Ovando versus A. L. Stone – Mr. Jakway’s liver is ashiver – 1914
Ovando versus A. L. Stone – Mr. Jakway’s liver is ashiver – 1914
THE NEWSPAPER AND THE NEWS
Editor, Missoulian – I have read with great interest during the winter the statements of various persons in your columns, regarding the rigorous climate of the Ovando country – how W. R. Glasscock was afraid to go to Missoula as a witness for some Swede on his naturalization papers, for fear of some sudden Artic visitation which would prevent his return, etc. In fact, it seems to be a favorite theme with a lot of you Missoula people to elaborate upon the terrible climate of this valley. Now, we don’t claim to raise as many irrigation projects as the Bitter Root valley and our wood ticks don’t produce any worse result than a desire to scratch. Our timothy and clover don’t get the blight. The codling moth has not attacked our timber and, in fact, we are short on lots of things. But I have carried the mail from Drummond to Ovando for 13 years and have lost two entire trips on account of snowstorms. Every day except Sunday, for 13 years. So don’t be afraid to take a chance on a trip to this land of promise, any time the spirit moves you.
C. A. Jakways
Ovando, Feb. 20, 1914.
This letter reached The Missoulian editorial desk yesterday afternoon. It is interesting in many of its aspects. It frankly admits that the Ovando country is “short on lots of things,” but it does not admit, as it certainly should, that fairness is one of them. For Mr. Jakways is manifestly unfair when he says that it is “a favorite theme with a lot of you Missoula people to elaborate upon the terrible climate of this valley.”
There was a severe storm this month, which swept the entire country. The Missoulian printed stories of its severity, stories which emanated from many places. There were many columns printed regarding its force in Missoula and the Bitter Root country. The fact that it was so unusual made it interesting news. There was one story, as we recall it now, which dealt with the difficulties of a trip which Mr. Glasscock made from Ovando to Drummond during the storm. There were also stories which told of the complete crippling of railway traffic in eastern Montana, of the paralyzing of business in Philadelphia and New York, of terrible disaster off the coast of Boston, of the destruction of crops in southern California.
The Ovando country was not singled out in these storm stories. In fact, the same issue of The Missoulian which told of Mr. Glasscock’s experience in the storm, told also Mr. Glasscock’s statement of the excellent condition of the Ovando country, of the fine state of stock and of the confident plans of farmers. We recall many columns of The Missoulian which have been devoted to setting forth the excellence of the Ovando country and the worthiness of its people. Whenever Mr. Jakways has written anything about the crop conditions and other matters concerning his country, we have found pleasure in publishing his letters. We have printed interesting interviews with him, also, upon these subjects.
The Missoulian has received no protest from the Bitter Root or from its own city because there was publication of the details of its recent terrible storm. There has no word come from Philadelphia because we said the city was snowbound and that people were dying there from the cold. New York has not raised any protest nor has there been any resident of Los Angeles who has said that “it seems to be a favorite theme with a lot of you Missoula people to elaborate on the terrible climate of this valley.”
Mr. Jakways should play fair. The Missoulian has printed a thousand times as much about the storm elsewhere as it has printed about the weather in the Ovando country. There has been a hundred times as much printed about the good features of the climate and the soil and the people of the Ovando country as there has about its storm. Yet he picks out that little story, told because the storm was so unusual, as a basis for his assertion that a lot of Missoula people find pleasure in saying mean things about “the terrible climate of this valley.” Please note, Gentle Reader, that the expression, “the terrible climate of this valley” is Mr. Jakway’s and not our own.
There are a good many newspaper readers who are supersensitive. Mr. Jakways has temporarily dropped into that list. There are some folks down in the west end of the county who are making the same mistake. The Missoulian has but one desire in connection with the development of the Ovando country or of the reservation country or of the west-end country – and that desire is to further that development as much as possible. Mr. Jakways is a good citizen; he has done much for the Ovando country; he has prospered, himself. But he knows, when his liver is working right, that no region can prosper by saying mean things about its neighbors. We are sure that, when he recovers from this present bilious attack, he will realize that there are no Missoula people who are prejudiced against the Ovando county.
A L S
The above editorial appeared in The Missoulian on February 13, 1914.