El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1919-04-14

] uaNl0r uuC er the most Trying cOuul-
I tons amidst many personal dangers
Z and hardships."
: son. another in a threat OF some
I body TO get out II he doesn't get
/ what he wants. a third in the fear
I Of some general that the Germans
would start fighting again. many
/ from time 20 time have based excit-
I ing leads" upon not wholly disin-
terested points Of view skilfully pre-
E scented TO them by JugO Slav. Italian.
I Polish propagandists-
After many weeks OF this sort Of
7 thing served up for breakfast every
morning, II is no wonder the Ameri-
can public is bewildered- IL is not
that there has been deliberately fac
ing" in Paris American reporters
there as elsewhere IN Europe are more
reliable IN their presentation Of facts
than their foreign competitors. be-
cause their training is more thorough
and rigid All Of the stories and
leads such as have described are
sent over in good faith and most Of
them from a certain angle OF vision
contain more OF less truth
Stories Misleading.
But, taken together, they convey
q wholly misleading impression Of
what is going on The real story Of
the peace conference Is not in
row here, a threat there, a silk hat
and a picturesque turban- The real
story must be composite What APP
pears true at a given moment TO
trenchmen is a base fabrication 70
the Englishman and the decision
which the advocate OF the treaty OF
London swears to you has already
been made concerning the Adriatic
is denied with no less justice by the
Slav who demonstrates that circum-
stances alter cases-and treaties
Thus, in our newspapers, story has
followed story and denial has fol-
lowed denial and the mind Of the
public appears TO have become utter
" and completely confused
The peace conference cannot be.
properly reported by use OF the news
paper technique usual in reporting a
fire or a murder or a worlds series,
and the attempt TO pick out facts
and news every day Tor new
story" in the morning has proved in
my judgment a mistaken method
II seems TO me the peace conference
should be viewed like a session OF
the stock market What the public
wants 20 know in the latter case is
whether the market is going up or
down or remaining stationary Let
US suppose a session Of the market
that lasts instead OF five hours for
as many months. and with the fate
OF the whole world depending on
succeeded when the closing gong
sounds. There are hundreds OF stocks Z
being traded in. but the outsider is !
interested not particularly In the
movement Of any one stock. but IN I
the general tone and behavior Of the /
market as a whole
If the newspapers sought every 4
morning to feature" not the posi- I
tion Of the market as a whole, but ]
the performances OF some one or two
stocks that moved more rapidly up 4
or down than the others, and the I
rumors and statements distributed
in Wall street for the purpose OF in
sentiment, and Of the prices
OF stocks on the New York stock eX-
change were kept more or less secret, I
the confusion Of the financial public
would be very great. II the market
KEPT us prices DARK, me reporter 8 7
Job would be 20 tel his readers
the market had gone up or
down during the preceding day the
antics OF particular stocks would be
Of secondary interest
And so in the great market in
Paris, the real question an the time
has been, Are the reactiOnary bears
OF the progressive bulls getting the
upper hands2 What is the tones Of
the sessions2 The league Of nations,
Poland, Russia. the Adriatic, all these
issues, especially the first, are i'm
Z
possibility Of a settlement, but for
the main point from the
start has been. rs progress being
made or are the negotiators drifting
lpart2" The reporter, it seems to me,
should have kept this big thought
before him always. but in the actual
II seldom assumes its
proper prominence.
It Is a bull market in Paris.
From the very beginning Of the
conference until the time 1 left
France, and to Judge from the
dispatches until today, the trend
has been upwards, towards under
standing and Cancellation and CO.
operation in the future between
the allies.
But the market has been like AMI
lul markets. disturbed many times
~ bear raids. It has gone up. then
[ has gone down, then it has started
lp again, but continually more ground
las been made than has been lost
Troubles between italy and the
southern Slavs, the Polish Difficult
les, quarrels over the Saar valley
md the left bank Of the Rhine BIT
er differences Of opinion over the
olonies, the japanese arguments and
he VeXed colonial Questions-all
-hese factors have soWn suspicion
nd i'll will, have depressed the mar
-et But after each setback the ground
ost has been regained, and morei
han regained.
Taking a broad view. that is the
ituation now as I see It. To say
hat the conference so far has been
IN the whole highly successful is
lot TO say that IL will succeed. for
here are two gigantic problems
head, either OF which may wreck the
whole show and send the peace
market tumbling down TO the bottom
n hopeless panic They are the Ger
nan and Bolshevik issues.-C0pyrigh
sls, by Mcclure Newspaper Syndi-