Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-23
PRESS WooED BY STANDARD
Talker, ex-Dramatist, Be-
quiIes Reporters


Special to The Herald.
NEW YORK, May 22-Standard Oil
has press agent-a clever, thoroughly
trained, widely experienced newspaper
man, and dramatist, Joseph l. C.
Clarke, who was recently Sunday editor
of the Herald. He is installed in the
office of M. F. Elliott, general counsel
of the company, and the man at the
door of the Rockefeller headquarters
has lost his eagerness to throw news
paper men into the street. He deferen-
TALLY directs the reporter to room 1406,
where the young woman at the type
writer smiles pleasantly and says:
'Walk right into the next ROOM"
There, at a desk that commands a
view of the bay, except when the
harbor is shrouded in smoke from the
Standard Oil refineries at Bayonne, sits
a portly urbane gentleman. He swings
around in his swivel chair, greets the
reporter cordially, motions him to
comfortable seat and is at the service
of the press. STANDARD Oil now uses a
capital "P."
Harking back, a reporter who called
today thought of the years when the
concern consistently scorned the press,
never deigning to notice attacks or to
answer accusations, until a frail
woman. Ida M. Tarbell, provoked a de-
fense from General Solicitor Dodd a
year or so ago. Then there was a re-
lapse to the condition of the clam. But
times have changed, and as Mr.. Clarke
smiles benignantly but not patroniz-
ingly the reporter feels that the
Standard Oil is at his service.
AS he looks you squarely in the face
you see well groomed, polished in
dividual who has mixed much among
men and knows how to meet them. His
somewhat sparse wavy hair and flow
ing mustache set of, face that shows
ability to grasp the threads of fact and
the moment he begins to discourse of
Standard Oil you note the skilled news
paper mans knack of picking out and
arranging the cogent points of a story.
He puts himself at once in the place
of the reporter. He knows what the
man wants and knows how to put it in
the way that the Standard Oil wants ii
to appear. Now and then he makes
graceful gesture. disclosing a large seal
ring on his left hand, and when the thin
ice is reached-that is the ice that is
thin for Standard Oil-he has a story
or a simile ready with an infectious
chuckle or a compelling laugh.
He is the soul of good humor, this
Standard Oil press agent, and you do
not wonder that he is sought after on
Broadway, where he is better known
than in the financial district. But he
ie not one whit abashed by his transla-
tion to the seat of the mighty; he is
the same genial man-about- town, and
the reporter leaves him with the i'm
preston that the Standard Oil is of all
things anxious to disclose everything
that the press wants to know, but when
the same reporter tries to pound out his
story he discovers that he has learned
nothing of the inner secrets of the con-
cern.
Mr. Clarke has had a distinguished
career, beginning with his birth in the
land of the Blarneystone sixty years
ago, and becoming a member of the
staff of the New York Herald in 1868
Later he was managing editor of the
Journal before w. r. Hearst bought
the property, and then he published the
Criterion. a weekly journal of art,
music and drama.
In 1902 he returned to the Herald as
editor of the Sunday magazine and
took to writing plays, numbering among
his successes Robert Emmett" a
tragedy; For Bonnie Prince Charlie"
The First VIOLIN Her Majesty"
Lady Godiva" and THE Prince of
India"