the
Association .14 He held that a group of newspapers had the right to associate for the exchange of news, if no attempt was made
to prevent the formation of rival associations, or to prevent its own members from getting news from other associations. The
charge, therefore, that the Associated Press is a monopoly must
be dismissed on both counts. But even were it otherwise, it must be evident that the question
whether news-gathering agencies are “ news trusts ” or not does not in the slightest degree affect their credibility, although an understanding of the organization of such associations must make it evident that the very term " monopoly ” is incompatible with the very existence of such associations. They are formed
to collect and to distribute news and all their members receive as much as or little news as they wish and as they pay for. But even were they monopolies of the most extreme character , that fact would not in and of itself militate against their absolute reliability, — the question that most concerns the historian . It is sometimes charged that the Associated Press is controlled
by “ capital.” The expression " a capitalistic press " is frequently heard and the implication may be that the press is owned by so- called capitalists and managed by them in their own interests, - a charge easily made but less easily proved . The press as suredly can not be called capitalistic in the usual sense of the word . A few large metropolitan dailies are owned in themain by
a single individual or family , and the object of the paper, as of other forms of business enterprise , is to make money. But the element of speculation does not enter into the conduct of the business , the very nature of the business is in itself a guarantee against monopoly , and no lobby is maintained to secure or to prevent the passage of legislation in its interests. As a business
enterprise it has the temptations of other forms of business, but it can not be said that these temptations are those of what is usually denominated a capitalistic industry. That the Associ 14 The letter is given in full in the New York Evening Post, March 17, 1915. — The same charge in a different form had been met by F . W . Leh mann in 1898 in an address," Is the Associated Press a Trust? " _ “ M . E . S . ” His Book, pp . 76 - 84 . - The Associated Press “ monopoly ” was ably, but
probably not finally , disposed of by the New York Evening Post in an editorial, February 5 , 1914.
