The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-06-29
TIE RTMOR FACTORY.

While we are glad to see that the Western
Union Telegraph Company has decided not to
issue bulletins concerning the prze-tight at Reno
no one need expect from this circumstance a
nearer approach to the millennium of corporate
morality 1t is still business with the Western
Union. Having in the past turned It's immense
organization over to the dissemination of news
Of events that for the moment held worldwide
attention. it has simply discovered that the re-
turn Is not worth the time and expense. Such
service is scarcely more than an advertisement
and under the entente cordial now apparently ex-
listing between telephone and telegraph com
panies, advertising is for it no longer necessary
except in its broadest sense. The Western
| Mon, therefore, passes up the prize-hght
SO far as reporting it is concerned combining IL
self to- the commercial acceptance Of messages
filed by such journalists AS Jack London, Mike
Murphy, Jim Corbett and others, some trained
in reportorial work. and others in this instance
putting their fists to untried uses. If nothing
else were to be gained by this course, it would
advantage the country to have the assaults which
are making against the good old English lam
euage unhampered by any tcrsc telegraphc bull
etns. This is a tistic mill, and it were well
that if it must be fought it be waged from every
point of vicw-scenic, vernacular, and artistic
according 10 the Quecnsbury rules.
/ The action of the Western Union, however,
suggests attention on its part to a similar reform
III the matter Of the dissemination of rumors.
As a telegraph company it operates an extensive
ticker service, which is supposed to accurately
report 'quotatons and matters of official record
In this way it eXerts a powerful influence on the
sentiment Of the day and touches upon multi
tude of matters conceived to properly relate to
financial and business conditions. That being
true its bulletins ought upon every considera-
ton, to be the most accurate possible, and yet
1t Is common experience that rumor of the
sort Is too Informed or fantastic to escape in
slant dissemination througout the world at
is reported" is all that these ticker services seem
To need-no matter what the report NAV be-
or how instantly it may be denied The submerged
authority of the rulnor may at any moment kill q
king put two countries at war, destroy whole
State by earthquake. Instantly the wires send
it forth and what was a moment before a breath
from the unknown becomes matter Of worldwide
discussion And since to the financial and bus
mess thermometer time is of the essence anc
apprehension the rule, ii not infrequently hap
pens that this subsidiary service of what is sup
posed to be accurate business information is
corrupt in origin and disastrous in effect. Be
cause rumor of this sort has been voiced, j
matters little to the victims whose interests NAV
be hurt by its propagation that it is quickly
denied and was sent ont in the first place as
rumor And it is true that many of these fl
nancial news matters, so-calcd. are scarcely
more than bombs placed under sand.
Regular news agencies, whose function is tt
carry information for information's sake. reaiz,
that their real capital is their accuracy of state
ment; how much more careful ought financial
agency, whose function is to give news as it re-
latcs to business conditions, avoid fallacious
statement which, as it cannot be instantly de-
med hasin every instance its real concrete effect