Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1916-08-04
Gigantic Task That Taxes CapaC-
ity Of Telegraph Com
panieS.
HOST OF FEATURE WRITER'S
News Associations Carry Routine. but
Individual Papers Must Give Sec.
tionaI Color--tundreds Of Thou.
sands Of Words Sent Out
Every Day.
SGzSUlSzI2 Iszls21 E,l25s.

st. Louis. - The handling of the
taxes to the limit the capacity OF the
telegraph companies. and of the sew
eral news organizations of the coun.
try. and at no previous conventions in
the history of the nation has the de-
mand for service been SO great as II
was at st. Louis and Chicago during
the Democratic, Republican and Pro-
gressive gatherings of this year.
The news associations, such as the
international News Service, the As
ISOLATED Press and the United Press,
carry the main facts Of the conven.
lions over their own wires. but the
individual newspapers must take care
| OF themselves so far as features ard
news of particular delegations or for
particular sections are concerned, and
| all of this matter must be handled by
| the telegraph companies over regular
wires.
The number of star feature writer's,
such men as William Jennings Bryan,
William Allen White, Irwin Cobb, Sam
Blythe, Ring Lardner, Percy Ham
mond and many others. was greater
at the conventions OF this year than
ever before, and their stuff" was all
sent over the wires to the many pa.
pers they were serving,
Heavy Demand for Wires.
The fact that two conventions were
held at Chicago. and the uncertainties
of the situation at that city. created
the heaviest demand of the year for
telegraphic service at that point,
though the Democratic convention
here, even though It followed a pre-
arranged program, proved close sec.
ond.
The telegraph business of all three
conventions was, of course. divided
between the Western Union and the
Postal, and both made strenuous eff
forts to get the bulk of it from the
newspaper men. Aside from the mat
ter handled by the news associations,
more than 100000 words were sent
from Chicago in a single day. and
while this was some 1000 words
short of that sent from Chicago on
the day Colonel Roosevelt arrived
there four years ago, the total for the
week was much greater than that OF
1912.
much greater number of papers
was represented by special CORE
spondents than ever before. In pre-
vious years the special men have been
J confined largely to the press of the
. few big cities, but this year many oil
the comparatively small places were
represented by active newspaper
, workers. A Nashua IN. H. CORE
spondent had one wire busy practi
cally all day from the Republican
, convention in Chicago. Newspaper
IN such places as Selma, Ala; Fort
, Collins. Colo. and Westerville. Ohio
: we're represented by special men, who
helped to keep the wires busy.
: very large number of papers In al
/ sections OF the country were repre-
scented by the Western Newspapel
Union, and the service sent TO thest
papers helped by some $4,000 TO 90. 90,
words a day to make up the total c
the telegraph business.
q Star Operators on Job.
In the main Office OF the Western
Union at st, Louis, on what the,
called the convention floor, were 10
operators, the best in the employ o
the company, who did nothing blu
handle newspaper dispatches, and tn
same company employed 200 in tn
same way at Chicago. These men ar
code" operators, who can make fey
letters tell whole sentence, and q