Evening star., 1926-03-09

the Associated Press as maintain
/ ing certain ethical standards ana ex-
pending millions of dollars annually
to gather the news. you may think
Of the 1900 newspaper members:
When you think Of the Associated
Press as reporting the settlement OK
the coal strike. the international ten.
mis- match in France. the rescue OF
the crew OF the Antinoe by the
Roosevelt, or the appearance OF a
new star at the Metropolitan, you
may think of the working staff, sep
arately organized as a distinct body.
with it's general manager, other exec
utives. editors, operators and re-
porters.
"It would be impossible in the few
minutes available to give you more
than a very general idea of the elab-
crate and delicately adjusted system.
mechanical and human, that has been
worked out in order to make 1t pos
sible to gather, sort. revise and dis
tribute hundreds Of thousands Of
words with almost incredible swift
ness. The editors read and edit more
news matter In seven. hours than you
read perhaps in two, weeks. They
are trained to quick decisions and
never to become excited no matter
how exciting the news. The !oper-
ators are highly skilled experts who
In sending use a code that frequent
~ expresses Ave words In one. The
receiving operators, however. must
copy the matter on their typewriters
in plain language as It appears IN
the newspapers. They are capable
Of sending or receiving has high as
10000 words as a days work. Our
Morse or manually operated circuits
H.. rh IL
tomato printer circuits equipped
with machines that copy the report
at a rate Of so words a minute.
Accuracy and Speed.
what Is involved in the quick
handling Of news may be suggested
If tell you that on the night OF O
presidential election we gather ana
tabulate the returns, representing at
the last election 30,000.000 votes. in
few hours. During these hours we
employ an election staff OF $4,000
men and spend a quarter of a mill
lion dollars. But in order to give you
the result in your morning paper
or before, that the Government will
announce formally four months later,
we have to spend one whole year in
preparaton-in setting UP and shak-
Ing down the election machine that
so far never failed to function 100
per cent. You may recall that it was
once widely heralded that Mr..
Hughes had been elected President.
The A. p. election machine never
said so and its figures never indi-
Gated that result.
"The Associated Press staff is
housed in all the great cities of the
world. In the United States there
are rs such Offices connected with
each other and with the member
newspapers by the system Of wires
to which / have referred. There
are bureaus in the foreign capitals
manned by Americans. In some
cases foreigners are employed as re-
porters, and to these we are occa-
sionally indebted for one Of the
laughs that make life worth living.
I must tell you one moro story.
when the late President Roosevelt
was coming out of Africa, after his
famous hunting trip. he was given
a reception by the American colony
at Khartum, where we were rep
resented by a newly engaged English
newspaper man. He was instructed
to report the reception. It seems
that when Mr.. Roosevelt arrived the
Americans greeted him with the then
popular American cry: What's the
matter with Teddy? He's all right.
This was music to the ears Of the