indigenous, more plentiful and cheaper fuel--and the ola heater was doing its red-hot, roaring best to repel the winter while Jewell county's palladium of liberty was in the throes of going to press. 1he little old Cottrell hand-cylinder--one of the earliest of its species, purchased second-hand and hauled overland from Leavenworth, for no railroad had as yet pierced the prairies of northern Kansas-­ was standing by, waiting to receive the two forms of the "out­ side" of the weekly Republican, then two days late. Under the base-burner sat a great pan of printer's ink, undergoing the process of being reduced to the proper viscosity for effect­ ive use. Well, the stage is set. But before the hero enters, I· should reffiind you that the rear portion of tee house formed

1 the residence of the pioneer ea1tor s family. And speaking of the family, the latest a�dition to or of that family, ac­ cording to how you spell it, was a brivit young gentleman aged two years and four months. I say bright advisedly, for he haa the measles, in a peculiarly illuminating form. In keeping with the limited facilities of the northern Kansas frontier, he was hospitalized in a little room of the residence. The -3- mother, who nursed this young hopeful day and nieht for all the world as if he were worth it, thinking her patient was asleep, left the room for a few moments. �hen she returned the bed was empty. Her hope and pride, measles and all, had mysteriously disappeared. A quick search failed to reveal him under the bed or elsewhere. With fear tugging at her heartstrings she ran into the newspaper office, perhaps to giver her husband the scoop before the paper went to press. But she got no further than the base-burner. r�ere, with his legs stuck under the stove, the pan of printer's ink drawn up between them, both arms in the black, slithery semi-fluid as deep as a politician's in the public trough, was her pride and joy, but all signs of the measles were gone--they were literally blacked out. There he sat, happy as a lark, print­ er's ink from head to foot, though as it afterward appeared, most of it must have gone to his head. And that is how the newspaper virus got into my veins. By dint of scrapinr and scrubbing, shaving my head, and such other devices as were available, a portion of the printer's ink was removed, but it just seems that not all of it ever came off. With such a ceremony I first proclaimed my adherence to the sacred prin­ ciple of freedom of the press, and my faith in that principle has never simrr.ed. It is a sure cure for the measles. When, .after some years, the eyes of the Winsor family turned toward Arizona my parents, I daresay, were seeking sur- � cease from the rigors of the northe�Kansas winters, but as far as I was concerned the climate had nothing to do with it. The secret lay in that pan of printer's ink. The newspaper virus was in my veins to stay. I was looking for the end of the rainbow of freedom of the press. -4- And if any of you think I didr.'t find. it when I struck Prescott, Arizona, you are very much mistaken. The only thing that could possibly have meant greater freedom of the press in the Arizona of that day would have been more press, and there just weren't readers enough for that. True, it was a kind of freedom all its own. It was indi­ vidualistic--an intensely personal thing. It stood militantly for the right of every editor having control of a case or so of type, some kind of a printing machine, a few quires of paper, ana a little can of the all-essential printer's ink, to publish what he pleased, when he pleased, in the terms he pleased, of whoever he pleased. Personalities of the most vivid cgaracter constituted the veritable hallmark of Arizona journalism. This proclivity was exercised with especial free­ dom in exchanges between editors of their opil.ions of each other. To go back a few years, when the practice was in its fullest bloom, the passages at arms, with pencils for swords, between Euitor John Marion of the Miner, at Prescott, Judge 11im. J. Berry of the Sentinel, at Yuma, John Viasson of the Cit­ izen, at Tucson, ana P. li. Dooner of the Arizonan, at the same place, were classic examples of the early Arizona brand of IJ � • freedom of the p-l:-a-ee. A search of the newspapers of that per- iod would reveal so many samples of this brand of journalism that the day might be spent in quoting them--ana I am not cer­ tain that it would not be much more interesting than anything I may say, but i� oi: ...m}l. eagerl'.les.s -to t-alk I shall offer just a few of them by way of illustration. On a certain occasion the Arizona Miner startea one of the numerous passages between Editor . arion and Juage Berry of the Sentinel by questioning Berry's right to the title of

-5- Juage, while conceding that he was a judge of whiskey. Listen to the Judge's retort: "Shame upon you, John Marion. v�e contradict your foul charges. They are lies. In regard to beirnt a judge of whis­ key, no man ever saw Wm. J. Berry laid out under its influ­ ence, while we had the extreme mortification of seeing the euitor of the Miner laid out dead drunk, with candles at his head and feet, and a regular wake held over him. It was then for the first time that we discovered Darwin's missing link. As he lay with his arunken slobber issuing from his immense mouth, which extends from ear to ear, everyone present was forcibly impressed with the fact that there was a conLecting link between the catfish and the jackass. Now ctry up, or we will come out wit•i more reminiscences." 1 But 1'1.arion dicin t dry up. "Yes, 11 he confessea in reply, "arink got tne better of us tnat nig_,ht. But :Berry arank ten times to our once, and the only reason he aid not fall down aLd crawl on all fours, like the beast that he is, was that there was not sufficient liquor in the house to fill his hogs­ head. Berry says no one ever saw him drunk. vvhen he lived in Prescott his first great care was to fill himself with whiskey, after which it was his custom to walk like the swine that he is, on all fours, to his den. He can�ot have forgot­ ten his visit to Lynx Creek, in 1864, when he rmlled over a pine log, dead drunk, and served a useful purpose for a jo­ cose man. Yes, Judge, we own up to that little drunk of our's, but no one ever used us for a water closet." It seems to have been the regular thing in those days for eaitors to hate each other, with a burning, consuming hatred tnat required an outlet in the most violent language. John Wasson, of the Arizona Citizen, by his support of Gov. lcCormick, brou•ht Johr Marion's ire down upon him. "·rhe eaitor of the Citizen, rr saia Marion, "is fast writ­ ine himself down a ereat liar and blowhard, which fact pains us considerably, as we have heretofore considered him incap­ able of gettin down on his krees and filling the position of affiuavit mbr. to a set of thieving politicians." wasson repliea in terms inaicating his belief that Marion was �'a aebaseci coward and slanderer." Let us see Marion's re­ action to that: "And now" he says, "for Wasson, the menial of carpet­ baggers; the boorish fellow who came to the Territory to take an effice ( ,vasson ·was Surveyor-General), whose duties he can no more fill than he coula those of an honest man and citizen. This adder (and he doesn't mean a mathematical adaer); this loafer; this gubernatorial bootblack and scullion tries to -6- fool the people into the belief that he--an abject, cringing slave--is a chivalrous centleman, and t�at we are debauched and debased cowarJs and slanderers. �. ercy, has it come to this? "ust we, for once, forget our manhood _and come down to the level of this human brute? If so, we unhesitatingly fling those words back into the teeth of this bluffing dog, and dare him to meet us at any place he may name, and forever settle this little matter of cowardice." Which I call simon-pure, unadulterated freedom of the press. Well, duels betweep rival newspapermen were not unlmown in the Arizona of that day, but Wasson did not choose to accept t:ie challenge. Instead, he dismisses Marion as "an overgrown,

11 11 wormy boy for whom he is sorry, and as a weak, sickly, rot­ ten specimen of mortality, who aoes not consider that he sbould be held responsible for anything written by him when under the 1 influence of drugs and potions. 1 Between Wasson and Editor Dooner of the Weekly Arizonan, in the early seventies, the same cordial relations existed, and few issues of either paper were permitted to appear lack­ ing a picturesque appraisal of the rival editor. In due course IV:arion, Berry, Wasson and Dooner passed from the scene, but the custom of journalistic feuding, al­ though maintained on a slightly less violent level, was by no means suffered to die out. The editors in those early days certainly contributed their full quota of color to the background, but what is more, they played a vital part in the development of newspaper pub­ lishing. They established the press--the essential first step in development--in a period when the chances were all on th e siae of failure. Of course, many of them met that fate, but some of them started pepers that today--they or their direct lineal descendants--are su pplying our Arizona com unities with newspaper service. Perhaps a more realistic or factual pre- -7- sentation of the backP-round of Arizona new·-paper publishing may be to see what some of these background newspapers were. • Ne will take them in the order of their establishment, or rather let us take the towns in which they were established in the order in which they acquired newspaper representation. The forerunner of Arizona journalism, t�e earliest news­ paper to make its appearance within the present boundaries of this State, was the Jeekly Arizonia�,which first saw the light at Tubae, on March 3, 1859. I am pleased to be able to exhibit a copy of this unique publication. An interesting feature of the Arizonian is that whereas it is datelined Tubae, Arizona, there was at the time no such gove.cnmental division. The territory which now constitutes the great State of Arizona was then attached to the Territory of New Mexico, and the portion ir. which Tubae was located was a part of .Oona Ana county. The only ground that existed for the Arizona dateline was that a Territory of Arizona had been proposed, and during the struggle for its creation the area below the Gila acquired that popula1· name. Publication of the Arizonian was begun in the period of silver mininq activity in the Arizona portion of tne Gadsden Purchase. It was established by William \vrightson, Cincinnatti manager of the Santa rlita Mining Company, in a commendable at­ tempt to assist in openir,g the country to civilixation. As his reward vvrightson was murdered by the Apaches while on the way from Tubae to the mines. The small printing plant, featuring a Washington hand press which is now a museum piece, was, to­ gether with the two printers who manned the pr�ss, shipped by Wrip:htson around tne Horn to Guaymas, and from that point freighted overland. Among the literary contributors to the -8- Arizonian while it was published at Tubae, was Charles �. Poston, who is creditea by history with being responsible for the passage of the bill creating Arizona Territory in 1863, and who was the earliest promoter of mining in the Gausden Purchase. The e�itor of the paper was Col. �dward h. Cross, but his name did not appear at its masthead, nor did that of any e�itor or publisher. The practice followea by early Arizona editors of express­ ing themselves with the utmost freedom was initiated by this first of Arizona journalists, and resulted in a duel between the editor and Lt. Sylvester Mowry, an ex-U. S. Army officer wljo was operating the neighboring Patagonia mines, and who had political as well as industrial ambitions. The duel was fought with Burnsiae rifles at forty paces. Accounts d�ffer. One is that both men fired once and missed; at tne next ex­ change Cross missed and Mowry's rifle failed to go off. Ac­ cording to the dueling code he was allowed to reprime and take his shot. Cross stood waitinr to be kileed, while Mowry took careful aim, t�en raisea his rifle and fired in the air. A more authentic account is tnat both fired until tired or satisfied, gave it up, and shook han�s, the excuse for failure being a hard wind that was blowing at the time. There was neither population nor business activity to sustain tne Arizonian at 1ubac. Evidently Wri�htson gave up the idea of supporting it alone. In August of 1859 the paper was moved to Tucson, where it was published for a time by J. Howard Wells. Wells is credited with having produced the first pamphlet ever printed in Arizona, containing the pro­ visional constitution for the Territory' adopted by a conven- tion held at Tucson in April, 1860, to be effective only -9- until the proposed Territory should be created. From 1861 to 1870 the paper--its name, incidentally, having been changed to the Arizonan--was published intermit­ tently, by different persons. In August, 1867, it was trans­ ferred, minus the hand press that came around the Horn, to the then capital city of Prescott, by a Nr. Pierce, who issued it there one time only, printing it on a press brought to the Territory by Vincent Ryan, ana useu by him, first at La Paz in 1866, and at Prescott in 1867, for·printing the original fore­ father--a pro4enitor of which you may possibly not be aware-­ of the Arizona Gazette. I wish I could show you a copy of that paper. The move of the Arizonan to Prescott was untimely, for at the legislative session held immediately thereafter the capital was transferred to Tucson. So back went the Arizonan to Tucson. With the capital, of cdmrse, went Gov. McCormick, and when the Arizonan was revived, with Sidney R. DeLong as its editor, it blossomed-out as the Governor's new organ, in succession to the Arizona idner, and he bought for it the Vincent Ryan or Arizona Gazette press on which its one Prescott issue had been printed. In 1869 P. W. Dooner was the Arizonan's eaitor. He like­ wise enjoyed the favors and upheld the political banner of Mr. McCormick, who meanwhile hau graduated from the Governorship and become velegate to Congress. But the vccormick-�ooner alliance fell apart when Dooner's pre-campaign demand for _p3,000 was denied by the Congressman. Dooner thereupon es­ poused the cause of Peter Rrady, �owry's candidate for Con­ �ress, and McCormick countered by taking the Ryan or Gazette press away from the Arizonan and with it starting the Arizona -10- Citizen. Dooner bitterly fulminated against this outrage, but was reminded that he still haa the old Arizonian press that came around the Horn. The secona newspaper establishea in the wil�s of Arizona, and the first after tne Territory wa ( created, was tne Arizona Miner, first published on Narch 9, 1�64, at the original site of Fort Uhipple, in Little Chino Valley, and later at Prescott on June 22. I hol-:1 in my ha;,d. the first volume of this pri­ mary ancestor of the Arizona Courier-Journal and the Prescott hvening Courier. The volume is just about the equivalent of one 32-page edition of the Hepublic or the Gazette, which is not an unusual occurrence even on a week-day, except when the War Production Board fails to recognize the tremendous growth of Phoenix and the Salt River Valley. 'Yne plant for the 1v1iner, which included a Ramage press, was hauled iP by the army, by way of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, with the party of appointed officers who proclaimed the Terri­ torial orranization at Navajo Springs on December 29, 1863. It was the property of H. C. WcCormick, whose penchant for owning or controlling newspapers has been noted. Mr. VcCor­ mick was the first Secretary of the new Territory. He foresaw the need for a newspaper at the carital and sensea as well the utility of a publication that woul� not be unmindful of his political interests. As an item of interest perhaps only to myself, Secretary YcCormick also brougnt iL a library, which he disposed of to the Territory for �1,500, and which thus became the Territorial Library. Some twenty-odd volumes remain of this nucleus of the 200,000-volume library now functioning at the capitol as best it can under my jurisdiction. Tisdale A. 4and was the Miner's first editor. Hand was -11- an easterner, and al thouc.-:h he did a very fair job 01· editing, he did not fit in well with the primordial Arizona scenery. At a time when the Civil ivar had not yet been brought to a close and feelin2 ran high, he became involved in a contro­ versy with a Prescott gunman who espoused the southern cause. In the heat of the argument, and while neglecting to smile, Hand called his opponent a liar. He was challenged to an imr..ediate duel with pistols. 'l'hat was too much fo.c Hand to handle. He shiveringly declined his way out, thereby salvag­ ing his life, and soon left for less strenuous parts. Hand was followed by a series of editors of the kiner who failed to contr\ibute much to the background of Arizona journalism-­ minor editors I suppose we might call them--until the paper became the property, on September 21, 1867, of John H. Marion. I mention this date for the reason that it is interestine to note how closely it coincides with the removal of the Terri­ torial capital to Tucson, through the medium of an Act approved by Governor McCor�ick just thirteen days later. Just when and

1 to whom �ccormick sold the Miner, and by what process it came under Marion's ownership I am not prepared to si.;.y, but it is Sbfe to assume that the part played by Governor McCormick in the removal of the capital contributea to the bitterness tnereafter displayed by Marion for the Miner's founder. Except for a few papers tnat blossomea only for a day, V.arion had the Prescott newspaper field pretty much in his own hands until 1880, when the Arizona Democrat, published for a short time as a daily, and the Arizona Weekly Journal entered the picture. Their early coalescence under the name of the Arizona Journal, and the hypenation in 1865 of the Journal and the Miner, come under the head of natural consequences. -12- Newspaper printint in Tucson began in 1859, with the re­ moval from 1ubac of the Weekly Arizonian, but it was estab­ lished on a permanent basis on October 15, 1870, when velegate �cCormick took his Ryan or Gazette press from the Arizonan and with it started the Arizona Citizen, the first volume of which I present for your edification. John Wasson, a newcomer from California, who came to take tne office of Surveyor-Sen­ eral, was McCormick's choice for editor. ¼e have seen how Wasson soon came to be a target for the shafts and darts of Editor JohD Marion of the Miner, whose accusations and epithets were echoed and supplemented by Editor Dooner of the Arizonan, but whatever was or might have been said of Wasson it could not be said that he was a dissembler. In his salutatory he made this frank announcement: "The people of Arizona are herewith presented with the initial number of the Arizona Citizen. To all those familiar with the circumstances which induced its publication no apology need be given for the large space occupied. wit,J political mat­ ter, ana they will not expect a change until after the ensu­ ing election." Perusal of the early numbers of the Citizen fully bear out this promise. The merits of Delegate McCormick and his claims upon the suffrage of the people occupy the columns of the paper almost to the exclusion of everything else. In one issue Nasson frankly explained the non-appearance of a news­ letter from Tubae by saying that there would be no room for such correspondence until after the election. That Wasson was not entirely devoid of business interest or instinct, however, e:vez4 llu1"inf .this period of political priority, is evidenced by the followin� item: "Advertisers will bear in mind that 1,000 copies of the Citizen are distributed this week, ann an unusually large eai tion will be printed until after 1'Tovember 8." -13- �asson continued the publication of the Ci�izen until the fall of 1877, Congressman McrormicK in the meantime having / retired from Arizona official life and removed from the Terri­ tory. rne paper was sold to John P. Clum, who probably con­ sidered that his three years experience as agent of the Apaches at San Carlos and his dealings with Geronimo equipped him for the undertaking. Clum shortly afterward moved the Citizen to �lorence, evidently attracted by the United States Land Office, thus setting up the first printing press at that place, but he rapented his action and moved back to Tucson in less than a year. The Citizen became a daily in 1879, but it was not Tuc­ son's first daily newspaper. Tnat distinction fell to the �aily Bulletin, which began publication March 1, 1877, under the auspices of Carlos H. Tully. It lapsed into a tri-weekly, changing its name to the Star, and from that to a weekly, but on June 26, 1879, under Louis C. Fur.hes, later Territorial Governor a.urine: tne second Cleveland administration, the Daily Star became a fixture. Hughes was prominent in Arizona jour­ nalism and politics for more than a quarter of a century. In just a year less one day from the permanent establish­ ment of newspaper publishing in Tucson, or October 14, 1871, Yuma (then called Arirona City; became the scene of journal­ istic activity. The forerunner of this activity was, by name, predilection and profession, tne Arizona Free Press, published by one javid A. C-ordon. �ordon's fling at freedom of the press lasted less than half a year. He w as succeeded by C. L. ''inor, who e'E-ve (}oraon .r50 with which to get to San .uiego, assumed the indebtedness on toe plant, and changed the name of the paper to the Arizona bentinel. · I offer for your inspection -14- one copy of the Free Press bnd the rirst volume of the Arizona Sentinel. I,inor ;ave evidence of being a credit to early Arizona journalism. His columns were clean, his language tempe�ate for t�e day, and he was fearless in his support of good government ar_d the aenunciation of official ver.ality. 'rhis led him into criticism of the aistrict attorney for dereliction of official duty, and almost resultea in his assassination. As he sat at his desk about 12 o'clock one October night iL 1872, the door being open on account of the warm state of the weather (which, for Yuma, seems incredible), a pistol shot rang out and a bullet richocheted across the desk, struck the wall and fell almost at i.ditor Minor's feet. That Minor regarded the ciistrict attorney or an agent of his to be the perpetrator is shown by the Sen­ tinel's account of the incident, and in a follow-up a few weeks later he had this to say: 11 ,te have been threatened with violence if we undertook the exposure of a certain official in this county. Tnat little game has been tried before, with what result everybody knows. ��e hold that the official character ard conduct of every man is public property, and that it is the duty of journalists to expose the shortcomings of an unfaithful public servant, no matter who it is. we are personally responsible for everything that appears in these columns, except notice be given to the 11 contrary, ana will try to t ake care of ourselves if attacked. Whether altogether practical or not, this Yuma editor had a high ia.eal ar.u the courage to defend it. !Hnor was succeeaed in 1874 by Judge vim. J. Rerry, whose billings'-1'ate controversies with John Marion t..ave been mentionea.; he by George Tyng, and he in turn by J. }. Knapp, but nothing worthy of notice, except perhaps the temporary recrudescence of trie .Bree Press unde1· the pugnacious Sam Furay� appears in connection with Yuma journalism until Johri W. uorrington became the Sentinel's profrietor in 1881. Dorrington's assumption of -15- the Sentinel's helm, while not particularly elevatin� the paper from a journalistic standpoint, placed it on a financial foot­ ing that rendere� the existence of presuming rivals extremely ► tenuous. They came with �reat regularity but went in the same way, some lastinz a few months, none more than a year, until the evanescence of �aorrington's competitoes came to be almost proverbial. When by an odd coincic.lence the Yuma Aavertiser and the Yuma Sun put in their appearance on the same spring aay the Sentinel chortled with glee. "Fools, u quoted Editor 11 .uorrington, "rush in where angels fear to tread." "How many, he soliloquized, 11 have sallea out into the swirling stream of crowded endeavor; ➔} # how bravely did they s1ruggle until, bruised and bleeain� bv the driftwood of unfortuitous circum­ stances, they were sucked into the voracious maw of the whirl­ pool of failure." This direful prognostication, by implication, I of the impenain_,. fate of the Sentinel s latest rash rivals was echoed b, no less an authoritj than the Arizora Republican, whicr1 saaly shook its head and commented t11at Yuma was II the Q'raveyard oI� journalism. 11 Indeed, it lookea as if they might both be rie):lt, when just nine weeks later the Advertiser gave up the ghost, ana hditor Dorrington pointed up his jocular announcement of the aemise with the significant ejaculstion, 11 Next t 11 ,jhen the Advertiser turned up its toes the Sun was in the hands of a young man who took Editor Dorrington's facetious but threatening ejaculation very much to heart. He recognized it as a challenge and accepted it. With little or no cHsh capital, he possessed the assets, young as he was, of a con­ siderable experience in newspaper work and a rather extensive kno\vleage of the printinf business, reinforced by the vitamins -16- of youthful energy, enthusiasm, ambitidn anQ determination • . , By the assiduous employment of this equipment the �un not only escarea the execution of' EQjtor .0orrington 1 s sentence of death, but lived to see the Sentinel in the �un•s graveyard, ard the latter paper, converted by the same young man into a daily, the sole occupant of the Yuma newspaper field. ,ve come now to Phoenix. It is presumptuous for me to try to tell you men and women of the development of newspaper publishina iL Phoenix. So I shall hurry through it, but I want to take advantage of the opportur1i ty to offer a few ob­ servations on the development of your own great properties, and to briefly mention my unpublished and unrecorded part therein. If we consider the temporary publication of the Arizonian at 'I'ubac in 1859, of the Arizona Miner at Fort Whinple in 1864, of the Arizona Gazette at La Paz in 1866, and of the Arizona Citizen at Plorence in 1877, Phoenix ranks as the eie-hth place in Arizona to enjoy the civilizing influence of the press. On the basis of permanent establishment it is the fourth. In January, 1878, the $alt River Valley Herald, which, as the Phoenix Herald, fell into the Republican's arms in 1899, was establisheu by John J. Gosper, tnen Secretary of the Ter­ ritory, Charles E. McClintock and Charles w. neach. McClintock was the editor and Beach, who waG the editor and publisher of tne Arizona Niner at Prescott, surplied some printinf mate�ial, but I have it on the authority of a letter written by Mr. Gos­ per, that he was the man behind the man be�ind the gun. Inas­ much as Prescott was at that time the seat of the Territorial government, it does not require a vivid imagination to suppose that there was a close working agreement between Gssper and -17- Peach with resrect to both the liner and the Lerala. It strikes me as evio.ence also of keen politic&l foresi�nt that !v,r. Gos­ .. per, ten years before the capital left Prescott, chose Phoerix as the place in which to establish a new pomitical orean. The Arizona Gazette was established. in le80, by Cnarles LcNeil. Its troubled passage over the shoals ana rapids, with frequent changes of helmsmen, not unlike the experience of ' most Arizona newsp�pers, may be skipped as immaterial until we come to a series of incidents that collectively mi:ht be termed 1 the turning point in the paper s development, and considering the station in the newspaper firmament which the Gazette has attainea it may be deemed to have been a turning point in the l&rger fiela of the historical development of newspaper pub­ lishing in Arizona. In referring to the turning point in the Gazette's development I wish to be understood as meaning next to that certain event which, if my memory serves me correctly, was announced on Novemter 17, 1930. The incidents to which I refer are the assumption of con­ trol of the Gazette by Charles H. Akers in 1S04; its conversion from a morning to an evening p�per; the acquisition, in July, 1905, of membership in the Associated Press, and i� 1910, fol­ lowing passage of the Statehood Enabling Act, the adoption of a liberal political policy. Th_s series of incidents, coupled · with a certain genius for finance which w as one of Akers' gifts, combined to clear the evening field of serious oprosition and led to the pl&cing of the Gazette in a position from which it later attractea and intriguea the attention of a �tauffer an� a Knorrp. All of these steps, authored by Charlie Akers, were well withir his power to take save or.e--the acquisition of membership ir the Associated Press, which was essential to the -16- 1 successful occupancy of the evening fiela. Of Akers success ir that particular I am the possessor of information not in the record. Vvhen Akers in 1904 acquired the Gazette, a morning paper, the evening field was occupied by the Phoenix Enterprise, of ' which I was the publisher. Otherwise of r•o interest, it is material to this recital to note that the Enterprise was car­ rying an indebtedness approximately equal to the value of its physical plant. After rurchasing the Enterprise from W. D. Bell in 1903, I acquired the plant of the Arizona Democrat, which had suspended publication, from Col. J. 1:t'. dilson, tnen Dele­ &1ate to Conp·ress, adaed it to the lmterprise equipment, ana rave the Colonel a mortgage on the consoliaated plant. Now, the years 1903, 1904 and 1905 were very lean ones, as some of you may recall. The Valley was aried up anu almost reaay to blow away. The losses of the Enterprise during those years were enhanced by the strenuous efforts put forth to produce a creditable paper against the time when, as my o�timism told me, business would revive. During those critical years I was unable to make any payments on the paper's indebtedness. To a��ravate that unfortunate circumstance I have a vague idea that the columns of the �nterprise, which � insisted upon con­ trolling, had not been as lavish in the praise of my political creditor as he felt his merits and his investment warranted. Be that as it may, it was an ironical coincidence that in the very first month that the books of the Enterprise had, during my admiristration, shown a favorable balance, he suddenly de­ mar1ded payment in full--ana now. Attempts to show him that business conditions were graaually imrroving and paymeLt would be forthcominIT fell on deaf ears. The indebtedness totalled -19- more than pruaent, disinterested investors carea to lend, ' . consiaering that economic conditions were what tney were. I have never ceasea to be grateful that in this emergency I declinea a liberal ofrer of assistance, which came from inter­ ests that alreaay controlled mobe thar one Arizona newspaper. Disappointed, disillusioned and hurt, I notified Col. Wilson that he need not bother to brir.p a foreclosure action--I would turn the plant over to him and move out, and it was so arranged. �Y another coincidence it was aL this juncture, ana immeQ­ iately prior to my departure, that Charlie Akers, whose Gazette hed been converted into an evenirg paper, but had not yet been convertea into a newspaper, made application for membership in tne Associated Press. His arplication was referred to �e, for although the menbership held by the Enterprise was not liter­ ally or legally aL exclusive franchise, it was the policy and rule of the Associated Press, as I presume it is today, to confer the veto power upot a member adequately servinf a given field. The membership held by the Enterprise I baa acquirea in the purchase of tnat paper, not the �emocrat. It bore no relation to the physical property I had acquired.from Colonel

• �ilson. So when the application of the �azette was referred to me I waived my veto privilege and advisea the Associated Press that I had no objection. That is how t�1e Gazette secured the �embership in the Associatea Press which it en�oys today, and so far as I am aware, Gharlie Akers never knew how he got it. • Ana that is why, as it pleases me to believe, the Gazette rather tnan the �nterprise is today the evenin2 paper of Phoe­ nix and of Arizona. To me, one of tDe most ir.terestin£ features of the back­ ground of Arizona newspaper publishing is the preponderance, -20- ... in the earliest aays, of newsrapers sirea by politicians. If this was not in�diately true of the little Arizonian at Tubae, born before Arizona had a government for politicians to contend for, that advance guard of journalism was very soon surrenaerea into the keeping of a political step-sire, and remained in tnat situation as long as it lived. It was definitely true of the Arizona Miner; true of the Arizona Citizen; true after the

,I first two or three brief administrations of the Arizona Senti­ nel; literally true of the Salt rliver Valley Herald; substan­ tially true of the Gazette, and last but far from least, it was true of' the Arizona nepublican, which was startea in 1890 By Gov. Lewis jlolfley as the organ of his administration. It is also quite demonstrable that as political interest was the mainsrring of almost all of the first wave of Arizona newspapers, the economic irterest of industrial corporations was t�e chief motive power of newspaper publishing during the era that followeu. The railroad and the mining interests, concerned with questions of lerislation, anu partic�larly with legislation affecting taxation, deemed it to their advantage to nave journals upon which they could rely to represent theib • cause, and in strategic locations t ey either established new organs or acquired papers th at had outlived their usefulness to their political founders. rhis was the case ir. Prescott ard ..,erome, in Kirgman, in Flagstaff, in Tucson, ir. Bisbee and JJouglas, in Yuma, ir Globe, iri Solomonville ara Clifton, and ir, other towns I coula mention. It was likewise true in Phoenix, for ir 1896 we finu the Republican, born aLd reared in a polit­ ical atmosphere, passimr under the ownership of .!:''rank 1•. ''ur­ phy, of railroaa and minins fame, the protege and associate of 0iamond Joe rteynolas. -21- ., T�ese aspects of Arizona's newspaper background are not referred to ln an offensive spirit. rner are mentioned to " ill�strate the trend of early newspaper development, and to point up the truth that in few instances did these newspapers, while they were used primarily for selfish personal aims and ends, whether political or e conomic, thrive ana. become perma­ nently established. In many cases tney passed out of the pic­ ture, usually for want of public prestige; in others they weathered the unhappy conditions of t�eir existence until they came under the jurisdiction of men of higher ideals, purer mo­ tives, a more civic point of view, ana clearer vision, and from thence on trey usually developed and prospered. This is wnat happened to the rtepublican, when it was ac­ quired in 1912 by .uwii-ht R. heard, a mar. of the first rank of American citizenship. LJwight B. eard represents what' I con­ ceive to be the turning point in the development of the Repub­ lican. He infused the paper with the spirit of public interest, without which no newspaper can fulfill that institution's true mission • • There are other newspapers anu newspapermen, part of the background of Arizona newspaper development, of whom I should like to speak at some length this morninrr, but time will not permit. I should like to speak of the Arizona Silver Belt, which be an publication at Globe in 1878, shortly following the appearance of the �alt rliver Valley Herala, and of its well­ • loved editor, Juue:e .i. ackney. I should like 1,0 speak of the .. colorful Tombstone pape1•s of the hell-roarin? days of that Helldorado, beginLinp with the 1u get, in 1879, followed by tne Epitaph, which now proudly boasts that it is Arizona's oldest continuously published newspaper, and its companion -22- papers, the Prospector aLd the Kicker, to say nothing of Pat . ,. Hamilton's Independent ar·C1 of' his duel with Sam Purdy of th e Epitaph • ..1. shoula like to si:eak of' the fleeting ,iournals which sprang up at such places as Dos Cabezas and Arizola, and other towns that 1ailea to develop as anticipated. A copy of one such, the Dos Cabezas Gold :tfote, I offer for your inspection. I should like to speak of such well Y..nown old-time editors as A. h. _ ay, of Tucson, Tombstone anJ. elsewhere; of C. ' • .ruston of the Coconino Sun, Allen T. Bird of the Nogales Oasis, of Charlie Henpy and I'om ,veedin, -Y:erbert Brown, O 1 2rien Moore, Anson �- Smith, George rl. Kelly, N. A. Vorfora, A. S. ,rills and our olu friend John Dunbar, while one simply car.not think of Arizona newspapers anu newspaper�making without t�e mind instinctively turning to that prince of editorialists, �illy Speer and his boon companion, Little James. Nor are these all of the men whose work graced, or at least enlivenea, the journalism of their day, who are worthy of a place in any recital of the background and development of Arizona newspaper publishing, but we shall have to leave them to o�her eulo�ists. • These early-day newspapers, some of which have survived while otners have passed to the newspaper Valhalla, and the men whose imagination createa them and whose energies were given to their prouuction, blazed the trail for the newspapers of toaay. Small ana provincial as tney were, accoraing to present aay stanaards, they nevertheless portrayed the times

" in which tney struggled for existence. 1'heir news colu:::nns, meagre as tney were, depicted the problems, the triumphs and the trageaies of tne day, wit� t�eir accompaniments of hardship, toil, sweat, blood and tears. If the language of the eaitor -23- was often violent aLa bitter, it was because prejudices were •C stroni,l and feeling ran high. It was t.:ie language many of II tneir readers best unuerstood. All in all, the prevailing journalism was in keeping witn the period, while the pictur­ esque eaitors who made up this Frontier Fourth Estate, whatever may be said of their human faults and frailties, constituted a hardy ana a virile race. They may Qave displayed indiffer­ ,. ence to certain rules of professional conduct recognized by newspapermen in more hi:;hly or�anized communities, but their hearts beat true to what they deemed to be the best interests of the rerritory of their adoption, and they never faltered in its defense. 11itnout them there woul..i be little to say of the historical background and aevelopment of Arizona newspaper 1 publishino-. 'lhank you.