Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-06

~
out Also there had to III corps of poly
1lot proofreaders to look over the. proofs
Of the matter set up for publication to see
that the sense of 1t haa ,pot been muddled
or reversed by careless Translation.
The Local Fress.
No less important than either of these
divisions of the committees publicity work
ia the local press bureau 1t is one of the
first departments to be- organized by the
executive committee, and there is generally
a scramble among ambitious newspaper
men. with political leanings, to get the job
of conducting it. And,,-a at least half of
the national committeeman generally have
q candidate each, there is often more or less
of a sauabble before the bureau is got down
to a good. solid working basis. Sometimes
this isn't accomplished until two or three
big breaks have been made by the bureau;
sometimes the breaks have been serious
enough to require complete Reorganization.
1t is a very good thing Tor young news
paper man to have a chance at committee
press bureau work, especially when the
party is successful. The man who ran the
bureau much of the time for the republican
committee twelve years ago made himself
well known to the newspapers Of the entire
country through the thousands of letters
that were sent to the editors with his name
for the signature He also made his head
ship Of the bureau a stepping-stone to
degree of prominence in local politics that
led to his election as member of the
House of Representatives and the chief
editorshIp of a metropolitan daily. Four
years later young Journalist who was fpr-
tunate enough to connect himself with the
nress bureau made such an impression on
the big men of the party that he was ap-
pointed assistant to one OF the most I'm
portant cabinet ministers.
Another young newspaper man who did
press bureau work at executive head
quarters pleased SO well that the Vice
President took him up and made him his
secretary, from which post he graduated
into an important place in big corpora
ton.
It would seem desirable that the press
bureau should be so organized as to be
in direct relations with the document de-
partment and all the other branches Of
publicity work done For the executive
committee, but it is not always So and
occasionally this leads to embarrassing
differences between the statements sent
out by one branch and another of the
publicity service.
The work of the press bureau proper is
divided broadly into two parts. The local
bureau ga theirs from the committee and it's
callers all the information 1t can that
seems likely to put good front on the sit
uation, so far as its own candidate is con-
In the form of mimeographed type
written sheets to the local newspaper men,
They call for it at certain specified hours
at IL o'clock midday, say, for the after
noon papers, and at or o'clock in the
evening for the morning papers. The in
formation furnished by the press bureau
Is not argumentative, but strictly informa-
tory as rule. such as news about the
personal movements OF the candidates and
other political stars.
Occasionally important interviews by
party leaders are made public through this
channel, though, In such instances, extra
copies are often sent privately to the ed1-
tors of the strong party organs in order to
insure proper attention from the men who
actually direct the papers So far as the
press bureau is concerned, newspapers of
all political faiths are treated exactly alike,
and the Associated Press and other news
bureaus get the same copy as the papers,
that the news may be sent away by tele-
graph. OF course in these days a local
press bureau is maintained in Chicago as
well as in New York Naturally this COM
plicates the whole business somewhat, since
sometimes the statements sent out from the
bureau in the east may fail to gee with
statements sent out from the bureau in the
middle west.
Must Draw the Line
Naturally there are always a lot of
second-rate politicians who haunt the press
bureau, carrying interviews with them
selves, all written out, in their pockets,
which they are glad to turn over to the
head of the press bureau, hoping thereby
to get their names in the papers, and nat
urally that press bureau head is counted
most successful who Knows just how to
draw the line; who knows whose inter-
view to send out broadcast and whose to
suppress. -I'-ts
There was once press bureau man who
turned down the statements of an i'm
portant senator from sovereign state on
the same day that he accepted and dis
tributed the specious but worthless va
porings of political nobody who had only
a smoothly ironed silk hat, long, spot
less black frock coat, perfectly creased
trousers and an exceptionally oily tongue
to recommend him. After that the chair
man made rule that either himself or
some member of the committee should look
over all the press bureau copy just before
it was given out to the reporters, though,
judging from some of the matter sent out
by the press bureaus in 1900 the rule was
not enforced that year.
More carefully watched. perhaps, than the
work done by the local branch of the press
bureau is the copy sent to the weekly
and other party publications issued in the
smaller towns and country villages Posi-
bly, the greater care taken Is due only TO
the fact that there Is more chance for care,
since 1t Is sent out only once week, While
the local bureaus copy Is issued twice a
day Some years this matter has been sent
to the weekly papers in the form of plates,
ready to print, a page going each week to
every paper asking for it, at the commit
tees expense.
Ready Print Matter.
One year the two committees spent about
5000 week between them in this way
but more recently it has been the plan to
furnish the matter free to the various press
associations cooperative publishing houses
and "ready-print" concerns, these different
organizations attending to the sale and dis
tribution Of the matter among the newspa-
pers. This plan costs the committee good
deal less, and satisfies the papers better, on
the whole. There is always lot of scram-
bling among individuals whenever anything
worth while is to be given away free,
gratis, for nothing and newspapers as
well as individuals are prone to scramble
under such conditions
The matter sent out to the weeklies diff
fers good deal from that given to the
daily papers by the local bureaus. being
mostly argumentative instead of news, and
often carrying with it cartoons political
witticisms sometimes alleged), campaign
songs and portraits Of party celebrities.
French People Degenerating.
Paris Correspondence of the London Telegraph.
Are we degenerating? is a question which