Show IN ill THREE PI how statesmen are divided by newspaper men GOOD COPY HIGHEST RANK white houte house best place to judge pub lie mane mans newa news value no censorship of press during the taft administration by GEORGE CLINT CLINTON ON washington Stat statesmen earsen politeness poll and policy compel the use of the word for all national legislators are divid ed by newspaper correspondents into three classes good copy fair cop and poor copy it la its not al at together a right for it la Is based solely on the readiness nese or the of the statesmen to talk there are scores of senators rs and representatives who ho will lay say practically nothing and yet they are good COW copy became because their thel r characteristics are such that it Is worth while to write of them if one cant can t write from rom them the outer domce of at the W hite bite house la in a better place than the capitol it self to learn into which class the con gressmen fall recording to the nee mens mons view views the president s 8 visitors itil tore every day are in numb r among tho the hundreds and most of the visitors have seats after 12 a clock noon under the dome of at the capitol when the members of congress barve finished their talks with the president they leave him and pase pass through a room where ordinarily a re gathered ten or a dozen newspaper men ready enough to learn and to write what the great ones of earth I 1 lave aye said to the greater one of earth there are some members notably some senators who can come from the presidential presence prest nce with the promise of a friends friend a appointment to the great court of st james in their possession and yet never stray by to much as a sparkle ot at the eye or a mile smile of the lip that they have received anything better than the prom ise of a at the tenth rate office of at adam adams crossroads CroM roads there are others who can no more conceal the fact that they have pick ed td ac or appointment plum than they can conceal the tact fact that they are on earth no censorship of press during the tatt taft administration there haa hm been no censorship of at the press thia this doe does not mean that under former administrations press dispatches were censored but it means simply that president taft Is much more likely than his predecessors in domce to allow newspaper men with whom he be talks to draw their on conclusions without any specific direction from him or without any sharp warnings warn lne that this must not be said and that must not be said mr taft seems to take it for granted that the man to whom he talks will exercise good judgment in matters of publicity and will not get got wrong impre impressions kalons from what he tells them or draw ions not justifiable this arke it somewhat easier for the newspaper men who it 1 warnings and requests to be on your guard are frequent get so afraid that they are going to overstep the line thai that they do 3 not tell halt the story and ri e lose many it good yarn of course the president of the united state states la Is never to be b quoted directly but most of what bo he says to the newspaper men ets into the papers with some such advance words aa as I 1 it can bo be said on higa authority or friends of the president let lot it be known today or something of this nature when a it washington correspondent prefaces a story with some such statement of au an as one at 0 those giren given it can be taken for granted that he baa has been talking to the president of the united states when tto tt country generally learnd this fact there will be fuller appreciation pre clation perhaps that what la Is being read cornea comes tram from iho the white house to honor maine victims when the collier tied up at it the navy yard dock after a hard tight fight with the ita lc tn in chesapeake bay and in the potomac river a big crowd had bad assembled to welcome the vessel cold as the water was n ost of the sightseers removed their hats when the ship put in to 0 o the shore share for on board were many of the relics saved from tho the battleship maine aich sunk in th thu thi i harbor of havana just fourteen years ago the heel steel mainmast of the maine waa was a part of the cargo of at the leon idas what la Is known AS the fighting top waa was for the acco maloda tion of six gunners used in rapid fire guns runs as intact the weight ca c the mainmast with its fighting top Is something log like four tons next month mouth the mast most will be taken to arlington cemetery where whore it wilt will be erected over the graves of the men who lort text their live lives on the maine blaine and whose bones aill be brought to wah ington on batak battleship in a few weeks already there la Is la in arlington cemetery a beautiful tul memorial to the men nien who lost their lives alvee la in havana harbor as the result of an explosion the cause of which even yet never has been fully explained the collier leonidas will go to an after leaving washington and there win will unload other relice relics of at tb tho wilne which will wilt be distributed to various cities patriotic to personal onal survivors of the di disaster rAster in havana mayans harbor and to rela tires of at the victims ot at is tir disaster distribution of relics 4 persona parsons and ind organizations lAtIons which think alak that they have a tight right to sour our antra of the reck wreck of 0 the maine blaine must make application to the navy depart merit ment first it la Is necessary to write rite to the department for blank forma forms which are a to be filled ailed in and returned the distribution of the relics will be made from annapolis tho the collier leonidas bad on board fifty tone tons of coal which were secured from bunkers of the maine blaine the coal had been exposed to the action of sea water for fourteen year years the naval academy scientists will use the coal for experimental purposes to find out if it they can how much beating value remains in fuel after remaining in salt malt water for a long period of time there are some scientists it Is said who claim that the coal coa will be found to be better in quality than it was before its immersion but the preponderance POnde ranco of scientific opinion la 19 that it will be found to have lost most of f its good qualities aa as fuel may open senate doors the senate of the united states has in part at least discussed in the open the arbitration treaties pending be tween the united states great britain and other coun tiles ordinarily ai 1 l mot everything pertaining to treaties tre atlea Is fit discussed in executive session with no ono one present but the senators the clerks and the executive session secrecy if iz not always secrecy for frequently when the session Is over the facts of the debate leak out it Is possible that this discuss discus lda sida of arbitration in part openly may be the entering wedge for the opening to the public of 0 all so called executive see lons although it Is in not at all probable thai that complete publicity will ome come for some yeara years sonic some time ago the th senate was als dl bussing a treaty with santo domingo As usual the session were secret but as an secret sessions they proved to be broadly farcical the senate sat behind hind closed doors and on this santo domingo occasion not only the public and correspondents but the clerks and even the reporters were exclude ed somehow or other nearly all the proceedings of the secret meeting were ere reported in full in the newspaper of the next day and since them some proceedings of at the senate which adina ordinarily rily in the past would have been held behind close doors were open to the public the tendency Is mom and more to do away with secret sessions secrets are inviolate when the bits sits in executive session for the consideration of 0 the confirmation of at appointments to office made by the president the secrets of at the chamber are anh kert inviolate no one thinka thinks of asking a senator about protests that might have been beer made against the confirmation of any man neither would any one think of asking him how the senators voted on art the question of approving the choice ot at the president the senators tell it they were asked aside from their implied promises to bold hold safe the secrets of the room they have too much at stake personally to justify them in answering questions or in giving information voluntarily nominations have been refused approval because of the obJect objection lon of a single senator who held that the man named was distasteful to b him lm personally it Is a sort of do this for me and do it for you some day proposition la in the case of treaties and other matters which the senate may feol feel called upon to discuss in private the thing la Is dif different forent the whole public Is interested in the proceed lugs and the public for many yei r is ban hax been unable to understand any it should not know the views of its rep top on questions of at national importance As an a matter of tact fact the public generally has discovered these views tor for the senators will talk nearly evry new navy and comparatively new now senator Is in atu the open meeting ld 14 a s the belief ballet Is I 1 that it will p orall before long la in bis his day charles sumner waa was an ardent advocate of open donate senate ss set alons for all of the business except that of the confirmation of appointees to office omm even the strength ot of pm ner however failed to move the senate since his day individual senators bay have tried and tried again to secure the consideration ot of treaties la in open session but the trying failed clapp Is ironical some year years ago no senator moses E cla clapp ap pp of minnesota introduced an ironical resolution calling for open ismons the members were consid ering an lath mian canal matter and full reports of everything that was said sold in the secret session were appearing dally in the newspapers the clapp resolution ou was to the effect that the minnesota had discovered that one new newspaper man had made a mistake ot of one word in to A secret ses session repot which was six sli col cal amna long and it asked in the liter inter est of accuracy that the newspaper correspondents be admitted to the galleries during the executive sessions it Is a matter of truthful history that senator hoar fear took the resolution seriously and that the next day when benator morgan was pounding away at the treacherous charac character tee of one of the central american republics senator hoar walked over to senator clapp and sold said it your resolution bad had gone through and thia this speech of If morgans organs were made public the country ho he 11 Is attacking would be ablaze let her blaic blaze senator said clapp it t make a big enough fire ere to rach reach us senator morgan a speech was mada public a were all the others and there as much as a bonfire la in central america it U should be b aid wd cr senator aloar that never in any circumstances would he lisp a word won about what was do dot a la in ex 1 cutia session ot at the senate U tein |