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Show ! i ! : IT IT IT IT I j: 'Inside Info' Exaggerated was administered very tenderly by an Old Timer, my boss. My assignment assign-ment was helping to cover the British Brit-ish embassy early in World War I, before America had become embroiled. em-broiled. One night, my boss, who knew everybody in Washington, took me along to introduce me to the British commercial attache I'm not sure that was what he was called in those days, but it describes his job. He talked with us quite a while, much more freely than he would have conversed with me alone, for I was a stranger to him. In the course of the conversation, he mentioned that tomorrow, or next day, Great Britain would announce an-nounce what amounted to an embargo em-bargo on American wool (Britain wanted to switch her buying to Australia). Aus-tralia). The attache explained the background of the move in detail. When we were out ,on the street, my 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?" 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 any newsman gets out of "confidential" information, and all that 99.44 per cent of us ever expect. The same thing applies to government govern-ment employees. Those who act otherwise soon depart. f ' I There has been remarkable inter- i ' ' est recently in charges that Wash-. j1 . ington officials used "inside infor- j f mation" obtained because of their !'',' connection with the government to ' . j , play the markets. The other day one highly-placed gentleman came j i ; to me in quite a stew. ; ; ' i "Have you heard the rumor that j : I was being charged with playing ; 1 I the market on information I got from the White House?" he asked. Jj ' "No," I replied. "Who is doing ! , ? ' ' the charging?" , 1 i ' "That's what I want to find out," j : ' he sputtered. I i , "Well," I answered, surprised at his wrath, "you certainly don't feel t Insulted by it, do you? Anybody can I i : be charged with anything in an elec- l tion year." ;, ' j ' "I certainly am insulted," he I , i came back, "not because my I . L. honor is being impugned, but it is an insult to my intelligence to j j imply that anyone who has been I . ! : around Washington as long as I ') have would be such an ass!" ! : When I first came to Washington , ' ' as a reporter, I remember there i was a minor scandal on "leaks" that had been used for profit. The :' ' i chief offender, however, was a pub- j 1 ; licity man, not an official, and from I ' j the standpoint of business it proved j ' j a fine thing for him. As soon as the ; j ; charges that he had obtained con- ; j fidential information and had ! passed it on to his client were made ; ' J ' public he had a dozen offers from i j other big firms to get on their pay- ' ! rolls. He did, but it wasn't long be- ! i fore he left Washington. He didn't get any more confidences. ' j A lesser factor in the affair was ,f !j , newspaper reporter. It was dis- I j j covered that he was on the payroll i i' I of a brokerage firm to whom he , j ' i phoned anything he thought might 1j ; be of interest after he had written 1 ; his story for his paper whose last C edition had an early afternoon dead- e line. It was shown that the brokers "ii paid him all 'of $25 a month. In the i : investigation it also was shown that U while he knew what was news for a fa newspaper, the reporter had only ! .; the foggiest idea of what would in- V terest a broker as he probably never owned a share of stock in his ! life. He was duly fired from the ' paper, and suspended from the K 'i ; Press club, but nobody was too y sore. I" 1 j They knew, as my friend in- j dicated, it was stupidity rather j j than lack of virtue which was his chief sin. ! I I My own first lesson on the subject i of Washington journalistic ethics V |