"The world's smallest newspaper"
History is ripe in the Land of Mears

Mears." Despite the rustic nature of his approach to the news, Lathers was not afraid to editorially attack any issue or any person who did not measure up to his standards of morality, and this journalistic feistiness got him into numerous legal battles and earned him many enemies. Because of the uniqueness of his newspaper and his character, he had become nationally known by the 1930's, and several prominent newspapers and magazines featured him in news articles at the time. One such article is reproduced here. It was written by James S. Pooler and first appeared under the title of
"America's Smallest Newspaper," in the American Mercury, 54(March, 1942), pp 318-322.

MEARS, MICH. (pop 200), supports the nation's smallest newspaper, but supports it under protest. The protests range from simple name-calling to the favorite Mears sport of knocking Editor Swift Lathers from under his bowler hat. "There have been 27 such major assaults in the 28 years since Lathers founded his four-page Mears Newz in Western Michigan's Oceana County. Nevertheless, no citizen dares miss a copy, and 1,810 people in 37 states pore over the 51/2 by 71/2 inch pages every week. The Mears Newz is celebrated in metropolis and hamlet, in drawing room and kitchen - wherever, in fact, that it appears. "The reason for this popularity, incredible to the uninitiated, is Swift Lathers himself. Swift is the spirit of Richard Gordon Bennet at a whistle stop, a pre-Winchell snoop, a poet in prose, a curator of humanity, a zookeeper of mankind and the most assaulted editor in the history of vigorous journalism. "He describes himself as the 'Defender of Civilization at the Crossroads,' 'A Fireball Rolling Down the Pages of Oceana County's History' and 'The Perambulating Conscience and Gardener of the Dune Country.' The most articulate of his enemies calls him 'a peeping Tom who thinks he is Thoreau.' "Swift Lathers is 52 now, and his eyes blink badly, but he misses very little of the life around him, and he is spry enough to scramble about Oceana County 15 miles a day on foot to get the news. He uses the rural doings of Mears, Hart, Pentwater and Shelby (a cluster of little towns in the thinly-settled county) as a sounding board for his own views, which are pertinent enough to get his one-man newspaper rated among the six best weeklies in the county. " The headlines in The Mears Newz reflect Swift's concern for civilization, if one agrees with the editor's definition of all civilization as 'just Mears on a more elaborate scale.' "SOMETHING ALWAYS is 'ripe in the land of Mears.' It may be that 'Roman Candle Remnants Are Ripe in the Land of Mears,' or perhaps 'Wishbones and Feathers' are ripe, or 'Hearts and Paper Lace,''Mittens and Snow Images,''Beach Umbrellas,' 'Inaudible Frogs' or 'Soapy Windows.' Whatever the season has to offer, it is ripe in Mears. "Under the headlines, Swift carries on his perennial battle. His earthy touch has dealt with politicians, schoolteachers and small town morals; petty grafting, closed roads, billboards and the U.S. Post Office; sand scooters, dog snatchers and censorship; the great state of Michigan and a short weight butcher. "Swift Lathers' life is ...simple...but the practical business of making a living comes hard. He must get $2.40 a day out of Oceana County, a feat roughly comparable to floating a German War Loan in Coventry. The Mears Newz requires $4 a week for operation, and the remaining $12.80 goes to operate his family: a wife and six little shavers, whose names-Thelma Celine, William Rush, Forest Glen, Nathan Quick, Sylvan Dale and Fleet Birch-reflect their fathers' imaginative love of nature. "Yet Swift has done will by his own definition. He began with 300 subscribers and no reputation at all, setting his type in an old cider mill. In 28 years, he has acquired a subscription list that would be many time longer if he did not purposely limit it, a 40 year old typewriter with a six row keyboard to help his composition, and a reputation both local and national. He changed his paper's name from News to Newz because a reporter told him the former wasn't distinguished enough. Aside from all this, Swift and the Newz haven't altered. "No one knows how big a subscription list he might have compiled, because one day, when the circulation hit 2,740, Swift made himself immortal among editors by voluntarily cutting the list in half-literally-with a pair of scissors employed at both ends. Everybody whose name began with a letter up to D or after S stopped getting The Mears Newz. "That left Swift free to do complete justice to Oceana County and to homestead a sand dune. He always wanted to go as far west in michigan as he could and settle a sand pile he could call his own. 'No politician in Oceana County sleeps well on the eve of election Swift is given to getting out 3,000 extras on such nights and........

Swift Lathers by Daniel J Yakes
The Sunday Muskegon Chroniclae, March 19, 1986