St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-06-08

| DOSIOil. unless Oh Tile discovery Ol new
school of metaphysics, or from Chicago OF
Cincinnati, unless of wasteful fire or q
socialistic demonstration, does not etfec
their sister cities but for day. But the
news from Washington, large proportion
of it, affects every city in the country; il
touches every side of our lives, the domes.
tic, political and moral sides, and leaves q
lasting influence on our thought, our pur-
poses and our prospects.
| AS political center, Washington is the
most important, and no other city is to be
compared with it. The two houses of con-
greSS is
THE BATTLE GROUND OF PARTIES.
There the policies and practices OF adj
ministration undergo scrutiny and are on
trial; there the conscience of the nation is
quicbened, its impulses and courage aroused;
there the great corporations are held III
check; there the relations which the general
government suStains to the people on the
one hand, and the foreign relations on the
other, are defined, and there with the
practiced Judgment stands the eX-
perienced newspaper man, with one hand
manipulating the pulse of legislature and
public opinion, and the other the telegraph
key, which sends the electric current to the
brain and heart of our alert cOuntymen.
Always on duty and the living embodiment
of that vigilance which is declared to be the
price of liberty.
The prime qualifications for news
paper man in Washington are address,
tact, experiences and experience. Scholar
ship he may have; literary taste which
may qualify him TO write smooth, flowing
sentences, but if he have not highly
sharpened sense of observation, the power
of instant decision and Judgment, and the
requisite force to make himself agreeable to
men of many different temperaments, he is
quite likely to fail in Washington. and for
that matter anywhere else. A sketch OF the
newspaper field. leaving out the Associated
Press, would be incomplete. The system OF
collecting routine news and dgeSting gem
eral news and voluminouS documents and
speeches is wonderfully perfect. Its matter
is first manifolded for thew ashingtOn papers
having franchise in Associated Press
management, and is then filed for wiring.
In each house of congress representatives OF
the Associated Press have desks on the
floor, where the proceedings are taken
Geographically by them and condensed for
the wires as the business and debates pro-
coed. This requires ready tact and the
greatest facility in reporting. The ASsoci-
ated Press confines itself in the collection OF
news to those matters which will be news
in New York. New England, the South, the
West and the Pacific slope, and from whose
reports are condensed the cables for Eu-
rope. Every correspondent
FACILITATES THE WORK
of the Associated Press in the collection of
general news. Its employees are ubiquitous.
One makes tour of the interior department.
another the war, navy and state, another
the White house, another the treasury, an
other gets near the bureau of the president
and his private secretaries, another makes a
speciality of his receptions and his move
ments generally. another the supreme court,
another the hotels and Hobbies, another the
meetings of the senate. another OF the
house. They all hang around the houses
when in session. and waylay members when
they are disengaged any draw from them
any information that may be useful.
NOTHING ESCAPES THEM,
An interesting and peculiar feature Of
Washington newsgathering is securing the
secrets OF caucuSeS and committees and eX-
ecutive sessions of the senate. The Sena-
tors themselves are bound to secrecy by
honorable agreement and compact Those
officers of the senate who are admitted to
its seclusion are sworn to secrecy, and the
penalty for divulging the proceedings is eX-
pulsiOn from Office. And still the debates
are always published quite fully and ac-
curately; the votes of senators are given in
detail, and official papers presented in ex-
ecutive session are frequently printed YER
batim. There is nothing that
INCENSES A SENATOR
so much as to have his remarks made with
out reserve and observations, printed in the
newspapers next morning. How these
things leak through the closed doors has
hitherto baffled investigation. On one oc-
caSiOn when the circumstances were partic-
ularly eXaSperating a committee OF inquiry
was appointed, and every officer and sen
atOr sworn to answer whether he had COM
municated forbidden information. Ihave
often heard Senator Salisbury of Delaware
say that the most humiliating act Of his
public life was as a member
of this committee to go to
the bedside of Matt Carpenter and few
weeks previous to his death administer an
oath to him and ask him if he divulged the
proceedings in the senate. 1t is not for me
to say, even if l knew, how these things
find the light, but [ can assure you that the
well-trained correspondents of Washington
ing here little and there little, compar-
ing notes with each other and placing their
information together are enabled to fOrmu-
late correct reports, even of the list of yeas
and nays. Of course
CAUCUSES ARE EASY TO GET.
for as rule the leading newspaper men
of Newspaper row are visited by con-
gressmen succeeding each caucus, who
give the whole thing away for the consid-
Grafton, some of them, of having their
own attitude and position stated publicly.
Committee secrets usually leak out from
the members to the attorneys interested,
who are always useful to correspondents.
Every week for the Sunday issue of the
morning press it is the duty of the Asso-
ciated Press correspondent to give fore
cast of events for the coming
week, and his is an ingenious
piece of work. 1t involves a
statement of the condition of legislation,
and the indication of the special order fer
the future, the precedence of bills and the
probabilities in the case of the leading
measures. Your correspondent, however,
does not make predictions. He learns by
the perverse conduct Of men not to antici-
pate one or two things which they may or
may not do, but to put in his anticipation
so as to cover all the possibilities. He
makes it rule not to get left in the matter
Of predictions, while he saves his reputation
as prophet every time.
THE CAR ACCOUNTANTS.
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