The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-02-10

words during the day and twenty-five cents for one
paper is served four seventy five words
in the day time and four cents for hundred words
at night tor each additional paper served but one
i've hundred words the case may be; that
is to say if day dispatch contains seventysix words
1T charges for one hundred and fifty words If q
night dispatch contains hundred and words
it charges for two hundred words and 50 On the
is the ifi
try, the cost of the British night press service
per- one, hundred words. In the year
1857 the average rate charged by
cated Press reports delivered Counting delivery
at each place. was about 10i2 cents per hundred
delivered by leased to an average of FIVE
papers the cost to each paper for transmitting the
reports was from 2ia to cents per hundred words
transmitting f com bnation press matter BY Telegraph
difference cost as the British telegraph charges
much TOR one word as for I'VE or one hundIsd
patch: while the Western Union company charges
only for the actual number of words sent
this country than in Great Britain. being fraction
over onehaf cent word in the United States and
exactly one-third of cent word IN Great Britain
In this country however the distance of
four times greater than in England and this you'd no
doubt be taken into consideration by the Postohce
Department in regulating he tolls
As matter of fact not left to conjecture as
to what would be the views of Congressman regard
ing reasonable for press messages Ofthe bills
which have been submitted Congress the one hich
known as the nlom bill rhio bill provides that the
night rate for newspaper dispatches when the same
Eve cents per hundred words. This is than twice
the rate charged by the Western Union for Asso
charged by this company when the reports deliv
cred by leased wires four five papers in the
city. The Galveston News. commenting on the Gull
lorn BILL gives concrete illustration of how it would
operate 1t says 1.-THE Texas Press Association,
%orb Waco o .n and Dallas papers, receive daily re-
port of 800 words. for which each of these papers
day. Now under the Cullom bill these
same papers would be required to pay S1Ol 20
each per week, $1675 per day. 1.-THE truth is that
the substitution of government telegraph service
for that Of the Western Union on the basis of the
either the bankruptcy of large proportion of the
newspapers away from the great centers. or IN de-
news of the world which it now enjoys through the
daily newspapers.
Nothing so far reaching effect upon the press
of the country has been proposed in Congress.
The famous alien and ssdition law mere baga-
tee to it. It's effect would be about tho if
Congress should enact law legisating out of
stence half the daily papers of the country and put
tlng tne remalhaer on Inen on snpr. rallons g 70
lection it is is not the most serons objec
ton to government telegraph service, from the
newspaper mans point of view.
The mere suspicion that news had been subjected to
government inspection or censorship would reduce by
at least oneha the value of that to newspaper
publishers and to the general public No newspaper
needs TO be told how quickly and indignantly his
readers any attempt at doctoring the 1t
is one of the axioms OF journalism In our day that.
whatever may be the opinions and theories,
no newspaper obtain permanent success
unless it inspires the public. with confidence
in the bona hde character of its news.
memorable illustration of public resentment at the
suspicion that news has been doctored was furnished
in connection with the election of the Assoc
ciated Press at the presidential election of 1884.
Whether rightly wrongly Wrongly as myself be-
Press and the Western Union Telegraph Company
had doctored the returns from New York State in the
was so intense in New York city that it came
leading TO the mobbing of Mr.. Jay Gould; and even in
ciated Press newspaper at the time. popular feeling
high seriously to impair for time the value
of my Associated Press franchise.
WHAT value would the public attach to news in
emergencies of this kind if they knew that its
ployes which, under existing political methods,
means the employees of the party in powera It is no
the government mail service in this respect Letters
sent sealed and the officials who handle them
risk of detection, become in any manner aware of
their contents or purport. On the other hand, with
the telegraph system under its control the govern
become acquainted with every detail of the business
of % firms and Nth the Sc
the orders issued either. side in the midst of
information from which the of the country do
rives its news To say that the officials would not
utilize this opportunity even though they
Of the heahen Chimes Moaeover
it it is eontradioted by facts and experience
government control In continental countries gov
eminent espionage of kilograms notorious that
every who sends telegram assumes, = matter
of course, that it will be scrutnzed by government
officials its contents are important or ID the least
suspicious. The governments and government Off
cials obliged to carry their telegraphic CORE
spondence by ciphsrs which changed at brief in
tervals. One OF Bismarcks biographers states that
during the few weeks preceding the outbreak of tho
Franco German war, In 1870, that willy diplomatic
sent the German representative at Paris thirty dis
tinct ciphers. and in communicating with him
used the cipher twice in succession. In these
the most powerful instruments lodged in the hands of
the police authorities and the fact that it would be
valuable in this direction of the principal
arguments used in favor of government control of
the telegraph system as against private ownership
disconnected with politics. where the whole
chinery of electoral contests is under the supervision
of the courts and where public opinion resents gov
eminent interference as strenuousy as it does in the
United States it is admitted fact that the govern
ment is soon made acquainted with the contents of
any important kilograms that pass the line This
the subject of bitter complaint the part of the
opposition during the last two campaigns England
and it was charged only the other day by one Of the
leading financial journals in London (the Examiner)
that even the use of cipher does not protect the
What is the fair inference from these facts as to
system in this countrya One result would be tbst in
the of the most useful and valuable that
obtained by the newspaper publisher or editor, the
of confidential character, and comes from sources
that must be absolutely protected against the posi-
tenn of the country won't into the hands of govern
ment employees, appointed and maintained in their
places by the Influence of Congressman and depart
officials, the of this information would
be dried up. The risk of disclosure would
be run. 1t would simply be assumed, a matter of
course that the privacy of kilograms was merely
relative, and in inverse ratio to their Importance.
That it would enormously complicate the difficulties
of running political campaigns in this country,
can doubt That it would put enormous advantage
the hands of the party in power will ques-
ton. That it would put into the hands of the poll
tcians deadly weapon against the press. which they
would be constantly tempted to use, too indisput
ably true to be denied.
News is the commodity in which the modern news
paper man deals. Public confidence in the trust
worthy character of that is perhaps the chief
element of its value Anything that would tend to
impair that confidence would by much impair the
value of the Speaking for myself
as a vendor of news, say unquali6edly that want
that has been subjected to the suspicion
of government supervision partisan espionage.
Mr.. Rosewater. OF the Omaha Bee. ono . en-
ployed by the Western Union Telegraph Com