Evening star., 1936-06-20
GENIUS OF WIRES
Continued from Page B-1)

Continued from Page B-1)
over the world. Every great newspaper
in America has correspondent here
and so have the newspapers Of Ber-
lin, London, Petrograd, Paris, Ell al
OF course, the foreign correspond
ents send their stuff by cable; but
even so it must clear from that little
room on Thirteenth street-for the
cable wires and the telegraph wires
are sisters under the insulation. AS
matter of fact, the news must be
telegraphed out of Washington be-
fore it can reach a cable-in New
York.
So that room has the honor of
knowing more about what is happen
ing in Washington than all the COM
bined heads Of news services in the
town, and knowing it first.
There has to be. naturally, a GER
tain amount of ethics involved in this
sending of the newS-otherUise one
news service would not be able, from
time to time. to score a beat-a scoop,
an exclusive story.
While Washington is the great news
center, sometimes the scene shifts
as it did when the Republican National
Convention was operating in Cleve-
land, and as it will again when the
Democrats take up the white mans
burden in Philadelphia next week.
Even so-that little room on Thir-
teenth street remains as busy as a bee
hive, for news comes into that room
as fast as it goes out, on those occa-
sions when the news center of the
Nation carries a different date line
from Washington, D. C.
When the orators crate In Philadel-
phia, and when the President, espe-
cially. makes his acceptance speech,
the wires will buzz-and when the
wires buzz the teletype instruments in
the Thirteenth street room will hum.
For that is the collecting as well as
the distributing point for news.
Ordinarily. such a room should be
manned by newspaper men, but there
is not a newspaper man in the place
Instead, only highly-trained techni-
clans. They are not concerned with
what goes over their wires so much
as they are with how the wires carry
the freight. 1t is freight. and precious
freight at that: perishable freight,
as every newsman knows. The story
that was lead ALL at 9 o'clock in
the morning is dead issue at 5
o'clock in the afternoon, which is the
way news goes.
THE handling of this news, though,
is something else again. Under
the old system, granted the same SET
up was in operation, every man who
had a piece of copy to file would
probably send 1t to this room by
messenger boy. Now, all that same
correspondent has to do is file it in his
own office. 1t will turn up on the
teletype, be distributed at the little
room on Thirteenth street, and even-
tually find its way into some news
paper offce-in one of the 48 States.
They are mighty proud, and justly
so, up there on Thirteenth street over
the manner in which they get out
this news service. They serve all
manner of men-special Washington
correspondents, news services-and
that means everything under high
heaven, from racing news to sports to
politics.
Nothing seems to dazzle the corps
Of operators in charge of the teletype
machines, for the machines have been
so perfected that they need no human
services, with few exceptions. Some
one must oil them, but no one Is
needed to start or stop them, pro-
Wding the electricity holds out.