The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-06-10
BY wEsTBRooK PEGLER

al
making people think.
BY wEsTBRooK PEGLER
NEW YORK.-This am telling you with
out so much as a suggestion of Singer
because We all got refined as the years pass
ed srd our hot young blood cooled and now
adays Associated Press and United Press men
LINEN together, play cards together and, for
all l know, may even room together But in
the days that I am telling you about the
United Press was an underdog outfit and the
A. p was the artistocracy and this feeling
extended even to the wage slaves out on as
slgnments. The A. p. had plenty of money
and its salaries and expense accounts were
larger and the A. F. men generally were old
er, for the u P.'s staff was largely composed
of unmarried kids who lived out of suitcases
and made up for their inexperience with en-
thusiasm and ambition.
You may have noticed how polite the U. p.
and its relatives have been to the A. p in
its recent embarrassment over the false flash
from London on the invasion No sneering,
no leering, no hollering fake or the like of
that and, probably, the hands have been about
the same, barring a little ribbing, perhaps
1t wasn't that way in 1918 when Roy Howard
fired In his flash from Brest on the Armistce
after Admiral Wilson had received the word
by telephone from the embassy in Paris and
gave Roy full permission to send it along, as
any alert reporter would have done. That, at
least had every mark of authenticity, where
as, In the present case, the A. P. seems to
have been the victim of one of those dumb,
unavoidable accidents. girl operator, prac-
ticing on a Geographic printer in London
punched out the flash on the tape, contrary
to standing orders against cold-deck matter
and forgot to tear it up. twenty-five years
ago I wouldn't have believed the A. P.'s ex-
7 hoy oil LoI
ed out some canned flashes to save few
seconds in transmission, and the A. P. would
have said the same had it happened to us.
Back in 1914, the u. P. gave the A. P. a
licking on the death of Pope Plus x and,
SO far as the record shows, the A. p still
insists that the U. P. had a false tip or fig
ured that he couldn't live more than a few
hours and took chance. The A. p never
did find out how it happened, nor can I tell
you entirely; but can tell you that his Holi-
ness really was dead when the flash was
filed and the A. P. was very badly beaten
Melville Stone, the general manager of the
"A. r., was very pure and more than slightly
officious about that for he even let it be
known that he had checked the incoming ca
bles from Rome and elsewhere in Europe and
was able to say that no flash had been re-
celved in the United States announcing that
the Pope was dead. Can you imagine that?
{,
the flash must have been faxed in the u. P.'s
office in the old World building-a dastardly
proceeding, no less.
Mr.. Stone had not canvassed all private
messages received that day, however, and
even if he had he might have passed over
the one that carried the news without recog-
nizing it. For it was just an innocent per-
sonal communication from man in Rome
to man in New York, asking him to deposit
a of %1S27 fo
That would mean that Pope Plus had died
at 1887 that afternoon or 1887 o'clock Cont
mental time.
The Vaticans official announcement, on
which the A. p relied came many hours
later because the Pope was not officially dead
until the Papal Secretary of State had been
able to get back to Rome from Naples or
rites by which the death of the Pontiff is
formally established as historical fact.
So indignant was the A. P, and so conf
dent of its own infallibility that you would
have thought that the Associated Press, it.
self, and not the Vatican was the authority
in this matter. Until the A. p said it was
So 1t wasn't So But short while later, the
A. p jumped the gun by several years and
killed off the Popes sister; and for long aft
erward when A. P. men would pull shoots at
U. P. men over the premature death of Pope
Plus, the U. P. men would say that, well,
anyway, he died whereas his sister wasn't
dead yet.
1t was rough-an tumble business, with no
holds barred, and the A. P.'s main trouble
was its over-confidence and too high opinion
OF itself. 1t had no respect for competition
and thought itself incapable Of error. Thus
it was that in 1915 the A. P. was caught lift
ing an exclusive United Press story on the
first Battle of Ypres, filed by the late Bill
Shepherd In New York, the evening World
and evening Sun published it. Presently the
Sun and World reached London where some
one on the morning Telegraph lifted it bodily
Then some A. P man in London in turn A1ted
it and sent it back in the mail service; and
so one month after Shepherds story had oeen
published in the, United States in the papers
then served by the United Press, the U. T. s
story credited to the A. p. showed up veroatm
in the Washington Star, published by the pres