Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/441

Rh That stories which, though having some basis of fact, might be hurtful to Colorado or to any city in Colorado, should not be exploited in a sensational manner.That malicious or unwarranted statements injurious to Colorado, or to any city or citizen of Colorado, or to any legitimate industry of Colorado be barred from publication. 

Similar organizations in other cities did much to help codify that code of ethics the absence of which Henry Watterson so much regretted.

In 1908 William Bayard Hale sold to The Century Magazine, of New York, an article which contained an interview with the German Kaiser. After the article had been put into type and was actually on the press, the German Foreign Office requested its suppression a request which the publishers of The Century granted, even though the act necessitated a stopping of the presses and the substitution of another article and a delay in the publication of the number. When the news of its suppression leaked out, the public became very much interested in the suppression and was unusually anxious to know what the Kaiser had said. The World, of New York, gave a wild guess which it published on November 21, 1908. Immediately upon the appearance of what purported to be a synopsis of The Century article, Mr. Hale gave to the press the following statement:

"I repudiate absolutely the story which The New York World this morning published purporting to tell what passed at my audience with the German Emperor. It is pure falsification from beginning to end and I so declared to The World reporter who showed it to me before publication."

The World was then forced to admit that it had imposed upon its readers in the publication of the article. The reaction which followed undoubtedly had something to do with the establishment by The World of its Bureau of Accuracy and Fair Play, the object of which was thus stated by Ralph Pulitzer, who succeeded his father on The World:

"To promote accuracy and fair play, to correct carelessness, and to stamp out fakes and fakers."