Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-04-20
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HEAD FLAYS UNFAIR
AND LYING CRITICS
Calumination Always Reaches
Peak in Presidential Cam
paigns, He Declares,
GREATEST NEWS SERVICE
OF WORLD is EXTOLLED
By Associated Press TO Every Evening

By Associated Press 10 Every rfeiihs
New York, April 20.-Members of The
Associated Press met at the Waldorf
Astoria Hotel here today to elect five
directors. four advisory boards, and
auditing and nominating committees.
AZ luncheon in connection with the
meeting President Frank B. Noyes OF the
Washington STAR proposed a toast to
President Wilson, saying lin offering
toast. the formal wish for health is usually
of little significance, with us this year, IN
our only toast il is our custom to offer,
the case is profoundly different, for very
earnestly. very hopefully and very sim
cerelv we drink TO the health, the full re-
stored health. Of the President OF the
United States
every season Of the year Is an open
season for the crltics of The Associated
Press" said Mr.. Moves, beginning his
address to his assistant officers and
| directors.
eve are accustomed through long ex-
perence TO the ratings and our service OF
| the uniformed, the notoriety seeker and
the common or garden liar who charges
| bias or suppression in the report OF The
| Associated Press.
EVERY newspaper man, every inform
| cd person. knows how preposterously
| untrue these charges are-whoeyer may
make them To YOU, ! need not explain
/ that our organization was IN response TO
| the demand of the newspapers that their
| news service should be owned and con-
| troIled hv themselves and themselves
| alone and that il should be their servant
| and not their master: that it should give
an adequate and truthful record OF the
day's world happenings free from bias and
from opinion or propaganda. While lay
ing no claim 10 inerrancy, our service has
| been singularly successful IN attaining the
objects we sought and the line by the
Associated Press, has become a hallmark
of accuracy. whether the event recorded
is the election Of President, the signing
OF an armistice, decision OF the Supreme
Court or the death of the pope.
Secure in our knowledge that our
agency is serving us faithfully and COM
petentlv. we may contemplate the out
| bursts against us of radicals and rcac-
tionaries with good natured tolerance
when their attacks are due to ignorance
and with contempt when due to malice.
while at all times this open season
continues, every four years comes special
neriod of tribulation. When the presiden-
tial campaign rolls around every candidate
for the nomination and the resulting
presidential candidates and every man
ager of every such candidate finds clear
evidence in our report OF bias against
every candidate northumberland after
the election, and then agree that The
Associated Press has been consplcuousiy
fair. This has been our experience IN the
past and there is every indication that the
present campaign will be no exception.
Il say this for there is a measure OF
truth in the charge, for on the theory
that he who is not for us is against usi
The Associated Press is against every
candidate, for it surely is not for any one
of them.
Mr.. Moves explained that while every
one of the candidates will have the sup
port of individual members, The Assoclat-
ed Press will continue serenely Indifferent
as to the outcome of the nominating con-
ventions and elections. contenting itself
with supplying its members with the news
as it happens, playing no tayorltes and
Furnishing no enemies.
"The report of The Associated Press
does not grow or simply come into beng
without effort continued Mr.. Moves.
every line, every word is the product of
an individual worker, of whom hundreds
toll and adventure daily to supply fair
picture of the worlds happenings.
every one OF you know that at bot
tom these charges of bias are charges
against our anonymous workers-who,
if we are betrayed, are the betrayers, who,
if these charges are true, are recreant 70
the trust we have placed in them.
''You know them, you know them all
division chiefs, bureau chiefs, editors
correspondents, reporters, operators, work
ing tirelessly, faithfully, efficiently, in
teiligently. You know that these men are
the salt OF the earth, the pride of our pro-
fession, and neither your opinion nor mlnt
can be fifty expressed on an occasion OF
this sort of the ignoramuses, the blather-
! sixties or the liars who defame them.
Mr., Noyes, in introducing Vice-Presi
dent Marshall, the principal speaker al
the luncheon, said:
"Some men shrink in stature on further
acquaintance, while few grow. These
people of the United States have oh
served one of the chief of their servant,
from day to day and from year to veal
there has been an increasing appreciation
} with each day and each year not only o
his delightful personality and of his grea
tact in very trying and difficult posi-
ton, but of his resolute choerfulness anC
sturdy good sense-and that IS saying
: great deal in these days, and especial,
of q man who has been in his precls
geographical position.
1T gives me great pleasure to presen
to you the Nice-President of the Unltes
: 80. Tb1r,as u AIarba1I y