Published by The Evansville Courier

"Years of devotion to the public welfare, of sincerity of aims and singleness of purpose - these form The Courier tradition," said a rather flowery statement on March 27, 1910, when the newspaper marked its 65th year.

The statement, a bit magnanimous, continued, "It has always been in the thickest of every fight; it has blazed the way for every new movement. It is not too much to say that no movement has ever succeeded in this city that did not have the active support of The Courier and no abuse has long continued that met its forceful and persistent opposition."

According to a Courier history written in 1945 - its 100th year - the newspaper by 1910 had exposed the mishandling of public health money and set off "a complete change in the system of dealing with smallpox, which resulted in savings of $30,000 to taxpayers and the stamping out" of the disease.

It had reported embezzlement in the county recorder's office, uncovered the waste and misuse of hundreds of thousands of road-repair dollars, and blown the whistle on county commissioners who made a practice of purchasing personal supplies and charging them to the expenses of the county poor farm.

And, according to the history, The Courier "had repeatedly revealed creation of new and illegal offices in the county and townships to give jobs to political henchmen."

But the paper strove for more than the unearthing of scandals. The Courier supported a number of civic causes through the years, many of which came to pass.

The newspaper pushed for construction of more school buildings in 1897 when existing structures became overcrowded and inadequate. It led a movement in the late 1890s for public parks and playgrounds and the first municipal swimming pools. And it fought for a food and milk inspection ordinance in the early 1900s, followed up with a push for competent paid officials who could enforce the ordinance.

Old Couriers reveal that hundreds of editorials and articles were dedicated to improvements on the Ohio River that would control flooding and establish a year-round 9-foot water level from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Ill.

Long editorial campaigns, some of which ran for decades, helped win the quest for an Evansville-Henderson bridge, better roads and highways for Southern Indiana, and equitable taxation.

The paper also strongly advocated a bridge over the White River at Hazleton on the Dixie Bee Line (now U.S. 41).