IN THE NATURE OF A FOREWORD
The appearance of Will Maupin's
Weekly is not the result of a sudden im
pulse. It is the result of
WILL several years planning and
MAUPIN'S consultation with friends:
WEEKLY It may be that Will Mau
pin's Weekly has "come
to stay "and it may be that it has only
come to remain a spell. All that de
pends upon contingencies that the human
mind cannot foresee. But whether it's
stay be long or short, one thing is sure
Will Maupin's Weekly will endeavor
to make its presence felt for good while
it is upon the scene of action. I deem
it only fair to myself and to the public
to frankly confess two motives in the
publication of such a journal as I have
had in mind to publish. One is my de
sire to make a living for myself and
family; the other is my desire to contrib
ute in some measure to the upbuilding
of Nebraska. Desiring to be perfectly
honest about it I have put the chief
motive first.
q q
It has been a growing conviction
that Nebraska needs a publication that
will always try to deal with
THE politics without being par-
PAPER'S tisan: that will handle all
MISSION questions of public inter
est fairly and frankly, and
without sectional bias; that will endeav
or to spread good fellowship abroad in
stead of forever stirring up animosities
over purely academic questions; that
will devote its best efforts and energies
to boosting for the men and the enter
prises and institutions that are doing
real service along lines of promoting Ne
braska and Nebraska interests; that will
endeavor to spread abroad, so far as lies
in any one newspaper's power, the facts
concerning Nebraska resources and pos
sibilities, and what Nebraska has to of
fer to the homeseeker and the investor.
It may be that I am not the man to un
dertake the task of conducting such a
journal, but one never knows until one
has tried, and I am going to try. I have
spent almost a quarter of a century in
active newspaper work in Nebraska, and
most of those years have been spent in
capacities wherein I came in contact
with and learned at first hand what Neb
raska is and has. The two last years
were spent in the statistical department
of the state, which was a sort of post
graduate course in acquiring knowledge
concerning the wonders of Nebraska soil
and climate. If all these years of exper
ience have not fitted me for the task I
have outlined, then I have made a sad
mistake in my life's work.
q - I
The virtues of Will Maupin's Week
ly will not be purely negative, either.
While it will not set itself
PLANS up as a censor of other
AND people's morals, it will have
PURPOSES no hesitancy in expressing
an opinion on any ques
tion that is deemed of sufficient import
ance to occupy the public mind. But
it will devote less time to the expression
of opinion on such matters and more
time in performing missionary work cal
culated to attract attention to Nebraska's
fertile soil and salubrious climate and
hospitable people and business oppor
tunities. It will devote its time to tell
ing about the good points of people in
stead of pointing out their faults and
criticizing their motives. The fact of
the matter is, a vast majority of the peo
ple are all right, and have the best of
intentions. And just because a man
may differ from the opioions held by
Will Maupin's Weekly will be no reason
why this journal should denounce him as
a thief, a moral degenerate and a blot
upon decent society Life is too short to
waste in any such fool way, and Will
Maupin's Weekly's life, be it short or
long, is going to be devoted to pointing
out the good things all around. We
bump up against the bad things often
enough, and hard enough, without it be
ing at all necessary to have our attention
called to the bumping after the fact.
Nor will this journal be partisan. No,
it will not be of that "independent" brand
that has made, the word independence
something of a joke. It will not be part
isan in the sense that it will stick to party
right or wrong. Nor will it support can
didates for office merely because those
candidates happen to be the nominees
of the political party to which the editor
holds nominal allegience. Mark you,
we say "nominal allegience. " The inter
ests of Nebraska and Nebraskans will be
put so far ahead of the interests of party
and political office seekers that the latter
will not be in sight when the distance
flag falls.
q q
After all, good friends, is not Ne
braska profiting by getting away from
narrow partisanship? It gives us so
much more time in which to talk about
the good points of our state and her
people. Thai's lots better than getting
red in the face over politics and calling
one another hard names. The men
who are making Nebraska are not the
men who are trying to keep us stirred
up over partisan politics.
q q
1 his is a work-a-day world, with al
together too little humor and good cheer
in it. One of the missions
THE of Will Maupin's Weekly
GOOD will be to extract as much
IN LIFE as possible of the humor
and good cheer that lies
beneath the surface of things, and bring
it to light so that all may enjoy it. We
would rather spread a good hearty laugh
throughout the confines of Nebraska
than to detect some man in the act of
playing false to his trust. Will Maupin's
Weekly holds to the opinion that he
who makes two laughs bubble up where
not a laugh bubbled before is a greater
benefactor than he who tries to promote
what he considers a reform by stirring
up animosities, engendering strifes and
alienating friendships, will JYiaupins
Weekly will be serious enough when
occasion requires but occasions for ser
iousness are not nearly so numerous as
average man has more virtues than
faults, and this journal is going to de
vote more time to making these virtues
known than it is to digging up the faults
and parading them before the public.
q q
What a wonderful state Nebraska
is! And how criminally negligent we
have all been in the mat
ABOUT ter of making these won
OUR derful things about Neb-
NEBRASKA raska known of all men.
Perhaps, however, crimi
nal negligent is too harsh a term. It
may be that we have been so busy mak
ing a state that we have not felt like
taking the time to boast about what we
have and what we have done. Or per
haps we have been ignorant of it all.
Whatever it is, the fact remains that we
i r:i J i i i i
nave laucu ncicLuiuic iu inarvt, miuwu
wnat ieDrasKa is, ana nas, ana may oe.
The time has come for Nebraska to get
into the advertising game, and catch
MCp Will I UCI MMCI MdlCd 111 11 1C UUWdrU
march of progress. To fail means to
1U11 IV Ulb XWUJ. U11U lO JUlUbUUllK
not to be considered for a single mom
ent. Will Maupin's Weekly does not
hope to be able to advertise all of Neln