Show Round Merry By DREW PEARS PEARSON N and ROBERT ERT S. S ALLEN ALI SAN FRANCISCO This FRANCISCO This state famous for its sunshine labor strikes Tom Mooney and Thirty Dollars Every Thursday has developed two men still nationally obscure who behind the scenes can take some responsibility for all of the above except above except the sunshine Both happen to be newspaper editors One is Paul Smith of the San Francisco Chronicle who recently amazed California by settling the warehousemen's strike The other is Manchester Boddy of the Los Angeles News of more mature vintage who had a lotto do with the election of California's Ham and Eggs senator and gov gov- Until the warehousemen's strike this year Paul Smith of San Francisco was chiefly famous for or being a friend both of Herbert Hoover and Harry Bridges and for having crammed more into his young life than almost any other newspaper newspaper newspaper news news- paper man in a profession anything but hum hum- drum Before he entered the newspaper field at atthe atthe atthe the age of 24 Smith had been a hobo an lumberjack gold pro prospector ector artichoke canner sports shop proprietor proprietor and bond salesman It was the latter occupation which jumped him to the financial editorship of the San Francisco Chronicle during the bank holiday of 1933 and which in turn brou brought ht him to the attention of Herbert Hoover Hoover liked some of the things Smith wrote about Roosevelt's handling of the banks and they became friends Th That t friendship has continued despite Smiths Smith's simultaneous friendship with Harry Bridges and the fact that his editorial policy generally is pro Last summer Smith accompanied Hoover to Europe as his close friend and adviser Reared in Panic Manchester Boddy was born near Seattle After several years as a young miner in Montana Mon Mon- tana he became a book salesman then joined the Week Mid-Week Pictorial published by the New York Times was gassed in the war and afterward afterward afterward after after- ward came to California for his health There he helped publish a pictorial magazine magazine magazine maga maga- zine for the Los Angeles Times and when Cornelius Cornelius Cornelius Cor Cor- nelius Vanderbilt finally had to let the Los Angeles Angeles Angeles An An- geles News go at a bankruptcy Boddy raised the money to buy it inThe inThe inThe in The News says Boddy was conceived in inequity born in bankruptcy reared in panic and refinanced every six months Nevertheless Boddy has now been able to add a second newspaper and this fall played an important part in swinging the large block of southern California votes which gave the New Deal a Democratic governor and sent Sheridan Downey to the United States senate While putting these two across as individuals Boddy simultaneously attacked Thirty Dollars Every Thursday helped defeat it Graft Crusade Biggest job Boddy ever did for Los Angeles however was to expose a faulty foundation in a dam which would have flooded the countryside In doing this he sent the county supervisor Sidney Sidney Sid Sid- ney T. T Graves to jail for taking an bribe Also he waged relentless warfare against the Los Angeles underworld finally succeeded in ousting the chief of police though not before Boddy himself had been arrested and spent some time in jail for publishing the names of the entries entries en en- tries in the Kentucky Derby Other Los Angeles p papers pers published the names unmolested Before the fight was over v various rious department department depart depart- ment stores had withdrawn their advertising from the News under pressure from the police department Labor Negotiator Paul Smith facing the same boycott on n The San Francisco Chronicle finally got out a front page expose of the manner in which local department department department de de- de- de stores were attempting to choke his labor policy It proved a sensation finally broke the boycott Critical of labor when he thinks it deserves criticism Smith later published an edi editorial orial at attack attack at- at tack on the warehousemen who had tied up the wholesale business of the entire city The head of the union retaliated with a bitter reply which Smith slapped on the front page of the Chronicle Chron Chron- icle ide together with his own answer This brought forth another letter from the warehousemen's head this time so scathing that San Francisco held its breath when the Chronicle published it The letter asked why Smith since he was v such a smart guy didn't settle the strike himself To everyone's amazement Smith accepted the challenge First he got a statement from the warehouse owners inviting him to arbitrate Then he announced that since both sides wanted wanted wanted want want- ed hip him he accepted with pleasure It was wa's the toughest job he had ever handled in his meteoric career At last Smith reached a complete deadlock In his opinion the owners were wrong and he told them so Gentlemen decreed Smith I am going to leave the room If you dont don't get together on this thing I am going to print the truth on the warehouse industry And believe me its it's some story That threat at was enough The warehousemen war housemen got their contract Smiths Smith's feat was the newspaper newspaper newspaper news news- paper sensation of the west coast Copyright 1938 for The Telegram t j |