The New York herald., 1922-05-07

~ tor there is not one that I re-
,. higher than that Of Superin-
ttndent of the Senate Press 1aierS.
The post is one particularly au' az
,apeous for watching history IN .he
making. + think about 1T very oilen
when. after the hurry and exciteheh.
oe the day is over, I remain at my
dosL inst collecting in my mind wnat
,.o.Ilv has happened during the DAY.
rhan there comes the fun reahzation
OF the position.
For instance. there has been an I'M
,,or,a,t debate that day on great
trterna tional question. The newspaper
oorresnondents all have gone TO tneir
offices to write their articles ABOUT ~.
Rut the news comes to me many nouie
hefore it reaches the outside worio, "
ne played up in great headlines III tne
,,ewsnapers. To me it is part OF the
da va routine. Lucky. indeed, Is tne
nan To whom this is a part OF MS
daily life.
Selected by Correspondents
On March az. 1897
happen to be one OF the few VINO
have had the East Room OF the whi.e
House play an important part IN .meir
lives. It happened In Marcn. aosI-
March 27, in fact-soon after Wniani
McK;nley had entered the PRESIDENCY
for his first term.
The Standing Committee OF CORE
.nondents. who have general cnarse
~ the nress galleries, had a meeting
a. hour or so before Mr.. Mckinney
ave . reception for the washington
oorresnondents. The standing commit
ice at the meeting selected me TOT tne
rosit;on now hold, and then hurried
"a the White House for the Presloen-
tal reception. ,., -.
The news of my selection did not
oct around until the reception was
ahout to start. But as the correspon-
.dents drifted in they heard OF the Sc
lection and rushed to me WIN 'nen
congratulations. For a snort urne W, /.
Mckinley was somewhat negiecteo, !
am afraid, for the situation pecanhe
one which looked as though l were
holding the reception. Mr.. Mckinney
saw the Joke, however, and joined III
with the others. a.
The day that I took up the work IN
the press gallery will never forget
There were two employees there oe-
sides myself. One was an OLD man.
veteran of the civil war, VINO was un-
able to walk without the aid OF cane
and he was slightly deaf. The other
was how of 1S who was serving Ms
second session. Surely you would not
regard this as very formloaoie
raw to assist one in taking on such I'M
portant duties.
Work in Press Gallery in
'o7 Came to Preston Naturally
OF course the general work IN the
,al,ery was not new to me. nao' III
= way. come of a newspaper famiiy'
I,or a wear previous I had been en-
nIoved by Louis A. Coolidge, corre-
snondent of the New York Recorder
aud Boston Journal. Prior to that for
t,rce wears I had been with the iate
r.. Wight, who was then correspoh-
dent for the Chicago Inter-Ocedh anu
Boston Journal having been placed
there by my father, who believed tnal
n was to follow the family profes-
sion" Mr.. Wight was the one man
VII, could start me in the right way.
Nv father had been the correspondent
of TIE NEW York HERALD ana my
mother fsequent contributor OF snort
stories to the newspapers.
The work of the press gallery To-
d,v is not the work as 1 found u
twenty-five years ago. Each year IL
has grown little by little, just as the
membership has grown.
II did not take long to see that the
work could be made much more inter-
osting than merely seeing that the use
of the gallery was restricted to those
whose applications had been approved
by the standing committee, to answer
ing the telephone, delivering kilograms
and many similar trifiing labors. 1t
was a position that offered the occu-
pant MANY opportunities to make him
self really useful.
To-day. with four telephones going
busily all day, 1 wonder how the lol
correspondents were able to get along
during the first busy tariff session l
cxperienced: when there was just one
telephone on the wall. and that with
out the protection Of a booth. At a
later session the telephone was placed
in a booth and this was regarded as a
great Improvement. Later it was
found necessary to add telephone after
telephone until now all are at times
pushed TO take care of the needs Of
the workers.
First the Telephone, Then
The Typewriter Came In
Then came the introduction OF the
typewriter. To-day the typewriter
room. with its array of modern ma
chimes, is busy at all hours. snd Il is
in striking contrast to the picture OF
quarter century ago when the corre-
spondents sat at long table and la
boriously wrote out page after page OF
the debates. At first one typewriter
was used as an experiment and this
proved so satisfactory that now twelve
machines are distributed in the writ
ing rooms for the use OF all who care
10 use them. Most of the men repre-
senting morning newspapers prefer to
do their work in their Offices down.
town. but the representative of an
afternoon newspaper with a limit OF
time for sending dispatches can now
do his work in much shorter time
and with far more comfort.
Rave made II a point TO do every
thing that will be OF help to the writ
crs. The game in Washington is a
pretty stiff one, and any assistance
.~.,,a r fSot 4. t~,,a -. -.