Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-12-27
A GREAT NEWSGATHERER
HOW UNCLE SAM GETS ALL KINDS
OF INFORMATION.
Transmission of Consular Reports by
Cable-Service of the Agricultu-
raj and Other Departments.

Balm. All of the agencies of
the newspapers of this country put to-
gether are hardly as great as the
information of current events. Some
of this information he publishes in
the shape of public documents which
few people ever read. Some of it he
preserves in the files of his depart
ments at Washington for the use of
his executive officers.
The big Government news machine
has correspondents who are reporters; ;
it has editors in the different depart
ments, and Grover Cleveland is their
editor-in-chief: and it has sub-edltors
who read copy and use the blue pen
Gil on it. The news service covers
very wide range-much wider than
that of the average newspaper. For
though the Government does not fol-
low the record of deaths and marriages
or the chronicle of local crime, it has
often far more accurate and rapid
service on some great foreign war,
like the Chinese-Japanese conflict or
the recent Brazilian trouble than any
OF the great newspapers can obtain,
no matter how great their expendi-
ture of money. In matters of this
kind the Government service should
be far ahead of the newspaper service,
for treaty obligations require the
transmission of Government messages
by cable when commercial messages
can be declined. But it is pretty hard
for the Government, even with all the
apparent advantages on its side, to
get ahead of the enterprising Ameri-
can newspaper.
The transmission of news by cable
during some such emergency as now
exists in Asia is not the only news duty
of the American consuls and CONNER
cial agents or the ministers or ambas-
sadors of the United States at foreign
capitals. The Bureau of Statistics of
the State Department issues at month
ly intervals small volumes of reports
sent in by our diplomatic representa-
tives; some of them volunteered and
some sent in response to inquiries of
the Department. This news feature
of the consular service has become of
great commercial Importance to the
United States.
The consuls of the United States are
required to send in at regular inter
walls reports of the condition of public
health in the towns or cities where
they are stationed. These reports and
the reports sent by certain medical
correspondents who represent the hos
pital service abroad are published by
the Surgeon-General in weekly bull
letin. This bulletin is one of the most
valuable news publications of the
Government. Not all of the informa-
tion published in it comes by mail.
Where the United States is threat
ened with cholera or any other con-
tagious disease the surgeon receives
reports by wire, usually through the
State Department and its representa-
lives.
Next to the news service of the State
Department the Agricultural Depart
ment has the most elaborate and com
plete system of news-gathering and
distribution. For the crop report
alone the services of nearly 5000 cor
respondents are called into requisi-
tion directly or indirectly. There
are about 5000 correspondents who
report to the department direct.
There are almost an equal number
reporting to the State agents of the
department who make up State esti-
mates and forward them to the
statistician for comparison. These
correspondents are just as surely news
gatherers as are the correspondents of
city papers in the rural districts.
They receive no compensation. Their
only reward is copy of each of the
department bulletins. AS rule
these correspondents are farmers.
Some of them, though, are country
doctors. All of the reports of these
correspondents are "edited" by the
statistician before they are made pub
lie. They are compared for possible
error or false statement; and the crop
estimate made pubic every month is
the expression of the individual judg-
ment of the statistician, based on all
of the reports received from 5000
sources.
Another important news gathering
and news distributing branch of the
Agricultural Department is the
Weather Bureau. At $50 stations in
different parts of the United States
observers and assistant observers are
employed, not only to take scientific
observations and keep statistics, but
to send to the chief of the bureau at
Washington by telegraph the news of
the condition of the weather all over
the country. The chief editor to
handle these reports is the forecaster,
who takes all of the dispatches and
marking "highs" and CLOVIS" and
other like indications of ethereal con-
ditions on map, figures out for the
entire country just the kind ofweather
to which each country is entitled.
This forecast work has been of i'm
mense value to farmers, and it has
often warned seamen of impending
disaster. The weather report is one
of the most valuable and interesting
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