Lettered across the front window of the Flora, Ill. Sentinel (circ. 2,500) is a proud slogan: "A free press, a free nation." Like many another country editor, stocky, aggressive Charles Allen Crowder writes almost all the stories in his twice-weekly Sentinel himself; his wife Dorothy and their 15-year-old son Charles Jr. (whose column is called "Crowder's Chowder") do the rest. In reporting the news of Flora (pop. 6,000) and Republican Clay County, Republican Editor Crowder says he sometimes "plays up what the business interests want played down."
Last January, 48-year-old Editor Crowder, a lawyer...
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