The Washington times., 1929-03-11
HOW C00LIDGE
WRITING WAS
KEPT DARK

only by exercise OF the most ex.
traordinary precautions that the
fact that President coolidge. had
written an article for the April
issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine was
kept i secret and that the contents
Of the article were kept from leak.
ing out, until Mr.. Coolidge was out
Of the White House.
Raw Long, editor Of Cosmopolitan,
who persuaded Mr.. Coolidge 70
write for HIS magazine and who
planned the complicated subterfuges
t,v means of which his success was
kept hidden until the last moment,
told q reporter just how It was
done.
newsDaners. the first two install.
rileflts fy Mr. Coolidge entitled "On
Entering and Leaving the Presi.
dency,'' were written In Washing
ton ana not on, the train which on
February 3 bore Mr.. Coolidge back
from the dedication of the Box bird
sanctuary in Florida. The third
and fourth instalments, now In the
hands OF the magazine, were writ
ten on that train.
Tries 10 Months
II was on Friday, January IS,
that Mr.. Long called at the White
House to make a final plea with
Mr., Coolidge. For eighteen months
he has been trying to persuade the
President to write for Cosmopolitan
ana always the answer had been 3
cryptic half.negatiye.
s'No one could have been more
surprieed than / was on January
25," Mr., Long said. when Mr..
Coolidge, instead OF saying either
yes or no, produced the first two
instalments and sent me into the
Cabinet room to read them. He
was scrupulous to q fault about the
articles and told me that il they
didn't suit my purposes I needn't
take them ! had to read only two
pages to know they were perfect.
Printed in Secret
THAT night I hurried to New
York with the manuscript. but /
did nothing definite until Sunday.
tt was necessary to keep things
secret.
The plates from which Cosmo-
politan is printed are ordinarily
made in Brooklyn and then shipped
to Chicago. where the printing is
done by the Cuneo Press, Inc, Mr..
Long explained.
The April issue, however, with its
precious burden of Mr.. Coolidge s
article was set In type In the Mil
waukee plant Of the. Cuneo firm
and printed in the same plant,
The greatest care was taken to
make certain none of the contents
of the article leaked out. Only Mr.,
Cuneo and his first assistant knew
the full details. The article was di-
vided into short II Elagments, meaning
less by themselves each Of which
was set in type by separate com
positor.
These fragments were then assem-
bIed under the watchful eye of
corps of private detectives, and the
mates we're made. It takes two
weeks to run off the complete issue
of 1,85O,000 copies Of the magazine,
ana during this time the detectives
never relaxed their vigilance. Every
night the plates were carefully
locked up in the plants safe.
Payroll Stolen
Disaster threatened once during
the printing pcocess. Five fold.up
rner, with sawed-off shotSuns entered
the ulant late one afternoon and
took the payroll Of $4,000. But they
left the plates untouched.
Then came the greatest risk OF all
the distribution OF $4,000 copies
ali over the tinted states. Under
ordinary circumstances this process
would begin on the first OF the
month, the magazines going first
to wholesalers at railroad ce11ters.
and from them to retail news
dealers, who. would get them on
the 4th of the month under pledge
not to sell them until the 7th.
Shipped BY Express
The arrangement allows two days
leeway. In order to reduce the risk
to the lowest possible point, this
usual leeway was done away with.
10 insure delivery. the issue was
shipped by express instead of
freight, at an extra cost OF S12,100.
Just before shipping the magazines,
the publishers took the wholesalers
into their confidence, and enjoinea
them to secrecy.