The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-08-10
YELLOW JOURNALS
IN SCANDINAVIA
Norwegian-Swedish Crisis Has
Produced Crop of Sensa~
tional Stories.
Editor of Leading Norwegian
Daily Denies Tales in the
Stockholm Papers.
BY w. B. CHAMBERLAIN,
Manaqlna Editor Of The Journal

BY w. B. CHAMBERLAIN,
Managing Editor Of The journal.
Copyright, 1905, by The Minneapolis Journal.
Christiania, Norway, July 19.-The
only war that is being waged or is like
ly to be waged in Scandinavia is the
war of the newspapers. The press OF
Stockholm and the press of Christiania
ing faces at each other ever since the
crisis became acute. They have teemed
with stories and articles rejecting upon
each other and intended to carry con-
sternation into the camp Of the enemy.
The epithet, "yellow newspaper has
somehow found it's way across the At
lantic and into Scandinavia and it is
an epithet often hurled scornfully by
one editor at another when commenting
upon more or less veracious tales that
find their way into print. Of course,
there are degrees of yellowness here as
in America, and each capital has it's
staid, responsible and respectable jour
| nails just as each has the frothy SEN
sation mongers that print the widest
rumors without effort at verifcation,
or care for what the effect might be. If
these orange-hued newspapers could
have brought about war by their own
efforts they would long since have done
so.
"Yellow'' Stories Run Down.
I shall not attempt to tell you which
| of the leading Scandinavian papers are
yellow and which are true blue, but you
may be interested in hearing one lead
ing Norwegian newspaperman g account
OF how the better papers here have pur-
sued and put to rout some of the SEN
Stations sprung in Stockholm. Of course,
you will understand that the sensational
papers here have not been at all be-
hindhand in printing similar yarns
Today I met Mr.. O. Christofersen,
who is the editorial secretary of the
Aftenposten, the leading Norwegian
paper. His duties correspond to those
of the managing editor Of an American
paper, and he is besides the president
of the national press club and an active,
wideawake journalist.
Tourist Travel Unhurt.
"One favorite assertion of the Stock
holm papers, '"he said, "has been that
the summer tourist trade, which is
usually so profitable to Norway, has
this year fallen off almost to nothing,
because of the scare over the crisis.
This yarn has been repeated many times
and in many forms. Finally the Aften-
posten made thoro investigation and
demonstrated beyond question that the
tourist business had never been so
heavy as this summer. Cook agency
in London, for example, declared that
it had had the greatest difficulty in
procuring berths on the steamers to
Norway for all it's clients and that all
the boats had sailed with full passen-
ger lists. Here in Christiania the ho-
tells have never done so well. The war
scare has thus had little influence, ex-
cept on the Swedish tourists, who used
not come this. year, but their places
have been filled by those Of other coun.
tries.
Nicholson Tale Denied.
's'Then there was the famous Michel.
sen story, with which Sweden and the
world were RECALLED. Premier Michel.
sen, you know, is wealthy shipowne1
and it happened that one of his firm s
ships, the Aggi, was seized by the
Japanese in oriental waters on suspi
Stockholm press declared that Kine
Oscar hearing of this, had directed thu
foreign Office to make strong represen
tations to the mikado's government an6
had finally succeeded in securing the
release Of the Aggi. It was added that
Nicholson would have been ruined if il
had not been for the kings interven
ton in his behalf. But the Norwegian
, premier, they said, had shown hi
gratitude by forcing the resignation o:
the Norwegian ministry and causins
the good king who had helped him tn,
loss of one Of his crowns. Now tn
facts were quite different as we easily
showed. When the Aggi was seized
Nicholson & Co. naturally applied t,
: the foreign Office at Stockholm-whicl
was our foreign Office as much al
:. Sweden 's-for help. Representation
that the matter was not within tn,
jurisdiction of the state department
having been referred to a prize cour
, at Sasebo for adjudication. Mean
E While the firm owning the ship had Sc
cured evidence in London going t,
+ show that the Aggi was not carrying
: contraband. On the production of thi
: evidence the prize court ordered her re
+ leased. Moreover, Mr.. Nicholson woult
g not have seriously felt the loss Of
n dozen such ships. And that is the tru
: story. OF how King Oscar helped ou
premier and how the latter proved
a basely ungrateful.
Premier's Family Didn't Run,
Another canard was that Premie
Nicholson, fearing the result Of tn
: storthing's action, had sent his famil,
: to Copenhagen for safety until tn,
e storm should blow over. This was in
e tended to prove that the premier hat
: no heart in the bluff which Norwa,
: was making, A little investigation
showed that so far from sending hi
} family away, the premier had just vel
| Continued on I'd Page, Sd Column.