That deal and the world news relationships of which it was a part, were well hidden from the world prior to World War II, but the war completed a change in the former secret relationships. Marking this change, A.P. chief Kent Cooper published the story of the news cartel in 1942. His book was called _Barriers Down_. Cooper published it only to mobilize support for his “crusade.” Cooper’s “crusade” is nothing more than a drive for world news monopoly. _Barriers Down_ is designed to justify American imperialist news domination by coating it with high moral purpose. The _London Economist_, organ of battered British imperialism, notes in its issue of December 2, 1944: Mr. Cooper, like most big business executives, experiences a peculiar moral glow in finding that his idea of freedom coincides with his commercial advantage. In his ode to Liberty there is no suggestion than when all barriers are down the huge financial resources of the American agencies might enable them to dominate the world. His desire to prevent another Goebbels from poisoning the wells will be universally applauded, but democracy does not necessarily mean making the whole world safe for A.P. In this, as in other post-war issues--such as civil aviation--commercial practices are habitually confused with such big words as “liberty and the Rights of Man.” Cooper’s book nevertheless lends the strongest authority to what would otherwise be an almost incredible story of news imperialism. We shall lean on it heavily. _Chapter V_ SECRET HISTORY OF A CARTEL The story begins in the 1840’s with the formation of the great modern news agencies in obedience to the click of the telegraph key. At that time, Great Britain dominated the world. France, a powerful state, was nevertheless a link in the British system. Germany had not yet fully emerged as a modern industrial power. Russia, ruling a sprawling empire, was herself, in a sense, something of a political and economic “colony” of the more advanced European states. The Far East was one huge, thinly-disguised sphere for European exploitation, too, with Britain hogging the lion’s share. The United States, in addition to exercising little influence in world affairs, lacked the immediate facilities for world news competition: Great Britain controlled almost all cable and other communications. Under these conditions, there arose what Kent Cooper justly terms “the greatest and most powerful international monopoly of the 19th Century,” the world news cartel. Considering that A.P. voluntarily participated in it, Cooper’s highly moral tone is strange. It is true, nevertheless, that the agencies “brought under their control the power to decide what the people of each nation would be allowed to know of the people of other nations and in what shade of meaning the news was to be presented.” * * * * * Summarizing the situation, the A.P. boss continues: