OCR Text |
Show Little Known Stories About Well Known People Inept military censorship has appalled ap-palled many newspaper men. However, How-ever, we believe there would be less quibbling between reporters and brass hat blue-pencilers if they would use the following yarn as their guide: Some years ago, an army ammunition depot exploded on the outskirts of Baltimore. But the colonel colo-nel in charge of the depot refused to give reporters any information. They promptly appealed to the general gen-eral commanding the corps area, who picked them up in his car and convoyed the newsboys to the scene of the disaster. . . . They were greeted greet-ed at the gate by the colonel, who stated: "General, I have just thrown some reporters out of here." . . . The general replied: "Colonel, let me present these gentlemen to you. They represent the local newspapers. newspa-pers. I've discovered that it is better bet-ter to give them the news right away. They'll probably dig up the Information, anyhow, but a little co-operation saves them time and helps the army." . . . The general's name? Douglas MacArthur. When heavyweight champ Joe Louis was a youngster his mother took him to Detroit's child guidance bureau. The psychologist there studied his case. His amazing counsel coun-sel Is still a part of the bureau's files: "Teach him to do something with his hands." Anyone who has waded through the labyrinth of Bretton Woods or studied the Intricacies of reconversion is aware economics eco-nomics is a complex subject. . . . Will Rogers once listened to a discussion by a group of expert economists. One of them asked Rogers: "What is your opinion about rigid economy?" . . . Will intoned: "The only thing I know about rigid economy is that It is a dead Scotchman." Lowell Thomas tells this: One evening in May, 1919, when Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife were driving driv-ing home, a concussion followed by a terrific explosion tore the air. Turning into their own street, they found themselves in total darkness, driving over broken glass. Every street lamp was blown away, the , trees stripped of their leaves. At home they found the front door blown open, and every window shattered. shat-tered. The lower floor was chaos. . . . FDR dashed upstairs shouting, shout-ing, "Johnny, Johnny." Johnny was sleepy and confused by the uproar. He wanted to know what the trouble was. "Turn over and go to sleep," Mrs. Roosevelt said firmly and calmly. calm-ly. "It's just a Uttle bomb!" . . . Ever since then, at moments of extreme ex-treme excitement or uproar in the Roosevelt household, when a measure meas-ure of sang-froid is called for, somebody some-body quotes that priceless remark: "It's just a little bomb!" Teddy Roosevelt informed a biographer biog-rapher that he learned a great lesson les-son in the art of diplomacy from an Indian chief. . . . While touring the west, Teddy met an Indian who had six wives. . . . Roosevelt suggested that he choose one and discard the other five. . . . After thoughtful consideration, con-sideration, the chieftain agreed on one condition. "You choose the one for me to keep," he replied, "and then you tell the other five." France's great statesman, Clem-enceau, Clem-enceau, demanded drastic punishment punish-ment for Germany's war criminals after the last war, but he was overruled over-ruled by his diplomatic colleagues. . . . One diplomat informed Clemen-ceau: Clemen-ceau: "Your demand to kill so many Germans is murder." . . . The French statesman looked him straight in the eye and snapped: "Killing microbes is also a form of murder. But they must be killed in order to cure a disease!" The OWI continues to be jabbed by flapjaws who deprecate the importance im-portance of propaganda in the current cur-rent struggle. But the use of propaganda propa-ganda as a weapon of war isn't new. Napoleon was as wily a propagandist propagan-dist as he was a militarist. . . . During Dur-ing the war in Spain, Bonaparte's official of-ficial editor penned this communique: communi-que: "The emperor with forces much inferior to the enemy inflicted a decisive de-cisive defeat on him." ... In the margin Napoleon wrote: "Idiot! I need no glory. I have more than I want already. But I need the enemy to think I have soldiers when I have not." . . . Striking out the references to his inferior forces, he wrote: "At the head of forces far superior to those of the enemy, the emperor gained a brilliant victory." Yon could fill a library with G. B. Shaw squelches. But there have been times when the genius-with-the-long-white-beard has been the victim of a rapier retort. . . . Shaw abhors ab-hors dinner parties. One time Lady Randolf Churchill invited him to come to one of them. Shaw wired: "I will not come to your dinner party. par-ty. Why should I break my well known habits?" . . . Lady Churchill swiftly wired her reply: "Know nothing about your habits but trust they are not as bad as your manners." |