The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-04-27


 pulication. It refers among other things to the experiences of some As sociated Press men in the foreign ser vice and in making this part public the board authorized the insertion in paraptheses of of the name of the man concerned. The report follows:
 To members of the Associated Press: In earlier reports we have endeavored to .summerize briefly the most import ant news event of the year. We make no such attempt this year. There have been months during which more epoch making news has developed than during some previous entire years, and all newspaper men must wonder whether we shall ever return to former standards of news values. Nor do we enlarge in this report on the news gathering achievements of the organization. With those achefve- ments have come many inevitable dis appointments. Over taxed cables, muddled censorships and similar ex- agencies of war often have upset OUT plans and frequently neutralized the resourcefu1ness of our staff. Yet we have comparably the most compre- hensive piece of machinery for col lecting and distributing news that the world has ever known.
 Of our men abroad we gratefully acknowledge our appreciation. Tor pedoes and mines at sea and shot and shell on land have held no fears for them. Their escapes amid danger have been countless. One (Frark M. Ixr zeppelin bomb in London but worked all night as usual-merely an incident of the days work in an office building which has itself been hit by such shells; another (Robert T. SmalD fell into the icy Somme but rode 35 miles to cable the story of the first Amer ican in Peronne; another (Charles T. Thompson) was on the highest ram part of the castle of Gorizia when a shell bufied it and him under earth, l but on that afternoon he wrote a 1 story which thrilled the press of Flu rope as well as of the United States; another (Walter Whiffen) was shot in the knee on a Russian observation | post; another (Charles S. Smith after a bayonet and fist encounter at liar bin escaped with painful decorations; another (James Hickey) was blown through a glass door by the Halifax explosion but before dressing his wounds was resourceful enough to find in a demolished building the terminus of the cable to the West Indies and sent by way of Bermuda and Havana to New York the first direct messages out of Halifax. Such incidents are not unusual in the service of your or ganization.
 Through the years the Associated Press has by maintaining it's standards of accurate reporting preserved the best traditions of journalism. The good name of the Associated Press has not been impaired. The public confidence in our dispatches steadily has grown, until millions of readers now hesitate to give credence to may published re- ports until assured that they were carried by our association. The sen sationa1 Zimmerman note with it's re- port of diplomatic intrigue in Mexico was universally accepted as genuine because the Associated Press said it was. The bombardment of Paris at long range was ridiculed by other press associations and by ordnance experts, but the Paris bureaus of the Associated Press, which for two days alone reported the startling develop ment of the war to American readers, convinced the skeptical quite as thor oughly as did the official confirmation of it's report. When the government s action in taking over the Dutch ships in American harbor was reported in Europe several chance11ories inquired in European capitals whether the As sociated Press announced this fact. This reputation for telling the truth on the part of the Associated Press is outrecognized quite generally throug- out diplomatic and journalistic circles abroad as it is in the United States and it is an asset of members of the or gaiZations that is. of the utmost value.
 During the last year the war has naturally drawn heavily upon our
 staff. It has been the policy of the management not only not to seek ex- emption from government service on
 behalf of it's employees, but to en-
 courage such service. Men who year
 ago were serving this organization now are by hundreds in the military and naval or other service of the
 United States. Our operators in par ticular have been able to render val uable service for which their train
 ing has peculiarly fitted them. Within 2 year we thus have lost more thar one fourth of our staff, and many more men soon are to leave us.
 In this period of war, as the activi ties and responsibilities of our service
 have steadily increased, it is a source
 of great pride to know that those . upon whom the burden has fallel have met their obligations with { measure of faithfulness and intelli
 gence for which the management il Il deeply grateful By direction of tn | board of the staff, the life of each em ploye in the United States, while il the service, has been insured for tn , benefit of his heirs or dependents il e in the sum of $1,000. Because of tn = greater risk involved, established com =. panies will not accept insurance o1
 the lives of our men in foreign servic
 but the board itself has assumed lia :, bility on their behalf.
 While the growth in membershi
 was unusually large during the las
 year, the members should, not mis . take the policy as to growth. UnIik the privately owned and profit mak c ing agencies, we do not traffic in news We welcome only such additions t n membership, as strengthen the new
 gathering facilities of this body. A the close of the year there were 63 S evening newspapers. 391 morning pa
 pers and 61 Sunday morning news