Omaha daily bee., 1916-04-01
Gathering World News
Literary Digest.

~ VERY comma in the speech OF Chancellor Won
n Bethmann-HoiIweg In the German Reichstag
dollar to flash by wireless to this country.
and every comma. period and semcoon. as well as
every single word Of the speech eagerly bought
at that price by the Associated Press The speech
appeared in papers the next morning and was
read by most OF US at cost OF an inappreciabe
fraction Of a cent. Many another item OF news,
reaching the slight expenditure on our
part, costs the news-gatherers OF our country quite
fabulous to collect. The history OF the
process by which became world-commodity.
in which might trade they do In Russian
wheat Alaskan sables would be fascinating read
ing Hardly less 3 briefer account OF the
way in which the news s gathered according to the
system In operation. Before cosmopolitan
audience in Philadelphia recently Melville f. Stone,
general manager Of the Associated Press. explained
something Of this. He gave few examples Of Asso-
ciated Press methods which representative OF the
Public Ledger quotes as follows:
Assume that a fire has broken out in Benares
the second city Of the Hindus. the banks OF the
Gsnges. and 100 1000 have lost their lives
Not far away. at Allahabad or Calcutta, is daily
pper having a correspondent Benares. who
ports the disaster fully. Some his paper
sends the story. much OF II is OF general
rather than OF local interest to the agent OF the
Reuter- company at Calcutta Bombay or Madras
And then it is csbled TO London. Hongkong. Sydney
and Tokyo. At each OF these places there Asso-
ciated Press men. OF whom picks IL up and for
wards It New York. II the thing happens IN
Zanzibar the story goes either TO Cairo to Cape
Town, and by the same process finds It's way TO
London and TO us In this country. Thus the
wide world is conbed for news. which in an incred-
IDLY shore time is delivered and printed everywhere
When Pope Leo XIII died in Rome the fact was
announced by Associated Press telegram in the
columns of San Francisco paper in nine minutes
from the instant that he breathed his last And
this message was repeated back to London. Paris
and Rome, and gave those cities the first informa-
tion OF the event
When Port Arthur was taken by the Japanese
IN 1896 came to us In New York in fifty minutes.
although It passed through twenty-seven relay
offices Few OF the operators transmitting II knew
what the dispatch meant But they understood the
Latin letters and it from station to station.
letter by letter.
When Peary back from his great discovery
in the Arctic Sea, he reached Winter Harbor. the
coast OF Labrador, and from there sent wireless
message that he had nailed the Stars and Strioes
Breton Island, and was forwarded thence by cable
and telegraph to New York
For its domestic service other methods are
adopted The territory covered includes the United
States proper, Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, the
Philippines. the Islands of the Caribbean Sea- Mexico
the Central-Amercan states and. by exchange
arrangement with the Canadian Press. Ltd. the
British possessions this continent. The organiza-
| tion is you have been told. cooperative in its
| character. As a condition OF membership each one
belonging agrees TO furnish to his fellow members
either directly through the association and IL
them exclusively the news of his vicnage. as gath.
cred by him for his paper. This constitutes tho
| large fountain from which American news.
supply is drawn But. in the of the foreign
official agencies II there be danger that individual
member is biased. IL the matter bs OF higt
importance, we use our own trained and salariet
staff men to do the reporting For this purpose
as well for administrative work.
bureau in every leading city