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Show Iii THE PRESS BILL. . J Tho Salt Lako Herald had a leading ' editorial In its Issue of March 2, rel ative to Personal Legislation. Under ; this head tho editor of tho Herald made nn attack on the press bill which has been Introduced in tho stato Hcnato, being Sonnto Bill No. 110. It ;; characterizes tho bill as an attack up on tho Associated Press. ! Tho bill mnkes no attack on any , organization. It Is gonoral in its terms nnd npplics only to persons and '! corporations engnged In tho business ! of gathering nnd dissominnting nows i Tor publication. It does not apply in !i ! n"y way to tho ordinary nowspapor. ; Tho ordinary nowspapor Is engnged In business of gathering nnd publish- Ing nows nnd not gathering nnd dis-.1 dis-.1 Bomlnntlng tho same. This bill ap- ; plies to tho first named organizations ! but not to tho nowspnpors. ', Tho friends of this bill disclaim 1 1 any purposo of attack or in any way j Injure tho Associatod Press. If It la ( secure In Its position, as tho Herald says It Is, nnd not subject to bo ronched by legislation, then this bill, . it It becomes a law, can in no way '1 Injuro It. j J A word, howover, about tho Assocla- i ted Press may not bo out of place In ; ' this connection. It was originally or- 1 1 ganized under tho laws of tho stato 1 of Illinois. It admitted into its mom- i , borahlp tho Chicago Intor-Ocoan. It i had an lron-clnd contract which it I , compelled Its members to sign. Under pr ' tho torms of this contract n member could not buy news from any other organization. Tho Inter-Ocean violated vio-lated this portion of the contract by purchasing nows from other associations associa-tions In tho same business as tho Associated Press. Tho Intor-Oqoan unlike our Herald, wanted to bo an up-to-date paper. It was not satis-fled satis-fled to got tho nows from one organization. organi-zation. To retaliate, tho Associated Press attempted to boycott this paper and refused to furnish It tho regular associated press dispatches. The In-tor-Ocenn sought tho protectjon of tho courts with tho result that the caso was carried to the supremo court of Illinois, the court of last resort In that stato, and it was there decided, among other things, that tho Associated Associa-ted Press was a monopoly! that It was engaged In a business upon which a public Interest was Ingrafted; that upon up-on principles of Justice It could make no distinction with respect to persons who wished to purchase Information and nows for purposes of publication, which tho Associated Press was created cre-ated to furnish. Wo quote the following follow-ing from tho opinion delivered In tho supremo court as to a complete answer an-swer to nil tho Herald says: "It (tho Associated Press) reaches out to tho various parts of tho United States, where Its agents gather nows which is wired to It, nnd through It such nows 13 received by tho various Important nowspapors of tho country. Scarcely any nowspapor could organize organ-ize and conduct tho means of gathering gather-ing tho Information that Is centered in an association of tho chnracter of the appolleo (tho Associated Press), because be-cause of tho enormous expense, nnd no paper could bo regarded as a newspaper news-paper of tho day unless It had access to and published tho .reports from such an association as appellee (Associated (As-sociated Press). For nows gathered from all parts of tho country tho various var-ious nowspapors nro almost solely dependent de-pendent on such nn association, and, If they aro prohibited from publishing publish-ing it. or Its uso Is refused to them, their character as nowspapors Is destroyed, de-stroyed, and thoy would soon become practically worthless publications. Tho Associated Press, from tho time of its organization and establishment in business sold its nows reports to various nowspapors, who became members, mem-bers, nnd tho publication of that nows becamo of vast Importance to tho public, pub-lic, so that public Interest Is attached to tho dissemination of that news. The manner In which that corporation has used Its franchlso has charged its business with n public Interest. It has dovoted Its property to a public uso, and has, In effect, granted to the public, such nn interest in its uso that It must submit to bo controlled by tho public for tho common good, to tho extent of tho interest it has thus created cre-ated In tho public In Its private property. prop-erty. "Efforts to prevent competition nnd to restrict individual efforts and freedom free-dom of action In trndo and commerce nro restrictions hostile to tho public welfare, not consonant with tho spirit of our Institutions, nnd In violation of Inw. Section 8 of Article 11 of the by-laws of tho appolleo sought to prevent pre-vent nny member of tho appolleo association asso-ciation from furnishing its special or other nows to, or receiving such news from, any person declared by It hostile." Inter-Ocean vs. Associated Associa-ted Press, 184, 111. Tho Associated Press then abandoned aban-doned the stato of Illinois ns tho place of Its abodo, and organized a new corporation cor-poration under tho laws of tho stato of New York, and sought by ro-incor-porntion to get around tho opinion abovo stated In volume 184, Illinois Reports. Tho articles of Incorporation in Now York nro remarkable for containing con-taining very little. Tho old contracts however, aro recognized by tho bylaws by-laws of this now corporation and the power of tho board under tho now by-laws by-laws is tho powers of a czar. It can expel nny member that attempts to buy nows from other organizations and the member has no right of nppeal, or redress. Utah is peculiarly situated. There aro but six newspapers in tho stato that can get the Associated Press dispatches. dis-patches. Pour of these aro in Salt Lake and tho other two in Ogden. Two of the papers In Salt Lako aro given o veto power, and without tho consent of these two newspapers no newspaper can receivo the Associated Press dispatches. By this bill Utah will simply enact Into law that which Is already law '.n the ptate of Illinois. Tho people of the stato through their representatives will give their expression ex-pression to the courts on this subject. sub-ject. Tho bill is not aimed at tho Associated Associa-ted Press any more than any other organization or-ganization of a similar kind. Tho Herald says: "One thing the Associated Asso-ciated Press has, however, and that is tho command of the best news gathering gather-ing brains all over the world, and tho new publication may possibly bo excused ex-cused for trying to secure It on tho ground that It can only get braln3 that way." It Is conceded that the Standard Oil company likewise has tho best brains on tho "oil business" In the whole world. Is that a reason why no law should bo passed to control con-trol that great monopoly? The com pleto answer to tho illogical statement of the Herald is the quotations from the decision of tho supreme court of Illinois. When newspapers belong to such a monopoly how can we expect them to mould public opinion against the other great monopolies which threaten to strangle tho rights of the people of the United States? The ilrst legal maxim that a law student learns is "Regard for tho public pub-lic welfare is tho highest law." This bill has regard for the public welfare, and nothing else. This bill seeks to emancipate tho newspapers so that thoy will bo free to purchase news from any source. The we3t wants tho best newspapers containing tho best nows, and tho only way to have such nowspapors Is to liberate them and make them free. Tho bill should become a law. |