Ernie Douglas
Phoenix- Maricopa County
Inducted in 2009
Ernest Douglas's influence on Arizona's agricultural journalism was profound. His commitment to 'telling it like it is' meant that the truth should always be treated with 'parsimonious frugality,' in his own words. His unapologetic storytelling, as he fearlessly narrated the Arizona agriculture story, earned him a place in the Arizona Farm and Ranch Hall of Fame.
Journalist Ernest Douglas was an actual product of frontier Arizona. He was born in a tent on a Gila Bend homestead on October 20, 1888. His mother had left the covered wagon she was traveling from Texas to board a train for the tiny hamlet on the bend of the Gila River just before Ernie's arrival. His parents, Angus and Ella Stewart Douglas, farmed the homestead until a diversion upstream caused their water supply to diminish in 1892. With no water, the little family moved to the Salt River Valley. His earliest memories were selling watermelons to the Southern Pacific section hands from the family's farm.
Destiny played a role in the family's life again when the small community they had moved to dwindled, so there was no longer a school for Ernie and his siblings to attend. This time, the family packed up and moved to Phoenix, where Ernie enrolled at the old Central School. It was there that his unwavering fascination with the Fourth Estate took root. When he learned that carriers for the Phoenix Gazette made a whopping $5 a month, he knew that was what he wanted to do.
His mother loaned him money to buy a bicycle, enabling him to get the job of his dreams. He began his newspaper career at 15 and stayed with it until his death 71 years later. After graduating high school, Ernie became the Gazette's circulation manager and a full-time paper employee.
When the need arose for a reporter to fill the void left by a departing employee, Ernie was thrown into the deep end of the pool. He rose to the challenge, and it wasn't long before he was not only reporting for the Gazette, he had added reporting for the Arizona Republican and the Arizona Democrat. He was stringing for the L.A. Examiner and the El Paso Herald.
Ernie loved agriculture but had no interest in making it his lifetime career. He sold his interest in some cattle his father ran for him in1916 and took over management of the weekly Jerome News, converting it to a daily. Much to the dismay of the unions and the mine managers, Ernie became a crusading editor. At one point, he took a pick handle and joined other citizens in driving the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) out of town. The Wobblies were known for their ability to walk off their jobs and were viewed as detrimental to the war effort. They were driven onto a rail car and shipped to Chino Valley. The event didn't make the headlines that the Great Bisbee Deportment of the same group made, but it took its place in the annals of Jerome's history.
By 1924, the mines were closing, so Ernie sold his interest in the News and moved to the Mesa Journal-Tribune, a weekly publication in a primarily agricultural community.
According to Douglas, the town bustled with farm news, and Ernie had found his calling. In 1929, he was drafted as the editor of the seven-year-old Arizona Producer, the forerunner of the Arizona Farmer-Ranchman magazine. A product of the Salt River Water Users Association, the magazine was not paying its way, so in 1932, Salt River Project offered Ernie outright ownership of the publication instead of wages, an offer he accepted. With the country just emerging from the Great Depression and Ernie with a wife and four kids, he became all things to all people. He sold ads and subscriptions, handled the editorial pages, covered farm news, and probably set type when necessary. He was also stringing for the L.A. Times on the side, a relationship that lasted 25 years.
By 1938, control of the publication, now called the Arizona Farmer, passed to Joe Haldiman, a Phoenix insuranceman, and Ernie became its editor. His reputation as a writer grew as he translated the technical jargon of scientific outpourings into layman's language. He had an eye for innovative farming procedures such as deep plowing and subsoil watering. His concern for water and soil conservation helped establish the USDA's Water and Soil Conservation Districts across the United States.
Ernie tried to retire several times, but that was the one thing he could not pull off. The newspaper business was one of Ernie's interests. He had a radio show called The Dinner Bell that aired thrice weekly on KOY. He wasn't above using humor to drive home his point and used it in his day's print and electronic media. He created a fictional community called Hardscrabble Mesa. He populated it with characters with picturesque names such as Foxtail Johnson (named for two of the weeds most hated by cotton farmers, foxtails and Johnson weed), Nub Plinker, Snort Yankle, and numerous others. It was picked up by newspapers nationwide and read by millions.
Ernie Douglas is said to have loved snake stories and lived by two simple journalistic precepts in recounting them: never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn, and the truth is such a valuable commodity that it should always be treated with 'parsimonious frugality.' In nominating Ernie Douglas, fellow journalist Ken Lucas said, "For many decades, his weekly production of agricultural copy ('If it didn't happen in Arizona, it didn't happen'), his editorial and his Foxtail Johnson Objects was prodigious, and his casual writing style was incomparable." Throughout his years as a journalist, he always said his goal was to work hard, think soundly, country, and read by literally millions. Ernie Douglas is said to have loved snake stories and lived by two simple journalistic precepts in recounting them: never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn, and the truth is such a valuable commodity that it should always be treated with 'parsimonious frugality.' In nominating Ernie Douglas, fellow journalist Ken Lucas said, "For many decades, his weekly production of agricultural copy ('If it didn't happen in Arizona, it didn't happen'), his editorial and his Foxtail Johnson Objects was prodigious, and his casual writing style was incomparable." Throughout his years as a journalist, he always said his goal was to work hard, think soundly, influence unselfishly, and live honorably, a goal he accomplished admirably. He was named to the Arizona Newspaper Association Hall of Fame in 1981 and to the Arizona Farming and Ranch Hall of Fame in 2009.
Affiliations
Arizona Farmer Publication-Editor
Salt Water Project
Arizona Newspaper Hall of Fame-1981
