Ticks & Kudos

Few outside of Pike County, Miss., where it has some 2,500 subscribers, ever hear of the McComb Enterprise. Nor would many more recognize the name of John Oliver Emmerich, its editor. Last week the obscure weekly and Editor Emmerich were marked in bold letters on the journalistic map of the U. S., when the National Editorial Association, convened in Milwaukee, awarded the Enterprise its 1930 trophy for the rural newspaper rendering the outstanding community service of the year.

The Enterprise was credited with successful prosecution of nine major projects, and persistent and effective efforts in behalf of a score of other causes. But its magnum opus was the fencing off of Pike County, Miss, from Louisiana.

In 20 years the County had spent more than $250,000 in eradicating the Texas fever tick which had blocked progress of livestock and dairy development. But cattle would ramble across the border from Louisiana (where no eradication measures were practiced) and re-infest Pike County stock as fast as they had been purged. The McComb Enterprise advocated the building of a double wire fence the length of the County line; was met by ridicule, hostility. It fought and won.

Editor Emmerich, 33, was graduated from University of Missouri, served four years as a farm demonstrator. Six years ago, without editorial experience, he bought the dilapidated Enterprise on credit, has made it a thriving paper.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.