KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Saturday, September 27,1980 Vol.91, No.25
Kansas journalists owe a debt to Rolla Clymer
ByCALDER M. PICKETT Professor of Journalism
This is going to be easy today, and it's going to be hard. It's going to be easy because it was with relative ease that I was able to assemble things, to find what I wanted to say. It is going to be hard because by no stretch of the imagination could I, or anybody else in the room, rival the language and the oratorical swell of the remarkable man we're honoring. There's no point in my stretching it out like a nomination at a political convention; the man is Rolla Clymer of the El Dorado Times, the man who was known in his time as the "Sage of the Flint Hills."
Maybe, as we thought—and think—about Rolla we pay too much attention to the Flint Hills and to the way he loved them. Maybe, but I think not. Even if you're a kid from the farm valleys of the Kansas countryside, almost maybe, the Kansas countryside, almost, maybe, the Rolla Clymer loved it. Now hear this:
"In June's radiance the Flint Hills have now achieved their full panoply of radiance and charm after their long winter siesta and a laggard spring. The brilliant emerald of their cover has been spread evenly over their surface, staining with bright perfection every alluring feature of this billowing wonderland of the Kansas oiraires . . .
"With all their knowledge, they have kept their own peace. At the present juncture, with the world's clamor sounding about them, the Hills have wrapped themselves in the garrisons of their own tranquility. No harshness or violence breaks their repose. Obedient to the will of their parents, they remain modest, protomodest, profoundly useful way they always have. In this moment of trial for our Republic, they are the perfect andanee for all our fears and folly—for all our agony and anguish!"1
GOLLY, ROLLA! as I think I remember someone saying to him after one of his impassioned orations, and I heard many of them. The hills in September: "As September draws to its end, the Flint Hills lie in peaceful repose beneath the fading summer sun. The burden of their labor for mankind is over for the present; another season of their usefulness to mankind has been finished—a many million in the ancient book of Time. . . ."
That one I stole from a delightful article Ray Morgan wrote about Rolla Clymer for the Kansas City Times of June 10, 1977. But I've never been on other sources, so for this statement today.
The Sage of the Flint Hills. There's a rest stop on the Kansas Turnpike that quotes him on the Flint Hills. That is apt; who else could say it as well? I think he even surpassed his teacher, William Allen White, when it came to rhapsodizing on the Sunflower State.
I must move from the lyrical to the factual, as we think about the man who today is being named to the Kansas Newspaper Editors' Hall of Fame. I should note that the vote in his favor was overpowering, a fact that those of us who have worked on this thing over the years had anticipated. Rolla Clymer was born at Alton, Iowa, and as Kansas, on July 28, 1903, of the Rev. George H. and Ella S. Clymer. He was graduated from Quenoquena High School in 1905 and from the College of Emporia in 1909. He did graduate work at the University of Kansas in 1912-13.
He married Elizabeth Hosinger at Newton on June 18, 1915. He died June 24, 1975. A son, David, now runs the El Dorado Times. A daughter, Sue, lives in Los Angeles where his wife, Sherry, stand to receive our recognition.
Rolla A. Clvmer
The Rolla Clymer newspaper career stretched over 70 years. He went to work for William Allen Dayton, a prominent philanthropist.
1907. He became editor and manager of the Olathe Register in 1914 and was there until April 1918, when he went to El Dorado to manage the Daily Republican. In December 1919, the Republican and the Walnut Valley Times were merged, and the paper became known as the El Dorado Times. Rolla Clymer was editor until his death in 1932. He edited and managed the New Mexican in Santa Fe, N.M. His long-time friendly rival, Fred Brinkerhofer of Pittsburg, said of the New Mexico
adventure. "By unanimous agreement this lapse will not be charged against him, the theory being that it made him a better Kansan."
ROLLA CLYMER was a man of Kansas and a man of Kansas journalism. He was the last president of the Kansas Editorial Association in 1923, when the Kansas Press Association was created. He was president of the Kansas Editorial Golf Association in 1930, president of the Kansas Daily Newspaper Association in 1938, president of the Kansas State Historical Society in 1954-67. Naturally he was a good Republican, serving as public relations director of the Kansas State Republican Committee in the 1930 and 1934 campaigns, as an aide in charge of Gov. Alfred M. Landon's mail in the 1938 presidential campaign, as delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1932 and as an elector in 1966.
He directed the Kansas Industrial Development Commission, as its first director, from 1939 to 1942, and was a member of the Kansas Territorial Commission and the Kansas Centennial Commission. In his home town he was the first president of the Rotary Club, 1920-21, was on the board of trustees of the Al Memorandum Memorial Library, and was president of the Continent Federal Savings and Loan, was past president of the El Dorado Free Public Library and the Bradford Memorial Library, and was president of the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce and the Butler County Historical Society. He was a member of the board of governors of the Wichita State University Endowment Foundation, sponsored by Allen White Centennial, sponsored by the White Foundation in 1968. He was in the First United Presbyterian Church, was a Sigma Chi, belonged to the El Dorado Country Club, received a 50
years Mascin井 on Feb. 23, 1982, and received a life membership from the El Dorado Eldo lodge
**THAT IS QUITE a list, but Rolla Clymer was more than a list. When he listed the headlines carried words like "Flint Hills Sage" and "Noted Editor." He was both. There was never a quibble with his statements; he was more powerful than any of the Kansas editor in the 29 years I have been in this state.
He was one of the many who received their training under William Allen White. All of them wrote, and behaved, somewhat like White, and that may be why Kansas journalism stands out nationally. There was always the White record to look toward. We have a letter that White wrote to Rolla Clymer on March 29, 1918, a letter of advice:
now as to the newspaper policy. Of course, the first job of the newspaper is to print the news, but on the other hand, after you have piled your paper full of names, you must have a policy, and I will explain it in a separate section. The spiritual improvement of El Dorado; and do not forget the spiritual improvement stands for dozens of things. You may have to tear up your city printing contract, but do it; and you may have to tear up your county printing contract, but do it, and do it in a cold-blooded way. You will be required to make these adjustments. Your paper's integrity was worth three times as much as the contracts which you lose . . .
"Insist on law enforcement," White advised. "Make them drive out the prostitutes and the gamblers no matter whose building they occupy. Brace up your courage and do not be afraid that you may suffer being to weigh against the great good of the paper by having it proved to be liberal and brave and fair."
PERMIT ME to tell you about my first memory of Rolla. It was 1982, and I was the new boy on the journalism faculty. We were SeeGLYMER page A4.
See CLYMER page 4
Better reader rapport essential to newspapers
Rv MICHAEL J. DAVIES
BY MICHAEL J. DAVIES
Editor of the Kansas City Star and Times
As I drove to Lawrence this morning along the interstate, I noticed that in many places the roadway isumpy, potholed and cracked.
Part of that repair work has already been accomplished, of course. Hot metal has been replaced with cold type. Reporters and editors use the same set of pencils and pencils in favor of electronic editing terminals.
In a way, that read symbolizes our business. Much of what was once a solid foundation has buckled under the cataclysmic changes in society. Some skillful repair work is needed if we are to meet the challenges of the future and keep out of the ditch.
As you in Kansas well know, afternoon newspapers in some metropolitan areas have died or have merged with a morning product to create a new animal—the 24-hour newspaper. Readers who used to take two newspapers in India find they have only the time and money for one.
And in an area of more than passing concern to you, some companies are beginning to experiment with electronic delivery of news and information.
MOST SUBSCRIBERS don't know or care about the challenges facing our craft. They tend to see us as big business, and, as such, a part of the Establishment. They see more and more newspapers concentrated in fewer and fewer bands. They see newspapers distributed on radio stations, and they are afraid of the monopolies inherent in such arrangements.
They see a business protected by the Constitution of the United States (the only business honored), and they see the conducent power of Congress. They can help bring about the downfall of a president.
Newspapers once were considered the champion of the underdog—remember the Pulitzer motto: Comfort the afflicted and affect the comfortable? Today, many readers see us as just another big business that doesn't care about the individual.
Except during a few recessional years, our papers get father and father in attendance. It is an often stays the
Can you blame readers for having that attitude?
"We must get closer to our subscribers. We must find out what they care about and what they want in a newspaper. More than anything else, we must eradicate the notion that we are arrogant."
Michael J. Davies
newspapers have as much as a 200 percent turnover in carriers in a year.
DESPITE OUR SERIOUS problems in circulation and in the mechanical departments, I don't think the basic problem lies on their doorsteps.
it is in the area of news and opinion that most readers form their attitudes about their newspaper. Unfortunately, right now many of us are badly out of sync with the leadership. The time has come for newspapers to make a new approach, and the新闻room carries the key to that task.
We are considered arrogant when the publisher and the editor spend all their time in swank country clubs with the business and social elite and no time listening to the concerns of the poor. This is especially true for those of you in small towns.
Arrogance. Perhaps more than anything else, this one word sums up the negative feelings against us. Because of our great power to sway public opinion, we are thought of as arrogant. We are arrogant when we refuse to cover a Kiwiana meeting, arrogant when we fail to address the problem, and vice versa; they autoritarily support one candidate but refuse to give the opposition candidate equal time.
We are thought arrogant when we send reporters in three-piece suits to interview people on welfare. Conversely, we are considered friendly. We are also a trusted reporter to interview a corporate executive.
We must get closer to our subscribers. We must find out what they care about and what they want in a newspaper. More than anything else, we must eradicate the notion that we are annoyed.
Clearly, accuracy is one of our great failings. A reader can perhaps understand an error in a story about nuclear power, but he can't understand it. He's wrong in an obituary. To that, he is arrogance.
I must digress here to tell you a sad, but true, story. For several days in a row, the Kansas City Times published hard-hitting stories on page 1. While basking in the reflected glory of state journalism, I received a phone call from the proprietor of a funeral home in Kansas City, Kan.
same or gets smaller.
He said he wanted to complain about the accuracy of our obituaries. He said we often got things wrong, even when the information was correct. He said it was not obvious, in fact, he seemed rather resigned.
We are thought arrogant when we refuse to correct mistakes or get the other side of the
My initial reaction was one of irritation. Didn't this man know the great job we had done the past few days? I agreed, though, to take a close look at the obits and get back to him.
Too frequently, the quality of reproduction is muddy. Our black and white appearance compares poorly with the brilliant color of some exceptions, but with others, our attempts at color have not been good.
I WAS SHOCKED by what was unawesthed. we checked every obit in The Times the next day. There was an error of some kind—spelling, fact, you name it—in many obits.
We have taken measures to shore up this basic aspect of our reporting. If we can't get obits right, how can we expect readers to believe the page 1 stories? Most readers, after all, only get their names in the paper when they are born and when they die.
In addition to redoubling our efforts at accuracy, we must wedge out those reporters and editors who want to use journalism for their own ends. John Hughes, editor of the Christian
See DAVIES page 4
Delivery of the paper is often unreliable. Some
Cindy Whitcome, Kansan assistant campus editor, goes over a story with advanced reporter Arne Green in the newsroom.
And there is the laughter during the aftermath of a particularly bloody editorial disagreement. In spite of our regular differences of opinion, we know we're all in this together for ourselves and those who depend on us—our readers.
Special Kansan welcomes editors
Welcome to the University of Kansas. The kaplan staff is happy to have you back on campus.
It's no wonder you are in this business.
To help you remember the day and its activities, we have compiled its speeches, Kansan editorial and entertainment pages. Please join us for you in this section. We hope you enjoy it.
We also continue to work hard daily to earn our stripes as Kansas journalists, ever conscious of the long tradition of dedication and perseverance. Sometimes it is a difficult tradition to ubold.
There are other, smaller, more private successes, fruits of the careful nurturing of reporters who hung in there when their number dropped to a dismal dozen on a staff that was used to the services of twice as many faithful scribes.
We were reminded recently of the difficulty
when "marshal law" showed up on page 1 in 36 point Mallard. Somehow the mistake slipped past the reporter, the campus desk editors, the copy editors, the copy chief and, finally, me, as I stared groggy at the paste-up before me at the printer's that morning.
We were chastised roundly. We deserved it. Yet the Kansan of this semester, even in its relative infancy, has had its bright moments, too. We've known the unique satisfaction of a scoop on the resignation of the city prosecutor. We've published some of the best writing Kansan columnists have produced in several semesters.
CAROL BEIER, Editor
Technology challenges journalists of 1980s
By ROBERT L. SAMSOT
Gannett Professional in Residence
That wonderful tool, technology, has brought the world everything from dry-roasted peanuts and Tang to microsurgery and wonder drugs.
Gannett Professional in Residence
It also has brought pollution of water and of air thalidomide babies and an energy shortage.
Technology is, after all, a tool. The misapplication, the thoughtless application, the unchallenged application of that tool have, in far too many instances, achieved consequences that the tool's user didn't intend and, in most cases, didn't anticipate.
UNCHALLENDED USE. That is what the world must fear. Unchallenged use of technology was what George Orwell warned about in his *1984*. The use of the anti-nuclear forces are worried about.
Unchallenged use has been the reason for creating the EPA, and for establishing OSHA.
Blame for unchallenged use of technology has been most often placed on commercial corporations. But has the newspaper been guilty of aiding such unchallenged use by frequent puffery and by reluctance to challenge something that is not fully understood?
Strange. The news business has long prided itself on its individuality, its maverick spirit, its watchdog tenacity and its championing of just what is wrong in the world, such cases were among the paper's readers.
has the technology dulled some of that edge?
It has made ours of rave notes as a tool of progress, dulled
its edge.
creation of solutions rather than to creation of problems.
RELICTANCE TO challenge has not been confined to events outside the newsroom. It sometimes has centered on new techniques for gathering the news. And editors far too often have declined to challenge a world they no longer have a firm grip on.
Newman have always been the challengers, the razors of society that cut through the soft, surface tissue down through the bloody meat to the hard bone of fact.
But are there really problems in the forest of technology, or are there just glitches in some of them?
But challenge is the essence of the professional newsman. If newsmen do begin challenging the use of this tool, which promises so much in return, they risk losing clients who try to confine technology to noble uses, to
It has, and if newsmen do not begin challenging the use of that facile tool they will pay the penalty of continued abbreviation until they realize that it is an important detail, that has always given them special stature.
There's trouble in the forest.
Newspapers, for example, are faced with the temptation to plug reporters into VTDs and let each become a reporter-editor-ypetster. That can lead to costly jobs, particularly those of the editors.
Would the public be cheated?
Yes. The public, that difficult charge of the news business, would not benefit from the challenge that any editor worth the title should present to the reporter. Technology, then, could eliminate the job of the challenger, and the news business would not go unchallenged. What would the result be?
That's just one tree, though, no matter how deep its roots. But, there are other troubles in the newsroom.
HOW MANY OPINION polls do editors run without challenging? How many opinion polls have little or nothing to do with sampling Kansans but something of Kansas
SAME SAMSTOP page 4
See SAMSOT page 4