The Associated Press
Title
The Associated Press
Creator
The Associated Press
Identifier
WWP23038
Date
1919 March 17
Description
Typewritten flyer about the Associated Press.
Source
Gift of William C. and Evelina Suhler
Subject
Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920)
Contributor
Rachel Dark
Denise Montgomery
Language
English
Provenance
Evelina Suhler is the granddaughter of Jon Anthony Bouman and inherited the family collection of his letters from the years of World War I. She and her husband gave the letters to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum in 2013.
Text
(NY - 453) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (NY - 453)
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MAIL METER FOR USE IN EVENING PAPERS OF TUESDAY, APRIL 15 (FIFTEEN) AND MORNING AND EVENING PAPERS THEREAFTER.
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PARIS, MARCH 17, (Correspondence of The Associated Press.) -
Newspaper correspondents accredited to the Peace Conference are more popular than beautiful millionaire debutantes in their first season.
Queens, counts, princes, lords, ladies, ambassadors, ministers, premiers, presidents, would-be presidents, peace delegates and plain citizens who are unique in being mere messieurs shower the correspondents with invitations to teas, tiffins, dinners and occasionally to audiences which have no social disguise.
American correspondents are in special demand. Everybody wants America's ear. Three social secretaries and a squad of motor dispatchers would be required to avoid social errors and land a correspondent promptly at all the functions to which he is invited. And he would have no time for anything so prosaic as the plenary sessions of the Peace Conference.
Everything from Belshazzar to the Bolsheviki is discussed at the these social functions. Correspondents are whisked from New Guinea to Nova Zembla without warning. Ptolemy and Pompey are resurrected and discussed at such length that one might suspect they narrowly missed being selected as delegates to the Paris conference.
Ancient Greece and Rome no longer seem ancient. Philip of Macedon suddenly becomes modern. Persian poets sing of their country's proper boundaries with all the charm of Omar Khayyam. The Old Testament is introduced as a modern bit of literature designed to establish certain territorial claims.
Countries and peoples are discovered at these conferences which American school geographers apparently hadn't heard of; and even the geographical specialists employed by the various missions to the Paris conference are mystified.
It's a rare occasion when a delegation descends to a period as modern as that of Charlemagne or Pepin the Great in making claims for the right of self-determination.
Sanskrit and Arabic are revived glibly in an effort to establish the consanguinity of certain peoples. Ancient philosophers are quoted in their original tongues. Anglo-Saxons are reminded of the perfect civilization which existed in the Orient five thousand years before the Christian era. Names which the "raw civilization" of Western Europe never heard of are rolled off glibly -- names with the Americans trying to make the world safe for democracy and that speedily, don't want to hear.
Such claims as that of Belgium for a readjustment of relations with Holland come as a real relief to dazed newspaper men and weary delegates. That controversy only dates back to 1831, to the scrap of paper which Germany probably wouldn't tear up so ruthlessly if she could live the last five years over again.
Discussions of the Near Eastern questions are much the same, whether they be in the drawing room of the Prince of Hedjaz of the meetings of the Big Five at the Quai d"Orsay. They are reminiscent of weary classroom days with Homer, Herodotus and Virgil. Efforts to interest busy men in antiquity seem futile. Delegates doze through the exposition of ancient history and correspondents long for brief statements throwing light upon the recent history and aspirations of the various peoples who have lived in such discord for centuries along the shores of the Mediterranean.
-css-pw-sa-NY- 5-4-19
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MAIL METER FOR USE IN EVENING PAPERS OF TUESDAY, APRIL 15 (FIFTEEN) AND MORNING AND EVENING PAPERS THEREAFTER.
---------------------------------------------------------------
PARIS, MARCH 17, (Correspondence of The Associated Press.) -
Newspaper correspondents accredited to the Peace Conference are more popular than beautiful millionaire debutantes in their first season.
Queens, counts, princes, lords, ladies, ambassadors, ministers, premiers, presidents, would-be presidents, peace delegates and plain citizens who are unique in being mere messieurs shower the correspondents with invitations to teas, tiffins, dinners and occasionally to audiences which have no social disguise.
American correspondents are in special demand. Everybody wants America's ear. Three social secretaries and a squad of motor dispatchers would be required to avoid social errors and land a correspondent promptly at all the functions to which he is invited. And he would have no time for anything so prosaic as the plenary sessions of the Peace Conference.
Everything from Belshazzar to the Bolsheviki is discussed at the these social functions. Correspondents are whisked from New Guinea to Nova Zembla without warning. Ptolemy and Pompey are resurrected and discussed at such length that one might suspect they narrowly missed being selected as delegates to the Paris conference.
Ancient Greece and Rome no longer seem ancient. Philip of Macedon suddenly becomes modern. Persian poets sing of their country's proper boundaries with all the charm of Omar Khayyam. The Old Testament is introduced as a modern bit of literature designed to establish certain territorial claims.
Countries and peoples are discovered at these conferences which American school geographers apparently hadn't heard of; and even the geographical specialists employed by the various missions to the Paris conference are mystified.
It's a rare occasion when a delegation descends to a period as modern as that of Charlemagne or Pepin the Great in making claims for the right of self-determination.
Sanskrit and Arabic are revived glibly in an effort to establish the consanguinity of certain peoples. Ancient philosophers are quoted in their original tongues. Anglo-Saxons are reminded of the perfect civilization which existed in the Orient five thousand years before the Christian era. Names which the "raw civilization" of Western Europe never heard of are rolled off glibly -- names with the Americans trying to make the world safe for democracy and that speedily, don't want to hear.
Such claims as that of Belgium for a readjustment of relations with Holland come as a real relief to dazed newspaper men and weary delegates. That controversy only dates back to 1831, to the scrap of paper which Germany probably wouldn't tear up so ruthlessly if she could live the last five years over again.
Discussions of the Near Eastern questions are much the same, whether they be in the drawing room of the Prince of Hedjaz of the meetings of the Big Five at the Quai d"Orsay. They are reminiscent of weary classroom days with Homer, Herodotus and Virgil. Efforts to interest busy men in antiquity seem futile. Delegates doze through the exposition of ancient history and correspondents long for brief statements throwing light upon the recent history and aspirations of the various peoples who have lived in such discord for centuries along the shores of the Mediterranean.
-css-pw-sa-NY- 5-4-19
Original Format
Printed flyer
Files
Collection
Citation
The Associated Press, “The Associated Press,” 1919 March 17, WWP23038, Jon Anthony Bouman Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.