For general news, the agencies cover a larger area than any one journal could. At any one of the smaller London police courts, for example, an interesting or scandalous case may at any moment come up without warning. No private reporting staff could hope to catch every such case, but an agency man is almost certain to be in attendance. If, again, it is known that a case or a function of unusual interest is expected in a town where the paper con cerned has no correspondent, a "special" is ordered from an agency, which details one of its reporters, for that day only, to telegraph an exclusive report to its client.
Agency material, in London, is delivered by telegram, by dup licated sheets delivered by hand, and (in the case of the Central News, Reuters and the Exchange) by tape machines. The largest foreign service is supplied by Reuters, used by the British gov ernment during the World War for propaganda purposes and denounced as mendacious by the German Press, as in the famous cartoon Das Reuter Denkmal. The agencies have been charged with bias in their presentation of news, especially foreign news. The truth or otherwise of this charge must be a matter of opin ion, but it can safely be said that there is no authenticated case of the agencies having refused their services to a journal to whose policy they objected. The power of the American Associated Press has no parallel in Britain, nor have the disputes over its exclusive ness and the competition for "A.P. franchises." The services provided for the provincial press are in some ways even more extensive, as they include "London letters" and often the only reports received of Parliamentary proceedings. Even syndicated "leaders" are often sent out, and propaganda agencies supply newspapers (other than dailies) half-printed, with blank pages for local information. The staff of the agencies are for the most part organized in the National Union of Journalists, and salaries, in comparison with pre-war rates, have notably increased. (R. W. P.) United States.—Two rival principles underlie American news agencies. The Associated Press and the Canadian Press represent one principle, that of pure co-operation and mutuality, and the United Press Associations and the International News Service represent the opposite fundamental in that they are profit-making corporations, collecting and selling service on commercial lines. There is lively competition in the news agency field, both for group domination and for reportorial achievement. In one sense, all of the news services serve a common ideal which is to deliver to their "members" or "clients" the important news by the most rapid means, written true to authenticated or evidential facts without bias, opinion or undue colour.
The development of the American news agency dates back to the struggle of the pioneer press of New York. While individual editors of the colonial press and their successors for 5o years had with interesting enterprise employed the foot-courier, the packet, the stage-coach, the pony-express, the canal-boat and the prim itive steam-train, the birth of the idea that there might be co operation among several newspapers in the collection of news which all could share occurred just ioo years ago when the Asso ciation of Morning Newspapers was organized in New York for the purpose of maintaining boats to meet ships as they came up the bay bearing news from Europe. The first telegraph line,
running from Washington to Baltimore, was not opened until 1843. Fifteen years later the Atlantic cable was opened for traffic. Other co-operative news agencies, concerned with the business of meeting ships in New York harbour, were later or ganized and from a merger of these the New York Associated Press, a co-operative news-gathering organization of New York newspapers, was formed. It was mutual in New York, but sold its product to newspapers in other American cities. In various sections of the United States other small, co-operative or privately owned news agencies gradually came into being, such as the New England Associated Press, the Southern Associated Press and the Western Associated Press. The United Press, which is not to be confused with the United Press Associations of this day, was es tablished as a national rival to the various Associated Press units, then only beginning to co-operate. Morse's invention of the telegraph was the basis of these agency operations. In 1892 the unified Associated Press took the field as the rival of the old United Press. It succeeded in making contracts for the exclusive use in the United States of the news reports of the leading Euro pean agencies—Reuter in Great Britain, Wolff in Germany and Havas in France. These connections had previously been in favour of the United Press and their loss resulted in the failure of the latter organization. To supplant the United Press several agencies were formed by groups of newspapers outside of the Associated Press group. They were the Publishers' Press and the Laffan Service operating in the eastern States, the Scripps-McRae Press Association, operating in the Middle West and the Scripps Blade Service, operating in Pacific coast States. Except for the Laffan Service, which was finally discontinued, these services merged to form the United Press Associations of to-day. The or ganization was completed in 1907. The Associated Press was re organized in 1900 and incorporated under the laws of New York, as a purely co-operative association that could declare no divi dends, that elected its membership and shared the cost of opera tion among members who are individuals representing newspapers, not the newspapers themselves. The International News Service and the Universal News Service, the former to serve evening and Sunday newspapers and the latter to serve morning and Sunday newspapers, on a commercial basis, were established by William Randolph Hearst in 1906. Early in 1928 the Universal Service left the "spot-news" field to give its exclusive attention to special or "feature" news. The Canadian Associated Press is co-operative, non-profit making, its elected members dividing the costs of oper ation. It works in close relation to the Associated Press, with an exchange of news reports. (M. E. P.)