Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1916-07-07
HANDLING NEWS
OF CONVENTION
Gigantic Task That Taxes Capac-
ity of Telegraph Com
panieS.
HOST OF FEATURE WRITER'S
News Associations Garry Routine, but
Individual Papers Must Give Sec
tional Color-Hundreds of Thou
sands Of Words Sent Out
Every Day.

Every Day.
st. Louis. - The handling of the
news of national political conventions
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 it
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-
tons over their own wires, but the
individual newspapers must take care
OF themselves so far as features and
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
Geographic 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 ef-
forts to get the bulk Of 1t from the
newspaper men. Aside from the mat
ter handled by the news associations,
more than 100000 words were sent
from Chicago in single day, and
while this was some 100000 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.
A much greater number Of papers
was represented by special CORE
spondents than ever before. In pre-
vious years the special men have been
confined largely to the press of the
few big cities, but this year many of
the comparatively small places were
represented by active newspaper
workers A Nashua IN. HI CORE
spondent had one wire busy practi-
cally all day from the Republican
convention in Chicago. Newspapers
in such places as Selma, Ala; Fort
Collins, Colo, and Westerville, Ohio,
were represented by special men, who
helped to keep the wires busy. A
very large number of papers in all
sections Of the country were repre-
sented by the Western Newspaper
Union, and the service sent to these
papers helped by some $4,000 to 80, 900
words day to make up the total of
the telegraph business.
Star Operators on Job.
In the main office of the Western
Union at st. Louis, on what they
called the convention floor, were $50
operators, the best in the employ of
the company, who did nothing but
handle newspaper dispatches, and the
same company employed 200 in the
same way at Chicago. These men are
code" operators, who can make few
letters tell whole sentence, and in
this way send an enormous amount of
copy over the wires in short time.
They, like the correspondents, were
gathered from all sections of the
country because Of especial ability for
certain work. For example, the en-
tire force that handled the service to
newspapers supplied by the Western
Newspaper Union at Chicago was
brought to ST. Louis to do the same
work here because the men were IA
miliar with the methods of handling
it in the shortest possible time
At the convention halls large forces
OF operators were on duty in order to
handle the running stories of the con-
vention, and the stories of happenings
that were Of particular interest in GER
tain sections. OF the Western Union
force these men were in charge of s. A.
Leitch, who Is known as the conven-
ton editor and who has handled this
work through many big gatherings Of
similar character.
Both telegraph companies took TO
the convention cities large numbers
of their division officials, inspectors,
commercial agents, supervisors, and
the like, and to each was given the
problem Of seeing that the news to
his part OF the country was rushed
out in the shortest possible time.
And all Of this is but an indication
J of the demand upon the part of the