Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-09-27
JAY U AGAIN
ManeuVering to Control the AS
ISOLATED Press.
spocInI 10 Cineinnati oommercIal.

Special to Cincinnati Commercial.
New YORK, September 3.-The
Herald to day has the following:
"The turn which affairs have re-
Gently taken in the conduct of the
New York Associated Press can not
fail TO be Of interest, as it is OF I'M
doubted Importance to the general
public. The Associated Press is an
alliance or association of newspapers
| for mutual benefit in procuring tele-
graphic news. For many years it has
worked under tie direction Of an ex-
ecutiye committee composed OF three
of the proprietors of leading New
York Journals, andit is very greatly to
the credit of this committee, and OF
the managers and agents they employ,
that there has never, so far as We now
remember. been a complaint that this
powerful agency has been misused for
private or partisan purposes. The
uses to which a shrewd aud unscrupu.
Ions man might put the Associated
Press reports have not, it seems, es-
eaped the notice Of one of the shrewd-
est and most enterprising of our
wealthy citizens. MIR. Jay Gould
seems to have determined to make this
organization an adjunct to his specu-
lations. 1t is now understood that
MI. Gould has control of three of
the seven journals which compose the
Associated Press-the Tribune,
World, Mail and Express-and IS he
controls at the same time the Western
Union Telegraph Company, which the
Associated Press has for many years
employed 10 transmit its news, Mr..
Gould has of late begun to show his
hand His design is to obtain the As
sociated Press, aud to do this
he proposes 10 amalgamate the
Western Union Telegraph Com
psny, which he controls,
with the Associated Press, to
destroy the organization Of the latter,
and make the employees Of the telegraph
company his own servants; that is to
say, the collectors Of news for the pa
pers. While he could control but
three Of the journals forming the AssO-
ciated Press, this scheme, Of course,
halted, bat at the August meeting Of
the association be vas enabled by the
vote Of the Sun, which had until then,
in common with the Herald. Times
and Journal Of Commerce, opposed his
plans, TO strike his first blow by dis
charging tbs Executive Committee
from the further consideration of its
relation with the Western Union
Company.
If Mr.. Gould does really control
these four papers. then the way is open
to his scheme. That the news of the
country should be in the power Of a
single individual, and that individual
Mr.. Jay Gould, is a startling prospect
Mr.. Gould is a purely speculative Op-
orator in shares OF railway, telegraph
and other stocks. His avowed profes
sion is the manipulation Of solid and
substantial property, solely for raising
or lowering the prices of shares, to 10.
crease his personal fortune. The i'm.
partial and accurate presentation Of
the news of the day in the Associated
Press report, must often, it is easy to
see, have been a bar to the success of
such speculations as those by which
Mr.. Gould and others OF the SAINT pro
fession seek to increase their fortunes.
This obstacle it is which Mr.. Gould
now seeks to remove. He wishes to
give the country its news reports. II
he succeeds, that which has hitherto
been read under the head of "Asso-
ciated Press dispatches" must there.
after be placed by those who print it
under the head Of Jay GOuld's dis
patches"
The Herald has been from the be.
ginning a member of the Associated
Press. We do not propose to abandon
the organization, at least for the
present, but we shall deal honestly
with our readers. If Jay Gould sue
ceeds in obtaining the control Of the
Associated Press, which be seeks, we
shall not refuse the news he causes to
be put in circulation, but we shall
print it, as honesty 10 our readers will
then require, under the head Of Jay
Gould's dispatches.