The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-09-30
THE NEW YORK HERALD SCARED.

4
| The New York Herald of Saturday con
tains startling editorial, in which it an
nounces that Jay Gould is about to assume
control of the Associated Press dispatches
for the purpose of manipulating them tc
| suit his speculative purposes. This, in
| deed, would be startling, If true; but tho
| Heralds editorial is remarkable for its evil
| dent lack of information in regard Go the
| business of theN New York Associated Press,
I of which it is member. The New York
Associated Press has for years assumed to
| be the press of the whole country, and this
ridiculous assumption the Herald main.
tains in the article to which we refer. No
other association is mentioned, and per-
son not acquainted with the facts would
suppose that all the great papers of the
country outside of the city of New
York were mere clients of the seven
papers of New York city of which
the Herald is one. The truth is,
the Western Associated Press, which is
composed of forty-four papers, collects
and prints more news than the New York
Associated Press. The Western Associated
Press hasshad contract with the New
York Associated Press for many years, I'M
der which the former bought the news col
lected by the latter and sold it the news
collected in the Western territory. Each
association operated in its own territory
without interference from the other
Recently, for reasons in.which the public
have no interest, but chiefly for the pur-
pose of improving the news service of the
country, the Western Associated Press
gave notice of the termination of its con-
tract with the New York Associated Press.
1t was found that the executive committee
of the latter would not treat with the
u. Il.
terms, and the New York association there
upon appointed a new committee, of which
Mr. Dana is one. The executive commit
tee of the Western Associated Press had
several conferences with the New York
committee, and two propositions were
submitted, which were referred to the New
York Associated Press for their action, and
here the matter rests Both propositions
contemplate joint management, and both
look to efficiency and economy. and there
is no difference except in matters of
detail.
If it were true, as the Herald says, that
Jay Gould has control of three of the sew
en- New York papers, and needs only one
more to obtain full control, the Herald
ought to be glad to have the forty-four
Western papers join in the management
of the Associated Press news. That
would put It beyond the reach of Mr..
Gould or any other man.
But in point of fact, Mr.. Gould did not
seek any such power as the Herald attri-
butes to him, and under the arrangement
as proposed, the Western Union Tele-
graph Company would be O mere carrier
Of the news that and nothing more. The
Western Union Telegraph Company.
through Mr. Gould did say that the West
ern Associated Press should have equal
rights with The New York Associated Press
in all contracts made for carrying news.
This does not suit the minority of the New
York papers, but it does suit, as we be-
lieve, the majority. 1t also suits the West
ern Associated Press. And If the propo-
sition of the latter shall be accepted, it will
be better for the New York Association,
and for all concerned, and no telegraph
boss, or boss of any other kind, will have
any control over it.
Before the Herald writes again on the |
subject we would advise it to make itself |
acquainted with the facts