9-c- News

Before the war -- 39-c-. During the War -- 34-c-. After the War -- 27-c-. 1927 --18-c- Now --9-c-

Such has been the progress of the minimum price for sending one word of deferred news across the Pacific. The 9-c- rate was announced last week, when Japan's government-owned cable company decided its new equipment was ready to handle the rush of business that would result from a price cut. To help the world hear more of Japan, a 1-c- differential was made to the U. S. It will cost Japanese publishers 9-c- per word to tell their readers about U. S. football, fashion, finance. But the U. S. publishers will pay only 8-c- per word to get the latest on geishas, earthquakes, Fujiyama and the Son of Heaven. Potent factors in getting the rate down: 1) President Karl August Bickel of the United Press; 2) The imminent meeting of the Institute of Pacific Relations at Kyoto; 3) The enterprise of Radio Corp. of America, Commercial Pacific Cable Co., Mackay Radio. The pre-War rate of 39-c- was well nigh prohibitive. A column of news then cost $390 merely for transmission from Tokyo to San Francisco; did not, of course, in-clude transcontinental transmission. Consequently, most news was sent by mail. Even the most recent, 18-c- rate, worked certain hardships on Pacific Coast publishers. Cost of sending news from Tokyo to London and from London to New York is only 21-c- per word. Many a story was sent from Tokyo to New York by way of London, supplying two news centres instead of one at a cost of but 3-c- more.