The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-21
How Che War News Gets 10 Ameriea.

''~Ss ~tiC " Ot iNGNS 0GlS " FNiuGTfSds
In the war between Japan and Rus
STA, word of the first shot fired in far
Eastern waters will reach this country
across $4,000 miles of the oceans bed.
The tiny electric impetus put In mo-
ton by the key of the operator in far
Nagasaki VIII instantly plunge under
the Eastern sea and come to lands in
China, near Shanghai, 476 miles away.
Then that little throb will work south
ward round the China coast to Hong
kong, 945 miles. At Hongkong (British)
1T will dive under the China sea to Sal
gon, in Anam (F'renchl, 951 miles; from
Saigon 1t will cross the bed of the sea
to Singapore (British), 626 miles. Or it
might go by way Of Labuan, Borneo
(Britsh), 1871 miles.
Through the Malacca strait to Pc
nang (398 miles,, and then a great
plunge westward through the wild
Nicobars and under the tropic Bengal
sea Q,389 miles), to- Madras. At Madras
1t will take to the land until it comes to
Bombay.
Never resting the brave little spark
will take to the water again, traverse
the broad Arabian sea to Alden I85O
miles) thread it's way up the scorching
Red sea, flying ever westward to Alex
andria G,534 mileS). And from Alex
andria it will travel deep under the
balmy Mediterranean to Malta, out to
Lisbon, and SO to London (3,205 miles),
and thence across the Atlantic.
Every word forced so laboriously
through those $4,000 miles Of solid wire
will cost IS cents. This is the newly
reduced rate for press messages at
which many thousands Of words will
be sent. For private messages the rate
is three times larger.
1t is difficult to give any very definite
idea of what war would cost the news
papers for biography. Probably few
persons have any idea of the vast sums
which would be swallowed up in sin
gle days news provided by the New
York and Chicago newspapers on the
occasion Of, say, a great naval battle.
For two short messages from Japan.
consisting of about 100 and $50 words.
respectively, the bare telegra phic cost
would approach $3.50, although some Of
the ''the's' and "and's" in such cable
grams as they appear in the newspa-
pers would not be teIegraphed. In the
event of a big battle, it NAV safely be
assumed that the big American papers
would pay thousands Of dollars in cable
tolls alone.
If the war were to be a hard-fought
one, long drawn out, and with several
severe engagements, that sum might
easily be multiplied by twenty.
u are
owned by the Japanese government.
and censorship of messages is, there
fore, easy; it has already been es-
tablished so far as concerns the move
ments of the Japanese army and feet.
Moreover, until a few weeks ago
press messages handed in in japan
had to be paid for in cash. A newspa-
per correspondent, had, therefore. to
provide himself with large sums OF
money, which was often extremely in
convenient. Now the japanese gov
eminent has conceded that point. and
allows the telegraph companies to take
the risk Of payment upon themselves
and collect the money from the head
quarters Of the newspapers on this
side.
AT Nagasaki, the taking Off point
for the mainland, messages are trans
ferred from the Japanese government
lines to the Great Northern company
(Danish), and cross either to Shanghai
or Vladivostock. From VIadivostock
the Northern company's line follows
the railway track across frozen Sibe-
ria to Libau, on the Baltic. But few
of the American press messages will
take that course. although there Is In
existence a sort Of promise by Russia
that no messages shall be interfered
with.
At Shanghai begins the cable of the
Eastern Extension company, and the
Eastern cable takes up the thread at
Bombay. From Bombay, also, the
Indo- European line starts away and
travels overland by Bushire and Tehe-
ran. Tffis.i Odessa and Warsaw to
Berlin. and so to England.