CHAPTER III
GETTING THE NEWS
The Problem of News Gathering. The mystery
of newspaper making, to the uninitiated, is how editors
and reporters find out everything that happens and
how they get it into print in a very short time. It seems
strange to the average person that when an accident
occurs in the block in which he lives, the first news of
it often reaches him through the newspaper. The apparent
omnipresence, not to say omniscience, of the
reporter leads to the not unnatural assumption that the
news gatherer walks about the city waiting Micawber-like
for "something to turn up." The size of the staff
of reporters that would be required to maintain a patrol
of the streets would approximate that of the police
force, and would bankrupt the most prosperous
newspaper. Such a system is not only impossible but
quite unnecessary. News gathering is really no mystery
at all, but merely a good example of efficient organization.
In organizing its news collecting, the newspaper only takes advantage of information filed for various official purposes by many different persons in no way connected with the newspaper. Policemen, firemen, sheriffs, coroners, and practically all officials of local, state, and national governments, as well as doctors, lawyers, and merchants are all unintentionally serving as reporters of news. The public records in all public or private offices are the reports which these men, many times quite unconsciously, furnish for the newspapers. What
