The glory of old newspapers
by Bryce Martin

Three columns wide and four inches deep, our team picture was at the bottom of the fold on the front page of the September 9, 1955, issue of the weekly Galena Record newspaper. The headline above the photo: “Elks Dodgers, Galena Little League City Champions”

A short piece accompanying the picture is without a byline. The writer, though, is likely the man who would know the story better than most anyone else, the manager of the Elks Dodgers, and the publisher of the Galena Record, Frank Bruce.

I know because I am one of those in the photograph.

This issue marks the thirteenth week for the Galena Record, a tabloid-sized, five-column width newspaper. It is in competition with the longstanding and more traditional format Galena Sentinel-Times, also a weekly.

I'm informed in a nice preview regarding the upcoming season that Coach J.W. Brewington has 51 out for football at the high school. They’ve already had one practice under the lights. The schedule for the Bulldogs, a member of the Neosho Valley League, kicks off with a non-league tilt at Mineral on Sept. 23.

Inside the newspaper, the full weekly television schedule starting Friday for KSWM (Joplin) and KOAM (Pittsburg) is printed and advertising outdoes copy about 80 percent to 20 percent after getting beyond the front page. Since revenue comes from advertising, the newspaper appears healthy in that respect.

As it so often happens with start-up publications, local politics and issues affecting community living are the reasons cited for new publishers in bringing in another “voice.”

In the favored left-hand column at the top of the page, Bruce gives his views in his personal opinion column titled “Frankly Speaking.” Much of the entire front page is devoted to pictures and stories of the progress with the work on the new community baseball diamond and the financial situation with the just-concluded Little League baseball season.

In Bruce’s editorial, he tells how he’d like to see Democrats and Republicans stop throwing dirt on each other and instead toss it as a source of pride as a top cover for the ball field under construction adjacent to Liberty school.

“So we maintain that when the main source of irritation in Galena is removed, harmony will be everywhere, and we can all work together for a better Galena and for the good of all concerned.”

He concludes that “if by now you don’t know this ‘source of irritation’ then you haven’t been reading the Galena Record regularly.”

In reading it I find that the new diamond will require 300 truckloads from the Shoal Creek bottoms for the dirt-topping. Each load amounts to about three yards of dirt. The area just south of the park bridge is where the dirt is coming from. The field will be ready by next spring when the high school team is first to put it to use. The junior league players from ages 13 through 15 will began summer play after that, along with the town team.

As noted by the Record, the city has a fine Little League facility on East Eighth Street.

In a separate story regarding the financial status of the Galena Little League, it “has $300.02 with which to start league operations next season.”

Data such as that will keep oiled the “Frankly Speaking” machinery of opinion.
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