Evening star., 1941-08-22
BY DON WHITEHEAD,
The Stars Snecial News Service


NEW YORK. Aug. 22-The Ma
tion's press and radio are thunder
ing out a penny serenade these days
"a penny serenade of life and
death, hope and despair.
For a few cents daily and the flip
OF q dial the average citizen gets
his history in the raw straight from
the scenes of action. a blow w-by-blow
account of the greatest spectacle in
modern times.
That is why the impact OF this
war abroad and our Nations defense
program is leaving its mark on the
people more swiftly than in the past.
The tide of words mirroring the
changing story of our times sets the
course of public opinion and brings
the people close to the problems of
war and national defense, with a
front-row seat.
A Matter of Minutes
An army marches in Europe and
the news is known here few min
utes later. A nation falls under the
boot of an invader and the story is
on Main street for all to read. A
city is bombed and before the en-
bers have cooled the newspaper
readers of America read about it
and see the confiagration in pic
lures.
But back OF the headlines is an
endless effort TO get the story of ma
tional defense from every part OF
the country-snd to bring the true
story of war through foreign prOga-
Eanda and censorship to millions
who depend on their daily news
papers for an accurate, honest ac-
counting of the news.
Over the Associated Press wires
strung across the Nation flows a
daily total of 250,0O0 words painting
the picture of what is happening to
the United States in the times of
stress, and what is taking place
abroad. That's the equivalent of
$50 columns of type. More than
1000 full and part-time correspond
ents in every State in the Union
feed this current of domestic news.
In the A. P's cable department in
Rockefeller Center. a staff of 81 sea-
soned newsmen fight the battle of
words around the clock, sitting the
truth from propaganda and ration
alizing the claims from the high
commands of the belligerents.
The clatter of the teletypes never
ceases pounding out such datelines
rs Washington. Chicago, Los An
geles, Rome. Berlin, Moscow. Lon
don, Toxic, Shanghai, Cairo, Buenos
Aires.
Costly Coverage.
The A. P. alone has 1l0 foreign
correspondents located at strategic
news centers. Behind these men,
supplementing their work, are more
than 1000 resident and part-time
correspondents developing news for
A. P.
The cost of covering foreign news
has been staggering. The A. P.
currently is spending approximately
s1,250,000 annually to gather the
news abroad. On days of little ac-
tivity in the theater of war, the
cable file runs to approximately 25,-
900 words, or IS columns of news.
But when big news is breaking the
output is stepped up to $4,000 words
daily.
The foreign correspondents must
tell their stories in as few words
as possible, for cable tolls are high.
A dispatch from Hong Kong sent
at urgent press rate costs 88 cents
. word, or S176 a word if sent
straight urgent. News from Mos
COW runs from 4 cents to IS cents
. word. depending on the speed of
transmission. and one word from
Berlin costs from to 81 cents. The
press rate from London Is cents
per word.
Correspondents are moved about
like chessmen across the changing
world map, following the men who
make the news.
Many of them brave hunger, shat
tered health and even death to get
their stories, men like A. P.s Robert
st. John, who was swept up in the
Iron Guardist revolts in Rumanis
and then driven out before the
German invasion Of Yugoslavia and
Greece.
Brings Out Vivid Pictures.
1t wasn't bravado or grandstand
stuff. 1t was a job He came out
Of the nightmare with machinegun
wounds in his leg and a horror of
the things he had seen-but he
brought with him some of the great
est stories to come from the theater
of war-the Land of the Dead, he
called it.
That's the theme of the penny
serenade these days, sweeping across