Part 30 (1/2)
”Speaking frankly, it's tawdry. It's lurid. It's--well, yellow.”
”A matter of method. You're really more interested, then, in the way we present news than in the news we present.”
”I don't know anything about news, itself. But I don't see why a newspaper run by a gentleman shouldn't be in good taste.”
”Nor do I. Except that those things take time. I suppose I've got to get in touch with my staff before I can reform their way of writing the paper.”
”Haven't you done that yet?”
”I simply haven't had time.”
”Then I'll make you a nice present of a very valuable suggestion. Give a luncheon to your employees, and invite all the editors and reporters.
Make a little speech to them and tell them what you intend to do, and get them to talk it over and express opinions. That's the way to get things done. I do it with my mission cla.s.s. And, by the way, don't make it a grand banquet at one of the big hotels. Have it in some place where the men are used to eating. They'll feel more at home and you'll get more out of them.”
”Will you come?”
”No. But you shall come up to the house and report fully on it.”
Had Miss Esme Elliot, experimentalist in human motives, foreseen to what purpose her ingenious suggestion was to work out, she might well have retracted her complaint of lack of real influence; for this casual conversation was the genesis of the Talk-it-Over Breakfast, an inst.i.tution which potently affected the future of the ”Clarion” and its young owner.
CHAPTER XI
THE INITIATE
Within a month after Hal's acquisition of the ”Clarion,” Dr. Surtaine had become a daily caller at the office. ”Just to talk things over,” was his explanation of these incursions, which Hal always welcomed, no matter how busy he might be. Advice was generally the form which the visitor's talk took; sometimes warning; not infrequently suggestions of greater or less value. Always his counsel was for peace and policy.
”Keep in with the business element, Boyee. Remember all the time that Worthington is a business city, the liveliest little business city between New York and Chicago. Business made it. Business runs it.
Business is going to keep on running it. Anybody who works on a different principle, I don't care whether it's in politics or journalism or the pulpit, is going to get hurt. I don't deny you've braced up the 'Clarion.' People are beginning to talk about it already. But the best men, the moneyed men, are holding off. They aren't sure of you yet.
Sometimes I'm not sure myself. Every now and then the paper takes a stand I don't like. It goes too far. You've put ginger into it. I have to admit that. And ginger's a good thing, but sugar catches more flies.”
The notion of a breakfast to the staff met with the Doctor's instant approval.
”That's the idea!” said he ”I'll come to it, myself. Lay down your general scheme and policy to 'em. Get 'em in sympathy with it. If any of 'em aren't in sympathy with it, get rid of those. Kickers never did any business any good. You'll get plenty of kicks from outside. Then, when the office gets used to your way of doing things, you can quit wasting so much time on the news and editorial end.”
”But that's what makes the paper, Dad.”
”Get over that idea. You hire men to get out the paper. Let 'em earn their pay while you watch the door where the dollars come in.
Advertising, my son: that's the point to work at. In a way I'm sorry you let Sterne out.”
The ex-editor had left, a fortnight before, on a basis agreeable to himself and Hal, and McGuire Ellis had taken over his duties.
”Certainly you had no reason to like Sterne, Dad.”
”For all that, he knew his job. Everything Sterne did had a dollar somewhere in the background. Even his blackmailing game. He worked with the business office, and he took his orders on that basis. Now if you had some man whom you could turn over this news end to while you're building up a sound advertising policy--”
”How about McGuire Ellis?”