The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-09
Edqar T. Cutter, Executive, Narrates Gigantic Task Of World Wide Agency

CHICAGO, III. Dec. s.-tBy Asso- ciated Press.)-"Broadcasting Church News" was the subject of talk by Edgar T. Cutter. superintendent of the central division of the Associated Press, before a conference here on church publicity at the annual meet ing of the Chicago Church Fedora tion.
 "Broadcasting church news is no different than broadcasting-any other kind of news| Cutter said. "The trouble is getting the copy. It is more difficult to get promptly the important religious happenings than any other class of news. It is not the fault of the newspapers or the news agencies that this news Is not published more freely. The fault lies with the clergy, and, because of the laxity in response, the world is miss ing one of the greatest opportunities for progress of all times.
 q should like to tell you something of the machinery, the facilities that are available for spreading these happenings of the religious world. You have been made familiar with the operations of our daily newspa- pers, and other speakers have told you of newspaper ideals among the highest in the land. You probably nave not suspected IL, Dut tuclo dl . newspaper men who start their daily tasks with the prayer, Lord, show me thy way that I may walk therein men who. realize their great re- sponsibility both to church and state in the great work of spreading the worlds doings. So I want first to explain the principal source of news upon which newspapers depend-the Associated Press.
 This organization sprang into ex- istence through the needs of news papers whose publishers realized from the advent of the metropolitan daily of 50 years ago that news must be pure at the source. They might have political and religious diversi- ties and print their own editorial views on these, but they all agreed that the worlds happenings should come to the reader without any show of bias. There was, too, the element of cost. No single newspaper could afford to pay correspondents all over the world and. in addition. settle the enormous toll bills. A mutual effort was necessary, and from it developed the Associated Press. Newspapers of all creeds and politics and of varied races ultimately, therefore, pooled their needs and decided to prorate the cost of worldwide news gather ing, a gigantic job. At first there were only a few great eastern dailies, and then gradually the effort in cluded more and more newspapers published to the westward and south ward until today the entire country Is linked together in this organiza- tion.
 Mark Twain's Idea.
 Mark Twain, speaking of the final consummation of this effort, said that there are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe-only two-the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down heret
 Others, among them ministers of the gospel, have seen the Associated Press as a great machine for the dis religious society or the partisan hap penings of that political party.
 As the Associated Press Is a mu- tual organization, nonmoney making and paying no dividends. whose mem bers direct 1t and sustain it, it can have no other purpose than that of the collection and dissemination of the interesting news of the world. It's head officers are men of high ideals. Its 15 directors, all publish CTS of newspapers, large and small, located in every section of the coun- try. are elected by the 1,275 news paper members. The association can- not be partisan, for it's members are made up of Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Gentiles, republicans and democrats, socialists, Germans, Ital- ians. Spanish, French and Japanese. It Is automatically honest and it's mission Is plain-simply the daily re- cording of the worlds work. It should be rather apparent said one member recently, that with it's di- versified membership, the Associated Press could not long be controlled by any faction of any kind
 T want to give you a brief picture of the actual machinery of gathering and spreading news, religious and otherwise.
 The Associated Press leases 93 ,o00 miles of telegraph wires that touch every state in the union, and carry daily 75,000 words of fresh news. ex- changing it with the greatest agen- cies of other countries, and itself serving directly papers in Cuba, Mex ico, Central and South America, the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands and Alaska. The Chicago newspapers which give you this great budget of news each 24 hours. and at cost to you of only few cents, prorate the cost of handling this great volume
 
 more than $6.00o,Q Q00 a year.
 Upwards of 1900 salaried edi- tors and operators are engaged in corralling this news and giving 1t to you, and in their efforts they are aided by the 1,275 newspapers each of which furnishes the news of it's locality. Counting the reporters and editors on thees newspapers, the Associated Press, it is estimated, has at it's command So,0oo reporters in this country, in addition to the thous- ands in the foreign lands.
 Only Truth Reported.
 Thousands of dollars have been expended to report . single story. The management has not yet finished paying the huge bill for cable and wireless tolls on the story of the Japanese disaster. And in this con- nection, public speaker recently as- serted that all foreign news reached this country in skeletonized form, written in this country. He ex- pressed his ignorance of the fact that thousands of words are daily re- ceived at the full cable rate, without even the little words omitted. as you do in sending domestic message in this country. All this for speed and accuracy and to carry the stories, "S eia.Hou AmoiAcaH stdli meu m other lands report happenings just as they do in the United States.
 And yet, a prominent Missouri di- vine, the editor of a church paper, said recently: Do we get the truth? International transformation is an old story
 T do not understand how he fig ured it out that 1.275 daily news paper publishers, making up the best brains of the country. and respon- sible publishers in great newspaper plants, would passively agree to ac- cept this international misinforma- tion.' Obviously, this gentleman did not know how foreign news was col lected, and 1t Is sad. for we have a right to look at the church for unbiased statements.
 This divine continued: I wish might ask for cooperation from our