columns of local news.” He, therefore, refused to continue con nection with the paper under this system .?
It was out of this Central Press , organized for supplying on an extensive scale partly printed papers to the provincial press, that later was developed the great Press Association of England , now corresponding to the Associated Press of America . The immedi
ate occasion of its organization was, however, the relation of the newspaper to the telegraph and cable companies whose system was a monopoly , whose service was unsatisfactory, whose tolls were excessive, and whose manners left much to be desired, - so
thought the journalists.8 The foundation of the English Press Association had been
antedated a few years by the now universally -known Reuter's. As early as 1849, on the completion of the first telegraph line
between Germany and France , Paul Julius Reuter had started a news-collecting agency, bridging one gap in the line by means of a pigeon-post. In 1851 he established himself in England and became a naturalized British citizen. He strove, unsuccessfully
for some years, to persuade the English press to publish his for eign news telegrams, but in 1858 The Times published matter
forwarded from Paris by a Reuter agent. After that, since " the telegram is necessarily the backbone of the news service of the daily paper,” he directed his efforts largely to securing concessions for the use of the telegraph and cable lines and to securing the recognition of his agents at important points. Before his death in 1899 he had transformed his business into a limited liability company whose operations covered the world , and in February, 1915 , the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Reuter Tele
gram Company was celebrated in London . The formation of great news-collecting associations has every
where been inevitable. As long as local news is the chief interest 7 W . R . Nicoll, James Macdonell, pp . 107– 113. 8 W . Hunt, in Then and Now , chap . X . “ The Electric Telegraph ," in
cludes a full account of the organization of the Press Association. 9 The press of that date gives accounts of the establishment of Reuter's .
Brief statements are found in G . B . Dibblee , The Newspaper ; F . M . Thomas, Fiſty Years of Fleet Street, pp. 165 - 166 ; H . Simonis, The Street of Ink, pp. 157– 182; J. D . Symon , The Press'and its Story, chap. VI, “ Press Telegrams." The London Nation , April 24 , 1915, after the death of the second Baron
Reuter, gave an appreciative account of the service rendered by Reuter 's.
