The Birmingham age-herald. [volume], April 30, 1913, Page 3, Image 3

About The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950

Image provided by: University of Alabama Libraries, Tuscaloosa, AL

                
i
i Tuscaloosa to Spend $90,000
on Street Improvements
$2000 IN FAIR PRIZES
Pratt Signs With Reds—Company F
to Be Mustered Out—Tuscaloosa
Preparing for Shriners’
Convention Today
Tuscaloosa. April 29.—(Special.)—The
$90,000 of street Improvement bonds re
* cently Issued by the city to the Southern
Asphalt and Construction company and
purchased by Clarkson and Morrisette.
a prominent law Arm. have bean resold
to a Cincinnati Arm and money has been
received in Tuscaloosa for same.
At a meeting of the fair directors held
this week a report was iliade on the
prises for the fair to be held this fall.
More than $2000 In cash has been sub
scribed and the list of prizes will be giv
en out within the next few days.
Mel ford Pratt, Alabama’s star pitcher,
has signed up with the Cincinnati Reds
for the coming baseball season. This Is
Pratt’s first year with the Alabama team
and the fluttering offer from the famous
Cincinnati team is a decided compliment j
to his ability.
The annual parish meeting of Christ 1
church was held this week the meeting
being interesting and well attended. Re
ports from the various church organlza- ;
tions were heard and the financial state
ment given out at this meeting was the
most gratifying ever made.
Col. C. R. Brickeu, commanding the
Second regiment, A. N. G.. has received
orders from the adjutant general s office
to muster out oomp&ny F, Warrior
Guards, on account of inefficiency.
R. H. Tattle has purchased the Allen 1
place, a plantation of 450 acres four miles
from the city, located between the San
ders Ferry and Foster’s Ferry road.
Elaborate preparations are being made
In Tuscaloosa for the Shriners’ conven
tion to be hold Wednesday. The Board
of Trade ha« arranged to have automo- ;
biles meet the train and conduct the visi
tors to the university, Insane hospital.
Warrior locks, Northport and other points
of Interest, after which they will hold a
session in the Elks auditorium and later
enjoy a banquet at the Mcljester hotel.
MANY HOMICIDES
IN HOUSTON COUNTY
Dothan, April 29.—(Special.)—Judge H.
A. Pearce convened the spring term of
circuit court for Houston county here
Monday. Solicitor R. H. Parks of Troy
was unable to attend. Col. A. E. Pace of
Dothan is acting as solicitor.
In his charge to the grand Jury Judge
Pearce stated that there had been more
homicides In Houston county in the past
six months than in any like period for
the past two or three years, and request
ed a thorough investigation. Only civil
f aces will be tried this week. The docket
Is very heavy in both the civil and crim
inal divisions.
r—-1
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
By VRA>K l». JfOYItf, rit ( ;smti VI'
(In the Sorlli Aintrlcnn Hrvleit)
Probably no Institution is more widely
known by name than The Associated
Press and, on the other hand, more
vaguely understood by the public gener
ally as to Its organisation snd Its func
tions. For whatever cause this may be,
that it is a fact is daily apparent.
The Associated Press is an association
of something over 8vO newspapers, oper
ating under a charter of the state of
New York as a mutual and co-operative
organization for the interchange and col
lection of news. Under the terms of its
charter "the corporation is not to make
a profit nor to make or declare dividends
and is not to engage in the business of
selling intelligence nor traffic in the
same.”
In other words, The Associated Press
is simply a common agent of its mem
bers by which they arrange an inter
change of the news that each collects,
and is bound by its membership obliga
tion to contribute for the common use
of its fellow^ members and also as the
agency through which reports of foreign
and certain classes of domestic happen
ings are collected and distributed to the
newspapers served by the * i ganizatlon.
The fact that In the present year we
celebrate the twentieth anniversary of
the first nation-wddo co-operative and
non-profit-making news gathering organ
ization in the world seems to make the
publication of something respecting it
timely.
The Associated Press is in no wise
the master of the newspapers constitut
ing its membership; it is distinctly their
servant.
Its board of directors is composed of
active newspaper men chosen at annual
meetings by the membership and, in
an experience running through 20 years
of intimate connection with ihe present
organization and also that of the older
Illinois corporation, I have never know'.i
an instance In all the changing person
nel of boards of directors when there
was any departure from thv* most rigid
observance of the highest obligations of
trusteeship and disregard of private and
selfish interests. The president, vice
presidents and members of the board of
directors serve without salaries.
The Associated Press of today is the
outcome of a many-ycar struggle between
two opposing systems. One, that of
news gathering conecrns with private
or limited ownership which dealt at arm’s
length with newspapers to which they
sold news at such profit as might be se
cured, and over which the newspapers
who bought from them had no more
control than over the paper mill sup
plying them with print paper.
The other system is based on the theory
that a powerful privately owned and
controlled news gathering agency is a
menace to the press and people.
Determined to establish an agency sub
ject only to the control of the newspapers
for whom it acted, in 1893 a group of
western men composing the Western As
sociated Press began to fight to attain
this end, and since that time a contest
between these two opposing principles
has been waged. Jn asserting that The
Associated Press, ns today constituted, ‘s
the servant and agent only of the news
papers for which it acts, 1 have no
thought of minimizing the tremendous
importance of the -work It does as such
an agent, but wish simply to emphaBlzo
the thought that properly speaking it has
no enlty of its own, no mission save to
serve its members.
Its members are scattered from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to
the Gulf, and represent every possible
shade of political belief, religious faith,
and economic sympathy. It is obvious
that The Associated Press can have no
partisan nor factional bias, no religious
affiliation, no capitalist nor pro-labor
trend.
Its function is simply to furnish its
members wdth a truthful, clean, compre
hensive, non-partisan—and this in its
broadest sense—report of the news of the
world as expeditiously as is compatible
with accuracy and as economically as
possible.
To do this the newspapers composing
its membership contribute first, the news
of their localities and second, weekly as
sessments of money aggregating about
$3,000,000 per annum, wdth W'hich an ex
tensive system of leased wires is main
tained (22,000 miles of wire in the day
time and 28,000 miles of wire at nightt.
bureaus in the principal American cities
supplementing and collating the news of
local newspapers and bureaus for the
original collection of news throughout the
world.
The volume of the new's report to mem
bers varies greatly, ranging from 500
words daily by telegraph or telephone
to pupors able to utilize but a small
amount of general news matter, to more
than 50,000 words daily or 36 newspaper
columns in the more important cities.
The method of collecting foreign news
lias been greatly changml in recent years,
its foreign service in London, receiving
its forein service in London, receiving
tlie news titer© of the Reuter company, of
the Wolff agency of Germany, and of tile
Havas agenejy of France with smaller
affiliated agencies in Italy and Spain.
The objection to this method was that
the news as received in I^ondon was al
leged to be impressed with an English
bias—in any event it was concededly not
collected from an American viewpoint.
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To meet, this criticism the Associated
Press lias established regular bureaus of
its own In all the great news centers,
end now maintains offices and staffs in
London, Paris, Berlitf, Rome, St. Peters
burg, Vienna, Tokio, Peking. Mexico City,
and Havana, in addition to hundreds of
individual correspondents scattered
through the world.
It is probable that in the foreign news
field the extraordinary genius of Melville
E. Stone, the general manager of the As
sociated Press, has been most strikingly
exhibited. Just prior to the Russo-Japan
ese war Mr. Stone secured from the Cxar
of Russia the abolition of the censorship,
and newspaper men stilt remember the
remarkable frankness with which the |
Russian government gave out the news
of Russia's reverses in that conflict.
Orders expediting the messages of the
Associated Press were issued at his in
stance by the German, French, Italian, ,
and Russian govemmemts, and as a re
sult. it has come to be common for Euro
pean capitis to get the first news of
continental events through Associated j
Press reports cabled back from New j
York.
i une penericiaj result corning irom tms
more direct relationship is to be found
In the minimizing of the ill effect of the
| occasional outbreak of some utterly in
consequential German. French, English,
| or Japanese “yellow" sporadically abus
ing the United States and its people.
Formerly profound significance of a
widespread hostility was attached to such
outpourings. With the closer understand
i ing that comes from more intimate knowl
i edge, we now understand the relative
! Importance of the newspapers of other
countries as are able to weigh and
grade our own.
The disadvantage of lack of n**wrs touch
| is strikingly apparent in the relations of
'the United States with the* Central and
South American nations. These countries
secure their news of the United States by
way of Europe and it consists mainly of
murders, lynchitigs, and embezzlements.
The antipathy to the United States b>
the people of these countries is undoubt
edly largely due to the false perspective
given by their newspapers. If in truth
we were the kind of people they are led
to believe we are thy would be fully
juztifld in their attitude.
'It has been the aim of those intrusted
with the management of the Associated
Fre^s to secure as its representatives both
at home and abroad men of high charac
ter and attainments, and it may. 1 think,
be fairly assumed that the reputation for
accuracy and fairness that Us service en
joys is largely to be attributed to an un
usual measure of success in this endeavor.
While the Associated Press is generally
held in good esteem, 1 would not be un
derstood a« indicating that it has been
exempt from criticism and attack.
If in a campaign all the candidates,
or their managers or press agents did
not accuse the Associated Press of the
grossest partisanship as against the par
ticular candidacy in which they were
interested, those bearing the responsibil
ities of the service would feel convinced
that something was radically wrong and
would look with suspicion on the report
themselves.
This is but human nature. During the
last campaign for the Presidential nom
inations every candidate either in person
or by proxy expressed his conviction that
the Associated Press was favorable to
somebody else.
Mr. Wilson’s press agent, asserted that
our service was pro-Clark, and in the
opinion of Speaker Clark we had sold
out to the Wilson people. Mr. Taft’s
managers felt that he was not being
given a fair show' and Mr. Roosevelt
was firm in his conviction that the ave
nues of information had been choked to
his disadvantage.
Of course later we know that Mr. Wil
son does not share the only-for-publica
tlon view's of his press agent and Speak
er Clark Is as emphatic in his with
Taft’s managers realize charges. Mr.
Taft’s managers realibe that the Asso
ciated Press cannot report speeches that
he does not make, and Mr. Roosevelt
j must alee a humorous side to the sug
gestion that any one has interfered with
, his getting a fairly adequate rep-esen
| tation on the first'page.
With all this, however, goes a funda
mental misunderstanding of the func
tions of the Associated Press. The in
dividual corespondent or reporter for n
given newspaper or a small group of
newspapers having u common bias may
be permitted to Indulge in partisanship
or In propaganda.
This is absolutely not to be permitted
in the Associated Press. No bias of any
sort «*an be allowed. Our function is to
supply our members with news, not
views; with news as it happens—not as
we may want it. to happen. Intensely a-4
Its management may symiaithize with
any movement, no propaganda in its be
half can be tolerated. Very jealously
indeed does the membership guard
against their agency going outside its al
lotted duties and argus eyed is the cen
sorship of every handler of our “copy.’’
It is not, naturally, to be claimed that
no mistakes are made. They are made
and will be made. Hut. In the very na
ture of the business, with the heart so
worn upon t lie sleeve, detection very
swiftly follows, and the mistakes are
few and far between.
The desire to enlist, the Associated
Press in propaganda or advocacy is usu
ally to be found at the bottom of criti
cisms of its service. Added to this often
j is misinformation as to the real facts
and sometimes, though happily rarely,
1 actual malice.
The service from Russia, for example
has been harshly criticized by some who
thought that the province of the Asso
ciated Press was to undertake a crusade
against the Russian government because
of its anti-Semitic attitude. Our theory
of our obligations is that we should re
port the facts as they occur, without
fear or favor, but that it is no part of
our duty to draw indictments save as the
facts alone are damning.
The case of the Core&ns oharged with
a plot to assassinate Governor General
Terauchl has recently been much dis
cussed.
These Coreans were almost all convert
ed Christiana and the American mission
aries In Corea were naturally Intensely
Interested In the matter.
It was freely alleged that the Aaso
clated Press, unduly Influenced by the
Japanese government, had suppressed
the faot that these Coreans had made
confessions, Implicating American mis
sionaries as accessories to the plot, and
had subsequently retracted these con
fessions, asserting that they had been
extorted by atrocious torture Inflicted
by the Japanese police, the Intimation
being also that the missionaries were
in peril by reason of the repudiated
confessions. Based on this some of the
missionary authorltlaa here became
much perturbed, and Indeed one of the
great New York papers printed nows
and editorial artlclai criticising the
Associated Press for tha suppression of
the matter, As a matter of fact an
Inspection of the news service reoelved
by the Associated Press and distributed
to Its members showed that It carried
the full faots: the confessions, the Im
plications of tha missionaries, the alle
gation* of torture, the feci that the
allegstlon of torture was believed by
the missionaries, and also ths fact that
the Japans** denied ths lortttr* stories
end attached no credence whatever to
the prisoners' statements Implicating
Lite missionaries.
On learning tite yral situation lit*
Now York newspaper In question
promptly printed un ample amende
honorable, lntt I do nor doubt that
many still Ignorant of ths retraction
feel that the Associated Praia was
guilty of some dereliction.
Another causo of frequent misappre
hension Is in the general tandency of
newspaper reader* to attribute eny
thlng seen In print to tha Aemetaled
Preea. eng It is constantly necessary
to explain that some violently partisan
or inaccurate article was ths work of
a ''special” and not a part of our serv
ice
Away bank In the middle. u£ tju ytlt
Who's Joining The Christmas
Savings Club?
All day yesterday and today you
could see hundreds of people at the
Savings Department of the Ameri
can Trust making their first de
posits for Chrstmas Savings.
From the time the doors open at 9
o’clock until they close at 2, a stream
of money savers forms around the
savings windows to join the Savings
Club.
Who Are They?
Among these there are working boys and
girls, newsboys, messengers, office boys;
young men and young women bookkeepers
and stenographers, salesmen and salesladies.
Mothers and fathers making deposits for
children in school or who can’t come to the
bank themselves to join.
Women beginning savings accounts for
their own household Christmas fund or for
“Santa Claus” himself.
Not a few men, too, that, want to bultd up a good
sum for the end of the year, for they must have their
Christmas, too.
Does Your Child Want to Join? Come Now
—Saturday Will Be a Big Day.
There will be many hundreds of
school boys and girls who will want
to join, but who can’t come to the
bank themselves before Saturday.
So Saturday is going to be a busy
day with a big crowd at the windows.
YOU CAN JOIN THE CLUB FOR THE
BOYS AND GIRLS —every one of yours—at
one visit by COMING BEFORE ' SATUR
DAY, getting members’ cards for them and
making the first deposit.
Then during tlie rest of the time the child
ren can come themselves with their deposits,
which they can make on Saturday mornings
or Saturday afternoons during school months,
or any day of the week during vacation.
How Much Can Your Boy or Girl Save for
Christmas?
The lowest amount to save ts $8.2B which can be
saved by depositing 25 cents every week.
Then comes the 2 cent plan which amounts to $11.22.
by depositing 2 cents now; 4 cents next week, 6 the next
and so on.
Then the 50 cent-a-week plan which gives $16.50.
Then (he 5 cent plan, which Increases the deposit
5 cents a week and amounts to $28.05.
Then the $1.00 plan that requires a dollar a week and
makes up $33.00 for Christmas.
You can make any combination of these you wish.
Isn’t This the Best Opportunity You Could Think of to Start the Children With Bank Accounts of Their Own?
AMERICANTKUST US AVINGSR ANR
BIRIVHNGHAIVI
century an alliance, offensive and de
fensive, existed between the old New
York Associated Press, a news selling
organization owned by iev*n New York
papers, and the Western Union Tele
graph company under the terms of
which the New York Associated Press
deult sorely with the Western Union and
the WeBtern Union In turn gave dis
criminating rates and advantages to
the New York Associated Press.
Although this arrangement (In the
light of today a very Improper one)
was abolished more than 30 years ago,
many people think that it still exists
and occasionally some one arises fierce
ly to denounce this unholy alliance.
The simple truth is that the Asso
ciated Press has during all these 30
years and more paid exactly what other
news associations pay, and that the
rates charged by the telegraph com
panies for the facilities furnished us
are greatly in excess of those charged
individual newspapers and still more
than those charged stockbrokers hav
ing leased wires.
The Associated Press leases wires,
many thousands of miles of them, from
the Western Union, the Postal, the
American Telegraph and Telephone
company, and from several of the In
dependent telephone companies.
The first three have a common basic
rate, charging us $34 a mile a. year in
the daytime and $13 a mile a year at
night. For exactly the same wire they
charge an Individual newspaper $30 and
$10, respectively, ami a stockbroker
gets a still further reduction.
Far from receiving discriminatory
favors, tlie Associated Press feels that
it Is being distinctly and heavily dis
criminated against.
in these days when all transactions on !
a iarge scale are being subjected to so I
rigid a scrutiny it is natural that so con- j
spicuous a mark of public attention as is
the Associated Press should not find itself ;
immune from critical inspection.
Prom time to time some voice is raised i
denouncing the Associated Press in the ;
same breath both as a monopoly and be- .
cause it Is not a monopoly, and insisting '
that It become a monopoly by admitting
to its membership all desiring its sen- !
ice; the theory being that in some way ;
the activities of the association Impress !
It with a public use and subject it to I
the obligation of a common carrier to j
serve all comers.
B'rom an ethical standpoint only, then, I
Is there anything improper, unsafe, or j
unwise in a gToup of newspapers, large '
or small, associating themsel.es together
to do a thing that each must otherwise
do separately and of reserving to them
selves the right to determine to what ex
tent the membership of such a group shall
be enlarged?
It does not seem possible to hold fairly
that a newspaper in New York may not
join with one In Chicago and one In
Philadelphia to maintain a common cor
respondent In Washington without mak
ing It obligatory on these three news
papers to share the fruits of their enter
prise with other New York, Chicago, and
Philadelphia newspapers !
If In addition they arrange that each
shall supply the othere with the news of
Its home city, Is It within the bounds of i
reason that they are required to furnish
to competitors the came facilities?
I give this Illustration because that Is
exaotly the relation of the newspapers
composing the Associated Press—the scale
only being enlarged.
The obligations of a common carrier
are, however, In no wise dependent on
the magnlturo of Its transactions. The
ferry sculled across a stream Is Just as !
much Impressed with a public use as is
the Pennsylvania railroad. Kach Is n |
common carrier. It Is the nature of the i
trunsaetlon and not Its hIz» that deter
mlnse Its obligations. Ah isspects the
question of common carrtershlp, whst Is
right for three to do Is proper for 300 or
(too to do.
To compel the Annotated Press to as
sume an entity of Its o"-p and to servo
all oomors would, In my Judgment, bring
snout a condition fraught with the gravest
dangers to the freedom uf Ihe press and
In turn to the freedom of the people.
At preeent shout one-third of the dally
newspapers of the country ore repre- i
•anted by membership In tit* Associated
Pngee.
There are a number of concerns sn \
•raged In the ool|eetIi>n and «a|e of gen- |
oral news to non-menih«n of the Assi.
elated Frees, and In one way or another
ihey supply their eusinmerg with what
pro declared1 to he ser«fnctory services
In nq lu ijgqunie any thing
approaching a monopoly, the Associated
Press has avoided even the appearance of
any competitive price rivalry, admitting
additional members solely on the ground
of a common benefit to the members of
a co-operative institution.
If by eorne occult reasoning the Asso
ciated Press could be held as a common
carrier, these news selling organizations
would be wiped out and the Associated
Press would, if the end sought for was
accomplished, become a real monopoly
and the incentive for co-operation no
longer existing, it would naturally drift
into a concern for pecuniary profit, in
private ownership and subject to private
control.
No more dangerous situation can well
be imagined than the passing of the
control of the greatest liewsgathering
and news disseminating agency of the
world from the hands of co-operating
newspapers to the control of some indi
vidunl interested 1n manipulating the
news—the master and not the servant of
the newspapers.
Because this danger would be so grave
it will not come, but for another reason
also, a very basic reason.
There can be no monopoly in news.
Tho day that It becomes apparent that
a monopoly in collecting and distribut
ing news exists, that day, in some way,
by some method individual newspapers
or groups of newspapers will take up
tho work of establishing a service for
themselves. Independent of outside con
trol.
Tho news of the world is open to him
who will go for it. Anyone willing to
expend the energy, the time, and the
money to approach it may dip from the
well of truth.
The news service of the Associated
Press does not consist of its leased wires
or its offices. Its soul is in the personal
service* of human men, of men with eyes
to see, with ears to hear, with hands
to write, and with brains to understand,
of men who are proud when they suc
ceed, humiliated when they fall and re
sentful when maligned.
The telegraph wires are blit the blind
Instruments of tills service, though the
wire has brought the uttermost parts
of the world marvelously close. These
human entities are ranging the world
to send word of its doings, of its re
joicings, and its sorrowings to satisfy
the thirst of the people for intelligence
of the march of events.
The news service of the Associated
Press of the horror of Martinique was
not the event itself. It was the per
sonal service of a man who at the
first hint of the disaster that had wiped
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