Evening star., 1933-09-17
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.

| Mowrer from Berlin, hastened
by the undisguised menaces of
| i the German government and
the consequent warnings from
his own State Department. is something
more than typical example of the war
| the NaZi regime in the Hitlerized Reich
| is making upon free press alike at
home and abroad. What amounted to
a decree of Punishment was, to be sure,
the bestoWal of a distinction. To have
deserved i'll of the NaZis was a clear
| evidence of having deserved we'll of his
profession and of his fellow country
men.
But Edgar Mowrer in Berlin-and in
Rome before that-like his brother Paul
! in Paris, is a shining illustration of the
kind of journalist the United States has
| developed partly during, but largely
since, the World War. In the postwar
decade and half American newspapers
! have sent to various European countries
something like a score of men who
were more than Ambassadors both in
| their intellectual equipment and in the
| Importance of their work.
| In liberal countries, notably in France
| and Britain and in the Germany OF
! Stresemann and Bruening as well. these
representatives of the press were recog-
nized officially. They had easy access
| to the leading statesmen. of whom they
counted many as friends. They were
equally respected for the knowledge OF
| the country in which they were serving
and for their faithful performance Of
| the high duties which fell to their lot.
They were trusted because they never
betrayed confidence Their passion for
the facts was perceived to be accom-
| panied by an equal passion for present.
| ing those facts lmpartlally.
Experts at Conferences.
1t would be perhaps invidious to
mention names, yet a few come in
| statnly to mind: Arthur S. Draper. long
of the Herald Tribune, whose reputa-
, ton was made during the war, but
whose grasp of British politics during
the postwar period was unsurpassed;
Edwin l.. James, probably the greatest
American foreign correspondent OF his
time; the two Mowers, John Gunther
in Vienna Harold Scarborough and
Raymond Swing in London are probably
the best known. But behind them hold
ing less conspicuous positions were
legion of others who earned and en-
joyed international regulations.
Together these American Journalists
established American newspaper stand
ards on a plane high above that it had
occupied in the pre-War time. Invar-
iably they spoke not one, but several
languages Their duties carried them
from one end of Europe to the other.
They were equally familiar with Angora
and Warsaw, Moscow and Madrid. Col
| lectively their first hand information
paralleled and at times surpassed that
of foreign Offices. At international con-
! ferences, they were the experts, for
while prime ministers and foreign Sec
retaries came and went. they continued.
| All of these men were. moreover. dis
| tinguished by two characteristics
passion for the truth and an utter and
complete fearless disregard OF all the
obstacles and barriers to the acquisition
and publication of the facts. Subjected
to the endless and limitless temptations
not of money mainly or Importantly.
but of all the other benefits bestowed
by the propaganda ends of various gov
ernmentS. they held out uncompromis-
ingly and incorruptible even by news
itself. the last infirmity of the journal
istic mind
Opposed Tyranny.
No one who has not represented an
| American newspaper abroad can quite
appreciate the reality of the struggle
before a newspaper man who in any
foreign country insists upon publishing
the truth. however awkward. unpleaS-
ant or even dangerous to the govern
ment. In not few capitals he becomes
a marked man. marked even if not as in
the MoWrer case for actual physical vio-
lence. In Fascist Italy. for example. at
least in the earlier days when MoWrer
was there, the method was much subtler
in the main. 1t was through the dis
semination of news that the pressure
was applieG-and for failure to get the
news there Is no defense for the re-
| porter.
Invariably in all countries these
American journalists gravitated to the
Republican. the Liberal, the Left cir
cles. Their sympathies were engaged
in the struggles against tyranny, against
persecution. And as consequence they
found themselves always faced by the
hostility, the suspicion, the open or
thinly yelled opposition of dictators,
OF reactionary leaders and groups. Their
press dispatches which described vio-
lence in Berlin or misery in Moscow,
which narrated prosecutions such as
minoritieS have suffered in many parts
of the Continent before the anti-Se-
mitiS explosion in Germany, since they
we're indictment as we'll as news, pro-
voked immediate and enduring resent
ment.
Mowers case is typical. He had been
| in Germany since the early days of
Locarno. Possessing brilliant mind. a
scholar as well as journalist, he had
studied deeply the social and political
tides which we're moving in the Reich.
He was friend of Germany and Ger
mans alike. In very real sense he
was their defender against many of
the unjust and unfair foreign criti-