In This Issue

When the meteorologist-turned-historian J. Cecil Alter was gathering materials for his 1938 book Early Utah Journalism, he wrote that he visited “every city and town in Utah that has now or ever has had a newspaper” in search of material. In his book, Alter conveyed a truism of historical research: Newspapers are an almost infinitely useful source. “May the Fire Demon ever be baffled in the presence of such historical treasures!” he proclaimed.1 Yet newspapers must be handled with care—and not just because of the Fire Demon—for the details printed within their pages have gone through that fallible, opinionated filter called a human. The present issue of Utah Historical Quarterly, which focuses on journalism, makes plain the relationship between newspapers and the social circumstances they both influence and reflect.The issue opens with an article about the 1916 gubernatorial race, a case study in the interplay between political developments and the news media. As Stephanie Thompson Lundeen writes, “Utah's newspapers gave voice to voter concerns as these newspapers simultaneously played a significant role in shaping those concerns.” The article is also about antisemitism, as old, ugly, and unfortunately current as it is. In 1916, Utah voters could choose between Nephi L. Morris and Simon L. Bamberger for governor. Both men were prominent businessmen who espoused generally Progressive principles. But unlike Morris and so many other Utah politicians, Bamberger was not a Latter-day Saint. He was a German, Jewish immigrant—and his personal identity became part of the political battle that year.Next, Victoria Grieve delves into the history of the Utah Labor News in the early twentieth century, which generally spoke for the Utah State Federation of Labor (USFL). Grieve writes that during her period of study, from 1917 to 1937, “the USFL was home to a wide variety of political and labor views, leading to conflicts and power struggles” between conservatives and radicals and between supporters of craft versus industrial unionism. And though Utah Labor News and the USFL were affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), she argues that a close look at the newspaper complicates the usual conservative image of the AFL, which had to adapt to diverse local circumstances.Our third article, by Glen Feighery, establishes the importance of who is actually writing and editing a newspaper. Feighery writes about the Topaz Times, the newspaper published in Topaz, the Japanese American incarceration camp operated by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) during World War II. As he notes, “the Topaz Times was a creation of the WRA,” but it was produced entirely by incarcerated Japanese Americans. It is telling, then, to learn how the Times covered or commented on a number of episodes—including the 1943 “loyalty questionnaire,” the killing of James Wakasa by a camp guard, and the draft—and how “the paper helped readers to identify” as part of a community, “not just people thrown together by circumstance.”Next, Emily Crumpton-Deason examines how the Latter-day Saint women behind the Woman's Exponent used their paper to have a voice in the public arena. The Exponent ran from 1872 to 1914, years during which Latter-day Saint women saw many negative portrayals of themselves and their religion in the broader print media and when women in Utah and throughout the United States fought for their voting rights. The Exponent, Crumpton-Deason argues, gave its editors and contributors the “power to speak for themselves, defend their religious beliefs, fight for the rights of women throughout the country, and organize reform efforts and participate in politics.”Our coverage of Utah journalism wraps up with a photo essay by Eliza Carr that shows the many roles women have played in the production of newspapers. As typesetters, reporters, illustrators, editors, and publishers, Carr writes, “Utah women [made] newspaper history.”Finally, this issue of UHQ closes with tributes to two remarkable historians of Utah, James B. Allen and Peter L. Goss.