Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-05-17
By FRANK b. MOVES
resident of the Associated Press

tTODdblg HO lHSlltullOh Is more
widely known by name than the AS
ISOLATED Press and, on the other hand.
more vaguely understood by the pub
lie generally as to its organization and
its functions. For whatever cause
this may be. that il is a fact is daily
apparent.
The Associated Press is an associa-
ton of something over eight hundred
and fifty newspapers, operating under
Il charter of the state of New York as
a mutual and cooperative. organization
for the interchange and collection of
news. Under the terms of its char.
ter the corporation is not to make a
profit nor TO make or declare divi-
dends and is not to engage in the bus
iness Of selling intelligence nor traf-
fic in the same"
In other words, the Associated Press
is simply common agent Of it's mem
bers by which they arrange an inter-
hange Of the news that each collects,
and is bound by its membership obli-
cation to contribute fer the common
use of its fellow members and also as
the agency through which reports of
foreign and certain classes of domestic
happenings are collected and distribu-
ted TO the newspapers served by the
organization.
The fact that in the present year we
celebrate the twentieth anniversary of
the first nationwide cooperative and
non-profit-making gathering or
ganization in the world seems TO make
the publication of something respect
ing it timely.
The Associated Press is in no wise
the master of the newspapers consti-
tuting its membership; it is distinctly
their servant
Its board Of directors is composed
of active newspaper men chosen at
annual meetings by the membership
and, in an experience running through
twenty years of intimate connection
with the present organization and also
that of the older Illinois corporation,
have never known an instance in all
the changing personnel of boards
of directors when there was any de-
parture from the most rigid observ
ance of the highest obligations of
trusteeship. and disregard of private
and selfish interests. The president,
vice-presidents, and members of the
board Of directors serve without sala-
ries.
The Associated Press of today is the
outcome of many-year struggle be-
tween two opposing systems One,
that of gathering concerns with
private or limited ownership. which |
dealt at arms length with newspapers
to which they sold news at such prof |
il as might be secured, and oyer |
which the newspapers who bought
from them had no more control than
over the paper-mill supplying them |
with print paper
The other system is based on the
theory that a powerful privately oHn-
ed and controlled news-gatheringl
agency is a menace to the press and
people.
Determined to establish, an agency |
subject only TO the control of news
papers Or whom it acted, in 1893, a
group of western men composing the
Western Associated Press began a |
fight to attain this end, and since that
time a contest between these two OPP
posing principles has been waged. In
asserting that the Associated Press, as
today constituted, is the servant and
agent only of the newspapers for
which il acts, / have no thought of
the tremendous import
ance of the work it does as such an
agent, but wish simply to emphasize
the thought that properly speaking it
has no entity of its own, no mission
save to serve its members.
Its members are scattered from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Cana
da to the Gulf, and represent every /
possible shade of political belief, re-
ligious faith, and economic sympathy.
1t is obvious that the Associated Press
can have no partisan nor fractional
bias, no religious afiiliation, no CAPT
talistic nor pro-labor trend.
Its function is simply to furnish its
members with a truthful, clean. COM
prehensive, non-partisan-and this in
its broadcast sense-report of the news
Of the world as expeditiously as is
with accuracy and as eco
as possible.
To do this the newspapers compos-
ing it's membership contribute first,
the news of their localities and sec
Dnd, weekly assessments of money
aggregating about $4,000, 900 per an
mum, with which an extensive system
of leased wires is maintained $4,000
miles of wire in the daytime and
rs. 900 miles of wire at night. bureaus
in the principal American cities sup
and collating the news of
local newspapers and bureaus for the
original collection of news through
out the world.
The volume of the news report to
members varies greatly, ranging from
five hundred words daily by telegraph
Or telephone 10 papers allie TO utilize
but a small amount of general news
matter. to more than fifty thousand
words daily or thirty-fiye newspaper
in the more important cities. II
The method of collecting foreign
news has been greatly changed in re-
cent years Formerly the Associated
Press collected its foreign service in
London, receiving the news there OF
he Reuter- CCmDany of the Wolff