Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-09
REPORTING BY PHONE
NEWS MORE QUICKLY TRANSMIT
TED THAN BY TELEGRAPH.
From the New York Tribune.

From the New York Tribune.
"If anything happens, jump to the near
est telephone" That maxim, if book of
rules for newspaper reporters Is ever COM
piled will be Rule /. The newspaper man
today wonders how his paper got along be-
fore the telephone came into general use.
On some of the New York evening papers
there are reporters of the regular staff who
do not see the office for weeks, or even
months, at a time. Their salaries are sent
to them by messengers. They receive their
assignments by telephone, and after getting
their stories they telephone the facts to
the office. If the story is particular
rush affair the reporter dictates into the
receiver to the man in the office, who raps
it off on typewriter. Such a reporters
telephone tolls may mount as high as forty
or fifty calls a day. Some of the papers
have a rule that every reporter must call up
the office once every half hour, whether
there is any news to be given or not. Thus
a city editor may keep constantly In touch
with fifteen twenty men "on assign
ments' and is able to take man from
comparatively unmportant assignment and
send him 'on the jump to the scene or
big story"
The telephone Is Furthermore invaluable in
a newspaper office in obtaining long dis
lance news IN a hurry. 1t often beats the
telegraph, as it did in many cases last No
vember when the long distance lines of the
Bell system were used for sending news OF
the presidential election over the country.
Managers of the companies made elaborate
arrangements to transmit the news quickly
both. to the papers and other telephone
users. New York city was the receiving
headquarters, with Chicago a middle west
station. Then headquarters were main
tanned in each state. Messages from rural
districts were sent to these state centers,
and they were later sent to New York.
+
tered over the country, consuming
about seven minutes in transmission.
AS the Bell lines reach nearly thir-
ty thousand communities in the United
States, this telephone election service
brought immediate news from places which
otherwise would not have been heard from
until the next day. and perhaps not then.
1t gave to editors the comforting assurance
that in close districts it would not be neces
sary to wait for weary hours until the back
towns were heard from, and besides that, 1t
kept the village weeklies posted as well as
the metropolitan dailieS.
In the early morning hours when the ten
sion in the newspaper office is a. its great
est, the telephone is often called upon to
annihilate distance. For instance. rail-
road smash-up on one of the big lines that
connect New York with the west breaks
| loose half an hour before edition is due
to go to press. The tip will probably come
to the office from the Jersey City man."
who telephones in that he hears of wreck
at Squantum Junction, the c. and X.
Several persons hurt The city editor has
one of his assistants call up the railroad
company's offices in Jersey City for con-
firmation of the report, and then hunts up
Squantum junction in the railway guide. 1t
is little crossing about fifty miles from
New York. 1t is not in the telephone book.
Hello. long distancer' calls the city edi-
tor, taking the telephone receiver from the
hands of nervous reporter. Give me the
nearest central to Squantum Junction,
N. j.
In a minnie tho renuired centraI ic on tho
wire. Perhaps Central herself can give
information of the wreck; at any rate, she
knows enough of the neighborhood to con-
meet him with some one of intelligence near
| the scene-possibly in the railroad station
itself-and in very short interval the
newspaper has a story comprehensive
enough to make the edition. and the paper
| goes to press on time.
The city reporter looks for telephone in
a sudden emergency as a starving man
| looks for bread. A reporter will almost
break ana enter to get at telephone, II
| the matter is hot enough. Not many months
ago a reporter of New York evening pa
| per was sent out in the early morning to
cover local railway accident. When he
| got on the ground he saw at a glance that
, the story was big one; several. cars were
| smashed up and number of bodies were
removed from the wreckage. The other
papers We're ahead of him and each had
| several men already the ground. He
| looked hastily for the familiar sign of the
blue bell. He visited in rapid succession
one telephone in a cafe, one in milliner's
shop and one in a drug store. All were in
use, with other men standing in line be-
| fore him. In the drug store he learned that
| a woman who occupied third floor apart
! ment above had a private telephone. He
| dashed upstairs and rang the doorbeIl I'M
| til a frightened maid appeared.
Il want to use your telephone" he an
nounced pushing past her.
! Through curtain he caught sight of the
| familiar wooden box in another room and
| dashed in unceremoniously. Two elderly
ladies in a big mahogany bed greeted his
| appearance with shrieks of Burglars!
| Murder Policer
Calm yourself, ladies' he said, taking
the receiver. I'm not-Hello give me
1000 James-1.m not burglar. It's all
| right. There's been accident outside
and Hello, give me the city desk please!
1 merely want to telephone to a news
paper. Sorry to disturb YOU but-Hello.
| this is Smith. This is big story" etc.