The Missouri Miner: Editors-in-Chief: James L. Head

Research Project: 100 years of
The Missouri Miner 1915-2015

Est'd. 1915, Fred Grotts, Founder

James L. Head
First Editor-In-Chief
of the Missouri Miner,
1915

In the February 6, 1920 edition of the Missouri Miner, the Missouri Miner staff published a letter to the Editor from James L. Head, the first Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner. Head wrote to the Miner on account of the approaching five year anniversary of the newspaper's founding. In his letter, Head provides a detailed recollection of this newspaper's birth.

This issue begins the sixth year in existance of the Missouri Miner, a publication originating in the need of the student body for some means of expressing its wishes, needs, and feelings. The Miner takes pleasure in printing a letter recently received from one of the founders of the paper, and the first Editor, Mr. J. L. Head, '15, who is now with the Braden Copper Company in Chili.

     Braden Copper Company,
          Rancagua, Chile, S A.,
               December 29, 1919.
The Missouri Miner,
     Rolla, Missouri.

Sir:

Lately, as I have read my copies of the Miner which you so kindly have sent to me here in this far-off country, I have realized that the Missouri Miner will soon be celebrating its fifth birthday. And now that the numbers of those who remember the first issue of the paper are dwindling until but few remain as under-graduates, I have been thinking that perhaps the story of the Missouri Miner, and how it came to be, might be of some interest to the present under-graduate body.

The credit for the idea must be given to Mr. Fred Grotts, '16. Whether it had been passed on to him by some one "higher up" or whether it was simply necessary for him to find still another vent for his seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy and school spirit, I do not know. At any rate he was able to convince those whom he approached with the idea of the need and desirability of a school weekly. In his search for associates in the enterprise he persuaded G. E. Johnson, '16, to assume the role of business manager. Because of his years and mature and dignified demeanor "Pop" appeared to be the logical one to inveigle the cash out of unyielding under-graduates and alumni, solicit advs., and act as a general safety valve on the finances of the paper. And for no other reason that I have ever been able to learn, except that I must have appeared "easy," the writer was asked to take the post of Editor. Thus the triumvirate was formed.

The policy of the new paper was to be simply to provide the student body, faculty, and alumni with a weekly record of the life at M. S. M. No effort was to be made to make it a money-making proposition, and above all it was to be kept free from the petty, inter-organizational politics which were particularly rife in school that year. So with that aim we published No. 1, Vol. 1, of the Missouri Miner in February, 1915.

As to the first issue of the Miner there is not much to be said. It was a modest, rather apologetic, four-page affair, the pages considerably smaller in size that those of the present paper, containing a little school news, and the hope that it would meet with enough encouragement to warrant our continuing the venture.

It did, and a second issue appeared. And then followed a half year of anxiety and hard work for the three of us. Each week the Miner appeared, but whether or not there would be a succeeding issue was always uncertain. And yet, the paper gained strength, increased in popularity, and earned its right to a place among the permanent institutions at M. S. M. Its size was increased to eight pages. Johnson got busy and induced a few of Rolla's loyal merchants to lend us aid in the form of advertising. The subscription list grew. A contract with the Herald for the printing was consummated. Exchanges were arranged with the papers of other colleges. It was a proud day when we fixed our names to the contract with the Post Office Department so that we were permitted to print the classic, "Entered as second class matter April 2, 1915, at the post office at Rolla, Missouri, under the Act of March 3, 1879," at the head of the editorial page. We felt then that we had a regular paper. But it was work. The student body was all too prone to regard it as a personal affair of Grotts, Johnson and Head. It was difficult to persuade them that it was their paper, and that its success and continuance depended upon their support and willingness to give us news. There were many weeks when the night before publication would find one page, two pages of the Miner still blank. Then late at night I would go around to Grott's room or to Johnson's, and we would get together and ransack our brains for a bit of news or a story, that the blank pages might be filled, and the Miner appear as per schedule. True there were many who helped us at this time. Dr. McRae could always be depended upon for a column or two of alumni or other news. J. J. Doyle, '16, was one of our mainstays from the start. John S. Brown, '17, was in a practical mood that spring, and while we were no judge, we hoped that it was good poetry, and blessed his name, for it helped us to fill up another column. Then there were others too numerous to mention, but without whose interest and aid the Miner would never have survived a half dozen issues.

When the school term ended it was found that the Miner had not only paid for itself financially, but there remained a balance, which enabled us to pay for a page in the Rollamo, and to buy the little gold shovels as an emblem of service on the Board. But best of all was the popular decision that the Miner must continue. Nothing would have given the three of us more pleasure than to have guided the destinies of the paper another year. But we were Seniors, and the time of accounting for work let slide in the past had come. True Johnson had his Tau Beta Pi hay, and his diploma was assured, but he was busy with many other interests. My degree for that year was looming up as an impossibility, and Grotts was having his difficulties. So we reluctantly turned over the enterprise to some of those who had rendered such splendid assistance the first year.

That they succeeded in keeping it alive is well known, and when their year was up there were other enthusiastic ones to take their place. And so it has been year after year until the Miner will soon be celebrating its fifth birthday, and has so firmly established itself among the institutions at M. S. M. that it should celebrate many more. In closing five years of a successful career the hopes and ambitions of Grotts, Johnson and myself for the Miner have been more than realized, and we have been more than repaid for any work we expended on it. I'm sure that they will join me in congratulating the succeeding Boards on the manner in which they have kept the Miner spirit alive. It's been work. Only we who have been through it can realize just how much. I suspect that there have been many times when my successors have had to scratch around at the last minute for news, that too often it has been regarded as a one-man or two-man affair, that succeeding business managers have despaired because too many students have been willing to read their neighbor's copy rather than add their own little boost by subscribing. But as M. S. M. increases in strength and size these difficulties should be overcome, and the Miner take its place as the agent of any paper published at any school the size of M. S. M.

So here is success to the Missouri Miner, which has come to be the best thing at M. S. M. May it celebrate many times its fifth birthday.

               Very sincerely,
                    JAMES L. HEAD.