Betrayal

When the Graf Zeppelin made her first flight from Germany to the U. S. in 1928 Hearst correspondents had exclusive right to send news despatches en route. North American Newspaper Alliance's Berlin agent arranged with a passenger, Robert Reiner, Manhattan businessman, for descriptions of the flight which he would send as private radiograms to friends in the U. S., although all passengers were required to sign an agreement with the airship operators that they would not give out reports during the flight or for eight days after the landing. Passenger Reiner sent ten messages to N.A. N. A. When he sued for payment at $500 per message the news agency offered in defense that Passenger Reiner had broken his promise to the airship operators, that his contract to send messages was morally void. Last week the New York State Court of Appeals upheld N. A. N. A.'s defense, passed lightly over the agency's part in the alleged "fraud & deceit" thus: "The plaintiff's complaint that the defendant treated him as he had treated others falls upon deaf ears; the law is silent; it has nothing to say."

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