Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-08-28
- AssoeEated =.
Chicago Current.

W A-D5c 44AA4uElEG E2EE4ElS 10 ELl6
corners of civilization. Every day In the /
year 1t carries the worlds news to nearly /
every home in America; itinvolvesr rights !
and franchises to the value of many mil !
hons Of dollars; its busy, tireless eyes and /
myers and feet are employed IN China, {
Australia, Brazil, Russia, Egypt, and
New Zealand; on mountain ObserVatOTies, |
IN ocean hghthOuses-Where you viii. 1t
has used In turn stage-Coaehes, canal
boats, carrier pigeons, signals, sailing
vessels, steamships, hand-Wlres and
cables to transmit its intelligence; and
yet so quietly and unassumingly has it
done its mighty work that it Is almost
unknown to the people who share its
bounty and its benefits, and scarcely a
majority Of those whose financial inter
ests are closely bound up with it, can
gIlbly tell where are its headquarters in
their own city. Such modesty is as rare
as 1t is cOmmendable. Let us look into
its history and workings.
When time was young in American
news work, and when all the Old-fashion-
ed, slOthful methods were employed to
secure and convey information the New
York Associated Press was formed. This
was away back in the t'thirties," but the
organization continues to-day vigorous,
respected, and with its membership
practically unchanged. At that time the
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but It's growth was rapid, and in 1865 the
Western Associated Press reared its head
as a cOnVeyancer of news. These two
powerful bodies had many tilt, although
cooperating with and working through
each other as well as they could under
different arrangements; but the two were,
about the first of January, 1888, merged
into one compact, powerful organization,
under Joint executive committee, who
named William Henry Smith, General
Manager, with headquarters at New
York and Chicago.
Their selection Of an executive head
was happy one; it was in fact the only
possible one. Mr.. Smith had built up
the Western Association from its puny
infancy to its vigorous manhood; has or
ganiZed It's strong agencies, pushed its
enterprises, fOstered its sometimes scanty
resources, and had made it the grand
machine it is. It is this unerring fore
sight, which saw that either a union be-
tween the two associations or a complete
divorce was inevitable; it was his keen
wit, wise discretion, mature judgement
and diplomatic methods that had guided
and shaped the deliberations of both
sides and that while avoiding Uharybdis
had steered clear of Scylia. But for his
invaluable work at this crisis, the news
paper interests of the country might
have suffered untold injury-for in news
cooperation more than competition is
the life Of trade.
How does the Associated Press work?
The two parent organizations are re-
sponsible for collecting the news of the
country and they assume by far the
greater portion Of the expense; the or
CARNATIONS which work with them and
which in all cases, save those of the
European associations, pay tribute to
them, are: The Reuter- Agency, of Great
Britain and parts of Europe; the Havas
Agency, of France and Southern Europe;
the Wolf Agency Of Germany and Russia;
the Australian Press Association; the
State Press of New York State; the New
England Associated Press; the Southern
Associated Press; the Philadelphia, Balti-
more and Washington Associations; the
Kansas and Missouri Associated Press;
the Texas Associated Press; the Colorado
Associated Press; the Ohio Associated
Press; the California Associated Press;
the Chronicle Press Association of Cali
fOrnia; the Canadian Associated Press;
the Associated Press Havana, Cuba; the
Mexican Associated Press; the Panama
Associated Press and a few others of
minor account.
The chief collecting and distributing
agencies are at New York, Boston, Phila-
delphia, Washington, Cincinnati, Chica-
90, st. Louis, Galveston, New Orleans,
Milwaukee Detroit, St. Paul, Kansas CITY,
Memphis, Denver, San Francisco and
Toronto, with several in Europe. The
agents at these distributing points fur
nish each paper or set of papers in their
divisions with the news which 1t requires
and can afford to pay for. They are care
full to select to the section to which it is
telegraphed. The difficulty Of suiting all
may be illustrated by an incident con-
nected with the Republican National Con-
ventiOn of 1880 the speech Of an eminent
man lately candidate for President
was reported by the Associated Press
at some length; the next day there arriv
ed at the general Office two letters, one
from a radical Republican, complained
that the speech had not been reported
verbatim, the other from a thorough
paced Democrat, complained atits having
/ been sent so fully that it curtailed the
! hog market. The General Manager in
closed to each complainant the letter of
other, and the next time the trio met
they had a hearty laugh.
The benihcence of the system of news
distribution is apparent; besides giving
each paper the kind and volume of news
it wants and can pay for, it greatly cheap
ems the expense; each paper gets Euro
pean news, that costs originally 90 cents
per word; Chinese news that cost So per
WOEuj E6EudulDuCO news I1ldJ COSJS % on
per word; African news that costs 50 70
per word, and domestic news Of every
kind, political, commercial, financial, re-
ligious; for all this it is charged but an
! insignificant fraction of a cent per word.
/ Should the entire expense Of a cable
gram, such as is not infrequently printed
! In the smaller country daily, be assessed
/ against that paper alone, the sheet would
60 into liquidation without parley.
No fallacy is more common among
those who have an indefinite idea of the
Associated Press, than the notion that it
makes money; its sole financial aim and
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