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Show SiP Ll l t - - .'a''W--'U.vico t. Newspaperman Stuff: Add Things I Never Knew Till Now: In 1812 a newspaperman named Nathanial Raunsavelt was taken into custody for refusing to divulge the source of his information about the secret activities of some politicos. ... He was threatened and cajoled but stood firm. . . . Thus was established the principle of the reporter's duty to protect his news source. . . . The first American newspaper news-paper was discontinued by authorities authori-ties because It published some gossip gos-sip about the family troubles of the King of France. Heywood Broun was a skilled exponent ex-ponent of the rapier retort. He directed di-rected some of his most devastating arguments against Huey Long. . . . He once accused Huey of "murdering "murder-ing the truth." Long promptly shrieked for a retraction. . . . Broun replied: "Huey says that he never murdered the truth. That's because he never gets near enough to do 1 any bodily harm." Along similar lines there's tht classic about the small town gazette ga-zette which conducted a vigorous campaign against the town council. . . . One of their yarns was headlined: "Half the Town Council Are Crooks." . . . The outraged politicos demanded an apology, and the editor promised prom-ised to run one. . . . Next day the daily carried this headline: "Half the Town Council Are Not Crooks." About a century ago the press was in its Mother Hubbard stage. . . . Namby-pamby ism was rampant. Editors Ed-itors took a lorgnette view of the news. This sidelight illustrates their ultra fuddy-duddy attitude: One gazette ga-zette front-paged an apology to its subscribers because a reporter had used the word "trousers" in a yarn when he should have used the word "unmentionables" ! Tiffs among newsboys nowadays belong in the taffy-pull category when compared with the Journalistic slug-fests during the James Gordon Bennett era. . . . Bennett was physically phys-ically assaulted a half-dozen times by opposition editors who had been clawed by his barbed-wire editorials. editori-als. . . . But Bennett refused to dilute di-lute his potent attacks against competitors. com-petitors. He merely reported the brawls on his gazette's front page and reaped added circulation. . The anti-Bennett journalistic barrage bar-rage also blasted his family. The slanderers finally drove his wife and children out of the country. They moved to Europe and made infrequent infre-quent visits to America, while Bennett Ben-nett continued his free-swinging style of Journalism. Joseph Pulitzer's N. Y. World set journalistic standards few newspapers newspa-pers have equalled. Yet Pulitzer arrived ar-rived in America a poor, friendless, semi-illiterate immigrant. He spent all his spare time educating himself. him-self. . . . His enlightened opinions on the subject of newspapers are always worth absorbing. . . . Frix-ample: Frix-ample: "What Is everybody's business busi-ness is nobody's business except the journalist's. It is his by adoption. adop-tion. But for his care every reform would be stillborn. He holds officials of-ficials to their duties. He exposes secret schemes of plunder. He promotes pro-motes every hopeful plan of progress. prog-ress. Without him public opinion would be shapeless and dumb. Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government Is a sham and mockery." mock-ery." Hollywood has depleted foreign correspondents as overgrown Rover Boys. ... It has created the impression impres-sion that these newsboys have a glamorous occupation. Actually they have a difficult, perilous task with few rewards. . . . O. D. Gallagher, a British correspondent, dodged bombs and bullets, and traveled 100,-000 100,-000 miles in three years for his news stories, which renders forget five minutes after rending. This Is the wisest counsel for colyumlsts wo have come across: "Got around town find out wlint people nre talking nbout. Give your renders a little dally Jolt on something some-thing they are gabbing nbout at homo, porhnps, and can gab about some more. Controversial stulY so they enn argue. The big Idea is this: Mnke half of them happy and half of them sore." Reporters aren't as hard-boiled hard-boiled n tho Icurmls would have you lu-llovo. . . . When Trcsi-fleut Trcsi-fleut Wilson mndo his KrurMliiK cross-country tour (In nn effort to silt In tho support of America Ameri-ca iih for his world pence plans) ho wim broken In body but not In upli lt. . . . Kcpiu toi's who no-rompnnlcil no-rompnnlcil III im Hero nwnro thnt lie win KiiirllU'liijj Ida life for hi IiIi'iiIn. , . . A Wilson iiuiilo liU lliinl stirring plea for world priico, newsmen llNtrnlnir ( Ida eloquent nililrrsa openly wept. |