Editor’s note: We found this editorial piece in an October 1919 newspaper while researching for our From Our Files features. One hundred years later, we feel it still reflects our mission to serve our communities.
The Home Paper’s Purpose
The Aroostook Republican says it would be glad to give credit to the writer of the following editorial, which sums up concisely the purpose of the local newspaper. But since we don’t know who was responsible for it, instead of taking refuge in the well-worn “Exchange” tacked on at the end of the editorial, we take this method of acknowledging our debt to the man who wrote it. The editorial follows.
“Our state is dotted with villages, in most of which one or more newspapers are published. They do not claim to be a review of the world.
“These country newspapers appear faithfully week after week, recording the happenings of the neighborhood, lending assistance to the unfortunate, extending sympathy and consolation to the bereaved, chronicling with pardonable pride any improvements in the community and bringing to the fireside a record of happenings that are of more importance to the readers than the crowning of George V as emperor of India.
“The country newspaper is of inestimable value in maintaining the moral and financial standard of the country. It is something in which the entire neighborhood can feel a common interest. It is deserving of the steady support, not only of the home folks, but also of those who look back with cherished memories to their home in the country town.”
