Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-06-20
ELECTION. "NEWS"

ELECTION ttNEWS"
With the exception Of sope Of the returns from To-
oalities near by. in which there wa special local interest,
the returns from the Minnesota primaries ~published in
The Herald have been exclusively those ~furnished to thii
paper by the Associated Press. The Herald assumed,
a. it always does in such cases. that its readers wished
the facts, rs nearly and rs promptly as they could be as
certained, and. rs the Twin Cities, whore the news Of the
election would naturally center, are also the eenters Of
the work Of the Associated Press for the entire north.
west, and Is the Associated Press is not only energetic
In its collection Of news. but is absolutely without bias
in its handling Of it. we believed that the readers Of this
paper would be best served in this case by combining it,
reports to the matter sent direct to this office over the
Associated Press leased wire. Accordingly, We relied
on the Associated Press for the news. received all that
was sent, and published all the dispatched exactlv .sl
they were received.
Tho stories told In those dispatches have been inter
estang and consistent. Because OF the fact that the Min
nesota primaries remain open until . D. H.. and that
counting cannot begin until some time after that hour,
1t was impossible to obtain on the night Of election re-
turns from more than a fraction Of the precincts of the
s1a1e' Ine figures were compiled at the various news
neadquarters as they were received, anu the compilations
were forwarded by wire and published in this pauer Tho
returns available on the first night gave Governor Burn-
quist some 10000 more votes than were cast in the same
t0SAAS " Ills opponent. IN tn1t basis. and in fHe
light Of their knowledge Of state conditions, men skilled
IN such matters made estimates as to the probable total
majority for Burnauist. Those estimates placed his ma
3orMy at $4,000 and upwards Since then. additional
returns have been coming in until, as these line. are
written. with three-fourths Of the precincts and much
moro than that proportion OF the votes heard from. the
recorded majority for Burnquist stands at just about 5o,-
ooo' tne remaining returns may change that total either
way but the change will be relatively slight. Since the
beginning of the count the Burnquist majority has been
growing steadily. and the forecasts which were xiven in
the Associated Press DISPATCHES Of The Herald have been
fully borne out.
The Townley daily in Fargo had exactly the Same facts
and estimates It did not publish them. Instead. it
treated its readers. to a hashed-up report prepared nv a
special correspondent" That papers first report de-
clared the result Of the Minnesota contest to bs in doubt,
when no possible doubt existed. In it's second effort
declared that, 1Andbersh was gaining rapidly en- Burn
quist and that the latter's lead was likely to be cut to
less taan 10000, when no such probability existed.
The Herald mentions this at this time not for the
purpose Of discussing what the Town1ey paper tries to
palm off on its leaders as news, but to call attention to
its own %invariable practice in handling election returns.
That practice IL and has been to ASCERTAIN the facts as
accurately as possible. and then to present those facts
to its readers, no matter what they may be. The Herald
assumes. regardless Of what their own desires and sym,
pathieA its readers wish to know after election who has
been elected OF nominated, and how many votes they re-
ceived. The Herald supplies that Information to the best
Of its ability. In the present case the result happened to
be in accord with what The Herald believed to be in line
with the public interest, and the facts were given with
out being stretched or masnified. Had the result been
Just the opposite the treatment would have been exactly
the same. and IL such an undesirable thing q the nom
ination Of Lindbersh had occurred, that fact would have
been stated in these columns. just as the paper would
have published the facts relating to a fire. or a murder.
or a shipwreck, or anything else of which it did not ap-
prove.