Helen in the Editor's Chair

by Roy J. Snell

  CHAPTER XI _New Plans_

  With the end of the school year Tom and Helen were able to give theircomplete time and energies to the _Herald_. When Monday, the first ofJune arrived, they were working on their fourth issue of the _Herald_ andHelen had written a number of stories on the last week's activities atschool, the graduation exercises, the junior-senior dinner and the seniorclass play. She praised Miss Weeks highly for her work with the classplay and lauded the seniors for their fine acting. Although urged thatshe say something about her own part, Helen steadfastly refused and herbrother finally gave up in disgust and delved in to the ledger for on hisshoulders fell the task of making out the monthly bills and handling allof the business details of the paper.

  When Tom had completed his bookkeeping he turned to his sister.

  "Helen," he began, "we're not making enough."

  "But, Tom," she protested, "the paper is carrying more advertising thanwhen Dad ran it."

  "Yes, but our expenses are high," said Tom. "We've got to look ahead allthe time. Dad will have used all of the money he took with him in alittle less than six months. After that it will be up to us to have thecash in the bank. Right now we've just a little under a hundred dollarsin the bank. Current bills will take more than that, and our own livingexpenses, that is for mother and we two, will run at least $100 a month.With our total income from the paper only slightly more than $200 a monthon the basis of the present amount of advertising, you see we're notgoing to be able to save much toward helping Dad."

  "Then we'll have to find ways of increasing our volume of business," saidHelen.

  "That won't be easy to do in a town this size," replied Tom, "and I won'tgo out and beg for advertising."

  "No one is going to ask you to," said Helen. "We'll make the _Herald_such a bright, outstanding paper that all of the business men will wantto advertise."

  "We'll do the best we can," agreed Tom.

  "Then let's start right now by putting in a farm page," suggested Helen.

  "But there won't be many farm sales from now on," argued Tom.

  "No," conceded his sister, "but there is haying, threshing and then cornpicking and all of the stores have supplies to sell to the farmers."

  "I believe you're right. If you'll do the collecting this afternoon, I'llgo down to Gladbrook and see if we can get the cooperation of the countyagent. Lots of the townships near here have farm bureaus and I'll get thenames of all of their leaders and we'll write and tell them what we planto do."

  After lunch Tom teased the family flivver into motion and set out forGladbrook while Helen took the sheaf of bills and started the rounds ofthe business houses. She had no trouble getting her money from all of theregular advertisers and in every store in which she stopped she took careto ask the owner about news of the store and of his family. She noticedthat it flattered each one and she resolved to call on them at least oncea week.

  Tom returned from Gladbrook late in the afternoon. He was enthusiasticover the success of his talk with the county agent.

  "He's a fine chap," Tom explained. "Had a course in agriculturaljournalism in college and knows news and how to write it. The Gladbrookpapers, the _News_ and the _Times_, don't come up in this section of thecounty and he'll be only too glad to send us a column each week."

  "When will he start?"

  "Next week will be the first one. He'll mail his column every Tuesdayevening and we'll have it on the Wednesday morning mail. Now, here's evenbetter news. I went to several of the department stores at Gladbrook andtold them we were going to put out a real farm page. They're actuallyanxious to buy space and by driving down there once a week I can get twoor three good ads."

  "How will the local merchants feel?" asked Helen.

  "They won't object," replied Tom, "for I was careful to stress that Iwould only accept copy which would not conflict with that used by ourlocal stores."

  "That was a wise thing to do," Helen said. "We can't afford to antagonizeour local advertisers. I made the rounds and collected all of the regularaccounts. There's only about eighteen dollars outstanding on this month'sbills and I'll get all but about five dollars of that before the week isover."

  "Want to go to Cranston Friday or Saturday?" asked Tom.

  "I surely do," Helen replied. "But what for, Tom, and can we afford it?"

  "One of us will have to make the trip," her brother said. "Putting onthis farm page means we'll have to print two more pages at home, sixaltogether, and will need only two pages of ready-print a week from theWorld Printing Company. We'll go down and talk with their manager atCranston and select the features we want for the two pages they willcontinue to print for us."

  "Our most important features in the ready-print now are the comics, theserial story and the fashion news for women," said Helen.

  "Then we'll have one page of comics," said Tom, "and fill the other pagewith features of special interest to our women readers."

  The next three days found the young Blairs so busy getting out thecurrent edition of the paper that they had little time to talk abouttheir plans.

  They had decided to go to Cranston Friday but when Helen found that therewere special rates for Saturday, they postponed the trip one day. Whenthe Friday morning mail arrived, Helen was glad they had changed theirplans. While sorting the handful of letters, most of them circularsdestined for the wastepaper basket, she came upon the letter she had beenlooking forward to for days. The words in the upper left hand cornerthrilled her. It was from the Cranston bureau of the Associated Press.

  With fingers that trembled slightly, she tore it open. Would she get thejob as Rolfe correspondent? A green slip dropped out of the envelope andTom, who had come in from the composing room, reached down and picked itup.

  "Ten dollars!" he whistled.

  "What's that?" demanded Helen, incredulously.

  "It's your check from the Associated Press for covering the tornado,"explained Tom. "Look!"

  Helen took the slip of crisp, green paper. She wasn't dreaming. It was acheck, made out in her name and for $10.

  "But there must be some mistake," she protested. "They didn't mean to payme that much."

  "If you think there's a mistake," grinned Tom, "you can go and see themwhen we reach Cranston tomorrow. However, if I were you, I'd tuck it inmy pocket, invite my brother across the street to the drug store, and buyhim a big ice cream soda."

  "Wait until I see what the letter says," replied Helen. She pulled it outof the envelope and Tom leaned over to read it with her.

  "Dear Miss Blair," it started, "enclosed you will find check for yourfine work in reporting the tornado near Rolfe. Please consider thisletter as your appointment as Rolfe correspondent for the AssociatedPress. Serious accidents, fires of more than $5,000 damage and deaths ofprominent people should be sent as soon as possible. Telegraph ortelephone, sending all your messages collect. In using the telegraph,send messages by press rate collect when the story is filed in thedaytime. If at night, send them night press collect. And remember, speedcounts but accuracy must come first. Stories of a feature or time natureshould be mailed. We are counting on you to protect us on all news thatbreaks in and near Rolfe. Very truly yours, Alva McClintock,Correspondent in charge of the Cranston Bureau."

  "He certainly said a lot in a few words," was Tom's comment. "Now you'reone up on me. You're editor of the _Herald_ and Associated Presscorrespondent and I'm only business manager."

  "Don't get discouraged," laughed Helen, "I'll let you write some of theAssociated Press stories."

  "Thanks of the compliment," grinned Tom. "I'm still waiting for that icecream soda, Miss Plutocrat."

  "You'll grumble until I buy it, I suppose, so I might as well give inright now," said Helen. "Come on. I'm hungry for one myself."

  Tom and Helen boarded the nine forty-five Saturday morning and arrived atthe state capital shortly after noon. It was Helen's first trip toCranston and she enjoyed every minute of it,
the noise and confusion ofthe great railroad terminal, the endless bobbing about of the red caps,the cries of news boys heralding noonday editions and the ceaseless roarof the city.

  They went into the large restaurant at the station for lunch and afterthat Tom inquired at the information desk for directions on how to reachthe plant of the World Printing Company. He copied the information on aslip of paper and the two young newspaper people boarded a street car.

  Half an hour later they were on the outskirts of the industrial districtand even before the conductor called their stop, Tom heard the steadyroar of great presses.

  "Here we are," he told Helen as they stepped down from the car and lookedup at a hulking ten story building that towered above them.

  "The Cranston plant of the _Rolfe Herald_," chuckled Helen. "Lead on."

  They walked up the steps into the office, gave their names and indicatedtheir business to the office girl. After waiting a few minutes they wereushered into an adjoining office where an energetic, middle aged man whointroduced himself as Henry Walker, service manager, greeted them.

  "Let's see, you're from the _Rolfe Herald_?" he asked.

  "My sister and I are running the paper while Dad is in the southwestregaining his health," explained Tom. "We've got to expand the paper toincrease our advertising space and the only thing we can see to do is cutdown our ready-print to two pages."

  "Explain just what you mean," suggested the service manager.

  Tom outlined their advertising field and how they hoped to increasebusiness by adding two more pages of home print, one of which would bedevoted to farm advertising and news and the other to be available forwhatever additional advertising they could produce.

  "We'll be sorry to have you drop two pages of ready-print," said Mr.Walker, "but I believe you're doing the right thing. Now let's see whatyou want on the two pages you'll retain."

  "Helen is editor," Tom explained, "and it's up to her to pick out whatshe wants."

  "You're doing a splendid job on the _Herald_," the service manager toldHelen. "I get copies of every paper we serve and I've been noticing thechanges in make-up and the lively stories. However, I am sorry to hearabout your father but with you two youngsters to give him pep and couragehe ought to be back on the job in a few months."

  "We're sure he will," smiled Helen as she unfolded a copy of their lastedition of the _Herald_. "I've pasted up two pages of the features I wantto retain," she explained as she placed them in front of the servicemanager.

  "I see," he said. "You're going to be quite metropolitan with a full pageof comics and a page devoted to women. I'm glad of that. Too many editorsof weeklies fail to realize that the women and not the men are the realreaders of their papers. If you run a paper which appeals to women andchildren you'll have a winner. Comics for the youngsters and a serialstory with a strong love element and fashions and style news for thewomen."

  "How about cost?" asked Tom.

  "Dropping the two pages won't quite cut your bill with us in half,"explained Mr. Walker, "for you're retaining all of our most expensivefeatures. However, this new plan of yours will reduce your weekly billabout 40 per cent."

  "That's satisfactory," agreed Tom, "and we'd like to have it effective atonce. Helen has written the headings she wants for each page."

  "We'll send the pages, made up in the new way, down at the usual timenext week," promised the service manager, "and when there is anythingelse we can do, don't hesitate to let us know."

  When they were out of the building, they paused to decide what to donext.

  "I liked Mr. Walker," said Helen. "He didn't attempt to keep us frommaking the change. It means less money for his company yet he didn'tobject."

  "It was good business on his part," replied Tom. "Now we feel kindlytoward him and although he has lost temporarily he will gain in the endfor we'll give him every bit of business we can in the way of orderingsupplies for job printing and extra stock for the paper."

  "If we have time," suggested Helen, "I'd like to go down to theAssociated Press office."

  "Good idea," agreed Tom. "I'd like to see how they handle all of thenews."

  They boarded the first down town street car and got off fifteen minuteslater in the heart of Cranston's loop district. Across the street was thebuilding which housed the _Cranston Chronicle_, the largest dailynewspaper in the state. They consulted the directory in the lobby of thebuilding and took the elevator to the fifth floor where the AssociatedPress offices were located.

  They stepped out of the elevator and into a large room, filled with theclatter of many machines. A boy, his face smeared with blue smudges offcarbon paper, rushed up to them and inquired their business.

  "I'm Helen Blair, a new correspondent at Rolfe," explained the editor ofthe _Herald_, "and I'd like to see Mr. McClintock, the chiefcorrespondent."

  "Okay," grinned the boy. "I'll tell him. You wait here."

  The youngster hurried across the room to a large table, shaped like ahalf moon and behind which sat a touseled haired chap of indeterminateage. He might be 30 and he might be 40, decided Helen.

  "Glad to know you, Miss Blair," he said. "You did a nice piece of work onthe storm."

  "Thank you, Mr. McClintock," replied Helen. "But my brother, Tom,deserves all of the credit. He suggested calling the story to you."

  "Then I'll thank Tom, too," laughed the head of the Cranston bureau ofthe Associated Press.

  "We're here today on business for our paper," explained Helen, "and witha few minutes to spare before train time hoped you wouldn't mind if wecame in and saw how the 'wheels go round' here."

  "I'll be happy to show you the 'works'," replied Mr. McClintock, and hetook them over to a battery of electric printers.

  "These," he explained, "bring us news from every part of the country,east, south and far west. In reality, they are electric typewriterscontrolled from the sending station in some other city. We take the newswhich comes in here, sift it out and decide what will interest people inour own state, and send it on to daily papers in our territory."

  "Do these electric printers run all day?" asked Tom.

  "Some of them go day and night," continued Mr. McClintock, "for the A.P.never sleeps. Whenever news breaks, we've got to be ready to cover it.That's why we appreciated your calling us on the storm. We knew there wastrouble in your part of the state but we didn't have a correspondent atRolfe. It was a mighty pleasant surprise when you phoned."

  They visited with the Associated Press man for another fifteen minutesand would have continued longer if Tom had not realized that they hadless than twenty minutes to make their train. The last two blocks to theterminal were covered at a run and they raced through the train gatesjust before they clanged shut.

  "Close call," panted Tom as they swung onto the steps of the local and itslid out of the train shed.

  "Too close," agreed Helen, who was breathless from their dash.

  "Had to make it, though," added Tom, "or we'd have been stranded hereflat broke with the next train for home Monday night."

  "Don't worry about something that didn't happen," Helen said. "I'veenjoyed every minute of our trip and we're all ready now to start ourexpansion program for the _Herald_ in earnest."

  Adding two more pages of home print to the paper meant more work thaneither Tom or Helen had realized. There was more news to be written andmore ads to be set and another run to be made on the press.

  With early June at hand the summer season at the resorts on the lower endof Lake Dubar got under way and Helen resolved to make a trip at leastonce a week and run a column or two of personals about people coming andgoing. She also gave liberal space to the good roads election in July,stressing the value the paved scenic highway would be to Rolfe.

  The two pages of ready-print arrived on Tuesday and Tom and Helen weredelighted with the appearance of the comic page and the feature page forwomen readers.

  "We'll have the snappiest looking paper in the county," chuckled Tom."Dad won't know the old
paper when he sees this week's issue."

  The county agent kept his promise to send them at least a column of farmnews and Helen made it a point to gather all she could while Tom went tothe county seat Tuesday morning and solicited ads for the page. Theresult was a well-balanced page, half ads and half news. Carefulsolicitation of home town merchants also brought additional ads and whenthey made up the last two pages Thursday noon they felt the extra workwhich increasing the size of the paper meant was more than repaid inextra advertising.

  "I'm printing a number of extra copies this week," explained Tom. "Thereare lots of people around here who ought to take the _Herald_. With ourexpansion program we may pick up some extra subscriptions and we mightget a chance at the county printing."

  "Tom!" exclaimed Helen. "Do you really think we might get to be anofficial county paper."

  "I don't see why not," said Tom. "Of course the two Gladbrook papers willalways be on the county list but there are always three who print thelegal news and the third one is the _Auburn Advocate_. Auburn isn't anylarger than Rolfe and I know darned well we have almost as manysubscriptions as they do."

  "How do they decide the official papers?" Helen wanted to know.

  "The county board of supervisors meets once a year to select the threeofficial papers," Tom explained, "and the three showing the largestcirculation are selected. It would mean at least $2,000 extra revenue tous, most of which would be profit."

  "Then why didn't Dad try for it?" Helen asked.

  "I'm not sure," said Tom slowly. "There are probably several reasons, theprincipal one being that he wasn't strong enough to make the additionaleffort to build up the circulation list. The other is probably BurrAtwell, owner and publisher of the _Auburn Advocate_. I've heard Dadoften remark that Atwell is the crookedest newspaperman in the state."

  "How much circulation do you think the _Advocate_ has now?" Helen asked.

  "Their last postoffice statement showed only 108 more than ours," repliedTom.

  "And when do the supervisors have their annual meeting?"

  "About the 15th of December," said Tom. "Now what's up?"

  "Nothing much," smiled Helen. "Only, when the supervisors meet next the_Rolfe Herald_ is going to have enough circulation to be named anofficial county paper.

  "Why Tom," she went on enthusiastically, "think what it would mean toDad?"

  "I'm thinking of that," nodded her brother, "but I'm also thinking ofwhat Burr Atwell might do to the _Herald_."