Arizona republican., 1904-03-24
PuoEN1x, ARIz., MARCH 24. 1904
Why War News Is Scarce.

F1very newspaper reader is grump- linz these days. because of the scanti- ness of the war news anl its unsatis- fying nature It Is true that some or the metropolitan papers, anxious 10 make a great show of war news, print in big type what they do get, and nii their columns with rumors and stories of the 'it Is said" class. With all their effort and expense, however they are not able to tell anything of lm- nortance that is not also laid before the readers of The Republican every morning by the Associated Press. But in the current number of Golfers Mr. Frederick Palmer, writing from Tokio' explains in graphic style why it is so little actual news is coming from the scene of war.
 "In all the notices the government sends us. in all the references made to us in print or talk, we are war corres- pondents. You might as well speak or the Swiss as race of sailors. The sa- tire is cruel, if meant, and complete Tn any event. To write of this war from Tokio is like writing about the Span ish-American war from Chickamauga, when troops were embarking from TaT9a.
 we expect a score more correspon- dents by tomorrow's steamer. They will come ashore with look of "Is 1t all over? Is 1t too late to reach the front?" and possibly month later they will be receiving other reinforce nents with the stoicism of the present host that is making the Imperial Hotel of Tokio a journalistic barracks. The government has been as logical as 1t is polite, and as polite as it is logical. General Baron Kodama invites us to luncheon today. and tonight the mayor of Tokio gives us a dinner. There is not yet a correspondent aboard Jap anese man-of-war; not correspondent has set foot OF a transport. Between the nope and the realization there is ever the Japanese smile.
 "The world of journalism had plan ned to make this war 0he most inn portant for thirty years, if not, in it's international results, since Napoleoh's s time) the most completely described and reported in history. Let us have every extra cabled instantly" said one news agency. This Is not so difficult, if the wires are not crowded, for most of the extras contain only rumors. Take to the censor some preposterous telegram, for example, like "One hun dred and fifty thousand men left for Vladivostok yesterday" and the cen sor will let it through. Take him a truth, the newsmen say, and it may go or not, according to whether it will fI,e- are allowable because they may deceive him.
 "The correspondents who seek the front" when they hear, as they have heard today, that 25, GOO men have all ready been landed in Seoul, walk up and down the corridors among tents, saddles. and the odds and ends of kits that overflow the room like so many melancholy Danes-as if each were really the Hamlet of his play. ITO be or not to be- for him is being in the field of the army's occupation or away from 1t. At the other end of the cable is an editor who wants a battle every day and an exclusive description of 1t in his office. by midnight. Where are you?" that editor might ask; and the correspondent, sitting in the ordi- nary room of an ordinary hotel Gin sight of the fur coats. fur sleeping bag, and all the equipment which the Chinese tailors rushed through in a day under the impetus of his threats a fortnight ago), feels that poetic jus tice is better subserved If his sleeping bag is made of sheep-skin. How can that edltcr be made to realize that the landing of an army corps is not a set function with seats for the press, like the launching of a battleship? How can a general be made to realize that the success. of an invasion depends upon having the correspondents super intend the first landing?
 "When a cablegram is received say ing to proceed to the front, the cores pondent feels inclined to answer, con- slider the position of a deaf mute with his hands tied; for the high cable rates are prohibitive to extended ex- plantations. You may go to the proper quarters and say how important it is 10 you that you should see some -ac- tion, as some fifty men have repeated 1y: and you may even suggest that you would like to go to Corea at once by way of China. The answer is: You will do best to stay in Tokio. We will let you know as soon as you may go.  One correspondent, who did not undes- stand that with the Japanese a hint is the glove for the hand of iron started for Corea nevertheless. Al NagasaN politeness stopped him; al Nagasaki politeness still holds him.
 "'We are sorry that we cannot be confidential one of the generals who make the strategy of this war said Military secrecy can never be too wei safeguarded. Not until the two armies are in contact, can we afford 10 let any foreigners go with war forces. Ther you shall see enough
 There was a smile with thu enough that suggested that cam paigning in Manchuria would be nt picnic"
 And MT. Palmer only gives us tho