The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-12-04
Oppression of the Maine Press - Friendly
Trick of the Boston Publishers.

The New York Associated Press" consists
of an Association of the leading papers in that
city, which employ their agents, collect their
news, of which they have the benefit, and
which they sell to other paper, affixing such
rates, or tariff of prices, as to their General
Agent seems equitable and just. This Agent
Mr.. Craig, has apportioned the cost to the New
England papers according to their supposed
circulation and ability to pay, and there is no
reason to suppose that in this he has not acted
fairly and in good faith.
On several occasions the rates have been
raised, the last time we think about year
since, when gold was near its highest figure,
and the war news was most voluminous and
complex. The excuse assigned at that time
for the increased rates was the great expense
of collecting, arranging and transmitting the
war neaos. The press of this State was as
sessed its due proportion of this increase Tie
papers of this city paying much more than
those of Bath, for the same reason that the
Boston papers were charged more than those
of this city, to wit: their supposed inferior
circulation and ability to pay. 7
The war closed, and the dispatches fell off
till they have of late contracted to nearly the
same narrow limits they occupied before the
war, but no discount was made on the war
rates-none was expected. So things went on
till few days since, when the daily papers of
this State received, from the Boston Agent, a
copy OF an order received by him from Mr..
Craig, at New York, of which the following is
a copy: 9tr ~
"On and after Saturday next December 2d)
you will please close the general news report
to all the New England papers, not on the direct
route betaoeen this city New York; and Bos-
as near to that as possible. 1t is found to be
impossible to continue the present elaborate
report and late hours at night without ma
terial increase of expenses to the editors, and
there is reason to believe that briefer reports
and earlier hours for "Good Night" will live
better satisfaction than any increase of present
charges" rsf,efs.sss
We did not feel dispose to find fault in adj
vance with this notice, till time should be af
forded to see precisely what it meant in prac
tice. The 'briefer report" might mean bet
ter digested and more condensed report, so
that even with its brevity it would afford all
that was really worth sending over the wires
Then the closing at ten o'clock, or "as near
that time as possible" looked like disposition
to accommodate, and not to shut down in the
middle of an important dispatch. True, there
was suspicious ''look" about the matter.
The only papers really to be affected seriously
were the papers of this State, as the Spring
field, Hartford, New Haven and Providence
papers, by liberal construction, could be con-
sidered on the "direct route" between New
York and Boston. -.,r
We confess from the first we suspected
trick of the Boston publishers; that they had
combined to pay for and control the dispatch
es so as to exclude them from the papers in
Maine (no dispatches are published between
here and BOSTON,, hoping, perhaps, by so doing
to create greater demand for their own pa
pers in this State! 1t turns out that our sus-
pici0ns toere correct. --sa-lz s4kgl III.
The first confmatory circumstance of this
suspicion. was knowledge or the factor
such knowledge that we regard it as a fact
that no increased expense has been imposed
upon the Associated Press by the American
Telegraph Company, as Mr.. Craig's order i'm
plies. The Telegraph Company had made nc
new arrangements-proposed none, and we are
glad to learn that the officers of this Company
have no completely in this new turn of the
screw upon the press of this State. Still, witt
this knowledge we proposed to say not a word.
and see what the practical workings of the
thing were to be, but on return from tea Sat
urday evening we found at the office a dispatch
from the publishers of the Bangor Vhsg, ir
these words:
"Dailey, the President of the Boston Associ
dted Press, says that If the press of Maine vii
double their payments theyshall have the new.
as usual"
Here we have it. The Boston publisher
have combined to choke off the press of thi
State, or extort from it double the rates it has
paid all through the war! They have proba-
bly, purchased the monopoly of the news east
OF that city, by paying additional what was re-
received from the press of this State, and they
know that, by exacting double rates they may
compel some of the papers in Maine to aban-
don the dispatches altogether, and thus widen
the field for their own circulation This is
the "third rail' in a new form! The Whic
may think it best to succumb, but suppose the
three papers in this city should combine and
form portland Associated Press" and then
decline to take the dispatches unless they can
control all east Of here, and should offer fol-
the monopoly tempting sum, and then pro-
pose to supply Bangor and Bath at triple rates,
would the Wing consider that transaction to
be submitted to without protest? We pre-
sumo not.
We regard the whole transaction as an UNI
fair thing; not in keeping with the highest
considerations of honor. 1t was unfair, we
think, in the New York parties to give mo-
nopoly of Maine to Boston, without first con-
sulting their Maine customers. 1t was cha
racteristic trick in Boston parties to seek such
an arrangement, and we do not believe in the
end that they will make any money out of it,
The Maine papers have been the regular
customers of the New York Association. the
same as the Boston papers have been. and had
they, without consulting the other New Eng
land customers, bargained for the exclusive
use OF the dispatches from the parent Associa-
ton, and then proposed to dole them ont to
Boston at enhanced rates, we think our con-
temporaries of the latter city would have seen
and appreciated the trick in its true liobt
Perhaps we shall submit to the extorton
we must to have the dispatches; but in doine
SO we appeal not simply to the people of this
city, but to the people of the State,-to their
local pride, if they have any,-to say whether
their patronage should be lavished upon the
papers which have combined to choke off the
press OF their own State, or whether they will
withhold it from them and bestow it more lib
orally than ever upon the struggling papers at
nome' SO as to enable them to hold up under
th's new Boston scheme for crushing out their
life 'o' 'iieii
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