Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-10

The war between Russia and Tur-
key, which was in progress so years
Correspondents ported under great
at the Front. difficulties owing to
placed upon the correspondents. The
Star of July 8, 1877, noting this fact,
said:
Newspaper correspondents receive
little or no consideration at the hands
of the Car or his commanding gen.
erals. AS rule, the presence of a
newspaper correspondent is not de-
sired by the many commanding Of
fcers in time of war. This is prob
ably accounted for by the fact that
incompetent persons are sometimes
sent out to represent newspapers and
frequently cause grossly erroneous re-
ports Of army operations to be pub
lished. 1t is also frequently the case
that persons of this class give i'm
proper information to the enemy by
publications of military movements in
tended to be kept a secret. In our
late Civil War army correspondents
were simply tolerated and were held
to strict accountability for their pub.
locations. at one time in the Army OF
the Potomac an order being issued
that every correspondent should ap-
pend his name to his letters on pain
of expulsion from the lines. Among
other annoyanceS which the army
correspondent met with was the diff
ficulty Of securing food for man and
beast. the Army regulations making
no provision for the sale by commits.
saries of subsistence stores to the
class in question. Secretary Stanton,
although appealed to, always refused
10
withstanding the fact that he and the
country were almost invariably in
debted to the newspapers for the first
accounts of engagements. 1t was
newspaper correspondent who caused
a telegraph line which had been cut
by the enemy to be repaired to send
the great War Secretary the first
news Of the great victory at Gettys-
burg, just IA years ago today. In
fact, in almost every instance the
people were furnished with full ac-
counts of engagements by the news
papers long before the receipt of Of
Half century ago the "franked
envelope" for Government use was
on, adopted in replacement
UHlcldA of official stamps. The
Postage. Star Of July 3, 1877. says;
with the beginning of
the present fiscal year the use of the
so-called official postage stamps was
discontinued, official envelopes bearing
the name of the bureau and depart
ment from which they are sent taking
their place. The official stamps were
a great expense to the Government,
since the cost of their manufacture
was very large. 1t was Representa-.
tive Sam Randall. we believe. who.
when it was proposed to appropriate
certain sums for each department ex-
cept the Post Office. Department to
buy official stamps from the latter de-
partment, made the remarkable dis.
coyery that all such appropriations
were unnecessary, because, by this
process, Uncle Sam was simply taking
his money from one pocket and trans
ferring it to another-that is to say,
he was increasing the revenue of the
Post Office Department at the expense
of the other departments"
With the assumption by the United
States Government of the task of
completing the Washington Monu-
HE.-x menL various plans were
AonuHent proposed for it differing
Designs. IRON from u the simple sss0 ODesx
assumed. In The Star of July 6. 1877,
is an account of the meeting of the
Washington National Monument So
ciety. at which a communication was
received from Gen. Meigs giving the
details of his plan for finishing the
Monument, which was to surmount
the structure as it then stood-now
marked By the line between the old
and new masonry a little less than
a third of the height from the
ground-with a tower and spire. max.
ing the total height 318 feet. Gen.
Meigs added 6at since he had made