Arizona republican., 1901-02-08
The Arizona Citizen and the Arizona Star, both published in the village of


 Tucson, this territory, THE are engaged in a joint TUCSON debate in which so much DEBATE. acrimony is at times
 displayed. that we fear the debaters do not hold each other in that high esteem which should attach naturally to newspapers everywhere. The editors of the Star and Citizen were no doubt we'll meaning enough when they engaged in a friendly con- test. but they have wrought themselves up until the debate is now bordering upon subjects thai are both irrelevar. and personal.
 The subject now before the house is: Are imaginative Associated Press and special correspondents baneful to She communities in which they reside"" The Star takes the affirmative and points to It's esteemed contemporary. whose edEor happens to be a cor respondent, a5 striking proof of the correctness of its position and asks for judgment. The Star assumes generally that untruthful stories of stage rob berries, fatal affrays In western town'. and representations of a generally un" settled condition of society are calcu- lated to repel capital so badly needed for the development of our re- sources"
 The CEizen admits what We have so often been told. that "capltal is cow ardly," but contends that it's cowardice Is not physical. IL never quails before a shotgun in the hands of a desperado. It pushes its way among deadly levers and embarks upon dangerous voyages. It is abreast of the United States troops In the Philippines and frequently goes far beyond the reach of it's coun- trys protecting arm and by its very toolhardiness makes trouble and war. Capital is really afraid of nothing but democrats, but 1t has healthy ana wisely discriminating fear of them when they are gathered together in sufficient force. as they were in 1892. and for four years thereafter, during which period capital hid out.
 The Citizen scores another point in the negative of this question of the banefulness of heated correspondents. monly regarded as divinely inspired, they serve to keep before the country at large the circumstance that the place where they reside Is on the map.
 The imaginative newspaper corre- spondent is an unavoidable evil mixei with good We mean the average cor respondent, the one who handles neigh borhood news such as robberies. mur- dcrs. scandals and such things. The higher class of correspondents. those who purvey congressional news and news of an extremely weighty and important character. must be truthful and accurate or they will become pre- decessors. But the common corre- sIondent is not expected to conflne himself to facts. though no newspaper wants him to burden 1t with the ex- pense of telegraph toll on an obvious lie. He reasans that 1t will make no difference to the readers of his paper published thousand miles away whether the story he sends of hor. rible tragedy Is true or not. If his story Is SO well told that 1t meets the approval of the telegraph editor the correspondent receives a message like this: Rush 1000 words Jones double murder suicide" by which the tele-. graph editor loes not mean that he shall collect any more details of the tragedy. but shall jus, unreef his imagination and spread it to the breeze.
 The imaginative correspondent ex- ists in Phoenix In his most aggressive form, but we do not believe single dollar of capital originally intended for this destination has been diverted by him. On the contrary. many dol lars have been directly attracted from the coffers of newspapers whose pages he illumines. They have always been quickly put into lJcal circulation ani eventually find dheir way to St. Louis and Milwaukee. whence beer is re- turned in carload lots for the further stimulation of the imagination to effort