The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-23
HOW "STRING PEND" GAN RUIN A TOWN Cencocts Wild Stories for Sake
 of Pay SENDS THEM BROADCAST Sensational Papers Are Willing to Print Any Sort of Libel Even
 Though 1t Ruin Com
 munity's Reputation.
SENDS THEM BROADCAST
From the New York Rellman.

Commercial clubs, publicity organiza- tons and other associations which in va rious towns and cities, especially in the west, seek by every possible means to favorably advertise the places in which they are interested should take notice of an element which exists in every city. town, village or hamlet that possesses newspaper or even a plausible excuse for one, and which is able and usually will ing, to do more harm to the reputation and standing of community in one day than all the advertising and favorable mo- tices circulated by well-meaning business men can overcome in year.
 This element is known among news paper men. but laymen are usually ig norant of it. Although the regularly em- ployed journalinst occasionally yields to the temptation to contribute his share to the general diffusion of transformation, as a rule, 1t Is the newspaper hanger-on, the irresponsible. out-of-a-job reporter desperate and hard pressed for drink money, who becomes what is known in newspaper parlance as a "string -fiend" and often recklessly ruins the good name of the place unfortunate enough to shel- ter him.
 While the publicity association is assid- uous1y exerting itself to make its town well and favorably known, and is spend ing it's money in more or less well-de- signed literature, the string field" un- known to anyone save the barkeeper, holds the true key to the position. He knows this and, further, he is aware that his very obscurty protects him from fur ther punishment whenever he cares to ex- ploit his taste for fiction at the expense of the place of his fellow townsmen.
 By simply inventing good story" and offering it to a number of news papers the more remote and disreputable they are the more apt they are to ac- cept 1t, he can blight the reputation of a town, or expose 1t to ridicule, or asso ciate 1t in the minds of the distant pub lie with some wretched scandal, thereby earning sufficient for his immediate needs and escaping all personal responsibility for his utterances
 The more grotesque, impossible. improb- able or revolting the story is, the quicker 1t sells over the wires, and the higher the price paid for it. Many newspapers are eager for sensational news that they do not want to verify the truth of the stories sent them, nor do they care to look too closely into the responsibility of the sender The news Is the thing, 
 whether it be true or false. Being pub lshed at a distance from the origin of the story. they run slight risk of being sued for libel, and if the story be good one they are generally willing to take the chances.
 Those who encourage the cheap and ir- responsible local newspaper by their ad- vertising are the ones who breed string fends" often to their own undoing. for around such establishments, unable or unwilling to pay decent salaries to repu- table reporters, the string -fiendh," con gregate eking out the uncertain pittance they receive for irregular work with the Illicit and underhanded profits secured by wiring lying stories.
 Sometimes these telegraphic islanders are merely gross congregations of unim- portant events; sometimes they are de- liberate distortions; frequently they are | libels which it would be unsafe to print in the home paper, and always they are