James M. Tuohy, the London representative of The World, is the dean of London correspondents. His knowledge of European affairs is admirable. Joseph Pulitzer appointed him as head of the European clearing house for news for The World and Mr. Tuohy has appointed correspondents for The World in all the capitals of Europe, being personally acquainted with each man and woman he selected. No one knows more than Tuohy about politics in Ireland and British rule in Ireland, subjects in which tens of thousands of The World’s readers are engrossed.
Every reader of The World is familiar with the names of its staff correspondents abroad, for they, being certain of the facts they state are only too glad to accept public responsibility for them. Lincoln Eyre, in Paris; Arno Dosch-Fleurot, who has a roving commission at the moment; Cyril Brown, in Berlin; Miss Beatrice Baskerville, in Rome, have become the friends, even the guides, of the thoughtful who support this newspaper—whenever and wherever the interest of mankind is focused, there and then a staff correspondent of The World is present; at the front headquarters of battling armies, at all important conferences of diplomats, at discussions of bankers, at congresses of labor—in Moscow, Constantinople, Vienna, Spa, Versailles and Geneva—anywhere. And the lines of immediate communication stretch from London to the remotest corners of the earth.
THE CITY NEWS GATHERING DEPARTMENT
The editorial and reportorial staffs of The World are composed of highly trained, intelligent, quick-witted men, peculiarly gifted as writers. They have broad human sympathies, which make them swift to see news and stories of interest to humanity. These writers and news collectors have been drawn from all parts of the country and from many countries. Each one of them has some specialty, some unique gift of understanding, so that when a story “breaks” the City Editor can select from his staff the one man peculiarly fitted by nature to understand, unravel and write it. As matters of great moment in business, finance and commerce, and court trials, sporting stories, crime and detective stories, social affairs, political intrigues, adventures, accidents, sea and shipping yarns, war stories, hunting escapades, stories of nature, music, art and the theatre are constantly “breaking,” it is necessary to have on the staff of a great metropolitan journal men who can instantly “jump out” on the story and grasp it, gather its many strands and come back in a few minutes, or few hours, ready to write not only an entertaining but a truthful and accurate story.
Through long experience—many of the men have been on the paper almost from boyhood and others were trained in the best editorial rooms in the country—these men have acquired professional skill, great reverence for their work and a decent regard for the rights of the reading public. The World, because of its complete local staff organization, has knowledge of practically every news event in New York and prints everything that is of interest to the public.
FINANCIAL
Forecasts made in the columns of The World as to the operation of underlying of economic factors in finance have proved so accurate during the upheaval attending the Great War, as to give the Wall Street Department, conducted by Samuel S. Fontaine, an enviable reputation both at home and abroad. Some of these predictions have been as startling in the fulfilment as in their conception. Here is one notable illustration:
In the fall of 1914, when British bankers demanding almost hysterically that the United States ship unlimited quantities in liquidation of current liabilities and sterling was quoted at $7 a pound, the financial editor predicted that, before the end of the Great War this country would not only have purchased all United States securities held abroad, but that the debit balance of England in this country would grow to such startling proportions that the pound sterling would be driven below $4 in New York. English economists were aghast at such financial iconoclasm. They dismissed it as a bit of Yankee ignorance and insolence. Every high school boy knows how abundantly this prediction has been fulfilled.
When the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, at the suggestion of the Federal Reserve Bank, first began its campaign to force deflation by means of high interest rates imposed on borrowers on stock collateral, the Financial Editor of The World called the attention of the Washington authorities of the fact that the necessity for liquidation was not confined to stocks, but that it extended to all quarters of the country and that the profiteering that was causing most discomfort to the people was centred very largely in the South, where the banks had loaned enormous sums on cotton at fictitious prices, and in the West, where unwarranted credit was being extended grain and food orders.
The truth of this was immediately conceded by the national banking authorities. Rediscount rates were made uniform at all regional institutions, and the great price readjustment movement, which has led to a universal decline in the cost of living resulted.