Show afa Z ue so presidents respect members of fourth estate by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator washington in this post election calm which has settled over the domestic political scene many a vest shirt blouse or slip in the capital conceals a palpitating heart what about my government job ob after the glad 9 new year the regular classified civil servants haven t much to fear they can t be fired without cause and no matter how thorough a new admin rations s housecleaning may be most of the furniture lands right back where it was before although here and there you may at first fail to recognize an old friend tn in a new slipcover long ago most per cent new dealers in high places displayed the wisdom which they felt was the 4 better part ot of valor and va koosed others assumed new col ors S some 0 in e who had not been too careful previous ly to keep the right hand from knowing what the left hand was doing gradually be gan to grow am bi dextrous and Bank soon were able to baukhage hage liage write the lesson on the blackboard without exposing the wedding ring finger there is however one class of permanent washingtonians which goes on like the brook but even individuals in this class may find the nature of their daily tasks dif fering slightly as administrations change I 1 refer of course to the fourth estate which now includes commentators since radio newsmen as well as newspapermen are eligible to the national press club thus establishing at least a mini mum standard of merit naturally we who cover the white house always wonder what manner of man we are going to have to handle while a new incumbent Is learning the art of getting his name favorably inserted into a wash ington dispatch er or broadcast we me have a chance to learn the care and feeding of the source of news which feeds the news to us once dewey had a bad deputa tion in this regard but then most candidates are suspect before they start since it is taken for granted that they all are subject to the dis ease ot president which affects victims differently coolidge tor for instance was per haps least afflicted with this malady that attacks the strongest ual when he walks under the white pillared portico of 1600 pennsyl vania avenue to stay for a at least leas four years and coolidge was about as rich in front page material of his own making as the clam he sought to emulate I 1 remember a remark william hard now an editor of reader readers s digest once made to me cal never seemed to suffer from pres dennit s hard invented the word I 1 believe he Is the only occupant of the white house I 1 know of who when he lay down to take his ins daily siesta didn dian t think when he awoke that the world had gone to pieces no newsman except toward the last could complain about franklin roosevelt Koo sevelt s news conferences feren ces regardless of what one might think of his views his news was always printable it will be hard to produce an ether other such the heavy majority of those who traveled with dewey on his in is cam laign trips had nothing but praise but a few of those who had ex penen perien ced his press conferences and had enjoyed or otherwise his press relations in earlier days were cynical wait they said until the honeymoon is over I 1 found it hard to get concrete predictions I 1 myself had seen a vast improvement in dewey s press relations over the years since his first campaign and I 1 see no rea son why a person can t and doesn doean t learn on the tram train whenever he could and that is the way most of the correspondents described it could not would dewey went into the press car attached to his train chatted individually with the fellows learned to connect names with new faces answered questions question and at least appeared to be frank and free with his off the record remarks concerning re publican doubts and fears real im lm agines or assumed he ile sometimes took time for a game of chess with the boys there was however much less informality in the atmosphere of his entourage than there was la in truman s the dewey deney affair moved so smooth ly that a creak or two would have been welcome like the farmer in the poem so even ran his course of life the begh bors hors thought it odd there was one man who made press relations on the dewey cam laign train a joy well two men ore oise was jim hagerty trained re porter himself who is expected to be the public relations secretary in the white house the other was a man who probably won t be in washington at all dewey s veteran political adviser edwin jaeckle there was no conflict between the two a rare situation indeed jaeckle supplemented hagerty this would seem to contradict the sharp charges of warren moscow author of politics in the empire state which came out this fall moscow one of new york city s top rank political reporters who also covered albany claims that dewey shut down news sources dur ing his governorship in an attempt to thwart any criticism that he even tried to lay down a press con ference rule that a question was off the record thus covering up the fact that an answer had been given not to be made public or had been refused moscow asserts that dewey wanted to be the oracle the one and only the sole source of what should be reported if that was true earlier in dewey s career the dapper new yorker who has been widely touted of late for being able to take advice and tor for being able to pick people who know how to advise has had some good advice it he should revert to methods such as moscow describes two things would happen first he would suffer second he would tail fall in his attempt and the effects of the effort might be permanently disastrous some presidents have tried to conduct government by dis curbing the checks and bal ances it never works long and the freedom of the press is one of the checks a prin ciple that is part and parcel of the american concept of government A notable example of how the very weight of the news legitimate news breaks through any wall was the case of the financial conference called by pres dent hoover just be fore the end of bis his reg me 1931 to be exact hoover had no intention whatever of deceiving the public he simply t understand that you coulden couldn rit t have a gathering like that without making an adequate explanation of some kind at any rate just a bare announcement wa issued free press Is best check the next day at the white house news conference hoover said he would not comment on the meeting though the notice had appeared in the papers and that he consid ered it the duty of the press not to print anything which was only par bially true or else incomplete richard coulihan of the new york times one of the most be loved and respected correspondents correspondent s who ever covered washington and an outstanding leader made a cyp icalla dignified but very emphatic protest then and there he said it was out of the question to ask the reporters not to get as complete a story as they could it was pointed out by another well known reporter that the press would have to have the story and the reporters would have to get it regardless of the president s wishes the president refused at first but the reporters insisted finally he agreed to give out an official state ment after the conference I 1 have known other examples of short lived gag rules one which secretary of the treas ury tried to lish ish on the treasury he ile issued an order that none of the treas ury officials could talk with newsmen he ile might as well have told reporters not to read the market quotations it failed legitimate news continued to be reported as it ainas had been franklin roosevelt had at one time at least 80 per cent of the newspapers against him he knew he couldn coulden t change their edi tonal views by giving out news to the r representatives he also knew that if he tried to withhold news the american people would be far less likely to support him and be cause he understood the mean ng of the freedom of the press he wouldn t have thought of trying and he knew how to make it appear as favorable as possible the most effective check in a democracy is not the first second or third but the fourth estate an unenlightened public conceivably might elect a totally bad president and a totally bad congress wh ch would estabi sh a totally bad su preme court but unless the press is gagged the public in a democracy cannot be democratically lightened |