El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-02-12
CONDEMNATION
Of WILD NEWS
Chamber of Commerce and
City Council Act in Eff
fort to Stop Practice.

At a meeting in the office of acting
mayor X. B. Stevens IN the city hall
Friday, afternoon, telegrams were
ager of the Associated Press and the
international News service protesting
at sentatiOns carried in the
dispatches Of the two organizations IN
furious to Eel Paso-
The specific complaint against the
Associated Press was message car
ried from Ell PasO on the night OF FeD-
ruary and repeated in the day report
Of February to the effect that fran
cisco Villa was preparing to cross the
New Mexico line and seize an FL Paso
d Southwestern passenger tram 10
force Intervention in Mexican affairs. !.
Garnett King, general passenger
agent of the railroad. declared that
the report had caused many concelIa-
tons of reservations on MS rallIOau
and was diVerting traffic to other lines
and away from Ell PasO. He said this
report and the report carried by the
Associated Press on the night OF jan
uary Is. to the effect that FL PasO was
under martial law. together with re-
port carried by the same news asSOcla-
ton earlier in January declaring sew
eral hundred cases of typhus fever 10
be existent in Juarez, had scared peo-
pie throughout the country and was dI-
verting much traffic from this city ri
PasO was never under martial law ana
Investigations Of United States public
health officials showed that there was
not even one case of typhus in Juarez-
ttHS hurI IOurtSU lrAlIlc.
r. b. Orndorff, president Of the
chamber of commerce, said there was
no doubt that these dispatches and
messages to the Hearst papers Inter
national News service) had placed FL
PasO in such an unfavorable light be-
fore the world that the annual tourist
traffic into Ell Paso had been cut down
to nearly nothing. copies of the
Hearst papers were exhibited declar-
ing that "El PasO is Under Martial
Law asserting that thousand men
had met in FL PasO and prepared to
invade Mexico to avenge the murder
of. the IS Americans at Santa Ysabel;
that the JuareZ garrison was arming
for the purpose OF making reprisalS
upon FL PasO because of the anti-Mex-
lean demonstration here on the night
of January 10. etc Many exaggeratiOns
appeared in practically all Of the
Hearst messages. Many of them were
under the name of John W. Roberts.
Hearst correspondent at Ell PasO. 1t
was stated to the meeting that Rob-
erts no longer represented the Hearst
papers here
Admitted Sending Reports.
1t was also stated to the meeting
that A c. BOwsey, staff correspondents
for the Associated Press (who is not
connected with either Of the local pa
pers), had admitted sending out the
reports objected to in that press as
sociauons dispatches and that he had
been invited to attend the meeting,
but he was not present.
On motion of president Orndorff, OF
the chamber Of commerce. messages
We're ordered drawn. to he sent to the
general managers of the Associated
Press and International News assOcia-
ton. protesting at the false reports
carried and asking that steps be taken
to remedy the matter. in the interest
of justice to FL Paso and to clients
served by the two associations.
The messages were signed by acting
mayor Stevens by aldermen J. p.
OCOnnOr JOIN W. Fisher and w g.
" of he
chamber of commerce: vice presidents
j. NJ Wyatt and W. G. Roe, secretary
Fraser and by the heads of
the FL Paso daily newspapers