The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1904-02-25

and still sells it cheap is the paper
that is a success. Not 80 in Russia.
The iron hand of the government
holds down and brushes out whatever
of enterprise there may be in the news
paper men of the Czar's dominion.
The most peculiar feature of the
Russian journalistic scheme is the
rule governing the publication OF tele-
graphic dispatches. No dispatch can
be published by any newspaper until
after it has been printed in the Official
Messenger, q publication which has
no counterpart in this country. Thus
there is no opportunity to get a
SCOOP" It a paper should get an
important dispatch hours in advance
of its competitors it could not print it
or get out an extra as is done in
America, but instead the news would
have to be submitted to the powers
that be. Then IL the authorities
thought proper it would be used in
the "Official Messenger" from which
all the other papers could copy it.
No newspaper ever bulletins news
there. People who have stood before
the bulletin boards of the great dailies
in Boston or New York In surging
crowd anxiously watching the changes
by the bulletin men can hardly ap-
preciate what newspapers would be
without bulletins on important events.
The Brooklyn Eagle says on the
question of journalism in Russia:
Had American wsrships been
victimized by torpedo attack as Rus
sian warships were at Port Arthur,
every first class newspaper in the
country, and many of the second class,
would have had an extra on the street
within half an hour Of the receipt OF
news. But it's so different in Russia.
The scene is st. Petersburg and the
news has got around town-not by ex-
tras-that something has dropped in
the East. The excited citizens be-
siege the newspaper officials. There
are no bulletin boards and down in
the quarters of the Official Messenger
the composing room has gone to lunch
and the editorial staff has gone to the
Foreign Office to talk it over with the
Third Assistant Secretay of State.
Pending the return of both depart
ments the telegraph editor Of the Mes
senger has gone to sleep, with the dis
patch from Port Arthur locked up in
his desk. According to the Associated
Press this is what happens elsewhere
when the subscribers call upon au edi-
tor at 6 p. m. to discover why the 10
O'Clock extra is behind time:
The Associated Press representa-
tive, ccalling on we'll known editor,
| found him surrounded by throng OF
| officers and prominent citizens, i'm
| ploring him to read to them the tele-
grams he had just received. The edi-
! tor, pale with emotion, recited the
narrative of the Commandment of Port
Arthur. More people kept coming in
and the editor was compelled to read
it over and over again. The crowds
expressed furious impatience at the
fact that nothing was said about in
juries inflicted upon japanese war
ships. The editor who would not pale
with emotion under such conditions is
unworthy of his job. The prominent
citizens who would not grow furious
with impotence should be sent to
| Siberia. The country that tolerates
government made journalism, deserves
towel, it deserves to have its news
censored.
There are reports that the censor
| ship of news is to be partially re-
moved by the Russian government but
the emancipation probably will not go
far enough to amount to much. AT
present not even foreign newspaper
can go into the country without being
slashed by the censor, if anything in
ie appears to have tendency to cast
discredit on the government. Amer
leans can truly rejoice that they are
privileged TO hear both sides of every
question if they want to.