The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-04-25
BRAND WH|TLOCk
ADDED TO LIST
FORMER AMBASSADOR TO BEL.
GUM MENTIONED FOR DEM
OcRATIc NOMINATION.
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK

been Increased by one name-that OF
Brand Whitlock, One-time mayor OF
Toledo and later ambassador to Bel
GUM. r
There are several newspaper men
in the list of Democratic possibilities
for the nomination. Once a newspaper
man always a newspaper man IN IN
stinct and feeling if not in fact. Brand
Whitlock has done pretty nearly
everything in the newspaper field from
police reporting to editorial writing.
Josephus Daniels, former secretary
of the navy, a newspaper man, is now
in Washington writing a book. Brand
WhitlOck has written several books,
one of which, a political story, at
tracted the attention, the admiration
and the praise of Grover Cleveland.
1t probably will not be that the next
nominee of the Democratic party will
be a newspaper man, but there is a
chance, nevertheless.
One gray-haired veteran of the news
paper profession in Washington said
the other day that if one of the craft
were to be nominated and perhaps
elected president of the United States,
he hoped it would be one who had
served his time as an all-round report
er. The best editorial writer's and the
best "highbrow correspondents" this
veteran said, were those who had
served apprenticeship as night police
reporters or as all-rOund reporters of
street, court and fire happenings.
When WhitIock Was Reporter.
The suggestion of Brand Whitlock's
name in Washington, of course, brings
TO mind his remarkable career as min
lister to Belgium, but it also brings to
some of the newspaper workers here
memories of WhitlOck's career as u re-
many years ago. He was one of a
group of general news atherers in the
big western city when things were
done differently than they are today.
There was more individuality in the
game then than is possible under mod
ern conditions. Things were not cut
and dried. There were no conferences
of reporters of different newspapers to
make it sure that no one of them was
to be scQpped by another of them.
Every man was ON his own then and
if he pulled off a scoop he felt him
self greater than He that taketh a
city"
When one looks back and memory
helps his eyesight, he tries to visualize
what would have happened TO a gath
ering in the old Whitechapel club in
Chicago if some reporter with sooth-
saying qualities well developed sud
denly should have announced that a
certain man present one day was to
be prominently named as presi-
dental candidate. Those were light
hearted gatherings in the old days,
and the chances are that even if the
prophetic qualities of the forecasting
reporter had been recognized, there
would have been no marked evidence
that the reportorial mind was stag
!, gered in the least.
Some of His Old Comrades.
There are one or two Washington
correspondents who look back some
what longingly at the doings of the
old DAYS The one or two were, fell
low-reporters with Brand Whitlock In
Chicago. Today they are wondering if
by any chance they ever will be among
those present when their former COM
rade of the street and the office shall
hold a conference as president of the
United States with the assembled
corps of Washington correspondents.
Stranger things have happened.
Some of those old-1me reporters are
dead, most of them are dead in fact,
but some are much alive. Brand Whit
lock is q possible nominee for the
presidency. Finley Peter Dunno (Mr.
Dooley) is in New York, famous and
rather gray. William L. Lewis, broth
er of Alfred Henry Lewis, is the edi-
tor of the New York Telegraph, also
rather gray, a grandfather, but still
in the game. George Babbitt is on the
Chicago News and probably is the
dean of the Chicago newspaper pro-
fession. There are one or two others,
one other certainly, who is in Wash
ington and his name is held modestly
in reserve.
One of the associates of Whitiock
Dunno, and the rest of them in the
newspaper game in Chicago in the
old days was John Z. Wilkie, now a
ranking street railroad official In Chi
cago, and for twelve years the chief
of the United States secret service.
Wilkie came to Washington about the
time that Frank A. Vanderlip came
here and they both hailed from the
Chicago newspaper field.
Probably Brand Whitlock will not
be the next president of the United
States for probably he will not be
nominated, but nevertheless all things
are possible and if such a happening
should come about there is at least
one man in this city, who will look
upon the president of the United
States with a view TO determining the
changes which time has wrought in
making an old-time reporter into a
next-time president. 1t won't hurt
bit probably if the old-time qualities
still persist.
Early Adjournment Unlikely.
Again it seems to be timely
to call attention to the extreme OPP
timism of President Coolidge on the
subject of an early adjournment of