Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-01-21
Melville e. Stone Gives Picture
of Workings of the AS
ISOLATED Press.
BIG UPSET WAS CAUSED
BY THE WAR IN EUROPE
Established Connections Dislocated,
and New Service Had to Be
Organized.

! Melville E. Stone. general manager
| of the Associated Press, described the
| activities of that great news-gathering
and distributing organization Wednes
day night in an address before the
Franklin Institute of Philadelphia.
OF particular interest was his ac-
| count OF how the Associated Press.
when the outbreak of the present
| world war disrupted it's carefully or
ganized news-gathering facilities. went
| to work and built up a new system to
| supply the American public with all
the facts obtainable regarding the gil
gantic struggle
LAS you pick up your daily news
paper. Issued to you for the smallest
coin that is minted by the government
| filled, as it is, with a vast bulk of
| information gathered from every hab-
| liable spot on the globe-if you have
anything like an inquisitive mind, your
curiosity must be aroused" said Mr..
| Stone. 1T must interest you to know
| how all this so-called news good and
| Indifferent, important and trivial. from
| nearby places and from the uttermost
parts, is collected. transmitted and de-
| this 1 shall strive to tell you.
Originated in America.
| ALSO, it may crafty you to remem-
Der that this business of systematic
| and comprehensive newsgathering is
| an American enterprise. 1t originated
here, and here it has reached it's most
perfect development. The work began
in the early days of the last century,"
| Continuing. Mr.. Stone described early
news gathering and the changes
| wrought by the telegraph, the cable
and quicker means of transportation.
He told how after many bitter contests
| he nation wide organization for ham
| ding news was organized.
| And now what is it?' he asked.
| And how does it operate? First, there
are something like 900 members, each
| owning a daily newspaper and each
agement. These 900 members represent
! every angle of every fad or ism outside
the walls of Bedlam.
| And not only each member, but
more. every reader of every one of
| these 900 daily papers sits in hourly
judgment on the service which the AS
ISOLATED Press is rendering.
! Criticism Is Welcomed.
| MS CTlllClSH was expected Dy
those of US who founded the institu-
ton, and it is not at all to be deplored
1t is the thing which safeguards an
| honest and truthful service of news to
you. There are competing organiza-
lions. and their rivalry tends to celer-
| ity in gathering and presenting the
| news. l do not undervalue this fea-
ture of our work, yet 1 regard it's rep
utation for truthfulness and strict i'm
| Partially as the best asset of the AS
| ISOLATED Press.
| 1T is far less important that you get
prompt news than that you get true
! news. Every one familiar with ouI
| work knows that it is utterly impossi-
BILE for any one in the service, from the
| general manager to the least impor-
| tant agent at the most remote point
to send an untruthful dispatch and es-
| cape detection.
You may write a biased or mac
curate statement for a single newspa-
| per and get away with it, but you
| cannot do it with the Argus-eyed mil
lions who read the dispatches of the
| Associated Press. The very magni-
| tude of it's work tends to make truth
fulness and impartiality imperative.