Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1905-09-21
COST OF WAR NEWS
Immense Sums Expended by News
papers for the Benent Of Headers.

The meeting OF editors and publishers in
New York on Associated Press business on
September 20 bids fair to be the most in
teresting as well the most important
gathering of newspaper men ever held.
The general managers report Will be or
particular interest, because It will relate
'how the Associated Press fought tho
Russo-Japanese war. 1t is fact that tina
Associated Press, after the two contcsting
powers, was more seriously concerned in
the war than any government civil cor
poration or business organization what
ever, at least with reference to its en-
ipeLditures.
1t is worth while to sum up some of the
iresults which our Unsuitable American
curiosity have entailcd upon the news
papers that minister to it. Exact figures.
luf course. cannot be given. but 1t may
be SAID that the wars in the East since
s Deweys fight IN Cavite bay have cost tho
newspapers approximately $l5,0o0"0. OF
this the Associated Press has paid the
greater part, but its weight is distributed
over the entire newspaper press OF tho
country and is not left as u burden on any
paper directly. AS preparing the minds
of newspaper publishers for this great cx-
penditure, the Spanish War, and cs-
pecially that part of it fought on thu
Spanish main, came as an educative les
son. A few onterprising papers did, in
decd, make especial efforts to obtain a
Especial news service in the Philippines.
They did it with great success and at
cost which at the moment appeared por-
tentous. The telegraph tolls were simply
heart breaking, for at the beginning OF
troubles in the East there were no Pacific
cables. All messages passed through Asia
and over the lines of the Eastern Cable
company and were rcaid on transatlantic
dimes.
Immediately at the end of this period
ensued the international and diplomatic
war with China, and this was almost i'm
mediately succeeded by the Russo-Jap'
anese war, which to the newspapers cost
more than all the others combined.
As matter of fact, both the Associated
Press reports from the seat of war in
Manchuria, and the work of an army OF
special correspondents in that field and in
Japan were far from satisfactory. The
censorship was too alert and careful. and
scores of able and brilliant men who went
20 the East at great expense to the news
,papers who sent them, and under this
most promising conditions. failed to fur
fnish any news whatever. The list of cor
respondents which moved on the East
( embraced men of the highest standing in
t1her profession. Jack London, John Fox
and men of that stamp. 1t included
artists of cminence, and from unsupported
sources an army of capable reporters
were sent For example papers like the
indianapolis STAR the Kansas City Star.
sent their special men into the field. 1t Is
only fair TO say that some of these men
II; "A a;,l rarl, xoI,
news to their papers. The correspondent
of the indianapolis Star entered Port Ar
thur while it was in a state of siege. IIs
was deported before he accomplished his
errand. but ne took the risk and illus
trated the spirit in which the correspon-
GENTS attempted to fulfil their duties. Tho
Chicago News is said to have spent
't20O. 900 last year in an almost vain effort
10 get news out of Manchura, and itg
correspondent with the Russian forces, in
company with McCullaugh of the New
York Herald, was taken prisoner on the
line of railway to Hardin.
These are the heroic phases of the cam
Saign. The cost of maintaining these corr
respondents, and the payment of tele-
graph tolls, was a serious matter, and it
may be safely said that its figures paid
by the newspapers Of this country are
far in excess of those presented by any
war ever fought. There were in the first
place four distinct centres of news and all
of them remote. st. Petersburg was the
1carcst-two contending armies in tho
Isld. and Toxic
The history of war correspondence is
nearly all recent, and the business of fur
aiishing immediate news from the fields of
action very modern. The Crimean War;
first newspaper war correspondence Dr.
Russell. VINO represented the London
Times is authority that he sent but one