The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-07-02
A Matter of Men

When vol, read the familiar letters "U. p" or
the by-line United Press" what picture presents
Itself to your mind? Do you wide network OF
wires connecting telegraph instrument typewriters
and printing presses, great mechanical monster with
entacles in every town of this and other lands auto
matcay gathering and speeding the news OF all that
happens, as fast as it happens?
That is not uncommon impression OF what is
meant by press Observation-Disclosures the United
Press or another But the actual thing is something
very different,
A press association is composed OF men and women
True it utiiizes many marvels of machinery from
the still indispensable Morse instrument to the latest
radio device press association operator now may
sit at a TYPEWRITER in New York and have the words
he types appear in the Office of The Times as fast as
his fingers hit the keys. And that is wonderful In
its way But the important element in press as
ISOLATION continues to be the human beings that
compose it.
These human beings make mar the news serv-
ice and all the inventions that may come to ma
chinery cannot change this fact. News never has
BEEN and probably never will be, foolproof So it is
that the strength of press association rests pr-
ariIy on the character Of the men and women in it.
Recent days have put the United Press to the
supreme test
Nungesser and Coli carrying the hopes of all
France attempted the long flight the Atlantic.
They never reached America but report spread
throughout New York City that they had been
sighted over Nova Scotia. That report was flashed
across to Paris-but not by the United Press
The United Press serves many French newspapers
and these newspapers clamored for confirmation.
Their competitors were the streets with extra ed
tons, the populace going wild. Only the Unitee
Press withheld the news. Why? The United Press
didn't have it, If the other press associations had it,
then the United Press was beaten and would have
to endure the unfavorabe comparison. But while
franticaly securing all of Nova Scotia by telegraph,
telephone and radio to get it's information, it
refused to be stampeded.
Nungesser and Coli had not reached America.
Their fate is still mystery
The course followed by the men in the New York
Office of the United Press that day required char
acter. If you doubt this, sit the sidelines some
day in that great room, covering full floor
of the New York World Bldg Sit there a day
when messages pouring in from every part Of the
world telling that other press associations are report
ing this that great event and asking why
the United Press does not report the same Watch the
perspdration pour from the faces of the young
who handle the news. They call themselves the
fastest in the world. To be beaten gals them. But
they stand fast on the information they have They
don't take chance They don't gamble with the
emotions of the millions that depend on them for
news.
They scored beat of several minutes on the arr
rival of Lndbergh in Paris but Lindbergh there
his plane safe on the landing field before they sent
the news They escaped the necessity of correcting
their flashes the arrival of Chamberin and
Levine in Germany-their flashes being true
And finally, it was the United Press to which the
country had to turn during all of Thursday night
for authentic news of Commander Byrd and his
panions. Extras issued in many cities telling
Of Byrds safe arrival in Paris. Some carried the
by1ine of press association and carried the
by-lines of another But none of these carried the
line "By United Press"
When the fact of Byrd's landing in the English
channel became known, the United Press had it
first Indeed it was from the United Press that the
United States Secretary Of the Navy got the
did hundredes of Byrds fellows in the Navy by tee-
phoning at $3.50 o'clock in the morning
such succession The United Press might have been
first (and correcD in one without proving anything
It might have been first (and correct) in two and
still not have eliminated the element of luck. But
four times out of four does prove something.
We think it proves the character of the men
who are banded together behind that two-letter
symbol-"U. P"