The local Polish newspaper Reforma (Reform), in existence for over a year, stopped publication on October 1. This was announced by the newspaper itself in its last issue of Saturday, October 1.

Every Presidential election year, especially the present, in which the campaign is very heated, new publications are born. This is true of Reforma. The origin of this newspaper is rather unusual and significant.

A word must be said about it, with particular emphasis on the fact that, during its short life, this newspaper passed through many hands. Its history can give a lesson to the Polish-American press.

What is the cause of the fall of Reforma? The publisher frankly admits that 2the failure of the publication is due to material causes; it did not pay the expenses, and new capital had to be added continually. Business was so poor that the enterprise was forced to withdraw from the journalistic field.

The policy of Reforma, which passed through the hands of many editors, was varied. The publisher did not dedicate it to any specific ideal. He had foreseen the possibility of conducting a business, but did not know how to handle it.

According to the requirements of early Polish-American journalism, in times gone by anyone could publish a Polish newspaper, irrespective of his intellectual and business qualifications, by merely purchasing a printing shop and hiring an editor for ten dollars a week. The case of Reforma proves this is not all one needs nowadays. Times have changed, and the reader pays more attention to what he reads. Today a newspaper publisher must be not only an established businessman but also a man of high intellect. He must possess a 3critical mind and the proper perspective on all matters so as to know where he is going. He has to be good at choosing his personnel and be able to appraise what it does.

All this was missing in Reforma, whose history is the best proof. There were continuous changes of policy and editors, especially of the latter. The last two editors would have made better shoemakers than editorial writers. In a word, the newspaper was tactless, and its free support of scandal, especially in the last issues, brought it to ruin.

This fall is not to be blamed on the publisher alone. The real cause of it all was the last editor and his way of handling the news. This is substantiated by the fact that Reforma had a good following a few months ago, when it was not only read but praised as well.

The success of a publication depends upon its policy. When the last editor added to Reforma a touch of anarchism and irreligiousness, the newspaper became 4a rag which the people did not even want to touch. The scandals that filled the newspaper became loathsome to the public, which soon turned away from it. The poisoned morals with which Reforma wanted to saturate its readers were the cause of its own death.

Yes, it is not proper to rejoice over the misfortunes of others, but this is not the case in this instance. This failure proves that the Poles are wise enough to pick the good seed from the bad, and that they will not permit any undesirable weed to grow in their midst, especially Reforma, which tried to promote anarchism and scandal.

We repeat once again: The downfall of Reforma should serve as a twofold example to our journalistic world; first of all, it shows that the time is past when a man without journalistic experience can succeed as a publisher; secondly, the time for supporting anarchism and scandal has not as yet arrived, and God will it, it will never arrive.