The herald., 1895-02-10
How the Commercial News
Is Cleaned.
BY the

LIE LOS Angeles gull
BY the nercial EDITORS job is not
altogether sincurc. At
Commercial least the present scribe
hasnot found it so during
Man. the brief period he has
served The Herald in that
capacity. Los Angeles, although making
marvellous progress, is still a provincial
rather than metropolitan city, and the
facilities for gathering commercial news
which great trade centers afford. are lack
ing here There are no stock boards nor
produce exchanges; no boards OF trade,
mining bureaus, shipping associations nor
other central organizations where the vol
ume OF trade is accurately gagged, where
prices are made and where reliable quota
tions and statistics can be conveniently
obtained. All these conveniences will
come in time, and then the purvcyor OF
commercial news will no longer be COM
PEELED to roam over such wide territory
in search of information, nor will he have
to guess at prices
But what Los Angeles lacks in CONNER
cial institutions she makes up in urbane
business men. 1t is through the good
offices Of the tradespeople that the COM
Some of them will go block out of their
way to give the commercial man a pointer
on the markets. Others are kind enough
to keep him informed by mail or tele-
phone. But the surest way to get all the
news is to make daily tour of the bust
ness houses
get the news something after the fol-
lowing manner: AT the breakfast table
scan the financial and advertising columns
OF the morning papers and carefully note
dates of future commercial events, if any
are advertised. Then / glance over the
special events scheduled for the day,
mount my trusty bicycle (without which
would fail to round up many SCOOP
and start out on my tour of the business
district. AT the Chamber of Commerce |
usually get some valuable notes and meet
people who can give me information. The
bankers and brokers must be seen for finan-
cial news and the Secretary of the Clearing
House is ever ready to hand out state
mcnt of the days transactions The real
estate operators and insurance agents must
be interviewed. Then the produce dealers
and fruit shippers must be pumped for
market news; likewise the iobbers and
is made into the manufacture ing district to
learn what is going on in the industrial
world. The oil field must also be visited
from time to time in order to note devel-
opments. Then there arc the building
permits which require a daily visit to the
City Hail. and the real estate transfers
which must be taken from the county
records, which means steady grind
every afternoon from 3: 30 to p. m Brad
streets and r. G. Dun & Co. S commercial
agencies are good sources OF information
and the local managers are always ready
to give out information as to the state of
trade.
The foregoing details constitute but a
small part of the Commercial Editors
routine. After he has made the rounds he
has his notes to write up, which often
means the burning of the midnight oil.
When he finds little to write about in his
daily ramblings, he can scissor the 'ex- 4
changes for commercial'news The county
and trade papers, especially the latter,
often contain matter that should be given
the widest possible circulation and they
are glad to have great daily like The
Herald assist in this when proper credit,
is given. This The Herald always, does,
The Geographic market reports also go
through the Commercial Editors hands.
These are furnished by the Associated
Press, and are very complete. They gen
orally come early in the evening" are
carefully edited, classified and "headed
up" This is the easiest part of the Com
mercial Editors work, as he does not have
to get on a bicycle and chase over six
square miles of territory for the stuff"
as he does while in pursuit of local news
The telegraphed markets come from all
parts of the world, and are laid down on
the EDITORS desk without physical or men
tai eXertion on his part
The bull and the bear are two animals
that the Commercial Editor does not like |
to meet One tries to get him to print in
formation that will ''bull'' the market for
the particular commodity he has to sell;
the other tries to get him to publish some |
thing that will bear" the market for the |
thing which he wants to buy. Los An
geles has its bulls and bears as well as
Wall street, and whenever l spot one give
him wide berth, unless l am convinced
that his intentions are honorable.