Helen in the Editor's Chair

by Ruthe S. Wheeler

The letter from McClintock commended her further for her work, promised that her monthly check would be a liberal one and added that when she finished high school he would be glad to consider her for a job with the Associated Press.

Helen sat down and wrote a long letter to her father, telling in detail the events of the Fourth and enclosing the Associated Press story and her letter from McClintock. That done, she turned to the task of writing her stories for the Weekly Herald. Tom was out soliciting ads, Margaret had gone down the lake to check up at both summer resorts about possible accidents and she had the office to herself that morning.

Which story should Helen write first, “Speed” Rand’s world flight, the celebration at Sandy Point or the story of Captain Billy and the Queen? She threaded a sheet of copy paper into her typewriter and sought inspiration in a blank gaze at the ceiling. Inspiration failed to come from that source and she scrawled aimlessly with pencil and paper, her mind mulling over the myriad facts of her stories. Then she started typing. Her first story concerned Captain Billy and the Queen, for Captain Billy and his ancient craft were known to every reader of the Herald. They were home news. “Speed” Rand and his plans concerned the outside world.

The events of the night of the Fourth were indelibly printed in Helen’s mind and the copy rolled from her typewriter, two, four, six, ten pages. She stopped long enough to delve into the files and find the story which the Herald had printed 23 years before when the Queen made her maiden trip on Lake Dubar. Two more pages of copy rolled from her machine.

Helen picked up the typed pages, 12 altogether. She hadn’t intended to make the story that long but it had written itself, it was one of those stories in which danger and heroism combine to make the human-interest that all newspaper readers enjoy.

With the story of Captain Billy and the Queen out of the way, Helen wrote a short lead about “Speed” Rand and then clipped the rest of the story for the Herald from the one she had telephoned the Associated Press. Even then it would run more than a column and with a long story on the general Fourth of July celebration she felt that the Herald would indeed give its subscribers their money’s worth of news that week.

There was a slight let-down in advertising the week following the Fourth but they crammed the six home-printed pages of the Herald full of news and went to press early Thursday, for it was election day and the fate of the paved road program was at stake. For the last month Helen had written editorials urging the improvement of the roads and they went directly from the office Thursday afternoon to the polling place to remain there until the last ballot had been counted. The vote was heavy and Rolfe favored the good roads 452 to 73.

Doctor Stevens, who announced the vote to the anxious crowd, added, “And I think we can thank Helen Blair, our young editor of the Herald, for showing us the value of better roads.”

There was hearty applause and calls for speech, but Helen refused to talk, hurrying away to telephone the Rolfe vote to the Associated Press. The morning papers announced that the program had carried in the state as a whole and that paving would start at once with Rolfe assured of being on the scenic highway not later than the next summer.

News from their father in Arizona continued cheering and as their own bank account increased steadily and circulation mounted, Tom and Helen felt that they were making a success of their management of the Herald.