Miss Willie Harper Wins 1915 Newspaper Contest, Randolph, Alabama http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/randolph/newspapers/harpwins.txt ============================================= USGENWEB PROJECT NOTICE: In keeping with the USGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Project Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file is copyrighted and contributed by: William Fischer, Jr. ============================================= December 2003 MISS W. HARPER WINS THE PRIZE ---------------------------- Miss Willie HARPER is the winner of the first prize of ten dollars in gold, awarded by The Leader to the one finding and correcting the most misspelt words in the page of advertisements of local business men appearing in The Roanoke Leader the four consecutive issues ending with the issue of March 17th. Miss Martha PITTMAN won the second prize, a case of Chero-Cola, awarded by the Chero-Cola Bottling Co., while Mr. George W. STEVENS won third place, and will receive fifty cents in trade offered by the Royal Market. Miss HARPER presented a paper which graded one hundred, while Miss PITTMAN was only two points behind her, and Prof. STEVENS four points off from first place. Thus it is that no tie occurred, though the contest was very close with these and a number of others. The Leader congratulates the winners. They won by their wits, and on a close margin at that. At the same time, all who took part in the contest no doubt enjoyed and profited by the exercise. Many dictionaries were pried into that had been a long while shut. Some of the contestants changed words, in their zeal, that did not need changing, while others even went out of their way to hunt up supposed errors in other sections of the paper. Anyway, it has been demonstrated that the people read The Leader and that they also keep up with its advertising columns. The lesson we would impress is that it pays to read the advertisements in The Leader; also, it pays to read the dictionary. [From The Roanoke Leader (Randolph County, Alabama), 24 March 1915, p.1] ---------- The contest was a simple and probably successful effort by The Leader to drum up additional business advertising in the newspaper during a period of economic contraction in rural Alabama due to falling cotton prices. Small town newspaper operations were often run on a “shoe-string” even during sound economic times, so The Leader wasn’t immune to the fiscal downturn. The newspapermen even played upon the emotions of businessmen by declaring that to be “progressive” and “modern,” business leaders needed to advertise. Note two earlier Leader notices: ---------------------------- Untitled Notice ---------------------------- The Leader must urge its subscribers and other patrons to settle [accounts] now. We must have some money. [From The Roanoke Leader (Randolph County, Alabama), 13 January 1915, p.1] ---------------------------- LOCAL NEWS AND COMMENT ---------------------------- The business people of Roanoke could make no greater mistake in the beginning of 1915, with its peculiar conditions, than to relax their energies and to curtail their advertising matter in the effort to hold their trade and to get new business. The very nature of the case implies keen competition, which calls for the exercise of progressive, modern business methods. The showing made for the town through the advertising columns of the local [news]paper is bound to affect this market as well as the individual business man for good or for ill, according to the attitude of the various business units of the community. [From The Roanoke Leader (Randolph County, Alabama), 27 January 1915, p.5]