Evening star., 1942-08-29

newspaper can attempt 1t by itself.
The work must be zone by news
agencies serving many newspapers.
The work of the agencies, in turn,
Is so vast that they rely heavily upon
news published by the individual
newspapers receiving the services,
and, when available, sent to the GEN.
trail organization for redistribution
There are three major news agen-
cies in the United States-the Asso-
ciated Press "a. PD, the United
Press tU. PD and the International
News Service Il. N. s..
The first of these, the A. P. is a
non-profit membership organization
OF newspapers which furnish news to
the association from their own COL
umns and receive it from the far
flung s-gathering machinery of
the A. P, The service is paid for by
annual assessments on the members.
The u. P. and the I. N. S. are pri-
vately owned agencies which gather
and sell news for profit. The U. P.
has correspondents in important
places throughout the world, main
tains news bureaus in the larger
American cities and has built up
substantial newspaper following.
A. P. Cooperative.
The u P and the I. N. S. are COM
mercial organizations. The A, P,
however, being organized as a giant
cooperative with 1900 members,
putting out 1000 ,000-word news re-
port each day at cost of $l2,000,000
year, has a range far beyond that
OF news corporation organized for
profit and with fewer clients.
Observe how this handicap is in
tensified when the monopolistic by
laws of the Associated Press come
into play. A. P. news is restricted
to members, but U, P news is sold
generally. A. P. members can and
do buy the u P. service, but the A. P.
will not furnish it's services to news
papers which are not A. P. members.
This, however is not the worst of
it. The A. P. has a bylaw which
forbids its members to furnish the
news they publish to any agency but
the A. P. Wherever therefore, there
Is but one newspaper in field. and
that newspaper receives both the A.
P. and U. P. services, it can if it is
a regular member, furnish news in
return only to the A. P. If it under
takes to furnish news to the U. P.
also, it runs the risk of losing Its
A. P. membership.
Suppose, for instance, that pow
der factory is blown up or riot oc-
ours in a city where there is only
one newspaper, and that one an A. P.
member which also is client of the
U. P. Such a newspaper publishes
the news of the explosion or the
riot, and telegraphs an account of
it to the A. P. But it dares not send
that published story to the U. P. for
fear of losing its A. P. franchise. BY
that system over 1900 of the leading
news sources of the country, being
newspapers who are members of the
A. P, are closed to competing agen-
cies. That is what some people call
freedom of the press.
The Chicago Sun does not call it
that, and neither does the United
States Government. The Govern
ment calls it combination in re-
straint of trade. 49,.
Two Ways to Get Franchise.
Now let us turn to the heart of the
A. P. monopoly-the membership by
laws. Theoretically, there are two
ways by which an Associated Press
franchise may be secured-by elec-
ton to membership, or by purchase
of franchise already belonging to
some newspaper Practically speak
ing, these might be called the black
ball method and the hen's-teeth
method OF keeping new members out.
The election provision was delib-
erately framed to produce monopoly
This is evident from its history
For many years, each member of
the old A. P-predecessor to the
present body-had an absolute veto
power over the election of COM
petitor. This was changed some
years ago to what was called the
right of protest" Any member,
obJect1ng to the admission OF COM
petitor in its territory, could force
an election in which the applicant
had to get four-flfths majority or
stay out
In April. 1942, with the prospect
Of an antitrust suit hanging over
them, the Associated Press abol-
ished the right of protest and re-
duced the admission requirement
to simple majority. At the same
time, new and ingenious monopoly
device was set up. This was by
law requiring that any newspaper
admitted to membership should pay
its competitors certain percent
age Of all past assessments (that is,
the cost of A. P. news since the