Evening star., 1924-12-02
NEW BOOKS
/. AT RANDOM
FORTY YEARS IN NEWSPAPER
DOM-Milton A. McRae. Bren-

FORTY YEARS IN NEWSPAPER
| DOM-Mflton A. McRae. Bren-
| tano's.
Among the many maryels calculated
to stamp the past half-century as
| the dawn of new miracle age, none
presents a more striking, a more
spectacular front than the prodigious
growth of thesnewspaper. Indeed. the
daily press looks to be the super
miracle Of them all. For it stands
chronicler and interpreter of every
other one of the astounding facts of
progress included within this period.
Promoter, too, Of even greater
achievements, It Is clearly destined to
be, through the emulation and compe-
tftfon and Inspiration set up. by its
wide distribution OF the various as
poets of modern conquest. In it's own
| individual capacity the newspaper
makes magnificent diurnal gesture
Ia miracle in itself If you stop to
think OF it--by which it spreads a
panoramic view of the universe at
It's successfully sensitive points. In
this daily turning Of the earth upon
its axis, the press does away with
distance and foreshortens events un-
| til that which used to be d remote
! and unknown world now draws close
| to every man In near neighborhood
of common needs and understandings
and contacts. Already 1t is the
greatest of educational forces, so gen
orally recognized and accepted, it's
daily lessons conned in the street, in
Office and workshop, in the home. AL
ready has 1t Outstripped it's two older
| collaborators in the ways of civiliza-
| ton. these both retarded by timidi-
ties and withholdings-the one daunt-
ed by the disconcerting face of youth.
the other by it's even more perturbing
frontage upon the soul of man. Let
| me make the Wendell
! Phillips talking-"and I care not
what is preached in the pulpit, nor
what is enacted in Congress-
| y
Truly great demesne this "Fourth h
Estate" A land of prime adventure,
| too, wherein explorer and discoverer
| and occasional freebooter, maybe
| sail the seas of the world; wherein
| experimenter and organizer and pro-
| ducer combine In the tremendous en-
terprise that sets the wide world
| down each day beside the morning
| cup of coffee.
| Once in while there steps out
| from this paper-walled kingdom
some one who is widely and deeply
| experienced in the things that go on
| behind the print We read from the
| outer face Of this curious barricade.
| Such an emergence Is deeply inter-
| esting ceremony, provocative of high
expectations. Not many months ago
| 1t was Melville L. Stone who in
Fifty Years a Journalist" took us
! upon a vicarious way through this
| kin gdom-a leisurely out-faring OF
| rie CT
judgments and kindly wisdom. Still
| later it was "Marse Henry" who gave
| us quite another kind of adventure
| through the same domain-robust
| hours. these with Henry Watterson,
| hours shaken with the thunders of
his eloQuence and electrified by the
lightnings of his wit. Now it is
Milton A. McRae, who In Forty
Years in Newspaperdom" leads us
own amazing activity in about every
! part of the newspaper world.
y
"The Autobiography of News
paper Man" Mr.. McRae calls his story
and that is what 1t Is, including more
than the years of actual career. This
going back to parentage and birth
and early shaping years serves a
double purpose. 1t provides the
author a background. something to
| stand against for clearer definition
and truer Interpretation. 1t also
| gives him the long running start
which accounts. In part, for the
! energy of initial impulse that has
clean through one great enterprise
| after another, all headed upon more
and more ambitious newspaper OBJ
| jectives.
None of these three men attempts
an orderly laying out of events
There's reason. The genius of the
| profession is diffusion-to cover a
| world-rather than concentration in
the pursuit of a single line. There
fore the effect of this book. like that
OF the other two, Is Kaleidoscope
| Notable men crowd into 1t. hundreds
of them, each by way of incident or
/ sketch characteristic of mood or at
! titude or action. Politics presents
it's many phases in emphasized points
| Of this important issue or that one
Industry, economics. science, philan-
| thropy, travels-or, round and round
the world and back again--home life
| quite beautiful this, too, and, above
all, the pursuit Of the newspaper
ideal as the widely and promptly ac-
cessible schoolhouse of the world
These are the elements, all big and
vital elements, out OF which this
author has reconstructed his news
| paper life in a series of dramatic and
deeply interesting scenes that. reach
| ing from his own personal activities
include many of the high points In
the history of newspaper develop
ment, and many points as well in
the outstanding affairs of the country
itself.
Out of this special adventure in
newspaperdom with Mr.. McRae GER
tain impressions come that are bound
to stay by one long after the read
ing is done. One of these is the
great energy and activity and indus
try OF the man himself Another is
his appreciation and use throughout
his career of opportunity-oppor
tunity of the American, sky-is- the
limit brand. This whenever it shows
it's face. Mr.. McRae-both boy and
man-tosses and worries and bullies
good in full all of it's promises of re-
ward. These two Impressions, both
vivid and vital. make an exceptionally
stimulating story. Out of it there
comes too the important and interest
ing story of the development Of the
newspaper along the same lines as
other great enterprises have developed
within this half-century span. One
Is nowadays more or less familiar
with the combinations that have made
q big business out Of many little ones
The department store, chains" of
grocery stores, hotels, eating houses
what not, have all become facts un-
der the same impulse-expansion into