of the land should be forced upon people who must have the news
even though they have to patronize papers not in accord with their
sentiments. But if the manager should be an unscrupulous man, devoid
of all regard for truth and justice, filled with prejudice and hatred grow-
ing out of punishment inflicted upon him, and bent upon building up or
tearing down the reputation of individuals by reckless misstatements
scattered broadcast throughout the land, he would be able to play the
tyrant and assassin, and would possess a power which ought to be un-
known among a free people.
This resume* was followed by an attempt to show that Simon- ton, "at whose bidding the so-called news dispatches of the day are concocted, is a man of the class last described." Simonton, however, had simply published the facts as he found them in Washington. While Grant may be justly blamed for the selec- tion of the men he put in office, he was not, according to the records, directly implicated in the questionable deals put through at Washington.
The Associated Press during the Period of Reconstruction was not an incorporated body, being simply a combination of smaller associations loosely held together through a written agreement for the exchange of news. The New York City Association, as during the Civil War Period, was the clearing-house for the smaller branches. These branch associations were determined by a community of interest due, for the most part, to geographi- cal situation. The parent association at New York attended to the exchange with European agencies and stationed agents in the sparsely settled sections of the great plains West of the Mis- sissippi. The telegraph company during the period permitted its operators to act as agents and to forward news by wire: in fact, they were expected to add to the revenue of the company by such service. Distributing stations were also established at Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, Milwaukee, and St. Louis; from these cities abbreviated accounts technically known as "pony reports" were distributed along circuits to the dailies in the smaller cities. The exclusive features of the Associated Press led to the organization of a rival company, the American Press Association, which sold its news to any news- paper on payment of stated weekly charges. A distinct reorgani- zation of the Associated Press occurred in the next era.
