Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-04-29
KEEPING TRACK Of EVENTS
Canned" News Served to Gov
eminent officials at Washington
President Wilson Rends the News
papers MS Closely az Time Permits
and Has Valuable Assistance
from Secretary Tumulty.

The average high official Of the United
States government has little or no time
for newspaper reading. He has to have
his newspapers read for him, with the
, result that subordinate officials or en-
ployes OF his department are assigned to
go over the newspapers daily, and to
prepare for him a digest of the news Of
the day, with reference to his particular
field of activity In other words. in al
most all of the executive departments OF
the government the heads are kept in
formed Of what Is going on in the out
side world, and of the state of public
opinion, by process of ndirection more
or less efficient There have been in the
past and are to-day officials of the gov
eminent who are not we'll Informed as
to the news of the day. There have been
and are officials who do not care what
| the newspapers say about them and
| their work. but the average public Off
! cial in Nashin gtun is keen to know the
news. and If he cannot get it any other
way he will ask the newspaper men who
call upon him to tell him what is going
/ on
President Wilson. If he had more time,
would take rank above the ordinary as
! a newspaper reader. says the Evening
! Posts Washngtoncorrespon on more
than one occasion the President mas
given evidence of having read his paper
before coming to the White House office
and. however pressing his official duties
may be. he can usually say truthfully
that he at least has read the headlines
iTt.MrLTY FOLLOWS NEWS CLOSELY
At his right hand. however. President
| Wilson has in Secretary Tumulty a per-
/ son keen for the contents of newspa-
pers. Secretary Tumulty knows news
when he it. He is not thin-skinned
lpcrson, and he can take a Joke, especial
~ when t. is on him or the administra-
ton, as gracefully as anybody. 1t is not
often that Mr. Tumulty either underes-
Inmates or overestmates the Importance
of a newspaper publication. whether a
news item or an editorial.
Secretary rumultv usually has read
half-a-dozon or more newspapers before
coming to the White House in the morn
ing. These papers are eastern puolica-
tions from the large cities which reach
Washington 10y a fast mail train in time
to b. delivered before breakfast During
the day. the Presidents secretary is kept
Uniformed as to what is going on in the
outside world by the newspaper corre-
spondents who cali regularly at the
White House, or who are stationed there
permanently, including representatives OF
all the press associations The White
| House also takes large number Of rep
resentative newspapers throughout the
entire country, and these are carefully
read by employe assigned to the
job who clips out everything relating to
the President, the White House. the ad-
ministration. and politics in general. Each
of these articles Is pasted on a separate
piece of paper, identified by the name OF
the publication and the date thereof and
finally all the sheets are bound together
to constitute what Mr.. Tumulty calls
The Yellow Journal" the name being
derived from the orange-colored paper
on which the clippings are pasted. Each
issue" of the yellow Journal is about
two inches thick.
When Mr.. Tumulty goes home at night
he takes this mass of newspaper clip
pings home with him, and no matter
at what hour he may go to bed, he
never fails to look these clippings through
before retiring. Anything he finds there
in which he believes is Of sufficient i'm
portance to call to the attention of the
President is carefully marked. The next
morning the President may find on his
desk one of these clippings with note
attached as follows:
Dear Governor: | think you ought to
read this. Tumulty'
In this way, the President is kept post
ed
AlthnIUb r.
. editor, he takes no special pains to in
form himself as to what is going on out
side of his department. Even with res
pect to that, he knows little about what
the newspapers say about it, and appar-
emily cares less. Sec retary of the Navy
Daniels, on the other hand, is also a
, newspaper editor, and has such a keen
nose for news that lie would soon burden
any newspaper office with telegraph tolls
If given the opportunity. Secretary OF
War Garrison is another live wire" on
news in his department. and works in
hearty cooperation with the press, al
: though the information he is willing to
give for publication consists of cold facts
boiled down to the bone AS one news
paper man said recently after investigat-
, ing Mr. Garrison:
. There is certainly nothing ambiguous
about what he says, and little that Is
biguous"
WOMAN EDITOR OF ABILITY.
= Secretary of the Interior Lane Is an
, other cabinet officer thoroughly in touch
t with the contents of newspapers, and he
also knows news when he sees it, Like
, Secretary OF Agriculture Houston. Post
l master-General Burleson, Secretary OF
Q Commerce Redf!eld, and Secretary of the
G Treasury McAdoo, he maintains a we'll
organized press service in his department