Evening star., 1918-08-13
Confers With Press Men.

Confers With Press Men.
The Postmaster General today
| called into conference representatives
of press associations and individual
| newspapers and discussed with them
| possible Improvement in the handling
of press matter. Mr.. Burleson showed
that he had been giving a good deal
of thought to the question and seem
| ed to see that if economies of time
were affected in handling commercial
and government business there
would be ample facilities for the
no disturbance of present arrange
ments where they obviously work in
the direction of efficiency and is in
the immediate future going to study
possible methods of curtailing super
fluouS and unnecessary use of the
wires by the government
The government itself has been the
chief offender in taxing the wires
with messages that could just as well
be sent by mail or during the night
/ instead of during the rush hours of
the day. No effort has been made
heretofore to discriminate between
urgent and non-urgent messages. Gov
ernment business has had the right of
way over all other messages no mat
ter how urgent or important they
| were to private individuals or even
firms engaged in war contracts.
Committee to Consult.
/, Mr.. Burleson has appointed COM
mittee consisting of the chief clerks
| of the War and Navy departments and
othef government officers who handle
| outgoing and incoming kilograms for
| the departments and war boards, and
they will consult all the different Of
| fees in Washington which daily send
| out kilograms in large quantities so
| as to agree upon program of cur
| tailment or deferred delivery.
| Many of the messages could just as
well be sent by letter and many need
not be delivered the same day. There
have been cases in which 2,000-word
kilograms. have been sent to New
York, and marked as night messages,
which could just as well have been
] sent by special delivery mail
Means Waste of Money.
All such extravagances mean rot
fonly waste of government money,
but a tax on the operating facilities
of the companies which they have
themselves been powerless to correct,
because under existing statutes not
only must they give preference to
government business. but their en-
ployes have not dared to suggest to
the sender that the mails might better
] be used.
| Unquestionably, as soon as the sur
completed, there will have to be an
appeal to the public to stop sending
unnecessary messages. While they
were under private control the COM
panieS did not wish to make such an
appeal. as most of their revenue came
from commercial business.
z, The government, in the interest of
efficiency during the war. can afford
| to accept lower rates for messages of
deferred delivery and also to urge the
curtailment of non-essential telegraph
| buSlr> s.
In handling the press the govern
ment has been unconsciously injuring
| itslf. Thousands of unnecessary mes
| sages have been permitted to choke
| the wires and local offices in Wash
! ipgton and other cities from govern
ment officers upon whom no check or
limit was placed and at the same mo-
ment the newspapers were deprived OF
wires they have always used to send
to the people OF the country the news
from Washington and other important
centers of particular interest to the
public during the war.
Lack of Wires Delays.
Much money is spent by the commit
tee on public Information; moreover,
and rruch energy is expended by gov
ernp,ent bureaus in preparing an
rouncements for the press concern
ing the war. but almost half of this
cannot be distributed because of the
lack OF wires. If the government,
TOO undertakes its own distribution
of casualty lists by telegraph. enough
,, wire space must be gained from non
essential uses of the wires to make up
for the increased demand for facfli-
tics which would be entailed by such
a propoSa1.
In the whole, the wire situation Is
closely connected with the question
of domestic propaganda and the
psychological side of the war which
President Wilson has repeatedly en-
Ehasized.
what their government is doing in
washington, their support for public
measures will not be SO easily en-
The Postmaster General has a big
lob on his hands in Strengthening out
the wire situation, but his first con-
ferences with the press indicate that
he is anxious to effect improvements
and economies generally that will not
only help in the winning of the war,
but in giving the people of the coun-
try an efficienf system of internal
communications much better than
they ever enjoyed under private man.
agement.