Page:The Newspaper and the Historian.djvu/251



by men describing the daily life of the troops. This can not in

any way be classed as war correspondence, but it has had a prominent place in the press. Much of it, however, has been dis trusted and to counteract the incorrect, exaggerated reports contained in such letters a " truth tour ” was arranged in May ,

1919, and the “ A. E. F. Press Special” carried two hundred former newspaper men then in the army to show them the Army Headquarters, the entire service of supplies, and the Army of

Occupation. The object was to forestall the" whoppers ” that had been written home and that had returned to confound the regular

representatives of the press in France. These “ whoppers” had been due to imagination, to ignorance, to credulity , to a desire for

notoriety, and to a necessarily limited point of view. The " truth tour” gave a perspective all had lacked and must favorably

affect the occasional correspondence that for years to come will fill the columns of the local press.37 What then are the limitations of special correspondence as historical material? The limitations are primarily the official relations that have been already suggested, but they tend to become crystallized when the usefulness of correspondents is

recognized by the governments of the countries where they temporarily reside. In May, 1918, “ With the approval of the American Government,” there was formed the " Association of

Foreign Press Correspondents in the United States.” 38

The

authorities placed at the disposal of thenew organization " special facilities for an examination of the war activities of the United

States in all directions, facilities which include talks with leading statesmen, inspection of military and naval work , and visits to the centers of war industries in various parts of the country. ” But since nothing indicates that facilities for seeing normal

conditions were placed or to be placed at the service of the foreign correspondents, the opportunities accorded them must be classed as efforts on the part of government officials to influence foreign opinion through press correspondents. These facilities offered

must seem near of kin to those presented by the German govern

ment in 1914 to foreign press correspondents, - facilities that 37 W. Forrest, “ The Truth Tour," New York Tribune, May 21, 1919 . 38 New York Evening Post,May 20, 1