Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/423

Rh REPORTING 405 roads to transcribe their notes, so that they might be ready for the printer on arrival at their destination. Charles Dickens used to tell several stories of his adventures of this kind while he held an engagement on the Morning Chronicle. He was, indeed, perhaps the best reporter of his time, and he was most successful in outstripping many of his rivals. One result of the efforts thus made was that the provincial newspapers were stimulated to greater efforts, lleporters were rapidly trained, and in all direc- tions reporting grew. There were none but weekly news- papers ; but they devoted much of their space to report- ing, and public men became more ready to speak as they found that what they said would be more widely made known. As railways were extended, the newspapers were able to extend the sphere of their work of this kind, and reporting spread apace. Then, with changes in the fiscal policy of the country, daily newspapers sprang up in all directions ; the electric telegraph was being improved and developed so that greater facilities were given for report- ing ; and in a few years the old supremacy of the London journals in this department of newspaper work had well- nigh disappeared. The country newspapers did more reporting of speeches and public meetings than the metro- politan papers. No public man made a speech but it was faithfully reproduced in print. Local governing bodies, charitable institutions, political associations, public com- panies all these came in a short time to furnish work for the reporter, and had full attention paid to them. Curiously enough, while the country newspapers have thus cultivated reporting, and have made it one of their chief features, the London newspapers, for reasons into which this article need not enter, have fallen behind, and have for some years past given little attention to the work of which they were the originators. This fact explains a development of reporting which may be more fully described. When the second half of this century began, par- liamentary reporting was a leading feature of the Lon- don newspapers. They had a monopoly of it. All the reporting arrangements in the House of Lords and in the House of Commons were made with sole regard to their requirements. There had indeed been a long battle between the Times and some of the other London news- papers as to which should have the best parliamentary report, and the Times had established its supremacy, which has never been shaken. But, while its reporting was fuller than that of other London daily newspapers, they did not neglect the work, and they gave in shorter compass admirable digests of the proceedings, with full reports of the most important speeches. The provincial newspapers were in the main obliged to copy the reports thus provided, and rarely made any attempt to get reports of their own. When the electric telegraph came into use for commercial purposes a change began. The company which first carried wires from London to the principal towns in the country started a reporting service for the country newspapers. It gathered up scraps of news and sent them to the journals that subscribed for the service. In addition, it procured admission to the parliamentary galleries for reporters in its employ- ment, and began to send short accounts of the debates to the newspapers in the country. These newspapers were thus enabled to publish in the morning some account of the parliamentary proceedings of the previous night, instead of having to take like reports a day later from the London journals. The effect was greatly to stimulate the appetite of the provincial public for parlia- mentary reporting. The telegraph companies for a long time could or would do no more than they had begun by doing ; and they offered no inducements to the provincial newspapers to telegraph speeches. The public meanwhile wanted to know more fully what their representatives were saying in parliament, and gradually the leading pro- vincial newspapers adopted the practice of employing reporters in the service of the London journals to report debates on subjects of special interest in localities ; and these reports, forwarded by train or by post, were printed in full, but of course a day late. . The London papers paid little attention to such debates, and thus the provincial papers had parliamentary reporting which was not to be found elsewhere. Bit by bit this feature was developed. It was greatly accelerated by a movement which the Scotsman was the first to bring about. The telegraph companies had increased in number, but they had not given more facilities for newspaper reporting. About 1865, however, a new company having come into existence, it was agreed that wires from London should be put at the disposal of such newspapers as desired them. Each newspaper was to have the use of a wire of course on payment of a large subscription from six o'clock at night till three o'clock in the morning. This was the beginning of the " special wire " which now plays so important a part in the production of almost all newspapers. The arrangement was first made by the Scotsman and by other newspapers in Scotland. The immediate result was that the parlia- mentary reporting in these papers was greatly increased, and was no longer confined to debates on local affairs. The special wires were used to their utmost capacity to con- vey reports of the speeches of leading statesmen and politicians ; and, instead of bare summaries of what had been done, the newspapers contained pretty full reports. When the telegraphs were taken over by the state, the facilities for reporting were increased in every direction. But now, as to parliamentary reporting, a new difficulty arose. The London papers, with the exception of the Times, had given less and less attention to parliamentary debates. There were, indeed, fairly long reports in one or two other newspapers in London, but the tendency was to shorten them, while on the other hand several of the provincial newspapers were giving more space than ever to the debates. These newspapers had to get their reports as best they could. The demand for such report- ing had led, on the passing of the telegraphs into the hands of the state, to the formation of news agencies which undertook to supply the provincial papers. These agencies were admitted to the reporters' galleries in the Houses of Parliament, and they provided longer or shorter reports of the debates, to meet the wishes of their clients. But the reports which any agency supplied were identical ; that is to say, all the newspapers taking a particular class of report had exactly the same material supplied to them the reporter producing the number of copies required by means of manifold copying paper. It is easy to see that, though this might serve the purpose of most of them, it could not meet the requirements of all ; and accordingly attempts were made to get separate reports by engaging the services of some of the reporters employed by the London papers. Nothing else indeed was possible. The " gallery " was shut to all, save the London papers and the news agencies. The Scotsman sought in vain to break through this exclusiveness. The line, it was said, must be drawn somewhere, and the proper place to draw it was at the London press. Once that line was departed from every newspaper in the kingdom must have admission. But in 1880 a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed to consider the question. It took evidence, and it reported in favour of the extension of the gallery and of the admission of provincial papers. The result was that some of the papers entered into combinations to procure reports ; that is to say, three or four papers which would be satisfied with the same report joined in providing