Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/405



The explosion which sank the Maine occurred on Friday eve- ning, February 15, 1898, at 9.40 o'clock. The first reports from Havana, however, did not reach the New York papers until about half-past two the following morning. Yet before noon of that day a tug chartered by The New York World left Key West with three divers on board. The correspondent of The World at Havana received the following instructions by cable:

Have sent divers from Key West to get actual truth, whether favor- able or unfavorable. First investigation by divers with authentic re- sults worth one thousand dollars, extra expense, to-morrow alone.

When the boat chartered by The World reached the Maine its divers were not allowed to make any investigation and the only direct result to The World from this expedition was an expense amounting to one thousand dollars. Yet this incident was fairly typical of the enormous expense to which American newspapers were put in reporting the war. One New York newspaper re- ported that it spent on the average of three thousand dollars a day during the entire war.

Immediately after the sinking of the Maine, correspondents from all the leading papers hastened to Havana. From the start they met continued opposition from the Spanish censor, who sometimes let what they wrote go through, but who just about as often threw their communications into the waste-basket. To overcome this difficulty several of the more influential American newspapers chartered special boats to ply between Havana and Key West. Their cargo consisted, as one war correspondent put it, "of a little package of copy which a man might carry in the vest pocket of his coat." After the blockade was established the newspapers had to increase the number of boats, which patroled the waters of the West Indies. All this, of course, meant a tre- mendous expense for getting the news from Cuba.

After the correspondents were compelled to leave Havana and the blockade was firmly established, it became still more dif- ficult to get news through the lines. Some of the newspapers, which up to that time had been gathering news separately, now pooled their interests in self-preservation.

As the war progressed, newspapers had additional difficulties