The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-01-31
A FAMOUS BEAT.
how The Herald Editor Deceived The Associated
Press.

The mystery Of mysteries in the neWspa-
per world for years has been how the Her
aid scored its great beat" in 1887 by print
ing the Presidents message in full on the
morning of the day it was sent to the SEN
ate. True, other papers had brief extracts
from the message in their second editions,
but censorious public credited them with
stealing the matter from their contempO-
rary.
Some managing editors are born with n
"nOse for news; others achieve beats"
but doubt il many men in that position
can boast Of having a great news feature
literally thrust upon them. The secret has
been limited at but never told by the chief
participants Perhaps there is a moral in
it for every managing editor, as we'll as for
every reader Of a news paper.
1t was at the end of a very dull night
Great events generally occur on dull nights
The Associated Press had received infor-
nation that the Herald had surreptitously
obtained a complete copy Of President
CleVeland's message and intended to print
1t IN full in the morning AS the Assoc ated
Press was the custodian OF the message,
which was to have been sent on the follow
ing day to every afternoon customer this
announcement naturally filed its local man
ager in New York with CONSERVATION.
Where that rumOr came from and how it
reached the Associated Press is still mys-
terry.
As the "A. P" was the accredited Gus
todian of the message, it would never do to
permit It's premature publication, if it could
be prevented. Bad faith would surely be
charged. Ii must be suppressed AT once.
The night manager of that news agency
took his hat and rushed across the street.
A pneumatic tube connects all he Offices
UplGnuInU TO the association hnt no 10
man preferred to 90 in person. He de-
scended by the elevator in the Western
Union Building, and was soon climbing tina
iron stairs in the Herald Office. A moment
later, out Of breath, he had demanded an
audience with the editor in charge This is
about what occurred.
81 understand that the Herald has OBJ
tanned the Presidents message in some un-
derhaDd way, and intends publishing it to-
morrow before it has been delivered to
Congress"
'Inde9dY'
''Now, you must not do this. The Herald
is member of the Associated Press. and
the honor Of the association is pledged not
TO circulate this message until tomorrow
afternoon"
"Well, really" said the diplomatic editor.
who was intensely mystiied and inclined to
await developments, what you may or NAV
not do is OF very little consequence to the
Herald, and can assure you will not influ-
ence it in the least"
''But ] have from the very best authority
that you already have the message in this
Office and are setting it up."
suppose we have the message. what
then?" and the editor excused himself and
went ont. CsteBsiby 10 consult with sons
one, but in reality to catch his breath and
consider the situation, for, "a may he
imagined. somebody had ben imposing on
the Associated Press agent. The Herald
did not have and did not expect TO have the
message ahead of its circulation by The as
sOeiation. After a few turns in the Her
AIDS big library-r0Om, the editor decided on
line of policy. He returned to the press
agent and Informed him that the Herald
would not think of changing any of its
plans, even though the association were
''bpatpn."
VERY we'll" said the visitor, rising to
CO. "f that be the case the only thing we
can do is to send out the message tonight,
even at the expense of breaking faith with
the President. Our customers must be
| properly served"
| This was as the executive editor had
| hoped. he sent for the foreman of the
| cOmposing-rOOm and instructed him to be- in
readiness to set an extra page at a late hour,
as it was expected that the Presidents mes
sage would come in. Sure enough. about /
o'clock that night in it came.
The editor hurried ii to the COMPOSING
room, and Suh-headed it sheet by sheet as
1t went out, Result, the Herald had page
of the Presidents message set, read, cor
rected and in the form before o'clock.
while the other papers. not being able to
handle 1t, coming unannOunced as it did at
so late an hour, could only use n few dis
connected paragraphs from the important
document The Herald, thanks to the edi-
tor in charge that night, scored a fine
beat; but that Associated Press agent
probably has congratulated himself for
years at having partially defeated the
Vaccinations of an enierDriSing newspaper.
The moral for managing editors I'm this in
cident is not to believe all you hear. or con-
TESS to all You do not knOw-From ''The
Managing Editor" by Julius Chambers, in
February LiPpincOtps.