, 1884-11-27
WAS IT PARTISAN?
An Investigation of the Asso-
ciated Press.
A Committee Of Editors Find
the Charge UnfOunded.
How One Very Important Error
Was Made.
Associated Press investigation.

Associated Press Investigation.
NEW YORK, November ga meet
ing of the joint executive committee of
the New York Associated Press and the
Western Associated Press was called in
New York to investigate the published
charges of %partisanship in their dispatches
during the campaign and their collection
of election returns. 1t was attended by
the members as follows: Charles A.
Dana, of the New York Sun, chairman,
Whitelaw Reid, of the Tribune, secretary,
James Gordon Bennett, Of the Herald,
was represented by DR.. G.. w. Hamer;
Richard Smith, of the Cincinnati Com
merciaE Gazette; w. N. Halderman, of
the Louisville Courier Journal After
thorough investigation of the work. in
Guiding circulars OF instruction. correspon-
dence with agents byletter and telegraph,
correspondence with candidates, complaints
from both Democratic and Republican
sources, dispatches sent out, re
turns received by telegraph
and the originals filed by the senders in
the several telegraph offices, Messrs. W.
N. Halderman, of the Louisville Courier
Journal, and Richard Smith, of the Gin
cinnati Commercial Gazette, were ap-
pointed a subcommittee to summarize
the conclusions reached by the members.
They presented the following report
which was unanimously adopted and the
Chairman and Secretary of the joint ex-
ecutive committee were instructed to sign
the same and transmit it to the members
and clients of the two associations:
To the Members and Clients OF the Associated
Press
The joint executive committee did not
deem 1t advisable during a sharply con-
tested campaign to take public notice of
Misrepresentation and unwarranted criti-
cisms published AGAINST the Associated
Press. Observation shows hat during
such seasons of excitement men are
moved by passion rather than by reason.
Now that the party contest is closed the
committee deem it their duty to make
public the following statement:
A meeting of the committee was called
for the 25th instant. to which David ".
Stone, Esq President of the New York
Associated Press, and the Hon. Joseph
Pulitzer, of its executive committee, were
invited. The latter was %unavoidablY out of
the city but Mr.. Stone attended and gave
the benefit of his counsel and experience.
A careful review OF the work done and of
the official records, warrant the state
ment that the high character and on
partisan fairness that have given the AS
ISOLATED Press its hold upon pubic conf
dence in the past have been firmly main
tanned, and that no improper influence po-
l~itical, or otherwise, has been permitted
to enter into the management. The work,
strictly confined within the limits pre-
scribed by the rules which experience has
proved to be safe and just to all parties
has been larger than in any previous cam
paign. This was due to a greater num-
Der of party divisions and to the demand
of the press for a fuller service. The
State conventions, nearly a hundred in
number, and the National Conventions
of all the political organizations
were reported with a thoroughness and
rapidity surprising anything ever before
attempted. The subsequent official ac-
ton of the party committees, the letters
addresses and movements Of the candidates
were carefully provided for under instruc-
tons similar in language and spirit. 1t
has never been considered as within the
legitimate functions of this non-partisan
association to report ordinary campaign
meetings, or to transmit the scandals that
spring up during such heated periods.
All such have been vigorously excluded
from the associated Press reports. The
charge that the election returns in the
State of New York were withheld are dis
proved by the fact that out of a total OF
l,099 wards and towns in the State the
Associated Press received on election
night returns from $50, whereas in 1876
returns were received from only 254 and in
1880 from only 1913. The extent, rapid
ity, and substantial accuracy of this ser
vice were never equalled before in this
State, the total vote of which in 1884
reached the enormous number Of l,l67,-
O03, so nearly divided between the two
great parties as to leave the victor only
about LOO of plurality. The investi
CATION shows that while there were som
serious errors in the telegraphing of oui
reports, especially from remote points
| due in part to their beng Transmitted
, over different lines of telegraph-anC
, while these errors, in the main, diminish
ed the apparent strength of Cleveland
: there was but one error of Importance il
the office of the Associated Press, thi
3 was in a bulletin issued on November 6
two days after the election, known a
. Bulletin number a." In max
ing this up one of tn
mathematician employed, in the absenc
of full returns from districts, instead o
continuing to estimate the percentage o
Democratic gains, as had been done be
t fore, undertook to estimate the actua
, pluralities, and by this process figure