Show V p x c x x V V Inside Info Exaggerated There has been remarkable interest interest inter inter- V V est recently in charges that Washington Washington Wash Wash- V ington officials used inside information t. t mation obtained because of their V connection with the gover government ment to toV V V play the markets The other day V one ne placed highly-placed gentleman came cameto cameto V to me in quite a stew Have you heard the rumor that I was being charged with playing V the market on information I got V V from the White House he asked V N No I replied Who lis is 15 doing V the charging V I what I want to find out he be sputtered V Well I answered surprised at athis his wrath you certainly dont don't feel V insulted by it do you Anybody can r. r V be charged with anything in an election elec elec- I V VI VV V V tion year V I certainly am m Insulted he heV V V came back not because my honor is being impugned but It Itis is an insult to my intelligence nce to imply that anyone anone who has been around Washington as long as 1 I have would be such an ass V V When I first came to Washington V V as as a reporter I remember there I I. I was a a. a minor sc scandal on leaks J. J that had been used for profit The chief offender however was a publicity publicity publicity pub pub- V man not an official and from the standpoint of business it proved r a fine thing for him As soon as the V charges that he had obtained confidential confidential con V V information and had passed it on to his client w were re made V public he had a dozen offers from other big firms to get on t their pay rolls He did but it wasn't long before before before be be- fore he left Washington He didn't get any more confidences A lesser factor in the affair was wasa wasn V a n newspaper reporter It was discovered discovered dis dis- V covered that he was on the payroll of V a a brokerage firm to whom he heV phoned V anything he thought might V S be be of interest after he had written his story for his paper whose last edition had an early afternoon deadline dead dead- line It was shown that the brokers paid him all of 25 a month In the Investigation it also was shown that while he knew what was news for a aV V newspaper the reporter had only the foggiest idea of what would Interest interest in In- terest a broker as he probably never owned a share of stock in his V life ille He was duly fired from the paper and suspended from the V Press club but nobody was as too sore Bore They knew as my friend Indicated In V it U was stupidity rather V than lack of virtue which was his chief eWer sin V V My own first lesson on the subject of Washington journalistic ethics V V was administered very tenderly by byan byan byan an Old Timer my boss My assignment assign assignment ment was helping to cover the British Brit ish embassy early in World War I before America had become em em- broiled One night my boss who knew everybody in Washington took me along to introduce me to the British commercial Im I'm Im I'm not sure that was what he was called in those days but it describes his job He talked with us quite a a while Awhile much more freely than he would have conversed with me alone for forI I was a stranger to him In the course of the conversation he mentioned that tomorrow or next day Great Britain would announce announce announce an an- what amounted to an embargo embargo em bargo on American wool Britain wanted to switch her buying to Australia Aus The explained the background of the move in detail When ve we were out on the street my y boss pulled out his watch and remarked to me Now if we were crooked we would still have time before the markets close to make a lot of money selling short wouldn't we V He didn't have to explain further AFTER the British had made their announcement I was able to write a good follow interpreting the move That's all aU any newsman gets out of confidential information inform a tIon and all that per cent of us ever expect The same thing applies to government govern govern- ment meat employees Those who act otherwise soon depart |