Arizona republican., 1919-08-17
THIS REPORTER GETS ASSIGNMENT ID LAST
 HIM FUR LUNG PERIOD

During the last five decades news paper reporters have been called upon to fill what would seem to be every sort of assignment that the ingenuity of any human being could devise They have been flnng into almost every sort of situation that exists. If any sort of assignment remained that was new, newspaper men were called upon to cover it during the great war But one assignment remains that eclipses any that any, newspaper man ever had to tackle in history-and a newspaper reporter is out on it now
 The indefatigable reporter has pene- trated almost every remote spot on the earth. He has braved the jungles of Africa to rescue lost explorers; he has witnessed gold rushes ir the froz- en north; he has gone thousands of feet down into mines; he has, been. whirled through China, Japan. South Africa, South America on the tides of war; he has lived under fire with the doughboys in the greatest of all con flicts; he has flown 500 miles in an airplane to be the first allied cores pondent in Berlin; in fact, newspaper men have done practically everything that there is to do to get facts and pass them on to the public. But com pared to the latest thing in breathless assignments, all former ones seem tame.
 A week ago last Thursday a news paper man sailed from Vancouver, B. C., on an assignment that will prob ably take him 20 years to complete Before he finishes it he will have visit cd every country, civilized or uncivil- ized, on the globe, and travelled tens of thousands of miles. And with typical readiness. he started his task with no other equipment than ten years newspaper experience, knowI- edge of the English lailguage-no other-and the full use of his physical and mental faculties.
 Charles w. Wood of New York, is the newspaper reporter who has start ed on the most remarkable assign nnent since Jason went in quest of the Golden Fleece. Visit every country on earth and find out what the peo- ple want" was the assignment given him by the centenary committee of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The church recently raised a hundred and twenty million dollar centenary fund sixty millions of which will be spent on foreign missions.
 Wood was on the Sunday editorial staff of the New York World when given his sailing order. Twelve years ago, at 27 he was a locomotive fireman and began his newspaper career as q cub reporter on the Syracuse Journal in 1909 His wartime interviews in the New York World were later put together in book, ''rhe Great Change
 Woods first stop on his trip will be at Shanghai, China. From there he will go up the Yang Tse Kiang river of interior China. His mission is not merely to write up the missions" but tc interpret the needs of each country as expressed by it's leaders in every walk of life.
 Wood has never been in any foreign country before and speaks no language except English. He has no guide, no schedule and no definite orders He is accompanied only by his wife, who is equally unacquainted' with foreign lands. Their immediate destination, however, is Cheng -Tu in Western China, which is about as thoroughly foreig na city as any white folks ever visit
 T don't know anything about China" said Wood. before starting n his unprecedented journey, and have been doing my best not to learn anything about it until l get there. have heard that it had 400 million people. and I have taken it for granted that they all run laundries. I suppose was selected for the job because they couldn't think Of anyone else who would have so little to unlearn.
 Maybe the Chinese people are hu- man. Maybe they love and hate and aspire like other human beings May be they have human differences and 1 human traditions and human prejn- dices. It is possible that they live on the same planet that Americans have lheen customarily inhabitiilg and that