The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-07-08
The United Press Associations
Of Detroit Times Before
Hall ne
Francisco July z 1912

I; our belief that franchise Is the YER
inform appendix of news service
i com pacts, we are straightway reas-
sured by a legend writ large at the
I tco OF an Associated Press contem-
porary's editorial column, placed
there by the founder before he rested
/ from his labors: NO more public
service franchises on any terms.
( The United Press deserves well
DONE also, as an Indispensable mem
Der OF the stan of the Detroit Times
\ 1t is just that and nothing more:
neither wrapped in mystery nor piano.
piled with austere authority. Daily
we turn to it, at the hour OF the ma
tutinaI assignments and say; You
! take care OF all that part and parcel
! OF the universe lying outside the city
! of Detroit. county of Wayne, and state
of Michigan"
And it does it just as good re-
porter would do it. 1t walks with the
crowd and keeps its virtue: talks
with kings nor loses the common
touch. Carries no volume OF rules
entitled, How to tell news from toad
stools and vice versa Puts upon
every bureau and man afield, the re-
possibility of handling the situation
as the vision Of the great American
reader turning to his evening paper,
wirelesses to MIN, across the shining
seas He is not gyved with traditions
nor nanacled with beaurocratc def
nitions OF news. He is only to ask
himself. is it true, and is it enter
tanning" and-the answer being in
the afirmatye-to make the words
q SNIFF ~
shuttle
! We like this valued member of the
stan that clicks merrily to us through
the livelong day, because he has ad-
vanced beyond the vital statistics
stage OF reporting We can stand for
] the coloring of the news that results
from an interfusion Of the reporters
! red blood with the story he is putting
on paper: il he sees the strikers
starving children along with the in
I. teruption of industry: it he hears the
comments of the middling folks as
well as the official version: If he sees
war depicted not alone in the thrilling
movements of armies but in the black
desolation of hearthstones.
I The penal code Of France was un.
biased and colorless as spread on the
musty tones But Victor Hugo re
+ ported" il in the deathless story OF
I Jean Vatican, serving twenty years
for stealing a loaf to save seven chill
dren from starving and being pursued
mercilessly through life by the Law
| incarnated in the unnelenting Jayert.
Biased no doubt, colored certainly;
but it put the barbaric cruelty of the
penal code upon the consciences of
the French people.
The United Pass does not feel
called upon to adopt the precaution
of the artist who placed light upon
his head SO that his own shadow
would not get into the painting. The
United Press Is quite reconciIed to
having the point OF view of its news
gatherers go into their stories. 1t
!. does not shrink from the tints that
may be projected into the narration
by the truth passing through the
+, prism of enlightened experience or
dependable personality.
In thus lifting press association
service above the book of logarfthms
as literary performance, and in
adding the interviewer and the tech
nically-skiIled interpreter to its war
reporting organization, the United
Press has humanized and yitalized
/ the science of news gathering and
distribution until the whole world has
taken note of it's masterful achieve
m.ents and accorded unreserved credit.
1t isn't necessary to recount the
amazing Its of United Press exploits.
To repeat accurately Beats, beats,
beats in celebration of its definite
triumphs would make recital sug-
gestive of Kipling's Boots. boots.
boots" in its reiterations. II can be
summed up better in Detroit by cit
ing the taking on of the United Press
by every Associated Press client.
When the prodigious German guns
battered down the defenses OF Liege
and Namur every embattled power
became appreciative of the indfspen-
stability of heavier artillery. It was
SO with the newspapers in Detroit
that discovered they had gone into
the war in a state Of unpreparedness.
All Of which scores for the Detroit
Times the scoop par excellence-a
lead of fifteen years in accurately
appfaisfng the mobility and a1ertness
of the United Press and its predeces-
sors. The service which our contem-
poraries rejected, the same has be-
come the head OF their columns, page
first: and one long and fondly-cher-
ished fallacy has been laid low. to
rise no more-the SNUG fable that no
newspaper was entitled to rank as
such without an Associated Press
franchise.
The United Press has enough OF
the spirit Of enterprise and healthy
venturesomeness to make mistakes
and a reputation for accuracy and
good faith that has kept its record
free from spot or blemish or wrinkle
or any such thing 1t has happily es-
/. 3 tta nint< "a a
i older service has called down upon
itself fprobably undeservedly) by It's
assumption of infailibility: by main
: tanning that unruffled degree OF poise
, and complacency that prompted Bird
, get to exclaim, when the boss TO
whom she had applied for Job asked
? IL Mike was steady--"Stfdy? Whoy.