The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-21

The cable news. costing 15 cents per word cable tolls from San Francisco, be- sides the cost of the service, however, keeps the public advised briefly on all mat ters of general importance, and with the arrival of the mails six to ten days later, the details of interest locally are pub lished.
 But whatever may be the shortcomings of the cable news, the local field Is well covered. This field Is more important than a stranger might imagine. Being a. seaport of importance, the waterfront Is a beat which occupies the entire atten- tion of a good reporter on each paper, and furnishes many big ''stories'' of much more than local importance For year past the development of the federal gov ernments plans for the fertilization of the territory has furnished much important news of national interest and with the incoming of several thousand troops to garrison the island, this has been con- slderably augmented. Sports are more ] than relatively important in Honolulu, and each of the three papers gives one mans 1 time almost exclusively to looking after baseball football, boxing, yachting, golf, track athletics. aquatic sports, etc, which are on tap the year around
 Other departments are as well covered. There are in the neigh borhood of 20 men 1 comprising the staffs of the three papers, . and there Is probably not one of the number not capable of holding down job on any mainland city paper. In fact, with 1 perhaps one or two exceptions. every man among them has at some time had training on some of the larger American dailies. They have either drifted to the islands, in the spirit which prompts many newspaper workers everywhere to drift, and have been caught in the meshes of Hawaiis enchantment and never gotten away, or else they have been brought ! Ga Err T,nG A r. tie, by the papers which have needed them. Within the past year Los Angeles has furnished two men. both of whom came here vacations and without any intention of staying; and another who went back to the coast six months ago, after a two years residence here, has just returned and declares that he Is here for good. One of the best local re- porters who has been here for 10 years got into the newspaper game in little old New York. Another lost his anchor in the Ohio valley, and finally brought up on Hawaifs shore Two are Canadians, one from Qr bee and the other from the northwest. Two are Englishmen. The rest have foated in from various parts of the mainland west of the Rockies. It is remarkable that even the worst of the drifters seem to lose the wanderlust when they. reach here. Many arrived with un- defined intention of continuing on to Ma 
 have never gone.
 But not all of these men remain slaves of the typewriter, else there would be no room for the half dozen or so recruits that find places here every year. The others have seen opportunities in other lines and have deserted the calling which brought them to the Evening Isles" Sev- eral have already left their marks on public affairs in the territory.
 On- the mainland of the United States the power of the press is proverbial; but its influence has never been more appar- ent anywhere then 1t has in Hawaii Ha- waii's atmosphere is American where few years ago 1t was monarchial, and no one who has watched the metamorphosis | with observing eye can doubt that the | American newspaper was the greatest | single force in the accomplishment of 1t. And the power is still at work. Prob lems that old the mainland are daily presenting themselves to the island CTS as well as problems which are unique l in the history of mankind and on which more than local weight attaches. In all these matters the newspapers are ever the | dligent guardians of the people and the