MZDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE -VEBf
ress Observes 50th Anniversary of Transmitting
Friday, June 21, 1957
lews
United
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Early News Handlers, Telegraphers Recall
First Days of Operations by United Press
BY UNITED PRES3
At leas' two 01 the newspaper
men who handled Vnited Press
rXpaUr.es on the receiving end
when the t" P. was born 50 years
t'i ar active today on the game
Bewapapers.
Tr.ev are M. F Bo wen, 83,
daJly columnist ar.d feature writ
er for The Da:iy News ol Mc
Keea.Kirt, Pa., and Thomas F.
Murphy, 73, ajociate editor of
the Scranton 'Pa j Tmies.
In interviews on the L' P. gold
en anniversary being observed
today, they retailed newspaper
da of 1907, whfai the first
U P. news came chattering into
Uie off'.re in the j'rky candences
of the Cot dan teiepraph code
and was cnpid on a typewriter
by an operator.
'We had no designated tele
graph editor at that time," Bow
er aid. 'a h man in the office
woukl g'ab a piece of copy from
the telegrapher's small df-slt, slap
a headline on it, and turn it in
to the editor. Jim Laudrbaugh,
the operator, worked a good
tight boms a day, and the stuff
came over in pretty good shape.
New Moved Fast
"Be niade no carbon copies
Just bung the single sheets on a
ti? book. Once in a while, if
we Mere in, a hurry, we'd grab a
Piece right out of the typewriter.
We had one edition, it hit the
stree'j about 3 p.m. .
"t was doing sports. From the
U P. accnurts, we got out extra
editions on the World Series that
fail, and that was considered
crrelh'pg in those days. I find,
from the file?, that on June 21,
.1907. our sports pagps carried:
" 'New York Wise money
picks Nealon to win the Subur
ban: John W. Gates gets down
on J0-to-l shot to win $80,000."
Our front page carried items
; dealing with Dan Hannah's div
orce case in Cleveland, a West
ln Union strike in Chicago, and
rabie from Paris about soldiers
itfikiruf against doing strike
duty."
Murphy, who this month re
ceived an honorary Doctor of
Laws degree from the University
of Scranton, recalled that he
was relief man for the regular
teleszraph editor in those days.
"The U.P. news was spicily
written, and we played it up,"
he said. "I think it helped to
mske th Times the leading
newspaper in ScraJiton. The U.P.
seemed more humanized, less
conservative, than other serv
ices had been.
"We got copy from 8 a.m. to
4 p.m., and the teletjraph oper
ators were loyal about staying on
In a big story emergency. We
ft out two editions, at 2 and
4 p.m., and I believe we work
ed a little more leisurely than
we do today. But we did a lot of
leg work. I think some of the
boys today lose a lot by relying
on the telephone and not getting
on the scene of a news event ''
Murphy started with The
Scranton Times 60 years ago in
the circulation department, and
progressed to the city desk, city first edition on the streets as a
hall, and politics. He now is boy of 10. He did his first repor
chief of the editorial page. He j torial work on the Johnstown
has written extensively of the ' flood in 1889.
history of Scranton. j He later covered courts and
In McKeesport, Bowers bezan ! city hall and worked on the city
his long association with The j desk. His daily column is con
Daily News in 1884 selling its ! cerned mostly with local history.
-- -. - - iiit .yyy:K
2H1.ZlPtVmi I WnT ill y v4 y ilHM
Br UNITED PRESS
Three telegraph operators
who were working for United
Press the day it was born, June
21, 1907, looked back today on
50 years that has seen the tele
graph key replaced by teletypes
and teletypesetters.
i The three original U.P. teleg
i raphers are Eugene O. Tomlin-
son, 85, of Ulendaie, cam.,
James Doyle, 77, of Minneapolis,
FOUNDER OF THE UNITED PRESS was the crusading E. W.
Scripps. Taking two regional press associations of his own, he
bought a third to unite with them into a single organization,
the United Press Associations. The date of founding was June
21, 1907.
Teletype Circuits
Replace Morse Code
To Sped World News
New York W When the another relay to United Press
Mail Tribune
Continuous UP
Member Since '42
Th Mail Tribuna today
xtendi congratulations to
United Press on observance
of its 50th anniversary in
transmitting news gathered
from all points of the world
to newspapers, radio stations
and television stations around
the globe.
United Press news stories
first appeared in the Mail
Tribune on Nov. 5, 1929, when
the newspaper subscribed to
a daily "pony" report of 500
words. Between 1929 and
1942 the paper used United
Press and Associated Press
news reports alternately, and
for a period during that time,
simultaneously.
The Mail Tribune has been
a member of United Press As
sociations continuously since
Aug. 21. 1942, and now re
ceives approximately 30,000
words a day.
United Press began transmitting
news 50 years ago the Morse
key was the medium. Pictures
could be sent only by messenger
or mail.
Today 60-word-a-minute tele
type circuits blanket the United
States by landline and the rest
of the world by radio. Pictures
are transmitted instantly
throughout the United States bv
landline and to newspapers
abroad by radio.
Many newspapers in the Unit
ed States now set type from
teletpe-setter tape punched in
United Press bureaus throughout
the country.
Dot Dash Method Slow
. In 1907 a story from Vienna
went by dot and dash telegraph
to London, with several relays
en route to slow it down. From
London it was relayed by cabl
in dots and dashes, at a max
imum of 20 words a minute, with
more relays in Ireland and New
foundland, before it reached the
shores of the United States for
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New York headquarters
A Morse operator there trans
mitted it on a landline circuit
to newspaper offices, at a speed
geared to the slowest operator
in all the newspaper offices on
the circuit.
Today an operator in the
Vienna bureau transmits direct
ly from Vienna to the Frankfurt
bureau on perforated tape and
runs the tape through another
teletype circuit direct to United
Press headquarters in London.
London retransmits by radio
teleprinter direct to United
Press New York headquarters
A flash can be received in New
York and relayed countrywide
within 30 seconds of its trans
mission from Vienna.
Send Around World
Today for 18 hours daily New
York U.P. transmits by radio
teleprinter to the' Buenos Aires
bureau and simultaneously to 53
other points in Latin America.
Another radio teleprinter signal
direct from the New York news
room goes around the world in
both directions 19 to 20 hours
daily, with 31 points in Europe,
the Middle East and Asia receiv
ing instantaneously and simul
taneously, for translation and re
disribution. Pictures received from foreign
points can be and frequently are
transmitted directly into the
landline telephoto network in
the United States.
The first foreign picture to be
transmitted that way was one
of Captain Carlsen aboard the
doomed Flying Enterprise off
the coast of England in early
January.
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Ike Pays Tribute
To United Press
New York in The United
Press marked its 50th anniver
sary today with a tribute from
President Eisenhower on the
part it has played in strengthen
ing the free world by straight
reporting of the news.
- On its birthday today, the
10,000 men and women who
make up this unique news
gathering organization were, as
every weekday, sending almost
four million words of news lit
erally around the world.
Their stories and pictures
went to 1,560 newspapers in
this country, were translated
into 45 languages for clients in
71 foreign nations. They were
heard on radio, seen on tele
vision, beamed to ships at sea.
and Edward Mullen, 74, of
Cleveland. Tomlinson and Doyle
have retired, but Mullen still is
active in the Cleveland bureau
as the chief telegraph operator.
In 1907, good telegraphers
could translate the clattering
messages received in Morse and
Phillips code into typewritten
copy at a speed of sometimes as
high as 50 words a minute. The
sending operation meant instan
taneous coding of news stories
and relaying them to other U.P.
bureaus. Sometimes telegraph
ers had to double as correspond
ents. Mullen Had Fast Fist
Mullen was known as one of
the "fastest fists" in the busi
ness. His dexterity won him a
transfer to U.P.'s Washington
bureau as chief operator several
months before World War 1.
Mullen recalls that he pounded
out the text of the U. S. declara
tion of war against Germany in
Phillips code and for three
solid days transmitted by code
the numbers of the selectees
who were to make up the
American Expeditionary Force.
Mullen was assigned to the
Cleveland bureau in 1920 and
marked nis 50th anniversary
with the U.P. and its predecess
ors in 1955. Hugh Baillie, then
president of the U.P., wrote then
that Mullen and the United
Press had handled "quite a pack
et of history" together and Mul
len had seen "changes beyond
the imagining of Jules Verne."
Tomlinson started as a teleg
rapher with the "old" United
Press, a predecessor of U.P., in
Cincinnati in 1897. After several
years with Scripps-McRae, he
moved to Los Angeles to open
an office for Scripps News. Tom
linson, his telegraph key, and
his battered Remington type
writer became the U.P.'s Los
Angeles bureau in 1907.
Still Active At 85
Tomlinson opened the U P
Tacoma, Wash., bureau in 1909
and did a variety of jobs for the
wire service in West Coast bu
reaus before he retired in 1931.
Since then he has dabbled in
real estate and pursued his hob
by of gardening. He still drives
a car daily.
i-Joyie began nis career as a
news telegrapher with Publish
er's Press in 1904 and was work
ing a telegrapher's key in Erie
fa., wnen united Press was
formed. He remembers one of
his first U.P. dispatches con
cerned a flood in Erie in which
15 persons died.
When Teletypes replaced
Morse operators in Erie in 1930.
Doyle transferred to Minneapo
lis to receive the U.P. telegrahic
report for the old Minneapolis
Journal. Later he learned to op
erate a Teletype. He retired in
1951 with a record of only three
days' absence from work in his
47-year career.
News Gathering
Freedom One of
U. P. Principles
New York (IP For 50 year
the United Press has pioneered
on the frontiers of news freedom.
One of the principles the U P.
adopted from the beginning is
that it should have the freedom
to gather its own news and to
disribute that news anywhere,
free from any private or gov
ernment restriction.
This principle stemmed from
necessity when the U.P. was
young. In the United States in
those days, a press association
was conceived to be little more
than a network of wires over
which newspapers exchanged
news.
International newsgathering
followed a similar pattern
press associations exchanged
news of their respective coun
tries with each other instead of
sending their own correspond
ents abroad. This method was
easy, it was cheap and it be
came monopolistic. For in ex
changing their news, the major
international agencies agreed
not to sell their services in each
other's territory. In this com
fortable world news cartel, the
British and the French played
leading roles, the French pre
empting Latin America as their
exclusive sphere and the British
reserving the sole right to serve
newspapers in the Orient.
The United Press began its
fight for free access to iiews
sources from the day it was
born. U.P.'s own staffers were
assigned to cover the news at
home and abroad. In the United
States the U.P. sold its service
to any newspaper that would
pay a fair rate. It invaded the
territory of the cartel abroad
by selling service in the hither
to exclusive areas in the
Orient, South America and Eur
ope.
In 1912, five years after it
was founded, the United Press
Hillman Franchise in
Medford Changes Hands
Jack White of White's Cycle
shop, 36 South Bartlett St., Med
ford, has sold the Hillman auto
mobile franchise to Jack Par
sons of Parsons Motor company,
315 East Fifth St., White has announced.
The franchise includes sales,
service and parts. White main
tained the franchise for about
a year for the English-made
vehicle. White said he will con
tinue to handle other sports cars
and motorcycles.
Alcester, S.D. IW Bert
Wheeler and Einar Anderson de
cided not to let their political
feelings interfere when they
went into business together
Wheeler is an enthusiastic Re
publican and Anderson has just
as ardent feelings about the
Democrats. This year they cele
brate their 40th anniversary as
a clothing store partnership.
NOTICE
ROSE GROCERY
NEW SUNDAY HOURS
8:30 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.
Phone SP 2-53R5
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Cold Drinks of All Kinds
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UNITED PRESS NEWSROOMS, then and now: above, In the early 1920's, in the old World
Building, New York. Karl Bickel, then U.P. president, stands in the center of the group by tx
desk. Next right is his successor, Hugh Baillie. Standing, left: E. T. Conkle, superintendent f
bureaus: and, seated, center, William H. Grimes, New York bureau manager. Below, the main news-,
room today, in the News Building.
' " -"gag"!!T;''' """"" zz'-m" -rii
was invited to join the cartel
It declined and continued to
build its independent resources.
The experience and confidence
gained in this early struggle are
the roots of a tradition that has
been carried on and developed
The U.P. many times has de
fended vigorously its right to
access to the news, and treats
any attempt to hinder its report
ers as a challenge to the trust
reposed in it by its thousands of
clients around the world.
At the end of World War II
the United Press was responsible
for reversing the plan of the
military and getting the press
admitted to cover the executions
of the Nazi leaders at Nurem
berg. In Korea the U.P. led the
successful fight to cover the
Panmunjom truce talks.
At the United Nations Geneva
Conference on Freedom of In
formation in 1948 the United
Press was the only American
press association officially rep
resented. Its representative kept
before the delegates the import
ance of facilitating the free flow
of news among nations.
The high hores then of estab
lishing the principles of freedoai
of information in firm treaties
have been blighted in the year
since by the tensions of the
Cold War. But the expression
methods for achieving interna
tional news freedom remain In
the record.
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