Page:Oregon Exchanges volume 5.pdf/307

OREGON EXCHANGES

"[Mr. Owen read this comprehensive review of the veteran-publication field before the trade and class publication section of the recent Oregon Newspaper Conference. Mr. Owen’s paper indicates a determination to keep this class of publications on a high ethical plane as well as on a commercially paying basis.]"

ENTION of “veteran publication” to the average newspaper man, and by that I mean any man who has worked up through the newspaper profession, is like waving a red flag at a gentleman cow. This instinctive prejudice is not without considerable reason. For too many years the so-called ex-service man’s magazine has been a vehicle of graft and inefficiency, fulfilling no particular need and seeking advertising which has been thinly veiled donations. This condition still prevails in some quarters, and the purpose of my little talk today is merely to point out that illegitimate tactics are not necessary, and that it is possible for the veteran to uphold the best publication traditions and ethics.

Before the conflagration, involving most of the civilized nations, veteran publications were not numerous. They were representative of a comparatively small slice of the country’s population.

After the war came the deluge. Ambitious publishers and opportunists in newspaper and advertising ranks realized that 4,000,000 young men recently out of service cut a considerable swath in organized society. They found patriotism still at high tide, and a general desire on the part of business men to assist the returned veteran.

The immediate result was a flood of so-called “veteran publications,” of which virtually none remain today.

These first publications, with a few exceptions, were circulation grafts. Crews of that hardboiled species known as “sheet writers” combed

months, which was long enough to permit

able when subscription obligations were

3 Year or more, dying when their circulation income began to dwindle and advertising revenue became imperative but could not be found.

those interested in them to gather in sufficient shekels to make retirement profit not carried out.

At that time there were scores of small veteran organizations springing up, most of which were very short lived. At the present time there are but three major organizations of veterans—the Ameﬁqan Legion, whose membership rolls are open to all men who served in the army forces of Uncle Sam during the World War; the Veterans of Foreign Wars, whose membership includes Spanish war vete rans as well as overseas veterans in the last war; and the Disabled American Veterans of the World War, composed of men who were wounded or contracted disease in line of duty during the war with Germany.

Of these three, the American Legion is by far the greatest, both numerically and in

of

accomplishment

for

Each of these national organizations has a national publication. The Ameri

size to support state publications, which there are now about 38.

the

country,

coining

money for themselves and the promoters

of the desultory publications.

Few of

these magazines lived more than three

of

record

country and comrades.

can Legion is the only one of sufficient

turned veteran.

Some dragged along for

We now come to classification of vete

ran publications in the field today. First, there is the magazine or news paper that is privately owned and oper ated without endorsement of any organi zation but for “our boys” and “disabled men in hospitals.” Advertising solicitors for such publications feature the sym

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