4

Veteran Newspaper Man

4

induced by him in Marion County a demonstration farm, one of a
very few in the South, for the education of farmers in the use of improved
machinery. He also secured for his county, the first government soil survey,
in the South.

"First and last, I have come in contact with many of the great men of
my time," he remarked. "Oscar W. Underwood was the greatest of them all. Mr.
Underwood was most considerate of the press. He would tell the newspaper men
everything that we were trying to learn from him. He would explain what was
likely to happen and why, so that we could more intelligently follow events.
He would tell us what not to publish of course. He was fair and square with
us always. That was one reason the press was always so generous to him, dur-
ing his long years in the United States Senate, and when he so nearly received
the Democratic nomination for President of the United States."

In contrasting the newspaper business of his earlier years with today,
Mr. Greer said, "Editorials were the chief features of early newspapers.
Subjects were studied, prepared, and evaluated before being sent to the print-
er. The editors of weekly newspapers influenced the nation. Their columns
were read and copied by the dailies. News materials were gleaned individual-
ly. Today, news services handle the majority of current event reportings.

"In my early days, I worked eighteen hours per day. I worked in
every department from editing to setting it up, running it off, mailing.
A sixteen-year-old Negro was my power plant. He turned the press by hand.
Today, machinery has replaced hand work. Newspaper work has become stream-
lined, systematized. Newspapers played a decidedly greater part in swaying
public opinion than today. Nowadays opinion is influenced by news reels,
radio, and direct contact more than by newspapers.

"Since I was eleven years old, I have worked in every department of
small town weeklies and of large city papers. I have owned my paper much
of the time. I was one of the owners of the Birmingham Daily State and
directed the business transaction in consolidating the Daily State, with

127