Evening star., 1914-11-28
ACCUSED Of REVEALING
CONTENTS OF MESSAGE
Telegraph Operator in New York
Trapped by the Asso-
ciated Press.
Decoy Dispatch Reveals Source of
Leak in News-Arrest of a. L.
Linder Follows.

NEW YORK. November 2S.-H. L.
Linder, telegraph operator in the EN-
ploy of the Postal Telegraph Company
and attached to the Office of the New
York Globe, was arrested here yester-
day. charged with violating Section 552
of the penal law, in that he revealed
the contents of a telegraphic message
sent out by the Associated Press.
| For long time it has been evident
that the dispatches of the Associated
Press were being systematically stolen
and were redistributed by a number of
smaller agencies to their clients A
careful watch was set upon the busi-
ness and suspicion pointed to a certain
man employed in the Office of the
| Globe, New York evening paper, as
the guilty person. The case was COM
sidered by the executive committee of
the Associated Press directors at re-
! cent meeting and a plan to detect the
culprits and bring them to justice was
adopted.
Dispatches Copied Surreptitiously.
! For the purpose of transmitting the
more important news in bulletins.
wires connect the central office of the
organization at 81 Chambers street
with the editorial rooms of the various
| members in New York. In the Office of
| the Globe these bulletins were copied
surreptitiously by H l.. Linder. a tele-
graph operator employed by the Postal
Telegraph Company, and repeated to
the New York News Bureau. a Wall
street concern. Frequently within two
or three minutes after their receipt in
! the office of the Globe they appeared
on the News Bureaus ticker and in the
reports of the International News serv
ice, the Central News of America and
other minor organizations.
For the purpose of trapping the wire
tappers. the following dispatch was
prepared:
BULLETIN E o S
''PEITNiRAD. November 2I.-The Russian
dreadnaug Fliba. formerly the Ismal striking
mine in the Gulf of Finland, is complete
loss with 450 lives.
ADD PErROGRAD UNDER DASH-Inss of
Fliba-The Is,nail of four Baltic dread
naughts laid down at the kronstadt yards in
1872 She had displacement of 2S OOO tons
and carried nine fourteen-inch guns and twenty
fre-fnch'
Wire Detached From Circuit.
The short bulletin wire to the Globe
Office was detached from the circuit
which included the other New York
evening newspapers, members of the
Associated Press, so that the message
should go to the Globe alone. AS anti
cipated. the dispatch instantly appeared
upon the ticker and not long after was
printed in the papers served by other
news agencies in different parts of the
country. AS soon as this was done and
before it appeared in any issue of the
Globe a notice to kill was sent out
and the telegram therefore at no time
reached the public as from the ASso-
ciated Press.
The word "Fliba' was cryptic. Sub
stituting for the initial consonant the
consonant following it in the alphabet,
and for the two vowels the voWels fol-
lowing in the alphabet F l. l B -"
became &c l. O B e. Thus the cul-
The telegram was identified beyond
question and its source made plain.
The telegraph operator was arrested
and made a full confession. He was
Magistrate F. B. House and held in
$4,000 bail for a hearing December /.
Pinkerton Detective Employed.
In order to observe the methods of
the New York news bureau, trusted
Pinkerton operator was employed and
esta ablished himself as an investment
banker, "Mr. r. d. Smith," at an office
No. 366 Broadway. He fitted his Office
carefully with a safe and appropriate
furniture and installed one of the New
York news bureau tickers. Employees
of the Associated Press were assigned
to watch the ticker with great care and
to time each dispatch. During period
covering several weeks it was observed
that the dispatches of the Associated
Press were constantly repeated upon
the ticker within five or ten minutes
after they were sent out by the Asso-
ciated Press The New York news bu-
reau is not a member of the Associated
u.oc. md iS not entitled to its service.