Within The Fourth Estate
IN the unabridged Webster’s,
journalism is defined as “the
collection and periodical
publication of current news;
the business of managing, editing,
or writing foe Journals or news
papers; also, journals or news
papers collectively.’’
As for the people who make a
living in this business, they are
of course called “journalists,”
and Webster’s—in an uppity
manner—says that their writing
style is "characterized by evi
dences of haste, superficiality of
thought, inaccuracies of detail,
c^tnqntaiums, and sensational
ism.”
Say what the dictionary will,
however, the fact is that it is not
always easy to tell wheie jour
nalism ends and something more
literary or more authoritative be
gins. Things like "superficiality
of thought,” “Inaccuracies of de
tail” and "sensationalism” are by
no means peculiar to the news
paper and magazine crowd. Nov
« 'sts are guilty of them, too. So
> e poets, historians, sociologists,
philosophers and any number of
Athm whA cannot restrain them
selves from putting their thoughts
Into books.
Raw Material
For Specialists
i Actually, In a world full of
highly articulate but not neces
sarily sound writers and thinkers.
Journalists—as far as style and
subject matter are concerned
do not need to feel, as so few of
them really seem to do, any great
sense of inferiority. They may
write in haste and are often far
from profound, but still, not in
frequently, their brainchildren
are noteworthy either as indis
pensable raw material for spe
cialists or as contributions dis
tinguished enough in themselves
to be much better than mere
flashes in the publishing pan.
During the past year, not many
books were written about journal
ism per se, but dozens were writ
ten by journalists about them
selves and/or their times. The
output as a whole was neither all
good nor all bad. Some of it was
sheer waste, some of it was mere
ly so-so, and some of it—to para
phrase the claim of a certain
brew—was of a type that could
hold its head high in any com
pany. It is with the latter that
By William H. Harrison
this review is concerned, though
here and there a so-so item may
creep in, while elsewhere a su
perior work inadvertently may
' be omitted.
A good beginning for the list is
Morris Ernst’s “The First Free
dom,’’ an excellently written,
thoughtful and provocative study
of the problem of fewer and fewer
men coming into control of more
and more outlets of opinton. Mr.
Ernst regards this as an alarm
ing tendency injurious to our de
mocracy. His thesis is debatable,
The late Adolph Ochs, for
mer publisher of the New
York Times.
—AP Photo.
but it is so ably presented that
the adjective "important” prop
erly may be stressed here.
Cities With Only
One Newspaper
One of the developments Mr.
Ernst heartily dislikes—mergers
leaving large cities with only one
newspaper—unquestionably would
startle many of our journalistic
pioneers were they alive today to
see it. This point can be read be
tween the lines of almost every
other page in "Horace Greeley”
by Henry Luther Stoddard. Mr.
Stoddard, who retains a boyhood
recollection of the great self
made founder and editor of the
New York Tribune (since merged
with the Herald), has written a
fine biography of a man who was
himself a national ferment in an
8a ifi
l| I
»
age at American ferment.
Other first-class books of the
year about journalistic giants in
clude the "Autobiography of Wil
liam Allen White.” a revealing
self-portrait of the Emporia,
Kans., editor whose fame and in
fluence went far beyond his own
home town; “An Honorable
Titan,” by Gerald W. Johnson,
the story of Adolf Ochs and the
New York Times, and “Mr. Lin
coln’s Camera Man,” by Boy
Meredith, a handsome volume
about Mathew B. Brady, a pioneer
in pictorial Journalism, whose
Civil War work equals tpe best,
even of this day.
Journalistic
Experiences
At this point, while on the sub
ject of biography and autobiog
raphy, special note must be made
of all those living journalists who
have made boots during ine past
year out of their own experiences
and the views they have shaped
on the basis of those experiences.
These books are in a class by
themselves. Most of them have
rather poetic titles, and they are
all solemn—some with hope, some
with pessimism—about the future
of the world. They really do not
answer anything, but if one has
the time to spare for them, one
could do a lot worse than read
the following: '“This House
Against This House,” by Vincent
Sheehan; “The Education of a
Correspondent,” by Herbert L.
Matthews; “Reconquest: Its Re
sults and Responsibilities,” by
Hallett Abend; "The Great Chal
lenge,” by Louis Fischer; "Not So
Wild a Dream,” by Eric Sevareid;
"While Time Remains,” by Le
land Stowe, and “Our Share of
Night,” by Drew Middleton.
Then there is that ether gipup
of journalists whose books this
year have been confined to prob
lems somewhat smaller than the
overall problem of the world.
Free from autobiographical mu
sings, these involve a large ele
ment of controversy, so that the
reader, if he agrees, is likely to
agree militantly, whereas if he
disagrees, he may do so fiercely
enough to want to horsewhip the
author. A notable example is
Ralph Ingersoll’s lively “Top Se
cret,” wittingly or unwittingly a
boon to Anglophobes. Another is
“Thunder Out of China,” by The
odore H. White and Annalee
Jacoby, an impressive critique of
wuang rvai-snex, me Kuomin
tang and American policy. Other
controversial titles include
“Wrath in Burma,” by Fred Eld
ridge and “To Whom Palestine?/'
by Frank Gervasi.
Journalism
And the Atom
The atom, naturally, was not
neglected by our journalists. An
excellent easy-to-understand ac
count of the preternatural new
power can be found in “Dawn
Over Zero,” by William L. Lau
rence of the New York Times
and a somewhat more technical
one in “Almighty Atom,” by John
J. O’Neill of the Herald Tribune.
In addition, there is “Hiroshima,”
by John Hershey, a penetrating
’ of
All Leading Publishers
INCLUDING A LARGE GROUP OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS
STATIONERY EVERSHARP PEN
GREETING CARDS AKirt PFKir'ii cctc
LENDING LIBRARY AND PENCIL SETS
MAGAZINE • • • FEATURING
SUBSCRIPTIONS THE NEW CA PEN
Community Book Shop
4449 CONN. AVE. N.W. EM. 7335
At The Chevy Chase Ice Palace • Open ’til 9
—From a cartoon by Clifford K. Berryman.
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE,
Publisher of the Emporia Gazette.
"... He had nothing but a country newspaper to serve him, but he
was known by every one and consulted respectfully by the great and
powerful.” From The Sunday Star, March 10—M. C. R.
V
_ • e_ n _ t a_ii.... _in_n_i i .
Study U1 t/itt? rcnvuuiio v*
human beings who survived the
explosion. First published as a
kind of journalistic tom* de force
by the New Yorker magazine,
which devoted an entire issue to
it, it now can be had in book form
—an important addition to our
atomic literature, though it has
been praised rather extravagantly
and ought to be read with a
measure of reserve. Finally, some
note should be made of the fact
that Pat Frank, a former Wash
ington newspaperman, wrote "Mr.
Adam," a seriocomic novel about
nuclear fission and sex—not deep,
but definitely interesting.
Recommended
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.
(McMillan; $3.75.)
HORACE GREELEY, by
Henry Lather Stoddard. (Put
nam; $3.50.)
AN HONORABLE TITAN,
by Gerald W. Johnson, (Harper
& Bros; $3.50.)
THE FIRST FREEDOM, by
Morris Ernst, (Macmillan;
$3.00.)
jvut. o v/aj»xiiva
MAN, by Roy Meredith, (Scrib
ner’s; $7.50.)
Journalistic
Miscellany
IT REMAINS now to lump
together, under the general
heading of worthwhile Jour
nalistic miscellany, the fol
lowing items: “Last Chapter,” a
collection of the fine Pacific col
umns written by Ernie Pyle be
fore a Japanese bullet ended his
bright career; “Thank You, Mr.
President,” Merriman Smith’s
very good story of the press and
the White House during the war
years; “Detroit Is My Home
Town,” a sprightly, anecdotal
but not particularly instructive
volume of memoirs by Malcolm
Bingay of the Free Press; “The
Happy Profession,” ditto, by El
lery Sedgwick of the Atlantic
Monthly; “A Book About a Thou
sand Things,” a collection of odd
and fascinating facts by George
Stimpson, that indefatigable col
lector of delightful trivia; “Eco
nomics in One Lesson,” a some
what dogmatic but informative
discourse on a dull but important
subject by Henry Hazlitt; and '
“The Froth Estate," a compendi
um of zany stories put together
«vt w*v»v nuv IMBV BUlb VI
thing by Joseph Mackey, the so
called "nut editor” of the New
York Sun. Also “It Happened in
1945,” a lively and profusely lllus
' trated review by the Interna
tional News Service of the most
eventful year in history, and "The
Associated Press News Annual
of 1945,” the first volume, a
handsome one, in what the AP
apparently hopes to make a year
ly publishing event—an idea full
of great potentialities.
Thus, the output-in 1946 about
Journalism and by journalists
about themselves and/or their
times. Pew if any of the books
here noted give off an aura of
immortality, but many of them,
besides being fine current read
ing, will almost certainly be a
rich mine attracting specialist
researchers for many years to
come. Not so deep as the ocean
perhaps, but ’tls enough, ’twill do,
and Americans will be serving
themselves if they make room for
at least part of it on their library
shelves.
History
__ J «_ -o-t .
' X A l/iil X agC ±0.7
hand news endures for it is the
stuff of which history is made.”
In a previous volume, “The
Fruits of Fascism,” Mr. Mat
thews told the amazing story of
how the people were mislead by
cheap mountebanks. Now, in
the five hundred pages of this
volume (not one could be ommit
ted!) he describes the recent
tragic struggle which became al
most universal and all but
wrecked civilization. ' •
I think his attitude toward the
prickly Russian situation, so
disturbing to the Western demo
cracies, exceedingly sound. He
Insists “when Russia is doing
what is right, as she did in Spain
and in Munich she deserves ap
plause. When she does what we
consider wrong she deserves con
demnation. Above all he de
plores the categorical attitude
which so many assume when
confronted by this problem and
he concludes with this thought
ful appreciation of a perilous
situation. “It would be hard to
say which class of well-mean
ing Americans is more danger
ous to the future peace of the
world, the Red-baiters or the
doughty champions of the Soviet
Union.” This is a sentiment to
which those who are conversant,
with the situation will give
prayerful assent.
r*__\r_
The Democracies
In his thought-provoking book
entitled “By Vote of the People,"
Willis J. Ballinger, who served
for years as a highly valued ad
viser to the Federal Trade Com
mission, describes the long and
as yet indecisive struggles that
have been waged for so many
centuries between capitalism and
the democracies.
He is explicit in his analysis of
American capitalism, a vital
problem which should no longer
be treated by generalities more
or less glittering, and he
thinks,* always deceptive and
misleading. - His is a thesis that
will provoke discussion and may
become an issue at the polls
when the next spending pro
gram is launched.
“The Epic of Latin America
by John A. Crow of the Univer
, sity of California supplies most
adequately the long-felt need of
a political and cultural history
of the countries to the South
which are drawing even nearer.