Show t r Washing H Diary Doesn't Have to Tell Shaking Earth-Shaking Occurrences By y BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator k W WASHINGTON The The nation and particularly the nations nation's i capital where we are highly national and international-conscious international is suffering as never before from the result of memories good and andt andi t i bad The Roosevelt epoch produced a rash of reminiscences reminiscences books about 32 of them just since his death T Currently we have with us the Churchill war memoirs as they are called although when I was w s young and read The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes I thought a memoir was something printed after a mans man's death Of course Sherlock c came me back so I suppose th that t legitimizes the I OL Winston Churchill was a great grea keeper diary-keeper as was his fellow fellow- countryman n Samuel whose rw stuff was so 50 o hot ho 0 t that the British e m t till tilli i 1 1 s government g i 1 has Ii a S nt released it all aU II 0 of f it 1 t F Franklin Frank Frank- r nI n- n k I lin Un Roo Roosevelt s eve 1 t never kept a diary His seeF see sec r eta r y of the thet t treasury rea sur y made F up for this l lack ck Hen Henry r y Morgen- Morgen x thau assembled volumes of about ri pages each totaling totaling totaling to to- about 80 million words The task must have kept three stenographers a day working in relays ys He had the diaries bound some come said at government expense although I daresay he p paid id for it in inthe inthe inthe the end His was a lazy method He I. I hu in frn on nn his ww T memory r lIe He had had ra a in his office and every word spoken in the supposed sanctity 7 of his chamber in the treasury wide of overlooking the sweep lawn and park that flows down downto to the Pot mac was duly tran tran- scribed When the news of this epic achievement became public a terrible howl resulted and some of the volumes were returned to the government archives What a man I wonder if keepers diary-keepers are normal I would hate to admit to a psychologist that I have kept a diary for years even decades dec des I still keep one I dont don't know how howl howlong long lang l ng ago I started but I still have on one one slim green volume dated 1904 in my possession The year 1904 1904 that was just 15 years after another entry not in my diary but in my fathers father's keeping diary-keeping is congenital congeni congeni- tal which stated fine boy arrived 5 p. p m. m I may say the fine is the natural exaggeration tion of a proud parent who didn't know what he was in for At any rate if keeping diary-keeping is used against me I have two outs t hardly anything even of mild interest interest interest in in- terest is or will be recorded on the faded pages of my journals and secondly because I write such a avile avile avile vile hand that I can decipher only a few lines here bere and there myself My mother should have most of the blame for my bad handwriting just as she is to blame for the fact that I can write at all She was herself a writer and unique as it was in those good old days she possessed a typewriter a stubby c ln affair fc affectionately lv known as the th- th BUck Blick i n Of course it was quite improper to expose a child of school pre-school to It not I I age a typewriter was my mothers mother's fault Back in the theL i L some of us weren't vaccinated ed cd for anything but smallpox Iwas I It Iwas t was too young to understand that 1 1 at the time and since typewriters writers were as rare as porcelain bathtubs bathtubs bath bath- 1 1 tubs in a city of who could guess their evil influence I suppose suppose suppose sup sup- pose I oughtn't to accuse my parents parents parents par par- because I became thoroughly thorough thorough- ly inured to the use of the typewriter typewriter typewriter type type- writer long before I could balance a pencil and this fact did my W handwriting no good I I At that time what was called still was t taught in the schools of New York state but very few mastered it even without the curlicues curlicue and shading of earlier days And just as I was getting so I could make the wobbly Ms and the terrible qs along came a a new Pharoah to my scholastic Egypt and introduced the vertical verti ver cal system That was v probably bly where my really began I unlearned the jail 1311 U right but I was never able to go vertical L J Nothing Important Is 1 Ever Entered f But to get back to keeping diary-keeping at least my diary The illegibility of the entries in my h I. I diaries isn't really as important as the unimportance of their contents t. t J Let me illustrate from one with witha a worn leather cover which I have at hand It is dated 1914 a goodyear good goodyear goodyear year for a diary but a bad diary for the world The record of w war r days should have been chronicled dramatically as the beginning of the end of an epoch an epoch which breathed its l last st in the midst of another war But did my record do that look at June 29 1914 Lets Let's t. t Do we find the entry YESTERDAY YESTERDAY YESTERDAY YESTER DAY ARCHDUKE FERDINAND WAS VAS ASSASSINATED AT VO VOVe We Ve do not We Ve find this Juin 29 Lundi S. S Pierre S. S Paul Bought nought Berlitz Greek Rustem Bey The book was purchased in Paris where the years year's record began The entry was made in Washington While the ancient throne of Hapsburg Hapsburg Hapsburg Haps- Haps burg w was s receiving the blood bath that was to sweep a half hall dozen rulers into oblivion I was buying a Berlitz textbook for the purpose of studying some foreign language I I have no idea which one except th that t it was one I never learned Rustem Bey I remember was the Turkish ambassador whom I had to interview In all justice it may not be entirely entirely entirely en en- the fault of my mak diary mak ing that I didn't record the ute assas assas- assassination assassination assassination of the archduke Nobody in America took the tragedy very seriously At that time few Americans Americans Americans Amer Amer- expected much else from Europe's royal families but assassinations assassinations assassinations as as- or less respectable I ought to have known better than that since I had been helping cover the French foreign office for the two wo years preceding But I had been seen drenched with war talk over there here and h had d shaken it off when I returned Europe almost immediately immediately immediately imme imme- shrank into a dreamy my domain domain domain do do- main of picture-book picture memory with no connection whatever with my work-a-day work world Later on to be sure there is evidence evidence evidence evi evi- dence that I on second thought felt elt I hadn't done my diary justice insofar as s Ferdinand was con con- But I always was feeling that way about my diary and never doing anything about it This as I said keeps my diaries from having the v value lue other than to exude a somewhat stricken conscious-stricken odor and remind remind remind re re- re- re mind me that th t the good young days were vere no better than those bad old ones insofar as s my habits and conduct conduct conduct con con- duct were concerned for an honest diary certainly has to be well edited edited edited edit edit- ed to conce conceal l ones one's true character You note in its pages some high resolve or noble undertaking which was vas more important import nt to you at the moment of recording th than n the opening opening opening open open- ing of the Panama canal or the result result result re re- re- re sult of a presidential l election In Ina Ina a short year you read it over and andare andare andare are utterly unable to recall the slightest lightest tiling thing Dg about bout the events chronicled Sometimes my old diaries even 1 1 on A nn n on 4 nf y 1 v. v U v U u great historical significance sound quite timely timey For example on October Oc- Oc October tober ober 3 1914 Not much doing I dont don't seem to be able to save my money October 8 The Belgian secretary appears we consume quantities of beer and tells me his life story story story-a a bore but business just the weary routine of the working hard-working reporter Fortunately my is running out Nothing is more interesting to o write or read about than oneself Nothing is less interesting to anyone else But I wish to prove my point namely that no matter how important important tant ant keeping diary-keeping may have been for Cor or the the Marco or the and perhaps therefore as harmful as s important mine w was s neither And I marvel that any newsman newsman newsman news news- man press or radio who lives live in the midst of alarms who was there when most things happened happened hap hap- and told all in breathless detail via the desk copy-desk or microphone microphone microphone micro micro- phone to millions millious of wide-eyed wide readers or I listeners would cv ever r think of writing it down after after- ward Note for instance a recent diary f entry for June Jiin 5 5 1947 which a I b brittle i clipping of i even date declares declares de de- de- de clares dares not only vibrantly but with perfect inexactitude m may y go downin down in n history as the day of the beginning beginning beginning begin begin- ning of the real peace after World War Var II Lest you have forgotten that hat was the day Secretary of State George Jeorge C. C Marshall proposed at Harvard university a new approach to o European rehabilitation which later ater became bec me the Marshall plan then E ERP RP and finally the economic economic economic eco eco- cooperation administration Note my diary for that date A uA meeting of the Association of Radio News Analysts Kaltenborn Kalten- Kalten Kaltenborn Kaltenborn born to dinner |