The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-10-30
CHAPTER WIN.
CONTINUED nom Page one.)

I
An Intelligent young man said yes
terday: DO you know that until
read your description of it never ruf--
ly understood just what the Associa-
ted Press is.
Il had a fixed idea that it was a
monopoly and a vague idea that it was
controlled by the Western Union Tele-
| graph company and 1 thought that
Associated Press franchises came high.
! 1 am thinking, for instance, of start
| ing an Associated Press evening daily
| at Junction City. I suppose it would
cost me a lot of money to get a MEM
/ bership before could begin to report.
| But tell me about this; 1 am interested
now and would like to know the real
facts
''Well. your ideas. strange to say,
| are somewhat common. The Associated
Press is quite generally misunderstood
by people who do not understand it.
Let me disabuse your mind at once
and for all of the idea that the West
ern Union, or any other corporation,
controls the~Associated Press, or. in the
remotest degree, influences what is !
sent over its wires"
The Western Union control the |
Associated Press? Not on your life! |
You have your wires crossed" THE |
Western Union is the servant; the |
Associated Press is the boss. The
Associated Press hires the Western |
Union to transmit its news and the
Western Union transmits whatever
news the Associated Press files with it.
Furthermore. the Associated Press
uses miles and miles of Postal Tele
graph lines and more miles of tele I
phone wires The charter of the Asso-
ciated Press permits it to transmit
news in any manner which it sees fit.
1t can transmit news by the Western
Union. by Postal. by telephone, by air
ship, by wireless, by automobile, or by
ox-cart, the latter in the Kenesaw or
Ozark mountains, or sparsely settled
districts.
Do you know that instead of the
great Western Union Telegraph Co.
being dragon menacing the Assoc
ciated Press, or disturbing a single fig
ure in its markets, this great dragon
with its wire tentacles reaching every
where leafs of the hand of the
Associated Press. and the Associated
Press is merely the organization of
the papers receiving its report; about
500 of them.
In the next place. remember, that
there is no such thing as an Associated
Press franchise; also. that a mem
bership, in a town where no Associ- '
ated Press report is taken. costs the
applicant nothing
IF you want to start an Associated
Press paper at Junction City and can
satisfy the General Manager and the
Directors that you have the means to
creditable daily paper and
keep it going and can establish for
yourself a clean bill of health. you
can get an Associated Press member
ship at junction City without price,
and you can quit on six months noticej
at will by paying your current account
IF you make your application the =
Directors can act on it at their next Q
meeting, December 10. and l think by s
December Il you could get your paper t
10 going, if you have everything else :
n readiness. t
1T is easier for a small paper to c
Join the Associated Press than a big
one. OF course, in the larger cities, i,
where an Associated Press member q
ship has an accumulative value, the r
Did newspaper will hardly give it up r,
without remuneration, but often in the 9,
arger cities an Associated Press mem
1ership may De obtained for nothing
or the reason that where one morn
ng paper. taking the Associated Press, D
Exists, if another morning paper z
should be given a membership the ex- t.
,ense would be nearly cut in two for s.
Zach one. If a member would prefer n
0 reduce his expenses and divide his q
lews rather thar have a single MEM "
,ership, he could very easily arrange 4
t so far as the Directors of the Asso a
hated Press are concerned =
The Associated Press organization is P
the most democratic one in the W
world. 1t is purely partnership ar
angement without any profit in view. n
under the New York law. Z
,ut with the sole view to the collec- u
ion of the news at a joint expense Il
md the distribution of it by Individual a
md joint expense. b.
Each Associated Press paper is re-
Iuired to not only pay so much money
ach week, but furnish promptly all q
he general news in its locality the Is
money amount per week based upon al
he size of the city the cost of the
perator, a fixed charge for member as
hip dues running from SIS to $3.50 m
'er week, depending upon whether it,
he paper receives the report by 500 tn
II 200O words. or by what is known H
IS the leased wire service. The leased tn
wire goes all day in the evening news H
,aper and all night in the morning by
'apers, that is, nearly all day and near w
Y all night. For instance, on Saturday b.
he wires in the State Journal Office tn
we're busy from 1880 in the morning ex
Until after . o'clock and the wires in DC