One-Magazine Town

Sad last week were the citizens of Spencer, Ind. Farm Life was dying. More than a good friend, Farm Life had been their bread and butter, their one worth while industry.

For many years Founder C. A. Taylor and his Farm Life made money. Many a farm implement, fertilizer, chicken brood, hog litter was advertised in its pages. When circulation reached 750,000, Founder Taylor became even more ambitious. "We can have 1,000,000 circulation," said he. Highly-paid salesmen solicited subscriptions. Premiums were offered. A million circulation for Farm Life became a civic goal in Spencer. At last the goal was reached, passed. Farm Life had 1,115,000 subscribers listed.

But highly paid solicitors and premiums, Publisher Taylor discovered, bring circulation only--not "reader acceptance." And reader acceptance is what money-spending advertisers want. So Farm Life's advertising did not keep pace with its circulation.

Two years ago, when $80,000 was owed to Mead Paper Co. of Dayton, Ohio, that company had to take over Farm Life. T. W. LeQuatte, onetime editor of very successful Successful Farming, was brought in, made publisher. Founder Taylor, septuagenarian, retired, soon was put in the hands of a guardian. But still advertisers could not forget Farm Life's mushroom-growth circulation. Last week Publisher LeQuatte announced that unless $25,000 were raised immediately, the subscription list would be sold and Farm Life would enter bankruptcy, or would be reorganized.