h the best story
material for the paper next morning. If one does not have an advance
copy, one should attempt to get the speech by topics, with occasional
verbatim passages of particularly pithy or dynamic passages. As in the
case of interviews, it is better not to attempt to take too much of the
lecture word for word. The significance, the spirit of the address is of
greater worth than mere literalness. If the city editor wants a verbatim
report, he will send a stenographer.

=86. A Newspaper Man's Honor.=--In conclusion, emphasis may be laid on
the reporter's attitude toward obtaining news. He must go after a story
with the determination to get it and to get it honorably. Once he has
started after an item, he must not give up until he has succeeded. But
he must succeed with honor. Stories are rampant over the United States
of newspaper men stealing through basement windows at night, listening
at keyholes, bribing jurymen to break their oath, and otherwise
transgressing the limits of law and honor. But the day of such
reportorial methods has passed. To-day a newspaper expects every man on
its staff to be a gentleman. It wants no lawbreakers or sneaks. Stories
must be obtained honestly and written up honestly. The man who fakes a
story or willfully distorts facts for the sake of injuring a man or
making a good news article will be discharged from any reputable
newspaper in America. And he ought to be.

VIII. ORGANIZATION OF THE STORY

=87. On the Way to the Office.=--The organization of the news material
before beginning to write makes for speed, accuracy, and interest. On
the way back to the office the reporter must employ his time as
profitably as when getting the news, so that when he enters the city
room he may have his facts arranged for developing into story form and
may be able to hang his article on the city editor's hook in the
briefest time possible.

=88. Speed.=--Next to accuracy, speed is a newspaper man's most valuable
asset. Some journalists even put speed first, and Mr. Thomas Herbert
Warren but voiced the opinion of many of the fraternity when he wrote,

Thrice blessed he whose statements we can trust,
But four times he who gets his news in fust.

When the reporter starts back to the office, he has in his pocket a mass
of jumbled facts, most of which have a bearing on the prospective story,
but many of which have not. Even those facts that are relevant are
scattered confusedly among th