The Alaska citizen., 1916-11-13

iD ISlSI1 ou lut night of Tuesday. November ', the missing name in the foregoing sen tence will be supplied by The Asso- Ciated Press
 In the business of news-gathering as developed by this worldwide or ganization, the first word sent over the wires telling of any extraordinary event is Flash" It is the signal of a thrill, The ordinary routine of The Associated Press bureaus and their hundreds of newspaper-members is often punctuated with the "F-l-a-s-h," Operators from Bangor to San Diego. from Tampa to Fairbanks, tighten their tagging nerves, and editors come scurrying to the wires to hear a Pope dead, Titanic sunk. another country at war Lusitania torpedoed a battle won, king deposed or president elected.
 This little thrill has a recognized periodicity, like the passage of comet. and the experience of it is again imminent Within few hours after you have scratched your ballot, The Associated Press will have flash ed the verdict which you and sixteen million fellow voters have rendered will have flashed it perhaps within sixteen million ballots has been drop ped in it's box in some of the Western states. where three hours difference in time makes late the closing of the polls.
 How, in this brief time. anything ing of these sixteen million votes can be achieved. the returns assembled and the result made known through out the land is a process both simple and marvellous It is true, of course, that all of these sixteen million votes are not counted, but when The As sociated Press announces the election, that announcement will be as trust worthy as if they were.
 The gathering and distribution of returns this year will mark one of the greatest cooperative efforts that has been made on any similar OcCa- sion to accomplish this purpose. In previous elections The Associated Press, relying more largely on it's own resources, has done notable work in the prompt and accurate reporting of the election figures. In the Roose- velt-Parker contest of 1904 the organi- zation was able not only definitely to announce the result but also to indicate the full extent of the victory as early as 500 o'clock on election night Equally remarkable service has been rendered in other elections, and the value of The Associated Press figures has been such that defeated candidates themselves have, on the strength of them, sent their telegrams of congratulation to their victorious opponents. The service has been such that it has invariably brought to the executives of the organization a flood of telegrams on the day after in tribute to the Comprehensive ness," speed" and accuracy" with which the work has been done. This year it is possible that all records will be broken, for The Associated Press has for the coming election en listed the cooperation of it's mem bers from coast to coast in a more concerted effort than ever before.
 More than two years ago prepara tions were begun, under the direction of the general manager of The Asso. ciated Press, to cover" the news which will be served to the public on the night of November T. Election experts of the organization have dur ing these two years canvassed every state in the union and arranged with the papers of each state to work to- gether on a cooperative basis under the supervision of the established Associate Press bureaus Thousands of special forms have been prepared for the systematic conduct of the service, thousands of typewriter sheets distributed listing candidates and showing votes four years ago as a basis of comparison, special cores pondents appointed and special wire facilities arranged for this particular work
 In the collection of returns, the country is everywhere made the unit, and it is the purpose of the system to hear definitely from every election district of the more important states. In New York state alone these dis tricts number 5,700. In Illinois there are over 5000 and in other states a proportiontely large number of dis