The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-07-18
"A. {. F. NEWSPAPER EvIEWS CAREER; "T0Ok
N0THIN' FROM NOBODY" EXCEPT J. J. PERSHING

rather bewildered force of some 300.-
900 men scattered all the way from
Bordeaux to Lorraine, and heartily
echoing the sentiments of the late
William Tecumseh Sherman.
The names Of its staff actually ap-
peared in the London Times. making
them, it is said, the first American
writer's to be favorably mentioned
therein since the vogue of Mrs. Har-
riet Beecher Stowe. Be that as 1t
may, the Stars and Stripes suspects
that Lord Northcliffe, owner OF the
Times as well as the Mail, and one
Of the infant papers heartiest rooters
from the start, had something to do
with it. He is the kind of Englishman
who understands you when you say
roeter-and likes it.
The Original "oId Guard"
OF the people who wrote or drew
for the first number, only three re-
main by the papers bedside at the
end. One, the Oldest Of the trio, Is
army field clerk George w. B. Britt
(43), who wrote our first signed story
on our first sport page, and has since
been occupied In answering 5OO,OOO
letters ESQ he claims), as head OF the
| soldiers service department Of the pa
per, organizing quartets, octets and
Gilbert & Sullivan reyivals as a side
| lipe.
Another is Sergeant Hudson Haw-
ley, eighteen months a buck. who
wrote almost everything Britt didn't
write in the first issue, and has since
been utilized on jobs ranging from edi
torial writing to chaperoning amiable
major-generals around France. The
third member is Wally-down on the
marine pay office books as Pit. Abian
A. Wallgren (119,30o), late sign paint
er, supply company, 9Th regiment
whose main function on the paper has
been to make Britt and Hawley both
miserable and famous by inserting
their Numerically opposed likenesses
in each and every one OF his gol-dern
cartoons.
! After the first month an editorial
board directed the Stars and Stripes
1t included Wallgren, Hawley and
these four: Harold Wallace Ross
18th engineers (railway). managing
editor from December, 1918 to Apri
Of this year; ex-Buck PIT. John T. Win
terich, air service, head of copy desk
makeup editor and many, many other
things; fat ex-Sergeant Alexander
Woolcott, NJ D., official correspondent
of the Stars and Stripes at the front
later amusement editor, because he
was once a dramatic critic, and ex-Pt
G. Leroy Baldridge. infantry unat
tached, the respectable half of the art
department, known throughout the al
lied world for his cartoons Of the
doughboy. with which he helped in nc
small degree to put over the fourth
and fifth Liberty loans in the States
, zone Foot In Hooseaow."
For more than fourteen months this
board Of six enlisted men-really four
because the artists were. for the mos
part, called in on their own work alone
l-X-rayed every article that came in
They brought many limelight seekers
and overzealous promoters to grief
shocked many a chaplain, Y. M. C. A
man and visiting congressman by theil
deafness to pleas that the Stars anG
Stripes should run religious column
enraged many a divisional publicity
officer. and in general thumbed theil
collective noses at the martial uni
verse.
Together the four wrote fully 90
percent Of the editorials They work
ed always with one foot in the hoose
cow for practically every one Of theil
callers and advisers ranked hell ou
Of them; but from start to finish they
held the paper to its original inten
ton Of being 'by and for the enlisted
men"
It's long yarn. Perhaps we cal
not do better than to cite the case O
a certain Heutenant-colonel who tool
himself very seriously. This one, al
tached to G. H. @. in a department
having work but remotely allied t,
that we were doing, took it on himsel
sometime after the armistice to sen,
us letter somewhat as follows:
From: Name 1nercifully left blank
anyway. we can't spell it,.
To: Officer in Charge, Stars an,
Stripes.
Subject: Criticism of A E. F.
l. 1t has been noted by this offic
that several criticisms of the A E. F
have appeared of late in the column
Of your paper.
2. Some of these criticisms hav,
been humorous.
3. These criticisms will cease.
After the first explosion Of Where
does he get that stuff" the thel
somewhat violent buck private manae
ing editor got the lieutenant-colonel'
boss on the phone. The fact that tn
man at the other end Of the wire ha,
silver stars on his scapula made n