The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-10-03
Frederick I askin's lie,
PHOTOGRAPHIC THE GRE.

Warrington, d. C.-Sept 90
When Justice John Hessin Clarke
resigned from the supreme court
the other day. he did q service not
only to the man appointed to sue
ceed him but also, though quite in
cidentally. to one or more news
photographers in Warrington. A
new justice on the supreme bench
means new photograph of the su-
preme court. and . new photograph
OF the supreme court is worth
many hundreds of dollars to the
photographer who secures 1t.
But photographing the supreme
court 10 all in the days business
for the news photographer in the
national capital. although not many
photographs are SO valuable. A
photograph Of the supreme court
has . historical value which
causes It to be purchased not only
by newspapers and magazines, but
also BY lawyers, law libraries, "et
al, to use legal phraseology. Yet
it frequently happens that the news
photographers by some lucky shot
secures a picture that outdistances
the formal group photograph Of the
supreme justices as a seller. This
Is usually q view Of some great man
in an unopposed. human attitude
the well-known picture of Mrs.
Harding fastening a rose in her
distinguished husbands buttonhole
was an example-but it may be
merely a still picture Of some seen
ic phase.
The man who first photographed
the reflection of the capitol's dome
on the wet asphalt made himself a
small fortune. How many copies
OF the photograph of the blossom
ing cherry trees along the tidal ba-
sin in Washington have been sold
Tens Of thousands of them. Some
day, when the landscaping of the
approaches to the Lincoln memoir
ial is done, some lucky button
presser will get that right; and
there will be another fortune made.
No other city in the world is so
thoroughly photographed, both as
to its distinguished inhabitants
and visitors and as to its streets
and buildings, as Washington. The
firm Of Harris & Ewing alone owns
over half million negatives Of
Washington pictures of news value
past and present. The firm of In
derwood & Underwood, although
established in Washington only for
a few years, also possesses an
enormous file. Besides these there
are several other photographers
whose business is primarily stu
dio business but who deal in news
photographs to a greater or less
extent it is probably safe to esti-
mate that there now exist the neg
atives of a million news photog-
raphers. And the oldest of these
negatives is not much more than
Is years old.
Photographers Rank With
Reporters.
The business of photographing
the progress of our government has
grown to be as highly specialized as
that of reporting it in print. The
photographer has taken his place
along with the Washington cores
pondent News photographers
have their regular station at the
White house, for instance, just as
do the representatives of the press
associations. This is all an ultra
modern development Infants born
before the modern action news pho
tograph was understood at all are
still minors. Yet today there i!
scarcely any phase of historical
progress anywhere in the work
that is not being completely pre-
served in photographs.
| To appreciate the truth of thi
| statement, the reared has only t
search his recollection for a menta
image Of, say, President BENJAMIN
Harrison in some active pose. H
has no such recollection, for h
never saw an action picture Of Har
rison. Except for those who say
President Harrison in life the pub
! lie today has not better means
knowing what he really looked lik
than it has OF knowing what Juliu
Caesar looked like. 1t has som
formal portraits and that is al
The same is substantially true c
Presidents Cleveland and MckiI
ley; although motion pictures ha
been invented by Mckinley's TIM
and the movie camera was turne
upon him.
But the photographing Of new
as we now know it, began durin
Roosevelt's administration, whe
Barney Clinedinst, Washingto
photographer, imported from Gel
many a camera with shutter s
rapid that it would stop upon tn
Photographic plate the swifte'
kinds of action. No man was MOI
receptive to new ideas than Roos'
welt; and when Clinedinst tol
Roosevelt about the new Gamer
the president invited the photogr;
pher to test the new instrument
taking some snapshots of T. r. .
horseback. The famous pilot,
; graph of Roosevelt vaulting fiv,
bar fence on a horse was the resu
of that first appointments phot'
graph that is said to have mac
Clinedinst over $4,000. 1t was Il
forerunner of the modern actic
picture Of public men.
,