THE PLEASING EXPERIENCES OF THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
The post of foreign correspondent is sought eagerly by newspaper men. The work is interesting and agreeable and the experience is invaluable. It gives opportunity for foreign travel and for that mental enrichment through study and observation that cannot be experienced elsewhere. The correspondent is removed from the constriction of home office discipline and office tradition and the everlasting admonition to “hurry up.” In times of war his work is strenuous, of course, and highly important, and entirely different from his activities in times of peace.
The more important American newspapers have a representative in the chief capitals of Europe, some of them in two or three cities, others in London alone. These men send important news by cable and correspondence by mail and it is their privilege to select their own topics, largely. Thus they prove or disprove their possession of that rare quality of journalistic excellence: the ability to judge what will be interesting or important to the far-distant reader. In the newspaper office at home the writer usually writes to order107 on an indicated subject and often without regard to his own notion of whether the topic is interesting or not. The foreign correspondent must judge for himself what to send. But his field is large, his opportunities are many, and he comes to love the work because it is so fascinating. He writes of the great questions that are moving Europe, of the coronation of kings, the collapse of cabinets, the burial of popes, the birth and life and death of revolutions, of social life, of political life, of artistic life, the triumphs of science, invention, and discovery. The treasuries of the Old World invite his study. Its follies, frivolities, foibles and fashions tempt to his amusement. He has a mighty good time over there.
But, when he begins to send cablegrams to his newspaper he encounters a situation that appeals to his business manager as well as to the reading public, for the cost of cable messages is great. Seven cents a word for those that take their time and twenty-five cents for those that are to be rushed—and columns to be filled. Here is where judgment as to what to send, cunning in condensing, skill in skeletonizing combine to reap reward.
For more than twenty years the ordinary press rate for cable messages ranged between five and ten cents a word. Some little time before the war the wireless telegraph people delivered reports for five cents, but without assurance of prompt service. The system had not been made so perfect as it is now and its operation was not entirely satisfactory. Then the war stopped its108 use for newspaper purposes. It has been resumed recently at the five-cent rate, messages to be delivered within twenty-four hours. The cable companies made some attempt to meet this price before the war, but not much came of it. Ten cents a word for the regular message and twenty-five for the expedited dispatch was the price for a long time. The expedited message was the message sent immediately without any delay. The ordinary message was taken without assurance of quick delivery. During the war rates varied. The cables were crowded and the newspapers were compelled to use the expedited messages. At one time the cost of this message was thirty-three cents a word.
Since the war something like the old rates have been restored. Just now they are seven cents for the ordinary report. The expedited message arrangement is no longer offered; but, by making the report a commercial message, at commercial rates of twenty-five cents, the newspaper article takes its turn for transmission. This means that the commercial message is used, commonly, for the newspaper cannot wait. It cannot risk missing the news through delay. Money is lost on the news-report delivered after the sheet has gone to press.
Experience has attested that code or cipher messages are not practical for newspaper purposes. The opportunity for error is too great and too much time is required for translation. But experience has taught, also, the use of certain prefixes and suffixes and jugglings by which much may be expressed in few words. It is a simple system of skeletonizing, easy of translation109 into the finished product. The plan depends largely on complete understanding between the sender abroad and the cable editor in the home office.
The London man sends newspaper clippings by mail of events that are likely to figure or reappear in future news, programs of coming happenings like coronations, or festivals, or ceremonials, descriptions of ships about to be launched, or buildings to be dedicated, inaugurations, pageants, with all of the plans, arrangements, and the names of persons who are to participate, and the like. When the event happens he cables, for instance: “Madrid Alfonso crowned unchange.” “Unchange” means that the coronation of the Spanish king was solemnized without change of program, that the matter sent in advance by mail may be used with what the correspondent now cables. The cable editor in America writes from what the correspondent sends, and from the program slips, a report of the coronation, embellishing it perhaps with a few lines here and there about the cheering multitudes, the elaborate decorations, and the other things that obviously add splendor to every coronation of a king. The cable editor knows right well that if the crowds were sullen or the decorations were lacking or the soldiers did not strut and shout, the correspondent surely would say so. The correspondent is keen to notice any deviation from the program and to cable details of the change. The editor at this end pads out the skeleton report into readable narrative with no intention of deceiving anybody.
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Newspaper descriptions of the doings of men in public life, or who in any manner attract public attention, are mailed to the home office and they are of frequent use when the man reappears in the news in any way. A few years ago one Barnard Barnato made fame for himself by getting a great fortune through South Africa diamond mine operations, and newspaper cuttings exploiting him were in every office. One night a cable message floated into New York which ran:
“Barnato homing Unicorn suicided overboard off Gibraltar.” From these seven words and his newspaper slips and his general knowledge of Barnato the cable editor constructed an article of a third of a column or so in length which said that Barnard Barnato, the widely celebrated South African diamond king, who recently had visited his famous mines a few miles north of Cape Town, met his death by suicide, while returning to his home in England, by leaping overboard from the Royal Line steamship the Unicorn when the vessel was off port of Gibraltar, etc., etc. And the account included a description of the victim of self-destruction, his vast operations, his family and business associations, and other things about Barnato that supposedly might interest a reader.
Again, there comes a message dated London which reads:
Reading Readingess New Yorkward safternoon Philadelphia untalk peace undenied gravity Russian.
From his knowledge of the diplomatic situation and of current events, and from his bunch of newspaper cuttings111 the foreign editor finds it quite easy to construct a fat paragraph to run something like:
London—Lord Reading, the newly appointed Ambassador to represent Great Britain in the United States, sailed for New York this afternoon in the steamship Philadelphia. On arrival he will proceed immediately to Washington to enter upon his duties. This is Lord Reading’s third visit to America. He was sent by his government two years ago on a special mission and was in Washington for two months or more. He is accompanied by his wife. He refused to express an opinion as to the prospects for peace, but would not deny the gravity of the situation in Russia.
In the above skeleton dispatch the word “Readingess” means Lady Reading. The addition of “ess” to a man’s name designates his wife.
Again came one evening a London message that began:
Pm commons duohours restating aims intended Russian Bolsheviki but principally allies position to labor urged ongo warwin quote
“Pm” means Great Britain’s Prime Minister whoever he happens to be. This message was written out to say that Lloyd George had addressed a meeting of the House of Commons for two hours that evening restating the war aims of the allies. Ostensibly he was speaking for the benefit of the Russians, but it was plain that he was addressing the labor party of the Empire in particular, and that the Government urged the labor party to push on and help to win the war. “Quote” meant that what was to follow was112 a verbatim report of what the Prime Minister said and was to be preceded by quotation marks.
Close skeletonizing of this sort is used for short and comparatively unimportant news announcements. It cannot be used to advantage in long narration, in explanation of political complications, or reports of consequence. But in minor messages it is of frequent use by news associations and by correspondents. It is an entirely legitimate practice since it involves no misstatement of fact. It is simple, as may be seen, and the knack of using it is easily acquired. Yet obviously the more ingenuity and skill employed the greater will be the saving at seven cents or twenty-five cents a word. The difference in its skillful and its indifferent use amounts to thousands of dollars in a year.
In times of war the cost of news transmission by cable is enormous. Repeatedly in the late conflict it reached thousands of dollars for the description of a single battle, or a movement. At times these costly dispatches were sent day after day. In our war with Spain when reports were sent by dispatch boats to Kingston, Jamaica, for transmission hence by cable, as much as two dollars a word was paid for sending them to South American and Isthmus stations, hence north through Texas. The direct cable from Kingston to Halifax was constantly crowded. The South American route was the only other available outlet and it was used freely.
The special foreign correspondent does not concern himself greatly with routine news: the press associations look after that. The difference in time permits113 the sending of all news appearing in London editions to American newspapers of the same corresponding edition, morning or evening. The London papers are on the street at two o’clock in the morning, which is eleven o’clock or before midnight in New York.
The correspondent seeks rather to elucidate the news or to send exclusive information. He finds the getting of intelligence much more difficult than in America. Public men are less willing to furnish information. The newspaper man is not so welcome. Doors are closed to him that would be flung open here. To a yet greater degree than here he must gain the confidence and the intimate acquaintance of those who are original sources of information, the confidence of the men who are conducting public affairs. The correspondent may not always print what he learns for he must not make public that which is told to him in confidence. But sooner or later it is of much value to him. The ability to secure the attention and the confidence of public men is the correspondent’s or the news gatherer’s choicest asset. It is absolutely necessary to success in higher grade reportorial work.
The foreign correspondent, more than any other writer off the editorial page, is permitted to assume an editorial attitude toward important events. He may comment and seek to persuade in editorial fashion. His articles are the more interesting in consequence, for not any newspaper writing is more attractive to the general reader than that which contains narrative description with running comment.
The French journalists are adepts at this work.114 Many of their publications contain no editorial articles after the English or the American fashion. They treat an important event rather as a semi-news semi-editorial review article—an article of news with interjected comment, with expression of opinion as suits the writer’s fancy or belief or prejudice.
In American newspapers of high grade the reporter is not permitted to comment or inject opinion or seek to influence the reader; he must not depart from the cold facts of narration. No comment outside the editorial page is the rule. The foreign correspondent is excepted from this requirement and the Washington man partly so.
Not any other kind of newspaper work gives more useful experience. The foreign correspondent must understand the great events that are moving Europe. When it is possible he goes to the scene of the occurrence for first-hand information. The great disaster by earthquake that destroyed Messina sent half of the correspondents scurrying from London into Italy. The election of a new Pope finds them in Rome. A revolution in Poland discloses them on the spot delving into the secrets of the leaders. Since the great war they have been constantly in every capital in Europe as some new development of finance, or a startling revelation of starvation, insurrection, or political plot demanded their presence. They watch the activities of a dozen nations. A few years of this sort of thing gives them valuable knowledge.