The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1907-12-13

(By Charles Eliey Hail.

(By Charles Elley Hail.
The advent Of the pelany system Of
automatic rapid telegraphy. the Tele-
post. promises great deal more for
the development Of the newspaper
business in this country than has
been understood or realized by those
having no other connection with the
press than through the great dailies
Of the Associated Press or kindred
associations. BY the tariff of charges
imposed upon press dispatches, many
thousands of excellent and useful To-
cal newspapers are deprived of the
only kind of news service which is of
any use to publisher or which would
put his paper on a plane with those
having larger CONSTITUENCIES. The eff
feet of this is bad in many ways.
Among other deplorable conse-
quences it causes the papers which
can afford the present telegraph SER
vice to feature" it so prominently
that other qualities in the makeup
of truly excellent newspaper are
neglected. High class reporting is
rapidly coming a lost art; special cor
respondence thing of the past.
Around central fact announced in
the briefest of condensed dispatches
is, under the present system, built a
mass of padding" made up from en-
cyclopaedias, books of travel, gazet-
teers and miscellaneous sources, all
dated as of yesterday, and purport-
ing to be Especial" by wire or cable,
to the newspaper printing it. Very
often this padding is done with a
knowledge of the facts so limited
that it is positively misleading to the
reader who is credulous enough to
put faith in it, If the matter is of
Importance, he may read two or
three newspapers for the broadening
of his information, not knowing that
all have received the same dispatch,
and that for any differences in the
story as presented he is indebted to
the ingenuity of some local writer,
who, at say, midnight, is handed
half a dozen pages of manifold tissue
telegraphic TRANSCRIPT and told to ex-
pand it into a half column, column
or half page, according to what may
seem to the night editor it's posibil-
ties of interest.
The faculties for news gathering
are incomparably better at present
time than ever before-better, in
deed, than can be utilized. The fac
ilities for news transmission are no
better than they were twenty-five
or thirty years ago. The companies
controlling the telegraph service of
the country have derived revenues
of millions annually from the news
service, have damaged or destroyed
newspaper properties deemed unfav-
orable to their interests, and have re-
stricted the press development as eff
fectually as if invested with the right
and privilege of censorship. The in
vasion of the field by Mr.. Delany's
invention will change all this. Not
only will it cheaper telegraphy to an
extent not deem possible by those ia
miliar only with the old and labori-
Gus method of spelling out messages
letter by letter and transmitting them
by hand in dots and dashes, to be
picked up by ear and translated at
the other end of the line, but it will
permit news to be sent broadcast in
full, the padding omitted, or done on
the ground where the local color will
give 1t interest and value. 1t will
stimulate to renewed activity and
profitable development the many ex-
listing news bureaus and syndicates,
and the news ones to be formed, and
permit them to make contracts with
papers which cannot secure an As
sociatd Press franchise and could not
afford it if it were open to them. 1t
will lift great burden from the
newspapers of the country in the item
of telegraph bills, and come as near
as may be to establishing what should
always be-free trade in information.
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