The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-11-01
COCKERILL'S LETTER

New YORK, Oct. 26.-TSpecial correspon-
dence Of The HERALD. THE announce
ment that the New York Sun and Tribute
had Withdrawn from the Associated Press
and had started new news gathering as
ISOLATION created some surprise last week.
For the past ten years the Associated Press
has been gradually losing its value to the
rich newspapers of this city. The cheap
ness of telegraphing, the facility with
which leased wires could be obtained from
the Western Union, all tended TO induce
the large dailies TO depend upon their own
special correspondents rather than to
agents of an association. For several years
Mr.. Laffan, business manager of the sun,
has been selling and exchanging news, and
it appears that he has now developed
fancy for building up a rival to the As
ISOLATED Press. When the United Press,
under Mr.. Phillips, began TO supply fresh
and voluminous news to the newspapers
outside the Associated Press it secured
large following In tbs south and west.
Phillips became so formidable that the As
ISOLATED Press people formed sort of al
lance with him, the understanding being
that he should stop his prop
uganda. In return for his halt
| ing be was given the news
| in exchange from certain sections. 1t is
understood now that he will transfer his
system to the Laffan bureau, which will
hereafter be known as the National Press
Association.
| The Associated Press, SO profitable to
the seven original creators, is a partner
ship which grew out of the meagre facili-
ties furnished by the telegraph lines OF the
| country in early days. Prior to 1910 the
/ Of
enterprise in gathering news by means Of
/ pony expresses, carrier pigeons and char
tered boats. The Herald in 1S41-2 main
tanned two pony expresses between this
city and Boston for the collection of news
| brought TO that port by Cunard steamers.
n 1916, during the excitement growing out
of the Oregon boundary line, the combined
| rivals of the Herald spent 200 on pilot
boat from Halifax and special Boston ex-
press to score great news beat. When
the Mexican war began the only telegraph
line in the country extended between
Washington city and Wilmington, Del.
II was subsequently carried TO JERSEY
| City. The struggle WsS IN reaching
the farther end of that wire with the
pony express from the Rio Grande.
The Herald ana sun were in q COM
binaGiOn. 1t was soon found that tbs
single wire could not carry the various
messages of the rival New York news
papers and they were limited to fifteen
minutes service each in succession. This
resulted in many fragmentary and dis
iOinted dispatches. Out Of the necessity
grew the newspaper com binatiOn known al
the New York Associated Press. In 1919
the Journal Of Commerce, Courier and En-
qtiFeT, sun, Herald Tribune and Express
came together and agreed to pro rate the
expense Of gathering news to be used in
I common. When the Times Was started in
lS5l 1t entered the partnership. AS the
tHIPgTQ0n
New England and Southern associations
were formed These all became clients OF
the New York organization, which eventu-
ally obtained It's news from, and made a
surplus by selling news to the other aSso-
Cla'iOns. The New York association be
coming stronger, spent large sums of
money in news collecting. The sum OF
$4,000 was spent for a steamer, which
was rechrlstened the News Boy and which
was commissioned TO collect news
from incoming vessels off Sandy Hook,
Subsequently the yacht Wanderer was en-
gagged to cruise off Halifax and intercept
vessels for news from Europe. In several
instances telegraph lines were built and
others chartered. The man who did most
to develop and build up the Associated
Press was d. Nj. Craig, a man of great ex-
ecuSlve ability and untlr1nR energy. He
had be an independent news gatherer
around New York, selling his news TO any
newspaper that would buy. He employed
large numbers of carrier pigeons, and
was frequently able to score beats on the
alert newspapers OF that time. After he
took hold of the Associated Press the area
OF news gathering was extended, and as
the wires of the telegraph companies net
ted the country the organization became
great and powerful monopoly. The civil
war gave 1t a great impetus and demon
strated it's value. For the past ten years
as l have said, its usefulness has been
questioned by the money making news
papers, and more than once it has been
rumored that the Herald was preparing to
set up an Independent news service The
present tendency to disIntegration may re-
suit in crippling the New York Associated
Press, but there will still be left power
full organization. The dividends which the
seven partners have been drawing for
years will be reduced, but it will not be-
possible to drive the A. p. out of business
if it displays ordinary enterprise, prompt
ness and skill in collecting the news. That
Charles A. Dana and Whitelaw Reid, not
long ago bitter rivals, should now be fur
nishlng the backbone to new association,
seems somewhat strange. Should Mr..
Bennett, of the Herald, who reached New
York this week, join with them, as pre-
dicted, the new concern will start well.
SELF SUPPORTING BUILDINGS.
The other night thirty Italian families
were summarily hustled out by the poles
from q tenement and were forced TO Stay
in the street till morning, huddIed around
bonfires which they built with such fuel
as they could collect at short notice. The
reason for this sudden election was that
the timber props wnich shored up the ad-
joining building threatened TO give way
with an inevitable smash which might
smash the thirty Italian families into ItaI-
ian macaroni paste This incident was
considered remarkable enough to be ex-
plotted by the reporters. And yet it is an
every day danger, evident almost any
where in the city. 1t is conspicuous or
Broadway, especially wherever en- old
putting q new store up. Across
the chasm stretch parallel timbers, or
beams are put up from the ground
as buttresses, to hold up the walls
of the adjoining stores on either side.
This conveys the idea, which un.
douDtedly is correct, that the buildings
on every block in Broadway hold one ans
| other up. Their unity is their strength.
The venerable editor, Stone, recently
wrote for the Journal of Commerce soma
} strong remarks on this subject. He notea
| that while the massive buildings recently
erected in Wall street and elsewhere are in
no danger of collapse, the general charsc-
ter of the edihces put up in this town 10
flimsy and dangerous. The modern big
, buildings, like the New York Times build
ing-the finest and completest newspaper
building yet put up in this city--are self
supporting, able to stand alone, if every
thing around them was torn down or
burned up. Editor Stone thinks that the
buildings which adorn Wall street, though
built for offices only, would stand all the
storage that could be piled on their floors,
and that they would even bear up printing
| presses or other working machinery with